OT: An evaluation of Dave Dombrowski
Hi everyone. This is my first diary entry. It has absolutely nothing to do with Michigan, but I hope that you will find it interesting and would appreciate any feedback that you may have. So anyway, here it goes:
Dave Dombrowski has been the GM and President of the Detroit Tigers since 2002. He has presided over the worst season in team history and the team's first successes in over a decade. Along the way, he has made some great moves and some abysmal ones. What he has done, however, is consistently show that he has balls. Here is an evaluation of some of the most important events of his tenure.
Firing GM Randy Smith and taking over his duties (2002) - This move was obvious and necessary. Smith had managed to destroy any hope of short term success with a variety of stupid contracts (exp. Bobby Higginson for $11.75M) and necessitated a rebuilding effort.
Tabula Rasa (2003) - Dombrowski purged the team of almost all MLB (or at least MLB ready) talent, removing all bloated contracts, for the 2003 season as part of the rebuilding effort. However, in doing so, he produced the second worst team record-wise in MLB history, something completely unacceptable.
Signing Ivan Rodriguez (2003-04 offseason) - Dombrowski's first major signing was a huge success. Pudge, who was passed on by other teams due to injury concerns, was signed to a large contract that included safeguards if he wound up being unable to play for most of a season. Pudge proved instrumental to the 2006 pennant run.
Trade for Carlos Guillen (2003-04 offseason) - This was a great move. Guillen was instrumental to the team every year minus this year. Furthermore, he is a hard worker and is willing to play injured (which he did for a lot of last year and is why he's on the DL).
Signing Ugueth Urbina and Troy Percival (2003-04 offseason) - Percival was injured in early July, 2004 and didn't play for the Tigers ever again. Urbina is in Venezuelan prison for attempted murder. Needless to say, this was not a good move.
Signing Magglio Ordonez (2004-05 offseason) - A nearly identical situation to Pudge. Ordonez provided an even bigger offensive boost than Pudge. Ordonez was also considered to be a bigger risk as he was coming off of experimental knee surgery.
Trade for Placido Polanco (2005) - The Tigers gave up Ugueth Urbina and Ramon Martinez for a consistently good hitter and a solid defender. This was a great move. It didn't hurt the Phillies too much though, as they were making room for Chase Utley.
Signing Kenny Rogers (2005-06 offseason) - Rogers was another free agent passed on by a lot of teams due to concerns over his age, health, and temperament. He was integral to the 2006 AL pennant team, but faded afterwards. His signing was another great move.
Hiring Jim Leyland (2005-06 offseason) - Getting Leyland out of retirement has been a blessing.
Gary Sheffield (2006-07 offseason) - Dombrowski traded Humberto Sanchez, our top minor league prospect, along with two other prospects for Sheffield. Then, Sheffield was offered a large extension. This deal was a complete fiasco. While none of the traded prospects panned out, Sheffield's $14M contract for this year meant that we had no money to spend on any other top free agents, which is one of the reasons that the Tigers have so many holes this year.
Extensions for Jeremy Bonderman and Nate Robertson (2007) - These extensions cost the Tigers $19.5M this year and $22.5M next year. Both pitchers have major injury problems and are unlikely to ever become full time starters ever again. Both contracts seemed reasonable, but slightly risky at the time. They turned into disasters.
Trading Jair Jurrjens for Edgar Renteria (2007-08 offseason) - This was, hands down, the worst trade of the Dombrowski era. Jurrjens is currently a solid starter for the Braves and leads the Braves with a 2.91 ERA. Renteria performed horribly for the Tigers and was not re-signed for the next season.
Trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis (2007-08 offseason) - This was an excellent trade. While Willis has not panned out, neither has any of the prospects we sent Florida. Meanwhile, we got Cabrera, who is now the top hitter on our team.
Extension for Miguel Cabrera (2008) - Assuming he doesn't sustain serious injury, Cabrera will likely be part of the core of our lineup for years to come.
