Posts tagged DontrelleWillis at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Just this week there were two enormous injuries in the world of fantasy baseball: Alfonso Soriano and Albert Pujols. There were also significant returns in Jake Peavy and Matt Holliday. Those are four elite echelon players changing places in the span of only a three days.

They weren't alone. All around the league players are dropping like flies while also returning. It's been an onslaught. For the value machine, it actually makes sense at this point in the season. Sure, players are bound to get hot and cold, but for the most part we are approaching the dog days of summer ... most movement in fantasy leagues will be triggered by injuries.

We've covered Pujols, Soriano, Holliday, and Peavy already this week here on Fantasy FanHouse. Obviously the former two would have an evil next to their respective names while the latter two would have the nice, reassuring residing next to theirs. Here are the most notable of the rest:

Vernon Wells -- Returned Saturday to the Jays' lineup and announced his presence with authority on Sunday (3-4, HR). He stormed out of the gates this year, but he is a pretty inconsistent performer. Studly in 2003 and 2006 while disappointing owners in the other seasons of his career. Sell high time, as far as I'm concerned.

I suppose the comparison is inevitable. Rick Ankiel was a stud pitching prospect who completely lost the strike zone, stopped pitching forever, and moved to the outfield. Dontrelle Willis is a decent hitting pitcher who's seemingly lost his stuff. One plus one equals two, right? Among other people, Mike Celizic sure seems to think so.

I've got one word for everyone that's drawing the comparison: stop. There have been a million pitchers and pitching prospects that have flamed out over the last 50 years and exactly one of them has become a serviceable player at another position. Rick Ankiel's career arc is so unique it's crazy to think that another pitcher can duplicate it just because he hits well and stopped throwing strikes.

When Ankiel quit pitching, he was 24. Willis is 26. Ankiel had a very public meltdown, elbow surgery, and clearly a mental block to throwing strikes. He wasn't just wild, he was beyond help. When he switched to the outfield, he told the Cardinals in no uncertain terms that he was no longer a pitcher, no matter what the team wanted from him. The Cardinals were nice enough to provide a spot for him in the minors, and that afforded him the chance to turn himself around.

While the failures of Dontrelle Willis in 2008 have been well documented here at FanHouse the last couple of days, it turns out not everything is going horribly awry in Detroit for the Tigers. After all, Willis was basically just a throw-in (a $27 million throw-in, but a throw-in nonetheless) in the deal the Tigers made to bring in Miguel Cabrera, and after he got off to a slow start to the season, his bat has been catching fire as of late, as have been the other bats in Detroit's lineup.

Cabrera hit a walk-off home run in the ninth inning to give the Tigers a 2-1 win over the White Sox this afternoon, and help complete a sweep of the AL Central division leaders. The win was Detroit's fifth victory in their last six games, and they've crept to within striking distance of the White Sox, moving to within eight games.

Of course, even though the Tigers offense is starting to come to life now that the weather is warming up, the real key to whether or not the Tigers are going to make a run is still, and always will be, their pitching staff. Which is why they have to be happy with what they saw in their three games against the White Sox.

The trio of Nate Robertson, Justin Verlander, and Kenny Rogers combined to go 23.1 innings while allowing only five runs, 16 hits, and three walks (Verlander's performance being a work of art on Wednesday night). This against a team that had been averaging over eight runs a game during a seven-game win streak. It's only been six games, and the loss of Jeremy Bonderman isn't going to help, but if the Tigers pitching can keep this up, their offense will put runs on the board (it's just too talented not to) and Detroit may just get back into this thing after all.

Now that we're almost halfway through June and the Detroit Tigers still haven't shown any signs of coming to life this season, it probably isn't that crazy to think that it's just not going to happen this year. Despite all the veteran talent on the Tigers roster, there just haven't been any signs that things are going to turn around. If anything, it seems as though things are only going to start getting worse.

Jeremy Bonderman is done for the season and could miss the start of next season as well, and Dontrelle Willis has pitched so well he's been sent down to single-A in hopes that he can find home plate while he's there. It's enough to make you wonder when the Tigers are going to wave the white flag, and according to SI's Jon Heyman, rumors of an impending fire sale have already begun.

Insiders are speculating that the Tigers might start trading pieces before the deadline. But their pitchers have been awful, and many of their every-day players are stars who recently signed big contracts and are underachieving. To sum up, I'm not sure where they'd begin a fire sale.

Heyman brings up a good point, because while I'm sure the Tigers wouldn't mind dumping some players come the trade deadline, I'm not exactly sure how many parts they have that other teams are going to want.

When the Tigers traded for both Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis in the offseason my initial reaction to the deal was about the same as everybody else: holy crap this team is going to be unstoppable. That being said, my fear of the Tigers had a lot more to do with their offense once they placed Cabrera square in the middle of that lineup, and not so much to do with the addition of Willis.

After seeing the way Dontrelle had struggled his last two seasons in Miami, going 22-27 after a 22-10 campaign in 2005, I wasn't exactly convinced he was going to revert back to his old form in Detroit. The Marlins rode him like a horse while he was there, and I didn't think adjusting to the American League was going to be very easy for Dontrelle. Which made me think that the contract extension the Tigers soon signed him to was a mistake.

Well, the season didn't start off very well for the Tigers or Dontrelle (or Miguel either, but I have a lot more faith in him turning things around) as he walked seven batters in his first start of the season against the White Sox. Then in his next start, also against the Sox, Dontrelle hurt his knee delivering a pitch after walking the first two hitters of the game and was placed on the disabled list.

Then, after recovering and rehabbing in the minors, Detroit brought Dontrelle back as a expensive arm out of the bullpen, and in his only outing he walked two in one inning of work. It was such an improvement over his previous performances that it earned him a spot back in the rotation.

