Bleacher Report - Detroit Tigers

Team 88: The 2005 Detroit Tigers

Blake VandeBunte — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:51:11 -0500

Year: 2005
Record: 71-91
Win %: .438
Win % Change: -6
Run Differential: -64
Pythagorean Record: 75-87
AL Finish: 11th of 14
Manager: Alan Trammell
Best Transaction: Signing Magglio Ordonez as a free agent. The Tigers made their second major free-agent splash in two seasons with the signing of Magglio. I’m ignoring his semi-bad contract here and focusing solely on the Tigers signing a guy that would be a major presence in the middle of the Tigers lineup for the bulk of his contract. Magglio didn’t give a lot to the 2005 club as he was injured for most of it, but this move has been positive over the long haul. Oh and by the way, the club also made that famous Ugueth Urbina-for-Placido Polanco deal. Hard to argue with either of these moves.
Worst Transaction: Traded three prospects to the Chicago Cubs for Kyle Farnsworth. Whenever your team brings Kyle Farnsworth on board, it’s a bad move. The Tigers gave up former top-pick Scott Moore and Roberto Novoa to the Cubs to bring Farnsworth into town. Farnsworth pitched reasonably well and was later flipped for Zach Miner, so it wasn’t all bad. I just really don’t like Kyle Farnsworth at all.
Upper: There were several rookie cameos on the 2005 club and while they didn’t pay any immediate dividends, it was a positive glimpse into the future. Curtis Granderson got into 47 games and slugged eight home runs. Meanwhile, a 22-year-old Justin Verlander started two games and picked up a pair of losses before exploding onto the scene and winning Rookie of the Year the following season.
Downer: Injuries plagued the 2005 club. Bobby Higginson was finally forced out of the game as he appeared in only 10 games. He played on 10 awful Tigers teams in and was finally done in the year before they were actually decent...tough break there for Higgy. Placido Polanco and Carlos Guillen each only played in around 85 games while the outfield duo of Rondell White and Magglio Ordonez each appeared in fewer than 100 games.
Summary: This team was bad, and they were disappointing, but there were a few glimpses that the team would be better in 2006. Sure, no one had them pegged for a World Series trip, but still. The 2004 Tigers made a major jump in the standings and another jump was expected in 2005 but injuries got in the way. The pitching staff was led by the likes of Jason Johnson and Mike Maroth, which was just never going to get it done. Free agent pick up Troy Percival didn’t pan out as he struggled with issues and a young Fernando Rodney ended up leading the team in saves with only nine. Manager Alan Trammell was fired following the season and things needed to change.

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MLB 9s: Detroit Tigers—Did Ty Cobb Have The Best Offensive Season Ever?

Ash Marshall — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:50:26 -0500

One question, hundreds of answers. Which member of the Detroit Tigers had the greatest offensive season at his position?

Major League baseball has been asking fans this same question in an effort to choose each team's best-ever collection of stars. They are calling it MLB 9s.

Did Ty Cobb have the greatest offensive season in the history of the game back in 1911? Just how good were the 1937 Detroit Tigers? Was Alan Trammell better than Carlos Guillen? Does Gary Sheffield deserve a spot as the DH?

Here I have separated the contenders from the pretenders in an effort to pick my dream Tigers lineup. Have your say by commenting below or by voting on the MLB site here .

My other MLB 9s you might want to check out are:

Diamondbacks , Braves , Orioles , Red Sox , Cubs , White Sox , Reds , Indians and Rockies .

Catcher: Rudy York (1937)

As far as Tigers’ catchers go, York stands head and shoulders above the rest. Pudge Rodriguez may have the popular vote right now, but he shouldn’t have. Let me make the case for York.

In his first full season, York hit 35 home runs in 104 games. He recorded 103 RBI and posted a batting average of .307. His .651 slugging percentage was third best in the American League, while his home run rate of one per every 10.7 at bats was almost a whole game better than Joe DiMaggio.

Just think what numbers he could have posted in a full season. Considering the era he played in, York’s 1937 season is the best by any Tigers’ backstop by a long way.