Extension for Dontrelle Willis (2008) - An absolute disaster. The Sheffield, Bonderman, Robertson, and Willis contracts are the reason that the Tigers have been thus far unable to sign Verlander to a long term deal.
Trading Ivan Rodriguez for Kyle Farnsworth (2008) - While I don't disagree with trading Pudge, who wanted to be traded, trading for literally any other player on the Yankees roster would have yielded more benefit to the Tigers. Farnsworth had a bloated $5.5M contract, which was paired with his consistency in giving up runs in close games.
Trading Matt Joyce for Edwin Jackson (2008-2009 offseason) - This is perhaps the best trade of the Dombrowski era. Jackson has made the front end of the Tigers' rotation one of the most formidable in the Majors and has been instrumental to the Tigers remaining in contention. Joyce was a good outfield prospect, but the Tigers are full of outfield prospects anyway so his loss is negligible.
Anyway, that concludes the summary of Dombrowski's tenure with the Tigers. If anyone feels that I missed something important, please comment.
Didn't Dombrowski also bring an end to the annual cycle of trading or trading for Brad Ausmus ??
The guy is human, and he won't be right 100% of the time. That being said, I am happy with the job he has done. Compare the team now to what they were the past 10+ years. No comparison.
On the flip side, a GM needs balls, but I hate trading away prospects! Unless your team is the Yankees, you can't afford to get rid of too many... especially pitching.
How can you say that Bonderman in likely to never be a starter again? He had the same surgery that Kenny Rogers had and he went on to pitch, very good at times, again. Bonderman is on track, he came back too soon but you can't count him out yet. And you said signing Urbina was a bad move yet trading him for Polanco was a good move. Doesn't the trade make the signing a good move? You can't blame Dombrowski for injuries but you can blame him for stupid contracts like Dontrelle Willis, Nate Robertson....he has broken even on his GM moves. The farm system is not very strong and I believe it is time to move on from Dave. Maybe he should hire a GM to work for him, considering he is the VP.
And then saying "he should hire someone else". I think that anyone that things that Dom hasn't done a great job doesn't know anything about the Tigers because we were the laughing stock of baseball.
1. Bonderman - I do not blame Dombrowski for any injuries specifically, although I will note that he has a history of signing injury-prone players to larger contracts than most other GMs (because he has balls). This method has been highly successful at times (exp. Pudge and Ordonez), yet disastrous at others (exp. Sheffield and Willis). While he deserves all the credit in the world for his successes here, he also deserves the blame for the failures. Bonderman is one such case as he was showing signs of arm fatigue when he was signed and had just come out of the postseason, which has led to many starters having injury problems due to the extra workload and smaller recovery time. Thus, I considered the Bonderman contract to be risky because of it's length (4 years) and increasing worth to $12.5M. Also, Rogers was a contact pitcher, meaning that it is easier for him to come back from injury than Bonderman, a power pitcher who is ineffective unless his velocity is up. So while Bonderman may start again, there is no evidence to suggest that he will be effective.
2. Signing Urbina - Urbina was terrible as a reliever in Detroit. His signing was thus a failure. The reason the Phillies took him in the deal for Polanco is that they had to trade Polanco to make room for Utley because Polanco wanted a trade and if he wasn't traded he would have been a free agent in the offseason and left the team. The Phillies traded him to Detroit so they wouldn't have to face him again and so they would get anything in return. It also removed Polanco's $4.6M salary from their books. Therefore, having Urbina available to trade does not make his signing a good one.
He was a combined 30/35 in Saves for Detroit. When he was traded he had a 2.6 ERA and 1.28 WHIP, having played in 25 games/27.1 innings. He wasn't lights out, but he was far from being a Jason Grilli. It was a decent trade at the time.
Of course, AFTER he was traded he was 1/7 in saves for the Phillies and kidnapped guys.
