A Trade and A Sweep

I have to admit, I did not foresee Wilfredo Ledezma being the odd man out. Wil has been with the Tigers for a long time and was projected to be a starter, which really is his best role. Here's wishing him luck in the future and that he finally gets the chance he deserves in Atlanta. In my heart, he'll always be the winning pitcher in Game 4 of the 2006 ALCS.

That being said, the Tigers traded a lefty for a lefty. Macay McBride will join the team tomorrow in Atlanta after being solid for the Braves after returning to the big league club. McBride was sent down to Triple-A earlier this year with control issues, but since returning he has been very good, holding lefties to a .160 average. Either McBride could become the new lefty specialist, or he could be sent down to Toledo, on account of the fact that he is not out of options, as Ledezma was.

In reality, the fact that McBride has options may be the reason Dombrowski pulled the trigger on this deal. Had Ledezma been sent down, and with the way he's been performing this year he would have deserved it, he could have been picked up by another club for free. Now, McBride can be sent down and pave the way for either Mike Maroth or Chad Durbin to be sent to the pen until Maroth is dealt, which seems to be an almost certainty now.

At the moment, the situation seems to be this- Bondo, Rogers, Verlander, Miller, and Durbin in the starting rotation. Coming out of the pen will be McBride, Jones, Rodney, DLC, Seay, Byrdak, and Maroth. The most likely scenario when Robertson comes back sometime in the next two weeks is that Miller will be sent back down to Double-A Erie. The real tricky part is what will happen when Zach Miner returns. It seems that DLC, in the two appearances he's made, has become the answer to the Tigs' eighth inning woes, so he'll probably be staying. If McBride impresses, either Bobby Seay or Tim Byrdak will be the ones heading down to Toledo, with Seay being the more likely choice as of right now.

As the Maroth situation slowly plays out, the Tigers are riding high after sweeping the Nationals with an 8-4 victory. As amazing as Jeremy Bonderman pitched earlier in the season, he's letting in more runs now than pretty much all of April, yet he just keeps on winning games. 8-0 this season and hasn't lost a start in his last 16 dating back to last year. Of course, getting eight runs of support doesn't hurt him at all either. The Tigs even got a decent performance out of the bullpen last night, since it seems that now everyone is pitching for their livelihoods.

Is it possible that if the Tigers brass just keep holding the "We might be sending you anywhere else but here if you fuck up" card over every pitcher in the pen, the entire bullpen problem might fix itself? It worked last night and two nights ago. Maybe Dombrowski should have a little talk with Todd Jones too.