To me it seems the defense has been worse than the pitching. There have been far too many innings that have been extended bc of poor fielding plays - even those not necessarily errors. The ineptness of the lineup is puzzling. I'm a little bored so I thought I would post this, Sheffield's power seems to be sapped but he is still very good at getting on base and he runs well so I've been thinking about putting him leadoff and transitioning Granderson to a more power position in the lineup as his power may be exceeding Sheffield's at this point in time. I have loved Polanco as the 2 hitter in years past but I think Guillen works counts and runs better and is equally versatile plus having a switch hitter at the 2 spot makes pitching changes more challenging. Anyways, when Leyland said he was going to make drastic changes to the lineup, I thought something more like this was coming rather than cutting J Jones.

Lineup
R 1. Sheffield DH
S 2. Guillen 3B
R 3. Ordonez RF
R 4. Cabrera 1B
L 5. Granderson CF
R 6. Polanco 2B
R 7. Rodriguez C
L 8. Joyce LF
R 9. Renteria SS

What the Tigers did was mess up there team chemestry. Anybody who had ever seen Cabera play 3b said he was a great hitter, no denying that, but as a 3rd baseman he is below average, Too many errors and Limited range. Edgar Renteria is past his prime he still may have a productive bat but defensively he is a shadow of his former self no wonder why the Braves wanted to get rid of him. at 1st base we had the former shortsop Carlos Guillen who was so bad he almost got ran over everytime there was a play at first, so he was switched to third and well he hasnt been any better there then Cabera was. In the outfield Granderson is our star but is surrounded by average to below average defensive players. Looking at the entire team we have about 5 Guys who should be a DH. (Guillen, Sheffield, Cabrerra, Ordonez, Thames).

heres my solution Cut renteria Theres no cap in baseball

Move Inge back to third
Sheffield and Guillen alternate at DH
Guillen/ Santago alternate at short
by my estimation having inge back at third saves about 1 run a game and lowers the team era. we loose some hitting but we may play better over the long haul.

If you think about it the last two season the tigers had two of the best infielders defensively in Inge and Casey, Thus helping the pitching staff get out of jams.

I'm sorry but the idea that the Tigers need to do anything more than just relax and play baseball is just too drastic. These players got these big contracts because they all have proven that they can play baseball at a very high level. Once the weather starts warming up the bats will too just watch. As long as they are within 5-10 games of first at the All-Star break they should be in prime position.