Detroit Tigers: The Price for David Price, HOF Tom Gage, Kinsler’s big month

Here is an alarming prospect, the Detroit Tigers have just two proven Major League starter pitchers on their roster from 2015 in Anibal Sanchez and Justin Verlander.

Sanchez has come on lately, but his knack for allowing homers with a diminished fastball velocity and the fact that Verlander is still looking for his first victory of the 2015 season is troubling. This is why that it appears the Tigers do not want a bunch of low minor league prospects if they trade their ace, they want a guy or guys that will be impactful starters on the 2016 team.

With the recent trades of Johnny Cueto (to the Royals) and Scott Kazmir (to the Astros), maybe the Tigers waiting a bit will pay off and teams desperate for an edge may pay more. Stay tuned this week on Motor City Bengals…

While we lamented the fact that no Tigers’ player has been inducted into Cooperstown in a very long time, though several worthy candidates are out there, there was someone with Detroit baseball ties being induced over the weekend–former Detroit News stalwart Tom Gage.

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The veteran beat writer and columnist covered the Tigers’ beat for many decades was inducted into the broadcasters wing on Saturday. It has been quite the year for Gage, who learned of his honor in January and then was unceremoniously dumped off the Tigers’ beat. After floating around the News on various assignments, he eventually left the newspaper and signed on to a columnist gig with Fox Sports Detroit, only to be fired along with all of the columnists and writers on the local Fox Sports websites across the country.

It is an utter shame that Gage’s big year has to be stained with two personal setbacks, but it shouldn’t be. A long and distinguished career deserves distinct honor and MCB salutes you, Tom Gage.

Finally, Ian Kinsler is having a strange year. While his career has usually seen him start strong and limp to the finish, his mid-season struggles have been answered by a hot July. It’s good to see from a usually Gold Glove-caliber second basemen, who has not been Gold Glove-caliber this year and has experienced questionable base running.

You want Price? Better send Tigers MLB-ready starter in return – Jon Paul Morosi, Fox Sports

Sources say the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago Cubs have interest in Price. To obtain the left-hander, a team almost certainly would need to surrender a pitcher who fits into the Tigers’ 2016 rotation.The Tigers boasted one of the most dominant pitching staffs in baseball history as recently as 2013, when their 1,428 strikeouts set what was then a single-season MLB record. Now pitching has become the Tigers’ most glaring weakness.Consider this frightening statistic: The Detroit starters under contract or control for 2016 have combined to win only 18 games in the majors this year. (That group includes the perplexing Shane Greene and injured Kyle Lobstein, as well as Kyle Ryan and Buck Farmer, both of whom have returned to the minor leagues.)

Hall of Famer Tom Gage got helping hand early in career – Tom Gage, Detroit News

Gage, 67, the Tigers beat writer for The Detroit News for 36 years, was to get his place in Cooperstown on Saturday afternoon as the winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for baseball-writing excellence.He’s the first Detroit writer to win the award since 2002, when Joe Falls, also a former News writer, accepted the honor.And Gage was there to cover Falls’ speech, all because an editor decades ago and many miles away believed in a young kid from Detroit.His baseball-writing career began when he came to The News in 1976, and was named the Tigers beat writer in 1979. He figures he’s written 11 million words during his career, but he still put that interest in history to use over the years.

Tigers’ Ian Kinsler fixes swing in time for huge July – George Sipple, Detroit Free Press

As for Kinsler’s productive month, Ausmus said: “I think the biggest thing he’s done, when he was scuffling he was really – not to get overly technical – he was really pulling with his front side, almost overswinging. He has stopped doing that. He’s more driving with his backside, keeping his head on the ball.“It’s almost like he was trying to hit the ball harder and harder when he didn’t need to. That caused him to kind of pull with the front side.”Ausmus said Kinsler recognized what he was doing wrong — it just took him time to fix it.

Next: If Tigers don't sell, Ausmus needs to be fired