Holy burying the lede, Batman!  (Is that the second time I've made that reference in a week?  Sorry about that.)  In a notebook headlined by second base prospect Scott Sizemore breaking a bone in his hand, the Freep's Jon Paul Morosi casually tosses out this little nugget:

The Tigers appear willing to include reliever Fernando Rodney in trade offers.  The right-hander has been inconsistent since returning from the disabled list.

That strikes me as kind of a big deal.  Maybe a headline item.  Am I wrong here?  Is that how far Rodney's fortunes have fallen in the eyes of the reporters who cover the Detroit Tigers, let alone the organization itself? 

Or perhaps this is a case of the Tigers realizing they'll have to give up something to get something.  Every team is in need of good relievers (including, um, the Detroit Tigers), so dangling a pitcher of Rodney's talent (as opposed to actual production this season) might tempt a team into making a deal.  (In another article, Morosi also points to Luis Marte as a pitching prospect Detroit might be willing to trade.)

Can the Tigers afford to give up bullpen help, especially when Jim Leyland has said that he intends to divide Todd Jones' ninth inning workload among several relievers?  I don't think so, yet acknowledge that Rodney isn't the first guy I would prefer to see come out of the Tigers' bullpen in a key late-inning situation.  And maybe Leyland feels that way, too.  Freddy Dolsi has probably made Rodney expendable, and another reliever (Clay Rapada?) could come up from Toledo to fill that spot in the bullpen.   

So what do you think about this?  Has Rodney become expendable?  Can the Tigers afford to trade a reliever?

After Thursday's loss to the Twins, in which Todd Jones blew a two-run lead, the Tigers' closer was the popular whipping boy on Detroit sports talk radio, message boards, and a few blogs.  The general sentiment seemed to be, "Enough is enough."

Defenders of Jonesy pointed out that Thursday's blown save was only his second of the season.  Yet as his ERA hovers around 5.00 (its current 5.09 is actually an improvement from a week ago), and that roller coaster style of pitching (put a couple of runners on base, don't strike anyone out, bring the tying or lead run to the plate, etc.) endangers every lead the Tigers give him, Jones's method of closing becomes more and more insufferable.

And now, maybe even Jim Leyland - frequently Jonesy's biggest defender - has had all he can stands, and can't stands no more.  Before last night's game, Leyland announced that he would begin reducing Jones's workload and begin to divide ninth inning duties among other relievers in the bullpen.  The Tigers' manager emphasized that Jones was still Detroit's closer.  However, he's not always going to pitch the ninth inning with the game on the line, especially when he's pitched the night before. 

"I'm going to back off him a little bit.

"I'm just going to watch him closely and maybe start using somebody else a little bit from time to time."

Even Jones himself admitted that it's getting more difficult for him to pitch back-to-back games, which is definitely a part of the closer job description.

"It's a little tough to bounce back," Jones said Thursday after pitching the day and night games, "but I've got to be ready when the phone rings. ... I'm ready for (the ball) when he gives it to me."

So who gets the ball when Jones doesn't?  Leyland said Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney would likely close out the game, depending on each pitcher's workload, game situations, and so forth.  Freddy Dolsi will surely be in the mix, as well, especially if the Tigers view him as someone who could potentially be their future closer, along with Zumaya.

Though this could initially be seen as some kind of punishment or indication that Leyland doesn't trust Jones as he once did, rotating players in a role to keep his older players fresh has worked out pretty well for Pudge Rodriguez and the catching situation.  Brandon Inge's oblique injury eventually shelved Leyland's plan to alternate catchers every other day, but reducing Pudge's workload behind the plate definitely seems to have given him more energy, especially with his bat.  Perhaps the only difference in this decision is that Leyland didn't make a point of noting that things could change.

While this decision doesn't necessarily represent a white flag, it does appear to nod toward the future.  Jones isn't going to be the Tigers' closer after this season, and the team needs to figure out if Zumaya, Rodney, or Dolsi can handle the role, both mentally and physically.  If not, that probably shapes Dave Dombrowski's off-season agenda.

