if jackson was our #2 starter, then scherzer is our #2 starter. scherzer is not a prospect, unless porcello is considered one too.

there was no way we were keeping polanco for that money. could we have gotten 2 picks? maybe. we might have gotten stuck with a big contract…..which is obviously no longer in the cards. by the same token, i think you will find that rodney will do worse in FA than he would have through arbitration. so maybe that’s an extra draft pick that we shouldn’t be in line to get.

DDs strength seems to be working with a somewhat limited payroll. He’s gotten into the most trouble when he tries to play big-market man, and it seems like this team is no longer a big market. So it should be a good fit going forward.

Contrast Detroiter’s reactions to DD with the reaction to another local GM who has presided over a steady decline since 2004 with missteps along the way that make the Dontrelle signing look brilliant. Maybe being way off in Auburn Hills gets you some leeway.

I think you misunderstood #2….don’t know what Leyland or Granderson had to do with that. The Twins are relevant because they’ve been the best in the division over the relevant time frame…..they’re the competition and don’t seem to get the credit they deserve for the superstar talent they have. I blame the Punto-effect.

You can always say that X isn’t what Y thinks he is. Most people would say he’s obviously not infallible, but I see more people treating him like ‘Dumbrowski’ than I do seeing a guy who seems to know what he’s doing but is still prone to the bad contract or not valuing the control pitcher enough. Hey….he doesn’t seem to develop hitters as well as pitchers….so he focuses on pitching. Now your weakness. There’s not a perfect GM out there.

As for point 1, I did give credit to DD for 2006. I just wasn’t particularly impressed with the team win totals in 2007-2009 given the payroll and the division. I don’t blame that all on him but I think there is room for criticism.

I do think DD has been a good GM overall. I don’t think he’s the infallible genius he is sometimes built up to be by Tigers fans.

Lee

You say he has flip-flopped on Polanco and undervalues him, which tells me you think we should be offering him arbitration. Do you think Polanco had a good year? Because I don’t. He played in more games and got less hits and a lower batting average this year than in any of his years in Detroit. You can’t sell high with numbers like that… which is why he’s walking.

I won’t argue that DD has been a model of consistency, but I think he is pretty good at pumping value into players that have faults. Look at the smoke and mirrors game he pulled on Maybin and Miller.

At the end of May, in AAA, Jackson was hitting .349.
and they compared him to Kirby Puckett.
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/.....ting-game/

Maybe that’s the Austin Jackson we traded for.

Remove the emotions and any illusions of ‘team loyalty’ (its a business people) and this trade appears to fulfill all three teams wants – and i suspect that before the end of 2010 the majority of Tiger fans will see DD’s logic and be thankful he pulled the trigger on this one.

Dombrowski decided they couldn’t compete for a WS title with the current makeup of the team so they needed to rebuiled. Once you make that decision, nobody is untouchable and the goal of every roster move isn’t to make the team better in 2010, it’s to make them better in 2011 and beyond.

But I agree with stephen and others who are questioning Dombrowski. I’ve mostly supported his moves, and even if I didn’t agree with it I could see the reasoning. That’s not the case this time.