Well, the trading deadline has come and gone and now we see what Dombrowski hopes will bring us a championship – Pitching. With the 2nd best rotation in the league, many would argue (including yours truly), that what we needed was more pop in this lineup. As of this writing, the only hitter on The Tigers batting above .265 is Cabrera, and he hits like a little school girl with the game on the line and runners in scoring position.

We only gave up Luke French, and A-Baller Mauricio Robles to get him, but he’s a free agent after this year, so if he doesn’t help us win now, we just wasted two more pitching prospects because Washburn is gone come October.

Washburn is having an amazing year, and will no doubt help improve the Tigers rotation down the stretch this year. But how many more games do we want to lose 2-1? Verlander, Jackson and Porcello already got that covered. With the Sox adding Peavy, this trade is essentially nullified.

Well it’s about damn time! I know it must be hard to flush $14 Million down the toilet by releasing a guy that has guaranteed money like that, but in all honesty – that money has long been gone.

More importantly, Sheffield’s release opens up a roster spot for someone more productive (looks to be Jeff Larish) and more importantly, will get Guillen out of the outfield and back to DH. This is the classic “addition by subtraction” result. That means the newly acquired Josh Anderson will probably move to LF and share time with whichever extra outfielders the Tigers keep. I would still expect Detroit to trade either Rayburn, Clevlen or Thames for an arm in the next few days.

Well, normally we don’t do well with trades involving Atlanta. The last time we traded a pitcher for a position player, they got Jair Jurrjens (who we could desperately use right now), and we got an old, decrepit Edgar Renteria. Hopefully, this will work out better for us.

We gave up 25 year old minor-league sidearmer Rudy Darrow to get him. Anderson is a leftie, which is good. Last year he played in 40 games and batted .294. He has very limited power, hitting only 3 homers in 136 AB’s. Basically, he’s not a show stopper, but should do better defensively than Sheff or Guillen.

If nothing else, at least Detroit is getting younger.

Here we go again. Let the Tigers pitching woes begin. I’ve already given up hope on ever seeing Dontrelle Willis pitch effectively again, but I had high hopes for Bonderman. He has shown that he can be a very effective pitcher when healthy (and in innings 2-9).

Hopefully it’s not serious, but we’ll have to wait and see. Right now, the status is day to day. He was sent back to Detroit to have Doctors look at his shoulder. Preliminary word is that it’s just stiffness and inflammation. Hopefully there isn’t anything structurally wrong.

Well, the Tigers may have just helped themselves tremendously by signing Rincon. He was a stud pitcher for the Twins before getting popped for steroid use. The last 2 years saw a fat suspension and a decrease in effectiveness, but it’s a low risk signing that could pay off in huge dividends.

His career ERA is 3.80 even after the last 2 years of disappointment so we’ll see how it turns out, but he’s already better than half the arms currently in the Tigers bullpen.

The Tigers can now lay claim to the tightest infield defense in the majors, bar none. In fact, it isn’t even close. Signing Adam Everett at shortstop, was the last piece of the puzzle – a puzzle that will have trouble scoring runs, but won’t give up very many either.

Adam Everett is generally considered by fielding stat nerds to be the greatest defensive shortstop in the game, by a wide margin. In fact, according to the numbers, he’s the greatest defensive player in all of baseball – at any position.

But he can’t hit. He’s also battled injuries the last two seasons, with a bum shoulder in “08 and a broken leg in “07. But with a one year – $1 million contract, what have you got to lose?

The projected starting infield now looks like this (bear in mind that Inge will probably relieve Laird at catcher occasionally):

• C – Gerald Laird
• 1B – Miguel Cabrera
• 2B – Placido Polanco
• SS – Adam Everett
• 3B – Brandon Inge

…With Guillen subbing at SS and 3rd when Sheffield is DH. With the exception of Cabrera, these guys are as good as anyone at fielding their positions, and will give the pitching staff a real nice fuzzy feeling, which should help instill confidence in a group of pathologically inept pitchers.

The lack of offense shouldn’t be too noticeable, when you consider Pudge and Renteria sucked in 2008 anyway. And at $20+ million/year less, these two pick-ups open up the options for Dombrowski to go after an ace on the staff. A.J. Burnett, anyone?

Gerald Laird is no Joe Mauer. Nor is he the next Soto. Hell, he wasn’t even the best catcher on the Rangers. But what he is, is a solid defensive catcher with a cannon for an arm. He is no offensive powerhouse, but it’s not like the Tigers were getting much production from the position anyway. What he is though, is much younger and much, much cheaper than Pudge. He also allows Inge to move to third full-time. This will tighten up the Tigers defense considerably.

They get him cheap, and they get him with a short term deal. No worries about being burnt here – it looks like Dombrowski learned his lesson last year. This should help keep money freed up to bring in an ace on the staff.

Laird hit .276 with six homers and 41 RBI in 95 games for the Rangers last season. His career numbers defensively are a .984 fielding percentage behind the plate, while he has thrown out 36.6 percent of base-runners attempting to steal.

RH pitching prospects Guillermo Moscoso and Carlos Melo were sent to Texas in return.