Miguel Cabrera at third an experiment worth trying

Well played, sir, well played. I believe if everyone plays within themselves and makes effective decisions from their heads rather than from the dangly bits, then the defense should rate as a solid ‘’Good Enough". If anyone starts turning singles into triples with bonehead plays, well then they will have to sit in the DH timeout chair and think about what they’ve done.

Well done.

I feel like our corner defense will be fine, if a little below average. Miggy will make the plays he should and Fielder is a serviceable 1st baseman who knows the position and works/plays hard to improve. We’ll miss Inge only on the foul pop-ups going back to his right and the once in a while insane acrobatic plays he makes, I think we’ll appreciate the offensive uprgrade just a bit more, and I for one never want to see Cabrera dive headlong into the stands!
As far as Raburn is concerned(I’m a hater), it’s obvious to all of us(why not Jim?) that he CAN’T play 2nd and I wish he wasn’t even in the conversation. That being said, I can live with him in left as long as he brings his bat all year. For all the talk of signing a starting 2nd baseman, Ramon is/was as good as anyone actually available, and I think with this lineup we can live with him as a starter for the year, with Worth available for when he or Peralta need a blow. Up the middle defense is so important that we need to keep it as solid as possible, i.e; no Raburn.
I think as long as our most usual outfield lineup includes Boesch, AJax, and Raburn, the defense won’t be noticebly worse than years previous. I’m of the opinion that BB is a decent fielder and with a little work on his routes and jumps (a la Kaline helping Gibby way back when), he could be a plus defender.
Just my two cents as a looong-time Tiger fanatic, and someone who thinks he knows what he’s talking about;). Can’t wait to get the show on the road, and hopefully it all works the way it could and should, especially when we get Victor back for the playoffs(please). Go Tigers!

I agree with jlamb. Raburn does not belong anywhere in this equation, He is far and away the worst fielding 2nd baseman of any in this discussion and really not even comparable to Santiago at the plate. a little more power but too many strikeouts. 114 last year for a .294 strikeout pct.
It was noted that Pince led the majors in 1st base errors with 15. it was not mentioned that Cabrerra made 13 and even Puhols made 11. not a huge difference, roughly 1 error extra about every 80 games,
The last year that Cabrerra played third all year his field pct was .957. Last year Inge was at .961, Still not much difference.
I also think we are overating the need for speed at the leadoff spot with this lineup. We need the leadoff hitter on base. I am almost 60 but I could still score from 2nd when Miggy and Prince hit em out. We need Jackson in center because he is great there. He needs to bat ninth where his 181 strikouts dont rob us of 75- 90 runs

work out at 3rd. How about LF?
Not many really good fielders for LF on the tigers anyway.

I don’t think it’s a matter of the “experiment” being “worth trying.” The Tigers have to have Cabrera’s bat in the lineup, and with Martinez likely coming back in 2013 as the DH, Cabrera has to get playing time.

The fact that this post has even been written—and commented on plenty—reflects what an obvious problem potentially horrendous defense is for the team. Talking about it more to make oneself feel better is silly, though unsurprising.

I do agree that left field (or anywhere) may be a better place for him. Why? Cabrera has only played full-time at third for two seasons in his career—and made 40 errors during those two seasons (certainly the worst in baseball during that time). And the last time he played there regularly was 2008—or probably 20 pounds ago.

Does anyone think he will be as good as he was then, when he was clearly not good?

Cabrera at one corner and Fielder at the other will give the team the worst, most immobile, and error-prone corner defense in baseball—by a good margin—and perhaps the worst in many years. Fielder led all 1B in errors last year.

(It’s true that Pujols made 11 errors, and by his standards it was a very bad year defensively—an aging player who was showing it all year. So you’d expect Fielder, in a couple years, to be even worse than he is now, with balls trickling off his glove, etc. For him, 15 errors was also a bad year—but he’s made 14 and 17 before, too. Thank god for the DH. Prince may be sitting at DH by the time he’s 30.)

You can number-crunch all you want about how teams simply have to score more runs than the opposition. Clearly true—but no teams win it all with good offense and poor defense. The Cardinals would have not sniffed the postseason had they not replaced Ryan Theriot (playing out of position, and poorly) with Rafael Furcal, just as one example. The defense righted itself at the essential time.

I think Detroit fans can remember how badly the team’s defense was when the Cardinals beat them in the World Series in 2006: an embarrassment, though largely the fault of skittish pitchers who Leyland didn’t think ever had to learn how to throw a guy out at third or first. Next year’s version, instead of perhaps being shockingly bad in the field, will be expected to be bad. That’s the way the owners seem to want it.

