Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #788 - Goodbye JV

Hey, Mom! Talking to My Mother #788 - Goodbye JV

Hi Mom,

Still in catch up mode, and I am off the trip, move, unpacking posts for today at least.

I am happy for Justin Verlander, but also sad that he will no longer be a Tiger. However, if an American League team wins this year, and since it won't be the Tigers, I would love for it to be the Houston Astros.

I actually wrote a quick message to the listserve for Tigers fans, on which I lurk but post rarely.

The post expresses my thoughts, but then, here's an ESPN article, too, from the smart and erudite Buster Olney.

I know you would be sad, too, Mom. You always liked JV, thought he was the cutest of all the Tigers.

More later.

Hi, Chris Tower here coming out of lurk mode.

I agree also. JV is my favorite Tiger on this team for last 11 years. I was happy when he was not traded before the July deadline, but now very sad that he is no longer a Tiger.

I do hope he at least does well in the playoffs and may win the world series, especially if the Cubs are out of it, and/or he has a chance to beat the Dodgers or Nationals.

Still, I hope the Tigers got good value for him. And maybe, like the with Maddux and others, he can end his career with his original team a few years from now.

I do see all your posts guys... back to lurking.

-chris

http://www.espn.com/blog/buster-olney/insider/post/_/id/17298/olney-justin-verlanders-departure-marks-the-end-of-an-era-for-tigers

Olney: Verlander's departure marks the end of an era for Tigers

Detroit Tigers general manager Al Avila scouted Justin Verlander in the spring of 2004, when Verlander pitched for Old Dominion on a day that Avila recalls as cold and overcast. Verlander struggled and threw a lot of pitches, and Avila, watching from the stands, assumed that a reliever would be summoned for the sixth or seventh inning.

“He ended up going nine innings,” Avila said, “still throwing 100 mph late in the game.”

The Tigers selected Verlander with the second overall pick in the draft that year, and Avila was in the room when Verlander signed that first contract. Avila’s son, Alex Avila, would become Verlander’s personal catcher, the two growing so close that the families of Alex and Justin vacationed together. So with all of that history, the goodbye between Verlander and Al Avila, after the Detroit GM traded Verlander at midnight Thursday, was more than a formal handshake. It was more like seeing off a nephew moving to another part of the country.

“We hugged like three times in the clubhouse today,” said Avila, speaking from his office Friday evening.

Sentiment has been pushed to the side out of necessity in Detroit, to the degree that Avila also traded his son, among many other players. J.D. Martinez was the first to go, followed by Justin Wilson, Justin Upton and Verlander.

Justin Verlander made his major league debut with the Tigers in 2005, playing his first full season in Detroit in 2006. Paul Sancya/AP Photo

Al Avila had advised his boss, Detroit chief executive officer and president Chris Ilitch, that the Tigers’ trajectory was not sustainable. The aging team has been propped up on expensive contracts and a record-setting payroll and was badly in need of young (and cheap) talent. With the blessing of ownership, Avila made moves that have greatly reduced the team’s debt -- big player contracts -- and improved a farm system which has generally been among the sport’s worst over the past decade.

But the trades of Martinez, Alex Avila, Wilson, Upton and Verlander also seem to signal the end of an era when the Tigers -- operating under Mike Ilitch, who died in February -- spent well beyond the business potential of the team.

“We’re not going to [be] spending like we were, going over the luxury tax, clicking the debt-service rule,” Avila said. “We pushed the envelope and had some success. It wasn’t the best business model. We really have a different philosophy.”

Which means that as the Tigers advance beyond a rebuilding cycle that is just now beginning, their payroll will look closer to that of the Houston Astros than that of the Los Angeles Dodgers or New York Yankees. Detroit has long been an outlier with its spending, but now the onus will be on the front office to pick the right players, such as Alex Faedo, the pitcher they chose in the first round of June's draft, and to foster development of the farm system. Draft and develop; build from within.

Avila reiterated Friday that he was not under orders to dump salary this summer; rather, Ilitch greenlit Avila’s plan to wait for what the Tigers deemed to be right and proper offers for the talent of Verlander and the others. For example: Second baseman Ian Kinsler was claimed on waivers in August, and the Tigers pulled him back, rather than unload his salary, and Detroit holds an option on Kinsler for 2018.

As the summer trade period began, Avila and his staff identified what they thought would be a fair return for Verlander, and the Tigers had extensive conversations with the Astros, Chicago Cubs, Dodgers, Yankees and other teams before the July 31 non-waiver deadline. But the right offer didn't take shape for the Tigers; they were fully prepared to carry the star pitcher into the winter of 2017-18.

Verlander passed through waivers in early August, unsurprisingly, given his full no-trade clause and the $56 million owed to him for the next two seasons. Houston could have placed a claim, but did not. Through the first 30 days of August, Avila offered the same assessment to Verlander whenever the two men discussed the chances for a trade: “It’s possible, but I don’t think it’s probable.”

The Astros’ perspective apparently shifted dramatically, however, through a difficult August. By the middle of last week, Houston stepped up its offer for Verlander significantly, in the eyes of the Tigers, and Avila began to inform teams he thought he had a chance to make a deal. Verlander helped the Tigers’ effort by posting a 2.31 ERA over his final 11 starts for Detroit, his average fastball velocity reaching 95.3 mph, 10th-best in baseball.

As the Astros and Tigers made progress Thursday evening and the midnight deadline approached, Avila -- working from his home with his staff -- called Verlander and told him that there was a deal to which the pitcher would need to say "yes" or "no."

“Let me think about it and call you back,” Verlander said.

Not long afterward, Avila recalled, Verlander called back and said "yes." In order for the deal to become official, Avila needed Verlander to formally sign a paper that indicated he was waiving his no-trade clause, and Avila dispatched two staffers to Verlander’s home a few miles away. Verlander signed, and the document was quickly emailed to the central office at Major League Baseball.

Detroit landed three of Houston’s best prospects, including pitcher Franklin Perez, who is already the highest-ranked Tigers minor leaguer on MLB.com's prospect watch, and outfielder Daz Cameron, the son of longtime major leaguer Mike Cameron.

Mike Ilitch bought the Tigers in 1992 and he doled out big dollars to keep the team filled with stars: Ivan Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez, Kenny Rogers, Prince Fielder, Miguel Cabrera, Upton and Verlander. Detroit reached the postseason five times in nine years and hosted World Series games in 2006 and 2012. Some Tigers will believe for the rest of their lives that they were baseball’s best team in 2013, before one swing by David Ortiz tipped the American League Championship Series in Boston’s favor and the Red Sox prevailed.

But that kind of Tigers team -- a club saturated with expensive veteran stars -- might be extinct now. Moving forward, Detroit’s market earnings will define the club’s budget and, inevitably, a more conservative approach.

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Reflect and connect.

Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you.

I miss you so very much, Mom.

Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.

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- Days ago = ## days ago

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - date - time

NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.