• I had planned on writing about Ryan Perry on the Tigers’ off day Monday. I thought I might look at his walks and explore whether the Tigers might be better off sending him to the minors to work on his control. They beat me to the punch.
• Perry was optioned to Triple-A Toledo after the game today and, unlike last time when he hadn’t even gotten a chance to get into a game, this time he ought to stay for awhile. Control is the issue more than anything. He exhibited the problem from the first week, but you thought it could be chalked up to nerves. Unfortunately, he seems to have gotten worse as the season progressed. He walked six and allowed eight hits in 12-2/3 innings in May, now he’s walked five to go with 12 hits in 7 innings in June. The Tigers need Perry as a contributor, not a warm body. So hopefully he gets it back together and can rejoin the team for the stretch run.
• As for who joins the Tigers … who knows. I can’t even guess what their game plan is at this point. There are two directions they could go, and they may not make an announcement before Tuesday.
• They could move Armando Galarraga to the bullpen to take over Perry’s middle relief role and call up another starter. Maybe that would finally be Lucas French from Toledo, to fulfill a need for a left-handed starter. I can’t really think of any other good options. Eddie Bonine maybe?
• They could call up a reliever to take Perry’s place. They seem to want to keep Lyon in the late-game role for now, and he’s done OK. Not great, but OK. So they could pretty much tab anyone, from one of the above starters to a minor league reliever.
• The guy I’m curious about is Casey Fien from Toledo. The Tigers were high on him. He’ got a nice strikeouts rate (8.9 / 9 IP) and a nice walk rate (2.9/9). He’s given up a lot of hits, but with a .374 BABIP and 22% line drive rate, that’s probably some bad luck as much as anything. That gives him at 3.37 FIP as opposed to an ERA of 4.78.
• Lefty Taiwan-product Fu-Te Ni may be ready for his major league addition, or a long shot may be right-hander Zach Simons from Double-A Erie. Simons walks a few too many but strikes out a lot.
• The other big announcement was that manager Jim Leyland plans to break up his horses, Justin Verlander and Edwin Jackson. Using Monday’s off day, he plans to move Alfredo Figaro in between them.
• The thinking there is that neither Verlander or Jackson typically needs much help from the bullpen. Meanwhile in the past, 20-year-old Rick Porcello has had his pitch counted limited, awhile Armando Galarraga and Dontrelle Willis struggled to go deep into games. So the bullpen would be taxed for three games. That, and for the past six weeks or so, the Tigers had almost no shot at winning whatever series Verlander and Jackson were not part of.
• Breaking up the horses, and additing a pretty-good pitching Figaro to the rotation may go a long way to balancing things out.
• I was gong to say something about Magglio Ordonez’s agent Scott Boras minding his own business and letting the Tigers run their own team, but thought I’d hold off for some off-day blogging. I think Leyland did a pretty good job of it. Boras did a great job of spinning the offensive numbers — as he is allowed to do. He left out the awful June, and forgot that this isn’t fantasy baseball. These guys have to play defense, too, and Ordonez is really awful compared to most of the Tigers’ options.
• Billfer had a pretty good look at it all.
• Take 75 North has a first-look at the short-season Oneonta roster. That team typically features a lot of draft picks.
• And finally, as we get to within six weeks or so of the trade deadline: Who’s buying and who’s selling? It’s too early for most teams to admit to their fan base they’re giving in. Baltimore says they’re not the farm system for the rest of the MLB, so stop thinking about Aubrey Huff. (Or not?) Colorado, meanwhile has won 16-of-17, or maybe it’s going to be 17-of-18 now. Something insanely high, anyway. So maybe Brad Hawpe isn’t so available now that they are in the wild card race.

A few more links added at 8 p.m.:

• Alfredo Figaro’s debut looked at closer (Fire Jim Leyland)
• J. Ellet Lambie has a new blogging venture coming soon. (Hazaa)
• Big JP gives a lot of credit to Marcus Thames. (Always a Tiger)

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