Highlight Game: July 5, 1937 vs. Chicago White Sox. York hit his first walk-off home run of his career against Clint Brown in the bottom of the tenth inning in the nightcap of a double-header.

His three-run blast gave the Tigers a 7-4 victory.

Competition: Pudge Rodriguez was not the same catcher as the man who won the MVP with Texas.

His numbers were good, but they certainly weren’t amazing. 19 home runs and a .510 slugging percentage doesn’t set the world alight. In fact, the only standout number is his .334 batting average.

Hit 86 RBI and 72 runs aren’t great either, considering he played 135 games, although this is more a product of the Detroit team.

Matt Nokes and, to a lesser extent, Mickey Tettleton, also deserve a mention for the power bats they wielded during the 1987 and 1991 seasons respectively, hitting 32 and 31 each.

First Base: Hank Greenberg (1937)

Greenberg is the best hitting first baseman the Tigers have ever seen, without question.

The Hall-of-Famer won two MVP awards, and I think there’s an argument to be made for him winning it again in his 1937 season.

After missing all but a few games of the ’36 season, Greenberg returned with authority in 1937, drilling 40 home runs and driving in an AL-leading 183 batters.

He batted .337 and slugged .668, ranking second in the league in total bases (397), doubles (49), home runs (40), and walks (102).

His 103 extra base hits, 187 RBI, and 397 total bases are all franchise records.

Highlight Game: September 2, 1937 vs. Washington. Greenberg had his second multi-home run game of the season, going deep twice in a 9-8 extra-innings victory.

After taking Jimmie DeShong deep for his 31st home run of the year in the year in the fourth inning, Greenberg walked off with a solo shot in the bottom of the tenth.

Competition: You could say that he is his own competition. His MVP season of 1935 was clearly fantastic, and the 58 home runs and 144 runs from the 1938 campaign are also very compelling. Even his second MVP year of 1940 could beat all but the very best competitors.

I am going to give Norm Cash my second place vote. In 1961 he led the league in hits (193), batting average (.361) and on-base percentage (.487).

He hit 41 home runs, batted in 132, and walked 124 times. His 41 home runs still ranks as the most by any left-handed Tiger in history, while his .662 slugging percentage is the franchise record for a leftie.

Second Base: Charlie Gehringer (1937)

Charlie Gehringer is the third straight position player in my rankings to be chosen solely on the strength of his 1937 season.

That is fairly odd considering ’37 was one of the years in that dominant spell between 1934 and 1945 where they weren’t the best team in baseball.

Gehringer—inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949—won the AL MVP in 1937, beating out teammate Hank Greenberg and Yankee stars Joe DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig and Bill Dickey.

He batted .371, scored 133 runs, and walked on 90 occasions. He also hit 40 doubles and 14 home runs, and he stole 11 bases. His on-base percentage of .458 was second in the league, while his 300 times on base was good enough for third.

Highlight Game: August 14, 1937 vs. St Louis Browns. In the second game of a double-header, Gehringer had his only multi-home run game of the season. He went yard off of Bill Trotter in the first and second inning to record his fourth home run in three days.

He would hit seven home runs in August alone. He only hit seven in total between April and July.

Competition: Lou Whitaker and Damion Easley have both had decent seasons at second base for Detroit.

Whitaker’s ’83 season saw him bat .320 with 94 runs and 17 stolen bases, while Easley’s contributions in 1998 amounted to 27 home runs, 100 RBI and 15 steals.

Third Base: Travis Fryman (1997)

George Kell and Ray Boone? Pfff, I’m going to go completely against the grain here and go with Fryman.

Is it a slap in the face of those who played in the 1950s? Maybe. I’m not trying to show bias towards players from a more recent era, I just honestly think he had better one better offensive season.

In ’97 Fryman recorded his second consecutive season of 20-plus home runs and triple-digit RBI. In fact, his 1997 campaign was almost identical to 1996.

He finished with 22 home runs, 102 RBI, and 16 stolen bases. He also scored 90 runs and batted .274.

