Spring Training

I liked reading this quote from Leyland in today’s Freep
“Our 13 position players — and this is a big factor — would look at me like I was nuts if I didn’t take those two guys,” Leyland said. “I think I would lose some credibility. They’d look at me and say, ‘What are [...]

{ 2 comments }

It appears that the rotation is set. Leyland hasn’t announced the 5th starter, but the common belief is that the job is Justin Verlander’s. Verlander was the favorite going into spring training, and after a couple shaky outings, has pitched very effectively. Today he only pitched two innings due to the rain, [...]

{ 10 comments }

Detroit trimmed its roster by nine players today, none of which were really surprises. On their way to minor league camp are:

Wilfredo Ledezma
Chad Durbin
Lee Gardner
Kevin Hodge
Brian Peterson
Max St. Pierre
Josh Phelps
Ryan Ludwick
Reggie Taylor

It was hoped that Ledezma could either compete for the 5th spot in the rotation, or provide a second left handed option in [...]

{ 0 comments }

The Tigers still have 45 players in camp, so there are a couple of sizable cuts coming.  The next one will probably be before the end of the week.  Until then, here are some items of note:
The rotation is set - sort of
Jim Leyland had already decided that Kenny Rogers would take the first turn, [...]

{ 1 comment }

The Boys are Back in Town

Detroit AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG
Granderson, CF 3 1 1 1 1 0 1 .364
Guillen, SS 2 0 0 0 0 1 1 .250
Santiago, SS 2 0 0 0 0 1 2 .281
Ordonez, RF 3 0 0 0 0 1 0 .222
Taylor, RF 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 .379
Young, D, DH 4 0 1 0 0 1 0 .429
Pena, 1B 3 0 2 0 1 0 0 .194
Inge, 3B 4 0 0 0 0 2 4 .308
Gomez, LF 4 1 2 1 0 0 1 .317
Wilson, C 3 1 2 1 0 0 0 .400
Peterson, B, C 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .250
Infante, 2B 3 0 1 0 0 1 1 .455
How about that lineup? It’s nice to see some regular names in there. Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez saw their first action since Venezuela was eliminated from the World Baseball Classic. The game [...]

{ 0 comments }

Okay, so maybe they weren’t quite the first cuts. Earlier in the week they sent catcher Chris Robinson to minor league camp, and optioned Kyle Sleeth. But today marked the first big cuts.
Firstly, if Matt Mantei does comeback from his injury, he won’t be doing it with the Tigers. Mantei [...]

{ 3 comments }

Ten homers were hit in a 14-10 slugfest that saw the Detroit Tigers beat the Indians. Me thinks that the wind may have been a factor. With that, on to some Tiger news:
Injury Update
There has been mixed news the last couple days on the injury front. Mike Maroth made the start on [...]

{ 2 comments }

After the initial excitement of pitchers and catchers reporting, and the surge of enthusiasm after the first few spring training games, baseball settles into 3 weeks of games that become somewhat tedious while fans anxiously await the beginning of real games. The World Baseball Classic has helped break up the monotony, as has some interesting [...]

{ 2 comments }

It was only yesterday that I was yearning for Justin Verlander or Joel Zumaya to have one of those WOW type outings wasn’t it? Well Zumaya came through today in split squad action against the Blue Jays. De Facto DTW Lakeland correspondent Scott Galbraith had this to say about Joel’s effort today:
Rippin

{ 1 comment }

Bullpen Retiring the Side
First there was Craig Dingman’s artery injury that will probably force him to retire. And then there was Troy Percival’s failed attempt to come back that has resulted in his retirement. Then yesterday the oft-injured Matt Mantei strained his oblique. Mantei had been impressing everyone this spring and was [...]

{ 8 comments }

Photo Credit: Roger DeWitt
Brent Clevlen, last year’s Florida State League MVP with Lakeland, has picked up right where he left off last season. He got the start in centerfield today, and homered off of Cliff Lee and doubled off of CC Sabathia. This comes one day after he hit a homer and drew [...]

{ 2 comments }