TWFE owes Magglio Ordonez an apology

Remember when I wrote the following?

Magglio Ordonez is pretty good. Unfortunately, he's being paid to be great. It's looking more and more as if we'll never again see the elite level Ordonez that played for the White Sox.

I wrote that on April 19, 2007. Ordonez was hitting .255, with 1 HR, 9 RBI. He looked to all the world to be just scuffling along, and far from being an elite level hitter. $16 million a season for basically another Craig Monroe?

But since then? Maggs has hit .415, with 5 HR, 21 RBI. Ordonez is now in the AL top 5 in OPS, SLG, RBI, 2B & Runs. He's top 10 in AVG, OBP & Hits.

In your face, Big Al!

Magglio is hitting everyone hard, and doing so with power to all fields. In fact, he has put the Tigers offense on his shoulders these past 3 weeks. Ordonez is doing everything that is expected out of a cleanup man, and as a corner outfielder if you go by his spectacular game ending catch against Seattle Tuesday night.

Back in the very early days of TWFE, some 15 months ago, I wrote that for the Tigers to succeed they needed Ordonez to be a huge threat in the middle of the order.

What does an actual, true to life cleanup hitter look like wearing a Detroit uniform? It's been so long, I don't remember. I'm not talking about a Dean Palmer type, who would have been much more effective at 5 or 6 in the order, but a bad ass, clear the bases weapon.

For the past 3 weeks, and to be honest, for the first time as a Tiger, Ordonez has been that sort of bat. The bat he once was before his catastrophic knee injury.

Will Ordonez continue his torrid place? It's quite possible, as Ordonez's legs finally appear to be fully healthy. He is also surrounded in the batting order with All-Star level talent in Gary Sheffield hitting in front of him, and Carlos Guillen following. He's going to get good pitches to hit.

So we just may see the same Magglio Ordonez that White Sox fans had to privilege to watch from 1999 to 2003. And I'll more than happy to continue eating crow...