So did anyone get the license plate number on that truck that hit the Tigers tonight?  I think it was... #9?

Had I been able to find a decent image of someone slipping on a banana peel, I would've posted that instead because that's what this game felt like.  The Tigers seemed to be cruising along well enough, though the specter of only two runs scored was definitely hanging over their heads.  But then Fernando Rodney walked Richie Sexson, which was essentially the equivalent of trailing behind someone who dropped a banana peel on the sidewalk.  All of a sudden - whoops! 

It's easy to second-guess Jim Leyland on this, but bringing Rodney out for a second inning after he got through the seventh felt like a bad idea.  Why do it?  Was it because Rodney threw only 12 pitches in the previous inning?  Did Leyland think he needed the work?  Is Joel Zumaya not quite trusted to pitch in that situation yet?  Why not bring in Freddy Dolsi, who only threw five pitches in Friday's game?  Or Bobby Seay, to pitch to Jeff Clement?

But let's talk about that walk to Sexson.  For one thing, it was his third walk of the night.  This is a guy who was hitting .222 coming into tonight's game.  Okay, I understand if you're afraid of his power.  Make a mistake and he'll crush it into the seats.  And Rodney was clearly trying to pitch Sexson inside so he couldn't extend those gangly arms into a good swing.  But he also couldn't control his fastball and change-up as well as probably wanted to.  That left Rodney to face the left-handed Jeff Clement with a runner on-base.  I realize 11 plate appearances is a small sample size, but lefties are hitting .300/.364/.700 against Rodney this season.

Leyland has said in the past that you can't be afraid to lose a game.  And maybe this was an example of that.  Maybe he'll say that he had to find out if Rodney could pitch in that situation.  Do you take those kinds of chances against a team you're supposed to beat?  Maybe that's the best time to do it; I don't know.  Of course, if the Tigers had scored more than two runs, I wouldn't be rambling on like this.

On the bright side, this will be the last time this season that we'll have to stay up this late to watch the Tigers lose.

After five excellent starts, Kenny Rogers was eventually bound to have a bad game.  And the St. Louis Cardinals pounced on the opportunity, tagging Rogers for nine hits and five runs, which is more scoring than he'd allowed in his past four starts combined.

Another guy perhaps due for a bad outing was Freddy Dolsi, who hasn't been a lights-out reliever, but often avoided throwing a bad inning.  Not so much tonight, as the Cardinals knocked four hits off Dolsi - the most he's allowed this season - and put another three runs on the board.

Despite the loss, however, there was plenty of good stuff from the Tigers tonight.  After going into the weekend with only one home run, Pudge Rodriguez has now gone deep in two straight games.  Miguel Cabrera gave Detroit its first (and only) lead of the game with a solo homer in the fourth inning.  And then there's the guy who was playing in Lakeland yesterday.  Gary Sheffield looked pretty healthy in blasting a two-run shot to left field later in the game. 

Even though the pitching really wasn't there for the Tigers, a pitcher still managed to provide the pleasant surprise of the night.  A four-run game was the sort of low-risk situation for Fernando Rodney to see if he could throw some strikes.  Not only did Rodney find the plate - though he was still wild with a few pitches, as I'm sure Rick Ankiel would tell you - he also got three outs.  Yes, really. 

There won't be a third straight home sweep this time, but losing the first game of the last two series didn't work out so bad for the Tigers.  But that was on the road.  How will it go at Comerica Park?

Roll Call

If I could give commemorative 1968 Tigers road jerseys to rock n rye, miggy4mvp, Zappatista, ThaWalrus9, pfuhrmeister, Grant E., BigAl, tbliggins, PBURGTIGER, Tony K, rook34, tplants (Welcome!), syratiger, JIMDALE (Welcome!), Juskimo, Ramon Santiago, and dettigionswings'stons, I would.  Alas, I cannot.  Just not in the budget this year.

After his horrifying eight-pitch, eight-ball performance on Friday night, Fernando Rodney (at least in my mind) seemed ticketed for a "you can't come back until you can throw a strike" demotion to Single-A Lakeland.  But maybe the Tigers feel like they've already gone that way enough with Dontrelle Willis.  Of maybe they don't think Rodney is the same sort of reconstruction project that Willis is, and can work on him better if he's with the major league club. 

