The Detroit Tigers suffered a really bad break on Tuesday night when starting 3B Brandon Inge was placed on the 15-day DL with a broken left hand. Inge broke the hand when he was hit by a pitch by Scott Feldman in the third inning of Monday night’s game against the Texas Rangers.

It’s expect that Inge will miss four-to-six weeks with the injury. This is a big blow to the Tigers as Inge is having a solid season on the field and is one of the leaders on this Detroit team.

Going into last night’s game against the Rangers, the Tigers were 2.5 games behind the first place Chicago White Sox in the AL Central. They are clearly in win now mode, so how do they replace Inge in the lineup and on the field?

They could go with Don Kelly for the time being, but his sub-.220 average I don’t think is going to cut the mustard in Detroit. Another internal option for the Tigers would be to move Carlos Guillen back to third, where he played 89 games back in 2008 and promote Scott Sizemore to play second base. Sizemore is currently hitting .331 in 163 AB’s for Triple-A Toledo.

If the Tigers want to go outside the organization and make a trade, there are a couple of inexpensive third baseman available on the market. Third baseman that available are Miguel Tejada, Jose Lopez, Ty Wigginton, Jorge Cantu, Jhonny Peralta, and Alberto Callaspo.

Whatever the Tigers decide to do, one thing is for sure — losing Inge at this stage of the season definitely hurts.

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By The Baseball Index