The Tigers announced that Freddy Dolsi will take Ryan Perry’s place on the roster. Dolsi of course spent significant time with the club last year and had some memorable moments.
- He allowed a homer to Manny Ramirez to straight away centerfield on his first pitch
- He threw a pitch over everyone on an intentional ball
- He failed to call timeout after receiving the ball allowing Torii Hunter to steal second
- He didn’t cover first on an infield grounder leading to an walk-off infield single
- He fanned Jhonny Perralta and Ben Francisco to preserve a win against the Indians, at a point in the season when wins against the Indians meant something. This inspired silliness from your local blogger.
This year has been kind of ok for Dolsi. He’s limiting the walks a little better with 11 allowed in 31 innings, but he’s only fanned 19 this year, but he’s kept the ball in the yard with only 1 homer allowed. In his last 6 outings he’s gone 10.2 innings and he’s allowed just 1 run on 8 hits, 1 walk, and 4 K’s.
I don’t know that he’s the most deserving player at this point, but with 40 man roster considerations and familiarity and all this decision is probably fine.
Yeah, pretty okay. He’s better than Perry right now for sure. I expect to see Ni, French, or Rapada up here after the disabling or release of Nate within the next couple weeks anyway.
Dolsi will be fine in his 6/7th inning role as long as he throws strikes.
I don’t mind the move at all.
The return of Freddy Solid!
Hmm. I would have rather seen Ni, considering we only have one effective lefty in the pen.
Do we have relievers in the system that don’t walk a ton of batters?
With all of the moves that the Tigs have made recently, one has to think that Robertson’s time as the blowout specialist have to be coming to an end sooner rather than later, especially with the numbers that guys like French, Ni and Fien have been putting up in Toledo.
I hope so, but what do you do with Nate? Option him to Toledo and hope he elects free agency instead? Won’t happen. Release him outright? That is painful especially since you are already paying Sheff and may have to eat Magglio’s albatross. He’s virtually untradeable, even if the Tigers offer to pay a huge chunk of his salary. Nate is basically holding a roster spot hostage right now, and it sucks. I would rather prefer he figures out how to get people out again.
The money’s spent either way. Keeping him on because of salary considerations just lets him hurt you twice. He’s got to know that in two weeks he’s in AAA, whether in Toledo or elsewhere. Given that, he might as well be here where some in the organization have positive feelings towards him. I think he accepts a AAA assignment after spending nine days learning that no other team wants him at any price.
I don’t care how poorly he’s pitched for the last two years. He has proven that he’s capable of pitching at the big league level. There are at least a handful of teams out there that would pick him up at the minimum and hope their pitching coach can straighten him out.
Do you really think so? I think he’d have to settle for a minor league contract. I could certainly see the Cards or the Nats picking him up, but I don’t see how any team would think that a major league roster spot for him right now is a good decision.
Lets look into this guy:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/replacement-level-on-two-feet
“Luis Ayala defines replacement level.”
Nate’s 2009 WAR is exactly 0.0. Luis Ayala is exactly as good.
Is it actually 0.0? I just don’t think they’ve bothered calculating his. Either way, the article was more for the sake of humor, not a pitch to actually go after this guy.
Freddy Dolsi = a warm body that MAYBE throws strikes, which at this point would be a BIG plus for the bullpen (as long as he can keep it in the yard). Ni and Rapada are lefties, and until Robertson goes, my guess is they don’t want to add another to the bullpen. French, also a lefty, might be an option for a start or two, but again, probably not for the bullpen right now. For an interesting take on why Robertson is still on the staff (as good as any other IMHO), see Detroit Tigers Thoughts blog at: http://tigers-thoughts.blogspot.com/
ive never been a fan of dolsi..he reminds me of a young rodney as he makes me nervous as hell when he takes the mound.
2nd the motion that Ni or Rapada deserve the nod instead.
Pitchers performing poorly is a widespread problem. Most teams just deal with it somehow without dropping the player. They are reduced to mop up roles, or sent to the DL or minor leagues, but they usually don’t drop the pitcher if they have a big contract.
