I feel guilty that I only started paying serious attention to the Tigers, after years of neglect, when they started making noise in 2006. But I also feel that not having gone over to the Cubs, or worse still, the White Sox, when I could have and should have, should count as a mitigating factor.

I confess, however, that I listened to the 2005 World Series games and pulled for the White Sox. Hey, someone I knew was in there.

Yeah, that’s right! I remember that. Man, those were the days.

Fossum pitched really well against one batter that one time. Umm… jeez. Yeah, this is a tough exercise.

This season is over. Actually, if we’re all honest, it was over in mid-April. The parts on this team just don’t fit for various reasons. I think even Leyland has given up. He seemed rather up beat last night after yet another loss. In his pre-game with Dickerson, he said losing wasn’t hurting his players enough. I agree.

I truly don’t understand the dynamic of this team. Last season, the Tigers put together an oustanding first half and then fell apart. I don’t remember at what point it started to come undone last year … Sheffield’s shoulder injury in July … but the train hasn’t gotten back on the track since. Since that point, the Tigers record, I’m sure, is well under .500.

How can a team good from good to awful with the flip of a switch? Most of the pieces are the same. It doesn’t make sense to me. I guess that’s why they pay Domrowski big money.

But it’s obvious major changes need to be made. And, really, at this point, Leyland and Dombrowski should be using the remainder of this season to evaluate and prepare for 2009.

I think they should start putting players at the positions they plan to use them in for next season. If Inge is going to be the regular catcher, move him there now. If he’s going to be at 3B, put him there and leave him alone.

The point is, don’t wait until next spring training to start figuring the stuff out.

That’s all I’ve got.

If at the beginning of this season, someone could have asked me to imagine the worst, most disappointing season that the ‘08 Tigers could have had, and what that would look like, in no way could I have even come close to imagining this. This is a F-ing nightmare.

But I don’t think 2008 has been so bad for injuries so far, despite the recent news. Willis was no great loss, Sheffield was never healthy to begin with, and, at least in terms of his current stats, Granderson was outperformed by his replacements.

The injuries in 2007 were huge, agreed. Could have made all that 8 game difference.

Also I believe that Sean C. is correct. Renteria is too expensive for limited defense at short. I expect DD to either go out and get a good defensive short stop or rely on Santiago or Holliman in the hole. I’d prefer the later of the two.(Santiago)

In my dream world, Santiago replaces Renteria and shines, hitting like Polanco and providing solid if unspectacular defense at SS.

In reality, if the Tigers say no thanks to Renteria for 2009 – by no means certain – you’ve got to figure they will go after a SS who offers three things: Defense, defense, and more defense. It may have dawned on them by now that lack of said defense at SS it hurting them quite badly.