I'm going to interrupt the looks at each position to knock out the roster moves we saw over the last week. Like I almost always remember to say, go to Tigstown.com if you want to hear about these moves when they happen. I just comment on what I see. 

Injuries

When Brandon Inge was hit on the hand, my wife and I both said it was awfully loud and both feared something was broken. When they showed the pitch in slow motion and you could see his hand was caught between the ball and the bat, I opined that I was even more certain it was broken. Yet, there at first base was Inge pulling his hand away and giving Kevin Rand a "you gotta be kidding me" look as the trainer tried to inspect it. At this point, I'm fairly certain his tough guy, "I'm not coming out of this game" routine isn't an act. That doesn't mean it's not dumb and it doesn't mean it's beyond tiresome. 

Why am I cranky about this? Just look at his knee surgeries over the offseason. Inge was commended for fighting through the pain all through the second half of last season. However, his ineptitude after hurting his knees last season coupled with the Tigers' unwillingness or inability to replace him at third base quite literally cost the Tigers a spot in the postseason. I can't blame for Inge for playing as long as the Tigers would put him in, but somebody should have grabbed that bull by the horns in that situation. Fast forward to this season. Inge hurried to get back in the lineup for the start of the season. He came out of the gate hitting pretty well (.265/.337/.494 in his first 92 PA), but when the numbers started heading south (.227/.277/.336 in his next 141 PA) and then rebounded (.307/.421/.446 in his final 121 PA before the injury), we heard that the knees had been bothering him but were finally healed and he was finally 100%. Is anybody else tired of this? 

It's admirable to fight through injuries (I suppose). However, it gets a little grating when you're so willing to let everybody know you're doing it and then tie your performance so closely to the status of the injury. If you're playing the role of the tough guy, please go all the way. When you stink, say you're battling and trying to figure things out. The injury is either a factor or it isn't. If your struggles are because of the injury, that's what the DL is for. Now that he's on the DL with the broken hand, Leyland is speculating that Inge might get back before the four to six week timeline we've heard since the injury was announced. This makes me want to punch somebody, as I can already hear the hand being the explanation for why he is without an extra base hit in his first three weeks back. Please, do us a favor, Brandon. Get healthy, but don't hurry back. Come back when you're ready. Let me rephrase that. Come back when you can honestly look at yourself in the mirror and say you can play baseball without your hand hurting. 

Tigstown has Billy Buckner as having gone on the disabled list back on July 19th, but MiLB.com doesn't mention the roster move. I'm trusting Tigstown here since Buckner's turn in the rotation has come and gone. Of course, when you give up nine runs in two-thirds of an inning in your most recent start, there could be more than one reason for missing your turn. 

Running a close second behind Brandon Inge as far as bad injury news is Casey Crosby being told to rest his arm for the rest of the season. You can read the link for the explanation. This means Crosby has essentially lost two of his three seasons as a professional to elbow injuries. It's encouraging that Dr. Andrews says it doesn't require surgery, but if he's healthy for next season I'd imagine he'd have pitch and inning limits again to make sure the elbow holds up. Since he was going to have a less restrictive workload this season, this setback could have him pitching in a situation similar to last season. Anybody who knows that's not necessarily the case can feel free to set me straight on this line of reasoning, because I'm relying solely on logic rather than a specific knowledge of the injury or Casey's situation when I theorize this setback could be more like two years than one.

Signings/Releases/Retirements

We didn't have any signings or releases this week, but we did have a couple of retirements. The well-traveled utilityman, Carmelo Jaime, hung up his cleats as a player but will now be suiting up as a coach for the GCL Tigers. That's not an easy path to predict, but his deciding to end his playing days as a 25-year-old with less than a full season's worth of plate appearances isn't a surprise. The other retirement news comes from lefty reliever, Tyler Conn. Conn was taken in the 14th round of the Tigers' "Draft of Relief" in 2008, which saw them load up on relief pitchers that included current Tigers Ryan Perry and Robbie Weinhardt. You might think Conn's 3.53 ERA for Lakeland doesn't look too bad, but he had given up 50 hits in 35.2 innings with 22 strikeouts and 13 walks. 

