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Tigers' Deadline Plans Unknown
According to Jon Paul Morosi of the Detroit Free Press, the Tigers' approach to this year's trade deadline remains unclear. It might make sense for GM Dave Dombrowski to wait a while longer, since the Tigers have a series against the White Sox this weekend. The Tigers are currently in third place, 5.5 games behind the Sox.
One need might be starting pitching; Tigers starters rank 10th of 14 teams in ERA. Padres starters Randy Wolf and Greg Maddux are not on the radar. The Tigers will probably attend Freddy Garcia's August 5th audition. No other possibilities have surfaced, but A.J. Burnett would be intriguing.
On the relief side, the Tigers are said to be interested in Pirates lefties Damaso Marte and John Grabow. They were also linked to Jon Rauch in April. Shortstop is considered a longer-term need for the Tigers, who seem unlikely to exercise Edgar Renteria's $12MM option for '09.
Recently Morosi took a look at Tigers prospects who may be used as possible trade chips. Reliever Fernando Rodney is considered expendable, as well.
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Of course it looks like a terrible deal now, but it wasn't necessarily always the case. There had always been questions about JJ's durability and his last few starts of the year were not very good. The other part of the deal, Gorkys Hernandez, was in line behind Curtis Granderson and Cameron Maybin in centerfield. And don't forget that Renteria was coming off a great season. Unfortunately for the Tigers, they got a player who seems to have suffered a terribly steep decline at the same time their pitching staff has suffered bizzare injury (Bonderman) or ineffectiveness (Robertsen and Willis). So, instead of a vital piece to the championship puzzle, they might be better off playing Ramon Santiago.
As for any trades...what could a package of say Marcus Thames, Clete Thomas, and Rodney bring? I can't understand looking for bullpen or shortstop help at this point when starting pitching seems to be by far the biggest need.
Posted by: gipper77 | July 22, 2008 at 11:24 AM
It seems in everyone's attempts to figure out how the Renteria deal could've gone so wrong- why he's so suddenly and steeply fallen off- that one major piece of the equation is continually forgotten...
Could Dombrowski have seen this happening? The answer is a resounding YES! It's not as if this hasn't happened before. How quickly people forget. Just a few years ago, Renteria moved from St. Louis and the National League to Boston and the AL. Instantly, it seemed the Cards had pulled a Folgers switch- 'we secretly replaced this All Star shortstop with a horrible facsimile...let's see if they notice.' Renteria was awful and only recovered after the BoSox sent him packing in a deal with Atlanta (one that made the Sox look like idiots, but clearly was a simple matter of environs). Flash forward- Renteria moves from the Braves to the Tigers. Shockingly, he can no longer remember the simplest of baseball concepts such as hitting or fielding. Shocker. Fortunately they didn't give up anyone too good for...oh...oops. Oh well, there's always Porcello!
Posted by: milehigh78 | July 22, 2008 at 04:43 PM
That's overstating things just a bit milehigh. While he did have a worse year in Boston, he went from a .287 avg and .728 ops to .276 and .720. Whereas this year he has fallen from .332 and .860 to .252 and .628. There is quite a difference. I would love to see the Boston Renteria. Now you could have a much stronger case with expecting a decline at 32, but I still think most people would be shocked at the degree of decline which has occurred.
Posted by: gipper77 | July 22, 2008 at 07:23 PM
Hindsight is 20/20. How was Dombrowski supposed to know Renteria would fall off so badly? He'd be an idiot to look at Renteria's season in Boston and say, "Nope, I can't make this deal. This guy sucks in the American league because of this one sub-par season he played for a team in the AL!" and completely disregard the numbers he put up in the NL.
Posted by: catswithbats | July 25, 2008 at 09:04 AM