No Tiger player invokes more cut-and-dried emotion from fans than third baseman Brandon Inge.
He is either loved to the point, that even when he doesn’t perform particularly well, he still gets a considerable amount of text votes for player of the game during the Tigers’ telecasts. And he is sometimes compared to all-time greats such as Brooks Robinson for his prowess with the glove by talk radio callers.
Or he is viewed as a nice guy, who does much for the community, but is vastly overrated as a player because he fits this certain mode Tiger fans tend to adore.
The reality about Inge is somewhere in the middle. He is a better-than-average third baseman, who sometimes makes spectacular plays and has good range, but makes his fair share of errors. He is a below-average hitter for percentage (a lifetime .238 hitter), but he does have good power. And he is a streak hitter. When he gets hot, Inge does have a significant offensive impact at the bottom of the order. It’s just the hot streaks tend to be too far and between for the liking of his detractors.
Regardless of where you stand on Inge, however, it is indisputable the Tigers are going to miss him for the 4-to-6 weeks he will be out with a hand injury. He suffered the injury during Monday night’s loss to the Texas Rangers at Comerica Park.
The Tigers have no obvious replacement. The Triple-A third baseman, Jeff Larish, is a converted first baseman with very limited skills defensively. Also, he has not hit nearly as well during brief stints in the major leagues as had been hoped. The Tigers tried Ryan Raburn at third base last season briefly. He played there extensively in the minor leagues, but made an incredible number of errors. Raburn initially was a third baseman, but was moved to second base after he made 61 errors in his first 169 professional games at third base.
The Tigers could move Carlos Guillen or Miguel Cabrera to third, but that seems to be the ingredients for a recipe for a disaster, doesn’t it?
A trade? Inge is going to be back in four to six weeks, so it doesn’t seem likely for anything but a journeyman player - if that.
It’s just not a good situation for the Tigers. Inge at third base every day was an important part of the way they set up. Not only will they miss him defensively, but at the bottom of the order, which was already a glaring weaknesses.

Random Thoughts

- Bottom line is Johnny Damon cost the Tigers that game Monday night because of a base running mistake. He is a veteran player, and normally a very instinctive base runner. Getting faked out like that is inexcusable for a player of that caliber.

- The bright spot the last few days has been the way Rick Porcello and Ryan Perry have pitched.

- Are the wheels coming off Brennan Boesch? He has no home runs and seven RBI in his last 68 at bats.