Let's take a look at a few items out of the American League Central division..
- It's time for the White Sox to move on from Ozzie Guillen and work out a deal with the Marlins for him, writes Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports. Guillen has long been linked to the Fish and it's unlikely that octogenarian Jack McKeon will return next season.
- The Tigers appear to be the biggest trade deadline winners so far, writes Alden Gonzalez of MLB.com. Since joining the Tigs, right-hander Doug Fister has a 2.97 ERA with 5.7 K/9 and 0.5 BB/9 in six starts.
- In today's mailbag, a reader asks Baseball America's Jim Callis if the Royals will still have a top ten farm system in 2012 after several players made their major league debuts this season. Callis says that despite spending $14.1MM on the draft this year, Kansas City might not have more than four prospects in BA's top 100 next season, putting them outside of the top ten.
Nice use of the word octogenarian. You have my respect.
Detroit schools suck. What the hell is an octogenarian?
I think it means Jack McKeon has the genes of an octopus, thus making him too weak to continue being a big league manager. I’m not 100% sure though; only about 95% to be honest.
hahaha it’s someone who is in their 80s. Like septuagenarian would be someone in their 70s. Sexagenarian for 60s, and so forth…
Uhhuhuhnn…you wrote sex.
I’d the the White Sox Jose Lopez for Ozzie.
Anything else is just stupid.
What is stupid is that your sentence made no sense.
The Marlins can’t cope with how much Logan Morrison speaks his mind. How on earth are they going to deal with Ozzie Guillen?
Umm they have dealt with him before… He only left to manage the whitesox.
True, but that was only for what, one year?
That was before Ozzie Guillen said and tweeted every little thing that bothered him and before Jeff Loria fired anyone who didn’t kneel when saying good morning to him.
Since when is possible to trade a player for a manager?!?
Is it really that odd? Both managers and players are under contract to a team. It’s also not unprecedented, Devil Rays traded Winn to the Mariners for the rights to Lou Piniella.
Since forever.
Not only did the Tigers get a big boost for the rotation with Doug Fister, but they got David Pauley who will be an upgrade for the bullpen. Just forcing Purcey off the roster is an upgrade and Pauley put up a WHIP under 1.00 in 54 innings with Seattle. Fister takes over Phil Coke’s spot in the rotation, where Coke wasn’t working out, but he goes to the bullpen and didn’t allow a run for the month of August, locking down that 7th inning role.
The Tigs gave up some good prospects in Casper Wells and Cisco Martinez, but they really boosted this year’s team. The rotation was in dire need of an upgrade in a very winnable division race. Easily DD’s best deadline deal, which really isn’t saying much.
Except Pauley has been brutal for the Tigers. Maybe that changes this month, but we’ll see.
In the Saturdays game against the White Sox Pauley went 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R to shut them down, which led to a great comeback. Hope he’s turned the corner come playoff run.
I’m left speechless that you guys are depending on David Pauley…
I wouldn’t say “depending”. He was put in to pitch during what looked to be a blow out. He’s only be used a few times because he’s not trusted by Leyland.
I’m left speechless that you guys are depending on David Pauley…
In the Saturdays game against the White Sox Pauley went 3 IP, 1 H, 0 R to shut them down, which led to a great comeback. Hope he’s turned the corner come playoff run.
The White Sox need to rid themselves of Ozzie and Kenny and just try to start over. They are lucky Konerko is still hitting at his advanced age, because they don’t have much else on that team. Hard to believe they’ve trotted out four guys who are so awful offensively in Rios, Dunn, Morel, and Beckham for such a long time. Sure, Kenny has made a few good moves, but both of these guys are hanging on because they won the WS in the past and they need to take a break from going “all in” and just rebuild.
Great post bigpat. Fully agree. Dunn is a sunk cost, but I’d love to see them try and see what they can get for guys like Danks, Konerko, etc. Heck, I sadly don’t see one guy who I’d deem untouchable on their entire 40-man roster. Maybe Chris Sale?
I don’t think you can say Dunn is a sunk cost yet. Though he’s had one of the worst years any formerly good player has ever had, just a year ago he was a 4-5 WAR player. Give him the offseason
Chris sale, Santos and vicedio probably should be the only untouchables. Maybe beckham for one more year.
i’ve asked this before: Who’s the worst player in the MLB, Alex Rios or Alfonso Soriano?
