After a 20-year Sabbatical, Stability Returns to Detroit

Among the many painful things about watching the Tigers before, during and even a bit past the Randy Smith Era, the most disheartening was never knowing for sure what the Opening Day lineup would look like. Or the one on Memorial Day.

You knew that all spring long Smith would be on the phone looking to move bodies around (usually with his pal Kevin Towers of the Padres or with his dad’s team, the Astros). Except for a few years when Bobby Higginson was in right and Tony Clark was at first, the Tigers lineup was a lesson in instability. (Do the names Scott Livingstone, Brian Hunter and Jose Macias ring a bell?)

Not anymore.

The offseason signings of Nate Robertson and Curtis Granderson to long-term deals, a year after the multi-year signings of Brandon Inge and Jeremy Bonderman, show how far the Tigers have come and why they’re inching closer to becoming a marquee franchise — if they’re not already.

Go around the diamond or the outfield and pick any position. Then look back at all the retreads, has-beens and flame outs that resided in that particular position from say, oh, 1988 to 2005.

It ain’t pretty.

As a nod to Granderson’s deal, let’s focus on centerfield and see what Tigers fans have had to endure since 1988 when career .236 hitter Gary Pettis pushed Chet Lemon to rightfield for the remainder of his career.

• 1988: Pettis
• 1989: Pettis/Kenny Williams
• 1990: Lloyd Moseby, John Shelby
• 1991: Moseby, Shelby
• 1992: Milt Cuyler
• 1993: Cuyler, Eric Davis, Kirk Gibson
• 1994: Cuyler, Davis, Gibson, Pettis
• 1995: Chad Curtis, Cuyler, Gibson
• 1996: Curtis
• 1997-98: Brian Hunter (Today’s birthday boy!)
• 1999: Gabe Kapler
• 2000: Roger Cedeno, Juan Encarnacion
• 2001: Wendell Magee, Encarnacion
• 2002: Another birthday boy, Hiram Bocachica, George Lombard, Jose Macias, Andres Torres
• 2003: Gene Kingsale, Alex Sanchez
• 2004: Sanchez, Craig Monroe
• 2005: Alexis Gomez, Curtis Granderson, Nook Logan, Monroe
• 2006: – : Granderson

That’s 23 centerfielders over a 19-year period. Not exactly the stability you look for from a key, up-the-middle position.

If you think about it, the Tigers went from one of the most stable franchises in the 1970s and ’80s to the most jittery in virtually every capacity: from ownership to management to player personnel.

Again, this is just looking at one slot in the lineup.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be looking at the other seven fielders and examine the merry-go-round approach that Sparky Anderson, Buddy Bell, Larry Parrish, Phil Garner, Luis Pujols and Alan Trammell were forced to implement — and that, so far, Jim Leyland has been able to avoid.