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PenWing said:
The problem with Cameron is that he hits for power, and that's a nono in Comerica Park. He may be good for 30 homeruns anywhere else, but if comes to Detroit, he's looking at half that, if he's lucky. He may do something stupid like adjust his swing and get himself messed up everywhere else, too. If he was closer to a .300 hitter, then it would be worth it, but he hits in the mid .200, and the Tigers already have enough of those.



Half that? I think you may be overestimating Comerica Park's influence(they did move in the walls). Shea Stadium is a pretty big pitchers' park, itself, and Cameron still managed to hit 30 homers playing half his games there, despite playing through nagging injuries in the second half of the season.

Cameron is not a contact hitter, but his power gives him better offensive value than any of the Tigers other centerfield options, and defensively, he's one of the best in the game.

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No they don't, but it's slowly looking up. The previous GM (I will not mention him by name) destroyed the organization. Still, Dombrowski drafted some good pitchers in Kyle Sleeth and Justin Verlander.



Sleeth and Verlander certainly have the talent, though Sleeth has not progressed as well as most draft gurus expected, considering he was the "safe" college pick. The Tigers' development of those pitchers may go a long way in determining just how successful the franchise is in the future. Randy Smith's drafting set the organization back years, especially with first round dissapoiments like Matt Anderson, Eric Munson, Kenny Baugh, Matt Wheatland, etc.

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The thing is, if the Tigers can find the offense elsewhere (which they just might have), then as long as Inge can match last season's stats and play strong, error free defense, he's exactly what the Tigers need. I am hoping that Dean Palmer still has something left to make the team, because he would be a great tutor to Inge on how to play third.



Third base is an offensive position, though, and for that position, Inge is a below-average offensive player. Baseball isn't really a sport where having too many offensive weapons is a problem. Every position hits.

Even though the Tigers were in the middle of the pack in runs scored last year, I'm not sure they have enough offensive stability to risk giving a lot of at bats to a below offensive player. Carlos Guillen's 2004 season was so much better than anything he'd done before(OPS 170 points higher than his previous high), at an age where improvements that drastic don't usually occur, one would almost have to expect some offensive regression, perhaps a lot. Ivan Rodriguez's 2004 season was also a lot better than his 2003 season, and he's now 33 years old, with 14 seasons under his belt(a lot of mileage for a catcher). Magglio Ordonez's true health status is anyone's guess.

MisterJLA is RACKing awesome.