One saving grace is that no other team in the division has really improved itself—and certainly not enough to challenge the Tigers very seriously. It’s their division to win, or lose, doing it their way.

Guys and gals lets not forget what position Cabby played in Fla. when we signed him. He was a 3rd baseman who played well enough there for us to pay him BIG free agent money. Yes he was signed for his bat but he must have been at least an average 3rd baseman. Also lets not forget that Inge wasn’t exactly Brooks Robinson at 3rd. If the team has Avila, Peralta, Santiago, and Jackson up the middle their defense will be ok. The outfield with Jackson, Boesch, and whoever in LF won’t be horrible. Would like too see a trade for a decent hitting and fielding LF but probably not going to happen. If they do anything more I would think it would be with the pitching staff aka 5th starter. I don’t see any major trades until maybe the trade deadline if the team is in contention. Oh, and there is always the Cespedes thing still hanging out there!

If raburn is the primary second baseman, I say -60 feels about right for that infield…its gonna be historically brutal… #cantwaittowatchthetrainwreck

I’ve always been a Brandon Inge fan. Just thought he was a good player most of his career and I appreciated that he chose to live in Michigan year round plus all the charity stuff made him special.

But we all know he ain’t comin back after 12 so maybe it is time to cut ole’ number 15 before he becomes either a problem in the club house or a fall back player if Cabrera makes 14 errors like he did when he first got to Detroit. It would be an expensive buy out at 5 million but they have eaten more before. He cannot be back up catcher as we now have Laird and I doubt that he could adjust to second or short at this stage of his career.

I suppose he could be a back up outfielder and an emergency ONLY 3rd baseman but his bat does not justify an outfield position and if he is on the team JL will not be able to resist that late inning subbing for Miggy and I don;t think we can afford to take him out late inning too often.

Say good bye to Brandon until it is time to bring him back as a broadcaster, coach, or manager.

Back to posting about 4 letter words again…ok.

I wouldn’t be in any rush to unload Brandon. As horrific as his hitting was last year, it was still very close statistically to what Laird hit the last time he was in Detroit, and Laird can’t play third, or outfield, or…Laird’s not even that great a catcher. As far as Inge v Kelly is concerned, both are ok defenders anywhere, both below average hitters (Kelly isn’t going to learn to walk this season), but for Inge, the greater cost is sunk – why toss the money away? I’ve never seen Inge play 2B, but I’m betting he’s better there than Raburn. Give him a try in the spring, and if it works, play him against lefties. As has been suggested here, on those days put Raburn in left, DH Delmon.

Ok, these are all lemonade from lemons arguments, but simply discarding a guy, paying a guy millions to do nothing when you’re well below average with several other players – well, it seems a bit silly to me.

Trying Miggy at 3B is what they have to do. I think he will be fine. Cabrera has devoped into a fine 1B with a srong and accurate arm. He’s says 3B is his natural position so it’s not like it’s a huge challenge. Just get our pitchers to finish on the left side of field always. The thought od RaBum being a starter anywheres makes me sick. He isn’t much better defensively than DYoung if you watched all the games last year. I’d prefer him to be the backup 2B. The Tigers have options this year. If DYoung hurts us then we can have Dirks out there. I think Dirks deserves a chance..more than Ra BUM. Maggs ins’t doing anything right now. Maybe he’ll sign for a year and man RF which he still does fine and is a professional hitter if healthy. Besides he is a fan favorite. I surely would rather see Dirks or Maggs in than RaBum. The fans shouldn’t have to tolerate Ra BuM and his NOT hitting for the first 3 months ever again because then we wonder who’s butt he is kissing. They have a year to experiment becuase when VMart comes back he is going to play. Adding VMart and we won the division by 15 games. He was their MVP offensively. Miggy is a great player and always produces..that’s a given and we are very lucky to have him. I love DYoung and his intensity at plate on EVERY pitch. Why not try Inge at middle infield spots so he can be a quality backup, maybe even win 2B job if he hits somewhere OVER the Mendoza line. One thing I like about Ramon is that he is a SURE fielder and NEVER complains unlike Inge who let’s not forget is still makig 5.5 mil this year. Go Tigers..hope that Miggy works out and can’t wait for 2013 with the awesome VMart back.

There is an increased risk of injury with Cabrera playing 3B.

He is not in the same shape as his previous attempt and is very competitive.

Youkilis hurt himself playing out of position at 3B.

Maybe Trumbo will prove adequate at 3B for Angels and free up an INF by the break.