No Bonderman for Tuesday after all

GEEZ, WHAT A SURPRIZE! Bonderman felt wonderful on his side session. But, oops, too sore to pitch in a GAME.

Actually, that's good cause now we can find a ****** who will blame everything on his mysterious "are soreness" (mri found nothing) and over pay us to get him. Do we have to wait till the seasons over? The only way I'd be exciting about him coming back is if he'd work out with Roger Clemens all winter. Just ask Schilling what that did for him?

Nice win today. JL's words ring true, "you're only as good as tomorrows starting pitcher."

More likely, it leaves him as a lock for next year's rotation. But yeah, I'd trade him if the price was right.

Again, gentlemen, I find myself defending players who really did not step up this year as I and all of us expected. Keep in mind that the guy will pitch next year as a 25 year old. Alsl keep in mind that before Kenny, we were going after Carl Pavano; I think bondo needs to get that third pitch down and down quick. But to write him off at such an early age is not to our best advantage. Let's see what next year does; I still hear rumors that he is going to the Braves for Renteria, and we have to give up another prospect. I would be totally opposed to that. Renteria is a National League shortstop. i have stated that before; it's my opinion and that's all. In my opinion, we could have still won without Monroe, with Inge's bad year, with Pudge's no walk philosopy, with Shef's bad shoulder, with the flu, and on and on, but we could not overcome the loss of Rogers, Zamaya, and Rodney, not even counting all of the other 15 pitchers who were on the DL. Everything had to be redone with the injury to Kenny. With Z and F out, the pullpen had to assume roles it did not or could not fill. That's it; last year we could win those 4-3 and 5-3 games consistently. It's all about pitching. For goodness sakes,
the Padres are in the chase because of pitching. I respect everyone on this blog, but please don't blame this season on bondrman and Inge. Who wins those 11 games that Bondo wins, if he's not with us. Inge killed so many big inning rallys with spectacular defense, that I shudder to think where would have finished without him. Dome of you all,with all due respect are sounding like Hawk Harrelson. Please forgive me! I know that was a low blow. Every team in baseball wouldn't mind having Leyland and Dombrowski. I'm going to leave those things to them, because if I could do it better, I wouldn't be a fourth grade reading teacher.

Thanks for not being angrey at my opinion. That's all it is. Just think abut it.

Forgive me again. My spelling is usually great. It's my typing that's so bad.

I agree with much of what you posted davidtiger51.

I live in Tennessee and have to follow the Tigers from far away, but do try to keep up as best I can.

I hope Bondo stays with the Tigrs and is not traded. I've not forgotten the clutch win he got in the ALDS against the Yanks and the win over the A's in the ALCS. He does need a third pitch. I hope he can work on one in the offseason and try it out in spring training.

I hope Brandon Inge is back. I'm glad he is a Tiger.

Overall, I'm pleased with Dave Dombrowski's moves. Signing Porcello is exciting. I'm glad he didn't trade away any young talent for veteran players before the trading deadline. I didn't like the Sheffield trade (and still don't) because of the fact that the Tigers had to give up Whelan and Claggett for a player well past his prime.

I believe Millier and Maybin will be productive players for the Tigers by the latter part of next season.

This has to be one of the difficult decisions a young pitcher has to make...when to let it be known that he's having more than usual soreness. Pitching thru it can hurt the team...which is what happened with Bondo. Showing up frequently in the trainer's room will quickly give a player a "soft" reputation. Seems like a bit of Catch 22 to me.

No reason to put Bondo out there for a meaningless game on Tuesday. Sensible decision by all involved.

Without a doubt the worst thing I've seen on this blog all year is DTigers rumor about Bondo and a prospect for Rentawreck. Say it ain't so David, say it ain't so. We witnessed Rentawreck when he was here in Boston. I wouldn't trade Ramon Santiago even up for Rentawreck. I said trade Bondo not give him away.

We're still alive for 90 wins but it's a long shot. Also, I agree with what others have said, its Sept. 23rd and technically we're still playing meaningful BB, I"LL TAKE IT!

I'd like to clarify my position. When I say I'd trade someone, it doesn't mean I want to dump them or that I think they're bad players or that I don't like them. Quite the contrary. I would trade nearly anyone on this team if the price was right. The price, however, is rarely right. Renteria for Bonderman would be a ridiculous trade, for example. On the other hand, if the Yankees were offering Derek Jeter, well, there's no telling what I wouldn't do to get him.

The name of the game, of course, is pitching. Always has been, always will be. We saw this year that you need all the pitching you can muster.

David, was it really 18 pitchers on the DL this year? Eighteen???? Did you count Campusano, who we were probably going to count on? I hear no mention of that one. At any rate, there you have it again. Injuries killed this team in 2007. That would kill any team. Let's put Sabathia, Carmona, Betancourt and Perez on the DL and see how far Cleveland would have gotten, and that's just four guys.

This is why I realistically say to just get a leftfielder with pop. Failing that, make Thames the everyday guy and get your 30-35 homeruns.

And Raburn and Santiago can play on any team of mine.

Rentawreck......I love it! The laugh of the day. Good going, JTennant.

Hey folks, I just wanted to let you in on something. If, for whatever reason, Jason Beck could no longer post this blog for us (he retires, gets hired by the Yankees, whatever), I didn't want to lose what we've had these past two seasons. I've been making a list of all the e-mail addresses of anyone who posts here on any kind of recurring basis, and would start my own blog if you guys would join in with me.

I've been thinking of this for awhile and decided to let it be known as this season winds down.

