Look out for those Tigers! Now with Aubrey Huff, the Tigers might win no more games than they would have before! The Detroit Tigers just traded righty pitching prospect Brett Jacobson to the Baltimore Orioles for Aubrey Huff. Jacobson was listed as the 10th best prospect in the Tigers system, entering this season, and is at Class-A Frederick with a 1-3 record with six saves and a 3.74 ERA in 35 games.

Huff is having a weak offensive season at .253/.321/.405. Huff has a career wOBA .347, slightly above average, but this season it’s at .307. His walk rate has stayed the same, while his strikeout rate has gone up to 17.2%. That being said, Huff, if he plays to his career averages from now until the end of the season, could be a decent addition to the Tigers lineup.

While Huff may have a slightly above average impact on offense, he hasn’t been any better this season on defense. Huff has a -1.6 UZR/150, aka less than average, at first base this season. While he has been known to be a utility defensive player, he hasn’t played 3^rd base this year, had only 33 games there last year, and he hasn’t played in the outfield since 2006, where he made Scott Podsednik look average.

Why do I bring this up? Well he poses a defensive problem for the Tigers. Miguel Cabrera is pretty much locked in at defensive first base, he isn’t great, but serviceable, so either Huff or Carlos Guillen has to play the field, or pitch. Carlos Guillen is a DH, but I’m not sure for what reason, he is at .249/.323/.364 with a .304 wOBA, possibly the worst DH for any AL team, and ever more so for a team competing for a playoff spot. Guillen isn’t a very good fielder and is struggling at the plate, so he may sit, I’m not sure, but having one of those guys DH and the other play the field isn’t going to win you many, or any games.

This move confuses me a bit, unless they sit Guillen, because the Tigers this past offseason went out and got Adam Everett and Gerald Laird to combat some defensive woes and putting Huff or Guillen at outfield seems counterproductive.

We will see what happens as a result of this move, but in a division that nobody wants to win, this could make the Tigers slightly better.