I think we could all use a day off from talking about the Detroit Tigers, but it's healthy to vent, so we're providing a safe place for you to get that stuff out of your system.  Normally, I try to encourage off-topic conversation on off-days, but not today.

There's too much to talk about after an awful weekend at Tropicana Field, one that created Mad Jim Beyond Thunderdome.  The Tigers' manager is threatening to make changes because he doesn't like what he sees (I guess he can go to the head of the line since he's the skipper), and implied he may be getting leaned on by upper management, as well.  Maybe we'll see some moves today, but I have a feeling we won't until tomorrow.  Today is probably a day of meetings and decisions among the Tigers' braintrust.

So what would you like to see Jim Leyland and/or Dave Dombrowski do?  And of course, we all have thoughts on who should go, but who really will?  Who has something to fear when they get to the ballpark tomorrow in Chicago? 

Is tomorrow night Nate Robertson's last stand as a starting pitcher?  Who should replace him?  Casey Fossum?  Eddie Bonine?  Chris Lambert? 

Have we already seen the last of Fernando Rodney as closer?  Though no one seems capable of protecting a lead at this point, who should get the next chance to do so?  Glass Joel?  Freddy Dolsi?  Casey Fien?  The Farns?  Kyra Sedgwick?

And how about the bigger picture?  Where does this team go now?  Did the season effectively end when Rodney walked in Carlos Pena yesterday?  (Of course, it may have been over long before that.)  Should the Tigers start playing for 2009 now?

Pull up a chair and say what's on your mind.  This is the BYB support group.  We're listening.  As always, just be nice to each other.

When Eddie Bonine was sent down to Double-A Erie immediately after Wednesday's game, you had to wonder if it might be a while before we saw that young man in a Tigers uniform again.  The demotion seemed a bit harsh, but it was revealed that Bonine was sent to Erie so he could maintain his pitching schedule while the Tigers and Mud Hens were on their respective All-Star breaks.  And it doesn't appear that Bonine has been exiled from Detroit's starting rotation, either. 

In Jon Paul Morosi's article explaining how the Tigers are unlikely to be involved in a big trade from now until the July 31 deadline, Jim Leyland said he expected Bonine to get the call when the fifth spot in the rotation comes up on July 21. 

"I think Bonine will probably be the starter," Leyland said.  "Is it 100%?  No.  But is it likely?  I would say yes."

As far as Morosi knows, the Tigers haven't talked to anyone about dealing for a starting pitcher.  Even teams who have made it known they have pitching to spare, such as the San Diego Padres, haven't received a call from Detroit.  Morosi goes on to speculate that the Tigers would be more likely to try for some relief pitching, and mentions the Pittsburgh Pirates as a potential trade partner.  Though really, he's just trying to connect the dots, based on previous interest in John Grabow and Damaso Marte. 

So what's the bigger story here?  The return of Eddie Bonine or the possibility of no deals at the trade deadline?  And if the Tigers do start to light up the phone lines, what would you prefer them to pursue?

Following the Tigers' 8-6 win over the Indians last night, I was on the phone during the post-game show.  I'm only bothering to mention that because when I saw Dave Dombrowski on the screen, it became rather apparent that something was going on.  How often does the general manager talk to the press after the game?  And you never see Double-D on the FSN "Tigers Live" post-game show. 

Sure enough, stuff was happening with the Tigers' roster after the game.  With Brandon Inge finishing his rehab assignment with Toledo and set to rejoin the team, Detroit had to make a move.  And the spot to clear was back-up catcher, so Dane Sardinha was the guy to go.  It's worth noting that he was designated for assignment, rather than sent to Toledo, but I'm assuming that's because Sardinha was out of minor league options.  But since he's likely to clear waivers, after which he'll probably report back to Toledo, it's really a minor point to discuss. 

The other move was perhaps a bit more surprising, though probably could've been predicted around the third inning of last night's game.  Eddie Bonine was sent to the minors, but rather than to Toledo, he was shipped down to Double-A Erie.  That seems a bit harsh for a guy who was on the major league roster just a few hours earlier, but Bonine really had only two good starts among his five appearances with the Tigers.  And that success was surely skewed by the lesser opponents he was facing in the Padres and Rockies.  Once he faced American League competition, Bonine couldn't even complete four innings. 

