Tigers roster moves

Well the rotation shakes out to be Verlander, Jackson, Galarraga, Miner and Porcello. In the end, this was really a no-brainer as Robertson pitched himself off the rotation with a misrable 2008 and no improvement this spring and Dontrelle Willis is not in any rational discussion on this subject anymore. To keep Porcello's tender arm under 150-160 innings, obviously they are going to have to skip his turn in the rotation every now and then. I do think that a few of the pitchers at Erie and Toledo not presently on the radar will need to assert themselves and be ready when the inevitable injury bug hits any of the above group of 5. As far as Jeremy Bonderman, who knows but if he comes back and is able to throw effectively for any portion of the season, I think I would chalk that up to an unexpected and welcome surprise.

So the Tigers signed Brandon Lyon to be their closer but he could not win the job in spring training so the Tigers go with a "closer by committee" with Fernando Rodney first off the bench. I note that Lyon was good in the first half of 2008, terrible in the second half and terrible this spring. I am hoping that this is not yet another player that the Tigers have signed to multi-year contract at precisely the wrong time. In Dombrowski's defense, of Willis, Robertson and Sheffield, only the Willis 3 year extension was indefensible. Apparently one condition of the Cabrera trade was that the Tigers had to take Willis off Florida's hands so I cannot blame Dombrowski for bringing him in as you could not pass on Cabrera but signing Willis to a 3 year extension before he pitched an inning for the Tigers was nutty considering that he was terrible his last year at Florida and on a downward projectory the year before. Anyway, the closer situation will be interesting to watch this year.

It is also noted that Jeff Larish won the 25th man on the squad competion. Normally, the 25th man is not someone to get to worked up about but I think it is different with the Tigers as Jim Leyland is an unrepentent tinkerer who's deep bench players always seem to get more than their share of playing time usually at the expense of uninjured starters. Larish can play 3b, 1b and obviously could dh or pinch hit which is going to quite appealing for Leyland when he wants to get all managerial and play hunches which is practically all the time (maybe just a little exaggeration but not much). Larish appears to me to have the longest swing I have seen this side of Eric Davis and I don't think pitchers will have any hesitation coming right at him. If Larish is productive, obviously this is great but oh that swing......

My .02.