Re-Assignments

Okay, as usual, this heading is where I earn my money. Well, it would be where I earned my money if I were making money. Anyway, the point is this section is where we get to the meat of the roster moves. We'll start with the repercussions of Inge's injury. After a couple of days of going with Don Kelly, the Tigers are going to give Scott Sizemore another shot at a starting job in the bigs - this time as a third baseman. I think it's kind of funny that everybody keeps mentioning that he'd only played third base four times for the Hens this season. What doesn't get mentioned is the fact that three of those were when he slid over to third while Carlos Guillen was rehabbing with the Hens and preparing to play second base. As for Sizemore, it sounds like he's still battling his hip injury a little bit, so the Tigers' approach will be to spread the time at the hot corner between Sizemore, Kelly, Raburn and Worth. I'd imagine it's Sizemore who has the first opportunity to seize the starting gig until Inge gets back. To replace Sizemore on the Hens' roster, the Tigers moved Justin Henry back up to Toledo. 

Moving on to Buckner's injury, there's not quite the solid connection between his injury and the moves that followed. Gilberto De La Vara stepped into his last rotation spot and there's also Scot Drucker filling in as a starter. However, Charlie Furbush has since been promoted to Toledo from Erie so I'm going to tie that to the Buckner thing. You are probably aware that Furbush leads all the minors in strikeouts this season. That made his promotion to Erie feel long overdue. Now that he's been promoted to Toledo after just five starts with the Wolves, it almost feels like the Tigers are making up for lost time. Actually, it feels like they are checking to see if they have another option should Galarraga or Porcello falter again. Oliver clearly needs some more seasoning and, fair or not, I doubt anybody gets excited when Figaro is called on to make a start for the Tigers. To fill Furbush's spot in Erie, the Tigers gave Brayan Villarreal a well deserved promotion. He wasn't having quite the season Furbush was, but he's struck out better than a batter an inning and nearly four times as many batters as he's walked. The better news to me is the fact that the Tigers promoted him likely means he's over the injuries that shelved him earlier in the season. 

Where does that leave Lakeland? Their rotation takes a hit, but it seems to be set with Kibler, Putkonen, Sorensen, Turner and Wilk. If they're not comfortable with any of those guys, I guess they could go with Ramon Garcia. He's back in Lakeland and had been taking starts with Erie. He wasn't successful as a starter, but maybe moving down to Hi A would cure what ailed him. 

I guess you could argue Andy Oliver and Armando Galarraga switching places between Toledo and Detroit is more significant than Furbush and Villarreal's promotions, but it can't be tied to a previously mentioned injury so the promotions came first. Oliver clearly has the arm to pitch in the bigs. He's just going to have to work on hitting the strike zone more consistently. He walked 13 in 22 innings and when he had to resort to pumping in his fastball to make sure he'd get strikes, bad things happened. Is this a bad sign for Oliver? I don't think so. He'd be a truly fantastic pitcher if he could go from a struggling college pitcher to a successful big leaguer in a little more than a calendar year. Showing the progress that led to the opportunity he just had is a major victory for both him and the state of the Tigers' system. What about Armando? I think we know what Armando is at this point. He's a guy who has the goods to be a fairly reliable fourth or fifth starter compared to other pitchers in that role. 

That brings us to the moves I would term as less significant. Casey Fien jumped up to Detroit for one game to help out with a tired bullpen, got shelled, and was sent back down to Toledo. Similar to Fien, Josh Rainwater was called back up to Toledo from Erie, but after one appearance in Toledo was moved back to Erie. Jose Ortega was promoted from Lakeland to Erie and Michael Torrealba was moved from Connecticut to Lakeland. That led to Sean Finefrock being promoted from the GCL to Connecticut. Finally, presumably as a result of Jaime moving to the coach's box, Pat McKenna was promoted from the GCL to Lakeland. 

Bonus Injury

Well, it's not really a good kind of bonus since it's an injury, but in researching all the stuff above I noticed Mike Bertram is listed on MiLB.com as having been moved to the disabled list. Of course, they also have Nicolas listed on the DL and he's been back for about a week. So make of that what you will. If Bertram is in fact, injured, there may be roster moves to follow.

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