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Bye Bye Superman

19 Comments

The Tigers today traded Kyle Farnsworth to Atlanta for pitchers Roman Colon and Zach Miner. I honestly don’t know very much about either pitcher the Tigers acquired other than the stats I can find. I do know that that Tigers traded Scott Moore and Roberto Novoa for 100 games of Farnsworth and Colon and Miner.

Colon is 26, a righthander, and has pitched primarily in relief for the Braves this season. He has a 6.1 K/9 and a 2.1 K/BB ratio. Most troubling is that he has allowed 10 homers in 44 innigs.

Miner has started 17 games for AAA Richmond this year. In 89 innings he has 63 strikeouts (not bad) and 45 walks (not good) for a 4.23 ERA. He is only 23 years old.

If Farnsworth couldn’t be signed to an extension, and this is the best value that the Tigers could receive then I guess it’s an okay deal. I would have liked to see the Tigers keep Farnsworth – especially since the incoming talent isn’t overwhelming.

The Tigers had an impact type player in Farnsworth. What they received seem to be roster guys. While I don’t know much about either player, I know they weren’t among the Braves top prospects. I know the whole point of selling is to get guys to help the team win in the future. I don’t know that these guys will help accomplish that. Based on what I know so far, a pretty disappointing deal.

UPDATE: According to Tom Gage, it appears that Farnsworth had no intention of signing with Detroit – despite the 3 year contract that the Tigers offered. While I still would have liked to have received more in return for Farnsworth, I trust that DD did the best he could.

I guess the good news is that the closer audition period for Farnsworth will now go to his understudy Fernando Rodney.

For scouting reports on Colon and Miner, Baseball America has you covered. Also, Jeff has posted some links to Braves blogs to get their take in the comments.

19 thoughts on “Bye Bye Superman”

  1. It’s sad to see him go, but this is very smart… obviously DD didn’t think we had a shot at him in the offseason.

  2. Question is where does Colon go? What role does he slide into, reliever or starter he has done both, better as a Starter than a reliever, watching him for a short while here in ATL. I believe Colon’s HR numbers went down as a starter, may want to compare the two sets of stats.

  3. It really doen’t matter what role he might fit. While our organization has gotten deeper, there is still plenty of room for anyone with talent.

    Everyone seems to be clinging to his numbers as a starter, but that’s a really small sample size.

    ESPN mentioned that he throws really hard, so the hope is probably that he can learn to harness that and bring the HR numbers down.

  4. Sun Jul 31 2005 – Tigers acquired RHP Roman Colon and RHP Zach Miner from the Braves for RHP Kyle Farnsworth. We would have thought the Tigers could have done better for Farnsworth. Colon has a big-time arm, but he turns 26 in two weeks and is still learning to pitch. It’s possible that he’ll develop into a closer in time. However, he shouldn’t be a candidate to take over in that role now. He’ll likely be used as a middle reliever or setup man.

    http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/player?statsId=7410

  6. all i know about either player is that on baseball tonight they said that colon throws “130” miles an hour.

  7. I like this deal in that I think this might open the door to bring Verlander and Zumaya up to Detroit for the rest of the season. Just a thought.

    I think after living through the Randy Smith years we are all shell shocked when we hear the Tigers making trades, but DD has made some steals, so lets see what happens here.

  8. I like this deal in that I think this might open the door to bring Verlander and Zumaya up to Detroit for the rest of the season.

    How do you figure? I could see that if we had traded Moroth or JJ, but unless Douglass collapses, there’s no room in the rotation at this point.

    I can foresee a 6 man rotation starting in September, though.

  9. I was thinking that this may give them an opportunity to get some major league innings for the last few months of this season.

    Lets be real, this season is shot, this will probably give the Tigers an opportunity to evaluate the Doug Creeks of the pitching staff for the future. I don’t think this is a bad trade.

    Although, I do remember the last time the Tigers dealt with the Braves at the trade deadline…we got the immortal Doyle Alexander.

  12. I would slide Douglass to relief and put Colon into the rotation. I don’t really see Douglass as part of the long term plans for the rotation and Colon might be someone to get a look at to see if he can handle starting.

  13. I actually agree with the article you posted, and if I was GM of the Tigers in ’87, I think I would’ve made that trade also. Although, maybe I would’ve offered them Steve Searcy or something like that.

    I think this 1 for 6 road trip sealed the Tigers fate in ’05 and if Farnsworth likely wasn’t coming back, I like this trade. Maybe the team can use the rest of the season to figure out what it has so we can make a run next year. Although, part of me is hoping that they can still have a winning season at least so that it is something they can build on.

  14. I don’t really know what to think of this deal. Neither of the new pitchers sound like anything to get excited over.

    What I find most disappointing are the deals that we couldn’t make. Looking over this roster and seeing Johnson and Rondell still taking up spots is depressing. Rondell sure knows how to time an injury.

  15. I’m going to go ahead and assume that DD made a good trade here. Remember, when we traded for farnsworth he was nowhere near what he is now. He was wild, tempermental, and a completely unknown commodity. Cluck made him into a great pitcher and DD looked like a genius. Maybe colon and this other guy will do much of the same thing.

  16. Luke,

    DD has obviously earned the benefit of the doubt, but I guess we’re all just a little disappointed because it looks like we didn’t really reap the fruits of Farn’s improvement (nevermind the fact that this should have been one of several deals). As Billfer said in the post, the trade basically boils down to a couple of mediocre prospects for a couple of mediocre prospects. Farn’s improvement probably should have merited more of an upgrade.

    I’m sure this won’t turn out to be a bad deal, it just doesn’t seem like we got maximum value.

  17. I was a little shocked it was Farnsworth that we dumped. I thought there might be just as much if not more value in some other guys who have underacheived (as opposed to Farnsworth who has generally overacheived). Besides, personally seeing Farnsworth meltdown in Chicago did not inspire confidence – he is a headcase closer (not good). As for other pitchers potentially on the block, both Maroth’s and Johnson’s performances recently probably reduced their potential value.

    But what about guys like Logan, Rondell, or even (dare I say) Dmitri. Has Monroe’s career peaked? Lately he’s been looking a little lost in the field and on the paths – and he ain’t getting any younger. There are a surprising amount of contenders in the NL this year with little or no hitting (Florida, Cubs, any team in the NL West). Boils down to the fact that we could have traded to loosen the log-jam at OF/DH that doesn’t seem to be helping anyone’s performance, all while keeping the bullpen intact for the remainder.

  18. Rondell always gets hurt, like right now. Dmitri gets $8 mil next year. Maroth and Johnson just haven’t been very good. No surprise to me they couldn’t make any more deals. And it’s too bad, because they have plenty of people who should be playing instead.

  19. I live in Atlanta, and I am a huge Braves fan. I think that this was a good deal for both teams. Don’t look too into Colon’s overall stats, b/c they were much more inflated by his bullpen appearances. We learned how valuable he was as a starter after Hudson, Hampton, and Thompson went to the DL. Colon was a big reason that the Braves were able to tread water with the absence of those 3 pitchers along with Chipper Jones. Detroit picked up a quality starter who can win 15 games with an ERA under 4.00 next year. I like Farnsworth and he is a good fit for this team. He is an Atlanta native , and will be dominant with Leo Mazzone as his pitching coach. I wish we could have sent Dan Kolb to Detroit in that deal as well.

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