Notes: Bonderman OK missing WBC

02/15/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Jeremy Bonderman is even-minded about not playing for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic.
A day after the Americans' 30-man roster was announced and he wasn't on it, Bonderman was pragmatic about what might've been.
"It was an honor for me to be on the 60-man team, first of all," Bonderman said. "There are a lot of great players from the U.S. If they ask me to play in two or three weeks, whenever games are going, I'll hear them out. If I feel like I'm ready to go, I'll go."
Bonderman was held out of contention for a spot on the team as a precautionary measure by petition from the Tigers because a sore elbow cut short his season last year. He does not believe it'll be a problem for him starting the season healthy, but he was OK with the Tigers' decision.
"I'm not really worried about it right now," Bonderman said about Team USA. "I'm more worried about being ready for Opening Day and being there for the guys, be on the team and be out there."
That said, he hopes the WBC ends up being a big event, for national pride if nothing else.
Leyland rips Cobb ... literally: In one way, Jim Leyland's return to Tigers Spring Training felt like he had never left. As he pointed out, he's probably the only living Tiger to spike Ty Cobb.
The giant portrait of Cobb that hangs in the manager's office at Joker Marchant Stadium is the same one that was here when Leyland managed the Class A Lakeland Tigers in the mid-70s. The tear in it is the same one that Leyland created back in 1977.
In a fit of frustration following a loss, Leyland said, he threw a shoe at the wall and accidentally hit the picture of Cobb, ripping a slit near the edge of his face. Knowing it was a favorite picture for the Tigers front office, Leyland taped over the opening. The picture still hangs in the office, the tear is still taped over.
"I hadn't seen this for 20 years," he said. "The tape's still on there. That's my claim to fame."
Sweet Lou's back: Lou Whitaker would not be shocked to hear the aforementioned Leyland accident. Back at camp for his third Spring Training with the Tigers as an instructor since president/general manager Dave Dombrowski and former manager Alan Trammell invited him back in 2004, Whitaker remembered playing under Leyland as a prospect at Lakeland in 1976.
"He gave me my push," said Whitaker.
One of those pushes, Whitaker recalled, came literally. During workouts one day, Whitaker was working on his lead, and Leyland truly pushed him. "After that push, I didn't stop running," he said.
As awkward as it seems seeing Whitaker in camp without his former double-play partner Trammell, Whitaker has his share of memories from playing under Leyland, too. "There are some things I do remember," Whitaker said. "I know there's a lot of fire in him."
Whitaker chalks up Trammell's dismissal to the business. "We see that in professional sports all the time," he said. "There are changes. It's the owners' right to make those moves."
Sleeth update: Though many pitchers have already been here for several days in preparation for Spring Training, former first-round pick Kyle Sleeth probably owns the honor for the longest stay. He's been working out here since last Spring Training.
Last year was a lost season for Sleeth, who underwent elbow surgery in June, but the work seems to be paying off. He said on Wednesday that he has been ahead of schedule in his rehab and has been throwing fastballs and changeups in bullpen sessions. He hopes to be ready to pitch in time for the opening of the Minor League seasons, though that's not an official prognosis.
The Tigers are being understandably cautious in their handling of Sleeth, the third overall selection in the 2003 First-Year Player Draft. New pitching coach Chuck Hernandez, for one, has experience with the road back. He underwent similar surgery when he was a player.

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Around the Horn: DH/Bench

02/15/2006
The Tigers bench is going to have to be lean, mean and versatile, kind of like what the Tigers hope to see from Dmitri Young.
With new manager Jim Leyland expecting to carry a 12-man pitching staff, Detroit will again be left with a four-man group of reserves, not counting the designated hitter. That's the same number ex-skipper Alan Trammell carried during most of his three-year tenure. What will be different is the creativity required.
The club will hold on to its first baseman/DH collection of Young, Chris Shelton and Carlos Pena, and field a center-field platoon of Nook Logan and Curtis Granderson. That leaves two spots on the bench, which is just enough room for a backup catcher -- Vance Wilson -- and a utility infielder -- Omar Infante.
That means Leyland will have to deal with a juggling act in more ways than one. Not only will he have to find playing time for players who are normally used to starting, but he'll have to shift around two players who haven't had to bounce between several different spots in a while.
"I'm just going to have to be a little creative," Leyland said of balancing playing time back in December. "It's probably not going to make everybody perfectly happy, obviously, but that'll work itself out. Production is production, and I think we obviously have a team that we need to be very creative in keeping guys sharp, keeping guys healthy. So I think there'll be at-bats.
"Is it still a little bit of a logjam? Yes. Is it a perfect scenario? No. But we'll deal with it the best we can."
The slugging triumvirate of Shelton, Pena and Young comprises the biggest logjam of all. Barring injury or implosion, Shelton will be the regular first baseman, leaving Pena and Young battling for time at designated hitter. The Tigers tried to experiment with Pena as an outfielder last summer at Triple-A Toledo, but they quickly determined it wasn't going to work.
Young made a living out of a utility role during the first half of his career in Cincinnati, where he split time at first, third, left and right field. But that jack-of-all-trades quality atrophied in recent years as he settled in as a DH and occasional first baseman, save for a late-season stretch in the outfield last summer.
Leyland is hoping some of that versaility will return; so is Young, who spent the offseason shedding weight in hopes of regaining some mobility and warding off the injury bug. Young has missed significant time to injuries in each of the last two seasons and three out of his four years in Detroit. His one full season with the team, in 2003, earned him his lone All-Star selection. That was at age 29; he's now 32, still a prime age for a hitter but a tougher one for a fielder.
With better conditioning, Young could set himself up for a rebound season in a contract year. And if he once again can show the ability to step in at multiple positions -- a day in left field, a day in right, a day or two at first, maybe even a day at third -- he'll allow Leyland the option of including Pena's powerful left-handed bat against a tough righty, or give Magglio Ordonez or Craig Monroe a breather at DH for a day.
The same versatility would be useful from Infante, who has already bounced around for much of his career. Detroit's former shortstop of the future lost that job two years ago when the Tigers added Carlos Guillen, and his opportunities at second base dwindled when the Tigers acquired Placido Polanco last summer.
With both Guillen and Polanco under long-term contracts, Infante is looking at reserve duty for potentially two more seasons. Leyland, in turn, is looking for ways to get him in the lineup on a semi-regular basis, either by giving the middle infielders the occasional spell or filling in for third baseman Brandon Inge. Infante's starts will probably be limited, though; as the only utility infielder on the team, he'll need to be available for late-inning replacements.
Availability is always an issue with backup catchers, although serving as Ivan Rodriguez's understudy can lead to a lot of rust. Wilson made just 13 starts over the first three months of last season before nagging injuries to Pudge provided the opportunity for more playing time.
Rodriguez's four-game suspension in August provided another chance for Wilson to shine; he went just 2-for-14 in a four-game series at Toronto, though one of the hits was a game-winning single.
It's unclear whether Leyland will be more adamant about resting Rodriguez than Trammell was. Even if he is, keeping the 12-time All-Star on the bench is much easier done in theory than in practice. Regardless, having Wilson around as insurance is valuable, since he has shown an ability to shake off rust and jump into the action.

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Leyland takes helm of first Tigers camp

