Comments on: links for 2008-04-24

By: Ken from Cincinnati

Ken from Cincinnati — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:50:30 +0000

Wait….this isn’t fantasy baseball?? What is it, some kind of blog or something. No, I definitely see where you’re coming from. I think a lot of my opinion will depend on how well Carlos can adapt to third base. If he’s better there than he was at shortstop, then I prefer keeping Jones in left field and Brandon out of the everyday lineup. If Carlos doesn’t improve the 3rd base position moderately, then I guess I would prefer your suggesstion, but who knows what kind of drop off we could see in defense with Carlos in LF instead of Jacque.

By: don

don — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:32:42 +0000

sure ken, if we just look at bats, jones probably gets the nod, but that’s not the analysis unless we’re playing fantasy baseball. inge’s glove at 3rd saves a good number of runs, especially now that we have 3 lefty starters.
Plus, I don’t care if jones hits .280 or .300, if he only hits 5 homers again, he’s worthless in LF.

By: Ken from Cincinnati

Ken from Cincinnati — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:55:18 +0000

I think we need to have a little more faith in Jacque Jones, as he is starting to look more comfortable at the plate. Jacque is a career .280 hitter, so he knows what he’s doing up there, and as we saw recently, can have Granderson-like speed on the base paths. Inge is a career .250 hitter if that? Taking defense out of the equation, Jones is a more consistant and proven offensive player that will prove me right over the season by posting .30 pts higher than Inge. The OPS for both players will start to converge to similarity as well.

By: don

don — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:36:08 +0000

Someone’s probably floated this before, but I think the best solution for the tigers, as they’re currently structured, is cabrera at 1B, inge at 3B, sheff at DH and guillen in LF.

Why the hell not? Guillen still runs well and probably could become at least average in LF pretty quickly. Sticking inge in the lineup at 3B takes advantage of his stellar defense and he would be replacing jacque jones’ bat - such as it is - in the lineup. Who’s the better player offense+defense, jones or inge? if it’s inge, which I think it is, guillen should be in left.

By: Mike R

Mike R — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:45:37 +0000

Whether he had quotes or not, I’m tired of Brandon Inge talking. Yes, he’s elite at 3rd base. He’s also boasting a .251/.319/.420 vital line over the last 3 years which means if you’re elite in one facet of the game, and way below average in another facet, you’re basically an average ball player all things taken into consideration.

Guillen > the average ball player.

Cabrera > the average ball player.

Quit whining. You banked on a fine 2006 season and you’re a fan favorite. Get over yourself. By far my least favorite Tiger. I’d rather buy Jason Grilli dinner after every lead he blows (when brought into an impossible situation by our genius strategist … note the sarcasm) then ever shake Brandon Inge’s hand. His “being livid” was old in December, and it’s especially old now.

And how terrible is that Ken Rosenthal article? Can anyone mention that those 5 errors came in (1) cold, cold weather as Leyland CONTINUALLY ran him out to 3rd base hurt and (2) that he does have a bad quad. I’d like to see him play at 3B in a 25 game sample when he’s got healthy legs beneath him. Is his Defense going to be brutal? Yeah. Definitely. Is he 5 errors in 14 games bad? I don’t think so. That’s a pace for nearly 60 errors in a season and he’s not that bad.

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 03:17:09 +0000

“Rosenthal didn’t have quotes. He just cited a MLB source which is about as obscure as it gets.”

Actually, I was the source for this article. Ken woke me up with a 5:am phone call (pacific time) and asked me if Inge was pissed. I told him that I would be if I was the Ingemister.

All kidding aside, I think having Inge as the odd man out is a big mistake. If anybody needs to ride the pine or be traded it is Sheffield. This team has proven to have enough offense without him in the lineup (and even when he was in the lineup, we weren’t getting much more offense). We desperately need better infield defense to help out this struggling starting rotation.

If I were DD, I would trade Sheffield for whatever I could get. There has got to be somebody who would want his potential big bat.

By: billfer

billfer — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:26:34 +0000

Thanks Jason. It was actually part of a larger paragraph where I note that Leyland gets knocked for many of his tactical moves. I also commented on Kwame but that got cut.

As for the Inge stuff, Rosenthal didn’t have quotes. He just cited a MLB source which is about as obscure as it gets.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 01:48:52 +0000

nice quote in the franchise ranking article, billfer!

By: Kathy

Kathy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:37:51 +0000

Grandy is just a true treasure. Calling the Grand Rapids Public Schools himself and offering to make an appearance. The guy is one in a million and I hope he stays a Tiger forever!

By: Mike in E.L.

Mike in E.L. — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 21:31:19 +0000

It’s good to see that the Tigers are getting national recognition for how great of an organization they have.

I’d be interested to see if any other team has climbed as fast in the rankings in the past couple of years.