Rondell White came crashing to the left field turf yesterday, and at the same time he most likely ended his career as a Tiger. He’s undergoing an MRI today, but there stands a good chance that his season is over. And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like the Tigers are likely to resign him. With that, let’s take a look at what White brought to the Tigers the last two years.

He played 218 games – starting 211 of them – and posted a very respectable .290/.342/.470 line. He banged out 31 homers and drove in 120 runs. This season he has been one of the Tigers most consistent offensive performer hitting 313/347/489. He is tied for the team lead in Win Shares with 13, with 12 of the win shares coming from his offense. He’s among the league leaders this year in batting average with runners in scoring position at .364. His run created total is 65 this year, combined with his 69 from last year means he has been responsible for about 9.8% of their offense.

Defensively Rondell does not have a good arm, and that was before he developed the tendonitis in his shoulder that forced him into regular DH duty. But his gimpy shoulder, and his older legs didn’t keep him from getting to a lot of balls. His ZR of .921 is tops amongst left fielders with more than 500 innings this year.

And then there is the clubhouse presence. I’m not really sure how much that translates to wins and losses, but Rondell has been pretty much universally praised for his leadership in the clubhouse. Craig Monroe, Chris Shelton, Nook Logan, and others have talked about how much they have learned from being around White. While other Tigers have been more vocal in the media, or cause other commotion, Rondell just seemed to come to work each day and bust his tail. Which is why it is unfortunate that White hurt himself on a hustle play after giving the team a lead with a first inning homer.

So when Tiger fans are talking about White’s salary coming off the books, keep in mind that there is a fair amount of production to replace as well.

Now this is a horrible way for it to happen, but Curtis Granderson should stand to get White’s playing time. Granderson has been tearing up the International League hitting 290/359/515 with a triple double in extra basehits. He’ll be a lefthanded bat in a lineup that is heavily right handed. It will be a great opportunity to get him some extended big league playing time and find out if he can handle centerfield at Comerica Park.

It’s old news, but Pudge has been AWOL from the team for the last week during his suspension. And then of course, he had difficulty making it back on time from his sabbatical and wasn’t at the ballpark on time last night.

Terry Foster reported this morning that when Rodriguez asked Trammell and Dombrowski for permission to leave the team, he was told no. Rodriguez then went to owner Mike Illitch who gave him the thumbs up. Believe it or not, this might be the most disturbing part of this whole fiasco.

Dombrowski and Trammell did their jobs, and Illitch undermined their authority. In the pursuit of appeasing his superstar, he alienated his CEO/President/GM, his manager, and the rest of the clubhouse. If there is anybody that Illitch needs to worry about making happy it is David Dombrowski. Rodriguez has two more years on his contract, Dombrowski has one. As a free agent Dombrowski will be more sought after than a 35 year old catcher. The Tigers aren’t contending this year, and probably won’t be next year as well while they break in Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya, and Curtis Granderson. They can’t afford to go through another front office shuffle and another 5 year plan.

Now back to the Pudge situation. He probably should have been with the team during the majority of the suspension. If he needed a day or tow to take care of fmaily business in Miami, it probably would have been pretty understandable. Instead, he was in Colombia for some reason – and waited until the last minute to join his team. If he was upset that Dombrowski gave up on the team when he traded Farnsworth, then Pudge gave up on his team by not being with them. His personal business is his personal business, but when it comes to not being with his teammates they have a right to know.

On the pregame show tonight they mentioned that Pudge was with the team, but he wasn’t in the lineup. They also indicated that Rodriguez met with the team. Hopefully things are resolved and the team can move forward.

There has been lots of Tiger news and speculation, and outside of Placido Polanco re-upping last week, it’s all been bad.

On Terry Foster’s blog, he reported a couple days ago that Trammell’s job is only in jeopardy if there is a revolt. In that post he indicated that several players are already unhappy.

There are also numerous grumblings that the team is upset that Pudge decided to return to Miami rather than serve his suspension with the team.

All this is troubling for several reasons. I’m not upset that players aren’t happy – in fact they shouldn’t be happy given the way things are going. However, one of the positives about Trammell as manager is that even despite the losing, clubhouse grumblings never made the press. The Tigers endured some dark times the last couple years, but problems in the clubhouse didn’t seem to surface. The uprising – if true – isn’t a good sign.

Second, the reason that Foster thought Trammell would be back barring a revolt is that Mike Illitch would keep him around – despite what Dave Dombrowski might suggest. Dave Dombrowski and Alan Trammell both have one year left on their contracts. As much as I really want Alan Trammell to succeed in Detroit, I think it is more important to ensure that Dombrowski remains with the team. In other words – don’t piss off Dombrowski and start working on an extension.

