I don't agree. Ramirez is right up there with A-Rod as being a top 5 third basemen. Wright, Longoria, Zimmerman, A-Rod, Ramirez, Youkilis, Beltre...who else? Not many great third basemen walking around. The only better option is trading Wright which would wipe out the only 3 good prospects we have.
We definitely need another big hitter. First off all, look at Texas. Big bat after big bat. There 7-8 was more dangerous than their 3-4 hitters. We saw how tough it was to pitch to them. There is no easy outs in their lineup, that got them to the world series. For Detroit in the playoffs, Betemit, Jackson, Martinez, Peralta, did very little. We had a horrible postseason offensively. Tigers had a good offense but there is a huge room for improvement. Inge is the worst 3B in baseball. There is no top of the order hitter playing third base, and if there was/is, he's not available. In order to upgrade from Inge, Ramirez or David Wright are the only two realistic (and imo, possible) options there is.
You also can't count on Peralta and Avila duplicating their 2011 seasons. Both of them will probably come down to earth at .280. Avila was a little lucky and Peralta was a career .270 I think. He got better overall though, which is why he can probably hit .280. I dont know if Martinez can hit .325 again. We definitely need another hitter. People said Texas didn't need Beltre either.
If the Tigers do add a guy who can hit near the top off the order, it would probably be Bourjos. He's gonna be available, and his speed/defense would be awesome in LF (Young would be let go) and he can hit a little bit.
But if you're looking for youth/speed/defense/top of the order hitter....you won't find any of those things in a 3rd or 2nd basemen. There's not even many to trade for, I'd say there is David Wright and that's it. I see it as either Ramirez and a .300 average or Brandon Inge.
And you mentioned his adjustment period, I'm not sure if I buy that. He's a career .290 hitter with 30 homers in 140 games agaisnt the AL. Like 1Rose said, Ramirez can hit. There is no situation where he struggles. Home/Road/Day/Night/AL/NL/whatever, he just hits and has been as consistent as anybody the past 12 seasons. And if you worry about him declining, hit him in front of Cabrera and it will do a great job of hiding it. There is no better place to hit in baseball than in front of Cabrera or Pujols. Delmon Young went from a .260 hitter with the Twins, to a .300 hitter on pace for 30 homeruns in Detroit.