OT- Tigers trade for Joakim Soria
They gave up two minor league pitching prospects. I'm by no means a good source of minor league knowledge and have exactly zero knowledge of either prospect.
Soria will be a seriously welcome addition to the bullpen. In 33 1/3 innings he is currently rocking a 42:4 k/bb ratio. That will be a nice change of pace from can't-locate-my-fastball Nathan. That said, I believe Ausmus starts Soria out as the setup guy, bumping Joba to the 7th and keeping Nathan as the tentative closer on an extremely short leash.
tigers are still ruing the day they traded away ace prospect jacob turner and his 6.03 2014 era. if only we had him...
prospects in baseball are the ultimate 1 in the hand , 50 in the bush scenario.
would you take back the pistons' 1 title if it meant we could have avoided the abyss of mediocrity we're in now?
would you accept years in the abyss of mediocrity for the tigers if it meant winning a world series this year?
Yes to both questions, because its much easier to get out of the abyss in baseball than it is in basketball. You just need lots of $, and apparently lots of Hot-N-Ready's.
...but I don't really mind the "years in the abyss" phases...especially if there are championships mixed in between.
Ticket prices are more reasonable during down years and (without the overbearing stress of we-need-to-win-because-we-have-a-great-team) in a perverse sort of way the games can actually be more fun. The seat in front of you might be empty so can stretch your legs out and concession and bathroom lines are much shorter.
Don't get me wrong, I want to win...but I've never really understand the mentality that craves a championship every year. It's not going to happen and you're only going to drive yourself into some kind of delusion psychosis thinking it can (i.e., Yankees fans).
I guess what I'm saying is that you need a bit of sour to really enjoy the sweet too.
You're going to love during in Michigan Stadium's student section next year. By yourself.
The Pistons mess wasn't because of going all out a decade ago for their domiannce. It was because of a series of dumb trades and draft picks after. Also, the MLB draft has 40 rounds compared to the 2 round NBA draft. It's much easier to build up talent after depleting your farm system.
dumb draft picks, no. Joe D did well in draft picks and landed a lot of quality NBA players whether if they're starters or contributors like Drummond, Monroe, Stuckey, Affalo, etc.
It's the dumb signing and trades that did Joe D in.
Keep in mind here that Soria is still only 30 years old and has an option left for next season, so fingers crossed (like the Sanchez trade) that we might have just traded for a longer term closer.
Soria being a longer-term closer rather than a short-term rental. Time to demote Nathan to 7th-inning set-up work, keep Joba in his 8th inning role (where he's thriving), and immediately hand the closer job to Soria. The season nearly 2/3 gone, why waste any time in making sure Soria has what it takes to finish games?!
I'd still like to re-acquire Benoit---we've still got too many leaky faucets in the bullpen.
I feel like you must always make trades to win now in baseball or any other pro sport.
It's all about value allocation. Do I think the Tigers got good value in Soria, yes I do, but I also think they gave up 2 prospects that have quite a bit of value, and potentially could have netted us another player in a different trade, hence the reasons for such responses.
Use the Fister trade for example, I think the Tigers could have received more value for Fister than what we acquired, in this sense I think we also could have received more value for the prospects we gave up.
It's a done deal and I'm happy we've upgraded our current squad, but I think the Tigers window is personally alot longer than just this season.
ESPN claims Soria is likely to be Joe Nathan's set-up man. Why would we keep Joe Nathan as closer? Joba's been fine in set-up, it's everything else that's been disastrous.
games since he has experience. Nathan is on a very short leash which I think he'll be done when he has a couple of bad outings. It'd be Joba as setup and Soria as closer.
The Tigers are quite stubborn with Joe Nathan.
it would be a steep price to get bullpen help.
whether they were prospects that may or may not pan out, most people believe giving up 2 of your top 5 prospects is a pretty steep price.
I happen to like the deal and am glad the Tigers made the move. Move #2 is convincing someone to take Nathan off their hands.
I like the trade. Relief pitching in the playoffs now looks like: Smyly in the 7th, Joba in the 8th, and Soria closing. That looks a helluva lot better to me than with Nathan closing.
I wouldn't be surprised too see Nathan get a few more shots at the ninth. Mostly as a sign of good faith (you did sign him to a two year contract) and the Tigers have a good lead in the division.
But, one or two more blown saves without some success would lead to a quick hook.
However, is not in the bag yet. Are the Tigers forgetting about what happened a month ago, when they actually lost their lead completely and found themselves a 1.5 games back of KC at one point?
Nathan is done, throwing away any more games just because you have a good lead is reckless since you never what can happen the rest of the season. This is professional sports, the Tigers don't owe Nathan jack out of any kind of good faith.
It's not that they owe Nathan. It's about being a franchise that doesn't bail on it's FA signees too soon. That's important when you want to sign someone next year - you don't want them thinking that the team will bail on you when you struggle.
Plus, what do you mean "Nathan is done." If the Tigers want to win the WS they need him. It may or may not be in the closer's role, but they'll need him unless you want to rely on soley Joba, Soria + whatever starter goes to the pen in the playoffs.
that is as reliable as a t-ball t.
Love the trade. Get help now and get the roster shaken out for playoff time. Prospects are prospects, never a sure thing. Go get the proven guy and move on towards a championship
Didnt we give up 2 absolute studs in Maybin and Anderson for Cabrera and that overrated hard throwing pitcher (cant remember the guys name)?
Trade 2 potential studs for an elite, established veteran? Yes please!
two of their top prospects for a pitcher who's age no one could figure out and was probably well past his prime and a young slugger of an outfielder who had worlds of potential but really loved the bottle a lot.
The trade worked out in the end for the Tigers but it actually was a pretty big risk at the time.
However, I hate that the Tigers are going to possibly throw a couple more games away because they don't want to remove Nathan from the closer's role immediately. They gave him time to right himself, that time should now be up. Also from Nathan's perspective, the Tigers making this trade tells him that they don't believe in him.
Makes absolutely no sense to not name Soria the closer right now. This is professional sports, there should be no obligation for the Tigers to give Nathan anymore time out good faith or whatever. That is nonsense.
for anyone who cares, the baseball dorks really like soria, think he's one of the best relievers in the game.
in the seventh inning unless Chamberlain or Nathan aren't available.
Aaaaanndd... Nathan strikes out the side in a perfect save.
Like I said, you have to continue to let Nathan close until he's proven that he cannot pitch. You need him in the playoffs and he's shown enough signs this year (several 3k saves) that his stuff is still there, he just has to figure out what's going.