Is Carlos Guillen An Upgrade Over Josh Anderson?

Carlos Guillen was called up from Triple-A Toledo and Josh Anderson got designated for assignment. My first reaction is "yes!" However, my second reaction is: is this really an upgrade?

The Tigers are struggling to score runs. We all know that frustration. But, how much does Carlos Guillen help that? Add in that he can't even bat right handed and he won't be playing in the outfield (but that's fine -- he's bad out there anyways), is he really all that helpful?

Josh Anderson's been bad at the plate this year -- just downright terrible to the tune of -7.1 runs offensively. However, he's counteracted that by being worth 7.1 runs defensively, and that makes him pretty much a replacement level baseball player.

Now, Carlos Guillen's going to be a platooning designated hitter. If there's a position that a team shouldn't have to be platooning at, it's probably DH. You don't need to look at defense, you just need a guy that can mash -- and there's plenty of all-bat, no-glove baseball players. Is one with a bum shoulder, coming off a season that was his worst since coming to Detroit, unable to utilize his switch-hitting abilities at the moment, and is going to be 34 in September really an answer to our offensive woes?

To me, this is a move that reeks of desperation. I know we need to score runs. I mean, 4 out of 5 losses being 2-1 is beyond ridiculous and incredibly frustrating. That said, Josh Anderson was making the league minimum so he wasn't even being over paid for his role or for his production.

Billfer already said this, but the offense will rebound -- teams don't just score that few runs that often in a sustainable fashion. It, also, will have to rebound due to the guys currently on the roster -- Curtis Granderson, Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Raburn, etc etc all have room for improvement.

There are trades that could be explored. Is Andy Marte and his .329/.366/.591 line in Triple-A Columbus for Cleveland available? I don't know what it'd take to pry him away or if Mark Shapiro's thinking of swapping him out for Jhonny Peralta, but it's an option that I think should be explored at some point.

If you want to stay in-house, how about Jeff Larish or Wilkin Ramirez again?

This move feels like an act of desperation with probably little return. Like swapping out salad fork for a bigger, more expensive dinner fork.