Marcus Thames left the game after his catch, obviously in pain and clutching his leg. While the leg was massaged and stretched by the trainer, Rod Allen wondered if it was a cramp. Postgame, Jim Leyland said Thames was “not good” and second-guessed his decision to play him in left. (How could he know there was a chance Thames would run like the wind, catch the ball and hurt himself? Was there a pre injury?)

“Not good. I’m really not sure I hadn’t screwed that [move] up, to be honest with you. I could’ve left Raburn in the game and put Grandy in center field in Marcus’ spot, but I kept thinking about Marcus’ long ball. If they tied it up or something, Marcus would’ve been coming up. But who knows, Raburn might not have caught it. But the catch might be a little expensive, because he’s not good.” (Beck’s blog)

That shuffle would have worked fine, I’m sure, but at the time I didn’t see any reason for it and I don’t really see it now. Thames’ power stroke is exactly the reason to keep him, though Raburn played well.

Like Bilfer thought, if the Tigers send Thames to the disabled list, they’ll need a backup first baseman. And that could be our lil buddy, Chris Shelton.

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Joel Zumaya and Fernando Rodney played a short game of catch Thursday. (Strange term when you think about it. Who wins catch?)

Real quote (in Det News):

Zumaya: “I’m a little pumped. I can’t get too excited. But I’m actually really excited. I slept with my glove last night. I knew I was throwing. But I didn’t really sleep at all. The glove was with me all day in the plane and all last night in the bed.”

My imagination:
Zumaya: yay catch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! will you play catch with me, ‘Nando?
Fernando Rodney: I dunno kid, my arm kinda hurts
Zoomer: Pweeeeeeeeas Uncle ‘Nando?
Rodney: Well, OK, but only briefly.
Zoomer: YAYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!

Zumaya, who has no clue when he’ll be back, now thinks mid-August. I still think late August. Just about a week to 10 days ago, he said September. Rodney will be back within weeks probably. Both will have rehab assignments, Danny Knobler reports.

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In a rehab start with Toledo, Kenny Rogers threw 51 pitches — just about what was expected. He went 3 2/3 innings, allowing three hits and no runs, striking out two. Of course, he said don’t look at the results, whether they be good or bad. But since we’re not privvy to whatever conversation Rogers had with Jim Leyland tonight or what they’ll talk about tomorrow, we really can’t read too much into it.

“I felt pretty good. I was pretty comfortable,” said Rogers, who gave up three hits and struck out two. “From the get-go, I felt like I knew where the ball was going and had the ability to change speeds a little bit when I needed to.”

All of the familiar skills were on showcase for Rogers: Solid defense, a pickoff, quality off-speed pitches, a fastball that reached 88 mph and good location — all staples in the Rogers repertoire — were displayed on Sunday. (MLB.com)

In any case, those were good numbers. His next start is in Western Michigan because it’s the only nearby Tigers affiliate playing at home.

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Just as I thought, Nate Robertson is hurt. The Tigers didn’t disclose what. Just said the mysterious “tired arm.” I don’t know what that means. I have no clue if the Tigers know what that mean, but the last time we heard that Kenny Rogers had surgery for a possibly life-threatening blood clot within days. I’m certainly not saying we’re going to find out Nate has an injury that severe. But I do mean to say, this can pretty much mean anything at all is wrong with him, from light to severe. So who knows. But I’m glad he’s on the DL to find out what’s wrong and rest it.

The good news is Andrew Miller got that call back to Detroit and will start at least twice, depending on the severity of the injury. I always pictured Miller replacing one of the weaker guys at the bottom of the order. But his replacing Robertson is probably not a dropoff at all. Miller pitched great against the Cardinals earlier. If I counted right, he’ll start against the Mets this weekend. Remember, the plan was for Miller to be on the World Series roster if the Mets had taken down the Cardinals in the seventh game of the NLCS, so that is sort of interesting.

In any case, I don’t mean to get excited over an injury to Robertson, but I am tickled — hee hee, like Jim Leyland! — to have Miller back up in the majors.

UPDATE

Long as I’m at it, let me add that Zach Miner also went to the DL, per Danny Knobler:

Rather than go short in the bullpen, the Tigers put Miner on the disabled list. They recalled both Yorman Bazardo and Aquilino Lopez from Triple-A Toledo.

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The bullpen is a big problem. That seems to be a popular topic. Todd Jones:

“If we don’t start taking advantage of our opportunities, Dave (Dombrowski) is going to close the door by going with other guys.

