New National Doug Fister had nothing but good things to say about his new team and how he compares his new pitching mates to the teams of his past.  Fister has never been ‘the guy’ on either of his three professional teams, despite putting up good numbers wherever he pitches.

In Seattle he was behind Felix Hernandez and Cliff Lee, while here in Detroit he was behind Verlander, Scherzer and Sanchez.  Despite the list of Cy Young winners on those teams, Fister believes this Nationals staff may be his best yet.

“I’ve certainly been blessed to be a part of some teams and rotations I’ve been with,” Fister said Saturday at NatsFest. “I think here we are just as good, if not better.”

Washington’s rotation of Stephen Strasburg, Gio Gonzalez and Jordan Zimmerman all have a lot of talent.  The key for the Nationals this season will be keeping all three of them healthy, as each guy has a history of missing time on the DL.

Bringing the focus back to Detroit, now that the mob has finally started to subside, Dave Dombrowski has recently made some comments on his controversial trade of Fister to the Washington Nationals.  During TigerFest, Dombrowski tried to explain his reasoning behind making the deal.

Dombrowski said that he was willing to take some lumps from the fans on it and, “wanted to get beat up a bit” before explaining his reasoning behind the deal.  When shopping Fister , the Tigers had a list of 15 elite pitching prospects Detroit hoped to get in return for Fister.

Robbie Ray was one of the players listed, but initially the Nationals were not willing to part with Ray.  The Tigers hope that Ray will become a front-line starter for this team, but not until 2015, and that Ian Krol can become a staple in the bullpen to replace new starter Drew Smyly.

Speaking of Smyly, according to Lynn Henning the Tigers know they can’t rush him into 100 pitches a night.  He only threw 74 innings last season and in short relief, so it will take a good portion of the season for him to safely be able to go deep into games.

So what do you think Tigers fans, is Fister just trying to appease his new fans or is the Nationals rotation now better than Detroit?  And what do you think of the trade with Washington now that Dombrowski is filling us all in?  Let us know at DetroitSportsBloggers.com or on Facebook and Twitter.