There was an old Saturday Night Live skit with Phil Hartman as Jimmy The Greek where the racist-y football handicapper wouldn't make a straightforward prediction: "Raiders-Broncos. I like the Raiders, but you can't count out Denver."
So goes the instant analysis of the Tigers trade with the Washington Nationals. Detroit gave up Doug Fister for a utility infielder and two young left-handed pitchers. Who got the best of the deal? The pundits like the upside of the Tigers' new pitchers, but they can't dismiss Doug Fister's value either.
Lynn Henning, Detroit News: A team wants to win a world championship in 2014. So, it trades one of its foundational pitchers, a right-handed sharpshooter with an assassin’s cool, for — are the fans ready? — a pair of semi-anonymous, 22-year-old, left-handed pitchers and a 25-year-old utility man with a career batting average of .264.
So, Lynn doesn't like the deal? No, he does!
Henning: [F]or all the loot the Tigers sent Monday to the Nationals in Doug Fister, they probably pulled off another deal that makes them better for the long term, and quite possibly for 2014.
Here are some other, equally hedged assessments of the deal.
Drew Sharp, Detroit Free Press: Considering Dave Dombrowski’s penchant for fleecing those willing to trade with him, any initial shock and disappointment over the Tigers parting with Doug Fister on Monday night should be balanced with the likelihood that Dombrowski saw something in the two anonymous 22-year-old left-handed pitchers that will turn this deal with Washington into a plus-acquisition for the Tigers.
Bryan Kilpatrick, SB Nation: A minor-league starter a year removed from a bad season, an unproven reliever and a guy who has been worth -0.4 WAR in two big-league seasons. Or a potential mid-rotation starter, a left-handed bullpen piece with an ability to get strikeouts and a run-of-the-mill utility player. Only time will tell which version of the package Dombrowski gets, and whether or not it will match what they're losing in Fister who, the last time he was traded, netted a group that totaled 1.5 WAR for the Mariners.
Mike Bauman, MLB.com: The best trades are often made when neither club is dealing from a position of weakness. That was certainly the case here with both clubs. The Tigers' trading track record is beyond question. But the striking thing here was the Nationals' willingness to give up talent to acquire another front-line starter, an established Major League performer.
Mike Axisa, CBS Sports: Either way, ERA+ or WAR, the Nationals now boast baseball's best rotation foursome, a title that used to belong to the Tigers, Fister's former team. Washington could use a potted plant as their fifth starter (not really) and they'd still have the best rotation in baseball, at least on paper. Credit GM Mike Rizzo for being aggressive and not being afraid to swap prospects for Gonzalez and Fister.
Obviously any talk about baseball's best rotation in December refers how to how each team looks on paper. Who knows what will happen once the season gets underway? Players (especially pitchers) have a tendency to get hurt and underperform for no apparent reason.
And while much of the talk about this deal centers on Tigers' two new pitchers, Robbie Ray and Ian Krol, expect Steve Lombardozzi to be the fan favorite. He was basically Washington's answer to Brandon Inge: All "gamer," no talent.
Adam Kilgore, Washington Post: Lombardozzi, an Atholton High grad who still lived in his home town of Columbia, had become a beloved teammate and a fan favorite for his hustle and intelligence. As a freshman at Atholton, his coach played him on the grass for fear he could not make the throw across the infield. Now he’s a big leaguer, entrenched as a steady pinch hitter. But he also had a .264 batting average, a .297 on-base percentage and .342 slugging average over his first three seasons, a span of 257 games.
Nothing says steady hitter like a .639 OPS.