02/15/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- The Jim Leyland era of Tigers baseball is under way. And hopefully, Leyland can finally sleep in.
Though Wednesday was the day pitchers and catchers were technically supposed to report to Spring Training camp, many have been at the complex for quite a while. As such, the first official day of business was almost like business as usual for players. For Leyland, though, it was one more day with his nerves on end.
He admitted Wednesday that he's nervous, so much that he awakened at 4 a.m. with his mind already at work. He was thinking about what he'll tell his players prior to their first workout Thursday and then to the full squad next week.
"I haven't been sleeping too well the last couple nights," he said. "[Thursday] will be exciting, putting the uniform back on. I'm probably a little more revved up this year than I have been in several years."
He came to the clubhouse Wednesday in black and gold, which he insisted was a coincidence and nothing to do with his history in Pittsburgh and his happiness for the Steelers' Super Bowl victory. He wore his World Series championship ring from the 1997 Marlins, but he said that's a force of habit because he's afraid he'll run into former Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga one day and he'll ask why he doesn't wear it. When he dons the old English "D" on Thursday, though, that'll be a whole new experience.
As Leyland pointed out, he's never worn it as a Major Leaguer. He never made the big leagues as a player in the Tigers system, and he never got the call to coach in Detroit. His only experience wearing it was when he'd visit big-league camp as a Minor League coach for workouts or batting practice.
That doesn't count much in his mind. This time, it'll mean something.
"It's something nobody else really cares about," he said, "but I'm sure I'll take a moment to think about it."
Then he'll get to work. That's what many of his players are thinking about.
The Tigers squad Leyland takes into camp isn't as young or inexperienced as in previous years. Most have had several turns in Spring Training already, and many of those have been through Tigers camp for two or three years now.
Mike Maroth, for instance, is going into his fifth Spring Training. Since he lives nearby in Orlando, heading to Lakeland is more like a commute. Even for him, though, the first real day of camp still means something.
"There's just excitement about knowing the season's getting ready to start," Maroth said. "This is when it starts, from the first day. I think the hardest part is knowing it's pretty much a grind from here on out. Time off is gone, and it's time to start working and playing baseball on a daily basis."
On the opposite end of the experience spectrum, Justin Verlander is in his second Tigers camp in just his second professional season. Whereas last year's camp was his first pro experience, barely half a year removed from college, he heads into this one with a real chance to stick in the big leagues. Though he's been in Lakeland for much of the offseason, having just bought a home in the area, he has obvious reasons to be excited.
"Everybody's been down [here] for a while," Verlander said. "They've been doing their own thing. This is the opportunity for all the guys to get back together and start playing ball again. It's definitely exciting, especially when you love to play."
The other thing Verlander and Maroth have in common is that they have no idea what to expect from Leyland's workouts come Thursday.
"You get a feel for it, just getting to know his personality a little bit off the field," Maroth said. "But it's totally different when you get on the field. We'll find out."
Leyland had been dropping hints last month, suggesting that he wants players to be loose, but wants a camp to be businesslike and efficient. Now that he's mapped out the first five days of camp, he's emphasizing it.
He has a midnight curfew, though the nature of Spring Training today with so many players staying in different places makes it nearly impossible to enforce. He wants itineraries worked out almost to the minute, and he expects players to be punctual about it. Any extra work, he says, must take place within an hour before or after scheduled workouts, and it should be set up in advance.
His reasoning is simple: "A disciplined team will win more close games, in my opinion," he said. "And I think it starts with Spring Training, with the staff, how our preparation is, how our itinerary is. I'm a stickler on perfection when it comes to running a camp, because I believe it's a form of discipline.
He still wants a relaxed camp, but he wants it organized moreso.
"I want everything done with a purpose," he said. "I don't want you going up there, getting 10 minutes of exercise and just throwing your pitches. I want you to have a thought process in everything you're doing. I don't want this just to show the writers and everybody that we're working up a sweat and doing something.
"Everything is geared towards improving our club. It starts tomorrow. It doesn't start two weeks from now. It doesn't start Opening Day. It starts tomorrow. We're preparing for the long haul tomorrow."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Notes: Percival exceeds expectations

02/16/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Troy Percival was the first Tiger in the clubhouse the day pitchers and catchers reported last year. This year, simply showing up ready to pitch was a feat of effort.
Six months ago, with Percival struggling simply to do everyday activities with his right arm because of torn muscles in his elbow, the chances of him throwing again seemed unlikely at best. Whether or not he tosses another pitch in the Majors, he's already beaten those expectations.
"I believe I can," Percival said when asked if he thinks he's going to pitch this year. "That's not my decision. There's a lot of good arms here in camp and a lot of guys who can help the squad. I'm just going to go out and show them what I've got and take it from there."
Right now, he at least has a chance. He resumed throwing last month and estimated he's had about eight bullpen sessions. Thursday was his ninth, as he threw a session with many of Detroit's other pitchers at the end of the Tigers' first workout.
It's nowhere close to the power arsenal people have seen out of Percival for much of his career. If he can simply get his fastball back up to 90 mph, he'll be happy. Yet even without that sort of heater, in his opinion, it's not bad.
He called it "Frank Tanana-ish." Considering Tanana made his stuff work in Detroit two decades ago, it's an attractive term.
"I'm throwing at 100 percent," he said. "It's just not going 100 percent. ... It's frustrating, but you know what, it is what it is. And I'm more than happy to go out there and deal with it and try to get people out with it."
In fact, he seems to like the idea of being a crafty right-hander, including tossing a sidearm changeup. "Oh, you wait and see. I've got some new stuff," he said. "I've got about seven different arm angles, going back to the days when I used to start. I throw from way down here, up here, out there."
The issue for him now isn't so much what he's throwing as how often he can throw. For now, he feels like he can throw every third or fourth day. That's how his much-discussed willingness to convert to a starter came up, since he'd have more days of rest. Right now, though, he's focusing completely on relief.
He thinks he could throw every third day now. That's probably not frequent enough for a bullpen spot. He's not ready to throw on back-to-back days, but he's hoping that might come. If not, he hopes he can at least throw a 40-pitch outing and recover in a day. He's not throwing pain-free regardless and probably never will, but the pain is bearable.
"If they need me to see if I can throw every day, then that's what I do," he said. "I've gone through my whole career being the guy in the bullpen saying if you can't throw a minimum of three or four times a week out of the bullpen, then you have no business being down there. I'm not going to be a guy who's not going to be able to do that. If I can't do that, then I'd just as soon not be down there."
He'd also rather not take a spot just for the sake of taking one. If there's a more deserving pitcher, he'd rather they get it. He's just asking to be in the competition.
Manager Jim Leyland said he's "playing that by ear."
"You always have a soft spot for guys like that," he said, "because of what they've done and how competitive they are and things of that nature. We'll watch him and try to get him in a position to do what he can do. He wants to pitch. I have a lot of respect for him. He obviously wants to earn his money, and he's going to do anything he possibly can. I have a lot of respect for that."
Give him a listen: Leyland called his first speech to the team "plain, simple, to the point. I didn't beat around the bush."
Though he wouldn't rehash everything he discussed, a few points were clear. He emphasized to the players that they'll have more of a determination on their season than he will.
"He just tells us straight out: 'I'm just going to help you,'" Ivan Rodriguez said. "You guys are going to be the guys who play, so make sure you play hard every day. You guys are the ones who are going to win games."
Another point he emphasized is that the tone for the season begins to be set now, not on Opening Day.
Judging from how his speech was received and how players conducted their first workout, Leyland thinks they were responsive. They responded well enough that Leyland believes if they tune him out, it'll be his fault.
"I think we'll have to screw it up [for that to happen]," Leyland said. "I think that these guys will give us the benefit of the doubt. I think they'll give us a chance coming in to show what we can do. That's all we can ask for. If I screw it up, shame on me. If the coaches screw it up, shame on all of us. But I think they're going to give us a chance."
Leyland admitted he wasn't certain they would.
"I want to have to prove myself this spring to these guys," he said. "I want it to be like when I went to Pittsburgh, that I had to prove that I was a Major League manager. That's the way I want it to be, because that keeps me on my toes, and I also know there's probably some doubters. I'm ready, and I'm not afraid to prove myself. That's the way I've accepted this club, as if it's my first one."
First day at work: The Tigers' first workout under Leyland had most of the activity of a typical early Spring Training workout. Pitchers took fielding practice on one practice field, worked on pickoff moves with pitching coach Chuck Hernandez on another field, then closed out the morning with bullpen sessions.
All the while, Leyland bounced from one field to another with the energy of a player.
"I'm very happy, very satisfied," he said. "I think they were very responsive."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Pudge eyes heavier workload in '06

