This team needs a real DH. Thome is a free agent, and if the Tigers are too stupid or timid to give Barry a shot, they should grab Thome to add a big lefthanded bat. He still gets on base a lot and still has a ton of power.

Need a patsy to take Guillen off our hands first.

You want OBP? Matt Stairs batted .194 last year but had an OBP of .357. Only Miguel Cabrera and Magglio Ordonez had a better OBP on the Tigers. His OPS of .735 was better than Placido Polanco, Brandon Inge, Gerald Laird and Adam Everett.

Sure, he only hit 5 HR, but he only had 103 AB. That's 20.6 AB/HR. Only Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Raburn and Marcus Thames were better on the Tigers (that had significant playing time).

Plus, he's a former Tiger, left-handed, and will likely cost less than it would to keep Thames.

The only drawback is that he'll be 42 next year.

---

Edited 11/3/2009 2:37 pm ET by bobrob2004

What I want, obviously, is a big improvement in the Tigers' offense. Thome is starting to show his age, but he's still quite a bit younger (and better) than Matt Stairs, and even in a down year he had an OPS of .847, which is a lot better than we got from our Designated Hitters and DH candidates.

As a follow-up to my previous post, I'll add that Thome, even at his advanced age and in a down year for him, had an OPS higher than that of every Tiger regular except Cabrera, and higher than every Tiger period except the part-timer Ryan Raburn and the very-part-timer Alex Avila, who had only 72 plate appearances. Thome would be a big upgrade in the Tiger lineup.

As a follow up to my previous post...

Still need a patsy to take Guillen off our hands.

Think we are the player in the Iwamura sweepstakes....

Gullien to the Rays for Burrell and Iwamura?

Just about a push monetarily...

Why? Leyland has already said that Guillen will be the regular left fielder, so we still need a DH. Guillen isn't fit for either role, but we're stuck with him, and if he's in the field that at least opens the door for a real DH like Thome.

The Rays wouldn't take Guillen, in my opinion, and I don't want Iwamura.

Actually, why the heII not?

Like dddtfan says, find a taker for Guillen and I like our chances.

You need to make a thread saying TRADE GUILLEN NOW! and maybe that'll be the case.

I can't see anyone wanting Guillen, he has a no-trade clause, and Iwamura is a nobody.

Would I like to see the Tigers shake off the burden of Guillen's salary? Of course. And even if we could find a taker we obviously wouldn't get much for him, so I would settle for just about anyone who's cheap, or for that matter for a bag of used ticket stubs. I just don't expect it to happen.

I'm with you on Guillen.

We'd have to eat a lot of his contract in order to ship him out. I know he has a no-trade clause, but if we offer him to someplace like New York (Mets) then he'd probably accept.

It seems to me he is running out of options in Detroit. In his mind, he believes he can play any spot on the field and thinks he could play somewhere else where needed. However, he has literally botched up the TWO EASIEST positions on the field (1B, LF), thus making him nearly useless.

At this point Guillen for Oliver Perez sounds nice.

<<We'd have to eat a lot of his contract in order to ship him out.>>

Fine with me! Anything to free up a little more money that would possibly enable us to re-sign Polanco or Lyon. It will be a tough one, as teams aren't begging to take Guillen off our hands, but seeing how injury-prone (and bad attitude prone) he is, his value will probably slip a lot further if we don't trade him soon. There are a surplus of free agent DH's which means that some will probably sign for $1-2 million (Cust). Or...we could stick with an internal option like Strieby. I truly hope they try their hardest to get rid of him.

And I thought I was one of the few that wanted Guillen gone.

I am a little biased because I can't stand his sense of self-entitlement. He yaps about not getting enough playing time, or being shuffled from position to position, or the media having too high expectations for the Tigers. Not only has Guillen not earned the right to flaunt a pi$$-poor attitude to the media, but he hasn't earned his keep either. In his past 2 injury-riddled seasons, he hasn't played to his potential when he was in decent enough shape to play and his defense has been sloppy . We don't owe him playing time because of what he did 3 seasons ago or because of one game this year when he hit HR's from both sides of the plate. Simply put, we have better options in LF and he was lucky to have been given any playing time in the 2nd half of this year after his miserable start. At least Dontrelle held himself accountable for underachieving and didn't point his finger at anyone else.

With that post, you have become one of my favorite posters on here........well that and because my thoughts EXACTLY.

Glad you agree. Especially with all the youngsters were going to have on our squad in '10, this is not the type of "veteran presence" we need in our clubhouse.

But according to some, Guillen is our team LEADER and he came through for us at the right time!

Yeah, the .222 avg in Sept/Oct. really was the boost we needed.