Why Erie, and not Toledo?  The Tigers must feel Bonine lost something in the transition from Triple-A to the majors, and needs some work to find it again.  Or there's just not a spot for him in the Mud Hens' rotation now, with Zach Miner starting games to tune up his variety of pitches. 

(UPDATE: According to MLive.com's Graham Couch, Bonine was sent to Erie so he can start Monday on his normal pitching schedule.  The Mud Hens will be off on Monday for the Triple-A All-Star break.)

But what made the Bonine move surprising is who was called up to Detroit to replace him.  Rather than promote another pitcher to fill that spot, the Tigers decided they could get by without a fifth starter as only four games remain before the All-Star break.  So instead, Detroit will carry another bat, bringing back Jeff Larish.  Where exactly Larish will play isn't clear to me, but maybe the Tigers thought a left-handed bat with some pop off the bench would be a nice luxury to have against Minnesota for the next four games.

In the meantime, we can ponder who will take that fifth spot in the starting rotation after the All-Star break.  Will it be the presumably stretched out Aquilino Lopez?  Could it be Miner, who Leyland has acknowledged might be better as a starter?  Or could another Toledo guy, like Chris Lambert (8-5, 3.25 ERA, 78 strikeouts in 102 1/3 innings), get a shot?

I know tonight's game didn't just come down to one moment.  It was a roller coaster ride of emotion, from the lows of Detroit falling behind 4-0 (during which you could see Eddie Bonine throwing his major league gig away) to the building anticipation for a rally that culminated with a game-tying homer from Matt Joyce.  And how about a tip of the cap to Casey Fossum for putting out the blaze that Bonine lit and giving his team a chance to stage that comeback?  (And how about those strikeouts?  Six in 3 1/3 innings?  When did Fossum become Cole Hamels?)

Up until the sixth inning, were you beginning to question whether or not this Tigers team really had it in them to make the sort of run we're all hoping for?  Did the reality of just how fragile, how precarious this season really is seem horrifyingly clear until Detroit began to put some runs on the board?

But with one swing of the bat in the bottom of the ninth, Miguel Cabrera wiped that dread away.  That two-run, walk-off homer gave us one hell of a moment to savor until game time tomorrow afternoon.  Damn, how much fun was that to watch?

Roll Call

Issues with my internet connection prevented me from enjoying that moment with everyone in the GameThread tonight (ARGH!), but the rest of the BYB Brigade got through those nine innings of emotion together.

Cheers to Zappatista, ThaWalrus9, explosivo2k2, wepri31, BigAl, densogirl, Grant E., Wingz, TFerg1103, Juskimo, Boney, ahtrap, Tony K, and bradm for showing solidarity.  So who had the rally caps on?

Did the Tigers' sudden run of injuries finally catch up to them this afternoon in Minnesota?  Getting by without Magglio Ordonez was one thing.  But a lineup without either Maggs or Miguel Cabrera, not to mention the resting Pudge Rodriguez, was probably going to hit a pothole eventually.  I'd say a big zero on the scoreboard qualifies as that pothole.

But that's not giving enough credit to Nick Blackburn, is it?  You can say he didn't face Detroit's regular batting order, and he may well have benefited from that, but any time you can hold a major league lineup to three hits over seven innings, that's a rather impressive accomplishment.  Some of that good pitching juju was apparently passed along to Jesse Crain, who'd been something of a punching bag for the Tigers this season, but threw two scoreless innings of his own.

I'm not sure if bad juju had anything to do with Eddie Bonine's performance, but the artificial turf at the Metrodome certainly did.  The Twins didn't have to hit the ball that hard against Bonine.  Bunts and choppers did the job just fine.  (Doesn't that sound like a dish you can order at an Irish pub?  "I'll have the bunts and choppers, and a pint of Harp, please.")  I'm sure Carlos Guillen has seen more than enough of baseballs bouncing off that carpet. 