The Phillies traded Polanco for an above average reliever (Urbina) and also because they had this player in the farm system at 2nd base. You might have heard of him. Chase Utley?
Does anyone remember the Randy Smith years? Long term contracts to Tony Clark, Bobby Higginson, and Damion Easley? The annual game of rock-paper-scissors to see who would be the token Tiger to go to the All-Star Game? Mr. Greene was kind enough to mention the revolving door for Brad Ausmus. No meaningful baseball being played after mid-July, EVER?
Dombrowski is not perfect, few GMs are, but we are at least contending these days. I think you have to grade a GM on how many moves are made that really hurt the ballclub, that prevent them from contending. In Dom's case I think only the Jurrjens trade falls in this category. Other bad moves have been more speed bumps, but haven't hurt the Tigers long-term prospects for competing.
That said, Dom has made 3 or 4 moves that have been epic good for this franchise. Pudge, Ordonez, Cabrera, and Leyland didn't just make us contenders, but rinsed away the stench of futility that had plagued this team for 15 years. You listening Mr. Ford?
As far as I'm concerned, Mr. Dombrowski can run this team for the next 10 years and I'm confident we'll be rewarded with lots of great baseball.
I'd give you 10 points if I was allowed
Dombrowski has turned a team that hadn't been contending since 1991, when they finished 7 games back. In every year until he arrived, they finished at least 10 games back.
He has built two contending teams, while making unusually smart moves especially when it comes to to young pitchers.
Everyone complains about about the Robertson, Bonderman, and Sheffield contracts. All of them were considered solid at the time. Starting pitchers were getting 10 per even though they were just solid 4th or 5th starters. Gil Meche is getting 11 per. Carlos Silva was getting 10 at the time. 9-10 per was the going rate for a starting pitcher. Bonderman is/was a young strikeout pitcher with a ton of experience and thus commanded the 12 million per, which was still considered a bargain at the time.
Sheffield has never been the same since his injury when he collided with Polonco. However the 14 per was also considered a bargain when the likes of JD Drew got 17 per for 5 years in the same year.
So some of the contracts that look horrible now, weren't that bad at the time.
The Jurrjens trade was an all time backfire. But I liked it at the time. He was going for it, and hoping the lineup would be dominant. The season quickly went South, and this trade became the lightning rod.
He's also built up the minor league system, although now the talent is low. He has traded many prospects for Major League Parts. Tigers have always been short on impact position players and this has continues under Dombrowski. However, he has a unique eye for pitching and uses it to trade for what the team needs, while usually keeping the choice arms for the Tigers.
Awesome post. Dombrowski also had a 3-way trade in 2002 with the A's and Yanks. Tigers received Bondo and Carlos Pena. He ended up releasing Pena a few years later. Probably a good move at the time, and we couldn't have him and Cabrera, but man...hindsight.
In 2002, the Tigers started this on opening day:
B Higginson LF
S Halter SS
R Fick DH
D Young 1B
C Paquette 3B
J Cruz RF
M Rivera C
D Easley 2B
J Macias CF
J Weaver P
The rotation that year was Mark Redman, Weaver, Steve Sparks, Jose Lima, and Mike Maroth.
Randall Simon, Shitty Carlos Pena, Really Really Shitty Brandon Inge, Wendell MacGee, and Chris Truby (WHO?) started a bunch of games for them.
Juan Acevedo was the "closer".
They hit .248 (!!!!) AS A TEAM, OBP'ed .300, and nobody hit more than 20 HRs.
THIS TEAM WAS TERRIBLE. And it was the team Smith handed to Dombrowski.
So, in conclusion, NO, it was not "UNACCEPTABLE" that the 02/03 teams were among the worst in MLB history - THEY WERE. Those teams were AWFUL. It's ridiculous to act like DD made them - he inherited that roster - and it needed to be gutted before he could do anything.
