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• The Nationals landed Doug Fister in a trade with the Tigers, and there was a lot of surprise in the industry because Fister has been one of the better pitchers in MLB in recent seasons and because Fister wasn't perceived to be widely marketed. The perception of some talent evaluators was that the Tigers should've gotten more in return. Fister, said one evaluator, "is good and he's cheap and under control, and it's been shown that teams are starved for starting pitching." There was some regression in some of Fister's numbers last season, with his fastball velocity down a bit; the OPS of opponents climbed from .698 to .781. Some of that could be related to the Tigers' defense; the opponents' batting average on balls in play against Fister was a whopping .332. You wonder if this is a case of the Tigers seeing some cracks and wanting to make a move early, rather than too late. But Dave Cameron writes here that there's an easy comparison between Fister and James Shields. And it should be noted that Fister has absolutely dominated NL opponents in his career, posting a 2.04 ERA in 79 1/3 innings with a strikeout rate of 21 percent. The trade is not being received well by Tigers fans. Drew Sharp writes that Dave Dombrowski deserves the benefit of the doubt. Dombrowski made it clear that the Tigers aren't cutting payroll. Robbie Ray is the key to the deal for the Tigers. Detroit is betting that the 22-year-old Ray will refine his control. His numbers in the minors: 2011: 38 walks, 12 hit batters and 8 wild pitches in 89 innings (3.8 BB/9) 2012: 49 walks, 11 hit batters and 13 wild pitches in 105 2/3 innings (4.2 BB/9) 2013: 62 walks, 10 hit batters and 8 wild pitches in 142 innings (3.9 BB/9) Detroit's priority now is landing a closer, and some Tigers evaluators have indicated to others they prefer Brian Wilson to Joe Nathan.
Olney weigh in. He's not impressed.
Woke up and remembered this happened. (Image removed from quote.)
I think you're taking it a bit far to say he wasn't impressed. I think he was looking at the trade impartially for both sides.
dschoenfield David SchoenfieldJust wondering: Maybe AL contenders offered more for Fister but Dombrowski wanted to keep him out of the AL?
dschoenfield David SchoenfieldRe: Concerns about Fister's fastball velocity. Actually allowed lower slugging pct in 2013 despite BA 32 pts higher.dschoenfield David SchoenfieldIncreased average was all singles driven, which perhaps hints at Fielder, Cabrera playing behind him.
Harper and Werth going on the shelf and LaRoche sucking sucked more life out of the team than Espinosa did.
Well this was a nice trade.Still cant score runs though.
Olney mentions that Fister's velocity is down. He fails to mention that Scherzer, Porcello and Smyly's velocities were also down. Not to mention Verlander.
[color=navyPS: This also does hurt our bench and I will miss Lombo.[/color]
I need to learn photoshop so I can put Strasburg, Gio, Fister, and Jzimm into this (Image removed from quote.)
Before acquiring Ian Kinsler, Detroit was offered Howie Kendrick from the Angels in a deal that would have included Fister, MLB.com's Alden Gonzalez tweets, but declined that option.