August 1st, 2014 at 12:02 AM ^
The waiver deadline lasts until late August, he is correct that deals can still happen, players just need to clear waivers.
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/24644980/non-waiver-trade-deadline-gone-but-trades-can-still-happen
The best hope for the Dombrowski haters is that he becomes the next commissioner. He's not getting fired. Regardless of the Illitch open check book, he brought the Tigers from one of the worst teams in major league history, to a team that is consistently in the playoffs.
may illitch live 1000 years!
can't believe how tepid the response is. we didnt give up much for a top 3 or top 5 pitcher, for imo, a pretty blah package. is smyly that hot of a prospect? his cieling looks like a 3/4 starter to me. i think ray shows more upside.
aj's defense wasnt as great as it once was, and i believe the baseball nerds agree. he once looked like a + bat, but now he is looking closer to average. he's nearing getting paid, i thought he might be a budget casualty.
adames is some 18 kid we likely will not hear from again.
to me, that is not an A+ package.
we get price this year and next. thats nuts.
our rotation wasnt living up to their reputation. after sherzer, it was a guessing game of what you'd get. i think price will be a big step up from everyone but sherzer.
August 1st, 2014 at 12:37 AM ^
If you put any stock in the advanced metrics stuff, his defense had been in serious decline. He was an elite ELITE defensive CF in 2010 and 2011 but had been in decline since then and had been thoroughly average this season. That isn't to say he is bad, but he hasn't been the star defender that he was a few years ago for whatever reason.
Jackson has been inconsistent offensively so far in his career, but he was still the best leadoff option for the Tigers. Davis is not an everyday leadoff guy, he never never talks a walk and is a free-swinger. The guy they are bringing up from Toledo (Carrera) has been cut loose by two different teams and has spent most of his professional time in the minors. His .307 batting average at Toledo will most likely not translate to the majors.
Also the bullpen situation is still not very good. This team has no proven lefty in the pen. Smyly could have been that guy if he wasn't included in the deal. Hardy has pitched well so far, but he is unproven at this point. Soria doesn't look comfortable in the 7th inning, which is not suprising since he is used to closing. The odds of Nathan turning it around still are not very good IMO.
Davis is also a horrible defensively outfielder. Jackson hasn't been as good defensively the last couple years as he was before, but he is still far from the butcher in the field that Davis is.
Based on this year's numbers, it's not even the best rotation in the AL. What guys have done in the past is not really relevant to what is going on this year. If would be one thing if Verlander was still pitching like a Cy Young caliber pitcher, but last I checked his ERA is pushing 5.00 this year. Sanchez and Scherzer have also not been as good as they were last year. Porcello is the only guy in the rotation who has improved and not taken a step back from last year.
There is no doubt that Price makes this rotation better, but I really feel like people are ignoring the downsides of the deal and not looking at the signficant holes/issues that the Tigers still have. Namely the lack of dangerous left handed hitters in the lineup besides V-Mart, the lack of a proven/suitable leadoff guy, the lack of a proven left handed reliever or two, poor defense in the outfield, Soria not looking good so far, and Nathan still being a huge questionable mark and potential liability. These are all things that could come back to bite a team in the playoffs.
Despite giving up Cespedes to get Lester, Oakland still has to be the favorite in the AL at this point. Even if the Tigers can match Oakland's starters, Oakland still has the edge in the pen. Of course, the Angels also seem to have the Tiger's number as well, though I like the Tigers starters better in that matchup.
August 1st, 2014 at 10:57 AM ^
Right now Id take Kershaw/Greinke/Beckett over that. And Ryu (1.6) has a higher WAR than Verlander (.4).
Re: Price to Tigers, Beane "had a feeling it was going to happen." Dombrowski jokingly texted, "You have 1 minute to acquire Chris Sale"
— Jane Lee (@JaneMLB) August 1, 2014
Looking for the link now.
You're welcome.
August 1st, 2014 at 11:31 AM ^
August 1st, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^
Feel a little bad for Smyly, who found out via the internet before Dave D. had a chance to talk to him:
"I don't really have anything to say. It was unexpected. I didn't see it coming," Smyly said.
"I didn't want to leave here. These guys are awesome. We have a great team, a winning team, so it's hard to say goodbye, but it's part of baseball. It happens to everybody."
it occurs to me that this is the exact type of move that post-2004-dumars never made. i turned on dumars and couldnt care less about the crap the pistons role out these days, despite being a die hard fan 10 years ago. when you can win a championship, the team needs to do their best to do so. tigers do, and when it gets lean in a couple year's i'll remember. tigers might have won it all without this trade, but that wasnt good for dd. he saw a way to boost the odds and took it.
it also occurs to me that this trade does remind me of a pre-post-2004-dumars move, which was the then best trade deadline move a detroit team had made in my life time, the 2004 acquistion of rasheed wallace. the pistons were good before the trade, but the stars alligned and they gave away scrap for the perfect missing piece. different sport, but it feels very similar to me.