Damon in Detroit

Johnny Damon has landed with the Detroit Tigers.

I feel reasonably certain that this wasn't his top choice, but he and agent Scott Boras mucked up this journey into free agency from the get-go.

Damon is replacing Curtis Granderson in the Tigers lineup, as the leadoff man if not in center field. I'd rather have Granderson.

Damon makes the Tigers lineup a bit more difficult, but it's still hardly formidable. Miguel Cabrera's a beast, Magglio Ordonez did wind up above .300 last year after his awful start, and now they have Damon to plug into the top of the lineup, but that's pretty much it. Even if Carlos Guillen's career really isn't a rotting corpse, they're going to get subpar offense from second base, shortstop, third base, catcher and center field, and that's a lot of outs to concede.

Unless they do try to put Damon in center. But that's a lot of triples to concede.

It's a weird roster right now. The pitching could be good; the offense probably won't be. And the defense will lean heavily on a pair of up-the-middle rookies.