photo by Samara Pearlstein
Trade rumors can BITE MY TIGER-STRIPED TAIL END.
Jeremy Bonderman is ours, all ourrrrrrrssssssssssss, our preeeeccccciiioooouuuussssss. So saith the Associated Press: $38 million over 4 years. He would’ve been up for grabs after the 2008 season if this deal hadn’t been made, but now we have him locked and loaded ’til 2010, ensuring a Bonderman/Inge Axis of Awesome until at least that date.
Bonderman will be 28 in 2010. This boggles my mind, in a good way.
In the 4 seasons he’s been in the majors, his ERA has dropped every year, from 5.56 in his rookie year (when he was, mind you, still unable to legally purchase alcohol, and when the entire team sucked worse than lampreys) to 4.08 this past season. He’s only just turned 24 and, since I think we can count ’03 as a year a normal team would’ve left him in the minors, is still coming into his own.
His mechanics, from what I have seen, are fairly clean… not to get nutty here or anything, but I’ve most often heard/seen his pitching motion compared to that of Roger Clemens, and while the Rocket is clearly a freak of nature, when it comes to the repeatability of his motion, that bodes well. He’s had some injuries but nothing like an oblique strain or anything that’ll make your soul explode in tears of concern when it comes to pitchers. Was his only major injury so far that incident where he got bopped on the hand/wrist/arm by a comebacker and never quite shook it off? That’s not bad at all.
I like this signing very much, as probably everyone and their grandkitten could have predicted. It’s a great price, especially when you take into account Bondo’s age, talent level, potential talent level, and the absurdly inflated baseball meat market this offseason. It’s a good length; we get Bondo in our clawed clutches for a solid amount of time, and if he’s an amazing All Star pitcher by the time he’s 28, he’ll deserve a big payoff from either us or someone else, which this allows him to get. And if he stinks, well, four years probably isn’t going to make or break the team. Everyone wins.
Here’s to another four seasons of Jeremy Bonderman being better than you!
Roar of the Tigers 
[…] The rest of the Tiger blog-o-sphere is pretty excited also. […]
You know I can’t look at that Kid Rock face of his. Please remove it, or make it much smaller, or take out my eyes.
Please, please, please let us be the Atlanta Braves of the next few decades.
Mike, I would be OK with that. Although I’d like to win a few more big trophies than the Braves did…
Harsh, Jere, harsh. C’mon. You want to look. You find it compelling. Compelllllliiiiinnnnggggg.
No, I find him and Kid Rock “gonna beat me uppy.” I’m glad he’s not in the AL East.
I figure as long as the Tigers get into the playoffs they stand a chance of getting into the series. And if good pitching can beat good (hall of fame/all-stars every year/greatest line-up ever) hitting, they stand a even better chance than certain teams that feel they own the World Series.
So (fingers crossed) here’s hoping for the Cy Young alternating between Bonderman and Verlander (and maybe Miller) with an occasional “you know who’s underrated” for Robertson and/or Maroth and/or Tata and/or (some prospect to be named) for the next decade with a collection of pennents and World Series to season it.
The deal makes loads of sense for both sides. And it looks like the Tigers have enough payroll flexibility in future years to make similar deals with any young pitchers (and position players) who prove themselves on the major league level. It’s been almost 25 years (Tram, Lou, Lance, Morris, Petry, et al) since the Tigers had a core of young talent like this. Exciting time to be a Tiger fan, after all those sad, sorry years.
This is a great move. In a market where Gil Meche is paid $11 million per year for 5 years, locking up a durable, younger starter for less than that is a relative bargain.