02/16/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Tigers manager Jim Leyland emphasized to pitchers and catchers Thursday morning that last season is over. His starting catcher couldn't agree more.
Ivan Rodriguez has seen his 2005 performance analyzed, dissected, criticized and reasoned. He's ready to move on. To Rodriguez, this isn't so much a fresh start as it is the start of another season.
That season started Thursday with a number for his new manager: 140. That's how many games Rodriguez told Leyland he thinks he's able to play this season.
It's a goal that has some weight to it.
"I'm 195 pounds," Rodriguez said Thursday afternoon. "I feel strong. I feel great. I feel strong behind the plate."
That's more than what he weighed last year, when his weight was a big number in surprise only. A year ago, he reported to camp saying he weighed 193 pounds. He was already 20 pounds lighter than he was the previous year, and his weight dropped further as the season wore on.
He wanted to lose weight so he could gain back his quickness behind the plate. He did, so much so that he enjoyed one of the best defensive seasons of his career while showing the kind of speed no one in Detroit knew he had.
The move in weight and change in workout routine was an adjustment he realized he had to make as he became older. The faster, quicker, smaller Pudge, however, came at a price of maintaining strength.
"I went too low in weight," Rodriguez admitted. "I was 187 pounds, 185. I think for a catcher to play every day, it's probably a little light. But I'm fine. I just want my weight a little heavier."
If last year's training program was a vast change, this past offseason program was a tweaking.
"I'm still doing running," he said. "I'm still doing speed [work]. I'm doing heavy weights now, more heavy weights, and I'm doing bicycle. The only thing I changed in my program is that I'm doing 30-40 miles on bicycle. ...
"Weight is not a big factor. It's how you feel. Of course, when you feel lighter, you feel better. But you have to be careful when you feel lighter, because when you play this sport, you have to feel strong, not light. You have to feel solid. That's what I'm trying to do this year. I'm not looking for any [more] speed. I'm just looking to stay strong."
Rodriguez, now 34, played 140 games in a season as recently as 2003 en route to a world championship with the Florida Marlins. He has not caught 140 games in a season since 1999.
For that matter, only two Major League catchers caught more than 135 games last season. Oakland's Jason Kendall, who turned 31 years old midway through the year, led with 147 games. Cleveland's Victor Martinez, 26, caught 142 contests.
But playing in 140 games and catching 140 games can be different challenges. Pudge's figure has Leyland thinking about ways to make the difference.
"I'll do whatever it takes and I'll watch him and keep him healthy," Leyland said, "but particularly if he's swinging the bat the way I know he swings the bat, I'd like to maybe give him a blow a little bit more often and DH him from time to time, just to let his legs rest and everything.
"Obviously he's going to play a lot. He's our horse, there's no question about that. But if he's swinging the bat, instead of a total day off, let him DH once in a while."
Rodriguez isn't thinking about that difference yet. "I'm just going to be ready to play every day," he said. "I'm here and I'm ready to go. Just play every day. If there's a game that I can play, I'll be there. You guys know that I'm an everyday player. I hate to sit on the bench. If I'm healthy, I'm going to be playing."
If he can do it while playing meaningful games in September, all the better. He has readily expressed his frustration over mounting losses each of the last two years. In turn, keeping Rodriguez happy has been an oft-asked question for Leyland from the day the Tigers hired him.
Leyland has had the same answer each time. Seeing him Thursday reinforced it.
"I'm really excited about him," he said. "This guy's a great player. Everybody's entitled to have a little bit of an off season once in a while, but this guy's a star player. I think he's in a good frame of mind."
Rodriguez, like Leyland, does not buy into the question about leadership. If everyone's on the same page, Rodriguez said, anyone can be leader. Leyland wants to pay attention during camps to how Rodriguez works with his pitchers and calls a game. Rodriguez, coincidentally, went out of his way Thursday to praise Detroit's core pitching trio of Jeremy Bonderman, Mike Maroth and Nate Robertson.
For now, they even have the same sense of time.
"Last year's already over," Rodriguez said. "The whole thing's in the past. I'm good right now. I'm focusing on what I have to do to have a great year, take this team to a high level. I think this team is pretty good. I think we have a lot of talent here with the new coaches, new faces, new attitude. I think we're going to have a good season this year."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Notes: Colon ahead of the competition

02/17/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- For most pitchers, the first bullpen session is a first step toward getting ready for the season. For Roman Colon, it's almost midseason form.
Colon's 2006 season effectively began in November, when he took the mound for Escogido in the Dominican Winter League. That season didn't end until the Caribbean Series earlier this month. His last outing there was Feb. 6, 11 days before his first mound action for the Tigers.
It's a schedule crunch that takes place for some lucky players every year, but it's not something the Tigers have had to deal with for a while. It's even rarer for someone trying to impress a new manager for a roster spot.
"He's throwing the ball fine," pitching coach Chuck Hernandez said. "He has good mechanics. Give him a chance to make this ballclub, see how he throws the ball."
Tigers manager Jim Leyland wouldn't say it gives him any advantage in the contest to win the fifth rotation spot, which makes sense since Leyland won't publicly announce the candidates to begin with. But ever since Colon arrived in Detroit as the return package in the Kyle Farnsworth trade last July 31, he's been viewed as a potential starter or reliever with enough of an arsenal to put himself on par with the organization's highly-touted homegrown prospects.
Even if Leyland won't give him a competitive advantage, Hernandez acknowledged Colon is ahead of the staff in what he can do right now, even though he's on the same schedule as everyone else. He understandably looked strong on the mound Friday, as if he were making a start after skipping a turn in the rotation. He feels like he could pitch another game.
The question with Colon is where he fits into the pitching staff. After his trade, he spent most of August as a reliever, in part because Detroit's rotation didn't have a hole. He finally earned his chance in September, but a tight throwing shoulder in his third start ended his season early.
Colon rested the shoulder until winter ball, and his timing couldn't have been much better. Some established Major League pitchers don't pitch in winter ball until the playoffs so they can use it to prepare for their big league season. Colon found the arrival time that worked for him.
After stretching out his arm, Colon could work on his other offseason project, honing a two-seam fastball taught by former pitching coach Bob Cluck. Colon made an impression Dec. 1 with five strikeouts over 3 2/3 innings with two runs allowed. He topped that with a six-inning performance Dec. 14, striking out seven batters and giving up a lone unearned run. He finished the regular season with a 3.57 ERA and 24 strikeouts against three walks over 22 2/3 innings.
Overall, Colon struggled during round-robin playoff action, allowing 11 earned runs on 26 hits in 18 2/3 innings over four appearances. However, that included five scoreless innings in a shutout victory Jan. 8, then one run allowed in four innings with five strikeouts five days later. That helped earn him a bullpen spot in the Caribbean Series, where he made three appearances. He took a loss to Venezuela on Feb. 4, allowing two runs in a three-run ninth inning, but his other two outings were scoreless, including three perfect innings in his final outing Feb. 6.
"When I went to the Dominican to rest my arm, they told me to start pitching if I felt good," Colon said. "I threw well, went to Venezuela, and threw well there. Now I'm here trying to do the same thing."
That won't get him any extra credit in a contest that includes former first-round pick Justin Verlander, but it gets him consideration. "He's one of the guys in the mix," for a pitching spot, starting or relief, Leyland said. "I like him. I've been impressed with him. I've seen him before [in Atlanta]."
His winter work is a microcosm for his career, shuttling between starting and relief. He learned in Atlanta not to clamor for a starting job, to let his performance do the talking. He's hoping a little more performance will do the trick.
"If it comes, I'll take it," Colon said of a starting role. "If not, I'll be whatever they want me to be. That's what I'm here for. If they think I'm a fifth starter, I'll take the responsibility. If they don't, I'll do whatever they want me to do in Detroit or wherever they send me. I have no control. You just control what you do."
Whoops: Leyland needed only one workout to show the old skipper can learn a new trick of Spring Training. He couldn't figure out initially why so many pitchers looked tentative fielding ground balls and bouncers in Thursday's practice. He eventually realized many of them weren't wearing athletic cups.
"I missed the trick," Leyland said. "Some of them were jumping back [on grounders], and I don't blame them."
Leyland told his players to wear them Friday, and the fielding was much cleaner.
Early arrival: First baseman Carlos Pena joined the group of position players who have arrived early, and he was quickly drafted into action. Soon after checking in with Leyland on Friday morning, he was on the practice fields helping on drills involving ground balls to first base.
Normally, that wouldn't be allowed. However, with the World Baseball Classic looming this spring, Major League teams are allowed to use any willing position player in practices before the full squad reports. Utility infielder Omar Infante did the same.
Bullpen filling: Leyland laid out a better picture for how the bullpen competition is shaping up. He estimated 13-14 pitchers in camp will be fighting for three spots in Detroit's seven-man bullpen. He'll use track record as well as Spring Training performance, among other factors, to determine who those three relievers are.
"I doubt there's going to be anyone who pitches himself off the team," Leyland said. "It's not a matter of statistics."
Leyland wouldn't name whose spots are safe, but he hinted veterans in specialized roles like lefty Jamie Walker and closer Todd Jones would have a hard time pitching themselves out of a job.