Either way, Jim Leyland announced his plan for Rodney before last night's game against the Padres, and I think this can safely go into the WWJTT? ("What Will Jim Try Today?") file. 

"We're going to have Rodney start throwing about five minutes in the bullpen every other day, even on nights he's going to pitch.  We'll have him play catch in the outfield, then throw to a catcher every other day for five minutes at half speed to see if we can get some rhythm going.

"We have to get him throwing strikes.  Hopefully that might help him because he's just flinging it.  That's not good enough."

As remedial as it might sound, Leyland has a major league point of reference for this throwing regimen.  It's the same approach Jim Kaat took with his relievers when he was the Cincinnati Reds' pitching coach in 1984 and 1985.

I think the Tigers should perhaps take this even further and just show up randomly, like a drug tester, to make Rodney throw for five minutes.  If he's at the movies, step into the lobby and start throwing.  At a restaurant?  Outside and throw.  (Even better, get Pudge or Inge to dare Rodney to throw the ball at his chest.)  If he's with a lady friend... well, she can wait five minutes, right?

Normally, I'd probably write something about this being a relapse of the bad Tigers we saw earlier this season, with the lineup not being able to score enough runs and the bullpen giving a game away.  And I'd love to include some wholly unoriginal snark about how abnormally large Petco Park is.  But that's oversimplifying what happened tonight in the eighth inning.

Let's talk about Fernando Rodney, because this is a serious problem.  If it's not disastrous, it's damn close.  Jim Leyland can't possibly be considering putting Rodney in another game - even if it's mop-up duty - after what he did tonight.  Not only were Rodney's pitches nowhere near the strike zone tonight, but he's so out of control that he almost hurt someone.  The top of Jody Gerut's head was sizzling after Rodney air-mailed a fastball way above the shoulders.

And it wasn't just the fastball that Rodney couldn't control in that eighth inning; his change-up couldn't find the plate, either.  Eight pitches, eight balls, two walks.  You can say Rodney got squeezed on a couple of those pitches, but he also didn't demonstrate any sort of control to the umpire.  You could also point out that Casey Fossum and Joel Zumaya couldn't clean up the mess Rodney created, but even if they weren't very good (Fossum was terrible, Zumaya was okay), they were asked to stop a boulder tumbling down a mountainside. 

If Dontrelle Willis had to be sent to Lakeland due to his control problems, can we expect Rodney to be joining him down there by Monday?  The man's ERA is 135.00.  Think about that.  Don't just read it, either; say it out loud.

If you saw someone make a sharp, tire-squealing u-turn on I-75 tonight, it was probably Denny Bautista, who has every reason to think he'll be wearing a Tigers uniform again very soon.  Detroit has lost twice on this California road trip, and two games in their last 10.  And both of those losses are on Rodney.  Physical, mental - whatever the problem, the Tigers can't bear it right now.

Roll Call

What a fantastic turnout we had in the GameThread tonight.  I don't know what it may have been like before I took over BYB last year, but that is easily the most active thread we've ever had.  Some of the other SBN baseball blogs routinely have to create overflow threads, which is something we've never had to do.  But I had to think about it tonight, and man, was that a nice feeling.

Thanks to spotstarters, Grant E., Zappatista, ThaWalrus9, BigAl, Boney, cannonad03, MikeMcClary, weso33 (Welcome!), Matt in Toledo, miggy4mvp, MackAveKurt, rock n rye, densogirl, spartyboy40, Axion (who stopped over from Gaslamp Ball, where I had to eat some crow), KZone (Welcome!), ahtrap, Juskimo, and slomo984 for a wild night.  (And this recap would've been up a half hour ago, if not for keeping track of it.)  Oh, if only the Tigers could've sent us out the door happy...

