As usual, the Tigers will go as far next season as their pitching can carry them.
        Jim Leyland weighed in on his suspect staff during the winter meetings:
        On Justin Verlander: “The guy is just a great talent. He had two surprisingly really good years to wake up the world to Justin Verlander. He was awful young to have that kind of success.
        “Then last year things didn’t go quite as well. It’s a process to learn how to handle those things. There’s a lot of things this kid went through, suffering some adversity for the first time, learning how to cope with it.
        “I’ll be interested to see how he comes into spring training. I think he’s going to be tremendous. He’s got too good of stuff not to be an outstanding pitcher.”
        On Armando Galarraga: “I think Galarraga has  proven he is a bona fide major league pitcher. But I also think we have to make sure we don’t get too carried away. He won 13 games. We can’t expect him to win 20 and put a lot of pressure on him. The main thing is to just keep him calm, don’t get him too excited where his expectations go so high they backfire on him.”
        On Nate Robertson:  “I don’t think Nate, along with a few other guys, came into spring training in the best of shape last year. That’s a lesson that we all learn. It happens in every camp, not just ours. It’s human nature. That’s the way it goes.
        “And I think you go through  periods in this game when sometimes you’re out to prove a point and you’re a little hungrier. Nate is working really hard right now and I think he’s going to give himself the best chance to be in the rotation next year.
        “I’m certainly not saying he won’t be, but that’s not a given right now.”

        Dave Dombrowski agreed the incumbent Tiger pitchers hold the key.
        “If we can’t get improvement internally, we’re in trouble,” the Tigers’ GM admitted.

        The Tigers are counting on new pitching coach Rick Knapp to, among other things, improve the strikes-to-balls ratio and cut down on the pitch counts.
        Asked earlier what type of coach it might take to turn the Tigers’ troubled pitching staff around, Leyland replied, “At least one of the apostles.”
        Few things infuriate Leyland more than watching his pitchers walk enemy hitters. That’s worse that running out of Marlboros.
        And Tiger pitchers generously issued 644 free passes this year, second most in the league.
        “You can’t walk people, you just can’t,” Leyland admitted. “There’s no defense for that. If you’re walking guys all the time, your defense can’t help you.”

        The Tigers are also counting on Carlos Guillen to bolster their defense in left field --  and improve his performance at the plate.
        In 2007, Guillen signed a four-year $48 million contract that ties him to the Tigers through 2011. However, hampered by injuries, his production has dropped off dramtically (.286 with just 10 HRs and 54 RBI in 113 games this season).
        Guillen is one of the guys who are going to have to step it up next year.

        Leyland’s best line of the winter meetings: “You’ve got to be careful when you’re looking at pitchers in the Instructional League and the minor leagues. They’re getting out Chico Ramirez -- not Manny Ramirez.”

        Obviously, all of the speculation about the supposedly inevitable trade of Magglio Ordonez, the highest paid Tiger, this winter, was greatly exaggerated.
        Frankly, I for one never thought it would happen.
        Bottom line: You usually don’t get better, you don’t enhance your chances of climbing out of last place, by trading away one of your best hitters.
        And, as extensive as the Tigers’ needs were this off-season _ new catcher, new shortstop, new closer _ I could never see them solving two, or even all three of those problems, simply by trading Ordonez.
        Baseball just doesn’t work that way.
        For one thing, most teams would have been reluctant to take on Magglio’s contract which calls for him to receive $18 million this season.
        Ordonez also has club options for $18 million in 2010 and $15 million in 2011 which  will automatically kick in, provided he starts 124 games or makes 466 plate appearance this year.
        And, barring injury, he will reach both of those milestones with ease, putting the Tigers on the hook to Magglio for an additional $51 million.
        Ordonez will turn 35 next month. But he batted .317 last season on the heels of his batting title .363 in 2007.
        Since signing with the Tigers since 2005, Ordonez has batted .323 with 81 HRs and 392 RBI.
        Hitters like that are hard to find.

        There is an old saying in baseball: Sometimes the best trades are those you don’t make.
        A year ago, having landed slugging third baseman Miguel Cabrera, the Tigers tried hard to trade Brandon Inge, who had overnight become expendable, a player without a position. They failed.
        Now the Tigers are counting on that same Brandon Inge to help return this team of high-priced under-achievers to respectability.
        “I think Brandon Inge is a very big key for us, I really do,” Jim Leyland declared this week. “If Brandon can be productive again _ which I think he has the potential to do _ that makes us really good.”
        There is no question Inge’s welcome return to third base will make the Tigers better defensively. He will be a huge improvement over Cabrera or Carlos Guillen at that position.
        “There are very few guys who can play third base better than Inge,” Leyland said.
        But spectacular defense is not enough. The Tigers also need Inge to return to his 2006 form (.253, 27 HRs, 83 RBI) at the plate.
        “We’ve got to get him away from thinking totally about hitting the ball to the opposite field or totally about trying to hit home runs,” Leyland explained,
        “It’s been all or nothing with Brandon. Either he is trying to hit the ball to right field all the time, or he is trying to turn on the ball and hit a home run every time. We have to get through to him _ and I have talked to hitting coach Lloyd McClendon about this _ that there are situations when he should try to hit the ball the other way and just get a base hit, and there are situations  where he should go for the home run.”
        This year, Inge, confused and often unhappy, hit a mere .205, with 11 HRs and 51 RBI _ his worst numbers since 2003,
       