Highlight Game: September 12, 1997 @ Oakland. Fryman went 4-for-5 with a home run, a pair of runs, and two RBI in a 7-2 victory against the As.

Competition: There’s clearly a lot of competition here, although not a lot of good options.

Dean Palmer hit 38 home runs in 1999, but had a weaker batting average than Fryman and 13 fewer steals. George Kell had a .340 batting average in 1950, but lacked any sort of power. Ray Boone was similar to Fryman with 20 home runs, 116 RBI, and a .284 batting average, but he lacked speed.

Unfortunately there’s just no one with that mix of power, speed and average that I was looking for.

Shortstop: Alan Trammell (1987)

Trammell did a little bit of everything in his 11th year with the Tigers, finishing second in the AL MVP voting to hard-swinging Toronto left-fielder George Bell.

Trammell set career highs in batting average (.343), home runs (28), runs scored (109), and runs batted in (105), leading the Tigers to first place in the AL East.

Trammell also stole 21 bases, ranked second among all American League players for runs created, and within the top 10 for on-base percentage and slugging.

Highlight Game: September 26, 1987 @ Toronto. Trammell went 4-for-4 with two runs, two doubles, a run batted in, a walk, an intentional walk and a pair of stolen bases. Unfortunately for the tigers, the Blue Jays came out on top 10-9.

Competition: Carlos Guillen came the closest to producing similar numbers to Trammell in the 2004 season. He batted .318 with 20 home runs, 97 runs and runs batted in, and a dozen steals.

Other than him, you could maybe look towards Donie Bush’s 34 steals in 1917, but other than that nobody comes close. Trammell runs away with this vote comfortably.

Outfield: Ty Cobb (1911)

Ty Cobb had the greatest year of his hall of fame season back in 1911, winning the MVP at a canter.

In one of the best single seasons of all time, Cobb led the American league in more than 10 offensive categories.

He batted .420, stole 83 bases, hit 47 doubles and 24 triples, scored 147 runs and batted in 127.

He had a slugging percentage of .621, an OPS of 1.088, and his eight home runs were tied for second place behind Frank Baker’s 11.

Highlight Game: May 12, 1911 vs. New York Highlanders. Known for his “reckless daring”, Cobb combined his blinding speed with quick thinking to create all kinds of mayhem on the basepaths.

On May 12, Cobb scored from first base on a single to right field and then scored from second base on a wild pitch.

Later in the game he tied things up with a two-run double. According to Stewart Wolpin in his book The Ballplayers - Ty Cobb, the Highlanders’ catcher protested the call with the umpire to such lengths that the infielders gathered around home plate to watch.

Realizing that no one on the Highlanders had called time, Cobb strolled unobserved to third base, and then casually walked towards home plate as if to get a better view of the argument. He then suddenly slid into home plate for the game's winning run

Magglio Ordonez (2007)

Ordonez won his first batting title in 2007 when he led the American league with a .363 average.

He hit 28 home runs and drew 76 walks, and he led all batters with 54 doubles. His 354 total bases and 139 runs batted in both ranked second to Alex Rodriguez—the man who beat him to the MVP award.

Highlight Game: August 14, 2007 @ Cleveland. Magglio helped Detroit move back to the top of the AL East with an extra-innings home run against the Tribe at Jacobs Field.

Tied atop the division, the Tigers rallied from 2-0 down behind Ordonez, who went 3-for-5 with four runs batted in, including a three-run home run off Joe Borowski in the top of the tenth inning that put the game to bed.

Rocky Colavito (1961)

Colavito was only with the Tigers for four seasons, but he made a lasting impression in 1961.

The corner outfielder hit 45 home runs and drove in 140 runs, finishing the season with 113 walks, and a .290 batting average.

Colavito played all 163 regular season games, went to his second All Star Game, and even received a few MVP votes in a ballot dominated by Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle.

Colavito was one of four Tigers in the top 10 of the voting. The Yankees had five and Jim Gentile from the Orioles finished third.

