Tigers give Huff rare shot at playoffs

DETROIT -- Aubrey Huff walked into the Tigers' dugout on Tuesday afternoon and might as well have walked into a whole different league than the one he had been playing in.

With one move from Baltimore to Detroit, he went from worst to first in his teams' respective division standing. Instead of playing out the schedule with nothing at stake, he's playing for October at this point in the summer for the first time in his career. He could feel the difference prior to batting practice.

"Normally at this time of year, you're just grinding it out," Huff said. "You've got your [offseason] vacation plans. You've got [a trip to] Hawaii all booked up. This is exciting. This is like a second Opening Day."

The Tigers are hoping it's the opening of a new-look offensive attack now that they have a proven run producer in the middle of their order.

"He can hit and knock in runs," manager Jim Leyland said. "He's got a track record. He's a guy that's been in there a long time."

For Tuesday, he was slotted in the fifth spot, right behind slugger Miguel Cabrera in the Tigers' order. Carlos Guillen, who had been batting fifth to give Cabrera protection, moved up to third spot, where he hit just twice this year prior to Tuesday.

The impact was to alternate left- and right-handed hitters almost throughout the order, except for fifth and sixth, where Huff and Clete Thomas give the Tigers back-to-back lefty swingers. They have an abundance of left-handed bats available in their lineup for the first time in several years, balancing out an issue that troubled them as far back as 2006.

The other impact was the huge smile on Miguel Cabrera's face as he talked about the trade at his locker in the Tigers' clubhouse.

"It's a really good deal," said Cabrera, who now has another RBI source behind him.

That, more than the order or the balance, seems to be key. Whether the lineup sticks in this particular order is hard to tell right now, since Leyland said it might not. But somewhere around the middle of the order, Huff is going to be a threat, certainly against right-handed pitchers.

For that reason, Huff didn't need long to realize how valued he was in this city. He found that out as soon as he checked into his hotel.

"The bellman actually greeted me," Huff said. "He was real excited."

Much as the Tigers were in need of offense, and as much interest as they had shown in Huff over the past few years, Huff said the deal caught him by surprise. He had prepared himself for a potential trade anywhere leading up to the July 31 non-waiver Trade Deadline, but he figure it probably wasn't going to happen once the calendar changed to August.

"It was a shock," Huff said, "but a positive shock."

Like the lineup, Leyland said he plans to play Huff's positioning by ear. Both Tigers general manager David Dombrowski and Huff's former boss, Orioles president of baseball operations Larry MacPhail, emphasized that the 32-year-old can play left field and third base as well as first base and DH, where he had played this year in Baltimore. He hasn't started in the outfield since 2006 or at third since last year, but they're options for him in Detroit.
Just how much remains to be seen. Leyland used Huff's first game to start him at designated hitter and play Guillen in left field for the first time since Guillen went on the disabled list in early May with right shoulder inflammation.
Leyland said that Huff will most likely play third on days when Inge gets a rest. But wherever Huff plays, he won't be in there for his defense.

"Offense is his forte," Leyland said.

Playoff chases are not, but mainly because he has never had the chance to really be in the thick of one. His teams in Tampa Bay struggled simply to get to 70 wins in a season before he was traded midway through 2006 to Houston, where the Astros were on the fringe of a playoff race but never quite challenged the Cardinals.

The Orioles got an offensive boost out of him but never got much of a rise in the standings out of it. Their youth movement likely would've had him looking elsewhere as a free agent this offseason anyway. Now, he gets a shot at a contender beforehand.

"It's why you play the game, man," Huff said. "If there's baseball karma, hopefully it's my time."


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(mlb.com)