This is ridiculous. Havent the Tigers seen this guy's UZR?

Not in the lineup nearly as much but the closest thing folks now will see to a Mark Belanger. All defense, no offense and the only difference is that Adam didn't smoke like a chimney.

So much for my pick of Kennedy as the Mets backup IF.

Unless his defense has gone to hell or this Worth kid is a potential starter, this seems a strange move by the Tigers. OK, Everett can't hit but you're not asking your backup SS to hit. You're asking him to start occasionally and go in there and pick it in the late innings.

Adam Everett is planning to look surprised.

I was under the impression defensive stats have been a little down for him the last few years. Didn't he get injured?

Since the injury in 2007, Everett has been a good defender but not otherworldly. And to carry his bat, he needed the otherworldly defense. Maybe somebody has a use for him on the bench, I mean if Juan Castro can keep a job all these years, the bar isn't too high. But probably the end of Everett as a starter or semi-regular.

He was still above average out there. Is that new guy supposed to be decent because they have a couple of starters who are good groundball guys in Porcello and Scherzer who might be screwed here. Specifically, Porcello will be hurt.

Santiago is better. The 7-8-9 holes were automatic outs until a week ago. Santiago isn't Jeter or anything but he can get on base and turn the lineup over. Now they just need some hitting from the catching spot...

Unless his defense has gone to hell or this Worth kid is a potential starter, this seems a strange move by the Tigers. OK, Everett can't hit but you're not asking your backup SS to hit. You're asking him to start occasionally and go in there and pick it in the late innings.

Agree with this. Worth shouldn't start over Santiago. And with Guillen now at 2b, Everett could be valuable as a late-inning defensive replacement (at SS, Santiago moving to 2b). Doesn't make much sense.

Worth should be, right now, an above-average MLB defender at 2B, SS and 3B.

Some of the comments here seem to be: "I don't know anything about this Worth guy, but I'll say that if he's complete garbage this is a bad move"
wow. really?

#7 and #9 -- I don't think anybody here (certainly not me) was suggesting Everett as the starter. He seemed to have already lost that job to Santiago anyway. But as long as he's still average or better defensively, he's still perfectly OK as the backup MI. Now if he thinks he can still start somewhere (and given the PA the Phils have given Castro during Rollins' injury, I'm not ruling it out entirely), maybe they did this as a favor to him. But it's hard for me to see why they think Worth is better than Everett unless they also think Worth is better than Santiago (which they might -- though looking at his minor-league line, I've got serious doubts he can out-hit Everett ... seriously).

Worth's 2009 AAA line is 287/330/354. His career minor-league line is 251/317/346. In 2009, he hit (AA/AAA) 229/294/296. He apparently was so far down the chart I can't find a 2010 ZiPS for the guy.

He can't hit. As in, yes, he might be a worse hitter than Everett -- almost certainly a worse hitter than the young Everett. Unless he's a substantially better fielder than Everett, which seems unlikely to me but is possible, he adds nothing over Everett. So why not just stick with Everett as the backup and let this guy continue to play every day at AAA?

In the grand scheme of things, it's unlikely to matter a bit one way or the other. But the Tigers seem to have reduced their organizational complement of defensively competent MI by one without improving their ML roster.

By the way, the 2010 Astros have finally snuck over the Everett line with a 69 OPS+ as of yesterday. That's park effects and era though as their raw stats are still worse. :-)

I don't have any hard data to back up my observations, but I've seen every Tiger game this year. Worth appears to have more range than both Santiago and Everett at this point, and has a good strong arm. I'm guessing he will back up both shortstop and 2nd base. For late inning defensive replacements, Santiago probably stays in the game and Worth plays 2nd. He's substantially younger and a bit cheaper, and you're losing nothing going forward.

The Tigers publicly still say Scott Sizemore is the long term solution at 2nd. I don't believe that for one bit.

Everett seems like a good guy, but I don't think his defense has been nearly as good as the advanced stats seem to think. Just my opinions.

I don't have any hard data to back up my observations, but I've seen every Tiger game this year. Worth appears to have more range than both Santiago and Everett at this point, and has a good strong arm. I'm guessing he will back up both shortstop and 2nd base. For late inning defensive replacements, Santiago probably stays in the game and Worth plays 2nd.

I would hope so. The reason they got Everett in the first place wasn't because they didn't think Santiago was an adequate starting SS, but that he wasn't virile enough to handle playing every day. I never understood this.

Everett seems like a good guy, but I don't think his defense has been nearly as good as the advanced stats seem to think. Just my opinions.

I think advanced defensive stats provide plenty of insight, but I lean towards the opinion of someone who's watched every game.

Re. Worth
That is where his future looked to be. Then, this past off-season, Worth changed his workout routine. At the suggestion of a trainer, he began swimming. His first time out in the community pool near his home in Valencia, Calif., stunned him. He could do only three laps.

"I thought I was gonna go until I couldn't do anymore," he said.

Meaning he thought he was going to swim all night. Still, he came back the next night and got to 10 laps. Eventually, he worked himself up to 50 laps. He combined swimming at night with weights three times a week in the morning. All that improved his core and balance and endurance.

"This kid is a different animal," Leyland said. "He's bigger. He's stronger. The ball sounds different off his bat."

So far there is something to the suggested body improvement. Worth was atrocious last year at the plate. This year he is much improved. He's a better defensive option (plus fielder at 2B, 3B and SS) than Everett and likely (imo) better with the bat as well, and because he'll be backing up three positions he should get a steady stream of AB.

Worth = 287/330/354 in AAA
Everett = 185/221/247 in MLB

Worth turns 25 in September and was a 2nd round pick in 2007. I'd guess the Tigers look at it as a bonus that they get to see plenty of him in the bigs to decide if they need a free agent SS this offseason or if he can slide in for next season as a starter.