I could think of worse ideas.

We thought Soria would be good too.

We have 3 guys on the roster right now who were successful closers; Nathan, Soria, Johnson. But the Detroit curse is whoever it is will always struggle in the 9th, unless we sacrifice a live virgin to Todd Jones.

Thumb said:

We thought Soria would be good too.

We have 3 guys on the roster right now who were successful closers; Nathan, Soria, Johnson. But the Detroit curse is whoever it is will always struggle in the 9th, unless we sacrifice a live virgin to Todd Jones.

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The only guy not to struggle is the one we let walk(Benoit). And one 3-run bomb to Ortiz doesnt count as struggling.

Thumb said:

We thought Soria would be good too.

We have 3 guys on the roster right now who were successful closers; Nathan, Soria, Johnson. But the Detroit curse is whoever it is will always struggle in the 9th, unless we sacrifice a live virgin to Todd Jones.

Click to expand...

I'm sure everyone on the Lions board is willing to sacrifice LKP....he has to be a virgin!

I heard something around the deadline that the Rockies didn't want to trade Hawkins because they have a cheap team option on him for next year. The MLB on XM guys were puzzled by that report because he seemed like an obvious trade candidate, and he's a guy who has played for about a dozen teams over his career, but apparently the report was true.

ESPN has an Insider article with this heading... "Phils' Closer Of (Near) Future?
Ken Giles' emergence has provided the Phillies with an opportunity to trade closer Jonathan Papelbon and save the organization a lot of money."

I know we were sniffing around on Bastardo and/or Papelbon before the deadline. I wonder if that might be something we check in on again.

Sure, let's sign 10 closers. It still won't mean as much as some viable offensive help for this year and beyond. Pretty soon we will have the most expensive pen (if not already) in baseball.

In Spring Training, others and myself had suggested that Blaine Hardy should have made the team. It took until mid-June for him to be called up. And since, he has arguably been our most consistent reliever. There are others just like him available, so why should we trade more young talent for Bastardo and Papelbon?

I have never liked trading for a reliever (as the focus of the trade) and never will. I realize we have a problem with our pen. But you don't update the windows in the house while the foundation is crumbling.

Rebbiv said:

Sure, let's sign 10 closers. It still won't mean as much as some viable offensive help for this year and beyond. Pretty soon we will have the most expensive pen (if not already) in baseball.

In Spring Training, others and myself had suggested that Blaine Hardy should have made the team. It took until mid-June for him to be called up. And since, he has arguably been our most consistent reliever. There are others just like him available, so why should we trade more young talent for Bastardo and Papelbon?

I have never liked trading for a reliever (as the focus of the trade) and never will. I realize we have a problem with our pen. But you don't update the windows in the house while the foundation is crumbling.

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I agree with your logic here, but the problem is that there isn't any offense out there that I've seen to trade for. It was that way at the deadline, and appears to still be that way. I'm of the mindset that you should continue to address weaknesses whenever you can (within reason, obviously). The pen is still a weakness. If there is a palatable way to improve it this year, we should entertain it. That's completely independent of the offensive issues... those should be addressed if possible too, I just don't see nearly as many options there.

Rebbiv said:

But you don't update the windows in the house while the foundation is crumbling.

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Yep

Hopefully the Tigers don't go the way of the mid-late 2000s Pistons. Re-tooling and re-tooling and re-tooling with an aging core...when they should probably just blow it up and start over. Not saying the Tigers are "done", but they have bigger problems, both short-term and long-term, than just the pen.

kingofdetroit57 said:

I agree with your logic here, but the problem is that there isn't any offense out there that I've seen to trade for. It was that way at the deadline, and appears to still be that way. I'm of the mindset that you should continue to address weaknesses whenever you can (within reason, obviously). The pen is still a weakness. If there is a palatable way to improve it this year, we should entertain it. That's completely independent of the offensive issues... those should be addressed if possible too, I just don't see nearly as many options there.

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1. DET has one of the worse farm system in the Majors. What they have/had are up and coming pitchers. They pretty much have nothing for offense.

2. We have already used young talent to obtain Price and Soria, while also diminishing our OF. We have signed J. Johnson and Hanrahan. Where was this focus in the offseason?

You want to further weaken our farm system or our ML roster to get more pen help. Just doesn't make sense to me.

Rebbiv said:

Sure, let's sign 10 closers. It still won't mean as much as some viable offensive help for this year and beyond. Pretty soon we will have the most expensive pen (if not already) in baseball.

In Spring Training, others and myself had suggested that Blaine Hardy should have made the team. It took until mid-June for him to be called up. And since, he has arguably been our most consistent reliever. There are others just like him available, so why should we trade more young talent for Bastardo and Papelbon?

I have never liked trading for a reliever (as the focus of the trade) and never will. I realize we have a problem with our pen. But you don't update the windows in the house while the foundation is crumbling.

Click to expand...

