Jacob Turner, Detroit's top pitching prospect in the minor leagues and a likely candidate to make the starting rotation next season as another young phenom like Rick Porcello, was scratched from his start for Double-A Erie tonight. He was scheduled to square off against another top pitching prospect. Reportedly, Turner is no longer with the team or in Erie. Detroit has not had any comment regarding Turner's whereabouts.
Some rumors are indicating that Turner is being called up for a spot start against the Angels tonight. Sources are saying thought that Duane Below, the currently scheduled starter, is still with the team as of this morning. One would assume that if Turner was coming it would be Below getting sent back down. Maybe those moves are in progress right now.
But the story gets more interesting considering that Detroit has had interest in Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez. At one point the Rockies wanted Turner as part of the package. Publicly at a least Detroit had backed off their interest. Could Turner being pulled from the start mean that deal, or another is imminent? Detroit has showed in the past that they're not afraid to trade highly regarded prospects for a proven major league talent. They traded Andrew Miller and Cameron Maybin, then the top two prospects in the organization, to Florida for Miguel Cabrera. The outcome of that so far has been hugely in Detroit's favor.
CBSSports is saying that Detroit is hoping to seal a deal with the Mariners for 27 year old right hander Doug Fister. Fister is only 3-12 for Seattle. Seattle though has one of the worst hitting teams in history this season. Majorly offensively challenging. Even Ichiro is hitting only .271 this season. Even with that poor record Fister has a 3.33 ERA. That's 20th in the AL for starting pitchers, and lower than all Detroit starters other than Justin Verlander. His 1.17 WHIP is 15th in the league among starting pitchers.
Turner for Jimenez? I could live with that. Jimenez started out slowly this season, in part due to oddly poor run support at home. His road record has been very good and his home record poor. He's been heating up though, and last season he was utterly unhittable for a large portion of the season for Colorado. He's got nasty stuff.
Turner for Fister? I'm not so sure about that one. I admit I'm not familiar with Fister. But Turner himself could possibly be as effective as Fister for the remainder of the year and he's only 19 I think. Jimenez is 56-45 with a 3.62 career ERA. He was 19-8 with a 2.88 ERA last year. 15-12 with a 3.47 ERA the year before that. He's a multi-time All-Star and has led the Rockies into the playoffs. If they can get him and sign him to a deal so he's not just a rental for the rest of the season that's a great trade. Still though, the Tigers organization has good eyes for pitching talent. If they see something in Fister, there must be something there.
But oh how I wish that Jair Jurrgens for Edgar Renteria trade hadn't happened a couple years ago. Renteria was a bust for the Tigers and lasted only a season. Jurrgens was an All-Star this year and is rapidly becoming one of the National League's best pitchers for Atlanta.
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