Renteria traded to Tigers

[TooLiveBrew]

Is there a new breed of DH...Vidro, Guillen....? (as in, a sub-par breed)

[colbyjack]

Allow me to say how unimpressed I am with Carlos Guillen as a 1B.

 

Carlos Guillen since he's been in Detroit (the past four years): .313/.377/.506, .883 OPS

 

Based on last year's stats, his career OPS with the Tigers had him between Lance Berkman and Dmitri Young, and ahead of Adrian Gonzalez, Kevin Youkilis, Paul Konerko, Ryan Garko, Casey Kotchman, Justin Morneau and Carlos Delgado.

 

Even the most astute stat fans aren't calling for the Red Sox to move Kevin Youkilis, although he may have to slide back to third if Lowell leaves town (where his defensive value will clearly decrease). Gonzalez in San Diego has the almighty Petco excuse, but the new Tigers yard (whatever it is called, Comerica?) hasn't exactly been known as a launching pad, even if they have brought in the fences.

 

Basically, Guillen is an under-valued player if people automatically think that he's good at SS but not at 1B. Turns out he's average at worst at 1B, and now with Renteria, who is solid across the board at short, the Tigers have improved one of their few weaknesses (a huge upgrade from Sean Casey) and can focus the rest of their offseason on their pitching staff.

 

Great move by the Tigers, even if they did give up a fair amount of talent to acquire Renteria. And a good move by the Braves as well, as moving from Renteria to Yunel Escobar may be a wash statistically, and may free up the money necessary to keep Mark Teixeira in Atlanta for a few more years.

[JoeHova]

like colby just said, Guillen is not getting enough respect here. Since he was traded to Detroit he's been well above average for a first baseman or DH. His worst year with the Tigers was about average for a 1st baseman. Plus, with the fact that he used to be a pretty good defensive shortstop, he should be able to play a pretty good first base. My concern would be the fact that he's played less than 50 games at the position in his career, but I don't think that will be a major problem.

 

Since coming to Detroit, Guillen has been an elite offensive player. He's hit better than Jeter 3 of the last 4 years and no one would bat an eye if the Yankees had to move Jeter to first to keep his bat in the lineup (or to get his horrendous glove off of short).

What's funny about Guillen is that as the talk about him beint too fragile has intensified, he's actually set career highs in PAs two years running.

what's even funnier than that is the fact that Seattle traded a 27 year old shortstop coming off a season of a 104 OPS+ (IOW, better than what JJ did this year) for Ramon Santiago. I guess they really don't like guys who 'party' in Seattle.

[Big Reed]

I'd hate to have Guillen as my long term franchise first baseman. Although he's not a bad stop gap. What does moving Guillen to first do to Sean Casey's status? I thought Casey had a couple of years left. Obviously the Tigers don't think so. the Tigers have a player Jeff Larrish in their farm system who is probably still 2 years away.

 

I like the move to acquire Renteria. I'm luke warm about Guillen being their starting first baseman. I think he'd make a great dh. I'm sold he can still hit. I'm not sold he can play an effective first base.

[danzig6767]

Guillen is the perfect kind of bat that i'd love added to our lineup.High batting average,he takes walks,and gets a ton of extra base hits.He is what i wish Bill Hall could become at the plate.

[Tbadder]

I think the interesting thing here is that 3 successful organizations have now said bye-bye to Renteria. He looks so lazy out on the diamond. I wonder if that's true? Or if it's the Lew Alcindor syndrome. This looks like a short term versus long term deal. But I don't understand the Tigers thinking. If they're gearing up for a WS run didn't they see how Renteria totally sunk the Red Sox a couple of yeasrs ago?

[JohnBriggs12]

It's still a long shot, but if the Tigers were to sign Jenkins, it might free them up to deal Marcus Thames who'd make a nice RH platoon option in LF for Brewers now that Thames isn't a 1B option for the Tigers.

[billyhallfan]

If they're gearing up for a WS run didn't they see how Renteria totally sunk the Red Sox a couple of yeasrs ago?

 

so his 2006 and 2007 don't matter?

[Tbadder]

I take your point, and it's a good one, but if you can't hit in the Red Sox line up then there's a fundamental disconnect there. I'm not sure he's "up" to a championship fight anymore. Just a suspicion really, but if I was the Tigers GM I'd take a flyer because of it.

[joepepsi]

Take away Guillen's 2005 injury season and he's been a better hitter than Tejada 3 of the last 4 seasons. One of the most underrated players in the game. A wonderful player.

[zzzmanwitz]

there may be a new team in the A-Rod sweepstakes.

[ILuvDaBush]

The Yumiuri Giants? But what does it say about Renteria, that he has now been traded for a blue chip (at the time) prospect-Marte, and a pair of ML-quality prospects, of which Gorkys has always had my eye..... And does this mean that Hall has a much higher value than we realize, considering he probably still has his SS glove in a box in his attic? I'm just saying...Carl Crawford may be better than Billy, but there are at least decent comparables on the market for a bat of that nature. With Billy....not so much, if you view him as a SS, which Brewers management hasn't done in over a year.