Don't blame Willis for Dombrowski's mistakes

Debbie downer :-( sad face

An extra 2 win starter would have helped us last year (cliched, I know) and would help us this year. It may be the difference in the Central.

i really don’t care one way or the other about this trade, but what it reminds me of is that we traded jair jurrjens for edgar renteria. i was one of the few who questioned it at the time, but imagine our rotation had that debacle never happened.

That’s just how I feel… For some reason though, everyone is giving all of this credit towards Robertson.

2010 Payroll
Magglio Ordonez, vested at $ 18 million

Carlos Guillen, $ 13 million

Jeremy Bonderman, $ 12.5 million

Dontrelle Willis, $ 12 million

Nate Robertson, $ 10 million

Brandon Inge, $ 6.6 million

Bobby Seay, $ 2.475 million

Adam Everett- just cuz he’s there.

Then, there were these great hits:

Gary Sheffield, 3 years, 42 million

Picking up Pudge Rodriguez’s $ 13 million option

Extending Kenny Rogers one year, $ 8 million

Extending Todd Jones one year, $ 7 million

Troy Percival, two years, $ 12 million

And the classic names that were relied upon for the bullpen:
Jose Mesa, Yorman Bazardo, Juan Rincon, Scott Williamson, Joey Eischen, Matt Mantei, Kyle Bloom, Francisco Cruceta, and Eduardo Campusano.

All this, while loading up a $ 135 million payroll, enough to pay the luxury tax for a last place team in 2008, and signing fewer free agents since 2006 than any team in the league

DD’s Free Agents since 2006:
Sean Casey, Kenny Rogers, Todd Jones, one year extensions
Francisco Cruceta, Jose Mesa, Matt Treanor, Adam Everett, and Brandon Lyon one yr each
Zero multi year free agent contracts for the 2007, 2008, and 2009 seasons

Jose Valverde breaks the streak with a two year deal, but he traded Granderson and Jackson to make room, and gave up a first round draft choice in the deal. And Johnny Damon makes it six new free agents in four years. One multi year contract, but $ 72 million plus in bad contracts on the books.

When all those bad contracts expire next winter, DD will have to do a much better job of spending the savings.

Kurt. Rec’d reading. Kind of puts things in perspective

that we’ve spent double digit millions for a guy to go away two straight seasons, and neither guy was named Dontrelle Willis, is amazing.

Well said, Kurt.

“I think I put together a great spring,” Willis said. “I’m not done though. I’m not content. I want to continue to work hard. I’m just thankful. I’m very thankful.”

“I thought he was very good today,” Leyland said. “I don’t think that was any kind of what we saw in the past. He was missing down. He was missing close. He was making them mishit the ball quite a bit. If he throws like that, he’ll get a lot of outs.”

“We have a lot of confidence in him coming back,” team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "I think he’s done a lot. He’s pitched well this spring. I don’t know what else [he could do]. You keep looking.

“I know, the other day, it kind of came to me. We talked about it, and then all of a sudden I look up, and he’s third in all of Major League Baseball in earned-run average [at 1.20 entering Tuesday]. And he’s thrown the ball well, too. He’s worked hard. He’s put himself in a position to win a spot. We feel comfortable he’ll do a good job for us.”

Let me give you some:

Everyone seems to think that a dollar spent on player x is not available to spend on player y. Last I checked there is no salary cap. It seems that Mike is willing to spend more if a play suits his fancy. Do you you really think that we would have passed on Damon if we would have had to pay Valverde 1 million more. please

Second, it is my team but it’s not my money. Spend more! I hope they do spend like the Yankees. You don’t think the big spending teams ever f’ed up some contracts? Hideki Irabu would like to chat with you. But you know what? Spending more usually leads to winning more! We are in the hunt for a division title. Want to trader with the Royals? Pirates? Baltimore?

Third, I feel a guy like Bonine or Miner will have just as much success or more as a starting pitcher than men named Robinson, Bonderman, or Willis. Forget payroll, it’s how you pitch that matters and we kept guys that have just as good of shot to do just that. If Robertson made 600k no one’s panties would be in a twist.

Forth, I need some real baseball to watch. That way I can exhibit real joy or anger…not anticipated angst.

he wasnt set to be a free agent until after 2009, meaning Tigers could have gone year to year with him in arbitration. Then they could have non-tendered him after 2008. It is one thing to give a 3 year deal to a free agent, but completely pointless to do so in this case. It isnt like Willis signed at a discount, and he already showed signs of trouble with FLA in 2007.

