Matt Wallace is a citizen journalist covering the Detroit Tigers minor leagues in the blog "Take 75 North.'' In December, the Tigers traded outfielder Matt Joyce to Tampa Bay for starting pitcher Edwin Jackson.
Wallace had monitored Joyce's progress through the Tigers system and was not pleased with the decision to give up Joyce. His view was carried under the headline, "Tigers trade Joyce for Rays' Edwin Jackson; Front office checked for head wounds."
Wallace wrote that generally he would wait for a deal to be official, but would make this exception: "I want to give my thoughts before I read anyone else's because I feel it will be more therapeutic for my rant to be unaffected by the world outside my mom's basement.
"On the Tigers' end, they're shipping out Matt Joyce ... an excellent outfielder; he's also a power-hitting lefthanded bat ... Jackson is a hard-throwing starter with bad control and a puzzling inability to strike batters out.
"You want to hear something truly horrifying? His 4.88 FIP last season is perilously close to Nate Robertson's 4.99."
Apparently, FIP stands for Fudge I'm Pathetic among bloggers, since Joyce has played 11 games for the Rays this season and again is back in Durham, N.C.
As for Jackson, he will take a 6-4 record and the American League's second-best ERA -- 2.49 -- into this afternoon's start against the Twins.
Central-leading Detroit upped its margin to four games over the Twins with an 11-9, 16-inning victory that lasted into Saturday morning. Kevin Slowey put the Twins in a 6-0 hole, they came back to gain extra innings, regained a tie with a run in the 14th and lost to a Tigers rally off R.A. Dickey in the 16th.