Carlos Guillen in left is a strange, bad idea; but what is the alternative?
posted in 2008-09 offseason |One of the crazier announcements in the waning days of the season was that 2009’s starting outfielder will be Carlos Guillen.
WHAT?!
Guillen. The guy who couldn’t play shortstop, so they moved him to first. He butchered any semblance of fielding at first base, and fortunately for Guillen, Miguel Cabrera did likewise at third base, so the switcheroo made sense. And now Guillen is playing in left.
It’s not totally unheard of. Teams aren’t putting their best athletes in left field (see: Barry Bonds, Craig Monroe, Marcus Thames, Manny Ramirez, et. al.) But can a guy with a couple of bum wheels and an arm that can’t always direct the baseball to the center of a teammate’s mitt be expected to last the whole season out there? I just don’t think so.
The reasoning is pretty simple, I’m guessing, from the Tigers’ point of view.
Guillen has to play baseball. He’s paid a lot to do that. Brandon Inge is a better third baseman and can’t play catcher worth phooey. Some player-to-be-acquired is a better shortstop than Edgar Renteria. And the home-run hitting Cabbage has put down his claim to first base for the next seven or so years. Oh, and there’s three designated hitters on the team but only one DH slot in the American League. Unless the Tigers find a way to move Gary Sheffield to another team (or unless Sheffield comes back with a shoulder healthy enough to play left field, which to me remains the better solution), Guillen’s gotta play somewhere. Left field appears to be the position of least resistance.
That is, if his body survives the wear and tear. I seriously wonder if this aging, injured club isn’t just setting itself up to lose a left fielder to the disabled list.
So you can put me down in the category of “don’t like it, but don’t see a real great alternative as this team is currently composed.” Hopefully some things change this offseason.
Sphere It
Considering every other move Leyland claimed was permanent this season (Inge will be the catcher in ‘09, Thames is the full time LF, Cabrera is the future at 3B, Guillen is our 1B…no, he’s our LF…wait, he’s our 3B) actually wasn’t, I’ll believe Guillen is a full time LF when I see him still in LF come May.
In terms of likely production/injury risk, I think Guillen and Sheffield are effectively each half of the team’s DH for next year.
IMO, you leave Guillen at 3B and allow Inge to reprise his role as super-sub/part-time catcher next year as well. It’s almost as though this move was made more to placate Inge than to actually strengthen the team appreciably. Inge may play above average defense at 3B but his offense is far below average at that position. But like others have said, we’ll see if this even happens, anyways.