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Offseason Deals and Rumors

Do you think Lobstein could be a good reliever with his stuff? His best fastball is probably 91 MPH. Maybe a decent long reliever, but those guys dont affect too many games, and usually only pitch when their own team is getting blown out. Robbie Ray could be a good bullpen piece. He just isn't starter material. A low key signing that could be good is Ryan Dempster.. he's been off for over a year, so signing him as a reliever could be beneficial, as he has good stuff. I do think we need a guy like Andrew Miller, though, as a closer. A closer must have swing and miss stuff to be consistent, and Joe Nathan does not have that anymore. Jim Johnson got away with being a pitch-to-contact closer for a couple years, but you just dont see it anymore.

Are you forgetting Soria?

Also, there is nothing against those that don't pitch in the high 90s. It is all about location and movement, not just velocity. That mindset is what got the pen where it is now.

Blane Hardy is the quint essential LOOGY (.553 OPS vs Left-handed hitters). Add Lobstein, and you really don't need any other LHP in the pen. You have AA, Nathan and Soria all signed for next season. You just need two other arms and Rondon is probably one and I wouldn't mind seeing a full season of Evan Reed.

Certainly, if you could add an upgrade along the way as a secondary add in to a trade, by all means. I personally wouldn't sign a sign FA reliever or trade for one as the target.
 
Also, I personally think Krol and Robbie Ray will never make it. Think of Wil Ledezma or Oliver Perez, and you got Robbie Ray.
 
Rondon is not anticipated to return until sometime in June to the All-Star break.
 
Also, I personally think Krol and Robbie Ray will never make it. Think of Wil Ledezma or Oliver Perez, and you got Robbie Ray.

To be fair, Perez turned into a better than average reliever. Would have been a great starter if he had the mental make up. He has/had the skills, whereas Ray doesn't in my opinion.
 
Are you forgetting Soria?

Also, there is nothing against those that don't pitch in the high 90s. It is all about location and movement, not just velocity. That mindset is what got the pen where it is now.

Blane Hardy is the quint essential LOOGY (.553 OPS vs Left-handed hitters). Add Lobstein, and you really don't need any other LHP in the pen. You have AA, Nathan and Soria all signed for next season. You just need two other arms and Rondon is probably one and I wouldn't mind seeing a full season of Evan Reed.

Certainly, if you could add an upgrade along the way as a secondary add in to a trade, by all means. I personally wouldn't sign a sign FA reliever or trade for one as the target.

Soria is more of a strikeout pitcher, despite his rather low velocity. I was talking more about all around stuff, not just velocity. Lobstein seems like a Joe Saunders type. I'm not comfortable with AA, Nathan, and Soria. I like Soria, though.. just not sure about AA yet and Nathan seems cooked. We need more than those 3 combined with Rondon, who is a question mark to begin with. We have to go the free agent route because nobody in our system translates for our pen. We had Knebel, who is the perfect young reliever to develop, but no longer..
 
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Also, I personally think Krol and Robbie Ray will never make it. Think of Wil Ledezma or Oliver Perez, and you got Robbie Ray.


They are both still pretty young. I'm not gonna give up on them yet.

Remember, you also weren't expecting JD to be anything much. Brad Eldred was your comparison for him early this year.
 
They are both still pretty young. I'm not gonna give up on them yet.

Remember, you also weren't expecting JD to be anything much. Brad Eldred was your comparison for him early this year.

And he might still be Brad Eldred. Ray, wasn't much of a prospect when we traded for him. It's not a surprise he's a piece of shit..
 
I think JD might be for real, he had a bad slump earlier in the year and then readjusted to the adjustments.
 
I don't really get the hate for Ausmus. There is so much that goes into winning and losing games in baseball (it is the most luck dependent sport out there), that what can I really say was on Ausmus?
Continuously batting Don Kelly sixth did not endear him much to me. The Soira and Sanchez disappearing act didn't either.

Ausmus didn't assemble a team with no bullpen.
DD tried to address that with the Soria trade and Ausmus completely botched his workload for reasons still unknown. Two games come to mind that Nathan gave back as Soria was playing Gin Rummy in the pen.

He didn't decide that Verlander would become one of the worst starters in baseball.

