Kuzul

On January 24th the Detroit Tigers traded Armando Galarraga to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a couple of low level prospects.  This is a risky move that officially ends the Tigers‘ rollercoaster relationship with the occasionally talented, soft-throwing righthander best known as the poster boy for good sportsmanship following Jim Joyce’s blown call on his almost perfect game last summer. 

He and Joyce were a great story about forgiveness and understanding in a sports world that is flooded with too many bad stories and will be an answer to trivia questions for years to come.  Apparently he’s not Dave Dombrowski’s answer to the Tigers pitching questions.

Galarraga was acquired from the Rangers prior to the 2008 season and burst onto the scene with a solid rookie campaign for a very disappointing Tigers team.  He finished with 13 wins, a sub four ERA and a fifth place finish in the AL rookie of the year voting.

He regressed greatly in 2009, eventually losing his spot in the rotation.  In 2010, he stepped back into the rotation when Rick Porcello, Jeremy Bonderman and Dontrelle Willis all struggled as starters.  Although he was far from great, Galarraga was an adequate fifth starter who was on the wrong side of several pitching duels.  He finished the season with a 4.49 ERA but only 4 wins.

Going into the season the Tigers rotation will be Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Rick Porcello, Phil Coke and Brad Penny.  Justin Verlander is a sure thing and I’m going to go out on a limb and say Scherzer turned the corner as a quality #2.  However, the other three all bring question marks.  Rick Porcello struggled mightily the majority of last year before finally hitting a groove over his last ten or so starts, Phil Coke is a valuable bullpen guy being transitioned back into a starter, his role coming up in the Yankees system and Brad Penny is coming off a back injury that kept him out of nearly the entire 2010 season. 

If all three of those guys pan out, keep your October open because the Tigers are going to the playoffs.  Conventional wisdom will likely prevail, though, and at least one of those guys won’t last in the rotation.  Porcello will continue to regress, Coke will flame out as a starter or Penny will fulfill his durability concerns.  Even if they all pitch well, there will be injuries or skipped starts that will require a 6th starter.  Additionally, the Tigers two most effective long relievers (Eddie Bonine and Zach Miner) the last two seasons were lost in free agency so that role is needed as well.

In my opinion, Galarraga would have been perfect for a long relief/emergency starter role. At the very least, Galarraga has proven to be a capable end of the rotation guy who can give you innings.  In 2010 he only let up more than 5 earned runs in 2 of 24 starts and only went less than five innings in seven of his starts.  With the Tigers improved offense, I could see the Detroit scoring more than five runs on a lot of occasions and they just need an emergency guy who can keep them in games.  With this move, the Tigers lost a lot of insurance.

Currently, the contingency plan would be one of the Tigers heralded young arms: Jacob Turner, Andrew Oliver or, to a lesser extent, Charlie Furbush.  There is no evidence that any of these three is ready to contribute this year.  Oliver looked lost in his brief stint with the Tigers last season, Turner has only one season of pro experience and Furbush has only been a middle tier prospect.

Dombrowski and Leyland don’t see Galarraga as a long relief candidate so it appears their answer could be another dose of Bondermania as a minor league deal for the righthander might be a possibility.  The fact that Bonderman has had no offers and little interest and the fact that the Tigers had supposedly high interest in Galarraga, further points to the fact that trading Galarraga was a bad move. 

I’m not saying that Armando Galarraga is a Cy Young candidate, but for a team with a  high scoring offense, he’s capable enough to give them a shot in most starts.  Unless there is something behind the curtains with the relationship between Galarraga and the front office, this move makes little sense to me.  I hope the starters all pan out and this move becomes a blip on the season’s transactions, but I don’t see that happening and I believe that Dombrowski, Leyland and company will regret this move in the long run.

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After weeks of speculation, the Detroit Tigers officially signed former Cardinals starter Brad Penny to a 1-year deal worth three Million.  Best known for his time with the LA Dodgers (or for the fact that he’s engaged to a woman who used to date Slater from Saved by the Bell—honest!), Penny marks the third significant newcomer added to the Tigers roster and potentially fills a need for a starter. 

Penny is coming off a back injury that cost him most of his 2010 season with St. Louis and is attempting to pitch again in the American League after a short stint in Boston in 2009 that was largely disappointing.

Theoretically, Penny was brought in to be a back end rotation guy and I believe that will be the case rather than long relief.  He has a lot of experience and was even an All-Star starter as recently as 2006.  He should add a veteran presence to a young pitching staff. 

You will hear criticisms that he won’t be able to make the adjustment from National League to American League just as you heard about Max Sherzer last year.  Since he wasn’t signed to be a top of the rotation starter, however, he seems to be a good low risk/high reward type signing. 

The interesting question going forward is how does this signing affect the rest of the pitching staff.  It seems as if Armando Galarraga lost his starting job, but perhaps the signing means that the Tigers are having second thoughts about moving Phil Coke to the starting rotation. Jim Leyland has proved to be a huge believer in the situational lefty. 

Before Coke last year, Bobby Seay and Jamie Walker both were excellent in that role and guys that Leyland had no problem turning to when lefties were up in late inning situations.  If Coke actually moves to the starting rotation, that leaves journeyman Brad Thomas and Daniel Schlereth as the only lefties with a real shot at sticking in the bullpen.  Thomas is purely a long relief guy and could be relied on heavily for that role with the loss of Eddie Bonine to the Phillies and Zack Miner to the Royals. 

To this point Schlereth hasn’t proved to be dependable enough.  He may assume that role long term, but it wouldn’t be like Leyland to turn it over to him immediately.  Instead, it can’t help but set up a possible return to the bullpen for Coke, which itself brings a question.  Do they go into the season with five right handed starters or does the highly touted Andrew Oliver replace Galarraga in the rotation?

The lineup appears to be pretty well set with only left field and second base offering any questions at all, but both the rotation and bullpen have questions to be answered.  It’s only January and we’re in the middle of a blizzard in Detroit, but I can already feel a Spring Training battle heating up and I’m looking forward to one of my favorite times of the year. 

I encourage you to leave comments on how you think the Brad Penny signing will affect the pitching staff.

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