Tim Byrdak Peaces Out

After Tuesday night's terrible performance, the Tigers have released Tim Byrdak. GM Dave Dombrowski said that it was a simple matter of "not being able to help the team at a big-league level", even though Tim was thought to be a lock for the bullpen.

As Kurt from Mack Avenue Tigers points out, it's hard to say what the Tigers are going to do now or what they have in mind. Obviously there has to be another lefty in the pen other than Bobby Seay, but saying who at this point is anybody's guess. I have to imagine that Dombrowski has a deal in the works or something up his sleeve, but at this point, I really have no idea.

I guess this is a solid reflection of the mentality of the organization at the moment. It's definitely a "win NOW" team and, with Byrdak's terrible spring as evidence, players who aren't going to help the Tigers in that cause are definitely in trouble. The only problem with this move for me is that there is no immediate replacement on hand- something is going to have to be done either in the minor league affiliates or going outside the organization. It may just be time to fire up those Marcus Thames trade rumors that have been going around recently.

Also, good stuff on the Tiger page of the Freep.com: the second story's headline says "Bydrak secure despite shaky 13.50 ERA" and then the next one is "Tigers release Byrdak." Good work there.