I have spent the last 20 or so minutes trying to talk myself into the Edwin Jackson era in Detroit and honestly, I'm not there yet. I'm sorry, but I really liked Matt Joyce. I understand that the Tigers need to trade offense for pitching, but why did it have to be Matt Joyce for Edwin Jackson? And I know, "You can't teach 97 mph". That's fine, as long as you can teach him to keep his BB/9 in single digits. There is no debate that Jackson has great stuff, but so did Ricky Vaughn before he got glasses. Who knows, maybe E-Jax is just one visit to Dr. Yaldo (anyone who listens to the radio in Detroit should know who this is) away from a 20-win season. Honestly, this really isn't the part of the trade that I am struggling with. Jackson has great stuff and he's only 25 years old, I understand the potential for greatness here. The thing that really gives me problems is this: Who is going to play left field next year? Carlos Guillen? Please Mr. Dombrowski, do not make me endure a season of the Guillentine putzing around in left. I am a huge Carlos Guillen fan and I think he would be perfect as a DH, but that arm and those knees would be an unmitigated disaster in the outfield.
Let me take a step back here, I like this trade... relatively. At least the Tigers got something useful in return for Joyce. You have no idea how happy I was when I heard that JJ Putz is the newest member of the New York Metropolitans. Matt Joyce AND Jeff Larish for a "closer" who spent the entire second half of last season proving how unreliable his health is? No thank you. I guess this trade is just the lesser of two evils for me. My hope is that it leads to one more move, trading Gary Sheffield. I literally leapt with joy when I read that the Rangers had interest in acquiring Sheff. Unloading him would pave the way for Carlos Guillen to move to where he belongs: in the dugout whenever the Tigers are in the field. Maybe give Jeff Larish a shot in leftfield, or platoon Ryan Raburn and Marcus Thames; either of those options would be preferable to no-cartilage Carlos roaming the expanses of the Copa's outfield.
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When i heard about this trade, my first reaction was who is Edwin Jackson? I looked up his stats and bio and realized that he is a converted pitcher, which concerns me slightly and then I compared his stats to big league Nate's stats from last year and they were similar. Now I realize Nate doesn't feature a 97 MPH fastball and is older, but is that really all we could get for Matt Joyce. Maybe my manlove for Joyce has clouded what he really is, but to me, Joyce is on the verge of a break out season in the bigs if given the chance. I could be completely off, but his season this year reminded me of Granderson's first stint with the big club; he showed his pop and raw talent even though it eas obvious that his skills still needed some polishing. I guess I am a little dissapointed that the Tigers didn't go after some of the A list free agent closers. Although Mike Valenti is generally nuts, I think he is right when he criticizes the Tigers for not going after K Rod or the other free agents closers available. Big market teams like the Yanks, Red Sox, and Angels were not in the running for this guy and I realize that the Tigs are trying to watch their payroll, but it seems to me that KRod would be a pretty safe and necessary investment to the bullpen. Instead, the Tigers are still without a closer and haven't improved their bullpen, which was one of the glaring weaknesses last season. If I were DD I would've put together a trade package that would've included the aging stick of Magglio and go after a reliable set up man. You have to be kidding me if you think that we are going to be better on defense with a hurt Everet playing short and a gimpy guillen playing left. Dombroski just doesn't get it; this team doesn't need mags any more. It has Miggy in the cleanup spot- we should trade Mags while we can still get something back for him. After all, even when he was at his best (2007 season) we didn't make the playoffs. And the reason we didn't was pitching. I really hope DD has something up his sleeve to bring in some help for the pen but I doubt he does. I am out.
ReplyDeleteI'm not crazy about K-Rod, but I understand your concern about the pen. Dombrowski is still a couple of moves away from finishing his work for this off-season, but I think he is headed in the right direction.
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