This past off-season, the Tigers traded for Carlos Guillen, who had been a solid if not spectacular performer with the Mariners. Seattle decided to sign Rich Aurilia, who had spent some time hitting behind Barry Bonds. Guillen is an All-Star; Aurilia has been designated for assignment, which is every bit the limbo it sounds like.

I first saw this story in the morning paper and immediately thought, “Boy, there’s two teams, and two guys, going in opposite directions.”

The Tigers are on the verge of .500 after one of the worst seasons in baseball history. The Mariners, who were perennial playoff contenders, are slinking into the abyss.

The P-I in Seattle mentions: “Guillen has been enjoying the best year of his career with Detroit while Aurilia was hitting .241 with four homers and 28 RBIs at the time of the move.” And this quote from M’s GM Bill Bavasi: “Going into the season, we believed Carlos and Richie were similar players and that Carlos hadn’t stayed healthy. We gambled and lost, and that’s not fun.”

Meanwhile, the positive press for Guillen has been piling up recently: Guillen finally living up to potential (ESPN), which doesn’t sound all that positive, but, really, it is. And he’s still producing, up to a career-high 13 home runs and a team-leading 65 RBIs.

Over at Mlive, The Cutoff Man has been on top of this as well.

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