I know I said I’d have commentary on the roster moves last night, but I was tired and the moves weren’t that compelling. So here is the delayed and brief analysis:

Gomez up Thames down: The bottom line is that Marcus Thames wasn’t effective getting spot duty. His 4 strikeouts on Sunday certainly didn’t help. The hope is that Alexis Gomez will be better suited to the role.

Guillen to DL and Jason Smith up Fortunately Alan Trammell didn’t get a chance to use Carlos Guillen as a pinch hitter on Colorado. Otherwise, this DL move wouldn’t be retroactive to last Tuesday. Hopefully he’ll be able to come off the DL when he is eligible on June 23rd. As for Jason Smith, he can be effective in small doses. The bigger question is when will Omar Infante play again? Placido Polanco of course will be the starting second baseman, and without Tony Giarratano really dominating one would think that Infante would get some starts at shortstop – at least against left handers.

Roster Implications: Neither Gomez or Smith were on the 40 man roster. The Tigers had one spot open, and to create the other slot the Tigers put Gary Knotts on the 60 day DL. The Tigers will utimately need to make room for a 5th starter at some point. If that starter is Kenny Baugh it won’t be an issue because he’s already on the 40 man roster. If it’s Sean Douglass, chances are either Smith or Gomez will be DFA’d or Bobby Higginson moved to the 60 day DL.

Good Reading Yesterday the Tigers beat writers each had interesting pieces. Danny Knobler said it’s time for Tiger hitters to stop complaining about Comerica. Brandon Inge had this to say:

Inge then went out and knocked a homer to straight away centerfield.

The Freep had a piece on the Carlos Pena reclamation project in Toledo, and early reports are positive:

It also sounds like Larry Parrish and Leon Durham have figured out some of his problems.

John Lowe addressed the Tigers lack of offense citing a lack of patience and a failure to make adjustments among the many reasons.

Resting
Trammell has recieved a lot of criticism for resting players too much this year, some of it from me. But let’s look closer at the resting patterns. Ivan Rodgriguez has received considerable rest, and it may seem like too much. But if you look at innings caught in the AL, Pudge is 7th with 427 innings. Now 7th might not sound like much, but aside from Jason Kendall who has caught 483 innings, catchers 2nd through 7th have caught between 441 and 427 innings. Essentially, Pudge is catching as much as your typical AL starter.

In the case of Rondell White, as Jason pointed out in the comments, he’s an older player with a long injury history. Keep in mind his nickname when he signed here was RonDL White. What makes the rest tough to stomach is that he’s one of the few Tigers hitters producing.

Now if you look at the rest of Trammell’s resting patterns, guys are playing the bulk of the time. Dmitri Young is on pace to play 154 games. Craig Monroe is on pace to play 157. Since entering the starting lineup on April 17th, Nook Logan has started every game but two. And Brandon Inge has started every game but one this season.

In short, the guys that have been healthy and producing have been playing pretty much every day.