Prerequisite: BlackDraft™ Part 1

The ESPN ticker for the mock Negro Leagues draft as it stands:

Round 1

1. New York Yankees - Cool Papa Bell (CF)
2. Washington Nationals - a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, which are pretty much the worst kind of Dorito
3. Chicago White Sox - Buck O'Neil (1B)
4. Boston Red Sox - David Ortiz (DH)
5. New York Yankees - Manny Ramirez (LF)

Upcoming picks

6. Cincinnati Reds
7. Detroit Tigers
8. Kansas City Royals
9. New York Yankees
10. New York Yankees again

Round 1 continues, after the jump.

The Detroit Tigers will be getting Dontrelle Willis back from the disabled list today or tomorrow but don't go rushing to your television to watch his next start. It might be a while. The Tigers are going to use the D-Train as baseball's most expensive long reliever while they try to work out the problems that plagued him before his injury.

It's been a while so we'll review. Willis walked nine batters and struck out none over two April starts with the Tigers before he landed on the DL. He did a bit better in Toledo during three rehab starts, seven walks in 16 innings, but the need to repair his pitching this soon into his Tiger tenure raises the question about how well that three-year, $29 million contract the Tigers gave him will hold up.

Willis is still young but he got ridden quite hard by the Marlins from a very young age and has shown some signs of breakdown. His exploding walk rate, regressing strikeout rate and nagging injuries all point to Willis being more likely to continue feel the impact of being pushed at a young age than recovering the 2005 form that's getting pretty far in the rearview mirror.

That said, if he recovers enough to become something in the neighborhood of league average, the Tigers will have a spot for him. Kenny Rogers and Nate Robertson have been brutal and it's gotten late early in Motown.

Remember when the Tigers made that huge trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, and Tigers fans everywhere began putting aside money for World Series tickets? Seems like a long time ago, doesn't it? As we're all well aware of at this point, the Tigers kind of suck this season. Cabrera has switched positions due to his lack of mobility, and he's not exactly tearing the cover off the ball either. Dontrelle has been on the disabled list for a while now, and has struggled with his control in three minor league rehab starts.

So the question is, now that Dontrelle is just about ready to rejoin the Tigers, what the hell are they going to do with him? Willis' agent thinks that Dontrelle will be taking his old spot in the rotation.

"I'd imagine that he's going back into the rotation, but I haven't heard anything definitive," said Willis' agent, Matt Sosnick. "He felt like he threw the ball well and that his body felt good."

Yes, well, I don't care how well he thinks he threw down in Toledo, he didn't throw as well as the kid who replaced him in the rotation, Armando Galarraga. In a season that's been filled with nothing but frustration and disappointment for the Tigers, Galarraga has been a lone bright spot.

Armando has started six games for Willis, and he's 3-1 with a 3.06 ERA and 0.99 WHIP in those starts. In other words, he's been the best starter Detroit has had. Dave Dombrowski and Jim Leyland aren't saying what their plans are for Willis when he returns, but if they include taking Galarraga out of the rotation, they deserve a swift kick in the nuts.

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups

San Francisco Giants (6-9) vs. Arizona Diamondbacks (10-4) - 3:45PM Est.

Seeing as how the theme of the day here at FanHouse is new rivalries to replace the Yankees/Red Sox one we've all been force fed for years (Hey, did you know that the Yankees and Red Sox are playing again today? And that's it's on ESPN? It's only like the 18th time already this season! Don't miss it!) I'd like to dedicate today's On Deck to our friends on the left coast.

I'll start if off with the only day game on the slate today, as the unstoppable force that is the Arizona Diamondbacks look to bury the San Francisco Giants a little deeper in the NL West. It's also the only game on today's docket that features two Cy Young Award winners, though both pitchers are headed in completely opposite directions. Brandon Webb starts for Arizona tonight, and he's looking to get off to the first 4-0 start of his career. Webb is coming off another stellar performance against the Rockies and is 3-0 with a 2.14 ERA this season. He's also 4-0 with a 2.96 ERA against the Giants since 2006. The Giants will counter with Barry Zito's ghost, and though Barry pitched well against the Cardinals in his last start, he's still 0-3 and trying to avoid the first 0-4 start in his career. Zito has a record of 2-3 in his career against the Diamondbacks, but his ERA of 2.73 indicates he hasn't gotten much support from his teammates in those starts. If he doesn't show up tonight, don't be surprised if he's drowned in McCovey Cove after the game.

While the first two starts for Dontrelle Willis in a Detroit Tigers jersey have been far below expectations for the man who just signed a 3-year $29 million extension with the Tigers this spring, and he's currently on the shelf with a hyper-extended knee, the lefty did get some good news in recent days.

Remember when Dontrelle was busted for a DUI back in 2006? Well, he finally had his day in court and the charge was downgraded from drunken driving to reckless driving.

The former Marlins left-hander was arrested in December 2006 in Miami Beach. Police noticed Willis had double-parked his Bentley and had watery eyes, slurred speech and appeared confused.

Prosecutors on Tuesday said Willis accepted a plea to lesser charges. That means Willis can keep his driver's license. But he must pay $761 in fines and fees, do 50 hours of community service and be on probation for six months.

Not a whole $761! How will Dontrelle ever be able to afford such a hefty fine!? As for the community service, Dontrelle has long been active with different charities, and does stuff for MLB like it's R.B.I. program (MLB's effort to restore baseball in inner cities.) Whether or not that work will count towards his 50 hours of community service, I'm not sure.

All I know is that Dontrelle's lucky he didn't throw a water bottle at anybody, because then he'd be serving hard time.