Posts tagged DaveDombrowski at FanHouse

The Tigers removed Nate Robertson from their rotation on Friday, and the only surprising thing about it is that they waited this long to pull the trigger. Robertson has been nothing short of awful this year, posting a 6.09 ERA that includes a "perfect" 9.00 ERA in seven starts since the All-Star break.

Now that the Tigers have an opening, will they finally bring Dontrelle Willis back up from the minors? Fat chance. As Jim Leyland told the Detroit Free Press, "The answer, as we speak today, is 100% 'no.' "

Willis has posted a semi-respectable 4.28 ERA in five starts for Triple-A Toledo, but lurking under the surface is an unsightly 1.68 WHIP, thanks largely to his continued lack of control (he has 14 walks to go along with 20 strikeouts).

Will a trip to the bullpen for Robertson and more minor league starts for Willis really help these two lost pitchers re-discover their form? For Dave Dombrowski's sake, I hope it does.

Dombrowski gave Robertson and Willis each a three-year extensions this past winter (I'll admit it, I was actually in favor of Robertson's deal), a collective $50 million investment which has yet to pay any dividends. And because of those extensions, both Robertson and Willis are now completely untradeable, which should make things difficult if ownership demands the payroll be slashed this winter as speculated.

Remember when the Tigers made that huge trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, and Tigers fans everywhere began putting aside money for World Series tickets? Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? As we're all well aware of at this point, the Tigers kind of suck this season. Cabrera has switched positions due to his lack of mobility, and he's not exactly tearing the cover off the ball either. Dontrelle has been on the disabled list for a while now, and has struggled with his control in three minor league rehab starts.

So the question is, now that Dontrelle is just about ready to rejoin the Tigers, what the hell are they going to do with him? Willis' agent thinks that Dontrelle will be taking his old spot in the rotation.

"I'd imagine that he's going back into the rotation, but I haven't heard anything definitive," said Willis' agent, Matt Sosnick. "He felt like he threw the ball well and that his body felt good."

Yes, well, I don't care how well he thinks he threw down in Toledo, he didn't throw as well as the kid who replaced him in the rotation, Armando Galarraga. In a season that's been filled with nothing but frustration and disappointment for the Tigers, Galarraga has been a lone bright spot.

Armando has started six games for Willis, and he's 3-1 with a 3.06 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in those starts. In other words, he's been the best starter Detroit has had. Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland aren't saying what their plans are for Willis when he returns, but if they include taking Galarraga out of the rotation, they deserve a swift kick in the nuts.

After seeing Dontrelle Willis slip and fall on the mound on Friday night at U.S. Cellular Field, I was generally scared for the guy. The way his leg bent, well, it just wasn't natural. As someone who's had a similar type of injury occur to my knee while in high school playing football (Though mine wasn't from slipping on a mound as much as it was from 275 pounds of Henry Hopkins rolling over my leg in practice. Skip a meal, man!), I immediately felt Dontrelle's pain.

Luckily the worst fears were averted when today's MRI results showed no structural damage, just a hyper-extended knee. Unfortunately (or fortunately considering his performance so far this season), that doesn't mean Dontrelle will be able to escape a stop on the disabled list for the first time in his career.

"You know he's going to miss a start, and we don't want to take any chances with it," team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "Really, at this point, we can't. It is a hyperextension, so hopefully in the 15 days, he'll be ready. But we'll see.

"He asked us to wait [to put him on the DL] and see what happens, but you could tell he's walking gingerly, and we just don't want to take a chance. You can't take a chance on that, because his arm is healthy. I've seen many guys in their time when their knee's bothering them a little bit, change their delivery a little bit and hurt their arm."

Obviously the Tigers need another pitcher on the disabled list as much as Britney Spears needs another kid, but as Dombrowski said above, there really is no other option at this point. The Tigers currently plan on calling up Armando Galarraga (I've no idea if he's related to Andres, but for some reason, I hope he is.) from Triple-A Toledo to take Dontrelle's spot in the rotation.

It hasn't been the best of offseasons for Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge. First the Tigers traded for Miguel Cabrera, which basically cost Inge his job. Then he asked the team if they'd please trade him to another team where he'd have a chance to be an everyday player.

