What Craig wrote is a prime example of that

Forget about Inge batting 8, behind Laird for a second

He has Everett leading off and Poly 2 (which he misspelled, but that is somewhat immaterial) … really? just really? after how they’ve hit this year?

Why don’t we make Justin Verlander a pinch runner and setup man and start Dtrain every other day while we are living in lulu land.

For whatever reason he actually does not thrive at all in the leadoff spot, at least during the actual leadoff ABs. He has the worst 1st inning stats of any leadoff hitter in the league, and the Tigers are the worst 1st inning offense in the league. .146 / .255 / .244 (.499 OPS), that’s how Curtis has been starting games this season; along with that he has scored 4 1st inning runs, easily lowest in the AL (Polanco has scored 9 1st inning runs batting 2nd).

If you look at his stats leading off innings (not just games) he’s only a little better: .194 / .301 / .367 (.668 OPS) (this includes leading off innings on days he has hit 5th).

Batting him somewhere else in the order will be better for the Tigers and will be better especially for Curtis himself.

To me, the problem isn’t the order, it’s the people. Magglio and/or Polanco need to step it up, and it wouldn’t hurt if Laird, Everett, Granderson or Cabrera got their averages up 25 points or so.

Also, I say play Santiago more — he’s producing.

Nate Roberson – Sent home to Kansas

Dontrelle Willis – Sent to Lakeland

Magglio Ordonez – Sent to DL until it is no longer possible to reach Games or PAs on option year

Cabrera- Moved to 3rd in the order

Wilkin Ramirez – Recalled to Play LF

New Order:

Everett -ss
Polonco – 2B
Caberera -1b
Granderson -CF
Thames -DH
Ramirez -RF/LF
Laird – C
Inge – 3B
Anderson/Clete/Kelly/Cleveln/Rayburn- LF/RF

You make some good points, but I disagree about Willis and Robertson.

To me, Nate is not a major league pitcher right now. Most of his pitches are strolling down the middle of the plate at about 85 mph screamming hit me. Worse than that, he looks like he has checked out to me. Either he is so disgruntled at being sent to the bullpen that he wants off the Tigers or he simply doesn’t care about playing baseball anymore, he has absolutely no value even in mop up. I don’t see any upside to keeping him on the roster.

As far as Willis, saying he has great stuff is a real stretch. If his heard were straight, I think he could be a servicable fourth or fifth starter. He has shown flashes of that in a few outings. I would talk to him and send him to Toledo for the rest of the year. If he won’t accept that, cut him. He can not be trusted to take the ball in the middle of a Division race right now.

As for the lineup, absent a trade, I think you go with defense. A platoon of Clete Thomas and Raburn or Brent Clevelen might be the best thing for left field. What ever offense you get from them is a bonus.

I like the idea of moving Maggs into the 2-hole. He could concentrate on just getting on base. Perhaps some of his power would return if there wasn’t as much pressure to produce. I don’t know. He’s 35, an age you might expect his numbers to start going down a bit. But not like this … he has fallen off the cliff. It’s very odd for someone of his ability.

I know I’ve harped on it a lot, but I still think Granderson should be your 3-hole hitter. I can’t for the life of me figure out why Leyland won’t give it a shot.

So here’s my lineup:

1. Polly 2b
2. Maggs RF
3. Grandy CF
4. Miggy 1b
5. Inge 3B
6. Thames DH
7. Thomas/Clevlen LF
8. Laird C
9. Everett SS

270/387/475 for a 128 OPS+

Concerning the lineups – mostly tradition. Assuming the same 9, lineups are gonna produce roughly the same over the course of a season regardless of the order. If anything, you should have your top OPS+ guy hitting leadoff (for the extra ABs as you mentioned Andre), and descend from there. Though #3 to #4 is only ~10 PAs per year.

“Dontrelle will not pitch on Saturday. That’s the end of the conversation. No further information goes along with that.

“He will not pitch Saturday. No more questions about that.”

it makes no reference to skipping him and pitching him later. Maybe Leyland and Dombrowski don’t want to announce the next step yet, but I don’t think you can read into that quote he’ll be starting again five days after Saturday.

Kevin,
Ordonez is, imo, much more likely to improve this year than Polanco, and thus shouldn’t be dropped to the #8 spot (that’s in addition to the fact that there’s going to be a certain amount of deference to his reputation).

Why not:
Granderson
Ordonez
Cabrera
Thames
Polanco
Inge
Everett
Thomas
Laird

Granderson is, as you point out, probably the best option at lead-off, while Ordonez still has a health OBP. Again, at this point, why not have Cabrera batting 3rd? What’s the advantage of batting him 4th, besides the possibility of bases-loaded?

Just curious.