Omar Infante: Your everyday left fielder, and other half-baked ideas

Thinking out loud on a 100-degree Thursday night…

Brad Lidge-to-Detroit rumors still fresh. At least according to this story in Thursday’s Houston Chronicle. As you’ll see, other teams — including Cleveland — are in the running for Lidge.

My friend John Milton and I disagree on this one; I’d love to see Lidge in Detroit if nothing else as Joel Zumaya insurance. I think a change of scenery would do him good (Lidge, that is, not John). However, Mr. Milton isn’t buying what I’m selling in that regard.

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Who says no one reads fan blogs? As I’m writing this, Felix Hernandez just got lifted from the game…though the kid was still bringing it at 98 m.p.h. in the seventh. Anyway, here’s an interesting nugget about how Hernandez (and M’s pitching coach Rafael Chaves) credits a Mariners blogger for a change in his early-game approach.

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Tall tales. When Andrew Miller (6 ft. 6 in.) faced Richie Sexson (6 ft. 8 in.) tonight, it was a 13-feet, 2-inch showdown. But that’s not the tallest matchup of the year for Sexson. On May 18, he faced the Padres’ 6 ft. 10 in. Chris Young…and went 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts. Then on June 10 Sexson went 1 for 3 against Young to boost his average to a delicate .200.

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It was just an idea. Earlier this evening I was IM’ing with Ian Casselberry and I shared with him a thought I’d been meaning to share either in this space or on the podcast: Why not make Omar Infante the Tigers everyday left fielder? This was before Jim Leyland came to his senses and placed Marcus Thames in the role.

Of course I prefer Thames to Infante or Craig Monroe, but at the time it seemed the Skipper wasn’t willing to forfeit the ounce of additional defense he got from Monroe (on most nights) in favor of Thames. Nevertheless, I was intrigued by the idea (even if it were only mine) of seeing what Infante could do as an everyday player. Ian, ever the voice of reason, raised the most logical point: If you make Infante the everyday left fielder, you lose your utility man.

Ah, so true. However, it would seem that utility men are a dime a dozen — just look at former Tigers, Cubs, Rockies, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks and now Royals (did I miss one?) sub Jason Smith. Certainly the Tigers could find a Super Sub on the waiver wire but, with Thames secure in left, we shan’t worry about it.

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Befitting a near (All-Star Game) goat. I’ll say this much about Trenton-native and Mariners closer J. J. Putz: he has committed himself to a high-maintenance form of facial hair.

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Overconfidence gives me the heebie-jeebies. Peter Pascarelli, host of ESPN’s Baseball Today podcast, on Thursday morning again said he expects the Tigers to run away with the division. Gulp. Then, guest Steve Phillips — double-gulp — agreed. (!) Phillips went so far as to say he thought Cleveland was playing considerably better than he expected them to. What the…? Thanks for the optimism, boys, but methinks I’ll keep my reservations here in Superstition Springs.

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As if the loss wasn’t bad enough. I have to endure former FSN Detroit mouth Angie Mentink doing the Mariners’ post-game show on FSN Northwest. Her co-host is former short-timer Tigers lefty Bill Krueger.

Strange that Krueger would land a job in Seattle. The Waukegan, Ill. native pitched only parts of two seasons with the M’s, 1991 and the last year of his career, 1995. No stranger than, say, Rod Allen getting the TV analyst role with the Tigers.

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I’m just sayin’. Okay, we all remember last fall. The Tigers rolled into the World Series playing the team’s best ball of the season only to have to sit around for a week and then yadda yadda.

Fast forward to the 2007 All-Star Break. The Tigers ride a five-game winning streak into the break only to have to sit around for three days. First game back they play a close game with Seattle but lose. We didn’t make much of the Game 1 loss in the World Series but look what happened.

Do you think maybe…?

Nah, never mind. I must have been channeling my inner Doug Hill.