Time To Question Dave Dombrowski?

So today is the day all the media has their reactionary pieces to easily the biggest deal of the Winter Meetings thus far (and likely to be the biggest one of the Winter Meetings once they conclude). This little nugget, via Ian, really, um, intrigued me:

The way I heard how the Granderson trade began was that Arizona was trying to get Edwin Jackson at the GM Meetings and was told Max Scherzer was too little of a return, but felt Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth was too much. So Diamondbacks GM Josh Byrnes' first call was to Cashman because he assumed Granderson fit the Yankees' needs so ideally, and that the Yanks had resources that Detroit wanted.

 Am I the only one that finds this concerning? I know this is going to come off as sounding like "the blogger knows more than the professional sports franchise" but I find this quote to be baffling. Max Scherzer isn't enough for Edwin Jackson? Is it that he strikes out more guys than Jackson? That he's younger and already had a better full season than Jackson's ever had? That he's cheaper? That he's farther away from arbitration? I'm failing to see where it is that Scherzer doesn't stack up with Edwin Jackson in the eyes of the Detroit Tigers.

I'm going to assume that the Tigers have a lot more information at their disposal than I do. I'm also going to assume that Dave Dombrowski can run a professional franchise better than I can. However, I do not follow the reasoning here.

What would a Scherzer-for-Jackson deal have meant?

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Well, we would've kept Curtis Granderson (presumably). So, we keep a cost controlled player that I value at giving the Tigers $21.6 million in surplus value. He's also the one that the media flocks to for quotes, that fans flock to because of his humility, his candidness and his out-reaching to the fans via the internet and his blog. He's also 29 and an above-average center fielder that with some more luck on balls in play last year, would've been a 4 Win Above Replacement player -- a.k.a. All-Star level player -- and set to make just $5.5 million in 2010?

At this point, Dave Dombrowski is entering the 4th season since that playoff run of 2006. You can't live off that forever. He's cleaned up a huge mess that Randy Smith essentially passed off to him, but he's put his own head into the stocks with bad contracts. I'll give him slack on Pudge Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez's contracts -- we still had to pay the "bad franchise tax" back then -- and locking up Miguel Cabrera is a no-brainer. You secure that talent for as long as possible. But, giving out $21.25 million to Nate Robertson and $24 million to Brandon Inge after career years, throwing $29 million at Dontrelle Willis before he even threw a pitch in the Old English D, and giving Carlos Guillen a $48 million extension after 2007, knowing full well his passed injury issues (as well as his advancing age).

And now Max Scherzer isn't good enough to be swapped for Edwin Jackson? Come again?

What that snippet of a quote tells me is that Dave Dombrowski thinks Edwin Jackson is better than Scherzer. In fact, Dombrowski's declining of that trade -- if the rumor is true -- indicates that he thinks Scherzer is substantially worse than Jackson. If they are even close, you take Scherzer because he's cost controlled and won't be a free agent until 2015. If you're buying a deck of playing cards and there are two of them, one for $5 and one for $1, but the cheaper pack has a Twilight design on it while the more expensive one has your favorite super model on it. And the cheaper one tends to stick together after a couple of shuffles. The $5 deck of cards is really top-notch, but the $1 pack isn't half bad. What one do you take? The cheaper one, of course. Because it's not awful and the price makes it more than worth it.

At this point, I think it's becoming a fair time to ponder the Detroit Tigers player evaluation methods and preferences. If Max Scherzer is a worse pitcher than Edwin Jackson in 2010 (injuries not included), I will formally apologize to Dave Dombrowski on this blog (like he reads it).

However, I feel very comfortable in saying that Scherzer will be better than Jackson -- much better, in fact.

I sure hope that Austin Jackson becomes the player Dombrowski and company believe he will be. Because this trade just won't be Dombrowski's legacy in Detroit, it will completely undo anything he did to help build a team that had the winning spin in the Wheel of Luck that is the Major League Baseball Playoffs. In fact, this trade better work out in 2010 -- I don't think there is the luxury of waiting when you make a move like this. Austin Jackson better be a league average center fielder in 2010 or Dave Dombrowski just may have to be shown the door.