Pitchers are known to bounce back also. Look at Kevin Millwood this year or Cliff Lee from last year. Right now, even Joel Pineiro is bouncing back somewhat after several bad years. Nate Robertson probably doesn’t have a high ceiling like other those guys, but he use to be one of the top 20 innings eaters in the game. From 2004-2007, only 12 pitchers threw more innings than Nate.
You’re right, theres no doubt that Nate used to be one of the better innings eater in the game. Key word USED to be. I see no benefit whatsoever for keeping him on the roster. None. We’ve been waiting for two years for him to break out of his funk. They seem to have no problem putting Willis down. So why not Nate? So what if you have to pay him the next year and a half regardless of where he’s at. At the worst they should option him to Toledo, because DD has to know with near 100% certainty that there is not another team in the league that would carry around this type of dead weight by their own choosing.
Right now, the bullpen and the decisions JL makes are hampered because instead of having a full compliment of relievers, he has to plan around Nate. Just cut your losses and move on, and get someone productive in the bullpen, someone that JL can actually put out there that has a prayer, and not someone he puts out only when the game is out of reach.
Nate hasn’t even started in one game this year. If the Tigers want to settle this issue once and for all, they have to give Nate another turn as a starter. They could easily skip Galarraga’s turn in the rotation and give Nate a try. Galarraga could probably use a few games off anyway.
Also each and every pitcher in the Tiger’s pen has been unpredictable this season. The ERA’s might look decent now, but Zumaya, Rodney, and Lyon have all been horrible at times. A couple big blow ups from any one of them and they’ll be almost right where Nate is sitting.
Lyon of all people has been our best pitcher this month with a 0.64 ERA in 14 innings. I believe everyone here wanted to him off the team after his 1st game back in April.
Most fans get too frustrated with players who start off slow. That’s just not the way I am. I’ve managed fantasy baseball teams for about 15 years and learning patience in roster moves is the key to success in a long hard season of baseball. You have to learn that professional ball players have their ups and downs each season.
My 1st 10 years of fantasy baseball the Tigers didn’t have one player worth drafting on my team. I’m so happy now that the Tigers have players and a team worth caring about. I don’t even have a fantasy team this year because the Tigers are giving me my baseball fix. I still track almost every MLB player and team though.
I don’t know why an article about Freddy Dolsi turned into an argument against Nate Robertson.
I’m please to see Freddy throwing more strikes this year. I think it was 11 walks in 31 innings. For me, the the magic ratio is 1 walk per 3 innings. He’s just about there. That was my only complaint about him last year. Fix that and you have a decent major-league pitcher. I don’t think he’ll ever be an elite pitcher though. He hasn’t suddly gained Maddux/Eckersley type command…he’s just throwing more pitches over the plate. This WILL result in more hits/homers. But that’s okay. I’d rather see a guy give up a .280 AVG with .320 OBP instead of a .220 AVG and .400 OBP.
“I don’t know why an article about Freddy Dolsi turned into an argument against Nate Robertson. ”
It’s pretty simple, Coach. Every discussion around here ends up in an argument about Robertson, Brandon Inge, and to a lesser extent, Jim Leyland. Last year it was Gary Sheffield, Edgar Renteria (ham sandwich), and to a lesser extent, Jim Leyland. I suggest you just go with it.
Probably because Dolsi is a pitcher. The Tigers have pitching problems. And Nate Robertson is part of the problem.
Agreed about Dolsi: walks were the major problem. Looks like he’s cut those down, so he should more than do what is expected of him.
I would like to see Detroit give Nate another try at starting, just to see if maybe that was the kick in the @#@# that he needed to get his act together. Why not skip Galaragga and Figaro, and cut it down to a 4 pitcher starting rotation, even for one round? Something I would try if I was manager, or maybe even Tom Brookens would at this point? Peace
I’d rather carve out my eyes with a rusty spoon.