Another thing that I’ve given Trammell for is his diligence in trying to protect his young pitcher’s arms. But then Pat Caputo wrote that the Tigers won’t be limiting Bonderman’s innings this year:

Bonderman is on pace for 224 innings – which isn’t excessive for a number 1 starter. And given the fact that Bonderman threw 184 innings last year it isn’t a tremendous jump up. Plus, Bonderman is in his 3rd major league season. But, and this is a big but, he is still only 22 and is still at an age where arm injuries are very prevalent. He is the best thing that the Tigers have going for them, and I don’t see the need to risk his and the team’s future to get an extra start or two. I’d much prefer to see the Tigers go to a 6 man rotation in September. Bob Cluck has said that Roman Colon would be starting at some point this year, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Kenny Baugh get a couple starts. Not that I have high expectations for Baugh, but he is on the 40 man roster and it would be a great opportunity to find out what he could do at the big league level.

Meanwhile Justin Verlander is resting until the tightness in his shoulder goes away and first rounder Cameron Maybin doesn’t appear any closer to signing.

In their last 16 games the Tigers have gone 4-12 and wiped out any and all momentum they gained since taking 3 of 5 from the Minnesota Twins. They have dropped to a season low 8 games under .500 and have the same record they did last year at this time. As a fan it is hard not to be down on this team. Things are not good right now, and it’s getting hard to remember how good this team played at various points this season. I try to avoid getting too high or too low, but this is the lowest I’ve been this year. Here’s hoping that they can stop this slide.

PS – There is one bright spot. The Tigers have agreed to terms with 5th round pick Jeff Larrish.

If you’re looking for that special brand of DTW “analysis” I did a piece about the Tigers rotation over at Motown Sports. Here’s the link to check it out.

First thanks to those of you who are still coming by despite the lack of content. Work and a vacation to Indianapolis kept me from seeing much of the Tigers, much less writing about them. During my trip, I did have the opportunity to take in the Tigers doubleheader against the Indianapolis Indians at Victory Field.

Now let me preface my review of Victory Field by saying that it is the only minor league park I’ve been to. With that out of the way, let me just say what a great facility it is. It has all the amenities and conveniences of a modern ballpark, only it’s a fraction of the size. The result is a very intimate yet comfortable baseball experience.

As for seeing the Mud Hens, that was just more a matter of good luck. I sat with my family on the berm in right center so any sort of player judgement is pretty limited. However, Zach Miner looked pretty impressive and kept the Indians off balance in the first game. The offense was pretty nonexistent in general so there wasn’t much to report on that end.

My wife and son did their best to make friends with Curtis Granderson. Curtis, who seemed a little surprised to have a cheering section on the road, made a point to look over and wave each inning, even the ones where my group wasn’t yelling to him.

My son, who is 4, has become a tremendous Tiger fan this year. Watching him learn the game, and learning to embrace a team has been one of the best parts of this season for me. He’s extended his fandom to the Mud Hens, and the players he’s familiar with including Granderson – and surprisingly Kevin Hooper. In any case, when Toledo dropped the first game he took the loss very hard – breaking down into tears. After explaining that they had tried their best, and that’s what’s most important he seemed to recover okay.

We had planned to watch both games – or at least a decent portion of the 2nd game. That was before the first game went 11 innings. We did stick around between games, and Marcus Thames broke off his warm up running to come over and sign a ball for my son – which pretty much made his night (and in turn mine).

The Tigers and Placido Polanco agreed to a 4 year contract extension. I don’t know the terms of the agreement, but the Tigers are set for the forseeable future in the middle infield. And with Infante as the backup the Tigers have depth as well. Of course, Infante could become part of a trade package this offseason, but given his young age I’d like to see him stay a Tiger.

UPDATE: As Luke mentioned in the comments, the deal is for $4.6 million per year for a total contract of $18.4 million.

A great deal for the Tigers (and for Polanco). It’s very reasonable money for a very reasonable time frame. The Ugueth Urbina trade looks even better now. The Tigers gave up a partial season of Urbina, and locked up second base until 2009.

I’m still down about the last week of Tigers’ baseball, plus work has kept me on a computer way too long this weekend. So instead of commentary, I’ll give you Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker on Magnum PI (7MB – sorry dial uppers). The episode is titled “A Sense of Debt” and it originally aired on December 1st, 1983. Now all I have is their cameo appearance, but if you ever come across the show on reruns, also guest starring was a very young Shannon Doherty.

Enjoy!

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.

