Guillen inches closer to return

On a forgettable night for the Tigers, some good news did come out of it. Carlos Guillen might be close to returning to the team in early to mid July from his shoulder injury. Before the injury, or perhaps while he was struggling with the injury, he batted .200, 0 home runs, .267 OBP, .244 SLG, and .512 OPS with a .235 wOBA. So, yeah, that is not good. Defensively, I am not even going to pretend that he is the answer. Him and Ordonez in the same outfield will really weaken our defense. No two ways about that. In a very limited time, he still had a -1.3 UZR in LF, and a low, low Range factor of 1.9.

However, I wouldn't write him off as a DH just yet. He is a declining batter as evidenced by a decrease in SLG, OPS, wOBA, and wRC each season since 2006. But, I think he might be a better and more consistent threat than Thames. In each of the last three seasons, he has had a higher OBP, SLG, OPS, and wOBA than Thames. He also hits for a higher average and always has a better BB/K rate. Thames does have the better Isolated Power rates and does bring more natural power to the plate. But, long term, the numbers would suggest that if this injury does not flare up again (admittedly, it would not surprise me if it does) then he would be better served as the DH with Thames serving as a PH in late game situations.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I would guess that Guillen would get some initial time in LF just to prove that he is unable to handle it. Long-term, until a trade is made, look for Clete Thomas to get the majority of the PT there as the season winds down. Once he struggles in LF, I think he will bump Thames from the DH spot.