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Notes: Less is more with Guillen, Young

02/18/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- As Tigers position players trickle into camp, they are gaining by subtraction. Carlos Guillen walked into the clubhouse Saturday without a knee brace. Dmitri Young walked in with a slimmer physique.
For a team that has missed both players at times over the past two years, their shape is big news.
"Anytime you can keep your regular players out there, you're better off," manager Jim Leyland said, "And he's (Guillen) one of the big keys. Everybody on this team is going to be key, I've made that clear. But obviously, you need to keep those regulars out there as much as possible."
Leyland said that just after Guillen rolled in. Soon afterward, Guillen was on the practice field, catching throws from pitchers as part of more fielding practice. He did some light field work with fellow infielder Omar Infante later, then did conditioning work.
Most of Joker Marchant Stadium was renovated a few years ago, leaving a section of bleachers down the left-field line that towers above the rest of the seats. Guillen, Infante and Ivan Rodriguez did stair work running up the bleachers -- all the way to the top, then back down.
"You can tell he's a team player," Leyland said. "I mean, he was helping out at every possible place without any fanfare."
There are no extra precautions, nothing obvious on Guillen's agenda that would suggest any concern about his right knee.
"I feel like before I got hurt," Guillen said.
Before he tore his ACL in September 2004, Guillen was an All-Star shortstop enjoying the best offensive season of his career. After the tear, he was essentially a part-time shortstop who had two different stints on the disabled list and struggled to stay in the lineup at short for lengthy stretches.
When Guillen did play, he was a quality hitter. Without his leg strength, however, he didn't have the same power to drive the ball. His .320 average in 87 games last year actually topped his 2004 clip. With five home runs and 23 RBIs, however, Guillen had nowhere near the same production.
He can feel that power has returned, and he has the winter ball stats to prove it. After going 9-for-21 with two doubles and six runs at the tail of the regular season for Magallanes of the Venezuelan League, Guillen hit .360 (18-for-50) with three homers, nine RBIs and 11 runs in 15 playoff games.
Guillen played winter ball because he felt so good in his offseason workout program. Tigers strength coach Javair Gillett visited him in Venezuela for about 10 days and came away impressed with the progress he had made strengthening his knee and the muscles around it. He's far enough along that he could end up starting at second base for Team Venezuela in next month's World Baseball Classic.
"I think that's why I played a little winter ball," Guillen said, "because I felt so good. My legs feel strong."
Young made an impression with his offseason program, too, but for different reasons. After losing about 20 pounds of weight working out with his little brother Delmon, he went to a conditioning camp in Tempe, Ariz., and dropped some more. He changed his workouts, trained with athletes 10 years younger than he is and changed his diet in hopes of changing his fortunes.
Young led the Tigers with 21 home runs last year, but his .271 average was far below his expectations. Injuries were tougher on him. After missing the first two months of the 2004 season with a broken leg, his 2005 season ended about three weeks early because of a hamstring injury. He's entering a contract year while exiting his younger days.
"I have to do my part. I'm 32 now," he said. "It's not like I'm 26, 27 and I have room for error. I have to be a good example for my brother and my teammates and people who are actual fans of me -- all eight of them."
At this point, his new manager can be counted among his fans. Until now, many Tigers had only heard about Young's new figure. When he walked into the clubhouse Saturday afternoon following workouts, the difference was noticeable. Any belly was not noticeable.
He didn't say how many pounds he's lost. Asked to describe the difference, Young said, "Putting on a belt and I'm able to go two notches below. Putting on a shirt and instead of snug, it's kind of loose. Getting compliments from people like, 'You look good. How much weight did you lose?' That's about the best visual I can give."
The best visual for Leyland would be to see both Young and Guillen in the lineup every day.
Hitting the wall: Established veterans such as Guillen and Young aren't the only Tigers position players who have arrived in camp early. Among those taking part in informal workouts Saturday was Cameron Maybin, last year's first-round pick. He was among a group of young outfielders learning from new coach Andy Van Slyke about the art of tracking fly balls on the warning track or off the wall.
Bullpen versatility: Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was one of the forerunners in establishing set roles for relievers and using them in those specific roles for the season. Leyland has a lot of admiration for La Russa, but don't expect him to use a set approach to his bullpen.
"I don't buy that," Leyland said about set roles. "I've never bought into it. I always tell my pitchers, 'To me, a role is something you put butter on.' Your role is to come here ready to pitch, and when I call for you, get somebody out."
That means other than closer Todd Jones in the ninth inning, pitchers will have to be flexible. Setup man Fernando Rodney, for example, could be called upon to close a game if Jones has a night off. An eighth-inning guy could enter the game in the seventh instead, and vice versa.
Numbers game: Nate Robertson didn't put up much of a negotiation when Kenny Rogers asked for his jersey number 37 upon signing with Detroit. Robertson isn't getting anything in return for the number, he said, except maybe wisdom.
The change, however, worked out well in the end. Robertson took former coach Bruce Fields' old number 29 for family reasons. It's the number his father wore as a coach at Friends University in Kansas.

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Notes: Grilli faces uphill battle for spot

02/19/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Jason Grilli knows the younger starters in Tigers camp have a better shot at the only open spot in the rotation. But he also knows what it's like to be a top prospect trying to break into the Majors. And he argues it's tougher on that side.
"When you're at the top of the stairs and you're in a [Justin] Verlander category and you're highly touted -- which is something I've been through -- I know the attention you get," he said. "I don't have the pressure anymore. I can go out and do my job. I know what's expected of me."
Grilli is the veteran option in a contest that appears to be leaning toward youth. When camp opened, manager Jim Leyland didn't want to mention the candidates by name because he didn't want to discourage anyone else from vying for the job. Since then, though, he has already said Verlander, Roman Colon and Wilfredo Ledezma are in the mix. Joel Zumaya is another candidate.
"Whoever's in that fifth spot probably, most likely will be a younger guy, not a lot of experience," Leyland said Sunday morning.
Grilli realizes he's not a favorite. If he doesn't make the rotation but still makes the club as a reliever, he'll be happy. But he wants a shot at a starting role, and he isn't shy about how he sees his chances.
"I'm pitching my way onto this team this Spring Training," he said. "Whether it's the fifth spot or a bullpen spot, I just want to help this club win. I know I can."
Grilli knows prospect pressure from experience, having been drafted fourth overall in 1997. Three years later, he was in the big leagues, winning his Major League debut in a spot start for the Florida Marlins on May 11, 2000. The next day, he was headed back to Triple-A. Two weeks later, he was on the disabled list with a strained elbow.
He missed the rest of that season for surgery to remove a bone spur, then underwent Tommy John surgery in 2002. In three years, he fell from being one of the Marlins' top 10 prospects to off the map. He's been fighting the roster situation ever since.
"I think I learned a lot about myself and what it means to me to go through adversity," he said. "Any adversity, I don't look at it as negative anymore. It just comes with experience."
Grilli found his way back with the organization for which his father pitched three decades ago. After helping to lead Triple-A Toledo to the International League's Governors Cup championship and winning his first Tigers start Sept. 24, he earned another victory: He landed onto the Tigers 40-man roster this offseason.
After missing out on a spot last year as a Minor League invitee, Grilli's roster situation works better for him this time. He doesn't have to be added to the 40-man roster to make the team. Plus, he's out of options, meaning the Tigers can't send him back to the Minors without passing him through waivers.
So far, he has looked relatively polished, able to spot the ball in his second bullpen session on Sunday. He can't boast the overpowering fastball of Verlander or Zumaya, but he has picked up the experience to pitch for quick outs and put the ball in play in his favor.
He has to look good early, because he'll leave camp March 3 to join Team Italy in preparation for the World Baseball Classic. A few good performances there, and he could rejoin the Tigers later in March with something to fight for.
"Whatever it might be, I just know I can be an asset to this team," Grilli said. "Hopefully I can prove that once again this spring."
Second in command: Placido Polanco arrived in camp Sunday and promptly went to work. That's an example of what Leyland loves about him, having seen him for years in the National League.
"This is just the perfect example of a very talented player with a lot of determination," Leyland said. "He's a manager's dream-type player. Not only does he come to the park to beat the other team, but he does the little things to beat the other team. To a manager, he's a real delight."
To this manager, he's the Tigers' No. 2 hitter every day he plays. Nearly a generation ago in Pittsburgh, Leyland found a prototype second hitter in Jay Bell, a shortstop with then-unrealized offensive skills but a penchant for bunting and moving runners over. Polanco, in Leyland's estimation, is better because of his ability to make contact.
To bat Polanco in the leadoff spot, Leyland said, would hurt the team in the top two spots, because they wouldn't be utilizing him best.
That's one example of how much Leyland values situational hitting. Another example comes Tuesday, when he devotes one of the four back practice fields precisely to that aspect of the game.
"We need to find ways to win games when our hitting is not at its highest level," he said.
Hot corner work for Dmitri: Dmitri Young's potential use at third base is looking like more than an emergency option. Leyland said Sunday he'll pick and choose matchups to rest regular starter Brandon Inge, insert Young at third and start someone else at DH.
"We have to be able to utilize him," Leyland said. "That guy's a professional hitter. I've got to find some at-bats for him."
To that end, Leyland already has Young penciled in for extra work with infield coach Rafael Belliard starting Tuesday.
"In fairness to Dmitri Young, if you're going out there and asking him to be Brooks Robinson and you don't think he's going to make an error now and then, you shouldn't do it," Leyland said. "What you do is pick your spots. I think he's a pretty good athlete, I think he's got good hands, and I know he can hit. I've always liked him."
Tryout camp: The Tigers will hold a tryout camp for players age 18 or older at Joker Marchant Stadium on Monday, March 6. No pre-registration or participation fee is required. Registration begins at 9 a.m. with workout times running from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Players must provide their own glove and workout equipment. The Tigers will provide wooden bats, helmets and baseballs.
Tigers on television: FSN Detroit will broadcast two Tigers Spring Training games in Lakeland -- March 16 against the New York Yankees and March 27 against Houston. No regular-season schedule has been announced.