The Tigers turned in another disappointing performance against a team they should beat. Last night’s ugly game against a last place team just signifies that the Tigers aren’t a good team and can’t compete. Afterall, teams that are serious about being contenders beat up on the lesser teams – and anything less than a sweep is unacceptable.

[In case anybody missed it, that last paragraph was sarcasm. Well, except for the part about the ugly game, because it was in fact ugly. Oh yeah, and there maybe more sarcasm coming up so be on the lookout – I’m feeling feisty.]

Detroit’s record against the 3 AL last place teams is a lowly 13-8 for a .619 winning percentage. Good teams would have gone at least .650. Just look at AL East leader Boston who is…oh wait, they’re only 11-7.

Well, what about AL West leader the Angels of various cities? Uh, nevermind because they are 11-7 also.

Ummm, let’s look at the streaking Oakland A’s – the current wild card leader. Surely they are a contender and they have posted…a 13-8 record? That’s the same as the Tigers?!

Okay, just one more. What about the vaunted and hated Yankees. They’re only a half game behind Oakland, still in the thick of the wild card hunt. I’ll be darned – they actually have a losing record at 7-11.

Annoyed yet? Yeah, me to. But the fact remains that out of the top 5 teams in the American League, only the White Sox at 16-5 have a better record against the 3 last place teams than the Tigers. Does this mean the Tigers are as good as those other teams? Of course not. In fact, it might mean that the Tigers current record has been built up by beating on weaklings. The point I’m trying to make is that even good teams lose to bad teams. Don’t read too much into this series loss.

Sure, I would have much preferred to see the Tigers take another series, and winning in Oakland will prove to be a daunting task. Oakland is probably looking at this series as one they should win – much in the same way that Tiger fans were banking on winning in September Seattle (EDIT: Well that was a Freudian slip-or the baseball equivalent-if I ever saw one). Maybe the Tigers can in turn surprise Oakland.

Monroe’s Gaffe
Craig Monroe’s error was awful last night. There is no getting around it. However, these things happen. In fact, Gold Glove centerfielder Torii Hunter did the exact same thing in a game against Detroit earlier this year. Monroe’s error was costly, but it was costly because Mike Maroth struggled to throw strikes. Craig has done a very good job playing all 3 outfield positions this season and I’m not too worried about him making an error.

What is a little more disturbing is that this is Monroe’s second lapse in the last week. Against Minnesota he forgot how many outs there were and ran into a double play on a fly ball. These may be random events that just happened to occur within a week. Or Monroe may be mentally fatigued. I have a hard time speculating about the soft tough like mental toughness, but the two plays are troublesome nonetheless.

Per Tom Gage’s blog, Placido Polanco has been activated from the disabled list, and Curtis Granderson has been optioned to Toledo.

While Granderson has played well and I’d like to see more of him, I can understand this move. With Trammell trying to find at-bats for Dmitri Young, Rondell White, Craig Monroe, and Magglio Ordonez it was going to be hard for Granderson to crack the lineup. This way he’ll continue to get regular playing time.

With last night’s win the Tigers have reached the 100 game mark at a very even 50-50. I’m pretty satisfied with a .500 record at this point in the season. Sure there are a handful of games that the Tigers let get away, but they’ve also stolen a few as well. I never imagined they’d be in the wild card hunt with a .500 record, but it wouldn’t have surprised me if they still had a shot at the division. Those are just two more reasons why I should refrain from predictions. In any case, with the Tigers on the fringes of contention, they have been rumored as both buyers and sellers. And the biggest name that has been rumored to be coming to Detroit is AJ Burnett.

Dave Dombrowski is quite familiar with AJ Burnett from his time in Florida. We know that Burnett throws in the mid to high 90’s and strikes out nearly a batter an inning. He does benefit from playing in a pitchers park, but when he’s on and healthy it doesn’t matter where he’s pitching. And that’s the key…when he’s healthy. Burnett is 28 and has topped 150 innings twice in his career (and he’s on pace to top it this year). He lost all of 2003 to elbow surgery, and was shut down early last year with elbow tenderness.

Now Jayson Stark is reporting that the Tigers are a darkhorse candidate to get Burnett and the players that Florida wants are Mike Maroth and Curtis Granderson. I’m pretty sure I don’t like that deal. I can understand upgrading Maroth with Burnett, but I don’t want to lose Granderson for a player that might be a two month rental. Burnett is a free agent after the season, and if you want him try to sign him then when all you’ll be giving up is a boatload of money and draft picks. Granderson bats left handed (which the Tigers need) and plays centerfield (which the Tigers need), and he’s major league ready now. I know that Burnett won’t come cheap, I just don’t want to see Granderson as part of that package.