No but JV was Dartmouth's choice to start G2 rather than the guy who led MLB in strikeouts! That and his botching of the 8th inning cost the Tigers the ALDS.

He didn't injure our starting SS and pick up a bunch of scrubs to fill in. He can't force Castellanos through the rookie learning curve nor demand Cabrera play like the best hitter in baseball every night. Ausmus was handed a good, but flawed team, and he produced a good, but flawed result. What could he have done to change our bullpen from imploding two straight games?

For starters, not going back to the rancid well the second day. Extending Sanchez's outing ...this 30-pitch excuse does not fly with me. (As I write this Hyun-Jin Ryu, who has not pitched in a MONTH, is on PITCH 90 in G3 of the NLDS!) As an alternative, Dartmouth should have at least using Al'querue in the 8th inning. Ausmus didn't even know that Al had a 1.76 ERA with 23 Ks in 22 appearances in the 8th. "He's a sixth inning guy," he was quoted as saying after G2. Al pitched 7.1 INNINGS in the SIXTH. 15.2 in the 8th. Why is this significant? It's obvious. He's clueless. Or making shit up. Or both. And guess who was getting loose in the 8th inning of G3: Hint, it sounds a lot like a city in New Mexico.

What could he have done to change our offense laying a dud today? The answer is pretty much nothing.
Activating McCann and Collins rather than Holaday and Perez would have given the Tigers a fighting chance in the 9th of G3. Instead he is left with the series hanging on a player with SIX PAs on the SEASON! McCann has 12 PAs? He also had an 800-plus OPS versus RHP. Was it against pitchers like Britton? No, but is Perez the guy you want in that spot?

As far as next season goes, it's time to start building a balanced team. We have 4 pitchers coming back. Lobstein probably takes over the 5th role, but may outplay Verlander by year's end. The team obviously has holes to fill (bullpen, RF, DH/1B), but finding good players is certainly within reach.

The Tigers CUT TIES with three good players in 2013 (Peralta, Benoit and Fister). I have little reason to believe that this same GM will do what he should have done last year and improve the BP. JV, Miggy, Anabal and Ian are owed an average of $83,000,000 total over the next three seasons, leaving and average of 4,000,000 per player at the present payroll total. That's without signing Scherzer.
 
If DD can get Max for a dollar more than he paid Verlander, I think that he has to do it. Then turn around and ship Verlander off to the Dodgers for whatever they are willing to give us. Maybe we can package him with Kinsler and actually get something good from them.
 
JV didn't pull himself out of the game.

Does not matter why JV was pulled. He was pulled. 101 pitches and Dartmouth got him ... according to Dartmouth, JV told him he was "tiring" after the 5th inning.
 
If DD can get Max for a dollar more than he paid Verlander, I think that he has to do it. Then turn around and ship Verlander off to the Dodgers for whatever they are willing to give us. Maybe we can package him with Kinsler and actually get something good from them.

The Dodgers, like the Tigers, need a BP and Dee Gordon is the Dodgers' second baseman ... for a while.
 
If DD can get Max for a dollar more than he paid Verlander, I think that he has to do it. Then turn around and ship Verlander off to the Dodgers for whatever they are willing to give us. Maybe we can package him with Kinsler and actually get something good from them.

Not only is this a terrible idea, but JV has a full no-trade clause so it will never happen. I expect JV to be healthy and effective next year, and likely for the next several years at least. I dont trust max's delivery either for long term success or health, its far too violent. always has been. its a minor miracle he's stayed healthy this long.


Someone is going to give Max $200 million, and it wont be us, nor should it be. We need to avoid giving ANYONE another megacontract, which is why Price will be gone after next year too.
 
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I always thought after Soria's blow up when he first got to Detroit Brad just total used him wrong... Did he ever really get a shot after that to start innings with clean bases paths many times? Man I have forgotten... Brad needs to manage the pen way better...
I just don't trust his judgment anymore... You just cannot pinch hit Perez in the 9th.... I just don't care how Suarez's swing was...
 
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The Dodgers, like the Tigers, need a BP and Dee Gordon is the Dodgers' second baseman ... for a while.

They can move Hanley to third, Gordon to SS and Kinsler to 2nd. I think there has been plans of moving Hanley over anyway.

Just a thought. There is a team out there that would take a chance on Verlander.
 
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