I was under the impression that an important step in Joel Zumaya's rehabilitation was being able to pitch in back-to-back games before returning to the majors.  After one inning of work last night with Triple-A Toledo, in which he struck out two batters and gave up an unearned run on two hits, the Tigers decided that Zumaya wouldn't pitch in the Mud Hens' game this afternoon, preferring him to throw a bullpen session instead.  If all goes well, Zumaya will presumably proceed as planned and join the Tigers in San Diego this weekend. 

My immediate thought was that maybe Detroit wanted Zumaya with the big league club sooner after Fernando Rodney's disastrous eighth inning last night against the Giants.  But rationality came to me a few seconds later with the realization that the Tigers probably didn't want Zumaya to have to pitch in a day game right after throwing the night before.  Today's Mud Hens game started at noon.

In other rehab assignments, Gary Sheffield played designated hitter with Single-A Lakeland last night.  Batting third for the Flying Tigers, Sheffield went 0-for-2, with one walk and one run scored. 

UPDATE: According to Joe Vardon of the Toledo Blade, Zumaya is already on his way to San Diego.  After throwing a 14-pitch bullpen session, Zumaya showered, left the ballpark, and told reporters he was leaving on a jet plane.

On his way from the clubhouse, Zumaya told The Blade the Tigers "gave me the call and told me to meet them in San Diego."  Zumaya, who is originally from southern California, said he was on his way to the airport.

Everything looked to be heading toward a seventh straight win for the Tigers.  Justin Verlander threw his third straight quality start.  Marcus Thames homered for the fourth straight game, this time launching two balls into the seats.  (And as Matt pointed out in the GameThread , Thames' last seven hits have been home runs.)  Freddy Dolsi needed only seven pitches for a 1-2-3 seventh inning. 

But it all fell apart in the eighth.  Dolsi came back out, and put two of the first three hitters he faced on base.  So Jim Leyland brought in Fernando Rodney, fresh off his rehab assignment, to clean up Dolsi's mess.  Might as well see if he can handle a late-inning pressure situation right away, I suppose. 

If you didn't see the game, here's how Rodney's outing went:

Rodney got his change-up over the plate just fine, and initially made John Bowker look bad with it.  But when he was way out of the zone with his fastball, Rodney had to come back with another change-up, and it was one too many.  Bowker blasted a three-run homer to right field for the lead.  Rodney allowed two more hits and walked a batter, which led to two more runs (though the umpire made a bad call allowing that second run to score from first base on Fred Lewis' ground-rule double), and that was it for him.  Really, he couldn't have done much worse in his first game back.

The Tigers made it interesting in the ninth inning, as Brian Wilson quickly loaded the bases on two hits and a walk.  Curtis Granderson drove in two runs on a single to left field (he's getting quite good at hitting to the opposite field, by the way), but Placido Polanco couldn't knock a ground ball past Omar Vizquel (after attempting to get on base by claiming he was hit by a pitch).  Game over.  Streak over.

It was a tough loss, especially after scoring more runs against Tim Lincecum than any other team had this season (thanks, Marcus), and handing a lead over to a bullpen that's been pitching pretty well.  We'll find out tomorrow if this was just a speed bump.

Roll Call

For a game with a 10 p.m. EST start time, we had a good turnout tonight in the GameThread.  A winning team makes it easier to stay up late.  Too bad the effort wasn't rewarded with a win (though it certainly got exciting at the end).

Thanks to ThaWalrus9, Boney (do you have a blog anymore?), rook34, MackAveKurt, Zappatista, ahtrap, rock n rye, Tigsfan, Grant E., tbliggins, spotstarters, Juskimo, densogirl, cannonad03, HavocRox, syratiger, and trysdor (welcome!) for keeping the light on and making it very easy to stay awake through the game.

I have to admit, I didn't think we'd ever see Fernando Rodney pitch for the Detroit Tigers again.  When a guy has to stop throwing sessions short because of pain in his shoulder, and makes appointments to see Dr. James Andrews, his pitching career begins to take on the faint burning smell of toast.  Yet Rodney kept at his rehabilitation.  Six minutes of throwing here, another pain-free day of long toss there.  And the Tigers held out hope, though Jim Leyland acted as if he didn't dare depend on someone who might not come back. 

