Pudge and Guillen Tigers in Detroit's tank By Charlie O. Mellonee April 29, 2005     Detroit Tigers shortstop Carlos Guillen is hitting around .400 and it would really be fun to see somebody hit that .400 mark again, but given the pitching teams have to face, that's probably not realistic. Guillen is coming on in Detroit and Detroit is a team on the rise, sitting in third place in the American League Central. The Tigers had become a joke after they had some of those great teams in the 80s. The Tigers are finally putting some people together who are likely going to do well for them. If you look at team line ups these days and you see how few players are hitting in that .300 range, that's a real important move for the Bengals. I'm a little bit old school in baseball. I'm a guy who really believes in a guy hitting for average, and there are people who are going to look at Guillen and say, "Guillen has only one home run in 65 at bats." I don't care because Guillen has scored 13 runs in 65 at bats on 26 hits. He's scoring half the time he gets on base - that's off the hook. The Tigers made a beautiful move in picking up Pudge, catcher Ivan Rodriguez. The Tigers knew they had to do a lot with young players and they turned around and picked up the guy I believe in right now is still the premier catcher in baseball. Who wouldn't want to have a Pudge Rodriquez to help you out? Now the Tigers can build a team around him, and when you think about it, this is a team that's coming back very quickly. Charlie Mallanee writes editorials each week and Co-hosts Sportstalk on 1430 KVVN San Jose and KLIB 1110 Sacramento. Charlie also hosts his own radio talk show each Friday night between 10-12 on KSAC 1240 "All City Sportstalk."

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