Deja Vu dept: Guillen on DL, Rhymes recalled

Scott Sizemore was supposed to be the answer at second base when the season started, but now he’s passed over by Will Rhymes, who has zero chance of sticking as a starter in the major leagues.

I like Rhymes’s enthusiasm and energy as much as anyone, but a reality check of his talent level reveals very little on a major league scale. Defensively, he’s fine. On the bases, he’s an asset. He might be able to slap the ball past the infield about a quarter of the time, but Leyland was putting him in the No. 2 slot in the batting order. That’s maybe as much an indication of how pathetic the talent level was on the roster at the time as anything else.

Have the Tigers given up on Sizemore at 2B already? Is it his defense? Hitting, or lack thereof in his short time in the majors? What gives?

I’m willing to sit back and be entertained by David Eckstein’s look alike for a few weeks, but I’m concerned about where this organization is going in terms of finding some real talent to fill the huge vacancies that are coming after the end of this season. I see zero answers internally.

In other news, water is still wet, the sky us still blue, and yes, the Pope is still Catholic.

Does he play for the Tigers? Not familiar with him — sigh. Nevermind.
Personally, since this season is a wash, I got a big kick out of watching Rhymes play and I’m glad to see him back. Speedy, kinda Mighty Mouse, Pedroia-like fun to watch. He’s much more entertaining than wincing at some of the musclebound no-necks thumping around the base paths.

You can blame Gardner for this one, rather than the infield dirt. That’s improvement, right?

and yelled to him “how are you feeling?” He gave me a thumbs up. I wished I had known that he was on the DL at that point. I hope he didn’t think I was making fun of him.

As Al stated, Guillen has always been a good Tiger, on and off the field. His bat has been good just about his entire Detroit career, and while his glove has been misunderstood at times, 2B hasn’t looked like a terrible match. (His range isn’t great, but I feel like he’s made almost all routine plays and a few very good plays. I don’t mind him at 2B).

The guy gets hurt a lot…we all know this. It stinks when he’s out because we don’t get as much offense from his replacement, but I really don’t understand how getting rid of him helps the team. Here’s one look at the logic:

We get 350 productive AB’s from a player.
We can’t have 550?
Well then, we don’t want the 350 at all.
Release him!

My uncle gave me $30, but he wouldn’t give me $50, so I wouldn’t take the $30. Huh?

I also wish that he would stay healthy for a whole season, but I realize this won’t happen. Take what we can get and fill in the rest of the AB’s with Rhymes or Sizemore or Peralta. Whatever.

There are a couple of arguments that at least carry a little water:

A) Releasing Guillen would free up a spot on the 40-man roster. True, but do we really need more space on the 40-man? Look at the names of #25-40. Heck, look at the names of 24 and 25 and tell me that they’re more valuable to the organization than 350 AB’s from Guillen.

B) Giving him a spot at 2B (or anywhere) takes an opportunity away from a younger player’s development. Finally, something that makes sense. However, for whatever reason, the organization does not seem to see Scott Sizemore as a 2B anymore (I’m confused on this, but I’ll try to be confident that people that make baseball decisions for a living are smarter than I am in regard to these matters) and doesn’t have any other 2B that are near-ready enough to replace Guillen.