Will the Tigers Rue the Day?

It is an interesting question. One that was laughable over the winter and has become more and more serious as this strange season has progressed.

Will the Tigers rue the day that they traded Cameron Maybin, Andrew Miller, Mike Rabelo, Burke Badenhop, Eulogio De la Cruz and Dallas Trahern for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis? I think they already do.

The pitching-needy Tigers sent a wildly ineffective Willis to the minors today. Cabrera just keeps eating his way towards worsening numbers and more games at DH. Slow-footed Detroit is the biggest bust in baseball.

Meanwhile, without Cabrera the Marlins are better offensively than they were a year ago (the Fish lead MLB in homers). They replaced Willis, the spark of 2003's magical run, with Miller, who even in his youthful inconsistency has been eons better than the man-who-used-to-be-called-the-D-Train this season. The potential of Miller, Maybin, De la Cruz and Badenhop outshine Cabrera and Willis at this point.

With tonight's win the Marlins are six games over .500 and three games out of first. The Tigers wallow at 27-37, 10 games behind the surging White Sox in the AL Central.

Would Cabrera (.270/8 HR/36 RBI) and Willis (0-1/10.32 ERA/21 BB/5 K) have been this bad had they remained in South Florida? Would the Marlins be so close to the top of the league with the moody Miggy and off-track D-Train still in town?

Sure, Cabrera is underachieving as his weight and batting average remain in far-too-close proximity. He probably will regain some semblance of his old self. No, Dontrelle isn't this bad, although his final days in teal weren't so pretty either. But the trade that was supposed to sink the Marlins to the NL seafloor and boost the Tigers to the World Series isn't delivering expected results.

I wonder if Detroit regrets it already.