I wrote yesterday that "Ian Kinsler should be judged for who he is, not who he isn't."

And I stand by that.

Especially considering Prince Fielder's out for the season, it's unfair for Kinsler — who had contributed far more, even when both were on the field for their respective teams — to be constantly compared to Fielder. (I'm adult enough to know it's going to happen. So is Kinsler.)

And it's obvious that many Tigers fans are still holding harsh feelings for their former first baseman.

One fan at Saturday's game, however, found a good way to continue to make use of an old Fielder shirsey, converting it to a Kinsler model, with the judicious use of what appears to be masking tape.

Below is the tweet from an elementary school principal, Michele Corbat, that brought the remodeling job to public attention.

Most creative #Tigers shirt! @tigers pic.twitter.com/58zgYXqPMs
— Michele Corbat (@MicheleCorbat) May 24, 2014

(Also, if anyone knows who the fan might be, let me know, so he can get credit for his work.)

While the Tigers are looking to wipe a bitter taste out of their mouths after being swept in Cleveland to end what had been a successful road trip, the Texas Rangers are wishing they could wipe the taste of this whole season out of their mouths, considering all the injuries.

Everyone expected this would be the day that Prince Fielder — traded to the Rangers in the offseason, in exchange for Ian Kinsler — would make his return to Detroit, but instead he stayed in Dallas to have his sore neck examined.

DETROIT TIGERS (27-15):
Ian Kinsler, 2B
Torii Hunter, RF
Miguel Cabrera, 1B
Victor Martinez, DH
Don Kelly, LF
Austin Jackson, CF
Alex Avila, C
Nick Castellanos, 3B
Andrew Romine, SS

Pitcher: Robbie Ray, LHP

TEXAS RANGERS (22-24):
Daniel Robertson, CF
Elvis Andrus, SS
Shin-Soo Choo, LF
Adrian Beltre, 3B
Alex Rios, RF
Mitch Moreland, 1B
Chris Giminez, C
Michael Choice, DH
Luis Sardinas, 2B

Pitcher: Yu Darvish, RHP

There wasn’t a lot of surprise that Tigers manager Jim Leyland began to get a little testy with repeated questions in spring training about his defense, which everyone was patiently waiting to display itself as being as porous as they’d expected.

To borrow Leyland’s parlance, repeated questions about the defense is ‘beating a dead horse.’ Even if you're asking about a good play, there's not a lot of upside in the discussion.

“There’s no sense talking to it because it’s a no-win situation for a manger. We’re not playing Miguel Cabrera at third and Prince Fielder at first for their defense. That’s not why we’ve got them there. We got them there because of those big bats,” the manager said.

“That’s not why they’re on the corners. They’re power guys on the corners that work on both sides of the ball. And, they’re working their (butts) off. I really believe that Prince Fielder and Miguel Cabrera’s work in spring training have helped them. There’s no question about that. They worked hard. And, it’s paying off. I’ve said all along that I think Miguel Cabrera has great hands and a great arm.”

Nobody in the Tigers organization has ever espoused the theory that three of the four primary infielders — Cabrera, Fielder and Ryan Raburn — are going to win Gold Gloves.

All Leyland asks of them is they make plays on the balls hit to them.

So far, they have.

Coming in to Thursday’s games, the Tigers were the team in MLB with the fewest errors (one).

After an adventurous Opening Day at third base on Thursday — when he fell down trying to catch a foul fly, and flinched away from a hard-hit grounder — Miguel Cabrera had a much more solid outing in Saturday's Game 2.

The 3B-turned-1B-turned-3B turned in a fine defensive performance against the Red Sox, piling up four assists and even diving to his glove side to snare a liner off the bat of Jarrod Saltalamacchia in the fifth inning.

"Oh, it was a nice play. You see that?" Cabrera said with a grin after the game.

What did he think about the fan reaction to the play — a standing ovation?

"Surprised? Everybody’s surprised," Miggy said. "You guys were surprised."

His teammates and manager? Not as much.

"That what I expected, as hard as he worked in spring training. That’s what happens when you work hard," said Prince Fielder, who has himself been lauded for a couple of nice scoops at first.

