Some may have forgotten, but in the month of May Andy Dirks established himself as the number two hitter and the everyday leftfielder for the Tigers. His ascent to such a pivotal role with the team came as a welcome surprise, given the deficiencies of many Tiger hitters in the early months of the season. He is a classic “dirt-baller.” He does nothing great but everything well. He plays a solid left field and can hit for both power and average. He hustles on the base paths and even hits left-handed pitching well. And . . . well . . . I love him.
So needless to say I am excited about his imminent return to active duty, hopefully before the end of the month. However, his return does create some difficult playing time issues for Jim Leyland. The outfield/DH spot has been all over the place this season. Brennan Boesch and Delmon Young struggled early, allowing Dirks more playing time. Quintin Berry provided a spark when Dirks went down, but it still looked like a trade was necessary. Lately, though, Young and Boesch have picked up their play, Berry continues to contribute, and Dirks is getting healthy.
So how should Jim Leyland handle the playing time when Dirks returns? First, Young will continue to play DH everyday. The Tigers need his right handed bat, and as long as he doesn’t have a serious drop off in production, he will stay in the five-hole. Next, even though he’s been gone a long time, Dirks should step back into his role as the everyday leftfielder. This means Boesch and Berry will split time in right field, with Boesch probably getting the majority of the time. If Dirks plays everyday for a couple of weeks and struggles, then Leyland can just start playing the hottest of the three players.
This may seem unfair to Quintin Berry, considering how important he has been. However, his average continues to slip, and he is now hitting nearly fifty points below what Dirks was when he went down. Dirks can also provide more power, and while his speed is not near that of Berry, he gets around pretty well. Berry would also make a pretty valuable bench player, considering the amount of pinch-run worthy players the Tigers have.
I am also not totally convinced that Boesch is back to bashing. He has had a decent stretch lately, but still throws too many at bats away. A 9-1-2 of Berry, Jackson, Dirks is pretty intriguing.
Of course, old poker face Dombrowski could make this a mute point by July 31 . . .