Earlier this year I wrote a post saying I thought the signing of Torii Hunter was a big mistake, Mr. Hunter has proven me wrong and I owe him a apology. Torii Hunter, I'm sorry I doubted you and your abilities, you have proven yourself worthy of wearing the Old English D and I hope this season is a big success for you and the Tigers.
In that post I said that Hunter's stats weren't that much better then Brennan Boesch's and since Boesch is much younger I thought it would be more prudent to sign the younger player rather then risk signing the older one and finding out his best years are behind him and being stuck with a big contract. So far this season Hunter is hitting .310 with 12 doubles, one triple, one homerun and 21 RBI's. He is slugging .409 with 8 walks and 29 strikeouts. His lack of walks and the large amount of strikeouts were also reasons I gave to oppose the signing but his production has outweighed those concerns. Hunter is sixth on the Tigers in batting average, tied for first in doubles, third in RBI's and fifth in slugging percentage, pretty good for a guy who will be 38 in July and is playing for his third team. I knew his defense would be better but I had no idea his offensive contributions would be this big. Sure he won't hit as many homeruns as he has in the past but with Detroit that is not his job. In a spring training interview he said that the key to hitting second is moving the lead off guy up and trying to get on base for the big guns behind him. He said that not having to provide all the production will make his life easier and reduce stress for him.
Brennan Boesch on the other hand has been optioned to AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after hitting .209 with one double, one triple, two homeruns and five RBI's. He was slugging .419 with two walks and six strikeouts in 43 at bats for the Yankees. This, for a team with twelve men on the DL. Obviously the Yankees didn't think too highly of Boesch's work and his biggest knock while with the Tigers, his lack of hitting, is still an issue. So it seems that the Tigers made the right choice in letting Boesch go.
Apparently I'm still in Randy Smith (Detroit GM from 1996-2002) mode and assume that every trade or signing the Tigers make will fail. I have to remember that Smith is long gone and Dave Dombrowski is a much better GM. The trades to pick up Miguel Cabrera, Doug Fister and Austin Jackson and the signing of Hunter and Prince Fielder prove this. No the Tigers just have to find the missing piece and finally win that elusive World Series Championship, the first since 1984.
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