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Fresh start: Healthy Ordonez ready to go

02/19/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Magglio Ordonez didn't exactly step right off the bus and hit. He doesn't need mass transit. Instead, he stepped out of his car and hit.
Ordonez arrived at Tigers camp Sunday morning, put on his gear, warmed up and went to batting practice. He hit about as much as he could on another field while Tigers pitchers and catchers worked out. When that was over, he hit some more in the cage.
"I hadn't hit from the last game of the season," he said. "And I hit today, and it felt good."
Already, he could feel the difference his health made in his swing, especially his power. Considering the way his health affected his camp last year, simply having the time to swing was progress.
A year ago at this time, Ordonez was more focused on his knee than his swing. He was still recovering from surgery, and he had to rehab to play catchup. Just when the left knee seemed fine, he came down with a stomach problem that turned out to be a hernia.
Ordonez missed much of the next three months. With all that time off, his Spring Training was in July, and his recovery time was non-existent.
His hitting stroke never left; his .302 average marked his sixth .300 season in seven years. But he didn't have the same power to drive those hits. His eight homers marked his lowest total in any of his Major League seasons, and his .436 slugging percentage was his lowest since his first full big-league campaign in 1998.
Much of that power, or lack thereof, comes from the lower body.
"Last year I played like half a machine," he said. "Last year I didn't feel strong. ... I didn't feel like before. I lost so much time that it's hard to get your power and your speed and your strength back."
Considering the way Ordonez's season went, the postseason was one final punch in the stomach. He was a popular target for White Sox fans every time he played there after leaving Chicago for Detroit. Watching his former team run through the playoffs was added punishment.
"I was watching those games in Venezuela," he said. "It's hard to see all your teammates win the World Series, and you spent all your career [there] and you left one year early. It's something that you don't control. I didn't know they were going to win the World Series."
The only thing he could control about it was the remote.
"I didn't watch the whole game," he admitted. "I just turned on the TV and they're winning. I feel sad I wasn't there. I was happy for [Paul] Konerko, [Mark] Buehrle, all the guys that I played with, all the people in the front office. I was really happy for them."
Happy for them, but sad for himself. He had about as much power over his situation as he did in his swing. Getting that power back was one big motivation to hit the training hard once he finally could this winter. It shows in his noticeably stronger physique.
"This offseason I had a chance to work really hard and get all power and speed back," he said. "When you hurt your knee, you have to rehab first, and then you have to work through the pain and get strong and fast.
"I know my knee is fine and my body is healthy -- 100 percent."
To manager Jim Leyland, that's the key, not his bat. Leyland won't rule out using Ordonez as the DH on occasion if it can get him some rest. Even if he doesn't, though, Ordonez will get days off.
"He's a professional hitter. I'm not worried about him," Leyland said. "If he's healthy, he's going to hit. It's that simple. He's got a good swing, stays through the ball. He's got a track record, so that's in the book."
After playing just 134 games over the last two years, Ordonez knows the same thing. It's almost a distant memory that Ordonez used to be among the most reliable players in the game. He played at least 153 games in five consecutive seasons starting in 1999 and capped by 160 games in 2003, before his knee injury put his durability in question.
In that vein, it's understandable when Ordonez initially said he wants to play in 162 games. Considering his last two years, though, that would be a feat.
"I want to be healthy from Day 1 to game 162," he said. "I don't know if I'm going to play 162, but I want to go from the first to the last game healthy."
How the World Baseball Classic fits into that is still a tricky situation. Ordonez wants to take part, and with baseball-crazy Venezuela coming off a victory in the Caribbean Series, the feeling is mutual. However, he wants to make sure his timing and power are back, and he needs to ensure he won't be playing all nine innings every game.
"I've got a lot of pressure from my country," Ordonez said. "I really have to make sure I'm going to be 100 percent, not healthwise, but swinging and running. We're going to play against another country in basically two weeks."
Before he decides once and for all, he plans to talk with head athletic trainer Kevin Rand and president/general manager Dave Dombrowski. He's already heard from his home country.
"This is a big thing," he said. "You know in soccer they do the World Cup, and you know how those countries get crazy. People in Venezuela, they think it's going to be like the World Cup."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Tigers mailbag: Placido at leadoff?

02/20/2006
As far as leadoff batter is concerned, since Placido Polanco always puts up a fight at the plate and has a high OBP, why wouldn't they lead him and then have Carlos Guillen, Ivan Rodriguez, and Magglio Ordonez? Polanco will more than likely get on, and all three of those batters can hit for power and will be able to score him. What does that situation look like? -- Kyle K., Essex, Ontario
Polanco will hit second. Though Polanco performed well in the leadoff spot last year, his natural spot is second, and manager Jim Leyland loves what he brings in terms of moving runners, making contact and bunting. If you put Polanco at leadoff, Leyland said, you hurt the lineup at both positions.
Whoever plays in center field has the best shot at leading off on this team, based largely on their speed. If that doesn't work, you might well see Brandon Inge back atop the order.
My favorite player of the Tigers is Inge. However, I am concerned about his team-leading 28 errors at third base last season. Will Leyland go with Inge again at third or is there anyone else who might challenge at third this season? Thanks for your coverage of the Tigers beat. -- Carl C., Clinton Twp., Mich.
Has Leyland considered moving Polanco back to third, his original and, possibly, best position, to tighten up our infield defense? -- Jimmy I., Redford, Mich.
The answer to both questions is that Inge is the regular third baseman. The follow-up answer to the second question is that second base is Polanco's natural position. It seems like I'm repeating myself every week, but I don't think Inge gets enough respect for the range he brings defensively. He's been taking ground balls at third ever since he got into camp.
The other option at third base is Dmitri Young. Leyland is set on at least giving him a look as an occasional starter there, which would free up the logjam at first base/DH on occasion.
Is there any way to find out which players will be playing at what locations for the split-squad games. I'm trying to catch the game in Tampa against the Yankees on March 9 and was hoping to know who would be there. Thanks! -- Pam M., Pittsburgh
Sorry, but there's no way to tell this far out who's going to be making which ends of a set of split-squad games. I doubt that will be completely set until a couple days ahead of time.
What will happen to Marcus Thames this year? There doesn't seem to be a spot for him on the 25-man roster. Is he out of options? Does he have any trade value? It seems like a waste to let him go back and tear up Triple-A and then eventually lose him to waivers. -- Bison M., Ann Arbor, Mich.
Thames is out of options. They could try to trade him as Spring Training winds down, but usually the return package for someone out of options is another player who's out of options.
Will Leyland give Nook Logan the green light to steal this year? I think Nook can be a serious threat on the basepaths. I am not familar with Leyland's style. But stealing bases really hasn't been a part of the offenses (besides the '05 White Sox) around the league in this home run era. I personally think that the Tigers are really not cashing in on his abilities. -- Brian W., Battle Creek, Mich.
I might be wrong, but I remember Logan having the green light for most of last season. I don't think the Tigers have been trying to hold him back. I think it's a matter of Logan gaining experience and honing the art of stealing, from reading pitchers' moves to knowing which counts to run on.

