Tigers Win tonight behind stellar pitching from Verlander, going 8 innings giving up 2 runs with only 101 pitches, Nathan comes in and gets the save (without allowing a run).
I think Smyly and Jackson will both be missed ...Tigers recent trades/acquisitions are a win-at-all-costs now move IMO. My take:
- The loss of two promising young starting pitchers may come back to haunt the team, but there are so many hot prospects with so few becoming rock-solid, reliable, big league pitchers. If the the Tigers win the World Series then this trade will be forgotten...even if one or both become stars.
- The loss of Drew Smyly is negligible IMO. Sure, he had his moments but, even if all goes well, I think his potential is to be a mediocre big league pitcher (which isn't bad) so the loss shouldn't be too great.
- The loss of Jackson...however, is huge! Austin is a star in Center Field and, at age 27, he is really starting to hone his skills at the plate so I expect him to average .280 or better over the next 5-6 (his baseball prime) and with speed on the bases too. We're going to miss AJ in the future.
With the recent acquisitions, the pitching is pretty solid...the offense is solid (although we could sure use Peralta's bat)...defense and baserunning are better than average. Tigers must win the World Series this year and the season will be an epic failure IMO.
And the Yanks will be facing the last 3 AL Cy Young winners in one series.
He did ....Max pitched a great game this afternoon...and Nathan is trying his best to blow it in the 9th.
He did ....
As much as I like Joe Nathan, we gotta get Soria in there in the 9th, sit Joe down for a few weeks.
Losing too many games, it's one thing when your up by 10 games.
Only a 1 1/2 game lead now, time to take it serious.First, we gotta win the AL Central...then, we gotta sit Nathan in the post-season. With our less-than-stellar bullpen, we should have a 3-man starting rotation and place 2 starting pitched in bullpen.