So I’m watching the game on ESPN and they announce that Kenny Rogers had successful surgery to remove a blood clot and fix 2 arteries. I run to the computer and my site goes down. So I’m sorry if you were trying to hit the site between 1:30 and 4:00. It’s also the reason I’m so late to the blog with this.
D-Town Baseball seems to have the authoritative link round-up, so if you’re looking to see who said what, he’s got it.
Rogers of course is expected to miss half the season. It will be 6 to 8 weeks of rest, and then hopefully he can start throwing again. Being that he’s an athlete he may heal a little quicker than a typical person. But being that he’s 42 he may heal a little slower than a typical athlete. In any case, it will probably take him a minimum of 6 weeks to build the arm up once he can resume activity.
So while it wasn’t a worst case, career ending injury (not yet anyways), it is a far cry from needing a week or rest and some aspirin.
The Tigers will turn to Chad Durbin and the job will probably be his until he’s shows he can’t do it. If they need to dig deeper because a)Durbin isn’t getting the job done, or b)another starter gets injured I would expect the order of succession would be:
- Andrew Miller
- Zach Miner
- Wil Ledezma
- Jordan Tata/Virgil Vasquez/Jair Jurrjens
I would have had Miner on top of that list, but it appears that even in the Durbin decision, Miller was the only other name considered. I’m not sure why Miner has fallen so far on the depth chart.
Wil Ledezma would probably be my first choice but as the only established lefty in the pen it isn’t really feasible at this point. Of course some solid work by Bobby Seay could free up Ledezma to start.
Rob Neyer explains the Durbin move by pointing to Chad’s impressive peripherals for the Mud Hens last year (Insider)
Last year, though, Durbin started 28 games with Triple-A Toledo and went 11-8 with a 3.11 ERA and (more tellingly) 149 strikeouts and 46 walks in 185 innings. If things go really well, Durbin’s a Comeback Player of the Year candidate. If things go fairly well, Durbin’s a solid No. 5 starter. And if things don’t go well at all, Jordan Tata, Zach Miner and super-prospect Andrew Miller all are viable options waiting in the wings.
Definitely not on topic with the Rogers thing, but check out what I captured at Joker Marchant this afternoon:
http://pauls.wordpress.com/2007/03/30/zumaya-hits-107-mph/
ESPN was saying that the radar gun was very high. I don’t know anything about this, but is it possible that the Tigers orgainization jacks up the radar gun in spring training to make their guys fell more confident. I wish stuff like that wouldn’t happen. I never heard anything definate, but last year it seemed to me that Fox was running 3-4 mph over for every pitcher, which makes me think the radar was inaccuate. I know the fans like to see Zumaya hit 101,102 or even 107 lol, but when the radar gun is innacurate, even the ones that do reach to 100 mark, no one can be sure and it takes the fun out of it. If anyone can confirm if Fox jacked up the radar guns in the playoffs/WS, i’d like to know.
Miner’s stock has fallen far because all of those pitchers are him (Durbin and Miner are interchangeable) or are better then him (the rest of the guys listed).
I honestly do not want to rush Miller. At all. I’d like to keep him on a Justin Verlander pace. Let him start in Lakeland with success and move to Erie when the weather warms up and have a very good Double-A campaign before bringing him up when the rosters expand. The loss of Kenny hurts, but I do not feel that rushing Miller and possibly misusing him and stunting his devolpement is worth filling in for Rogers.
I’d prefer Ledezma to get the call to fill in and I personally think the need of a great lefty is overrated. I think Seay is good enough, given the dominance of Rodney and Zumaya against lefties. The game’s become so specialized that I think there’s an over emphasis on the matchup LH vs. LH or RH vs. RH out of the pen.
This is a blow, but hopefully he’ll stay in the dugout and cheer the guys on/tutor them in practice. Today’s start by Verlander and Guillen’s signing kind of made this less painful.
The good thing(s) are we have more than enough depth to deal with this, but hopefully we don’t have to relieve Durbin of his duties and the other 4 stay healthy. If Durbin were to post a 4.20 ERA it would be fine.
Will Grandy “bust out” (although he hit well last year b4 the ASB). Will Pudge return to ’04 form? Will Polanco hit like he did after comming over or last year? How about Ordonez – more agressive in the field/pulling more pitches? Will Shef be up for comeback player of the year? Will Inge become the 2-way player? Can Guillen play 140? Will Monroe hit well in the first half so his season is not just July and August? How many games will Chris play?
Will Bondo be the top-tier pitcher he wants to be, or just really good? Could Robertson win 16 if he gets the RS? What about Maroth was last year’s start a fluke? Will Verlander avoid the sophomore slump (I sure hope so :))?
Oh yea and Durbin is in the ultimate prime year at least physically-wise (29) and Miner is 24 or a year older than Verlander/Bonderman. Also exploiting the lefty lefty matchup and righty righty matchup can be the difference in 5-10 wins or losses in close games over the course of a season. And everyone should know what 5-10 more wins (or losses) can mean.
Also another thing to add, I’m really likin’ the 2-strike approach, if they don’t forget it mid-year, it should really help us. OB%, small ball combine with quality pitching day in and day out = division winner, unless you are the Yankees. Granted slugging % is key especially late and close, but I can pretty much guarantee that if we can plate a couple runs early with good consistency we’ve got this thing in the bag. Start printing postseason tickets now (and maybe we’ll get them on time ;)).
Miner is good. He was kind of thrown into the fire, before he was ready, and he did the best he could. He started strong an then faded in the end. But he is young, and it could of been loss after loss, if he was performing erribly but he righted the ship, until they got to the bullpen.
He should get a shot at being the fifth starter or Ledezma, or if poetic justic warrants, Durbin who has been in the minor leagues for many years now.