Tiger Geist

Doesn’t this feel like the Tiger’s management philosophy right now?  Nothing new to see.  Nothing new to try.  My only hope is that, at the end of July, all media outlets are saying “SEE!!!! Everyone who said that Sheffield was washed up was wrong!  Pudge still plays like the old Pudge!  The pitching staff has come around!”

That would be awesome.  I wonder what type of success the team could have if it were given more of a floating roster, much like the NFL / NBA / NHL. You have a roster of X players, but only (X - Y) players can be active for a given game.  Similar to how the Pistons kept Lindsey Hunter stashed away for most of the season, maybe that is what is needed for Sheffield.  Let him start playing in May or June every year and see how effective he might be.  Pitchers could get a few weeks off without going on the DL for fake injuries (tired arm?  Can you even look that up on WebMD?).

This may be at the heart of why Detroit can’t jump-start itself:  It has to wait for Sheffield and Cabrera to turn it around.  They have no roster flexibility at the moment, which is what you get yourself into when you have a veteran team with too many guys who only play one position.

Inter-league play does bring an interesting test to the hitters.  We’ll have to watch how Migule Cabrera handles this — part of his slump could be described as an issue with switching leagues.  We’ll see how this plays out (though Detroit plays the NL West this year).