2009 Season, Injuries

Nate Robertson to start Saturday

37 Comments

Armando Galarraga hits the DL is optioned to Toledo with elbow inflammation per Jason Beck. Rick Porcello gets moved up to Friday and Nate Robertson will make the start on Saturday.

Robertson has been pitching in the rotation for Toledo on his rehab assignment and he’s had some sparkling results as of late especially his last start, a 6.2 inning shut out performance with 9 K’s, 3 hits, and 2 walks on all of 68 pitches.

37 thoughts on “Nate Robertson to start Saturday”

  1. It would be nice if the mass they removed from his arm was a big part of his problems. We all know how up and down Galarraga has been so as long as Nate can pitch ok it is not a big deal. I also think Nate is much more comfortable in the rotation than out of the pen.

  2. Welcome back Nate!!!

    I’d love to see one of my favourite Tigers pull his career back from the brink and give us some quality innings. With our left side D it’s certainly possible…

  4. This move also makes Nate available to the post-season roster, right? Does this move make Galarraga unavailable for the post-season?

    1. If Armando is in fact optioned as opposed to put on the DL, it does make him ineligible. No chance he would have been on the roster, anyway.

      1. You are correct that he isn’t explicitly eligible but Detroit can sub in a pitcher for Zumaya minimally and Willis if he is still DL’d.

    2. I assume it’s in case Nate’s return goes as poorly as Bondo’s last return. They may decide that Rags with his “inflamed elbow” is still better than Nate.

  5. I was thinking the same thing–that this puts Armando’s post-season eligibility at risk, makes you wonder why they didn’t put him on the DL just to keep him eligible. Even if they weren’t going to use him (you only really need 4 starters), it never hurts to have flexibility.

  6. Greaaaaaaat. I’m making the trip over for the game on Saturday. I really don’t want to see Nate, but I guess anyone’s better than Battlestar at this point.

    1. You sure about that? I’d take Battlestar over Nate at this point of their careers any day of the week. Nate Robertson’s days as an effective major league pitcher ended about 18 months ago.

  8. Actually Galarraga is eligible. New rules, anybody on 40 man roster on Sept1st is eligible, even Jacob Turner. You can pick any 25. Zumaya isn’t eligible he is on 60 day DL thus off 40 man roster.

    They did this because teams just faked injuries before like with K-Rod to get anybody they wanted eligible. I doubt we would want Galarraga to pitch in the playoffs anyway, then again Leyland will probably use Miner in tie games on the road in the deciding game so anything is possible.

      1. I tried but I can’t find anything, I heard it a couple different times so I assumed it was true, probably stupid of me. I know one was on Baseball tonight and one was just a local telecast on Fox. I usually watch the others teams telecast since Mario doesn’t seem to know anything about baseball, Rod is OK but I have heard them too many times. I googled everything but I couldn’t find anything one way or another, actually this blog is the first thing that comes up, there are other blogs and if the rules did change I don’t know if they would be correct but I didn’t find anything that said there is a change. On mlb there is absolutely nothing. I tried everything , postseason, playoffs, roster changes, 25 man- 40 man. All that comes up is fantasy rules. Pretty dumb, I don’t know why MLB would try to keep it a secret from fans.

        In any case Galarraga would be eligible either way, the Tigers can just fake an injury like everybody else always did, MLB didn’t really seem to care much. Zumaya would be different. Personally I wouldn’t want to see either of these guys in the postseason but I would like to know the actual rule.

        I would say why would somebody say there are new rules if there aren’t but ESPN employs Joe Morgan who thought Rodney was throwing a split finger the other night and basically knows less than the average dog about baseball.

        1. I confirmed the info in my latest post with the Tigers, so I think it’s pretty solid. As for adding Galarraga, they don’t even need to fake an injury, Zumaya is legitimately injured so they can add any pitcher from the organization to replace him if they choose.

  9. Army hasn’t been as sparkling as last year, but still…minors? I don’t think he’s been THAT bad.

    1. His elbow is barking and by sending him to Toledo he’s eligible to come back after 10 days rather than 15 days. Plus he doesn’t use an option because he’ll be down for less than 20 days. It’s actually clever roster juggling.

  10. So I guess I should bet the house on Tampa Saturday, eh? Nate is going to get lit up like a Christams tree and its going to be on FOX as one of the regional 4pm games to further embarrass Detroit fans. Ugh. I’d rather see Eddie Bonine.

      1. Wasn’t Nate healthy last year? And didn’t he have an ERA of 6.35? And hasn’t he been healthy almost his entire career? And still he has an ERA of almost 5? I’d take Bonine with the flu over Robertson.