To manager Jim Leyland, though, it's still a non-issue. He left Cabrera in the field late in the game, despite bringing in defensive replacements at other positions, so he could continue to get work.

"I wanted Miguel out there, because he’s our third baseman, and I’m not going to defense for him. ... And the more reps he gets out there, the more chances he gets to handle the ball, the better it is," Leyland said.

On Opening Day, Cabrera did a comical shoulder roll after losing his balance trying to snare a foul fly. Two pitches later, he was charged an error when he pulled up off a ball hit by Boston's Dustin Pedroia, admitting he was worried about it bouncing up and hitting him in the eye, as the now-infamous line shot had in spring training.

"I was kind of like ... I want to make every play over there. That play, I was a little scared of my eyes, for it coming up," Cabrera said, admitting the memory influenced his reaction. "Yeah (it had an effect), because I don’t go down on the ball, I was like ... [mimics pulling off].
My first reaction was kind of protect my eyes."

Cabrera added four more assists and a putout (a much cleaner snare of a foul fly) in Sunday's series finale.

Monday, he was named the American League Player of the Week — the ninth time in his career he's been honored — after going 5-for-11 (.455) with tying for the AL lead with three homers, and the MLB lead with eight RBI. He's carrying a slightly robust 1.273 slugging percentage.

And really, those are the stats that everyone wants to see, right?

When the Detroit Tigers' official twitter account tweeted out a link to a picture of the new "Zubaz" style hat, my first inclination was a shudder and a public (teasing) "Egads."

Then again, the bylaws of the Baseball Writers' Association of America prohibit me from wearing club logo gear while on duty, so ... it's unlikely I'd ever don such headgear. But that doesn't mean no one would.

Would you?

We know Prince Fielder would have when he was younger — just check out this much-traveled pic of him sporting Chicago Cubs Zubaz pants (and a New York Giants Zubaz-print shirt) as a kid.

Maybe someday, when he signs with the Tigers as a free agent, we'll dredge out an old shot of Victor Jose Martinez with a Zubaz Tigers hat. Who knows?

(And if you didn't know it by now, nothing in this post was meant to be taken seriously, literally, figuratively, personally or internally.)

If you missed it on Twitter earlier today, here's a short synopsis of the highlights from Dave Dombrowski's Q&A session at the DSBA Tiger Day banquet:

The worst-kept secret in the world, after the two sides agreed on terms this week, was that the acquisition of Prince Fielder was likely going to mean a change in position for the Tigers' resident first baseman, Miguel Cabrera.
Manager Jim Leyland confirmed in Thursday's introductory press conference that he was indeed planning on moving Cabrera back to what the player called his "natural position," putting him at third base. The trickle-down effect meant that longtime Tiger Brandon Inge would also be impacted by the acquisition.
In this video clip, Leyland talks about how the move will play out for the two players:

Color Tigers manager Jim Leyland shocked, flabbergasted and downright floored that the Tigers ponied up $214 million to sign Prince Fielder this week, after even he said the Tigers had been wondering just a couple weeks ago if they'd had enough wiggle room, financially, to bring in another pitcher.
"This boggles my mind, to be honest with you," Leyland said at Thursday's news conference at Comerica Park.
"I was kidding somebody. I said, about three weeks ago, we were talking about maybe getting an extra pitcher, a bullpen guy or something, and we said well we didn’t know if we had the finances to get that guy. And I said, ‘I don’t know what happened in three weeks, but Little Caesar’s did good, evidently.'"

Here's video of a portion of that interview:

After the regular news conference, we broke down into smaller scrums and got a chance for more interviews. Here's a few clips of Prince Fielder talking about his excitement to join the Tigers, and his earliest memories of being a kid tagging along behind his dad, Cecil, at Tiger Stadium.

Here's the audio from Prince Fielder, talking informally with several members of the media after Thursday's news conference at Comerica Park.

The Tigers introduced their newest addition, first baseman Prince Fielder, at Comerica Park on Thursday. Despite the obvious connections to the franchise, as the son of former Tigers slugger Cecil Fielder, who'd spent his earliest days romping in the clubhouse at old Tiger Stadium, no one thought that the day would ever come that he'd be able to don the Olde English 'D.'
Here's the link to that story.

If you missed the press conference, here's the full video, posted by WXYZ-TV: