Carlos Guillen No Longer Switch Hitting

Carlos Guillen has long been a valuable member of the Detroit Tigers lineup thanks to his ability to produce offensively from both sides of the plate. Unfortunately a left shoulder injury that cost Guillen about 2 1/2 months worth of the 2009 season is now going to cost him the ability to bat right-handed as well.

Since Guillen still doesn't feel comfortable batting from the ride side of the plate and hasn't been playing against lefties, he went ahead and made it official, announcing that he'll no longer bat right-handed this season.

Guillen said Wednesday he's no longer working on switch-hitting again. It isn't feeling right, and he's worried that if he pushes too hard, he could re-injure the shoulder and leave himself unable to bat left-handed, too.

This isn't that big of a deal for the Tigers as Guillen has only 31 at-bats against lefties this season compared to the 193 times he's faced righties, so it doesn't change much. Still, you do have to wonder how this will affect Guillen in the future. He turns 34 at the end of the month and the older players get, the less we can be sure they're going to fully recover from injury.

There is a chance this could hamper Guillen going into 2010 as well, and if that's the case it will diminish his value to the club.