Patience With Young Players Starts To Pay Off

The seeds sown in the desert of last year's second half by Detroit are beginning to bloom for the Tigers this season.

A run of injuries in the second half, particularly to Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge, doomed Detroit's 2010 campaign and forced the Tigers to put some rookies into high-impact positions.

Brennan Boesch was brought up early in the season when Guillen went out with an injury the first time. He hit so well that manager Jim Leyland made him a quasi-regular and pretty much stuck with him while he was hitting less than .200 the second half of the season.

Casper Wells was brought up to complement the left-handed hitting Boesch, Will Rhymes got extended playing time, Scott Sizemore got a return look after coughing up the second base job at the start of the season and Danny Worth got a taste of life in the majors.

Lefty Andy Oliver got a valuable look at what he needs to do to be a successful major league pitcher (and two starts this year show he still has much to learn).

But the failures of first exposures are turning into the successes of this season.

Boesch, in particular, has shown maturity as both an outfielder and a hitter. He has a chance to be a big power hitter and run producer and is much farther along now for having struggled through the second half of last year.

Wells hit .323 last year and was productive as a part-time player late in the season. His average is down this year, but that isn't an accurate reflection of his contributions to date.

The success and struggles Boesch and Wells went through have helped rookie Andy Dirks through his first taste of the majors. Dirks may return to the minors for regular playing time at some point, but his experience will be invaluable.

Leyland's calm, measured approach has helped his young players.

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