Dave Dombrowski happily obliged and went looking for someone to swap Inge with, but nobody wants Inge at his current price after his recent contract extension with the Tigers. So at this point, with a little over a month before spring training starts, it's looking like Brandon is going to spend the 2008 season in Detroit on the bench.

Though there is one way he could get more playing time.

"If I were Brandon Inge's best friend, I'd tell him, 'You should catch,' " Dombrowski said. "This guy could be an All-Star catcher. He's not only good defensively, but his offense takes on a different meaning. ... If he puts (last year's) numbers up catching, he might be an All-Star. But you also realize that guys have to do what they want to do."

Inge was the Tigers' everyday catcher as recently as 2003, so it's not like it's an entirely foreign concept to Brandon.

If Inge does decide to take up catching again, it could benefit both him and the team. Brandon will get the playing time he wants, and the Tigers might have an answer at the catcher position. Both Ivan Rodriguez and Vance Wilson will be free agents after this season, and neither are getting younger. The man whom the Tigers thought would be their future catcher, Mike Rabelo, was sent to Florida as part of the Cabrera-Willis deal.

Now that the Detroit Tigers have locked up the recently acquired Dontrelle Willis for the next three years, they're moving on to their next goal this offseason. After all, Willis didn't come to Detroit by himself, he brought Miguel Cabrera with him. Much like Willis, Cabrera has a contract that expires soon as well.

So logically, Dave Dombrowski is going to try and get Miguel to sign an extension as well.

Now, if third baseman Miguel Cabrera proves to be as amenable to signing a long-term contract as Willis was, the Tigers' blockbuster deal with the Florida Marlins could pay dividends for more years than anyone initially imagined.

"We hope to sign (Cabrera)," general manager Dave Dombrowski said. "That doesn't mean it's going to happen, but we hope."

Dave is probably going to have to keep hoping. It made sense for Willis to sign an extension now, because after a down season in 2007, and the fact that a pitcher's arm can go out on any pitch, Willis wants to get the money while the getting is good.

Cabrera on the other hand isn't much of an injury risk, and his numbers are incredibly consistent. Miguel would probably be smarter to play out his contract and then hit the free agent market. He may end up re-signing with Detroit at that point, because they aren't shy when it comes to tossing money around, but he'll get a lot more money then than he will now.

The Tigers and Dontrelle Willis have only been together for a few weeks now, and even though Dontrelle is yet to throw a single pitch in a Tigers uniform, the team has already decided how they feel about the young lefty. They think he's the bee's knees, and they'd really like to take the next step in their relationship.

That's why they've decided to sign Willis to a contract extension.

Pitcher Dontrelle Willis has reached an agreement in principle on a three-year, $29 million contract extension with the Detroit Tigers, a source told ESPN.com.

The deal includes incentives that could push the total value to more than $30 million, the source said. An announcement was expected after Willis took a physical exam Thursday in Detroit.

I can understand why the Tigers would like to lock up Willis now and not let him hit the free agent market after the 2009 season, but if I'm Dave Dombrowski, I would have taken a more cautious route. Personally I'd like to see Willis pitch an entire season in the American League before deciding I want to invest $30 million in him.

It doesn't matter how good of a pitcher you are, making the adjustment from the National League to the American League can be tough for anybody. Then when you consider Dontrelle's performance the last few seasons, he's 22-27 with an ERA of 4.49 since winning 22 games in 2005, I have even more doubts about Willis' value in Detroit. Now some of those numbers may have been a direct result of carrying a very young team, but I'd like to see for myself before investing that kind of cash.

When it was announced that the Tigers had traded for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, there were many Tigers fans rejoicing in the city of Detroit. It was a great day to be a baseball fan. With one fell swoop the Tigers had announced that the American League isn't going to be a two-horse race, and that Detroit has every intention of getting back to the World Series.

Of course, if you're Brandon Inge, you had a different perspective. You just lost your job. So you might as well try and save a little face, and "demand" you be traded.

The Detroit Tigers are prepared to deal Brandon Inge after the third baseman told the club he would rather start for another team.