But Rodney really is coming back (complete with some coaching tweaks), joining the team tonight in San Francisco.  And Joel Zumaya isn't far behind him.  Just as the Tigers are playing their best baseball of the year and appear ready to turn their season around, the two relievers that made their bullpen so dominating in 2006 are returning.  If Rodney and Zumaya are capable of pitching as they once did, is there any other team in baseball that's going to add relievers of such caliber in mid-season? 

With news of Rodney's return imminent, the question became who would have to go?  BYB reader Matt astutely observed that Freddy Dolsi would probably draw the short straw, based on his inexperience and remaining minor league options.  The general reaction to that was "What?  Are you nuts?  He's the Tigers' best reliever right now!"  But it made sense, given that Zumaya and Rodney were likely to take over the late-inning set-up roles, while Dolsi would be better served by getting innings in the minors, rather than pitch mop-up duty. 

Apparently, however, the Tigers agreed that Dolsi is pitching too well in relief to send down right now.  Or they're placing more of a priority on trying to rebuild their starting pitching depth.  In a rather surprising move, Detroit is sending Aquilino Lopez back to Toledo, in order to stretch himself out with more innings and become a starting pitcher for the organization.

What does that say about the depth in the minor league system right now?  Virgil Vazquez hasn't been very good this year (4-6, 5.08), and Jordan Tata has plummeted all the way down to Lakeland (he ain't down there for no rehab assignment).  Macay McBride was injured before the season, and Yorman Bazardo (1-3, 5.17) isn't throwing like someone who wants to get a call back up to the bigs.  The Tigers already called up the one guy they could, when Eddie Bonine came up for his start on Saturday.  And though he got a win, it wasn't exactly a dazzling performance.

Making Lopez a starter is a curious move, considering that Casey Fossum and Zach Miner both have more recent experience as starters.  (Both Billfer and Lee point out that Lopez last pitched as a starter in 2002, with Triple-A Tacoma.)  But he has pitched well in longer outings this season, including a four-inning stint in early April that would've been one of the Tigers' best starts of the year had Lopez actually started the game.  It looks like we'll be seeing him get those starts with Detroit pretty soon.

Whether it's because last night's loss to the Oakland Athletics ended around 2 a.m. EST or because it's less depressing to highlight something hopeful, rather than rehash another game the Tigers let slip away, the story du jour this morning is of a more glass-half-full variety.  Both Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya pitched in rehab assignments last night, each of which yielded encouraging results.

Rodney threw two scoreless innings for the Toledo Mud Hens, allowing two walks and one hit, while also striking out a batter and finishing with the win.  And oh, by the way, Denny Bautista also pitched in the game, notching his own scoreless inning (his second consecutive appearance in which he didn't allow a run).

But those developments were relegated to sidebar status.  It's the guy who pitched in Lakeland last night that's raising eyebrows and is generating the most excitement today.  Zumaya was only slated to go one inning for the Flying Tigers, but finished the seventh inning quickly enough (12 pitches) that he also worked the eighth.  He didn't allow a run, while walking one batter, striking out another, and giving up a hit.

However, Zumaya carries a different expectation with him.  Did he make the radar gun sizzle?  And perhaps more importantly, did he make three digits light up instead of two?  All indications from Lakeland point to the affirmative.

There's some question as to whether or not the Joker Marchant Stadium scoreboard ginned up the numbers by one or two miles per hour, but even if Zumaya didn't really reach 100 m.p.h on the gun, it's apparent that he was throwing hard, which is what we all wanted to see.

"To hear that [radar speed] was real nice," a smiling Zumaya said, adding that he did not try to force his velocity.  "I try not to look at the radar gun back there.  I was just trying to throw strikes and get a feel for the mound."

It's not quite clear when Zumaya will pitch next, or whether he'll be throwing again with Lakeland or moving up to Toledo.  But judging from his performance last night, the idea of Zumaya rejoining the Tigers this month doesn't seem very far-fetched.

Deran has a bit more at the Lakeland Flying Tigers Blog.