Jim Leyland says Cabrera should be back in the lineup for Thursday's opener against Seattle.  Between that and the grass surface of Safeco Field, the Tigers probably stand a more than decent chance of rebounding tomorrow.

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So long, National League; it was great while it lasted.  And I really mean that.  It was great.  You (especially the NL West) were berry, berry good to us.  Thank you for helping to revitalize the 2008 baseball season in Detroit.

The Tigers cleared a big hurdle today in going over .500.  (And that was not intended as a pun toward the Rockies' manager.)  In past seasons, getting past that break-even point has been a pretty steep obstacle to overcome.  Was it back in 2000 when Todd Jones finished off a game, and then held an index finger in the air, indicating that the Tigers were only one game away from .500?  And that seemed like a big deal back then.  The enormous difference, of course, is that those Tigers weren't a very good team and playoff contention was more of a hope than expectation.  Things are a little bit different around here eight years later. 

Once again, Detroit rallied from behind to snatch a win from the jaws of the Colorado Rockies.  Kenny Rogers looked like he might not make it out of the third inning, but after a 1-2-3 double play got him out of trouble, he pulled himself together and toughed it out through the sixth.  And it was in that sixth inning that the Tigers got the one big hit they needed.

Virtually nothing was expected from Dane Sardinha with the bat.  (He was hitting .206 in Triple-A.)  Just play good defense when asked to back up Pudge Rodriguez.  Any offense would be a plus.  Some might call it icing on the cake.  If so, Sardinha spread some sweet, creamy stuff on the Detroit victory cake today.  The Tigers seemed to find every gap in this series, while the Rockies had a hard time closing in on those balls.  Sardinha smacked a ball into left-center for what turned out to be a two-run triple, scoring Marcus Thames and Edgar Renteria, and that was the difference in the ballgame.

So if Red Bull is supposed to give you wings, what have the Mud Hens been giving the Detroit Tigers lately?  Just look at the past week.  Sardinha had the two-run triple today.  Last night, Ryan Raburn (who began the season in Toledo) hit a grand slam and scored the winning run.  On Friday, Eddie Bonine pitched eight innings of one-run baseball.  Thursday, Clete Thomas drew a game-winning bases-loaded walk.  And don't forget Michael Hollimon, who's gotten four hits in his last three games. 

As Blake said in his recap, the Tigers now seem to have a different hero each day.  But a lot of those heroics are coming from where it wasn't expected.  Role players are the glue that holds a team together.  Youth gives a flagging veteran team a boost of enthusiasm.  It's all coming together beautifully right now.

Roll Call

Let's all say goodbye to the National League together now.  (Though hopefully, we'll be seeing them again.)

Fist-bumps to ThaWalrus9, cannonad03, rock n rye, explosivo2k2 (Welcome!), MSU4LIF, ahtrap, LosTigres, dettigionswings'stons, tbliggins, wepri3, Jerkwheat (Condolences on The Tilde), ashmark (Thanks for the Maggs news), ReichardZ, Germantiger (Sorry about Germany, mein Freund), Juskimo, and Boney (Boney!) for today's participation in the GameThread.

A few players could've gotten the Golden Tiger Claw for their performance in tonight's series-opening win over the Rockies, so I put it to the BYB Brigade in the GameThread.  Who should be the headliner?  Eddie Bonine threw a great game.  Curtis Granderson had four hits, including two triples.  And Clete Thomas went 3-for-3.

I'm not sure how much of a dilemma it ultimately was, but Matt posed too convincing an argument:

A 6 year minor leaguer, making his third career start, just held a team that went to the World Series last year to 1 run in 8 innings.

Well played, sir.  Well played.  Besides, I've been dying to use Bonine in a Jason Bourne pun ever since he was called up to Detroit.  (I know, it's a stretch.  "Bonine" doesn't rhyme with "Bourne."  But both names are six letters, and begin with "b" while ending with "e."  It works for me.)  Bonine was fantastic tonight, giving up just five hits to the Rockies over eight innings, and getting it done with just 99 pitches (69 of them for strikes).  Had Joel Zumaya not needed the work (and perhaps a confidence boost), maybe Bonine would've finished this one off. 

