Apparently he's worth very little. The Tigers traded Farnsworth to the Braves for two quarts of oil and some water balloons just before the trade deadline. The Tigers started the season with a bullpen featuring Troy Percival, Ugie Urbina, and Kyle Farnsworth. A grand total of zero of those players are still with the team. This trade tells us three things 1). Dombrowski felt that re-signing Farnsworth was going to be difficult 2). The Tigers feel good about Franklyn German and Fernando Rodney and 3). Dombrowski realizes that making the playoffs is probably not going to happen.
German and Rodney have been very impressive. Jamie Walker has also been dependable. I'm a big proponent of trading commodities when the situation presents itself. The Tigers are not going to pass seven teams to earn the AL wild card spot. I understand that signing Farnsworth in the off-season was never a guarantee so it's possible that Dombrowski decided it was better to cash him in than wait and possibly get nothing. If that was the case, then I think he did the right thing. I also understand that Rondell White's shoulder injury made it nearly impossible find a team willing to take him.
I'm really only perplexed by the fact that Jason Johnson and Mike Maroth are both still with the team. From all accounts, the buyers far outweighed the sellers at the deadline. This should've meant good things for the Tigers. I don't see either pitcher being a long term solution in the starting rotation. Neither pitcher will ever be significanly better than they are right now. Neither has been dependable at any point in their career. I probably would've traded Jason Johnson for pretty much anything since he'll be a free agent. Though, there is no guarantee that anybody was inquiring about him. There must be a fondness for Maroth in the front office but a 28 year old, soft-tossing right-hander is not a pillar of a franchise. I was hoping Dombrowski would unload a little more. I might be in the minority but if they're trading Farnsworth, they should've tried hard to trade Johnson and/or Maroth. I suppose it's possible that there were no takers.
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The reason is that Dombrowski got those two players for free if he thinks he can re-sign Farnsworth. How many teams that will be players in FA next year need a closer? None. What will Farnsworth do in Atlanta? Set-up man who will not prove himself as a closer to collect that big check he wants. Tigers offered him a three or four year deal at 3.5 mill a year and he said no because he wanted big closer money.
So even if he gets a chance in Atlanta then good for everyone because he proves he can close and the Tigers will have to pony up a few more bucks. But if not they get him cheaper than they can get him now and get two prospects for free.
Oil, grease, toothpick, lumber, and hydrogen that one for later.
PS: Alan Trammell stinks. Did you hear that a few players heard him say "the game is over" when they were down by seven to Seattle? He's the Monte Clark of baseball managers. Bring on Sweet Lou please.
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