Dombrowski Approval Poll

[mcqfesijiba]

Most topics in here lead to criticism of Dave Dombrowski and rightfully so. I was wondering what both Tiger fans and any others who pass through this forum think of the job he has done since taking over very early in the 2002 season from Randy Smith until now, just before the 2006 season begins.

[moochman]

My vote may have fooled you since I haven't been shy with my criticism of DD. I do however see some progress and think there could be the start of a competitive team here. He still baffles me way too much to trust him. I don't think this is a make or break year for him as he has sold us on Verlander and Zumaya thus buying yet more time, and Illitch is amazingly patient with his baseball team. I do, however, feel that this is the year he has to show some tangible improvement. An over .500 record is a must.

[mcqfesijiba]

I voted for it going either way as well. I like the progress in the farm system, but that progress has really only shown in one year while hopefully the previous years were just building towards where we are now.

We have some real good players on the MLB roster, but many of them are nearing or already past their peaks and possibly big injury risks, but when these guys are healthy and on the field, they can produce. Ordonez's contract was a major gamble, but this team wasn't getting a player of his caliber without having to overpay. We still have yet to see what an effect that he will have on this lineup if he is anywhere close to his old self. I think it could be greater than expected.

He's made some real good moves (Polanco) and some not-so-good moves (Percival). No GM is perfect and I think if anything else, he is not hurting this franchise (although having little to no progress towards being a contender for too long equates to failure). I also tend to have a slight fear of changing GMs unless it is clear beyond a shadow of a doubt that the current guy is not getting the job done. I fear another Randy Smith-type who not only didn't succeed, but hurt the franchise beyond his tenure. Is there any reason to trust that Ilitch will find the next John Schuerholz or even Billy Beane instead of the next Randy Smith? That may be why I am willing to give a guy who's at least been average as GM as long as possible to prove himself one way or another.

[moochman]

I fear another Randy Smith-type who not only didn't succeed, but hurt the franchise beyond his tenure. Is there any reason to trust that Ilitch will find the next John Schuerholz or even Billy Beane instead of the next Randy Smith? That may be why I am willing to give a guy who's at least been average as GM as long as possible to prove himself one way or another.

Well there we see a fundamental difference between us. You fear that the next guy could be Randy Smith and I fear the guy we have is. <img src=/forums/images/smiles/kiss.gif>

[fraquar]

What bothered me most about DD was his abandonment of the CF position during his first 4 years of his tenure.

Outside of drafting Granderson (2002) he did nothing to solidify the most critical defensive position in COPA - CF. Instead he took cheap gambles on retread CF (Sanchez), a rookie who has done virtually nothing in the Minors (Logan) - both of whom are substandard defensive CF's.

He made the choice to go with a young unproven pitching staff (by not brining in any veteran front-line pitchers) - the least he could have done was give them a fighting chance by manning CF with a bona-fide defensive CF.

Yes, Granderson has finally made it to "The Show" and yes he did draft Maybin last year but he did nothing the first 4 years to shore up the Tiger's everyday CF. IMO that should have been priority #1 - as we can't expect young pitching toi get better with shoddy defense backing them up.

[MotorCityKitties]

I voted either way. His grade depends a lot on how Verlander, Zoom and CG turn out.