It was also pointed out in the GameThread that Bonine has done this against three NL West teams, so maybe we shouldn't get too crazy about Bonine solving the Tigers' fifth starter problems.  But for right now, he's doing the job.  And doing it very well.  Throwing strikes, keeping the ball down, and not walking any batters is a fine way to get through life, son.

Grandyland!

But we can't get through this recap without talking about Granderson's night, as well.  It wasn't very long ago when he was fighting his way through a horrible slump.  But it certainly feels like a long time ago.  Maybe 15 games ago?  Grandy extended his hitting streak to 15 games tonight, with a 4-for-5 night and brought the same jolt he supplied last year by smoking balls into the gap and blazing around the bases for two stand-up triples.  Over those 15 games, Granderson is hitting .443 (27-for-61).  He's 8-for-10 in the last two days.

Roll Call

I don't know about you, but it's felt like a long week, so I was happy to see this one end before 10 p.m.  Thanks to ThaWalrus9, pfuhrmeister, JIMDALE, rock n rye, Tony K, wepri31, miggy4mvp, tplants, and ReichardZ (Welcome!) for spending their Friday night watching the Tigers continue their dominance over the National League.

Anyone feel like reaching the .500 mark tomorrow?

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.

The Tigers haven't cruised to many easy wins this season (and maybe this one wasn't so easy, as the Dodgers briefly made the game sort of interesting), but when a win appears to be in the bag, my mind drifts to writing these recaps.  Especially the titles.  Originally, I wanted to make the recap about Eddie Bonine, because his debut was kind of the story today.  But all I could think of were plays off "bovine," and that didn't really inspire me.  "Simply Bovine"?

I also thought about playing off the Jason Bourne movies.  Except "Bonine" doesn't rhyme with "Bourne."  They just sort of look alike.  But what would the title be?  "The Bonine Supremacy"?  Not unless the kid pitched a shutout.  "The Bonine Ultimatum"?  Okay, but... Bonine gave up six runs and nine hits.  Not exactly a demanding - or commanding - performance.  Maybe "The Bonine Identity" would've worked, since most of us didn't know anything about this guy.  But by then, I'd decided to give up on the whole thing.  Kind of like I probably should've given up on these first two paragraphs.  Is this too much like a Beefshower post?

Okay, the game: How would you like to be the Dodgers, finally breaking through to score some runs, only to see your formerly upper-tier starter crumble after three innings and pitch batting practice in the fourth?  Actually, that's a pretty familiar feeling in Tiger Town.  That's how Detroit's baseball team was playing until just over a week ago.  Whatever's wrong with Brad Penny these days, at least he didn't suddenly get better against the Tigers.  When this team is at its best, perhaps it will beat good pitching.  But at the very least, it should be pounding bad pitching.  And that's what happened today.

Miguel Cabrera continued his June warm-up, hitting another home run.  So did Marcus Thames, who's playing like he should be Detroit's regular left fielder.  Curtis Granderson and Placido Polanco smacked triples.  (Was that really just Grandy's second triple of the season?)  Jeff Larish and Magglio Ordonez whacked doubles.  Extra-base hits!  Tigers smash!

That's five in a row.  My buddy Rob just asked me if the Tigers had finally turned the corner.  I told him I wasn't sure, but I think they can at least see around it right now.  Maybe the Tigers were just waiting until they had the Detroit sports world's full attention.

Roll Call

Who put off Saturday yard work (unless you did it early) or a matinee of The Incredible Hulk (unless you caught a noon-ish show, as I did)?  These guys!

Thanks to tbliggins, ThaWalrus9, rook34, spotstarters, Zappatista, Juskimo, UofAZGrad (stopping by from the AZ Snakepit community to see the D-Backs' division rival get trounced), ahtrap, and Tony K for keeping five alive and updating those who couldn't watch the game, due to FOX's national coverage.