Todd Jones is back on the disabled list. After 1 outing. Makes you wonder why he was brought off the DL in the first place doesn’t it? Of course it did take him a half hour to get out of that inning so that may explain it. Or perhaps Todd is toast and he’ll just finish the year on the DL instead of being outright released.
Oddly, Gary Glover had his contract purchased by the Tigers to fill Todd’s spot in the bullpen. Glover wasn’t even in the organization until last week when he was added to Toledo. Glover appeared in 29 games for the Rays this year with 18 walks and 22 strike outs in 34 innings. I don’t get this at all. Why not give Casey Fien a shot? Or bring back Francisco Cruceta who is striking out everybody in Toledo (or at least everybody he doesn’t walk) with 52 K’s and 20 walks in 36 innings? Or bring back Clay Rapada who is already using an option year and move Bobby Seay from lefty specialist to 7th inning guy.
I guess it’s better to give a handful of innings to a 31 year old journeyman pitcher who has wowed coaches in his 3 innings at Toledo. I’m sorry, there may be very valid roster management/option/service time issues at play here. I don’t get it though.
I think that they are avoiding burning one of Fien’s options. I’m not sure how it would work with Cruceta, give his DFA earlier this year. But I’m not sure why they wouldn’t bring Rapada up. Seems like some old-timey baseball bologna from Leyland that you can only have two lefties in the pen at any time. Toronto has four, and they have the best pen in baseball.
This is all about shooting for draft position and waiver priority at this point.
And the Detroit Tigers front office just continues to rack up great moves after great moves!
The increasing frequency of seemingly illogical management decisions is disconcerting. It seemed to begin with the Guillen to 1B move in the off season. Leyland’s lineups have been goofy all season. Now the bullpen moves. Ugh.
Anecdotally, looking back at the DD era, it always seems like the Tigers have fallen back once they have fallen out of the race. I really think it’s by design.
How about this: DD has realized that Chuck Hernandez ruins all pitching he comes into contact with, and he wants to keep any pitchers in the minors that in any way figure into the future away from him. Todd Jones is unpitchable, so they had to get a nobody to eat some innings the rest of the way. I am well aware that this is probably wrong, but I can hope, can’t I? I don’t have stats in front of me, but it seems like the Tigers pitching has been worse every half from 1st half 2006 until 2nd half 2008. People who get paid to notice this should notice it, right?
DD has realized that Chuck Hernandez ruins all pitching he comes into contact with
Please explain Armando Galarraga. I’m no Chuck apologist, but sometimes guys just, you know, aren’t good. The Tigers got lucky that everyone on the staff had a good season at the same time in 2006 and (aside from Maroth) they were all healthy. Other than that, in 2008 you’ve got an old guy at the end of the line (Rogers), a mediocre-to-awful lefty (Robertson), walking injuries waiting to happen (Bonderman, Zumaya), a guy who Chucky never really got to ruin (Willis), an overrated high draft pick who doesn’t like to throw strikes (Verlander) and so on. You can only play with the hand you’re dealt.
Wow. Re-reading that post I came across as a little negative. For clarification, Verlander is good. I view him as a #2, not a #1 though. I understand most people feel the opposite. It’s probably Chuck’s fault I feel that way.
Chris, I have never viewed Justin Verlander as a No. 1. I think there are few No. 1 pitchers in the game today. The fact that he’s atop our rotation doesn’t make him a No. 1 pitcher in my mind.