And, oh yeah, after he gutted them, they went to the World Series or something. FIRE DOMBROWKSI!!!!!!
The 2003 team was unacceptable. While it was understood that the team would need to be really bad before it got better, it is another thing to be among the worse teams in history. What I think Dombrowski should have done is try to sign one or two decent players to help the team get through the rebuilding process. I feel that subjecting the fans to a season of historic awfulness is unacceptable.
Note: When I say unacceptable, I do not mean to imply that Dombrowski should have been fired. Perhaps I should have used a different word.
Where's the acceptable line, then? 110? 105? 100? 95? Why does it matter? Suck is suck ... was there even a player out there who would have A. signed with Detroit and B. improved their record by anything more than a game or two? That team was TERRIBLE but it was NECESSARY.
Look at the Lions. They were also a historically bad team this year for two reasons:
1) Years of mismanagement (Matt Millen=Randy Smith)
2) Almost every decent player on the team was sent away for draft picks (trades similar to the Tigers trading away the remnants of the team for prospects).
Does this make the Lions 0-16 team acceptable, even if it results in future success. I would argue no on the basis that it is an embarrassment to the team and the fans. You may disagree with me on this, but to me, at least, suck is not suck.
While the situations aren't identical, I feel that the same point could be made about the 2003 Tigers. For the record, I consider the acceptable line to be somewhere around .300 winning percentage (a little worse than the typical last place team in the Majors). This equates to 113 losses. The difference between 113 losses and 119 losses is the difference between awful and memorably bad. Sort of like the difference between 0-16 and 1-15.
The Lions knew that Roy Williams was going to leave in free agency after last season. Do you think they should have held onto him in the hope that he helps them win a game?
I'm guessing that the Dex-like answer would be: the Lions weren't going to win more than two games anyways, might as well get some value for him.
Pure unadulterated speculation on my part, but I think Dombrowski sent a message to Mr. I. , illustrating just how bad the team and farm system were. After 2003 Dombrowski started to assemble a competent club, and Mr. I. seemed to open up the pocket books. If I recall correctly, Ilitch purse strings were tight with the Tigers in the early Comerica Ball Park era.
...That things have been more bad than good or more good than bad?
I get that DD has been willing to take a risk, and some of those risks have paid off. (Pudge, Maggs) However, others have not (Urbina, Percival, Willis). On balance, I think he's gotten burned more then he's succeeded. Also his successes are more toward the beginning of his tenure (when he couldn't go anywhere but up) which mitigates those successes in my mind.
I don't mind doing a deal that both teams are happy with. (In reference to the Phillies deal for Polanco.) You always want to make a trade that is good for YOU. When you see that it helps the other guy too, that is when you can ask for a little more. This is basic bargaining. If you complain about anything, you could say the Tigers should have asked for a prospect or two as well. From what I could see, Polanco wanted out\a>.
Finally, I think given our home ballpark, we put a premium on two things more than other teams: Pitching and Outfielders. Pitching should be obvious. I think it is a failure to not have Verlander locked up for the next 5 years (or possibly more, but not more than 8). Rodney seems to be working out as a closer (still hasn't blown a save, though nobody is mistaking him for Mariano Rivera in his prime). I'm not happy with Zumaya. I think his problem is between his ears. Our starting pitching rotation could be stronger and less injury prone(!).
With all of the space we have in the outfield, we need good outfielders to track down those fly balls. (And we should move the fence back to where it was...but that is another topic.) Good outfielders often means good baserunners and the possibility to steal a base or two. This can lead to the team manufacturing some runs.
With these two priorities in mind, you have to be careful when you trade your pitchers and outfielders (even if they are prospects). For this reason I am uneasy about the Jurrjens, Maroth, and Maybin (although he was dealt to get Willis and Cabrera) deals.
