Brandon Inge

Hopefully you all have seen this by now: Brandon Inge/Jim Leyland Talk to the Media

Right now, things suck for Brandon Inge. He is coming off a bad year; everybody, even Dave Dombrowski, is down on the guy; and to top things off, he loses his starting spot.

So, who do you love more, Ryan Raburn or Brandon Inge?

Because essentially that is who is going to be on the team this coming year. One or the other. Either Brandon gets traded and Raburn gets a spot on the team, or Inge stays and Raburn starts the year playing in Lakeland.

With the team out of options for Ramon Santiago, he is basically a lock for the middle infielder bench role. Also, Marcus Thames is guaranteed a spot on this team. Also, from all reports the Tigers believe that Vance Wilson will be ready to be the Tigers catching backup, although that is not certain. ** Just a side note, if he isn't ready, and Inge gets traded, does James Skelton make the team? The guy playing for West Michigan last year? Yikes... **

So, with 9 starters, 12 pitchers and 3 bench positions practically filled, who is going to be player #25?

So who would you rather have on your team. Lets weigh the pros and cons. Raburn wins in the the salary department. Brandon wins in the versatility department because he can catch and is a better overall fielder than Raburn. Raburn wins for hitting average, assuming he can replicate similar numbers from last year. And I think he can, i mean worst case he hits .275 (ZiPS at .269) and I really don't see Brandon hitting over .260 (ZiPS at .246). Inge definitely wins in the power department, as Ryan only hit 4 HRs last year and Brandon is capable of hitting in the 25-30 range if he played every day. Unbelievably, ZiPS projects 21 HRs for Raburn... so maybe is closer than I think. But, Ill give Brandon the benefit of the doubt considering he actually has hit 20+ HRs in his career. Inge wins for experience; Raburn wins for projections and hype. So, to me its a push. I love them both.

Looking around the league, who really wants Brandon Inge? The only team that could use a 3rd baseman badly is the Giants. But they seem pretty deadset on trading for Crede if he looks okay in Spring Training. More teams might want a catcher, but I doubt highly that teams have much faith in Brandon being ready to catch by April.

I am going to put my opinion in stone that Inge will be with the Tigers all year.

However, I'd hate to see Raburn have to wait until September to play for the Tigers again. I suppose if there is an injury he could get called up quick, but I don't want any of our players to get injured.

Personally, I think Santiago will struggle at the plate. Raburn could take his spot (in fact I want that, but the lack of options are the problem). However, Santiago has value as a switch hitter and all the other bench players are right handed. Even if he struggles the Tigers might be more interested in trying Timo Perez, who is a lefty.

But hey, this is the problem the Tigers have, too many good players.

The Tigers are good, so good in fact that they might have to send a kid who hit .304 in the majors back down to Toledo.