Tiger Geist

That pretty much sums it up.  The team was really pissing me off, Detroit makes some roster moves and some serious lineup changes and suddenly they are score nine runs, and their 20 year old pitcher is awesome.  Even Nate Robertson and Juan Rincon don’t give up any runs.  What else can you ask for?

You don’t want to get too excited about one game, but when the youngsters do well, you get excited.  Maybe it won’t last, so I will try to control my emotions.

• Not sure how long Jeff Larish will stay up, but I imagine that Brandon Inge and Miguel Cabrera will get a a day off in the next few weeks.
• Unless Marcus Thames is the backup first basemen, his days might be limited.  He makes less then Guillen and Ordonez and might have some trade value.
• Ditto for Ryan Raburn — I imagine he’ll go down before Clete Thomas.
• Tuesday night’s lineup felt much more like a “minnesota” lineup then a “cleveland” or “chicago” lineup.  I like that.
• I feel Clete is here to stay;  it allows Josh Anderson to be a defensive replacement and pinch-runner for the slower Guillen and Ordonez.  Ideally they run a Thomas / Granderson / Old dude who currently isn’t hitting well (Guillen/Ordonez) outfield every night, with the extra guy DH’ing.
• The Red Wings aren’t handling the neutral zone well right now (early 2nd period)
• Nice to hear Dave Strader’s voice again.

Finally… its early.  I won’t go crazy.  However, it might be an expensive year at the Illitch household if they truly want to field the best Tiger team in 2009 and 2010.

Rapada down, Guillen to the DL, Thomas and Larish up.  There you have it.

Last year, this move would have taken another week of losing for Leyland or Dombrowski to even think about making a move. In 2008, Guillen could have gotten some innings at shortstop to see if that might ‘jumpstart his offense’.  But now, after looking foolish in left and acknowledging that his shoulder and Achilles are hurting, he’s on the 15-day DL.  Rapada, who I thought pitched well last night, gets sent down as the extra bullpen arm.

On top of that, two guys with some major league hitting ability get the call.  Clete is a very good defender to help with some absolute atrocious corner outfield play lately, and I’d rather take my chances with Jeff Larish against a left handed pitcher then watch Ryan Raburn stand up there.

Its possible that I’m biased and looking for every little reason to get Guillen and Ordonez off the field, but last night’s game looked downright awful for Guillen.  And there have been at least two plays over the last two games that Ordonez has been _this close_ to getting to, and in your gut you think that anyone with some foot speed could have made those plays.  I’ll give Magglio the benefit of the doubt in terms of his slow offensive start, but let’s warm it up from the DH spot.

In terms of tonight’s lineup… I’m not really sure there is anyone who ’should’ be hitting at any one spot, outside of Miguel Cabrera.  While I’m sure “Granderson hitting fifth” won’t be a permanent slot, if he thinks he deserves to hit higher, he can start inching his batting average towards the .300 mark.  I am surprised that Brandon Inge still sits down at #7.