Jason Beck continues his weekly position-by-position breakdown of the Detroit Tigers with a profile of the middle infielders. Detroit's offseason began with a flash, as the Tigers made a deal for shortstop Edgar Renteria almost immediately after the World Series ended. Dave Dombrowski worked in his typically fast fashion, and Tigers fans rubbed their hands in anticipation of more exciting transactions to come.
Of course, no one probably had any idea just how fiery that hot stove would get. And the hootenanny that came with OMG! MIGUEL CABRERA! seems to have scooted Mr. Renteria out of the spotlight, which is actually pretty amazing.
How good is Renteria? He made Carlos Guillen think it was okay to move over to first base at least a year earlier than he had planned. Yet I think Dombrowski's right. I don't know about you, but for me, there have been a couple of times where I've either forgotten to mention Renteria entirely when talking to people about the Tigers' offseason or I've looked at a list of transactions and thought "Oh yeah - him too!"
Another interesting thing mentioned in Beck's article is that Placido Polanco is probably the best second baseman Renteria has ever played with in his 12-year major league career. When the temperature dips below 10 degrees this weekend in Michigan, that's a thought you could warm yourself up with.