On this day back in 2003, the Tigers became the first team in baseball history to have four pitchers make their Major League debut in the same game. The starter was 20-year-old Jeremy Bonderman, who gave way to 22-year-old Wil Ledezma, 25-year-old Chris Spurling, and 23-year-old Matt Roney before "veteran" closer Matt Anderson entered the game. Anderson was just 25-years-old at the time, but the first overall pick of the 1997 draft already had 210 big league appearances to his name.
The Tigers went on the finish the season 43-119, and were rewarded by selecting Justin Verlander with the second overall pick the following season. Here's this week's set of links from around the web…
- A Cubbies Consilience throws some kudos Jim Hendry's way for his offseason.
- Camden Crazies calls the O's trade for Julio Lugo an okay one.
- The Kept Faith finds some players Kevin Towers passed on while he was the Padres' GM.
- 1 Blue Jays Way remembers Roy Halladay's time in Toronto.
- Meanwhile, Around The BasePath looks at some expectations for Halladay's first year in Philadelphia.
- Drunk Jays Fans wonders why Lyle Overbay was named the team's every day first baseman when he can't hit lefties.
- Lookout Landing compares Eric Byrnes and Ryan Langerhans with regards to the Mariners' spare outfielder's job.
- Bronx Bombers Beat examines the Yankees' plan for Phil Hughes.
- More Hardball lists the players who will begin the season on the disabled list.
- Capitol Avenue Club rounds out the Braves' roster.
- Crashburn Alley looks at the Phillies' winners and losers from Spring Training.
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You can also thank Kevin Towers for not trading Chase Headley for Nady and McLouth.
119 loses, ouch.
As far as Lugo, of course its a good pickup, hell a division rival is paying you to keep him!
119 losses is extremely bad, but without it the Tigers wouldn’t have drafted Verlander.
2003 also led to the amicable Scott Boras/Tigers relationship. They had to overpay for marquee players, but in the long run I guess it paid off
you are optimistic ill give you that.
That is the only way to stomach Lugo. Every time he makes an error as an orioles fan you just gotta keep reminding yourself that he plays for free. As a sox fan i watched him butcher routine grounders and felt sick knowing that he made(makes) 9 mil a year.
hes the devil, i really dont know how he can sleep at night. what he is doing is just like robbing a bank. he should go directly to baseball jail with Barry Zito
That Kept Faith thing is stupid, and I’m a padre fan. Everyone passes on people in the draft. You could make one of these for every team as everyone has passed on All Star Caliber players.
Yeah, but it’s a Padres site, so it was only for Kevin Towers. Of course you can do that for every GM. But it’s still interesting to see which players they have now instead. And I still can’t believe he left Soria open to the Rule 5 Draft.
“A Cubbies Consilience throws some kudos Jim Hendry’s way for his offseason.”
Not screwing up as bad as you normally do gets you kudos now?
I will agree he has been better then we are used to as of late, but the offseason still sucked.