“And it’s time for all of us to realize that and understand it and be able to produce. I’m talking about me and everybody.” (Freep)

Whether it’s important contributers getting injured — Joel Zumaya’s finger, Fernando Rodney making a second trip to the DL — important contributers who haven’t duplicated 2006 — Jason Grilli, Wil Ledezma — or a roundup of guys going through the two bullpen positions that remain — Aqualino Lopez, Tim Byrdak, Bobby Seay — the bullpen is shaky at best, awful at worst, during the innings before Jones.

Any visiting Cleveland fans can probably sympathize. It was just a year ago they had solid starting pitching (ERA around 4 if I recall) and similarly strong batting and they were no longer in contention by the time most of us sat down on the beach.

Bullpens are by nature streaky and hard to figure out. But I think we’ve figured out this one is no good and must blown up. Dave Dombrowski must make some big changes, or the Tigers are going to find themselves in an uphill battle the rest of the season. No one should think an ERA above 5 — and the heavy lifters closer to the 6s — is acceptable or an aberration. Many of these guys were slated for Toledo, not a contender. They can’t be expected to pitch for a contender.

Who goes?

Jason Grilli. He just doesn’t have it. Thanks for his service in 2006, but he can’t be carried any more than Chris Shelton could.

Jose Mesa. No brainer.

Wil Ledezma is on the hot seat, but young and has starter potential that makes me not want to just cut strings. I’d rather get something in return.

Bobby Seay or Tim Byrdak. Only one can be a lefty specialist. As is it, there are two specialists and both are used in extended roles that do not benefit them. Both are pretty darn decent, too. I like Byrdak’s strikeout pitch this year, but Seay found good success, too.

By my figuring, that makes 2 or 3 guys who it’s time to ditch. So what are some possibilities?

Promotion from within

The options I’d like to see explored not altogether that different than in the past. For one, you’ve got to get a closer look at Eulogio De La Cruz and his ability to force the ball into the ground. His power pitching comes across as Zumaya-like enough that it brings hope, not desperation. He’s young and he failed as a minor league reliever a few years ago. But now that he’s learned how to pitch, I think the Tigers really have to give a look. Ultimately, he’s going to end up in the pen or starting another team.

Scott Warheit suggests moving Chad Durbin to the bullpen (for his reliability, shockingly) and starting Andrew Miller. On a temporary basis, I’m on board with this. We still have to watch Miller’s innings. Hard to remember, but this is his first year of professional ball. Fortunately, Miller does not need to start all season and give the Tigers 200 innings. He only needs to fill the time until Rogers and Zumaya can step back into their roles. Durbin is an improvement over guys in the bullpen, and Miller is an improvement over Durbin, so I like this.

Free Agents

There’s even some talk of Troy Percival making a comeback. At first I laughed. Now I’m intrigued. Again, that sort of speaks of the desperation of the situation. At least he likes Detroit. I have no idea if he can do the job but Todd Jones said Percy would like to play in Detroit after failing to play for much of his 2 year, $12M contract. He wants to come help. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Let him try.

Trades

And then there’s the trade route. This may have to be explored. And I have no problem trading young starting pitching for effective bullpen pitching. You want your starters around. But when you consider that by 2009, four of the rotation spots will be held by young guys, that leaves a lot of good, young minor league pitchers switching to the bullpen or being traded. Right now, Eric Gagne is a popular name, as the Texas Rangers continue going nowhere. His injury history scares me away from giving much at all. But as a Rangers salary dump, I wouldn’t be against it. Brad Lidge wants to be a closer, but he’s proven to be a great middle reliever in Houston. He may be on the block. That’s the direction I’d prefer to go, unless the price was too high.

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Yesterday, Matt Wallace said that the most likely candidates to fill in during Joel Zumaya’s absence are Eulogio De La Cruz, Virgil Vasquez, Jair Jurrjens or Dallas Trahern. Here’s a closer look at the four. I spend most of the time looking at the top two prospects - in my opinion. You’ll notice I leave out Andrew Miller. I just think he needs more pro innings and I think the Tigers agree. Plus you probably know a thing or two about him already.

Eulogio De La Cruz

Transformed from a reliever to a starter, the 23-year-old righty from the Dominacin is the hard-throwing ace of the Erie rotation. While he is a strikeout artist — 20 in his last two games — the thing of interest about him is how he goes against the flamethrower prototype: He’s just 5-foot-11, 175 pounds.

