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Tigers having season to forget

Ken Davidoff

2:51 PM EDT, September 3, 2008

Whatever you want to say about the Yankees' disappointing 2008 season, they did warn us, sort of, beforehand. When they passed on trading for Johan Santana, the Yankees essentially announced that they were thinking big-picture.

Missing the playoffs suddenly became more likely than it had been since Buck Showalter's early years as the team's manager.

But while the Yankees were telling the Twins, "Thanks, but no thanks" last December, the Tigers lit up the winter meetings with their massive trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis.

You could argue, therefore, that it's the $137 million Tigers who are this year's worst team money could buy.

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"It really has been a situation where it hasn't been a good year. It hasn't been a good year in any aspect," Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski said Tuesday. "From our starting pitching, to our bullpen, to our offense, things haven't worked out as we hoped."

It's remarkable, when you think about the optimism that surrounded the Tigers last winter. By spring training, some concern lingered over the pitchers, but ... how could you not love that lineup?

But now, at 66-72 and in fourth place in the American League Central, Jim Leyland's team will have to put together an impressive run just to avoid a losing record. No team with such a high payroll -- and really, we're talking about the Yankees and Red Sox -- has put up a losing record.

While their offense hasn't produced at the desired, prolific level -- former Yankee Gary Sheffield and shortstop Edgar Renteria rank among the biggest disappointments -- their 695 runs rank right behind AL Central co-leaders Minnesota (703) and the White Sox (696). No, it's the pitching that has crushed the Tigers. Only four teams have given up more than the 703 runs the Tigers have surrendered.

They lacked starting pitching depth even at the season's outset, and none of the original rotation -- Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertston, Kenny Rogers, Justin Verlander and Willis -- have even remotely lived up to their standards.

Their bullpen, too, has been terrible, posting a 4.48 ERA, third-worst in the AL. Their 21 blown saves don't even tell the whole story, as oftentimes -- like Monday's 13-9 loss to the Yankees, the relievers enter the game while losing close and proceed to dig a deeper hole.

Dombrowski is in, essentially, his 19th season as a general manager (in 1992, he worked as the GM of the not-yet-born Marlins), but he refused to label this season his greatest disappointment. Said Dombrowski: "I've really tried to stay away from summarizing in September. We need to get the whole year under our belt. There's 25 games left. If you win 20 of those, you feel different."

Realistically, however, it's time to look forward to next year.

Rogers and Renteria won't be here, but the bulk of the club figures to be back. Dombrowski said he doesn't anticipate tearing things down, explaining, "We think we have some good players in the organization. We look forward to bouncing back.

"We have guys in their mid-20s like Cabrera, (Curtis) Granderson, Verlander. Those are core-type players, going forward. That's a good place to start. Those are guys who have been All-Stars in recent years."

The greatest concerns have to be Verlander, who has a 4.74 ERA after putting up a 3.63 and 3.66 in his first two full big-league seasons, and Willis, who has spent nearly all of the season in the minor leagues after getting a three-year, $29-million extension from the Tigers last winter.

On Verlander, "If we knew the answer for sure, you'd fix it," Dombrowski said. "He has not been as consistent from day one. He hasn't had his fastball command at all. His velocity is fine, his stuff is fine. ... He's just not as consistent."

Willis, whose mechanical breakdown put him in the minor leagues, has a 4.47 ERA in 56 1/3 minor-league innings. On Tuesday, he threw a simulated game for Tigers management.

"We're trying to make him a successful pitcher for 2009," Dombrowski said. "There's no question he's made significant strides. The next step is to get on a big-league mound and be successful."

Whether that will happen that year isn't clear yet.

Dombrowski and Leyland, the manager, have extensive resumes, and this season will be a blight on both. That's why the Tigers already rank as one of the most interesting stories to watch for next year.

Robby Reaction

It's one thing to put together a subpar season. It's another to generate the sort of negative buzz that Robinson Cano has, in the first year of his $30-million contract.

"He plays like he could care less," said one scout from an AL team who saw Cano recently. "His body language is terrible."

Cano always has had that nonchalance, particularly on defense.

Teammates have called his unnecessary styling "Robbyisms." But when you carry yourself that way and your numbers are terrible, people will talk.

Should the Yankees trade Cano? Then they'll be giving up their youngest everyday player. So, no. They should sit down with him, dissect what happened and do everything to ensure this is an aberration.