Pretty much everything of note leading up to 2006 paid off in a big way (Trading for Polanco, signing Pudge and Maggs, drafting Verlander, etc). There was some interview this offseason in which DD hinted that the Tigers got to the World Series too soon, and maybe this is the case, because the rash of bad contract extensions happened in the ‘06 and ’07 offseasons. This could easily have been born out of an attempt at getting back to the postseason as quickly as possible. Obviously, it didn’t work, and we’ve still got the high payroll. But we’ve got the high payroll because those contracts are still on the books, not because there have been bad signings since then. In the past two offseasons, there has only been one big extension of note (Verlander), and if that doesn’t work out, you can’t say they should have known better. All other free agent signings have been one or two-year deals that I’ve found quite reasonable, and I’ve been satisfied with the return on most of them. If I had one critique against DD (besides the contract extensions), it’s that he just doesn’t seem to be very good at getting that elusive “final piece” (Sheffield, Willis, Washburn, Huff, etc). For now, it appears as though the front office has learned from its mistakes, and we’ll find out for sure next year when all those contracts come off the books.

For those interested, there is a Yahoo Fantasy League that will draft this Saturday April 3rd at 5:00 EST. 14 max teams, 6×6 standard, rotisserie. Good times.

League ID: 592847
Password: ajack

That pretty much none of us, whether we’re ripping DD a new one, or whether we think this move is just fine, have actually SEEN these guys pitch this spring. I have criticized DD and Leyland in the past and I will do so again in the future. That said here’s what I know about Dombrowski:

He put together a lot of the pieces of an Expos team that was in first at the time of the 1994 strike.

He put together a World Series winning Florida Marlins team, and then tore it down and got a lot of the pieces for another World Series team.

He took over a Tigers team that had been moribund for years, a team that would lose 119 games his first year in charge, and got them to a World Series, and contention for the playoffs.

Dave Dombrowski is a very good general manager. He has made mistakes. This may be one of them. That being said, he’s the one who has SEEN WITH HIS OWN EYES Robertson and Willis pitch this Spring.

I will trust his judgment on which reclamation project he chose.

and then read something in the News or Freep and explain to me why Kurt isn’t writing his stuff there?

The Tigers will save $ 400K in the trade.

The Tigers will call up a minor leaguer, probably Bonine, and pay him $ 400K instead of his minor league salary of $ 62,500. So what do they save?

What do they gain?
- Bonine on the team instead of Nate, and
- Willis in the rotation instead of Nate.
- An 8th round pick who has already failed as a starter and is now another lefty reliever
The first part of that is of questionable value. The second part is horrifying. The third was never what this trade was all about anyway.

the new minor leaguer has to be paid also. Net savings = nada.

the trade helps DD’s cause, though. It doesn’t hurt it.

He’s no doubt made some ill-advised extensions and trades that haven’t panned out using 20/20 hindsight (we can analyze all that until our brains explode). But have they all made everyone so short sighted that we no longer allow retributions? Harp all you want on what hasn’t worked, but make sure you give proper credit when it’s due.

I remember distinctly fans being upset by dumping dead weight Gary Sheffield last year (who no team wanted to trade for). However, without dumping him the DH/LF positions would have been even more cramped — leaving guys like Ryan Raburn and Don Kelly, who had strong campaigns, never seeing the light of day. Sheffield trade was pretty much a bust, but dumping him was a great move that some fans didn’t like because “wahh we just dropped a lot of money for nothing.” Sad it had to come to that but that was a decision most GMs don’t have the pride to make.

Similar situation this year, but teams actually wanted Robertson (didn’t want Willis). Rather than plug him unhappily into an already crowded LHP bullpen or put him in the rotation to only kill all measly value he gained back this off-season/Spring, the Tigers traded Nate for a young talent and for more wiggle room in using younger guys like Bonine, newly acquired Coke, Ni, Seay when he gets back, Schlereth maybe, etc, etc. No matter how you slice it $400,000, a young arm, and the ability to use our new guys, fresh blood that was brought here to help this team get over the hump and win is better than NOTHING or even hoping a 32-33 year old bounces back from multiple surgeries, injuries, and subpar seasons while younger (in almost all cases) and untested guys wait in the wings; or even worse, have to get cut.

DD deserves credit for making a move rather than sticking with BOTH of the washed up meats and letting his past failures just simply fade away. He’s being proactive about his past mistakes and that’s balls, man. Especially during a time when it seems that every single one of his moves gets shit on by fans…

until at least a month into the season, when we have a good idea how Dontrelle is pitching for us during normal games, and how Robertson is doing for the Marlins.

We’ve all debated this until our fingers hurt, but what it comes down to is this: We don’t know what’s going to happen until it happens. We live with the trade and the decisions, and we watch how they play out.

Go Tigers.

It’s simple. DD kept the younger lefty.

Robertson was never going to be any better than he is now. He eats innings but always at the back end of the rotation. ’06 was his best year only because Detroit won over 90 games.

Dontrelle is younger. If he doesn’t perform, we eat his contract which we would have done anyway. If he does perform DD looks like a genius, we keep him and we have a decent lefty in the rotation. If he performs but the team flops we trade him at the deadline. Again, DD looks like a genius but since the team flops we don’t need him as much as the cash and/or player and/or debt relief we get by trading him.

Robertson is not worth that much due to age unless he performs better than he ever has in his career, and what’s the chances in that happening?

…Come on weve go tthe talent to win….Go Bondo Go Willis Go Tigs