The Detroit Tigers made some bold moves Friday, calling up super-prospect Cameron Maybin along with defensive specialist Ramon Santiago while cutting ties with Craig Monroe and sending Omar Infante to Toledo.
I have mixed feelings about the moves.
Like everyone else, I am excited to see what Maybin can do, but I wonder if plunking a 20-year-old into the middle of the pennant race and having him make his debut at Yankee Stadium is the best long-range move for the youngster. Plus they were asking him to make his debut at a new position (left field instead of center).
And I feel bad for Infante. He has performed fairly well for the Tigers this season. He was hitting .276 and had come up with some big hits. But the Tigers don’t think he can do the job defensively at shortstop and they wanted to have a capable defensive backup with Carlos Guillen hurting.
As for Monroe, he certainly has not performed this season, but I thought the team would at least ride it out for this year. What if Maybin shows he can’t handle it this year? You will have Marcus Thames in left with no reliable backup. It might have been better to let Maybin win the job in spring training next year.
On top of that, it seems that Monroe was a pretty popular guy on the team. You wonder if getting rid of him and demoting a guy like Infante who has done nothing wrong could damage team morale.
Did you see Maybin’s 2 run homer in Saturday’s game? What a shot for a guy who was clearly nervous during his first game. But who wouldn’t be? Then Clemens, who just finished serving a suspension for intentionally hitting a guy, nails Maybin pretty hard. I thought it was something that even the Yankee fans booed Clemens after that. I thought it may have gotten ugly if he nailed another one.
It is sickening that Clemens at age 45 has to treat someone like Maybin like that. It was obvious that Clemens was peeved because Maybin hit that homerun. I’m not a fan of Clemens, who basically wrote his own ticket his whole career and isn’t living up to his end of the bargain. Please retire Clemens and let the rookies play their game.
As for Monroe, he lost his confidence. I think that hurts a team professionally more than a little personal moral because he was a nice guy and a popular player. He will move on and probably be great again playing for some other team. There is no room for him on the Tiger roster.