I am a big fan of Magglio but he is really holding back the team especially hitting in the No 3 spot. He has lost all power and is a singles only hitter with a low average. He is extremely slow on the basepaths and cannot go first to third or second to home and is also prone to hitting into double plays. He still has a good arm in the field and positions himself and reads the ball well off the bat but his range is terrible. His best attribute seems to be that he still has a good approach at the plate and knows how to work the count but his performance doesnt warrant hitting third.

I'd be satisfied with Maggs hitting .300 and just hitting singles to set the table for Cabby and as you said he not even doing that. Dirks seems like the natural answer to your question and then maybe only play Maggs against lefties but I doubt that is going to happen. Leyland's solution to this would be to play Raburn fulltime in left and move Bosch to right with Kelly having spot duty. Sometimes Leyland's loyalty gets in the way of logic. Now I see that Guillen is on the 15 day DL and he really hasn't been that productive either, somewhat lilke Maggs.

So much for my idea of Dirks fulltime, this move came out of nowhere and is a bit strange to say the least. Young had somewhat of a breakout year last year but has tailed off this year and the Twins seem to be the second team he has fallen out of favor with over his career. Has a lot of upside offensively but somewhat of a liability defensively and is only 25 years old, I believe the Tigers will have a year left on his contract if they choose arbritration.


http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/68639 ... oit-tigers

Now we just need to trade for Prince Fielder. LOL.

Young's not that bad in the OF. He's a hell of a lot better than Rayburn. Ragbum has cost this team 8 runs the past 3 games - absolutely pathetic. Hands of cement. How this guy has a job is beyond me. Fire Leyland and Dombrowski. I can't believe they keep this clown around. Young makes Rayburn look like a little leaguer.

raburn has been pathetic in the field, if he was a little leaguer I would bench him. betemit isnt far behind. it makes me cringe to say it, but bring back inge. our defense is far more a culprit than our offense.

Sir you are absolutely right about Raburn, he hits that one dinger everyonce in awhile and Leyland loves it. I'm a bit less critical of Betamit, he has had more clutch hits since he arrived three weeks ago then Inge and Kelly combined all year. He was 8 for 17 on the last road trip and Leyland still manages to bench him at times in favor of Kelly.

or ragburn who started at 3rd the other day and went 0-4

betemit isn't a great fielder, but he's capable (Inge makes a ton of errors too). Betemit strikes out a ton and doesn't walk a lot, but he's got a nice average and makes some nice clutch hits.

its not just the errors - there are just so many routine balls that Betemit cant make a play on or at least get a glove on, yesterday there was a grounder down the 3b line that he was in range of but couldnt get his glove on it. inge makes errors but he gets a glove on that ball every time...betemit has gotten some hits but he has virtually no bat control and swings and misses at a lot of pitches - on one K yesterday he swung and missed at three pitches that were all balls without contacting a ball the entire at bat.

for raburn i find it frustrating that they keep putting him out there at 2b or 3b. he can barely handle the outfield. i wonder what they were thinking in the offseason bc they knew that 2B was going to be a problem - why didnt raburn get some work at 2b in spring training or in a winter league? i find it hard to believe that the front office didnt think about playing him in the IF bc No 1 : I thought about it last offseason No 2 : they pulled the plug on Rhymes/Sizemore very quickly so they must not have much confidence in either player and No 3 : leyland all of a sudden made Raburn the 2B without easing him into the situation. clearly Raburn is not ready to be in the infield.

anyway both these guys raburn and betemit are hitting somewhat well recently but overall they are hurting the team. i understand that some of you wont put betemit in that category but in my mind ive seen too much that tells me he is not a good baseball player and does virtually every little thing wrong and has cost us at times

from a strategy perspective I never want to see a lineup with Raburn and Ordonez are in the field in a game where Fister is pitching ever again. Fister relies on his defense quite a bit and cant get strikes out in clutch situations like Verlander and Scherzer absolutely can yet he seems to have gotten some terrible D behind him. most baseball people choose their lineup based on who the opposite pitcher is and what hand he throws with - shouldnt they also weigh the defensive strategy based on how much fielding your pitcher needs? for some reason it doesnt seem like that is much of a factor but ive definitely noticed the defensice insufficiencies making a bigger difference in a game fister or penny pitches rather than JV or MS. When Fister pitches I want to start seeing a lineup of LF Dirks CF Jackson RF Boesch 3B Kelly or Inge 2B Santiago 1B Cabrera SS Peralta and C Avila - they can mix in raburn betemit and ordonez on MS and JV nights but please never play them when a defense dependent pitcher is on the hill....

I would much rather see Santiago at 3rd and betemit at 2nd. Rayburn should be a ph at this point. As with maggs.

Everyday, I'd trot out
Jackson CF
Santiago 3B
Young RF
Cabby 1B
Vmart DH
Boesch LF
Peralta SS
Avila C
Betemit 2B

betemit has 25 K s in 57 at bats, 44% of his at bats are strikeouts which is absolutely unacceptable. his 316 avg is not sustainable and he probably shouldnt play more than once or twice a week.

for comparison andy dirks also has 25 Ks but in 171 at bats and Kelly has 23 Ks in 179 at bats. neither are good hitters. Inge struck out way too much but even he was only striking out at 28% clip.

as for the fielding, betemit has only played a handful of games at 2b in the past few years so i dont want to see that anymore than raburn playing at 2b. betemit has 4 errors in 15 starts and an .897 fielding avg which really means an error avg of 10.3%, Inge at 5.4% this season and if you look at how many chances per game Inge gets to more balls 3.1/game compared to betemit 2.5/game.

another weird stat on betemit though probably just dumb luck and not his fault - he s only scored 3 runs despite hitting 2 home runs adn hitting 316 and also having 3 doubles

I have no problem with this lineup except I would switch Santiago and Betemit position wise and I would keep Boesch in the 2 hole. Baseball tends to put the strength of the defense up the middle, SS, 2b,CF, C and Santiago is a much better fielder then Betemit. I would much rather see Santiago get the playing time then Kelly, he has a very good glove and his bat isn't all that bad either.

santiago has been scorching it. magglio coming around and delmon young a great addition

WOW. Sometimes Dumbrowski pleasantly surprises me.