Jason, I hope you don't go anywhere. I just like to be prepared for anything. I know a lot of teams aren't fortunate enough to have someone like you doing this for us.

What the heck...Rentawreck!? It won't get you there, nor Beck.... excerpt from "The Cat in the Hat", Dr. Seuss...honest.

Thanks for all of the reactions. The only reason I repeat the Bonderman/Renteria rumor is that it came originally from Braves Blog sites and writer columns in July. When I saw that the Tigers might be interested in Edgar, it just made me wonder if something might be cooking. My main point again: if Bondo were 28-29, then I would say its's time to go. And even though he has pitched five seasons, the first two were definite learning years. At 25, he still has the build, ie leg strength in the Clemens mold, a solid pitching motion, and a very good slider, with decent control. If you got value in return, I could see a trade, but as I have often stated and firmly believe, the underlying shortage this year was consistent starting pitching. Even though Guillen made over 20 errors at SS, it didn't lead to a lot of losses.

Renteria is not a solution. Tejada is not a solution.
I think Santiago could be the guy to fill that hole if they can get a pesky >.265 average out of him. He will hit as many HRs as Casey did this year.

Someone here was talking about the HR production of LHB being overstated as we play in Comerica Park. Well the last I checked we play 81 games somewhere else too. There are times that the ball jumps out of Comerica. Actually, if you are a LHB and tend to pull the ball you can do OK at Comerica. Comerica is in the top 6 for homeruns to straight away RF over the last few years. I think the park itself does inhibit HR production but realistically no more than about 10-15% overall.

Verlander, Bonderman, Rodney, Zumaya, Seay, Ordonez, Granderson, Polanco, Miller, Maybin, Jurrjens, are all guys I would not trade.

I think the talk of A-Rod here is virtually impossible. In his case I could see the size of Comerica being an issue. He is thinking cumulative HR production over the next 5 or 6 years in order to pass Bonds. Look for him to go nowhere.

True about Comerica. Seems that Chicago and Cleveland have no trouble hitting homers there. I think most of that is reputation from the JuanGone period.

If A-Rod wants homers, he should go to Philly. I'd be very surprised if he's not in New York next year.

Glad to see you mention Seay. Bobby is just lately receiving media credit for what he's done this year. Heck, I thought he was pretty good last year.

I'm wary of trades because you can get screwed over. It's rare to pull off a Polanco-like steal. That Neifi Perez deal will stick in my craw for a long time. I can see bringing in an outfielder for the short term, but this team is already set up to compete. I wouldn't jump off a bridge if they made no changes, but I'd be a little surprised.

I wouldn't trade Bondo for just about anyone. He is tough, maybe in this case too tough for his own good. Does anyone remember in the be first part of the year he didn't lose a game??? He probably should of told the trainers and coaches about his pain, but he is frankly only 24 years old and screwed up. But to get rid of him would be stupid in my opinion.

Unlike a lot of people I think that we will still see Guillen at short next year, but I do think that you will find Santiago on the club using him a lot like he did at the end of this year. I know that a lot of people are down on Casey, but frankly the dude hits for average at last check around 290. No he doesn't have the HR production that some seem to value in a first baseman, but if you have other guys that can produce in that regard who care where the HR production comes from. That being said homerun production was down this year, ie Inge, Thames and Monroe. Teams were not afraid of the bottom of the lineup this year. Sheffield, I think if he wouldn't have been hurt would of hit at least 15 more Homeruns. Considering he got off to a slow start and has been hurt since mid - late July, he has 24 or 25 even with that. I like Timo and Raburn on the team next year. Those guys even more than Infante would be my utility guys.

To me this year was disappointing, just because I had high expectations, but that was for a team that didn't exist this year. They were too beat up to perform up to expectation and over the long haul it was just too much. Someone said it earlier take Sabathia, Carmona, Perez and Bentancourt out of the pitching staff and they are no where near a playoff birth, let alone how close we came. I really believe that.

Tigers may not of had the MOJO this year, but they sure showed a lot of guts, when it seemed like everything was going against them.

GO TIGERS.

Good thoughts, GK. Leyland has been saying how proud he is of this bunch and that's absolutely correct. Detroit has that rep as the blue collar town that loves blue collar players. These guys may not look like the hard drinkin' blue collar teams of the past, but they are very much carrying on that tradition. Witness the continued sellouts this weekend.

There are folks out there (thankfully not on this blog) who I would call George Steinbrenner's minions. It's win or nothing for them. Sure, we like to win as much as the next guy but there's more to it than that. Tiger fans have stood firm behind their team forever, and will continue to do so.

Are we having a good time? Well, how many of you can't wait for next season to begin?

Looks like we'll be the defending AL champions for at least one more day. New York lost. Toronto could have easily taken 3 of 4 from them.

If Cleveland had accepted less than a sweep last week, maybe we could have accomodated them by keeping the Yankees out of the postseason.

I've been reading about that crazy new rule that says the team with the best record can dictate how they want the first round schedule to go. And if the WS goes seven, it ends on November 1st. So how about a nice frigid Cubs-Red Sox, or Cubs-Cleveland on the lake to close out the year? And a team sweeping the league series could have a wait of up to NINE days before the Series starts.

How do you spell stupid?

I know RL I don't get that new best record gig either. I hate to be paranoid, but to me it is a result that they didn't like the wild card team doing well ie the Detroit Tigers beating out the New York Yankees in 2006?? They didn't like not getting their stupid subway series. The question is why is it only the AL and not the NL?? It is not only stupid it is really really stupid??