I guess when you’re the manager, and you look at your options and see two players with an OBA above .330, and one player with a slugging percentage over .450, you can understand why he might want to get creative with the lineup. On Wednesday, DH/1B Kevin Witt started in left field because Dmitri Young’s achilles’ were hurting too much to play the field. I love the fact that Tram wanted to keep Witt’s bat in the lineup, even if it meant sacrificing some defense. On Thursday, Ben Petrick was playing center and leading off. I like that Tram put someone else in center besides Sanchez. The A’s showed Sanchez no respect whatsoever by taking an extra base whenever the ball was hit in the general direction of Sanchez. Sanchez plays too deep, gets poor jumps on the ball, won’t lay out to catch a ball, and has the arm of a first basemen. It was nice to see some non-traditional thinking, no matter what the motivation. I still don’t understand why the centerfielder has to lead off though.

Also surprising was the newly recalled Brandon Inge hitting second. Brandon has hit decent at Triple A with a new approach-“don’t think.” I can’t help but being a little doubtful, but even if Brandon can hit .240 with a little pop, it would be a huge step forward. I want Brandon to suceed, I really do. What I fear is that Brandon will play just well enough over the next 6-8 weeks to make people think he’s “figured it out.” If he has truly improved that’s great, but given his track record, I’d hate for the Tigers to not try and improve the catching position.

Other Stuff
-Work has been keeping me real busy, plus football season is starting. The result if fewer posts. Fortunately, there is another Tiger blog to read. Also, Brian’s been updating on a daily basis as well.
-Despite being the weakest division on the field, the AL Central has some excellent bloggers. Two of the best are Twins guys Aaron and Twins Geek.
-Munson is tied for the rookie lead in home runs with Mark Teixera at 17.