Might not be the most expensive pen in terms of salary, but in the past 3-4 years, I'd be a little surprised if there was another team that emphasized the pen (through trade, free agency, and the draft) more than the Tigers. And the bullpen hasn't been considered a strength once since 2006.

The Rockies ownership and front office management team is a bunch of ass clowns who can't find their ass from a hole in the ground. The MO is to always deal talent in exchange for "the future" that they never develop, so Tulo ...Cargo and Hawkins are all in play. Even Jorge DeLaRosa ...19-3 at Coors Field since Tommy John surgery is being talked about as trade bait.

God I fucking hate the Rockies now.

TheVictors said:

The Rockies ownership and front office management team is a bunch of ass clowns who can't find their ass from a hole in the ground. The MO is to always deal talent in exchange for "the future" that they never develop, so Tulo ...Cargo and Hawkins are all in play. Even Jorge DeLaRosa ...19-3 at Coors Field since Tommy John surgery is being talked about as trade bait.

God I fucking hate the Rockies now.

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So just get MLB Extra Innings and join us Tiger fans...it's a virtual world, you know...I watch all the Tiger games at home...except when I'm out hangin' with your and my buddy Jeff Suppan at his jernt...then I watch them with him...

Yeah, I pretty much miss the entire MLB season by virtue of all the travel but my wife does have some Tigers App on her phone, so she keeps me up on their season (as do friends on FB).

Also that reminds me ...we could do Soup's on Tuesday or Wednesday of this upcoming week if you're around. I will be in Woodland Hills both nights, flying home TH.

TheVictors said:

Yeah, I pretty much miss the entire MLB season by virtue of all the travel but my wife does have some Tigers App on her phone, so she keeps me up on their season (as do friends on FB).

Also that reminds me ...we could do Soup's on Tuesday or Wednesday of this upcoming week if you're around. I will be in Woodland Hills both nights, flying home TH.

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Cool.

Either works for me; let's hit each other on the celly.

Just throwin this out there: I also hate trading for relievers as the main part of the deal, or the only part. Relievers should be throw ins. There shouldnt have been a need to waste prospects on trading for relievers if DD had done his job properly in the offseason and done a better job shoring up the 'pen.

I was on twitter with LaTroy last year when we got Torii Hunter, and said to him I wanted him with the Tigers several years ago. At this stage of his career, and seeing how another aging reliever/closer is doing with us, the Tigers don't need another gray beard.

Rebbiv said:

1. DET has one of the worse farm system in the Majors. What they have/had are up and coming pitchers. They pretty much have nothing for offense.

2. We have already used young talent to obtain Price and Soria, while also diminishing our OF. We have signed J. Johnson and Hanrahan. Where was this focus in the offseason?

You want to further weaken our farm system or our ML roster to get more pen help. Just doesn't make sense to me.

Click to expand...

1) Having a depleted farm system should be no surpise for a "win now" team. DD seems to draft pitchers to specifically use as trade chips within a couple years, so there is a method to his madness. Trades of our young guys were made to "win now" and went towards Miggy, Scherzer, Sanchez, Soria, etc. I'll take any and all of them over the likes of Turner, Maybin, Sanchez, Smyly, Thompson, etc. Not sure you can really have it both ways... you are pretty much going for it or you are rebuilding.

2) Johnson and Hanrahan were signed for peanuts with DD hoping to catch lightning in a bottle after Sloppy Joe & Co. couldn't get it done. Don't forget that the Tigers were banking on Rondon to be a big part of the BP too, and that went awry in ST and left the pen in shambles. Same with Iggy going down, which caused DD to deal Fister to try to get someone to play SS everyday. Unfortunately the solution was already in-house in Suarez, so the trade is looking pretty dumb right now. Hopefully Ray and Krol become good enough to offset that, but time will tell. Price and Soria were at least somewhat reactionary trades for an underperforming team, but are still coveted guys who most any team would want if they had a chance to get them. They are difference makers and fit the "win now" approach. I'd do either trade ten times out of ten.

I honestly don't give two shits about the farm system. I want a WS title or two from this core of superstar players we have, and I don't care how they get that done. We've been very close a couple times now, but haven't yet sealed the deal. As long as Mr. I is writing the checks, we'll probably be doing business differently than many others. It's very similar to his pre-cap Red Wings teams, and similar to the Steinbrenner Yankees. God bless the guy if he wants to do that and can create a successful franchise that way.

spockmaster said:

Just throwin this out there: I also hate trading for relievers as the main part of the deal, or the only part. Relievers should be throw ins. There shouldnt have been a need to waste prospects on trading for relievers if DD had done his job properly in the offseason and done a better job shoring up the 'pen.

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I think the current state of the BP is more on our scouting and development teams than on DD. We drafted and failed to develop (or lost to injury) Joel Zumaya, Ryan Perry, Chance Ruffin, Bruce Rondon, Corey Knebel, and probably a couple other "closer of the future" candidates in recent years.