The Detroit Tigers front office drops the ball

There is a lot of blame that can be spread around given the debacle not only yesterday in Toronto, but really the entire weekend north of the border for the Detroit Tigers. I want to focus in on how the front office really dropped the ball this past weekend and left Manager Brad Ausmus down for yesterday's 19 inning marathon and how that slip could possible effect the team in the coming weeks as the Tigers division lead has shrunk to just a half game over the Kansas City Royals.

Saturday it was announced that Anibal Sanchez and Joakim Soira would be placed on the disabled list. This left two free spots on the active roster. Since another starting pitcher was not needed till Wednesday, a fill in for Sanchez, the Tigers could have called up two relief pitchers for Sunday's contest.

Now injuries happen, and unforeseen circumstances happen, but I put forth the notion that a team in win now mode should be more on top of this. Toledo is not that far away from Toronto so I do not accept Ausmus' assertion that he was not sure if they could have gotten players to the show in time for Sunday's game. Being somewhat familiar with minor league baseball players I think any number of Mudhens would have jumped at the chance to get in their cars and drive the 5-6 hours to Toronto. Mike Illitch certainly has the resources available to him to insure that his baseball team had a full complement of 25 player ready to go for Sundays game. The only real question is the status of these players being available to gt over an international border...in fact that is the only excuse that can explain away the mistake of not calling up someone from Toledo to fill out the roster for yesterday's game.

I will even allow the possibility that some unknown deadline regarding the league and how these moves are processed that the Tigers could not make all these moves Saturday night or Sunday morning. I do not think that is likely but I do not know the ins and outs of how the league deals with these matters. In fact Soira was placed on the DL today and the Tigers have yet to place Sanchez has yet to be put on the DL. That seems curious to me as it is rather obvious that both of these players were gonna miss time why not make the moves ASAP and promote arms or position players to fill out the roster.

The failure to do so leaves the Tigers short on arms heading into a series against a less than healthy Pittsburgh Pirates club where the team is no in a position where it needs to 3 of the 4 games. The problem there becomes does the fact Rick Porcello threw 36 pitches Sunday evening mess him up for his next scheduled start Tuesday. On top of that there is inclement weather in the area of Pittsburgh that could play more havoc on the Tigers depleted pitching staff.

The absolute best scenario now is for today's game to be postponed till tomorrow giving everyone another day of rest. The absolute worst thing that could happen is the game goes a few innings and then is delayed for weather wiping out a chance for a Justin Verlander, and his amazing inter league record, quality start.

Fresh arms are on their way to Pittsburgh. The Tigers announced today that Kevin Whelan, Ian Krol and Justin Miller will join the strained bullpen for tonight's game. The club had to release Casey Crosby to make room on the 40 man roster for Whelan. It is also being reported that Blaine Hardy and Patrick McCoy, who both pitched 3 innings in the marathon Sunday, are being sent to Toledo to make room for Krol and Miller. An additional move will be required to add Robbie Ray to the active roster and that is likely the assignment of Sanchez to the DL.

Sure those moves are necessary after the debacle yesterday, but I submit to all of you that those moves were necessary Sunday morning, and a front office in win now mode should have been more on top of personnel moves like this. I mention all of that before I go one to mention that this front office failed to address the concerns in the bullpen at the trade deadline.

The Detroit Tigers add Joakim Soria

Dave Dombrowski is at it again. After spending the first half of the season seeing exactly what he had in his bullpen he made a move late last night to addresses what all of us think is the weak part of this team. He dealt two pitching prospects to the Texas Rangers to add Joakim Soria at least for the rest of this year and quite possibly next year as well depending on what happens with Joe Nathan the rest of this year and in the post season. 

Soria was probably the best relief pitcher out there this season, and while the Tigers paid a huge price to secure his services it is exactly the kind of move a team in win now mode should make. If and when the Tigers win the 2014 World Series no one is going to remember what was given up to add Soria. And while we can fault Dombrowski for many of his moves, like relying so heavily on Bruce Rondon over the last two of seasons, he has made a lot of that right by paying the price to get the peace this team most needs. 

The bullpen has been the weak point for the Tigers in each of the last two seasons. While additions like Joba Chamberlain have worked out quite well, the big contract handed to Joe Nathan this past off season doesn’t look all that great and the gamble on Joe Haranahan has yet to bear any quality fruit. Now comes Soria, who gives the Tigers a trio of late inning arms that Manager Brad Ausmus can use in a number of different ways. 

I would expect to start Soria will be used in the 7th inning role, and that is no small role on a club whose starting pitching has struggled to go a strong seven all season long. I would expect Joba to continue it his 8th inning role and for now Nathan to still be the closer. However, anymore significant hiccups will lead to Soria being the 9th inning guy with Nathan being move to another specialty. 

While a lot of people are down on the Tigers minor league system it is now clear that their system is stock full of arms other MLB teams crave. Sure Corey Kneubel and Jake Thompson are now gone the system still boosts a number of big arms that could be dealt for even more bullpen help in the next nine days before we get to the trade deadline. 

It appears that Dombrowski has finally learned his lesson with the bullpen and hopefully we will not have a repeat of what transpired in Boston last year. However this bullpen rebuild project is far from completed. It still looks like they could still use another left handed arm because Phil Coke and Ian Krol have not been all that effective. It would be nice to add another arm for the post season as well, and who knows maybe they have that arm in Haranahan already but relying on a guy this close to Tommy John Surgery doesn't seem like the best plan. 

The first move for the Tigers heading towards the trade deadline has been completed and it looks like one or two more are in store for this team.