Report: Tigers sign Jose Valverde

do not want.

Why?

Ugh. I was just going to write up my “Instead of Valverde, let’s go after Kiko Calero” article tonight, too. I hate this move.

…considering they often come out of nowhere. Let alone why draft and trade for relievers when you end up getting spendy on one in free agency?

I’d rather Dombrowski had spent the money on a bat or 2. Who’s going to hit the damn ball? The Tigers are going to have to win every game 1-0.

That is all.

can the declining team still offer arbitration?

I’m guessing there’s some sort of peripheral stat that you all are objecting to (I apologize if this has already been brought up…My BYB attendance has been sparse recently). Still, I have three points to make:

1. They can always trade him once Zumaya/Perry/Schlereth/whoever is ready.

2. It’s better than having Kevin Gregg.

3. And for you jaded draft-loving BYBers: Just pretend that Valverde is the relief pitcher that the Tigers would’ve drafted with their first-round pick.

I can’t say what I want to. But damn it!!!!

Is Dombrowski dead and the front office pulling a “Weekend at Bernie’s”? At least then I’d understand having eleventy bullpen pitchers.

Still makes no sense. If he had the kind of numbers he’s put up in recent years playing in the AL I’d feel a little better but pitching in the NL and coming to AL is never a smooth transition. Ugh.

The last move of a dying GM?!

overpaid for it though.
vr, Xei

By the by: average value a draft pick brings to a club is $5.5 mil like Kurt noted yesterday.

So that means he’s making essentially $9.5 for the next two seasons.

Would you rather have had the Tigers go into 2010 with Valverde or Rodney?

Rodney would have been more costly in terms of salary, but the Tigers would still have the draft pick.

Kind of a pointless what if exercise, but curious as to the opinions.

I’m not necessarily a fan of the deal for Valverde, but I’m not hating it either, it’s better than turning it over to Perry or Zumaya, and hoping they can handle the job or survive physically, respectively.

Does that make me a casual fan? So be it, I’ve never claimed to be anything else.

isn’t this the biggest crock of sh*t I’ve heard all day

I really do. On the other hand, I think we’re all forgetting the fact that Papa Grande is actually, you know, pretty good. I hate hate hate losing the draft pick, but it’s not like they picked up dog poop.

Valverde is a proven commodity and a solid addition to the team. Despite the abundance of bullpen arms under contract before this move, not one of them should have been filling you with confidence when it came to closing out potentially more games with even smaller leads than last season. The lost draft pick is unfortunate, but this move had to be made and I’m glad it was. Now we can move toward being hopeful that the core DD has assembled behind Valverde provides stability in the bullpen and that at least one of them is ready to take the reins in 2-3 years time.

if they didn’t sign this guy to replace jim price i’m pissed

That’s how pissed and horrified that this just happened. Eff.

Hopefully this will have some positive bump but the suspicion that DD has no coherent vision or plan for the team seems to be being proven.

1) Are we a better team today (NOW) than we were yesterday? YES! We just signed a proven closer. How many of you bitched and complained last season about Rodney and the previous seasons regarding Jonesy? Every save situation was a roller coaster. There’s a freakin’ picture dedicated to it. Give Valverde a chance. Zoom Zoom had the stuff. Hopefully someday he’ll have it again…..but seriously, what are the odds? He’s a 2000’s version of Rozema. Ryan Perry is a great kid, but he’s a kid…..let him learn the game and mature before the Tigers give him the closer’s roll. How many times last year did he lose the strike zone? Far to many times to have the mentality of a closer.

2) This argument that Valverde played in the NL is a bullsh*t argument. Do you honestly think he got saves pitching in the ninth inning against pitchers? NO! If he was in a save situation, then the opponent most likely had their best hitters or pinch hitters up to try and tie or win the game.

Bottom line is we are better today and tomorrow than we were yesterday. It’s insane to be worried about a draft pick that we don’t even know who or could have drafted.

We got a closer who led the NL in saves two years in a row in 2008 and 2007. For baseball gods sake……be happy and look forward to a fun season. It’s not your money.

I hate this hot stove season…

We are the NY Mets of the AL. We spend money for no good reason other than to handicap ourselves in the future!

I think a lot of this hatred of DD is just because he traded Granderson. Big name trades have always been a part of this game’s history. This blog has really turned sort of glass half-empty in the last month. Face it, like him or hate him, DD has guts and he’s out there trying to make positive changes. It’s done! It might actually work out in Detroit’s favor in the long run. When it comes to how much money, I don’t care. It’s not mine. How many years did NYY have the biggest payroll and bomb in the playoffs? I loved gloating over the NY papers after the Tigers whipped them in the 06 playoffs! Money isn’t everything. Try thinking positive for a change.

Definitely a split in the fan base on the signing and probably along the baseball philosophical divide.

I think D.D. does a fine job as a general rule,I think he got rid of granderson at the right time and Jackson too but I’d like to see us use the highbrow scouting dept. we hired away from boston I’m tired of over paying old guys who won’t do any better than the young guys over the long haul and dave there has to be somewhere in the organization for jim price that the public doesn’t have to listen to.

but I like this. I can’t really explain why. I don’t know much about him, but I have an Astros fan for a friend (lucky him) who said this is super good for our team. Also, if it is true that he is a hard thrower who had a 2.33 ERA last season, then that makes me feel even better. It’s just a gut feeling, I think. You can point out his flaws, but I still will feel good about having him closing us out.

1. DD had it planned all along. I doubt it, but this is actually possible.

2. The team dumped Jackson, and if they’d stopped there, few would have blinked much. The team, upon dumping Grandy for whatever reason (clearly it wasn’t $, so either they thought his best years were behind him or there’s a smoking gun somewhere nobody has found), noticed the fan dismany and took a look at the ticket sales, and freaked.

If #2 is true, they may have decided to go out and get anything to toss to the fanbase as a peace offering.

I can’t come up with any other reasons. And I’m trying. If nothing else, Papa Grande is pretty damn entertaining, and a touch insane. Problem is, as I said yesterday, a closer is not worth a tenth of a damn if you’re consistently behind 4-2 going into the 9th.

We’re probably rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic a bit, at least for 2010. The 2010 team is probably not going to contend either way. As such, adding a closer at this money (and losing a draft choice) is probably not worth it.

Still, we all remember that a lot of dead money comes off the payroll after 2010, and all of it will be off by 2011. I think we all hope that the Tigers can compete in 2011. As such, if you’re going to sign a closer, you might as well have him around for one or both seasons. I also have seen enough crappy bullpens in recent years that I’m not sold on our “bullpen depth.”

As far as losing a draft pick, I don’t like it. I do take quite a bit of solace in the fact that the Tigers are well known to spend over slot to sign draft picks. If they throw a lot of money at their other draft choices, they can certainly overcome a lost pick.