Highlight Game: August 27, 1961 @ Washington. Colovito hit three home runs and had six RBI as the Tigers raced past the Senators 10-1.

It was his fourth home run of the day, having hit a solo shot in the first half of the day-night double-header.

Competition: Harry Heilmann had a fantastic 1923 season, batting .403 with 18 home runs, 115 RBI and 121 runs.

He finished second in the AL in on-base percentage and slugging percentage behind Babe Ruth, third in home runs and runs batted in, and fourth in extra-base hits. He came third in the MVP voting behind Ruth and Eddie Collins.

Kirk Gibson hit 27 homers and stole 29 bases in 1984, recording 91 RBI and 92 runs. More recently Curtis Granderson hit 23 home runs and stole 26 bases, scoring 122 runs in 2007 and batting .302.

Designated Hitter: Gary Sheffield (2007)

Despite the .265 batting average, Sheffield still had a fine year as the Tigers’ DH, hitting 25 bombs and swiping 22 bags.

Sheffield is the only Tigers’ DH to score more than 100 runs (107) and he also holds the record for the most steals. His 75 runs batted in ranks fifth among all Detroit designated hitters.

In his first full year of not having to worry about playing defense at the tender age of 38, Shef walked 84 times and had a .378 on-base percentage.

Highlight Game: June 6, 2007 @ Texas. Sheffield hit a pair of homers for his second multi- homer game of the 2007 season.

He went 3-for-4 with five runs batted in and a walk, taking Kevin Millwood deep in the first and third innings.

Competition: The biggest choice here was between Sheffield and Rusty Staub. In 1978, Staub hit 24 home runs and had 121 runs batted in.

He ranked third in the AL in total bases, second in RBI, and fifth for times on base. He finished fifth in the MVP voting.

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Detroit Tigers' Hot Stove: What's On Second?

Dave Hampton — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:31:12 -0500

The World Series has wrapped up, and it has gotten chilly in the Midwest.

While some of the Tigers are home in the tropics or enjoying 18 holes in Florida, The Hammer Toss will keep you warm with the hot stove.

Is it just me, or is the Tigers' front office being remarkably short-sighted about who will be playing second base in 2010?

We can automatically rule out Placido Polanco now, as much as it hurts to see his steady glove and production whisk out of town. It is plainly obvious that the Tigers can no longer afford him if they are shopping Edwin Jackson and/or Curtis Granderson as a means of salary relief.

So far, the only second base solution the front office has left in the window is Scott Sizemore.

Sizemore did fine in the minors this year, making the jump from AA Erie to AAA Toledo, while hitting a combined .308 with 17 home runs and 21 stolen bases. He was set to try to impress in the Arizona Fall League until he broke his ankle and will now be sidelined until at least January.

Sizemore seems like a fine selection for 2010, but what if he is not ready for the jump to the majors? As always, The Hammer Toss has solutions!

Ryan Raburn

Already the front office has shut the door on using Raburn as the second sacker for 2010. Why? He originally came up as an infielder and has 27 career starts at second base.

Maybe it has something to do with the fact that he is a pretty lousy infielder (remember his three error game at third base?). However, he is a poor outfielder as well. This is the guy who I watched slip and fall in the outfield starting in for a ball that was back over his head.

By the way, he recovered on that play to make a leaping catch, only to walk his face into the wall and drop the ball.

Management is determined to have his bat in the lineup for 2010. He is going to stink defensively wherever he is placed, so if Sizemore struggles, why not drop Raburn at second?

Carlos Guillen

I think this is actually the best possible second base solution. Guillen is owed a lot of money and is not going anywhere. He was dumped in the outfield last year to try to stash him away somewhere out of the way.

Yeah, that didn't turn out so well.

Guillen is a natural infielder, having extensively played shortstop and third base, and has 12 career starts at second from his days in Seattle.

Place him at second, where he is not a liability, and put someone else in the outfield, preferably someone who has some range.

