Tigers looking for right-handed starting pitching help

[Providence A's]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...511270382/1129

1. Gut feeling on how the Tigers will restock their pitching staff in the days and weeks to come: Detroit will trade for a right-handed starter, whether it's Carl Pavano from the Yankees or, perhaps, Arizona's Javier Vazquez. The Tigers will sign a free-agent reliever. Best bet: Kyle Farnsworth who will get a big -- very big -- three-year offer from the Tigers. If Detroit can't trade for a starter, the Tigers could try to sign free-agent right-hander Matt Morris, who would listen if Detroit has interest.

2. Best guess on who the Tigers might trade (in order): Pudge Rodriguez, Carlos Pena, Craig Monroe, Mike Maroth and Nate Robertson. Only one of the left-handed starters would go, in any event.

[Saber]

Trading Ivan Rodriguez would be a big coup for the Tigers right now.

[RockSports17]

Trading Pudge would be a mistake, I don't buy into the rumors of him being a clubhouse cancer. Maybe he is getting older, but he can still hit and he's a decent catcher when healthy. Out of those names listed, I see Maroth, Robertson, and Pena being the most likely people to leave. Monroe was one of our best OFers last year, and it'd be a mistake to trade him.

[Saber]

I don't care about his clubhouse presence. He's completely forgotten how to get on base, so he's not an offensive asset. He's also expensive and old. Getting anything for him would be a big improvement for a Tigers team that still is at least a couple of years from contention.

[Providence A's]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...512120390/1129

News, thoughts, items, still spilling over from last week's Winter Meetings:

It doesn't add up that the Tigers signed starting pitcher Kenny Rogers with the idea of trading another starter. Even with Rogers, the Tigers are banking on Justin Verlander -- or Roman Colon -- breaking spring camp as part of a five-man rotation. Verlander is the better bet, but he only signed a big-league contract 13 months ago and it wouldn't be selling Verlander short to think he might, at some point next spring, need a tune-up at Triple A. Colon is a better bet to fill another need on this team: long relief.

In any event, this doesn't look like a team planning to trade a top-five pitcher.

Everyone wonders if a trade is brewing, whether it involves a pitcher, or if it's some sort of package containing Craig Monroe and Carlos Pena. Doubtful, it seems. Monroe and Pena aren't going to bring a starting pitcher in return -- not by themselves -- and neither by dangling that pair will you pry Adam Dunn from Cincinnati. Most likely scenario: Pena is swapped for a lower-profile left-handed reliever.

How troublesome is a five-man Tigers rotation that includes three left-handers? What's the negative? Comerica Park plays deep to left-center and center field, which is where craftsmen such as Rogers and Mike Maroth figure to trap their share of hitters. You can also look to a possible rotation that would enable the Tigers to alternate hard- and soft-tossers: Jeremy Bonderman followed by Rogers, followed by Verlander, followed by Maroth, followed by Nate Robertson.

Best testimony to how seriously Dmitri Young is approaching his offseason boot-camp and Arizona weight-reduction program. He wrote this note last week to new manager Jim Leyland:

"When I come to spring training, you're gonna know I mean business. The last thing you need to worry about is me."

Leyland folded up the note, saying with a grin that: "I'm gonna have this baby in my pocket when he gets there."

Leyland added, minus the grin: "If he (Young) does that, it's great news. I believe he's taking this very seriously."

Two big reasons why Detroit's baseball team is, at long last, getting stronger throughout the system:

1. David Chadd's 2005 draft, his first as Tigers scouting director, will almost surely be viewed as a winner. You only hate to think whom the Tigers might have grabbed with their second-round pick last June had it not been forfeited in the Troy Percival signing.

2. Two important people have been added to Detroit's Latin American scout team. Miguel Garcia, who worked with Chadd at Boston as the Red Sox scouting coordinator in Latin America, is now directing Detroit's scouting in Venezuela and Central America. Tom Moore is another ex-Red Sox scouting executive who will run Detroit's international and Latin American scouting crews, areas in which he specialized for Boston.

Biggest reason why the Tigers need to be an infinitely more disciplined hitting team in 2006: They'll be facing good pitcher after good pitcher in consecutive series because of the unbalanced schedule and the steady diet of Cleveland, Chicago, Minnesota to which they'll be exposed. The Tigers will need to work every count, take every walk, lay off every tough pitch possible, against excellent Central Division pitching.

How much better will the Tigers be in 2006? It's reasonable to assume the string of sub-.500 seasons will end at 12. The greater expectation is Detroit will play in a slew of genuinely excellent baseball games next season. Those tight, well-played games will in many cases become one-run losses for a Tigers team that still isn't on the same level as Cleveland, Chicago, or -- depending upon who's pitching -- the Twins. For that reason the business about one-run losses being a sign of a bad manager won't wash in 2006 anymore than it was valid when it was applied to Alan Trammell.

Another advantage to having signed Todd Jones last week: The Tigers don't have to designate late-innings roles that tend to put pressure on younger players. Fernando Rodney, Franklyn German and Chris Spurling can be used interchangeably in late-innings situations. The set-up guy is the pitcher with the hot hand or the one with an evolving comfort level. Jones simply makes the other assignments easier and more effective for everyone.

Still looking for right-handed pitching and apparently they have an interest in Dunn...