"He's loved his time here," president and general manager Dave Dombrowski told the Detroit Free Press on Friday. "He loves the city. He loves the organization. But at this point in his career, he would like to continue playing third base on an everyday basis."

I don't think the Tigers were waiting around for Brandon's approval to trade him. The Tigers want to move him because they don't want to pay the rest of a four-year $24 million extension signed after the 2006 season.

The real question is, will the Tigers find somebody willing to take on the $19.1 million still owed to Inge through 2010. They don't want to pay any of it now that they've got to make room to sign Cabrera long term.

The Tigers shocked the world by trading for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis ... by they may not be done. According to Sweeney Murti of WFAN in New York, the Tigers have already contacted the Mets to see if they'd like to acquire Willis:

Interesting fallout from the Marlins-Tigers deal. The Mets tried to get Dontrelle Willis from the Marlins, but Florida wouldn't trade him to their division rival (I hate to call a team that waves the white flag like this a rival, but whatever).

Detroit was looking at spinning off Willis in a separate deal and made contact with the Mets. However, the Tigers have an agenda---they need to dump some salary. They asked the Mets to take Willis and Ivan Rodriguez, who is due $13 million next year. The other thing to consider is that Pudge has a no-trade clause, so if he's going to waive that you'd probably have to give him an extension.

All in all...not a chance this happens. The Mets will have no interest in taking on that much salary and giving Pudge another year.

It seems like just yesterday Miguel Cabrera was the biggest player (um, figuratively and literally) that people were talking about being on the trade market, but leave it to Johan Santana (and Erik Bedard ... and Dan Haren) to ruin his time in the spotlight. But that doesn't mean there aren't still juicy rumors coming out of Florida -- and this one involves Dontrelle Willis, too (!?). From Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports:

The Marlins, stalled in their attempts to trade third baseman Miguel Cabrera, could be laying the groundwork for an even bigger deal.

The Marlins and Tigers are engaged in preliminary talks about a blockbuster that would send Cabrera and left-hander Dontrelle Willis to Detroit for a package of young players, according to major-league sources.

Outfielder Cameron Maybin and left-hander Andrew Miller likely are among the Marlins' targets.

Maybin and Miller are widely regarded as the gems of Detroit's minor league system, but there has to be other players involved, right? For one, Brandon Inge would suddenly be expendable with Cabrera around to play third base -- would he become an expensive super-sub bouncing around the diamond or would he be sent back to Florida? Would other top prospects be sent back?

Right now it's too early to tell, but it's possible that the Tigers might actually be pursuing a trade for either Cabrera or Willis, not both as a package deal. (via Bless You Boys) That makes a bit more sense, both in regards to what the Tigers would have to give up and the amount of blatant contempt the Marlins would show their fans by dealing two of their alleged cornerstones. For what it's worth, the Tigers entered the Winter Meetings feigning disinterest in doing a major deal, but considering they've also been linked to Dan Haren, you have to wonder if predictions of their inactivity was just a ploy for additional leverage.

"Boom, Bust, or Bobby Bonilla" takes a look at MLB's Free Agents and the teams who need them in 2008.

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the Milwaukee Brewers improved play this season stands to be their closer Francisco Cordero. After spending the majority of his career as a Texas Ranger, Cordero finished his first full season in Milwaukee with 44 saves.

Now he's hit the free agent market, and without a lot of proven closers on the market, Cordero is lined up to receive a large payday. There are plenty of teams that have already expressed an interest in the All-Star, including the Astros, Phillies, and Tigers to name a few. The fact is that once Mariano Rivera re-signs with the Yankees, Cordero will be the most coveted closer on the market.

That could end up netting him somewhere around $40 million. So where is Cordero going to end up?

The Astros are reportedly looking to deal Brad Lidge this winter, and if they do, that would leave them in need of a closer. If that's the case, Cordero will be their first option. The problem there is that the Astros seem more intent on finding starting pitching than adding to their bullpen. So depending on whether they sign any starters, or make a trade (The Astros were talking to the White Sox yesterday, and I'm guessing Jon Garland's name came up.) for starting pitching, there may not be enough money left to land Cordero.
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