The problem, which is actually also a solution, is the fact that Guillen is a tremendous injury risk. That solves the problem on how to break Sizemore in. Sit Guillen down every couple days for a break and have Sizemore be a presence off the bench.

And inevitably when Guillen gets hurt, Sizemore can get more playing time.

This and many other burning topics are going to warm up your world as the hot stove lights on fire! Stay tuned to The Hammer Toss.

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Team 91: The 1974 Tigers

Blake VandeBunte — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:00:06 -0500

Year: 1974
Record: 72-90
Win Percentage: .444
Win Percentage Change: minus-81
Run Differential: minus-148
Pythagorean Record: 65-97
AL Finish: 11th of 12
Manager: Ralph Houk
Best Transaction: Drafting Mark Fidrych and Lance Parrish. Fidrych is good because of his amazing rookie season, but his performance doesn’t exactly stand the test of time as he he was hurt for the rest of his career. The Tigers hit a home run with Parrish, though. Lance would be the main target behind the plate in Detroit for 10 years and would slug 212 home runs. Can’t argue with that kind of production.
Worst Transaction: Traded Jim Perry and Ed Farmer for Jerry Moses. Farmer was only 23 when the Tigers traded him and he had All-Star game in his future as a relief pitcher. Perry was 37 so there wasn’t that much risk in dealing him, but Perry won 17 games in 1974, something the Tigers obviously could have used. The Tigers take in the deal was Jerry Moses who was still in his 20s when the deal was made. However, Moses lasted only one season in Detroit (1974) and was out of baseball for good after the 1975 season.
Upper: The performance of John Hiller. Hiller was the Tigers' closer for a long time and 1974 was one of his finer seasons. The 32-year-old Hiller continued to get it done on a club that received pretty lousy starting pitching. Appearing exclusively out of the bullpen, Hiller won 17 games and saved 13. He threw 150 innings (fourth most on the club, including starters) and posted an ERA-plus of 143. Despite playing on an awful team, Hiller made the All-Star team and finished seventh in Cy Young voting.
Downer: Injuries. This club still had several key pieces from the 1968 championship club. That was great for the fans in some ways, but these guys were aging by the time 1974 came along and injuries started to take their toll. The outfield trio of Willie Horton, Mickey Stanley, and Jim Northrup played in 72, 99, and 97 games respectively, forcing the Tigers to rely on backups for large chunks of the season.
Summary: This is a club that actually had a better record than they should have, if you trust run-differential. That discrepancy can be explained in these two facts: 1) The Tigers were surprisingly good in one-run games at 26-24 and 2) They were awful in games decided by five or more runs at 8-27. The offense was led by Bill Freehan and Al Kaline, while both getting up there in years, were the key offensive performers on a club that struggled to stay healthy. No pitcher in the starting rotation was able to post a league-average ERA and Mickey Lolich lost 21 games. While this team was aging, a few young faces gave solid performances like Auerilio Rodriguez, Ron LeFlore, and Ben Ogilvie.

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Should the Detroit Tigers Trade Miguel Cabrera?

Jesse Motiff — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 20:44:02 -0500

The Detroit Tigers are coming off of a heart-breaking finish to their 2009 season. After squandering away the division lead to the Minnesota Twins, they lost a one-game playoff to them and missed the playoffs entirely.

The Tigers now seem focused on shredding payroll heading into the 2010 season. Edwin Jackson and Curtis Granderson have both been mentioned as possibly being on the move to lower a payroll that already sits at well over $100 million between just 10 players.

Ken Rosenthal speculates in a recent column that if the Tigers are willing to dangle Jackson and Granderson, they should look at moving Miguel Cabrera as an alternative. Cabrera, the highest-paid Tiger, still has six years and $126 million remaining on his current deal.

Rosenthal suggests that if the Red Sox were willing to offer Mark Teixeira an eight-year, $170 million contract last year, they should be able to take on Cabrera's deal with ease. He even offers up a proposed trade between the two teams: Jonathan Papelbon, Mike Lowell, and a top prospect, possibly Lars Anderson for Cabrera.