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Notes: Rogers 'likely' gets nod

02/20/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Considering Jason Johnson was supposed to be the Tigers' Opening Day starter at this time a year ago, projecting one now would be a gamble. For what it's worth, though, it looks like The Gambler.
Manager Jim Leyland called Kenny Rogers "the likely candidate" to start Detroit's season opener April 3 at Kansas City. At the same time, he stopped short of calling it a final decision.
"I haven't discussed it with everybody yet," he said, adding that he doesn't like to divulge his final decisions before talking with the players.
Asked when he'd make a decision, Leyland said, "I think I made it about Dec. 15." That's the day after the Tigers officially announced their two-year contract with Rogers. "I'm just not ready to disclose it."
Leyland didn't go into any more detail. He mentioned it at the end of a long media session. From the outside looking in, though, the decision is slightly tricky.
Former manager Alan Trammell said at the start of last year's camp that he was leaning toward Johnson to start the opener, but Jeremy Bonderman's impressive Spring Training earned him the honor at age 22. Bonderman is still here, still the most gifted of the Tigers' top four starters, but Rogers gives the Tigers a true veteran arm with unquestioned seniority.
Another factor would be the lefty-leaning rotation. If Leyland starts Bonderman first and his currently open spot fifth, he'll have three left-handers starting consecutively in Rogers, Mike Maroth and Nate Robertson in some sort of order.
That wouldn't matter much in the opening week, since one of them would start in Kansas City and the other two in Texas. The next week, however, all three would start against the White Sox. Starting Rogers first and Bonderman second would break up that three-lefty string.
Plus, whoever starts second will most likely start the home opener, assuming Leyland sticks to his plan to use his fifth starter in the first week of the season. If the Tigers start Rogers, then Bonderman at Kansas City, Bonderman would be in line to start the home opener against the White Sox on April 10 on normal rest.
Rogers has started three Opening Day games in his career, all with Texas. He gave up four runs over three innings in an 8-6 loss to the Yankees to start the 1995 season at Yankee Stadium. He started the 2000 season by scattering a run on six hits in eight innings of a 10-4 win over the White Sox in Arlington. He put up another quality start to open 2004, with three runs over seven innings to leave with a 4-3 lead before Oakland came back for a 5-4 win.
Dingman to see specialist: Craig Dingman will undergo a positional ultrasound with a specialist in Detroit next Monday to determine the cause of a torn artery in his throwing shoulder that has put his career in limbo.
The rare condition has caught Dingman and the team by surprise. He felt fine all offseason until he played catch here Feb. 1. His throwing hand turned white and began throbbing afterward. It's under control now, thanks to medication, but he's sidelined until doctors can figure out the reason and the cure. It's such a strange injury that no one has given him a best- or worst-case scenario.
"We know there's a tear in there," Dingman said. "They want to know what caused it."
For the most part, Dingman has remained around camp ever since pitchers and catchers reported last week. He's able to run, but he's not allowed to throw or do any upper body work. He admits he's a lot calmer about his situation than he was a week ago.
"It's tough," he said. "I've really enjoyed coming in and talking to the guys. It's just hard when they go out there and I stay in here. It's definitely a little mental game."
Pregame rituals: Leyland's theme of doing everything with a purpose in Spring Training extends into the regular season. That's why, while he wants his players to prepare before a game, he doesn't want to put on the show of team stretching before batting practice or infield work after BP.
"I want to play catch," Leyland said. "I want to play baseball. I don't want to lead the league in calisthenics."
Players will stretch on their own but not as a team, especially when few players, in Leyland's opinion, take it seriously.
"If you watch," he said, "you have the guys sitting out there in team stretch, half of them are [stretching nonchalantly] and half of them are saying hi to everybody from the other team that's standing over in a circle. They don't get anything out of it, and it embarrasses the manager. Then a star walks out about three minutes late and decides to join the group. It's just embarrassing. So why put that on?"
As for infield practice, too many players skip it, and it ends up being a show of reserves and other players fielding out of position. "It's a joke," Leyland said.
More from Leyland: The new old-school manager plans to give the pitchers a little variety for the first full-squad workout Tuesday. He'll have pitchers taking batting practice on one of the back fields, even though they won't hit in a regular-season game until the middle of June.
"I just don't believe you wait until five days before Interleague Play to show them something," Leyland said.
Some will see game action at the plate before then. Leyland plans to let his pitchers hit in Spring Training toward the latter half of March when they're playing at National League parks and don't have the designated hitter available.
As for other rules during the season, Leyland wants to meet with a small group of players in the coming days and make a list. "They'll make them," he said. "I'll veto them."
It's not expected to be a long list. "The less you have," Leyland added, "the less you break."
Mantei makes an impression: The Tigers signed former Marlins and Diamondbacks closer Matt Mantei to a Minor League contract coming off back-to-back subpar seasons with the hope that he could be a solid veteran reliever if healthy. Though it's still early in camp, his stuff in bullpen sessions suggests he's ready.
"He's really throwing good right now," Leyland said. "He had an ankle injury last year. He's always had great stuff. He's been plagued by some injuries throughout his career, obviously. When he's right, he takes real good stuff to the mound, real good stuff. He's had a problem with staying healthy."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Leyland returns to 'old school'

02/20/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- More than 20 years after Jim Leyland left the Tigers, he finally has his dream job. Yet it seems like he never left. Some would say the same about his managerial philosophies.
Inside the manager's office at Joker Marchant Stadium is a giant portrait of Ty Cobb. A piece of tape covers a tear under his left ear. That tear was Leyland's work, thanks to a shoe he threw at the wall following a loss when he managed the Tigers' Class A team here in 1977.
Leyland walked into the office after he arrived last week, took one look at the portrait and laughed. "I hadn't seen this for 20 years," he said. "The tape's still on there. That's my claim to fame."
It's an odd claim to be the only man alive who spiked Cobb, one of the most competitive and hated men in baseball. Yet even Cobb might've been able to play for Leyland.
For someone who hasn't managed since 1999 and admits a lot has changed in baseball since then, Leyland sounds very much like a modern player's manager. He insists that a skipper is either the beneficiary or the victim of the players he has. He wants his players loose and isn't afraid to interact with athletes often half his age. He lets the players help determine the rules as long as they live up to them. He's drawn loyalty out of such superstars as Barry Bonds and Gary Sheffield, yet he says every player on his team is just as important to its success.
Through that amicability, Leyland is very much an old-school baseball man.
"I don't care how it gets done," he said. "I just want it done."
The first week of Tigers Spring Training has almost been like a seminar on how Leyland handles a team. Some of the topics have been strategy, like having a flexible bullpen or why situational baseball is different than small ball. Others have been administrative, from how he puts together a camp to why he doesn't want his team to stretch as a group before batting practice.
There's a reason behind every one of his decisions, and experiences from his past to justify it. After 11 years managing up and down the Minor Leagues and 14 in the Majors, he's seen most scenarios a coach can encounter.
On the field, his strategy revolves around putting his players in a position to win as many games as they can, whether or not they're at their best. Off the field, all his philosophies support the same general premise: Treat players as adults, but hold them accountable. He won't act like a babysitter for his guys, but he won't apologize for them either.
"I'm sure some of the guys like me, some of them don't," Leyland said. "That's OK. I can put up with that stuff. I'm going to be myself. I'm going to treat them like men. And in return, they have to accept the responsibility to be acting like a man. It's that simple. This is not rocket [science] stuff.
"I'm going to be myself. I'm going to have fun with them. I'm going to chew them out. They're going to be mad at me. They're going to call me names. You might as well take all that down. It's all going to happen. I don't care about any of that. As long as we're on the same page of what our goal is. Our goal is to get the Detroit Tigers to play to their capabilities, to be playing for something come September. That's what I want to do."
He's a straight shooter, and he likes his players to be the same. He had his run-ins with Bonds when they were in Pittsburgh, some of them well-publicized. Yet they remain in regular touch to this day, 14 years after they parted ways. He has no problems with players who draw controversy, he said Monday. It's the quiet players who cause trouble behind his back that he doesn't like.
He hasn't had that trouble so far. The Tigers' reigning veterans, in fact, have gladly welcomed his style.
"He's the manager we need," Ivan Rodriguez said. "He just tells us straight out, 'I'm just going to help you. You guys are going play, so make sure you guys play hard every day. And if you guys play hard every day, I'm going to be happy. You guys are the ones that are going to win games.'"
That latter part may be true, but most of these players are the same ones who were here for last year's 71-91 season. The managerial and coaching changes were arguably the biggest ones of the offseason.
"With the players that we have, we've got a staff that's able to take us to the next level," Dmitri Young said. "The final answer is what the manager's going to say. There's not going to be any other influences. We know that Jimmy Leyland is the captain of this ship."
So far, Leyland's training camp has had a similar give-and-take. His workouts have rarely lasted much more than two hours each morning. In return, he expects them to run punctual and everything performed with a purpose. Players must change fields on time when asked. Extra work before or after practice must be set up in advance. Leyland's goal behind that is to instill some efficiency in this club. Efficient teams, he says, find a way to win close games.
His other goal in the first few games is to see whether the players will follow him. The most important factor in running a club, he says, is to get the veteran players to buy into the program.
"I think they'll give us the benefit of the doubt," Leyland said. "I think they have respect for the coaches. I think they have some respect for me. The big key for me is to maintain or to keep that respect. I think I'll have to blow up. When I went to the Pirates my first year, I had to earn their respect. To be honest with you, in this particular case, you get a little benefit of the doubt coming in. So if I don't blow it, we'll have something going."
In turn, Leyland is buying into the players. He loves the organization's young arms and he likes the veterans he has if they can stay healthy, but he isn't promising anything. He won't say they'll win the AL Central, but he doesn't believe that they can't.
"We'll see how good we are," Leyland said. "I think we're OK. I know those other teams are good, but we have good players, too. I think we have something to work with. I'm not one of those crazy guys who [sweet-talks] the media about how good we are. I don't know what's going to happen.
"If you want to be the best, you have to beat the best. That's what I want these guys to get to. I just want to maximize these guys' abilities. Wherever that takes us, I'll be satisfied. I want to see what they can possibly do if they all get on the same page, they're all willing to pay the price and they're all willing to make sacrifices. If they do that, I want to see what happens. I'll be very interested to see what happens."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Team Italy relieved to start working

