In yet another sign of the sense of urgency that the Tigers are feeling this season, Alex Aliva was behind home plate again on Sunday, 14 hours after catching Saturday night's game in the Kansas City hear..
    And Jim Leyland indicated he is going to catch the rookie Avila, who is supposed to be the Tigers' back-up, more and more in coming games
    Why? Because Avila is current hitting .202. He has collected six hits in his last 12 at-bats.
    Meanwhile, Gerald Laird, who is supposed to be the Tigers' No. 1 catcher, is batting .154. He is five-for-his-last-43 trips to the plate.
    Leyland feels he can't wait any longer for Laird to wake up at the plate.
    Laird's sudden inability to hit is one of this season's biggest mysteries.
    Laird batted .296 in 2006 and .276 in 2008, playing partime for the Texas Rangers.
    The Tigers see Avila, who is only two years out of college, as their catcher of the future. They had better hope they are right. Because they don't have any promising catching candidates in their farm system.
    Leyland keeps hoping Laird will snap out of his season-long slump. If he doesn't, and if Avila isn't the answer, the Tigers have a problem.
    Speaking of urgency, the Tigers understandably grew so weary of Dontrelle Willis' nagging inconsistency that they literally gave him to the Arizona Diamondbacks, agreeing to pay most of his remaining salary and accepting an unpromising minor league pitcher in return.
    Willis won his first start with the Diamondbacks over the weekend.
    To recap -- and probably not for the last time -- the Tigers paid Willis slightly more than $28.7 million for which he won two games over the past three years.
    The Diamondbacks will pay Willis approximately $266,667 to pitch for them for the rest of this year. And he has already given them one win.