The Tigers' offense would take a severe loss with Cabrera's trade, but they could still trade one of their young pitchers to bring offense back to the team.

Detroit could still choose to go with what has been reported and trade Jackson, Granderson, or both. The team will save almost $60 million off their payroll after the 2010 season when Magglio Ordonez, Brandon Inge, Jeremy Bonderman, Nate Robertson, and Dontrelle Willis all become free agents. Given that flexibility, they may choose to keep Cabrera as the focal point of the offense.

Cabrera became a distraction at the end of the season after showing up at his home drunk and getting into a fight with his wife. The incident happened on the final weekend and cuts were visible on his face for the final few games of the year.

Tigers' GM Dave Dombrowski commented about the incident after the season, giving no indication that the organization lost faith in Cabrera.

"I feel confident that he is going to address the issues he needs to address to take care of the problems he has."

Cabrera will just be entering his prime when the 2010 season starts. He won't turn 27 until the third week of April. Given that fact, Cabrera's contract is a relative bargain for teams with high payrolls.

How good is Cabrera at the plate? Over his first six full seasons, his career-low numbers are a .292 batting average, 26 home runs, and 103 RBI. His addition to any lineup, Boston especially, would be a gigantic boost in output.

If the Tigers would decide to trade Cabrera, a haul of Papelbon, Lowell, and a prospect wouldn't be enough. Lowell is a free agent after the 2010 season, while Papelbon has two years left of team control. While they would have a short-term impact, the long-term value of the trade isn't there, even with a top prospect included in the deal.

The smarter package for the Tigers to pursue would be a package of top prospects. The Red Sox have multiple high-level pitching prospects as well as Anderson at first base and Ryan Westmoreland in the outfield.

Rarely will a team that trades an established superstar receive enough quality talent in return to justify the trade. Just ask the Minnesota Twins if they received fair value for Johan Santana.

The Tigers could add to their rotation in free agency next winter to replace anyone they may trade off this year. Though the Tigers would find the most salary relief by trading Miguel Cabrera, the long-term plans for the franchise would be greatly altered. Cabrera needs to remain in the middle of the lineup, while surrounding him with a supporting cast.

To read more by Jesse Motiff, click here .

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Curtis Granderson is No "Untouchable" as Trade Talks Swirl

Greg Eno — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 13:01:13 -0500

Curtis Granderson is a nice guy. He’s the kind of man any father would be thrilled to have his daughter marry. He is one of the true ambassadors of baseball, and I don’t throw those kinds of words around willy-nilly.

But I’d trade him in a heartbeat.

This is one of those columns that will get me, figuratively, run up the flagpole at Comerica Park, hung in real-life effigy. You’ll have thought that I started a Kill All Puppies campaign by the time the vitriol is done with.

That’s OK. Nowhere does it say, “Thou must always write what people WANT to read, not what they SHOULD read.”

It’s the job, or rather the duty, of the columnist to present opinions and viewpoints that are genuine, not populist. Even if those opinions are as popular as ants at a picnic.

The hot stove has been fired up. It’s the time of year—the World Series done, the general managers convening—when logic gives way to jingoism. When the bubble gum cards get broken out.

Give me your Joe Shmoe and I’ll give you my John Doe.

The GMs are meeting, and they don’t do it to say hi and catch up with the wife and kids.

All 30 of them are charged with trudging to the meetings, some better equipped than others, and sniffing around to see how they could improve their ballclubs via trade.

Some have better, more attractive bubble gum cards than their colleagues. And more money.

It’s a time for the Internet to teem with rumors, suggestions, and demands from its paying customers.

Break out the bubble gum cards!

The media people, who should know better, don’t, apparently. They’re the ones who usually cast the first stone.

There’s this mythical thing—a place, really—that conjures up, to me, an image of a baseball player posing in front of a throng of potential suitors. He’s standing, by his lonesome, as if on display, on this mythical spot.

It’s something called the “trading block.”

The media people, supposedly so well connected, hear things. Perhaps sometimes they imagine that they hear things. Maybe voices come to them in the middle of the night.