Of course it all may be a moot point as other reports say the Marlins aren’t interested in trading him anymore.

But here we are a couple days from the trade deadline and should the Tigers be buyers or sellers. My take is that they should probably stand pat. They shouldn’t sell for the sake of selling, and they shouldn’t buy players who can only help them this year. Now if they have the opportunity to make a deal that would help them for years to come (Adam Dunn) do it. Or if they get offered good value for impending free agents (like Jason Johnson or Rondell White) then pursue it.

And just for your speculating edification, here are the other rumors I’ve seen recently:
Braves interested in White (surprising since he can’t play in the field)
Orioles interested in Nate Robertson

Roster Maneuvering
This happened over the weekend of course, I just never wrote about it, but the Kevin Hooper era ended with the Justin Verlander call up. Of course after his start Verlander was sent down to AA and lefty reliever Vic Darensbourg was recalled.

Now somebody else will be on the way out with the return of Placido Polanco from the disabled list. I’m not really sure who it will be. I doubt they’d send down an infielder. Infante has been playing well enough, and they just traded for Mcdonald. It wouldn’t surprise me to see Logan or Granderson optioned out. If Young can play the oufield on the occasion, there won’t be a lot of playing time for either. Then again there is always the possibility of one of the aforementioned trades.

On a side note, my 4 year old has become a huge Tiger fan. His favorite players in this order are Nook Logan, Pudge, Chris Shelton, and Brandon Inge. Mind you he’s 4 so Nook became his favorite because A)He has a funny name and B)he’s really fast. While demoting Nook may be in the best interest of the organization, it could have devastating effects in my household.

Young heating up
With last night’s 3 for 4 performance, Young is hitting 345/406/621 in 29 at-bats since he All Star Break. The Tigers lack of a left handed bat has been magnified by the slumping Dmitri this year, and Carlos Guillen’s lack of power. While another lefty would be a plus, if those two can hit for power the need won’t be as glaring.

On April 30th I wrote the following paragraph about Nate Robertson:

I was legitimately concerned about Nate Robertson after that start, and that concern didn’t really go away for the next 6 weeks either. He wasn’t striking batters out, and he was walking quite a few. The one thing he had going for him was that he was keeping the ball in the park and not allowing homers. But somehow, he managed to keep his ERA low. Courtesy of the Day by Day database, here are his numbers through June 7th, and after June 7th.

          GS    K/9    BB/9    K/BB   HR/9    IP    ERA
Thru 6/7  11    4.2     4.5     .94    .42  64.7   3.48
Post 6/7   7    6.9     1.8    3.80   1.08  49.3   3.10

Suddenly Robertson started striking guys out, and not giving up free passes. He also has allowed more homers, but his rate is still reasonable. His ERA is more in line with what one would expect since June. While Robertson was getting decent results earlier, it wasn’t because he was necessarily pitching well.

Robertson has also been more efficient over that span. In his first 11 starts he pitched 7 innings only twice, maxing out at 7 2/3. In his subsequent 7 starts (there have actually been 8, but I’m not counting his one pitch outing against Tampa Bay), he has gone at least 7 innings five times – including 2 complete games.

I know that Robertson was battling a sinus infection early in the season, and he may have just taken a long time to recover. Perhaps, his arm was hurting or weaker early in the season and he’s feeling stronger now. In any case, Nate Robertson turned the corner in June and is now pitching the way Tiger fans hoped he would. So Nate – sorry for doubting you this spring.

Withdrawal
While I got to attend the Tigers game Friday night with my 4 year old, that was the last Tiger game action I’ve seen. I was up north this weekend so all I had was radio access. Now, with the team headed to the west coast and limited TV coverage, I won’t see much of the team this week either.

As for listening to the game on the radio, I’ve got two comments. First, at times this weekend I was listening continuously, while other times I was tuning in sporadically. For those times tuning in sporadically I have to give both Dan and Jim credit for mentioning the score. I never had to wait more than a minute or two to find out where the Tigers stood. Both seemed to make a effort to update the score regularly. I know that was an area of criticism with Tiger broadcasts and it seems they are working to improve it.

Second, I really enjoy listening to Dan Dickerson call a game. I’ve always thought he did a decent job, but he seems to have really come into his own this season. When he’s doing an inning, the game seems to have a natural rhythm. He’s very descriptive and strives to paint a picture of what is happening on the field. He has a very good understanding of visiting teams and player strengths and weaknesses and he’s uses relevant statistics to bolster those points. I’d like to see Dickerson stick around a long time to become the next great Detroit broadcaster.