Tomorrow morning is the first day of work outs! In my mind Spring has arrived. The question in my eyes is "what will happen in April?" Can Detroit start out better than 0-7 this year? If I am right about last year the areas that need fixing are pitching and defense.
Pitchers are the start. Starters are the beginning. There are more informed analyses of what Detroit's guys can do or not do. Read here, here or here. I'm going to go with this for the starting 5:
Verlander
Galarraga
Bonderman
Jackson
Robertson
I must admit that choosing Robertson is more of an emotional choice than anything. I want to see him bounce back and I don't think he was as bad as his numbers indicated (if he was that bad he should be out of MLB). I really don't believe that Willis can pitch any more.
I think that it is impressive that Verlander was chosen to play for the USA team in the World Baseball classic. There were a lot of pitchers to chose from and they chose a guy who finished 2008 with an 11-17 record and 4.84 ERA. That tells me that he is much better than last year and is viewed as a All-Star pitcher. Let's hope he performs in the regular season to those All-Star expectations.
Bonderman is recovering from surgery but says he feels great.
Galarraga just got hot and kept on rolling last year. He earned another chance to prove his bona fides.
Edwin Jackson was 14-11 last year for the Tampa Bay Rays. He gives options and takes some of the pressure off.
Also showing up are Dontrelle Willis, who I still don't think can pitch effectively anymore. He says that he is ready to show us that 2008 was just a horrible, horrible nightmare that he has awoken from. He has until April 5 to prove it.
Fu-Te Ni was signed this Winter. He will play in the World Baseball Classic for Taiwan.
Zach Miner is also still out there. He could be the 5th starter or he could end up in the 'Pen. My guess is he bounces back and forth between the two as needed.