Then these things get splattered onto the Internet, and don’t worry, the fans will take it from there.

One of these things went splat! onto the Internet this week.

“Report: Tigers’ Granderson, Jackson on trading block.”

Not sure where it started, nor by who. Someone heard something, I suppose. Payroll money might be an issue.

The players are center fielder Curtis Granderson and pitcher Edwin Jackson—two supposed key playing cards in the house of them that collapsed with historic ignominy down the stretch.

Not so much Jackson, who has only been a Tiger for one season, but Granderson’s possible cashiering has the fan base in Detroit beside itself.

In a way, it’s charming that the mere thought of dealing Granderson away is met with such resistance. This is because it shows that being a good guy and being active in the community still means something to some towns. And Detroit has been very good that way; they’ve always appreciated the hard-working guy, the genuine dude.

But I’m getting rather tired of being satisfied with just having a bunch of nice guys on the Tigers. The Tigers have had nice guys for years. Maybe not as high profile as what Granderson does, but nice guys nonetheless.

When Miguel Cabrera’s drinking binge made headlines in the final weekend of the season, what sprung to my mind almost immediately was, “This kind of stuff just doesn’t happen with the Tigers.”

The Tigers have been, for the most part, a button-downed organization with precious few rabble rousers on their roster over the decades. That’s why the Cabrera thing resonated so much; it was so out of character for anyone wearing the Old English D over his heart.

Nice guys are great. But winning is even better.

It may sound cold and callous, but give me players with whom I can win baseball games, not popularity contests.

Granderson is coming off an All-Star year, but in title only. He should have been an All-Star in 2006, or 2007, or 2008. Any year than 2009, when he made the squad almost out of default because of the dearth of center field talent in the American League.

He hit .249, was dreadfully and shockingly ineffective against left-handed pitchers, had an obscenely low on-base percentage—that gauge of a player’s ability to not make outs—of .324, dipped dramatically in doubles and triples, and struck out 141 times. All as a supposed leadoff hitter.

It was Granderson, by the way, who made a baserunning blunder befitting a Little League player in the ninth inning of the one-game playoff in Minnesota, getting doubled off first base on a line drive. A blunder that tore the heart out of the Tigers.

Yet he is considered an “untouchable,” another terrific sports word.

You don’t dare trade Curtis Granderson, his adoring public says, because, well, he’s CURTIS GRANDERSON!

He’s a nice guy. Is active in the community. Someone on the Internet wrote that Granderson was the “face of the franchise.”

He does have an electric smile, I’ll give you that.

I’ve talked to Granderson on a number of occasions. A couple years ago we shared a few minutes of quiet time after a game—a loss—as he told me about his experience in Great Britain, bringing baseball to kids across the pond.

The guy’s terrific, no doubt. Always has time for the ink-stained wretches and shameless hangers-on. And he is, frankly, a wonderful center fielder, glove-wise.

But to say that he’s untouchable, beyond consideration for trade, might be community wise but is baseball foolish.

In fact, there may be no better time to trade Granderson than now, with the Tigers in need of a shakeup after the most embarrassing season in their history. You heard me.

This was worse than the 43-119 debacle of 2003. Worse than 53-109 in 1996 or 57-102 in 1975, when the Tigers lost, at one point, 19 straight games. Worse than those dreadful teams of the early-1950s.

You can have all of them and they can’t beat the 2009 Tigers in terms of flat out embarrassment and shame. They became the only team to be in first place starting as early as May 10 yet fail to win its division. They became the first one to cough up a three-game lead with four games to play.

And you’d have a .249 leadoff hitter considered untouchable from such a disgraceful outfit?

If you want to use that word, untouchable, then take pitchers Justin Verlander and Rick Porcello and call me in the morning.

I’m not saying give Curtis Granderson away for a box of baseballs and a batting doughnut. All I’m saying is, take a look at it, if you can get something decent in return.

Someone has to say it in this town, for cripe’s sake. No one else seems to have the temerity to do so.

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