But even when he’s not racking up Ks, he has been forcing batters to put the ball on the ground a lot (a ratio of 3:1 this year, 1.78:1 last). He gave up four homers in 107 innings last year. So, basically, this is exactly the guy you trust a lead with in late innings, and the kind of guy who can throw water on an opponent’s rally.

His WHIP is just more than 1, and Baseball America put him as the No. 6 prospect and ranked his fastball and curveball as the best in the Tigers minors. I’ve read his fastball is typically as high as 97, but also that he can throw 100.
Both Jason Beck and Lynn Henning wrote about him today as well.

Vasquez

Virgil Vasquez, 24, is the surprise strikeout artist atop the Toledo rotation. Like De La Cruz, he’s a starter. Unlike De La Cruz, he doesn’t rely on speed, he is a soft thrower with immaculate control. He may have turned the corner this fall in the Arizona Fall League, where he went most of the short season throwing shutout inning after shutout inning against some of baseball’s top prospects.

This year, he has 50 strikeouts in 40.2 innings, adding another nine Monday. He has walked 10. He doesn’t have the groundball ratio that De La Cruz does, nor the ability to keep the ball in the park.

Based on a glance at the splits for De La Cruz and Vasquez, it appears that Vasquez is a bit better with runners in scoring position, But of course, be warned that’s a small sample size.

I see him as more of a possible Chad Durbin replacement than a guy who’d take over for Zumaya, but I consider him a strong candidate if the Tigers fill Zumaya’s absence internally.

Jurrjens

Jair Jurrjens, 21, is another top pitching prospect in Erie. He seems like he’s still warming up this season, with 19 strikeouts in 24 innings but a WHIP just over 1 and ERA of 3.65. His groundball rate is 1.85:1 currently, and was closer to 2:1 for the 2006 season, so it’s pretty consistent. But at his age, I think there’s no reason the Tigers will rush him.

Trahern

Dallas Trahern is a lot like his Erie pitching mates. The 21-year-old brings a 1.88 ERA and a groundball ratio of 3.29:1 to the table. He doesn’t seem as good as keeping runners off the bases, but his WHIP of 1.20 isn’t too bad. But at this point, I think he’s a bit on the green side, so I wouldn’t too much thought into his being a Tiger anytime soon. Still, you never know.

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Just as the Tigers were celebrating another comeback Saturday against the Royals, waiting for Joel Zumaya to make an entrance from the bullpen to hold the lead, it happened. A pop. Pain. Another pop. A call to the trainer. And just like that, the feared setup man was lost.

Zumaya saw a hand specialist in New York today, the same doctor who did the work on Gary Sheffield’s wrist last season. Tom Gage of the News is now reporting the results were a ruptured tendon and 12 week minimum for recovery.

As well, Sunday, Jim Leyland made a suspicious statement.

Leyland said: “If this thing is more significant, which I’m assuming it probably is, then we’ll weigh … whether (to) bring up some starter, or go with a reliever. There are some (factors) that I can’t talk about.” (Freep)

And with that, we kick off the speculation. Does this mean the Tigers will make a free agent or trade move? Will someone get called up from the minors? We’ll possibly learn more soon. I asked Matt Wallace of the Tigers minor leagues blog, Take 75 North, his opinions on what possibilities there are inside the organization.

—

Me: We’ve heard from Jim Leyland that there may be some shuffling that involves a new starter and Chad Durbin to the bullpen. Who do you think are the leading candidates if a starter were to come up? Obviously I liked Virgil Vasquez‘ numbers in Toledo, but what are your feelings about the guys in Erie or maybe Andrew Miller?

Matt Wallace: At Toledo, I can’t see bringing up anybody besides Virgil Vasquez. He’s been pitching well, and while I’m still a little skeptical about how his game will translate to the majors, he seems to have figured out a way to miss some bats.

In Erie, (Jair) Jurrjens and (Dallas) Trahern are very young and Jurrjens seems to show some signs of his youth, like getting a little flustered when things aren’t going well and giving up hits as a result. I doubt they send up Trahern since he’s only made six starts at AA. I’d put (Eulogio) De La Cruz as the most likely pick from Erie, and maybe even above Vasquez. He’s had consecutive ten strikeout complete games and his stuff makes people wonder why he hasn’t been doing that his whole career.