Soriano has a terrible contract, but he’s not nearly the worst player in MLB. This year, only nine players have negative WAR according to Fangraphs: (in order of badness) Dunn, Ibanez, Orlando Cabrera, Rios, Huff, Guerrero, Aaron Hill, Ichiro, Juan Pierre. Betancourt, Fukodome, Bay, and Wells all have 0.0 or 0.1.
Rios certainly gets style points for being third youngest player on the list (only a year older than Hill and Betancourt), being expensive, and for having had a little bounceback year last year, only to plummet back into the kind of flaming wreckage that got him tossed from Toronto.
often like yer comments but, dude, gotta tell you, i hate WAR (yeah, yeah — what is it good for). absolute sucktitude takes in all factors but goes beyond them. i’m not an absolute Jays wonk, but you can’t deny Antho is a sharp guy. (albeit playing with some idiots). pawning off Rios and Wells is proof, even before you count the dollars!
at least VW tries and is a class guy off the field. Rios is pure waste o’ talent crap.
as for Hill (me sounding all-Jays again), just needed a change of scenery. ask any D-back people if they are looking at his WAR right now. Ibanez was an overpay for an over-age (an Amaro trait) but if he pulls off a big-time clutchtitude hit for the Phils in the playoffs/WS, consider it well spent. also, like VW, a class vet.
I didn’t mean for it to be the end all be all of the discussion. I like WAR, but this was just a back of the napkin way of checking who the best candidates are. I’d be careful about getting too excited about a handful of games from Hill. Kelly Johnson rebounded nicely in Arizona for one year, too. And no matter how decent a person Wells seems like, he’s still one of the worst players in baseball, especially if you take his contract into account. Which goes back to my initial point. Soriano might not be *good* and his contract may be terrible, but he’s still hitting for some power. Most guys on that list aren’t doing anything well.
often like yer comments but, dude, gotta tell you, i hate WAR (yeah, yeah — what is it good for). absolute sucktitude takes in all factors but goes beyond them. i’m not an absolute Jays wonk, but you can’t deny Antho is a sharp guy. (albeit playing with some idiots). pawning off Rios and Wells is proof, even before you count the dollars!
at least VW tries and is a class guy off the field. Rios is pure waste o’ talent crap.
as for Hill (me sounding all-Jays again), just needed a change of scenery. ask any D-back people if they are looking at his WAR right now. Ibanez was an overpay for an over-age (an Amaro trait) but if he pulls off a big-time clutchtitude hit for the Phils in the playoffs/WS, consider it well spent. also, like VW, a class vet.
Those guys are in the middle of the pack. Brandon Inge would be very high on that list.
Does everyone forget Yuniesky Betancourt?
He’s right up there.
Does everyone forget Yuniesky Betancourt?
Inge is a great candidate. But Rios is more than middle of the pack. He’s really among the very, very worst.
or do you mean LOW on that list?!
No. I mean high. If I said low, that would mean that he’s one of the best players in baseball.
the first to be worst?! hey — means they can literally say, ‘I’m No. 1’ !!
i’ve asked this before: Who’s the worst player in the MLB, Alex Rios or Alfonso Soriano?
Doug Fister is the truth
The future is bright for Tiger fans with Verlander and Fister at the front of the rotation and Cabrera, Martinez, Avila and Peralta hitting.
Fister at the front of the rotation? Let’s not go crazy.
You have not seen him pitch. Have you? Since coming to Detroit, he looks very similar to Cliff Lee.
I have. Cliff Lee looks like Cliff Lee against good lineups, too.
He beat Tampa. Is Tampa not a good team or are you just making stuff up for the sake of making stuff up?
Are you comparing Doug Fister to Cliff Lee based on a seven game stretch in which he’s faced two above average lineups? The other five games were against either an injury-battered Indians team, the Orioles, or the Royals. His walk rate is extraordinary, but the Royals and Orioles are two of the hardest teams to walk in baseball.
I like Doug Fister, but comparing him to Cliff Lee based on such a small sample is goofy, especially with this opposition. Detroit tap water doesn’t make your walk rate cut by two thirds and make your strikeout rate jump by almost two per nine innings.
He pitched extremley well with the M’s. He just didn’t get any run support. And I am basing the comparison off of similar stuff (not a power pitcher but has pin point controll) and how they were both fairly late bloomers.
He doesn’t have as good stuff or control as Lee, and his pitching “extremely well” with the Mariners had a lot to do with pitching in a great big ballpark with great outfield defense behind him. He’s lucky enough to have a great big ballpark again. This year total, his road ERA is almost a full run higher.
You’ve Been Fistered.