Jim Leyland hopes he will be able to send Carlos Guillen back out to left field on Friday. Guillen jokingly says he’s not sure he will be able to run that far by then.
        “Sometimes I feel good, sometimes I can hardly walk,” said Guillen, who has been hobbled since Opening Day by an injured Achilles tendon in his lower right leg, where, he said, he has now developed tendinitis. “It just hurts.”
        As a result, Guillen has spent more time serving as the Tigers’ designated hitter than he has playing the outfield.
        And adjusting to the role of DH has not been easy.     
        “I’m used to being in the field every day,” Guillen said. “You feel more in the game when you’re in the field. I don’t feel comfortable as the DH. Maybe one or two days would be okay. But everyday? It’s not me sometimes.”
        In an effort to stay loose between at-bats, Guillen often goes to the batting cage beneath the Comerica Park stands.
        “You have time and you think,” he said. “Maybe you think too much.”
        When the Tigers cut Gary Sheffield loose at the end of spring training, the plan was to make Marcus Thames their primary DH, but also use the position as a place to rest Guillen and Magglio Ordonez on occasion.
        With Thames on the disabled list indefinitely and Guillen still hurting, Leyland hasn’t had that luxury. “I don’t want to monopolize the DH with one guy,” the manager said.
        The best cure for what ails Guillen is rest.  But the Tigers can’t afford to be without a man who is one of the key elements of their offense. “It gets better when he rests, but I need him to play,” Leyland admitted.
        “If you’re walking, you’re not resting,” Guillen send.
        “Every team gets nagging injuries,” Leyland said. “But I believe Guillen played hurt all last year. I think his back really bothered him. And it showed. I don’t want him to have to go through that again. That’s not fair to him.”