Who said “slow and steady wins the race”?  After a four game slide left the Detroit Tigers bobbing in third place in the AL central, they decided slow and steady wasn’t good enough.

Granted, pitching had a lot to do with the Tigers losses to the Twins and three game sweep at the hands of the dreadful Oakland A’s, but for the most part those games were winnable.  The Tigers had more than enough chances to win or even tie these games but failed to capitalize and took their worst losing streak so far this season.  This is where things sped up a bit.

A series of moves over a three day span gave Detroit the improvements they wanted while doubling their available cash just incase something big comes along before July.

First, the Reds were called and a deal was signed where the Reds took shortstop Adam Everett and strike out king Marcus Thames in exchange for Jerry Hairston and Chris Dickerson.  Hairston’s a small upgrade from Everett and Dickerson brought speed, a missing piece of the Detroit puzzle that was sorely needed.  Two days later another series of moves was made:  Hairston was sent to San Diego in exchange for Scott Hairston.  Gary Sheffield was packed up and sent to Los Angeles where the Dodgers forked over speedster Juan Pierre.  To fill the now vacant shortstop position, free agent Nomar Garciaparra was signed to a three year 15.5 million contract.

“All in all, we’re very satisfied with the moves we’ve made” said an inside source.  “Now we’ve got speed of the bench, a solid hitter with some pop and a great shortstop in Garciaparra who’s no slouch at the plate either.  There’s a reason the fans in Boston loved him and we know the Detroit fans will love him just as much”.

The real bonus to all of this is that the Tigers shed some serious cash, saving over five million dollars for the season.  That’s big money that could come in handy should another deal open up along the way.  The free agent list is packed with veteran pitching in Andy Pettitte, Orlando Hernandez, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling to name a few and the team wouldn’t mind an upgrade in that area either.

Only time will tell if these moves can generate the results that Detroit management is looking for, but it’s got to be better than what they had.