I’d prefer a trade, but surely nobody would want him, even if the Tigers had to eat some of his contract money. Otherwise, I would hope that they demote him to the bullpen or Toledo, but surely they won’t because Dombrowski stupidly gave him a big unjustified contact. The Tigers are stuck with the sunk-cost syndrom of having to get whatever they can get, even if it ruins the season for the team. Otherwise, I would like him to suddenly retire, but he’s not going to do that for obvious reasons. Otherwise, I would like him to go on the DL with Tired Arm and I would like him to stay there for the rest of the season.

OK. Is that better?

And Chris, I don’t disagree about Robertson’s mediocrity, but did you just express a desire for Robertson to suffer a career ending injury for the sake of a few extra wins? I hope I read that wrong. Wow.

Even if you substitute Robertson’s numbers (1-4) with JJ’s the (4-2) Tigers are still sub-500. That’s being generous to JJ who’s pitching in the NL to teams that haven’t seen him enough to figure out his stuff. His ERA will go up in time, just like Galaragga’s will.

Renteria provides proven offense with average defense. I think almost any manager or gm would take him over Santiago.

The Tigers are 16-22 as I write this, if just JV and Bondo had performed to most peoples expectations the Tigers, at the very least, are an over-500 team. If on top of that the offense had performed as expected we’re easily on top of the division.

DD and the Tigers made some questionable moves, yes. They’ve also been victimized by a “perfect storm” of bad luck or whatever you want to call it. The blame for how this rough patch has been handled is more on the manager and coaches.

Most teams have a few less than favorable contracts. The only two the Tiger’s have that I really have a problem with are Robertson’s and Willis’ (Inge at the time seemed like a bargain, even Robertson who many thought was turning the corner). In any case DD has probably done more good than harm, although time may yet make a liar of me.

Yes we did not need a shortstop. Why? Because we have an very good fielding shortstop in the name of Romone Santiago. Sure, he is not a high average hitter, but one can argue that his defensive capability makes up for his deficiencies there to the point that you can justify his place as an everyday player. Trading away two top prospects for a few percentage points of batting average from the shortstop position is hardly what I would call a justifiable move. I could understand it if Rentarea was a left handed hitter– which the Tigers needed– but he wasn’t. I can tell you that I found this move baffling when I first heard of it, and now I find it down right stupid.

Where would Jair Jurrjens be if he weren’t traded away? Well probably not in Toledo. I would have him starting in place of the always mediocre Nate Robertson. In fact, today Jair Jurrjens pitched his worst game of the year and still it was better than any of the performances we’ve got out of Robertson all season. Is Nate Robertson a “solid” number five starter? Maybe from a career standpoint. But you can, and should, be in a position to replace a guy like that when he struggles with someone with more upside.

But I do agree with you that there has been mutable disappointments from the starting rotation that have caught everyone by surprise, and that DD can’t be blamed for not foreseeing that. With the possible exception of Kenny Rogers and the fill-in Armondo Galarraga, the rotation way off from any reasonable expectation that nobody saw coming.

But that’s why you need flexibility in your organization. It’s not only injury but poor-ass performances that should allow a team to make changes. When you lock-up guys with pricey contracts it is harder to yank a guy like Robertson out of your rotation and stick in someone else. Now the only thing for a Tiger fan to do is wish the guy can turn his career around or for him to get a career ending injury. I don’t think he can do the former, so I hoping the latter happens.

I was just going to point out what you did in your first paragraph. I don’t think anyone didn’t have JV as a Cy Young contender at the start of the season and while Bonderman was more of an unknown quantity health-wise…for the most part we could have agreed that a healthy Bondo can pitch. DD can’t really be blamed for those two.

Nate’s performances you can see coming…because he’s basically the same every year. He has good periph numbers and you always think this is going to be the year for him…and it never is. So I do agree with Chris here, Nate’s contract isn’t that big…but for much less we could have gone with somebody with more upside.

Jurrjen’s for Renteria was the trade of the offseason before the Cabrera/Willis deal that had Bobby Cox calling a team meeting to explain Renteria’s departure. The Willis contract is hard to justify…really hard. I don’t know how they rationalized it to themselves even before spring training.

There have been some questionable moves made by DD. I just think that most of the criticism has been hindsight in nature. Going into the season people thought that the bullpen was the weak link, not the rotation as it has turned out.

We knew going into the season that the Tigers were going to get by on offense…and most people thought if there was an offense on paper that could do it that it was this one. We’re off to a rough start and there are more issues with the team than anticipated…but the fact is that these weren’t all obvious issues at the start.

I think its good to question your team sometimes. Here in Chicago it seems like Cub-fans never do and Sox-fans do too much. It was easy to be a Tigers fan in Cinderella-06. Time to separate the die-hards from the fair-weather (Chris, please don’t think that just because I think you’re overly critical that I think your fair-weather).

A shortstop we did not need? Remember that at the time, the Tigers had the AL’s worst defensive shortstop (non-Jeter division) and were without a first baseman. Renteria is a proven player with a track record (recent and historic) of great offensive production and adequate defense. That trade made the team better both offensively and defensively. To get a good player, you must give a good player. A pitcher that projects into a solid number 3 with a slightly worrisome injury history seems about right. Plus with Porcello in the pipeline, and a high probability that JV, Bondo, and Nate are three of your starters for at least 3 years, where would JJJ fit? Having Jurrjens in Toledo as a spot starter is more important than a starting SS? Really?

As for the “locking up” of starters, Nate is a solid number five making a reasonable amount of money for a number five starter. With the going rate for lefty free agent pitchers, Nate has a perfectly sensible contract. We are ’stuck with him’, but that’s the nature of contracts. I’d love to have Brandon Webb here on a year-to-year deal too, but it ain’t happening. As for Dontrelle, no defense for that. A guy who seems to be in rapid decline getting a big 3-year contact. Don’t mind the trade, but I think locking him up before he threw a pitch here was a mistake. -1 for Dombrowski. I’ll also give you the Inge contract. Not a bad guy to sign, and not a bad length, but he could have gotten far less money.

Honestly though, if JV and Bondo are performing this season, are you really so concerned about losing Jurrjens? I don’t think anyone saw this coming, least of all DD. Grade the decisions, not the results. Sure, at this instant, having Jurrjens back sounds mouth-wateringly good. But if the starters were performing how you would have predicted them to perform given all available information, Jurrjens is either the spot starter in place of Galarraga or in Toledo. Neither helps the team significantly.

The Tigers are performing poorly right now, but don’t blame the guy that put the team together. The players are not performing to their predicted levels. Blame the players or the coaches. All the GM is doing is putting together the best team he is allowed to buy. I really feel that Dombrowski has done that. If you thought that this team would be 16-22; not that they would ‘have holes’ but that they would be playing genuinely bad, then you are a better evaluator than me. I thought this team looked unstoppable on paper. I saw seven runs scored per game and 5 runs against per game. I would like to have someone to blame, but I don’t think the GM is it.