As far as Lakeland, I’d be shocked if they gave Miller the call since they apparently just recently adjusted his delivery (according to Lynn Henning, and since it’s not a trade rumor, I’ll trust his report) and he’s really only had one good start in his last three.

Me: If the Tigers were looking to bring a guy up from the system who resembles Zumaya — obviously no one can replace him — someone who can throw hard and take late-innings pressure, who do you think are leading candidates?

Matt: I think if they’re looking to bring somebody up who resembles Zumaya, de la Cruz would be the closest thing (mid to high 90s fastball, nasty curveball), but I’m pretty sure injury concerns were part of his move to the rotation, so that’s probably not likely.

Baseball America seems to think the Yorman Bazardo as starter experiment might be nearing an end, so I guess they could call him up, but he’d probably be at the back of the bullpen with everybody else taking one step forward. After all, he’s a fastball-changeup guy so I’d be nervous teaming him with Fernando Rodney.

Personally, I think if they go with a reliever, they’ll look outside the organization unless Roman Colon is close to coming back. I haven’t heard his name in a while, though, so that doesn’t seem likely. But I figured a trade was what Leyland was talking about when he said there were factors he couldn’t get into.

Me: Of the two possibilities, care to make any guesses about which is more likely?

Matt: I hate guessing on roster moves because we’re so grossly underinformed on so many of the things they consider, but my best guess is they bring in a reliever from outside the organization. I say that because moving Durbin to the bullpen doesn’t really address their new bullpen concerns and it also just adds to your unknowns by bringing in a new fifth starter. If they just plug in a reliever they think can help, at least they know what they have with the rest of the staff.

Who would that be? I have no idea. All this stuff I’m doing for MVN and watching the Tigers taxes just about all my time for baseball. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for any irregularities in the rotations down there. If Vasquez doesn’t throw against Rochester tonight, we may have our answer. For now, let’s just hope Zumaya is only out for two or three weeks and they can put a bucket under the leak until then.

—

I want to thank Matt for answering the questions. I fully endorse his blog as the best information on what’s going on throughout the Tigers’ farm.

I think the Tigers might look outside the organization too, and I really would prefer to see Durbin avoid high-stress late innings situations. I also agree with Matt, Andrew Miller isn’t even a possibility. He’s being groomed to start and, regardless, needs the minor league innings. So looking outside the organization makes sense if they can find someone at the right price.

I don’t think Dave Dombrowski will take too long to make a move.

New: I added links to the minor leaguers mentioned. Also Knobler opines at Mlive

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The Tigers did get some good news yesterday, at least. Kenny Rogers was in Detroit after the initial recovery period of his shoulder surgery went well. And not only was Rogers in Detroit — where he’s bound to make a quick impact on the young pitchers — he was able to throw the baseball for the first time since underdoing a procedure to remove a blood clot from this throwing arm.

From Beck’s article:

“I’m not here to waste time,” Rogers said Friday evening. “I want to get ready.”

Rogers doesn’t have a set timetable of when he’d like to be on the mound for Detroit, but he does hope it’s before the All-Star break.

But I really don’t think it can be understated what having a veteran presence like Rogers can do for the young staff. Hopefully he’s got a few words of advice he can pass on to the bullpen, too.

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Vance Wilson rejoined the Tigers in Baltimore tonight. The Freep reported Wilson won’t require surgery, but will take at least a month off to rest his throwing arm and build the strength back up.

That’s certainly good news, as the Tigers catching depth is not too deep, and in tonight’s game, we saw Pudge Rodriguez go down after taking a foul ball off his foot. He stayed in the game, but it was pretty scary for a moment to think of Mike Rabelo as a starting catcher for any period of time, and who knows what backing him up. Dane Sardinha starts in Toledo, but I suspect at that point Detroit would start looking around.

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On the ESPN broadcast of the Tigers-Yankees game, they said the Tigers announced Rogers had surgery on his shoulder for the blood clot and will be out at least three months. More information when more is available. But I have a feeling we’re going to see Andrew Miller a lot sooner than we expected.

Update 1: Or it could be 6-8 weeks, per radio.

Update 2: Knobler says 3 months, minimum.

Update 3: Lowe has the best writeup so far, at the Freep.

The surgery was done at Baylor Medical Center in Dallas, by the same doctor who operated on Rogers in 2001, Lowe wrote. The blood clot was removed, and two arteries were repaird.

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