          1. The point is that what he did from 2004-2007 has little relevance to what he can do in 2009 for the Tigers. He has been a poor major league pitcher for quite some time now (all of last year and this year). His most recent indicators are that he is done as a serviceable major league pitcher. At least I know that Bonine will not “be out of shape with a beer gut and a double chin”. What a dedicated professional Nate must be to let himself get like that right after signing a three year deal. I’ve seen enough of Nate the last 1.5 years to know that I don’t need to see any more from him. Same goes for Willis. The quicker both of these guys are out of the Tiger’s organization the better. They are both awful pitchers who’s best days are three years in the rearview mirror. Don’t be surprised when Tampa kicks our asses on Saturday behind another stellar Nate Robertson effort. I can’t believe DD and Ol’ Smoky are throwing this game away like that in a pennant race. Lovely.

          2. Jerry,
            I agree with everything you said. It’s embarrassing that we need Nate Robertson to be making starts in a pennant race.

          3. I was one of the fans who was ready to quit on Nate. He was horrible all season last year and we kept putting him out there.

            This spring training he made remarks, if I remember right, complaining about how he was being treated… apparently forgetting he was the worst started in MLB last year.

            But… given how much Galarraga has struggled, and given Robertson’s recent success in Toledo, I think it’s worth a try. We’re not really throwing the game away.

            Well, I hope not, anyway. If he fails badly on Saturday, we can’t keep plugging him into the rotation like we did all last year.

          4. I hope Nate and Willis bounce back as Tigers. I’m not the kind of person who will gladly throw away multi-million dollar investments especially when decent pitching is hard to come by.

            Only time will tell.

  11. Mr. X, time has already been told on Dontrelle ‘1 win for 20m’ Willis and Nate ‘I didn’t think it was necessary to get it shape’ Robertson. Saying ‘time will tell’ would be like FDR saying in late 1941 ‘time will tell whether Japan has expansionist interests in Asia.’

  12. They are both signed through 2010, so they ain’t going anywhere soon.

    I could make a pretty nice rotation with nothing but former castaways. Chris Carpenter, Joel Pineiro, Randy Wolf, Ryan Dempster, and I’ll even throw Carl Pavano at you.

    Verlander of all people is having a huge bounce back season. Many of you were ready to throw him in the dumpster after his slow April.

    Here’s some of this years junk, but probably next years treasure-
    Daisuke Matsuzaka, Scott Kazmir, Brandon Webb, and Francisco Liriano

    2. They are going somewhere Mr. X. Neither will be on the team next year. The Tigers will eat their contracts. That’s how badly they suck.

      1. They should, but they won’t. What makes you think DD will do that? They’ll probably be penciled into the rotation in spring training.

      2. Here’s a little reminder about D-Train .
        http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/boxscore?gameId=290519106
        He had 1 hitter over 6 innings on May 18th. That was just over 3 months ago. He was throwing some pretty filthy stuff that game and had good composure.

        Next year, I think it would be more disastrous to our franchise to see him pitching with another club while we are still paying him. That’s why you don’t let guys like him go. It would be Jair Jurrjens x2 kind of bad.

        1. I agree that you don’t give him away for nothing AND eat his whole salary, but if you can get anything in return and/or any salary relief, you have to do it. He’s almost certainly to not going to contribute next year.

          To cite one game is silly. Any pitcher in the major leagues or AAA is capable of throwing 6 innings of 1-hit ball once every 2 years.

  13. No, they just can’t give him away for nothing. The Tigers’ organization is featuring ads about Dontrelle’s charity work in Detroit. Maybe he pitches again, maybe not. Never say never.

    1. I don’t think you guys fully understand. Willis has literally less than no value.

      He’s pitched 57 innings over the past two years and has allowed 130(!) baserunners.

      That literally may be the worst 50 plus inning stretch in the majors in my lifetime. His ERA has been over eight and he’s 1-6. I doubt anyone would agree to take on his salary even if the Tigers assumed 95% of next year. They will keep him and then release him in spring training barring some miraculous turnaround.

      Could he recover and pitch well for another team somewhere down the line, like 2011 or 2012? Sure, that’s the nature of baseball and pitching, but the team can’t afford to carry him next year.

      1. I think the best option is to hold on to him as long as you can’t get anything for him, but not on the major league roster. keep him in toledo as long as possible next year, either rehabbing an “injury” or otherwise, and the first moment he starts to show signs of being a major league pitcher, flip him for salary relief.

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