Wednesday, February 22, 2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- After weeks of checking family trees, calling officials overseas, gathering scouting reports, gathering players and figuring out who can actually play in next month's World Baseball Classic, Team Italy finally had a chance to play some baseball on Tuesday.
It was merely a first practice, and it didn't include the dozen or so players currently on Major League rosters. But it was enough for manager Matt Galante to breathe a sigh of relief.
"I can't believe any other team had to make more calls to their home country to find out about guys each day," said Galante, who can add international negotiations to his lengthy resume in this game.
No other country has such a diverse background from which to draw players. The Italian team is also the Italian-American team, which means putting European professional players in the same talent pool as some Major Leaguers who were born and raised in the United States.
When preliminary rosters were announced in December, the team drew some chuckles for the rules by which some Americans were eligible to represent Italy. But as it turned out, eligibility is tougher than first expected, and it's not at all easy to prove.
Essentially, Galante said, anyone who plays for Italy must be eligible to apply for an Italian passport right now. It's more difficult than simply having an Italian roster. Tony Giarratano -- a shortstop in Tigers camp who was not part of the first practice, but is on the roster -- had great-grandparents who came over from Italy, but he said that he had to prove that one of them had a child before becoming a U.S. citizen.
Proof and documentation must then be submitted. For some, it became an avenue for fascinating research into their family's history. Galante himself found a picture of his family on the boat they took from Italy to the United States.
"You had to go back and show that every player here could go to Italy tomorrow and get an Italian passport," Galante said. "Sometimes, your heritage line stops, and in that case, you can't play. And we lost players. We tried to get a lot of guys, and a lot of guys couldn't prove their heritage lines. We got the guys ... who wanted to play and could prove their heritage. It's not that you don't know if a guy's Italian, but you have to prove he's eligible. It was a difficult chore, but we got it done."
Now, Galante has to round out his ballclub. Major Leaguers will comprise less than half of Italy's 30-man roster. The rest will come from the players in camp now, a mix of Triple-A and Double-A players here as well as Italian professionals.
Forty-four players attended Tuesday's initial workout. Some simply made a commute from other places in Florida. Others took all-day flights and didn't arrive in town until late Tuesday evening, all for the sake of representing their country. Galante didn't want to wear out anybody on the first day, so he kept it simple, opting for about two hours of bullpen sessions and batting practice.
Galante already knows the American players. The native Italians are more of a mystery. Most of them at least speak English, so there's not a language barrier. But in many cases, the familiarity stops there.
"We're really trying to discover what these guys can do at this point," Galante said. "We don't really know what we have. I was really impressed today by a lot of things. I thought the staff did a great job of hurriedly putting a first day together. I saw a lot of things that surprised me. I saw some ability that I wasn't sure was going to be there."
Once the discovery process is over, Galante will start working on the fundamentals. He has the time to work on it. The Italians will work out every afternoon starting around 1 p.m. ET, after the Detroit Tigers have wrapped up their morning workouts on the practice fields at the Tigertown complex.
The Major League players will join Team Italy on March 3, followed by a March 4 exhibition against a Tigers split squad at Joker Marchant Stadium. That'll be their lone warmup match before first-round play in the World Baseball Classic begins on March 7 against Australia.
First-round pool play doesn't get easier, with Venezuela and the Dominican Republic rounding out the group. But Galante thinks his team will hold its own.
"I can't make predictions. I know the competition," he said. "I've watched these guys the last 20 years. All I know is we're going to give a great effort. These kids are proud. They're proud to be part of this thing."

Source: http://www.worldbaseballclassic.com/

Notes: Being fundamentally sound

02/21/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- As Tigers position players began taking grounders for their first full-squad drills of the spring, manager Jim Leyland went to each field and set the tone.
"Fundamentally sound, routine play, all year long," he told the players as he watched from foul territory on a practice field. "That's all we want. Nothing fancy, routine play, 27 outs. It starts today, not tomorrow."
Much like the first day of pitcher and catcher workouts last week, Leyland called this "a very big day for us." He wants the theme to carry from the start of camp through the season, from the Major League starters to the guys ticketed for the Minors. He wanted everyone to feel like they had the manager's attention.
"I just want to rough out the ideas that we're doing, so we have an idea," Leyland said, "so we don't embarrass ourselves out there. The goal starting today is to set the right message, set the right tone."
Fittingly, then, most of Tuesday's drills had more to do with mindset than mechanics. First base coach Andy Van Slyke ran the situational hitting drills with a simple credo: Don't change your swing, change your approach. Leyland wanted guys to think about placing the ball rather than physically adjusting to do it.
"Most of the RBI guys were guys who were not afraid to take a base hit to the opposite field with a runner on second and two outs," Leyland said.
On another field, bunting drills weren't centered on how a player should lay down a bunt but where he should put it. "If your style gets production, keep your style," Leyland said. "If it doesn't, you might want to change your style. ... I want results. I don't care how you do it."
Leyland even watched the pitchers take batting practice -- not simple bunting, but real batting practice. "Let's get a feel for it now," he said. "If there's somebody that's brutal, maybe we can help them a little bit."
Leyland himself is not a tinkerer. He leaves any of that to his coaches when necessary. He's more of a talker. He was ready with a word or two for a player as he watched each field. He let out a happy yell while he watched one group of players take batting practice.
The flip side of Leyland's emphasis of fundamentals is that he accepts the idea that his players will have a sloppy game. Those were the games that annoyed former manager Alan Trammell to the point where he continually said, "Sloppy baseball stinks."
Leyland's notion is that sloppy games are going to happen. That's not his idea of an embarrassing game.
"An embarrassing game is when people stand out there and walk 10 guys," he said. "I have no time for that. A game where each pitcher walks seven or eight guys, that to me is worse than a game where a shortstop boots two or three balls. I can't stand those kind of games."
No pitch counts: Leyland doesn't believe in strict ones except for early in the season. That doesn't mean he's reckless with his pitchers, but he doesn't think a set number of pitches is the way to watch him. If someone only expects to pitch when they feel 100 percent, they won't be pitching for long.
"Am I going to abuse pitchers? No, I take pride in taking care of my pitchers," he said. "I'm a firm believer that it's not the best pitching staff that wins. In a lot of cases, it's the healthiest."
Leyland wants to know how tough a pitcher's innings or pitchers are. If a young hurler throws 100 pitches, Leyland won't automatically lift him, especially if they were easy pitches.
Dmitri chimes in: Dmitri Young has an idea for the next World Baseball Classic -- a Negro League representative team.
"I'm saying there should be two [American] teams," he said. "In hindsight, if you're looking at the standpoint that there aren't enough blacks in the game, how do we reach out? We're not reaching out during this World Baseball Classic."
Young didn't suggest the two American teams should be separated by race, nor did he claim the selection process was flawed. But he'd like to find a way to get more African-American players involved in the tournament while he watches other ethnicities being represented through their own nations.
"It's not like we're at hard times in black versus white," Young said. "It's just we have black and white players, we're mixing them in together and unfortunately, when the team's set, you look at the roster and you have [six] players. ...
"They talk about the heritage of the Negro Leagues. Somehow, that should be revisited with this World Baseball Classic. Just a suggestion."
All in the family: Tony Giarratano was honored when he was presented with a chance to play for Team Italy in the World Baseball Classic. But the opportunity presented the Tigers' prospect with a challenge to learn his family tree.
Though Giarratano is one of several Americans on the preliminary Italian roster, he found out the rules were pretty specific. Having a parent, grandparent or great-grandparent who was born in Italy was a qualification, but there was more required.
Giarratano had to check his family history to find out he qualified. "I actually didn't know a whole lot about them," he said. "It was pretty neat."
The Italian team began workouts Tuesday afternoon at the Minor League complex with players from Italy as well as Minor Leaguers. Players in Major League camp don't have to join until March 2.
Giarratano has another connection to Team Italy. The manager, longtime Major League coach Matt Galante, worked with Giarratano one year while he was in junior high school.
Hair tips: Young used to be the Tiger who received the most attention for his hair, from the big hair he used to sport to his current braids to his dyed hair and goatee from his days in Cincinnati.
Now that Franklyn German sports a partially dyed set of braids, Young weighed in as a critic.
"Look at the '99 Reds," Young said. "I wasn't exactly God's gift to hair bleach. You have to go through an ugly stage before you get to the cute stage. Right now, he's dead smack in the ugly stage."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Zumaya trying to blow away hitters, club

