Tiger Geist

This pretentious ponderous collection of religious rock psalms is enough to prompt the question, ‘What day did the Lord create Spinal Tap, and couldn’t he have rested on that day too?’

–Marty DiBergi, reading a review of Spinal Tap’s previous album… from This is Spinal Tap

As Tiger fans we have to wonder, why Friday night’s game was rained out, yet Saturday night’s game was played?  Ugh.  Couple of points to cover:  the injuries, the replacements, and what’s next.

Injuries

Magglio Ordonez has been lost for 6-8 weeks sliding into home… where he was thrown out.  Carlos Guillen was lost due to a sore calf.  Both were placed on the 15 day disabled list; Guillen presumably will return in August.  Guillen’s always playing on borrowed time, but Magglio’s injury is pretty devastating for both himself and the team.  This probably puts a halt on any major acquisitions on the trade front, and Ordonez’s contract won’t vest.  More on this later.

Replacements

Jeff Larish and Will Rhymes have been called up.  Detroit loses an outfielder and an infielder, and call up two infielders.  You know the deal with both players… Larish is an average fielder who has flashes of power but hasn’t proven to be more then a AAAA player.  Rhymes is a scrappy player who was looked as a possible replacement for Placido Polanco a few years ago, until Scott Sizemore passed him as a prospect.  Nothing has been announced yet for the 40 man roster.  My guess is Billy Buckner will be dropped; by my count Detroit only has 39 players on the 40 man roster, so it should be that simple.

What’s next?

I imagine Ryan Raburn and his dogshit .209 batting average head back to the outfield full time.  Larish will get regular at-bats at DH and third base.  Brennan Boesch will move immediately to right field and left will be some combo of Damon and Raburn.  Miguel Cabrera will play first base, and probably hit more home runs and RBI’s then the rest of the infield, which will be nearly interchangeable.  And, we should not forget, somehow Don Kelly is still in the major leagues.

On the trade front, I wouldn’t be surprised if Detroit made a move towards the future — the Tigers still don’t have a long term answer at third or short, and just freed up major resources in Magglio’s $15mil 2011 contract.  I wouldn’t expect Detroit to dump Damon for no reason — they’re still short an outfielder.  There is also a strategy in bringing up more young talent before they’re ready — Ryan Strieby is still a hot prospect who could be moved in the off-season;  he can only diminish his value by hitting .200 in September for a third place team.

For Magglio and his contract, I would still expect Detroit to offer Magglio a one year deal in the off-season worth $8mil (copying Johnny Damon’s 2010 contract).  It was a costly slide, but Magglio should get rewarded by the Tigers with a one year deal.