The Tigs finished up their last spring game of the year today in Atlanta (winning 8-4). Not that it means much, but they finished up the Spring with at 15-17 record.
I am excited about this team! I don't know if I am right or not, but it seems to me that too many people are down on Detroit. For example: Baseball Musings expects them to tie for last with the Twins. Jimmy Boyd says the same thing. The NY Times gets them into 4th. The Houston Chronicle has some mean things to say as well. Baseball Daily Digest sees them finishing all the way up to 3rd.
But even looking at all of those guys I think that Jim Leyland is going to take a decent ballclub north with him. My biggest concern is pitching. In fact, if you clicked on any of those links you'll see that everyone believes that it is pitching that dooms Detroit to the dungeon. I'm not so sure. Neither is Lynn Henning apparently.
I think that Leyland and Dombrowski have done a few shrewd things since last September that will help Detroit win more games.
1) Everett at short stop, Inge at 3rd. This will clean up the mess on the left side. In 2008 there were way too many errors and missed plays over there. That just makes extra outs that the pitchers need to make. It isn't any wonder to me that there were so many times that starting pitchers couldn't get out of the 5th or 6th innings if they had to make 4 or 5 outs.
2) Sheffield is out. This does two things that I see- it allows Leyland to rest his outfielders more without losing the big bats they carry. The other thing is that it shows he is running a meritocracy. If you don't produce you won't play. Detroit will pay Sheffield $14,000,000 to play for the NY Mets this year.
3) Ryan Perry is in the bullpen. It seems like Perry can really pitch and impresses a lot of people. We shall see, but he looks like the real deal. I got to see him pitch to 2 batters this spring (thanks for nothing FSN Detroit), but he looked good.
4) Verlander looks good, Galarraga looks good, Porcello looks like he might be good. 3 solid pitchers would be enough.
5) Believe it or not- Fernando Rodney looks good. He really seems to be in good form right now and I'm hoping it lasts. I have not been a big fan of Rodney, but what I read this spring seems good.
6) The line up still looks very impressive. Guillen and Cabrera looked great in the WBC. Granderson has had a solid spring. Inge has been hitting for power and average this spring.
None if this matter at all. It will start to matter on Monday. Leyland promises to have a "hot start" and not spot the rest of the division 7 games this year. (Sorry, now I can't find the source for that quote).
