Dontrelle Willis’ week just got worse. After getting shelled by the Indians for eight runs in only 1.1 innings of work Monday night, the Tigers’ starter was demoted to Single-A Lakeland on Tuesday.
The Tigers completely botched Willis’ return fron the DL by having him throw one inning in his first 12 days on the active roster. He obviously needs to pitch as much as possible if he’s going to get through these command problems, and the Tigers weren’t doing anything to get him there by having him throw 6 1/3 innings in nearly three weeks. Triple-A Toledo’s Eddie Bonine is the favorite to replace him in the rotation, but it’s doubtful that he’d prove adequate. The Tigers just don’t have any solid alternatives.
After struggling the past two years in Florida, one had to assume Willis wasn’t going to fair much better in a tougher American League. He seems like a really good kid, so hopefully he can get his mind and mechanics right and get back up to the big leagues. Either way, that $29 million extension the Tigers signed him to in December doesn’t look too good. But hey, at least they didn’t give $126 million to Barry Zito, right? I mean, am I right?