All in all, I enjoy that I care about the Tigers again. Things were bleak in those dark ages. I got to the point where I had to laugh at the stuff that Rome had to say about the Tigers...Well, they are good now (not great) and I enjoy rooting with hope that they will win again. But I think Dombrowski needs another GM to help him out and help him with some of those risks he takes.
this:
On balance, I think he's gotten burned more then he's succeeded. Also his successes are more toward the beginning of his tenure (when he couldn't go anywhere but up)
is wrong.
They didn't "have" to get better. How come none of the Smith teams got better? Because he sucked. So the teams stayed the same. Dombrowski could have made moves that left the Tigers spinning their wheels. It is in NO WAY some sort of inevitability that the Tigers were going go from losing 119 games to playing in the World Series in three years.
I'm not saying that going to the Series was inevitable. I'm just saying that when you start at the level the Tigers were at, where they didn't play meaningful baseball after mid-July, there isn't really much farther to fall. (Unless you get, and stay, historically bad--which is unlikely).
I'll put it this way, the Lions cannot possibly be worse this year, than they were last year. They can only go up. This does not guarantee that they will go to the Super Bowl in 3 years.
Well, the Lions couldn't get worse in the sense that they lost EVERY GAME! If you're 0-16, the only thing worse is contraction at this point, and for some people that might actually be better.
Now, when your baseball team is 43-119, well, they could still lose another 43 games. It could actually get worse. Is it likely, well no, but fuck, the Mets lost more right?
What didn't you like about the Maroth trade? I thought it was good at the time (just to get rid of him and his salary), and the fact that he is out of baseball should confirm that he was going down (not that Chris Lambert has really done anything though). Time will tell if the Maybin/Miller/De La Cruz trade was wise. However, it doesn't look too bad now apart from Dontrelle's meltdown. Jurrjens for Renteria though was obviously a bad decision in retrospect and at the time!
With all of the space we have in the outfield, we need good outfielders to track down those fly balls. (And we should move the fence back to where it was...but that is another topic.) Good outfielders often means good baserunners and the possibility to steal a base or two. This can lead to the team manufacturing some runs.
i liked the original dimensions too. they totally wussed out when they brought the fence in.
It's hard to blame 2003 on Dombrowski.
Please, let's temper any criticism of Dom.....
Highlights of the Randy Smith era:
1. 1996 - Tigers lose 109 games, then a franchise record. Fans assured by GM that team will improve. Touts new crop of Tigers farm players.
2. 1997 - Tigers win 79 games, finish 3rd. Media praises the "next generations" of Tiger players. Comparisons to early 80's Tigers abound. Sales of Tony Clark jerseys skyrocket.
3. 1998 - Fans make reservations for World Series in March. Women swoon over Gabe Kapler's pecs. Tigers lose 97 games and finish last.
4. 1999 - Tigers close out Tiger Stadium with only 92 losses. Potential of current core players starts to come into question by everyone except Smith.
5. 2000 - Smith trades for Juan Gonzalez to be the Tigers franchise player in Comerica Park. Gonzalez complains about field dimensions like an 8 year old. Tigers equal '97 win total of 79. Fans still hate Gonzalez.
6. 2001 - Gonzalez turns down 140 million dollar contract to stay in Detroit. Fans rejoice. Tigers lose 96 games. Fans start to question whether Smith might not be a very good GM.
7. 2002 - Bobby Higginson is still a Tiger. Team loses 106 games. Smith is fired despite his protests that this isn't even the worst season of his tenure.
8. 2005 - ESPN.com list Randy Smith as "Most Hated Man" by Tigers fans. Nobody in Detroit disagrees. Pudge Rodriguez is loved 10000% more by fans than Juan Gonzalez.
9. 2009 - Smith is still not in baseball. Spends days golfing, counting his money, and telling anyone who will listen how Illitch screwed him in Detroit.
10. 2009 - Tiger fans start to show impatience with Dave Dombrowski, but all still agree that they hate Randy Smith....HATE HIM!
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