opinion

Green: Tigers dishonor themselves by throwing in towel

What are still referred to as pennant races continue now into the dog days of August toward the annual September Stretch — the finest months of baseball’s half-year grind.

The races go on without the quitters — the Marlins, the Phillies, the Brewers, the Padres.

And the races continue into August and September minus the most shameful quitter of all Major League Baseball — the Tigers.

The Tigers’ decision to become peddlers in July is a baseball blasphemy, an embarrassment for Detroit. A surrender that trampled logic. They just abandoned a season with two months to play.

The Marlins, Phillies, Padres, Reds, Red Sox, Brewers, clubs in the doldrums, turned quitters because they had no logical chance to reach the postseason in October.

The Tigers quit while they still had a shot. They turned Pollyanna when they would have been the able to qualify again for the October playoffs.

They had a better shot than the more ambitious the Blue Jays, determined to reboot on the go.

Better than the White Sox, below the Tigers in ballfield quality, playing with delusions of grandeur. Better than the Orioles, better than the Mets, the Rangers, the Diamondbacks — clubs that refused to quit.

Reinforcements on the way

This is a minority opinion in conflict with the beliefs of Mike Ilitch and Dave Dombrowski, esteemed baseball men whose previous competitive ideals I have admired. And somehow the decision-makers of the Tigers managed to take captive the majority of the Detroit media with their wait-till-next-year philosophy.

The maneuvers left manager Brad Ausmus in the lurch, vulnerable — a candidate to become a scapegoat after a season of major injuries and front-office surrender.

In their attempts to win a World Series, the Tigers has stripped bare a farm-system that had been barely productive over the past decade or longer. In most other years since the inglorious season of 2003 and its 119 losses, Dombrowski managed to fortify the Tigers for August and September with ingenious trade-deadline dealing.

This time the Tigers quit for 2015 on July 29-30-31.

They quit even with the knowledge that are to be fortified shortly in August by the return of Miguel Cabrera.

That they could have played through August and September with David Price, Joakim Soria and Yoenis Cespedes — players prized by other clubs — in a strengthened manner.

And that Justin Verlander, on the very day of the rebooting proclamation, provided solid optimism that he could be a pitching force again this season.

There is no other club in Major League Baseball that could match the Tigers with the replenished fortifications of Cabrera and Verlander.

The Tigers could have given more to Detroit by trying to compete in August and September. They could have at least tried. They would have remained competitive with the mere tactic of standing pat.

They would have been stronger contenders for playoff qualification than the Blue Jays, who pried away Price and added a well-worn Troy Tulowitzki. The Tigers, in August and September, could have overwhelmed the Twins and Astros — two wannabee pretenders.

The Tigers panicked and grabbed at a bunch of uncredentialed minor leaguers while forfeiting qualified veterans.

It’s a reboot — and an abject surrender.

Pitching exodus

This is the truth of the era of wild-card and free-agency in Major League Baseball. The Tigers could not have been able to catch the runaway Royals, a team which nicely bolstered itself via a near-deadline trade.

But with two wild-cards MLB has re-created all of its aspects of playoffs October. Recall, the Giants and Royals where middle-caliber wild cards that produced what MLB billed as a World Series last October.

The major question, with all the cooing and delusions about the Tigers’ near future, is how a perennial contender got itself in a situation that it would outright quit in July.

As far as we know, Mike Ilitch is still ultra-prosperous. He is still gutty and bold and still yearns for a total baseball champion, a World Series winner.

Again, the Tigers allowed too much quality pitching to drift away, via free agency with Max Scherzer and trades of Doug Fister and now Price.

What the Tigers have now is a load of prospects that other clubs off-loaded in the hopes of winning now. Maybe the touted Daniel Norris will become a humongous winner in Detroit. But he is not the equal of David Price.

This free-agency activity torments the Tigers. But they certainly themselves have been high-stakes bidders for free-agent veterans. Presumably they will be again.

They’ll want after the season to sign a veteran pitcher among the new free agents. Perhaps they’ll enter the auction for the best pitcher among that group.

His name is David Price.

Who knows?

Right now with the arms raised high in surrender the curious has become more curious.

Retool this!

Jerry Green is a retired Detroit News sportswriter.