Most of baseball’s 30 general managers would have little hesitation calling the first half of the season a success if, after three months, their teams had a share of the division lead.
For Dave Dombrowski it’s not that simple.
Dombrowski, the president and general manager of the defending American League champion Detroit Tigers, says his team has merely been okay on its way to a 43-37 record and a share of the AL Central lead.
“It’s been fine,” Dombrowski told Sportsnet Monday at Rogers Centre. “We’ve played okay. We’ve had some good spurts, some spurts that haven’t been as good as we would like.”
The Tigers have scuffled lately, losing five of their last six games. They enter Monday’s four-game series with the Toronto Blue Jays tied with the Cleveland Indians atop the AL Central. Yet as recently as three weeks ago, they had a 5.5 game lead in the division.
“Right now we’re on a little bit of a down streak, which ends up happening throughout the year,” Dombrowski explained. “But we have a good solid club and we think we have a chance to be there at the end.”
Led by Miguel Cabrera and one of the top starting rotations in the game, the Tigers have more than their share of elite talent. But Justin Verlander hasn’t been quite as dominant as usual, posting a 3.77 ERA through his first 17 starts of the year.
Dombrowski acknowledged that the Tigers have been going through a down period, yet he expressed hope that the team can rebound when currently sidelined players such as Anibal Sanchez return.
Here are more detailed thoughts from Dombrowski on Verlander, Cabrera, and how the rest of the 2013 season will play out:
On Verlander’s up and down season:
“He’s been a good major-league pitcher. But he hasn’t been the elite major-league pitcher that we’ve been accustomed to seeing in the past. He went through a time period of about nine starts where he had a couple rough starts and just wasn’t himself.
“I guess if you know the answers you automatically fix it. But it’s a situation where he found a consistent delivery going into the last outing. He threw the ball better and particularly late in the game in Tampa his last start. So I would think that he gets it back.
“His velocity has been fine. His pitches have been fine. At times he hasn’t been as pinpoint with his location as a lot of times he is. He has pitched well. But I know he can pitch better.”
On the depth of the Tigers rotation:
“Our starting rotation has been really good. Five deep they have pitched well. Sanchez has been out of our rotation for a few starts now, but he’ll be back — or should be back — on Saturday. We’ve really gone through a little bit of a down period in recent time.
“About a couple week period where we need to straighten that back out. It’s very good. We have a chance to get a quality start from every one of them and they’ve really pitched well.”
On Cabrera’s place in history:
“For my career and players that I’ve been with — and I’ve seen a lot of really great hitters. He’s been the best professional hitter that I’ve been around. He’s got a chance to go down as one of the all-time greats.
“You talk about guys like let’s say Gary Sheffield, a guy like a Larry Walker. Andres Galarraga at the time. Some really good ones. But he has been in an elite category. When you start talking about some of the all-time greats as time goes on — he’s only 30 years old — Miguel Cabrera will be mentioned with all of them as time progresses.”
On the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline:
“I think everybody at this time of year you’re always taking the pulse of what’s taking place out there. I think that the pace at which you talk to other general managers picks up at this time. Normally you’re doing that. We’re just like everyone else — you gather information — and we’ll continue to do that until the end of July.”
On Drew Smyly’s emergence as an elite late-inning reliever:
“Drew Smyly has done a great job for us in the bullpen. Ideally he will be a starter in his major-league career. I don’t have any question of that, but we are set with the five guys we’ve got already.”
“He’s done a great job for us in the bullpen. He’s really developed into our No. 1 left-hander, a guy that late in the game has a chance to get right-handed hitters and left-handed hitters out. He’s a real key for us.”
