It’s funny because heading into the Winter Meetings, the primary concern for the Tigers was the bullpen.  Now, with a bolstered offense and a solid starting rotation, Dave Dombrowski has come out and said that he’s content with the bullpen as is.

One big reason will be having an innings eater like Dontrelle Willis in the rotation.  With him in there rather then whoever the Tigers would have chosen as the Tigers would have chosen as a fifth starter, we’re probably talking about 30-50 innings more of Willis.  That’ll take the heat off the pen and the hope is, with this high powered lineup, that the Tigers have a lot of big leads and they can pick the spots where they use their best relievers.

Another big thing is, relief pitching is usually always available at the trade deadline.  I find it hard to believe that the Tigers relievers are so bad that they’ll be out of it after one half of play so if the Tigers need some help, they can always pull a deal to get more help.

You also could have Joel Zumaya coming back in the second half.  There’s no way to predict how well he’ll be throwing, but I wouldn’t count him out yet.

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