       

        After 23 years of undiluted excellence, Greg Maddux, baseball’s winningest living pitcher, bowed out Monday the same way he pitched _ modestly, with dignity and grace.
        “That’s a nice compliment,”     Maddux said Monday in announcing his retirement during baseball’s winter meetings in Las Vegas. “I hope I’ve played the game the way I would want my teammates to play.
        “I’m very proud of what I have accomplished on the baseball field. But I’d like to think I’m the same person I was 20 years ago.”
        As a player, Maddux never came close to receiving all of the accolades and acclaim that he deserved. But Maddux didn’t mind. He didn’t need that.
        “He was one of the all-time greats,” Tigers’ manager Jim Leyland said Monday as Maddux took the stage.
        Maddux didn’t make headlines. All he did was win, 355 times. It may come as a surprise to many fans in this age of hype and over-indulgence, but since World War II, only Warren Spahn won more.
        Along the way, Maddux quietly accumulated four Cy Young Awards and 18 Gold Gloves, making him, arguably anyway, the best fielding pitcher in the history of the game.
        He didn’t pop off. He didn’t make outlandish salary demands.
        He didn’t use steroids. He was never caught carrying a gun.
        His numbers were never once tainted by scandal.
        In the history of baseball, only 17 players lasted longer. Only seven _ the immortal Cy Young (511), Walter Johnson (417), and Christy Mathewson (373), the great Grover Cleveland Alexander (373) and Spahn (363), and prehistoric Pud Galvin (364) and Kid Nichols (361) won more games.
        Only nine pitchers struck out more hitters than Maddux’s 3,371. Only 12 threw more innings.
        He did it with guts and guile and God-given talent.
        Greg Maddux was a baseball player. A Hall of Famer in every sense of the word.
        Nothing more. Nothing less. And that was more than enough for him.
        Needless to say, five years from now, he’s got my vote.
        By rights, it ought to be unanimous.

        As desperate as the Tigers are to find somebody to play shortstop next season, they did not think Edgar Renteria was worth another $9 million. The San Francisco Giants, on the other hand, believe Renteria is worth $18.5 million.
        Obviously, ability is in the eye of the beholder.
        At the end of Renteria’s admittedly disappointing 2008 season, in which he batted .270 thanks to a late-season surge but had clearly slowed down in the field, Renteria expressed what I thought was a heart-felt desire to return to the Tigers next year to make amends.
        In a quiet conversation at his locker before the final game at Comerica Park, Edgar indicated to me that he would be willing to play for less than the $9 million he received this year, if offered the opportunity.
        However, once Renteria stuck his toe in the lucrative free agent waters, he quietly changed his tune.
        You can’t blame him.
        Given the choice between making $18.5 million for two years and, say, $6 million for one, which offer would you take?
        The Tigers were well aware of the Giants’ interest in Renteria and could have tried to keep him  by offering salary arbitration _ a move that would have entitled the Tigers to two compensatory draft picks when Renteria signed on Thursday with San Francisco.
        However, salary arbitration is always a gamble, often a costly one.
        And the Tigers were unwilling to roll the dice.
        If Renteria had called the Tigers’ bluff and accepted their offer of arbitration instead of signing with the Giants, his 2009 salary would have been set by an arbitrator. And arbitrators rarely rule in favor of a pay cut.
        Renteria probably would have asked for $11 million or more. The Tigers, knowing how the process works, would have been wary of offering anything less than the $9 million they paid Edgar this year.
        Under the rules, the arbitrator must select one figure or the other. He cannot split the difference.
        As a result, teams are reluctant to bid too low, for fear the arbitrator will side with the player.
        So, even if the Tigers had won their arbitration case, they would most likely have had to pay Renteria at least $9 million next year _ which, considering their current financial situation and Edgar’s performance this past season, was something they were simply unwilling to do.
        Sure, those two extra draft picks would have been nice. But the Tigers felt the risk was too great.
        The flip slide of that is, Renteria definitely became more attractive to the Giants once the Tigers declined to offer him arbitration, relieving San Francisco of the risk of losing two draft picks in the process.
        By signing with the Giants, Renteria _ who will receive a $3 million buyout from the Tigers _ will collect a $2 million signing bonus and $7 million in salary next season, plus another $9 million in 2010. The Giants also have a $10.5 million option on Renteria’s services for 2011, with a $500,000 buyout.
        Not bad for a .270 hitter, with 10 HRs and 55 RBI.
        That leaves the Tiger still searching for a shortstop when baseball’s annual winter meetings convene on Sunday in Las Vegas.
        The name of Minnesota’s Adam Everett is the latest to surface in that hunt. But the 31-year-old Everett, who is better known for his defensive ability than his bat, hit only .213 with two HRs and 20 RBI this season when he was limited to 48 games by an injured shoulder.
        The Tigers’ perennial interest in Pittsburgh’s Jack Wilson, a better hitter, has reportedly waned. Wilson, also 31, who has been on the Tigers’ radar screen since 2007, comes with a higher price tag ($7.25 million in 2009) than they might like. The Los Angeles Dodgers are also reportedly interested in Wilson.
        Whoever plays shortstop for the Tigers next season will be a stopgap solution to the problem because the Tigers are counting on promising minor league prospect Cale Iorg to man that critical position in 2010 or 2011 at the latest.