Detroit Tigers: D-Train's Last Stop?

Dontrelle Willis is scheduled to start against the Chicago White Sox tonight.  After splitting the first two games of this massive, five game series, the Tigers turn the keys of their club over to Mr. Willis.  I don’t like their chances.

Never mind Willis’ most recent struggles, he has three career starts against the White Sox in which he has pitched a total of only six innings.  Six innings in three starts.  Ugh.  Over those six innings, Willis has surrendered 12 walks and eight earned runs.  Even more distressing, this could be his last start as a Tiger.

Jeremy Bonderman looked awful last night in his first start back from the disabled list, but he is back.  Someone has to be bumped out of the rotation.  Armando Galarraga looked decent yesterday, despite a few road bumps.  The odd man out would seem to be Willis.

Some have speculated that Willis needs to have a decent performance today to save his job.  Over his last three starts, he’s given up more than a run per inning and opponents are getting on base 43 percent of the time. 

Quite often, a team can hide a bad player on their roster while waiting for them to figure it all out.  There are a few problems with this plan for the Tigers and Willis:

• They can’t really stash him in the bullpen.  Nate Robertson is already an over-priced lefty who has actually been okay from the 'pen.  There isn’t room for Dontrelle down there.
• They cannot continue to start him, because he simply hasn’t performed as well as the other candidates.
• Finally, and most importantly, Willis has been so bad that the Tigers just can’t keep him on the roster.  Eddie Bonine would be an improvement.  Mike Maroth (wherever he is) would probably be an improvement.  Willis is just not a major league quality pitcher.

The Tigers have given Willis 12 starts (13 with today's) over the last two years, and it’s been trouble since day one.  The guy has lost it and, save for one great start, hasn’t shown any improvement at all.  He’s still walking batters at a very high rate and is very rarely striking anyone out.

In my opinion, it just doesn’t make sense to keep running him out there.  Last year, it was a bit more acceptable to watch him try and figure things out, because the Tigers were stuck below .500.  However, this club has a shot at the postseason, and it just doesn’t make a lick of sense to keep someone with his skill-set on the club.

Willis needs to look good today to keep his job.  Willis got the Rockies with smoke and mirrors a few starts back, but he even needs to improve on that.   I don’t want to see a pitching line like this and have people label it as a success:

• 6 innings, 8 hits, 5 walks, 3 earned runs, 1 K

That’s not going to get it done.  That’s luck.  Today is Dontrelle’s last shot.  If he doesn’t get the job done tonight, the Tigers need to take the steps to get rid of him.  Sorry.

Maybe he should have retired after that first decent start.