Published: October 05, 2007 12:00 am      

Jeff Peek: Young and Pena had their chances

Circling the bases as the Major League Baseball playoffs begin ...

FIRST: Detroit Tigers fans have to wonder if the word "oops" ever passed Dave Dombrowski's lips this summer while the team's president/general manager searched in vain for a left-handed power-hitting first baseman.

Certainly, the word must have at least crossed his mind, especially after Dmitri Young and Carlos Pena hit so well that they received MLB Comeback Player of the Year awards earlier this week.

Young is a switch hitter; Pena's a lefty. Both play first. And both were once Tigers' property.

While all-around good guy Sean Casey batted .296 with four home runs and 54 RBIs as Detroit's regular first baseman in 2007, Young hit .320 with 13 homers and 74 RBIs for Washington. And Pena had a monster year for Tampa Bay, batting .282 with a club-record 46 home runs and 121 RBIs.

But Dombrowski has no reason to beat himself up. He gave Young and Pena every opportunity to succeed in Detroit. They punched their own ticket out of town.

Young had trouble with his weight, alcohol and the law, and Pena was hot and cold at the plate -- so cold sometimes that he was absolutely awful.

SECOND: As valuable as Magglio Ordonez, Curtis Granderson and Justin Verlander were to the Tigers this season, the team's MVP may be Placido Polanco.

No one is as steady defensively (next spring Polanco will be chasing the major league record for consecutive errorless games) and he is the toughest out on the team.

The Tigers just aren't the same when Polanco is out.

He has also made Dombrowski look smart. While Polanco had a 200-hit, errorless season in '07, Ugueth Urbina -- dumped on the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for the all-star second baseman in 2005 -- began serving a 14-year prison sentence in Venezuela for attempted murder.

THIRD: Don't be surprised if, despite the summer-long lovefest at Yankee Stadium, New York fans jump all over Alex Rodriguez at some point during the playoffs.

The only thing separating the third baseman from a barrage of Bronx cheers is a couple of 0-for-4 games, especially if the Yankees stub their toe against Cleveland.

And in case Rodriguez finds himself looking for a new home this off-season, the Tigers would gladly give him an opportunity to play his natural position in '08.

No, Red Sox fans, it isn't the fetal position. It's shortstop.

HOME: Speaking of Rodriguezes, the Tigers absolutely must bring Ivan Rodriguez back, even for the $13 million he'll be owed in 2008.

Major league catchers are in short supply, and the Tigers can't afford to let Rodriguez walk away, even if he is on the decline.