Detroit completes Tribe sweep; oddities about the Washburn paperwork
Fantastic game today; Nothing like watching a little baseball while staring at spreadsheets. 10am game — no problem.
I found Nate Robertson to be fantastic — even if it was against the Indians. He didn’t look lost, he didn’t look like the guy who only made the team earlier this year due to his contract. Again, only the Indians, but even though he didn’t get the win, he earned another start.
Clete Thomas didn’t disappoint either; I was positive those were all the runs necessary. I do like the flexibility Leyland is going with these days — Left handed lineup, right handed lineup. You change your reliever? I’ll change my batter. Now I have no doubt that Brent Dlugach will see some late inning work — Inge and Cabrera are probably the only two guys Leyland would hesitate to pinch hit for. He seems to have settled into a bullpen groove as well; run his standard setup men out for two days (Seay / Lyon / Rodney), and on the third day its Perry / Ni / Zach Miner (Rodney was warming up).
This whole Jarrod Washburn injury is troubling. Obviously Detroit could have (or did or should have or something) done some form of physical on Washburn. If they really knew the extent of Washburn’s injury, do they make that trade? Who looked at this guy and signed off? To quote Washburn himself:
“Any doctor that’s seen it told me there’s probably some cartilage damage in there,” Washburn said, “so it’s probably not going to go away.”
You mean, any doctor that isn’t on Detroit’s medical staff? Or did they just glide over this one? Maybe they should have talked with his Seattle teammates. Maybe they think they can treat knee injuries. I can’t imagine they brought Washburn in just for fatherly advice from his world series experience; I guess they just found cartlidge damage in a 35 year old as ‘not a big deal’.
Maybe someone should have passed along this advice: Its not 2002 anymore. 35 year-olds don’t get healthier as the year goes on.