Detroit Tigers Demote Scott Sizemore And Max Scherzer

What was it with AL Central teams making drastic moves after a win last week? First the Kansas City Royals fired manager Trey Hillman after a win against the Cleveland Indians and now the Detroit Tigers have demoted two starters after a win on Saturday night against the Boston Red Sox.

After an exciting (not to Red Sox fans) 7-6 win on Saturday night, the Tigers demoted starting second baseman Scott Sizemore and starting pitcher Max Scherzer. I’ll talk about the later first.

Scherzer belongs in the bullpen

To me, Scherzer is in the same situation as Joba Chamberlain was in with the New York Yankees last year. He is a relief pitcher masquerading as a starter.

Some guys belong in the starting rotation and some guys belong in the bullpen. Scherzer belongs in the bullpen.

For his career (two-plus years), Scherzer is 10-19 with a 4.55 ERA and a 1.40 WHIP as a starter. Sure, he strikes out a guy per inning, but every time I watch him pitch it looks like he fights himself on the mound.

Like Chamberlain was, Scherzer is more concerned with throwing all of his pitches and being to “cute” rather than just pumping fastballs by a guy. As the Tigers play-by-play guy said on yesterday’s telecast, Scherzer would blow two fastballs by a guy and then for some odd reason, he would throw three offspeed pitches in a row.

While you can blame some of that on the catcher calling the game, at the end of the day the pitcher ultimately calls the game.

What the Tigers should do with Scherzer is convert him to a reliever in the minors. Let him build up his confidence, call him back up, put him in the bullpen, and groom him for the closer’s role.

Jose Valverde’s contract expires after the 2011 season, so the timing for this move is perfect.

As for Sizemore, I am a little surprised the Tigers gave up on him so quickly. I always think about how slowly another rookie second baseman, Dustin Pedroia started back in 2007.

Pedroia get off to a .187 start in April that year, but Terry Francona stuck with him and well, the rest is history as they say. I would have thought manager Jim Leyland would have given him another couple of weeks to get his act together.

However, the Tigers are a “win now” team and weren’t going to sacrifice wins for player development. Instead, the Tigers will look to Mr. Versatility and genuine nice guy (I had a chance to meet Guillen at the 2008 Pre-All Star Game party and he couldn’t have been nicer) Carlos Guillen to play second base.

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