The first of the longtime Tigers is gone. The man who will be more closely associated with the awful year of 2003, Mike Maroth, was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals for a player to be named later today. For being Job, for shouldering that suffering, for being the good team member all along, for being a guy with a smile on his face and a positive word on hs lips despite everything, including being injured in the Tigers turnaround year and missing the playoff roster, Maroth will truly be missed.

But baseball is a business, and the business is based on winning. Unfortunately, Maroth was never good enough — even in the years so lowly he was considered the ace of the team. He may be the nicest guy in the world, and you want him to find success in his major league career, but he just isn’t good enough to play for a contender. There are plenty of players good enough to be major leaguers, but not good enough to play for winners. Lord knows, the Tigers are familiar with those guys. During other circumstances, maybe Maroth could have found the ultimate success in the pros with the Tigers, but when injuries and a weak bullpen started to add up, he couldn’t be carried and his soft tossing, high hit count, high ERA just wasn’t going to carry water.

We can’t feel too sorry for him. Just being in the majors may not be enough for men of great competitive nature, but it’s important to remember, he’s still living his dream. He’d had an opportunity few people have.

I know I’ll keep up with his career in St. Louis. He’ll probably turn out to be better in the National League. Good luck, Mike.

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Ken Rosenthal reported first at Fox Sports Mike Maroth has been dealt to the St. Louis Cardinals.

MORE as I get it.

No clue as to what the Tigers got for him yet.

Update: Is still true. They received a player to be named later from a selection of minor leaguers. Reaction to follow.

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The first of the Tigers’ roster moves happened this afternoon when Wil Ledezma was traded to the Braves for lefty reliever Macay McBride.

McBride this year has the statline: 3.60ERA, 1.93 WHIP, 17K, 15BB, .237 BAA in 15 innings.

His splits make it clear he is best used as a LOOGY. Lefties struggle against him. Righties tee off.

This is opposed to Ledezma, who offered up meatballs to guys on both sides of the plate so far this season and actually did better against righties. He allowed nearly .400 OBP to both sides of the plate. He’ll probably do better in the NL.

This deal would be, at best, a wash, and really, at worst, a wash, if not for the difference in options. McBride can go down the minors, allowing Detroit some roster flexibility. Ledezma was out of options and not performing. That the Tigers got anything for him makes me happy.

An impact trade? No. A useful one? Quite likely. It’s quite fine by me.

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The Tigers sent one of their extra outfield prospects to the Seattle Mariners for a right-handed minor league relief pitcher. The Tigers prospect you ought to have heard of: Jeff Frazier. He played in Lakeland in high-A and had some upside but was seen as expendable because Detroit is actually pretty deep at the OF position. The Mariners prospect — Yorman Bazardo — I hadn’t, but John Sickels at Minor League Ball ranked him ninth in the Seattle organization.

MLB.com Tigers beat writer Jason Beck gets the hat-tip for this blog post at Baseball America about Bazardo.

Yorman Bazardo–who has been outstanding since the Mariners designated him for assignment after signing Jeff Weaver–and Francisco Butto were two of the main reasons Venezuela was able to put away Puerto Rico on Tuesday and hand the Caribbean Series title to the Dominican Republic.

Bazardo (and we’ll have a scout’s view on him coming soon), was impressive, flashing a low 90s four-seamer and a hard curveball with good late life, looks like he’s approaching this Series as a showcase since being removed from the Mariners’ 40-man roster.

My first impression is this is a pretty nice trade here. He looks like an interesting pitcher, not a starter, but someone to keep the minor league shelves stocked and has some chance at making it to Detroit, and Frazier was going to have a lot of hurdles in front of him anyway with Cameron Maybin, Curtis Granderson and Magglio Ordonez penciled in as the outfield through 2010 with a good possibility of Gorkys Hernandez or Brent Clevlen being backups.

More later today, plus a few links of interest from the past few days.

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