As for whether or not he’ll be adequate, time will tell. He’s been young for several years and he’s been bad at several positions, even before he put on the weight he’s now losing.

Now in addition to the weight loss he may have done other conditioning to help and improve his defense, I don’t really know. But until he actual shows he’s an average defender, I’ll be skeptical.

The focus on Miggy’s defense as an “issue” is largely because of Inge, which was my point above. As mentioned earlier, Cabrera’s young and has a good chance of improving with the leather as he may be motivated for the first time to work at it (he’s heard the criticism). But even if he doesn’t, he’s still an upgrade overall at third base.

Why? I’ve maintained that third base is just plain not as important defensively, regardless of our staff (and I respect and hear Lee’s point), as other positions – particularly “up the middle.” While its not to be ignored, “third base defense” gets way more attention than it deserves from Tiger fans because of BI.

As for Jeter, I concur with the majority. If he played for the Padres, you’d have trouble recalling his name (unless – like me – you lived in Kzoo when he was tearing things up in high school).

A question however, only slighly off-topic, but MUCH more important: what the heck ARE the Tiger options if Wilson is not ready to go March 31st? (I’d rate the odds about 50-50 that he’s ready.) There’s been NO coverage of this issue! Obviously, BI is a reluctant option and Raburn is talking about giving it a try, but hardly reliable.
Thoughts????

Baseball players are like puppies. You need to give them constant positive reinforcement to keep them working hard. Leyland knows this so never says anything negative about a player.

The thing about Jeter is that he ranks at the bottom of EVERY study. These new defensive measures are nor perfect and sometimes they will disagree on certain players but when every single merasure says Jeter is at or near the bottom, then I have to believe he is a poor fielder.

And on topic, if Cabrera can somehow exercise/be coached into a league average third baseman… wow. I don’t see why not, Troy Glaus doesn’t exactly have an athletic build either, and he’s surprisingly high on that list. If Cabrera can get there through repetition and focus, this is gonna be one of the best everyday lineups in recent memory.

http://www.nypost.com/seven/02....._97934.htm

And I’d point you here for comments and statistical analysis about the defensive impacts of the Renteria and Jacque Jones acquisitions. And Sheffield was brought in as a DH so a detailed analysis of his defensive impact would go like this: 0 runs.

As for Ordonez he had been an averagish fielder throughout his career and was fairly unremarkable in that respect. Plus, we have much more at our disposal now than we did prior to the 2004 season in terms of defensive statistics to work with.

thank god for the tigers…it seems like every day offers a tasty, strong shot of promise…Does any one else mentally construct Tiger lineups on the way to work in the morning?

“I’m gonna be pissed if the Tigers let Inge go. He’s one of my favorite Tigers. He needs to get his bat going, but he’s one of the best feilding 3rd basemen in the league. He’s an amazing athlete and has been with the Tigers through their worst season in histroy. Screw Cabrrera, Inge is the man for the Tigers.”

Aside from that, Dave, there HAVE been many passionate and semi-irrational defenses of BI on this site in the recent past. You won’t have to go back too far in the archives to find them.

I hear ya, Bilfer, and apologize for bringing BI into it. However, my point is Cabrera’s defense is really only an issue in Detroit because of the “previous regime,” who’s defense was his oft-cited strength. There was barely a comment – much less exhaustive statistical analysis – from anyone about Jacque Jones, Edgar Renteria, Gary Sheffield (for when he played the field), or particularly Ordonez’ defense when they were acquired (Higginson, the previous RF, often led the league in outfield assists). Rather, most fans were pleased that we were getting an offensive upgrade and a better player at those positions.
In Cabrera’s case, its become an much bigger issue because of Brandon. I’m optimistic that with the attention Miggy’s had for his “lack” of defense, along with his new dedication to fitness, he’ll probably be much improved this year and plenty adequate with the leather.

Did ANYONE actually say it?