The best hope they have is that he stays on the DL until he’s completely healthy, at which point he could come back and be useful.

I didn’t get to see all the game yesterday; it was blacked out, but I did get to see a couple plays on the FOX Spanish channel. One of the plays I saw was Thames running down a fly ball, and it seemed like a very good play.

By favorably, I just mean Guillen makes that catch, too, and others like it. Or the catch Matt Joyce made diving for the ball the other day which saved a run, I believe. By favorably, I mean Guillen doesn’t commit more than his share of errors… one, maybe two, and the growing pains are minimal and not costly — as in costing a game. By favorably, I mean a pop up to left doesn’t automatically give a green light for runners to tag and/or score.

I read this morning that Guillen was gonna play left today, so I guess were going to see.

I’d be curious to know what odds you give it to work out somewhat favorably? 1 to 2? 2 to 3? Just curious of your thoughts.

Good question, first you’d have to define favorably. In one sense, simply the fact that I wouldn’t have to watch him fielding ground balls makes it a resounding success.

I think the odds are against him being average right away. I would expect him to be below average. Then again, he surprised me at the end of last year by playing. I would expect some growing pains, a play or two in which he’s ‘in between’ running in and catching it in the air, making a sliding catch, the ball short hops him, he misplays it, it rolls all the way to the wall, turning a single into a triple. And yes, people will be clamoring that night that he shouldn’t be in the OF. Expect some problems/misplays with/at the wall. But I think his damage will be mostly allowing the runner to advance an extra base or two.

I know that alot of people correlate switching positions to declining offensive production. But in my opinion, that’s just an excuse. In my opinion, they’re 2 separate things that don’t effect each other. But if there is an effect it, it my opinion it would be in a positive way. You’re angry because you made an error and you harness that anger and channel it into more determination and focus in your next at bat. I’ll give merely one example of this. When Pudge dropped the routine pop up in a game early in the year, later in the game, he had multiple hits and RBI’s, including a triple that sparked a huge comeback. After the game he attributed his offensive spark to the error, stating he was angry and embarrased by his mistake and that ignited his offensive outburst.

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But he has no experience judging fly balls or what routes to take or any of the nuances that you pick up by playing on a regular basis.

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Really, the basics are not that tough. Taking perfect routes every time, no, of course that’s not easy. Of course he’s going to take some wrong routes. But nobody takes perfect routes every time. Why expect Gold Glove D from day one? Sure, over time he could become better at reading balls off the bats and taking better routes toward balls. But being more concerned about that than the daily train wreck at 3B is like straining a gnat and swallowing a camel, in my opinion.

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Comparing it to little league? Yeah, it’s the same thing.

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Yes there are certain fundamentals that you should learn when you start playing the game that you keep with you throughout your career. If you feel otherwise, then we just have different baseball philosophies. They had him shagging flyballs in pregame practice(or whenever it was). In practice, if he sees a flyball hit to his left and doesn’t know he should run to his left, then right there in practice, they can see he’s not fit for the outfield.

Plays off of the wall and getting a feel for the warning track, yes, those are more involved, and growing pains should be expected there. But again, whatever damage his D might do in the OF, I don’t see how it could be even half as bad as the damage he does at 3b.

imagine the 08 tigers if management had done absolutely nothing over the winter…would we not be better off…or how about if they went out and signed one bona fide starting pitcher and one reliever. add maybe $10 million to the payroll…i gotta believe we would be way better off…hindsight i know but still.

Sigh. Just feeling so hopeless watching Verlander looking so mediocre.

I don’t think Miggy should play LF either. I was just pointing out that it makes more sense than Guillen to LF — which isn’t saying much about sense to begin with.

Steve in KZoo:

Guillen to SS and Renteria to 3rd is an intriguing idea. Of all the moves mentioned, I’m more comfortable with that scenario than moving Guillen to the OF. It might work.