DETROIT TIGERS---John Wagner

If there ever has been a team that has been haunted by one bad decision, that team is the Detroit Tigers.

Oh, the Tigers have made plenty of good decisions. The roster is filled with names general manager Randy Smith has acquired in sound trades: for example, closer Todd Jones, who tied for the American League lead in saves a year ago with 42, came in trade from Houston. Free agent pickups such as Dean Palmer, who slugged 29 homers and drove in 102 runs, have made obvious contributions. And valuable reserves such as Shane Halter were plucked from the discard pile.

But one bad decision seems to have set the franchise into a tailspin from which they won't soon recover. Believe it or not, that bad decision is not the Juan Gonzalez trade. Gonzalez was plagued by injuries in his one season in Detroit and had one of the worst years of his career. He played in 115 games and finished with 22 homers and 67 RBI, far short of his career averages. Then he left via free agency.

While the Tigers have only one player to show for that nine-man blockbuster - pitcher Danny Patterson - the Texas side of the deal hasn't produced eye-popping numbers, either. And Detroit will get two amateur draft choices this June. The trade wasn't a good decision, but it wasn't a terrible one, either.

No, a worse decision was one of the first Smith made when he arrived in Detroit in November of 1996. That decision was to build the foundation of the current team around players such as Tony Clark and Bobby Higginson.

It seemed to be a good idea at the time, since both were young and full of promise. Clark averaged 30+ homers and 100 RBI in the three years before last season, when injuries limited him to just 60 games. And Higginson rebounded from a down year in 1999 by posting the best season of his career, a .300-30-102 effort in which he also led the team in hits (179) and runs (104) and led the majors with 19 outfield assists.

But both are still searching for their first All-Star berth. And Higginson turned 30 years old last season, while Clark turns 29 in June. Worst of all, neither sparks fear in opposing teams the way a player like Gonzalez did. In fact, Higginson and Clark point out the problem with this Tiger team: the lineup is filled with decent players, not great ones.

For example:

* Second baseman Damion Easley is solid defensively, but his 100-RBI season of 1998 is just a faint memory these days. And Easley is 31 years old.

* Shortstop Deivi Cruz hit .302 last season and also was solid defensively. But only 13 walks in nearly 600 plate appearances? Yikes.

* Pitcher Brian Moehler won 12 games for the Tigers last season, but he also had a 4.50 ERA and gave up 44 more hits than innings pitched.

The Tigers have some young, promising players. Pitcher Jeff Weaver has both the "stuff" and the mental toughness to turn into a top-notch starter; outfielder Juan Encarnacion is a five-tool talent who is in his third full season despite being only 25 years old; and closer-in-waiting Matt Anderson has a 100-mph fastball.

And the Tigers' one move this off-season helped make the team younger and more talented. Catcher Mitch Meluskey and outfielder Roger Cedeno bring solid bats into the lineup, and Chris Holt gives Detroit a potentially talented pitching option for the rotation. But that trade also points to the team's worst decision of all: the move to Comerica Park.

The problems with this decision only begin with the ill feelings the team generated with its move away from Tiger Stadium. Leaving the team's treasured home caused fans enough pain; doubling ticket prices last season certainly didn't salve any wounds. The new stadium caused even bigger problems this off-season by tying the team's hands. The finances of the new ballpark - specifically, the fact that team owner Mike Ilitch is paying for the cost overruns incurred in building the new stadium - combined with the possibility of labor war in 2002 have caused Ilitch to freeze the Tiger payroll.

So the Tigers did nothing in the free-agent market to plug holes in the lineup, even though fans were assured that a move to a new house would mean new things.