The big question, that got even bigger after last night’s shellacking was “what’s wrong with Nate Robertson?” The question hasn’t been answered yet, but he is being sent to the DL with a tired arm. He’ll miss two turns in the rotation at a minimum and can’t come back until June 22nd. (just about the same time that Kenny Rogers may be ready)
The bigger news is that Andrew Miller will be starting in his stead. Jim Leyland said the team will likely recall a reliever until Sunday, at which point Miller will be added to the rotation. Miller has been lights out since being promoted to Erie where he posts a 0.59 ERA over 30 2/3 innings with 24 K’s and 5 walks.
Robertson swears nothing is wrong, but is heading for additional tests regardless.
My take is that these moves need to happen for a variety of reasons. Robertson hasn’t really been helping the team for the better part of a month, and Miller really can’t do worse and should do better than an injured Robertson. Miller is dominating at AA and had a successful debut. I don’t think they are rushing him.
The upside is that for a least a few weeks this will quell talk of moving him to the pen, or moving him to the rotation to move Maroth/Durbin to the pen. Neither move I was a fan of. Putting him in the pen at this point in the season does nothing to strengthen his arm and build up his stamina for next year when he will need to be a member of the rotation for a full season.
In terms of flip-flopping Maroth/Durbin and Miller it would probably cause a lot of short term grief for something that couldn’t be sustained over the course of a season. Once Miller would hit his inning limit in mid to late August, one of them would have to come back to the rotation. Miller won’t be allowed to throw 190 innings this year, it just won’t and shouldn’t happen. Plus with Maroth’s propensity for the long ball, I don’t know that I’d want him as a reliever anyways.
No to Maroth in the bullpen, for the reasons you stated. Durbin’s not going to pitch this well all year, but if he can just be league average or a little worse, there’s no fault in keeping him in the 5 spot. I honestly don’t see Maroth being around after the trade deadline, even if that means a Miner/Durbin 4-5 is used (Leyland loves guys that do well for him in the past, even to a fault, as we know).
And how interesting people were jumping off of Miller’s stock when he was in High-A and not having a good K rate (15.7% k/pa) and now that he’s K’ing people like he can (21.6%), everyone’s back on his side in prospect communities.
My hunch is that Miner ends up in the rotation by the end of the year. We know he has the stuff. It’s just a matter of throwing strikes.
Here’s hoping Nate gets it back together. He’s still young enough to be a very solid starter for a few years.
Miller time should be good times for Tiger fans. I’m excited to see what he can do over a few starts. Obviously, something isn’t right with Nate – and being the bulldog that he is – he’d be the last to say anything. Heck, he may not even realize something’s wrong himself. Here’s hoping he’ll be okay. We need him – Miller or no Miller.
Trade Maroth, and get some prospects as soon as possible.
Honestly though, what is Maroth’s value and what would we be able to get in return for him? I have a hard time gaging how much interest/return we’d get on trading him.
I say package nate robertson along with maroth, and possibly sean casy and see if you could get texaira away from texas.could you imagine the lineup.He is unhappy in texas and wants to be traded.
I’m really looking forward to Miller’s start this weekend. Hopefully he can stay up a little longer this time and produce like he should. It’s Miller Time!