02/21/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Joel Zumaya has read and heard the speculation that his future lies as a reliever. He sees the point, even though the Tigers don't yet see it either way. A spot in Detroit's rotation might well keep him starting.
While Justin Verlander earns most of the attention in the competition for the Tigers' fifth starter opening, his former teammate at Double-A Erie has the enviable position of toiling away in more obscurity with nothing to lose. At age 21, having just missed out on the Minor League strikeout title last year, Zumaya could end up anywhere from Triple-A Toledo to the Tigers' bullpen to the mound in Texas on April 8, the fifth game of Detroit's season.
"If I perform as well as I've been performing, I just hope they give me a spot," Zumaya said. "I don't care where it's at. Whether it's late relief, middle relief, closer, starter, I'll take it."
Zumaya has been hard to define ever since the Tigers scouted him in high school. If he had the high-90s-mph fastball then that he boasts now, he might've been an early pick. Instead, he threw in the lower 90s and went in the 11th round. He says his workhorse status as a senior in high school gave him a lot of innings and less velocity.
The power emerged as a pro. Baseball America rated him the fifth-best late-round pick in the draft after he struck out 46 batters in 37 1/3 innings in the Gulf Coast League in 2002 at age 17. As one of the youngest players in the Midwest League the next year, he fanned 126 over 90 1/3 innings the following year and jumped to third on the Tigers' top prospect list.
The strikeouts came in bunches last year -- 199 in all between Toledo and Double-A Erie. His .189 batting average against also ranked second in the Minors, and his ratio of 11.83 strikeouts per nine innings ranked third.
Many of his characteristics fit a closer, though he hasn't made a relief appearance since 2002. His pitching motion is explosive, some call it violent, propelling fastballs toward the plate at a high frequency as well as velocity. He has a history of back problems that he shook off last year to avoid the DL. His mentality is as aggressive as any reliever, both on and off the mound. He even felt the need to move his legs while sitting down during an interview.
"I'm very aggressive," Zumaya said. "If I'm not doing anything, I get real draggy. It's just not my life. I've got to move. I've got to keep on doing anything. I'm very intense. I hate sitting around."
Yet amidst those reliever tendencies lies a slew of traits that suggest he could just as easily fit into a big league rotation. He was durable enough to top 150 innings last season for the first time in his career. And hidden within all those starts is an ability to adjust and quickly learn.
His 8-3 record at Double-A Erie was a matter of two different seasons. He went 2-3 with a 5.66 ERA in his first seven starts before posting a 6-0 record and 1.62 ERA over his next 11 outings.
Once he reached Toledo, he was hit around in his debut for six runs over 3 1/3 innings that he admits felt like "that ball was on a tee."
"It was a big learning process," he said. "You can't just blow fastballs by people up there."
Then-Mud Hens outfielder Curtis Granderson remembers it that way, too, but he also recalls Zumaya getting hitters off-balance in his next start. By mixing up all three of his pitches, Zumaya posted a 1.55 ERA over his next seven outings.
"I'm still learning a lot," he said. "I still have a tendency to try to throw it 3,000 mph. I can be throwing 91, 92 on the corners and then when I get ahead of the guy, I can bring it 98, 99."
So far, Zumaya might not be giving himself enough credit. In early bullpen sessions this spring, he worries he's throwing the ball too hard. "When I'm practicing out there, throwing BPs and bullpens, I'm a guy that can't throw the ball soft," he said. "If I throw the ball soft, it'll go all over the place. It's just the way I feel out there."
Others, however, say he's been fine. "He's throwing hard, but it's under control," catcher Vance Wilson said.
So where does he fit? It's hard to tell. He understands the prognostications to the point where he can see a role change.
"Last year I thought about it real well," he said. "I can see myself in the future as a reliever or a closer and not a starter. It's just the way I pitch. It's the way I perform on the mound. I've got the mentality to be a late reliever or a closer."
Pitching coach Chuck Hernandez believes it's way too early to make a judgment. "Right now, I just want him to get in shape," he said. "I don't want him to think as much. Just throw. We'll figure out the rest."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Logan, Granderson at 'center' of it all

02/22/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Curtis Granderson and Nook Logan are roommates this Spring Training. But just because they share a place in Florida doesn't mean they'll share a job in Detroit.
Much like Placido Polanco batting second, Tigers manager Jim Leyland is all but set to slot his center fielder into his leadoff spot. The difference is that he doesn't know who it's going to be yet. Thus, the positional battle between Granderson and Logan carries the added stakes of batting atop a lineup and just ahead of what could be a dangerous middle of the order.
"It's up in the air," Logan said. "Both Curtis and I are out there working hard. May the best man get the job."
Leyland is flexible with what he requires out of a leadoff hitter. Speed helps. Working counts and getting on base would be big. Experience and stolen base totals aren't.
Would Leyland rather have a lanky, flat-out speedster in the job or a good runner who can add some power? Leyland isn't handicapping.
"You look at the best scenario for your team and pick the guy," Leyland said. "They talk about guys who work the counts. Some guys do that. Some guys don't. It just depends on what you have. It's not that you always have the ideal one, but you have from your group of players what makes the most sense. That's the guy you try to pick."
Given the choice of experience versus talent, however, Leyland wants talent. That's why whoever leads off April 3 at Kansas City will most likely be making his first Opening Day start.
"I like the combination of what we have," Leyland said.
From the traits each one brings, it's a combo that can fit a platoon. Whether running out a bunt single or going from first base to home plate on a wild pitch and errant throw, Logan established himself as one of baseball's fastest players last year. He helped soften the blow of losing Magglio Ordonez to hernia surgery.
Once pitchers adjusted, though, Logan struggled to adjust back. Enter Granderson, called up from Triple-A Toledo twice during the summer and installed as the starting center fielder in August.
The switch-hitting Logan is a lifetime .318 hitter against left-handed pitching, but former manager Alan Trammell repeatedly pointed out Logan's need for improvement against righties and to hone his bunting. Granderson, a pure left-handed hitter, actually hit better against lefties at both Toledo and Detroit, but his on-base percentage was stronger against righties.
The two seem to complement each other well, but Leyland has said twice already that he'd like to see the contest won outright, if anything for stability up the middle.
"I'd love to have a center fielder, period," Leyland said. "Now whether that's going to work on this team, I don't know, but I'd preferably like to have a catcher, shortstop, second baseman and center fielder. I like to have them etched in stone, but I'm going to have to tinker with that for a while."
If that's how it has to be, Logan and Granderson are ready to go at it. They've prepared themselves for it all offseason. Logan spent his offseason working out at a performance center in Houston to hold up better over a season and better approach right-handed pitching.
"You have a mindset going in that you want to be one of the nine out there, no matter where you hit," Logan said. "You can't control what happens. You can control how you go about it, though."
Granderson went to winter ball focused on working counts while cutting down on strikeouts and drawing more walks again. He also analyzed some of the better leadoff hitters in the game.
"Ideally, he doesn't necessarily have to take pitches," Granderson said of a leadoff man, "but if he's going to be aggressive, he needs to do his best to get on base, set the tone, advance from first to third when asked upon, be able to take an extra base or steal a base. And it's definitely not going to hurt if a leadoff guy can drive the baseball, because he's going to come up later in the game with runners in scoring position."
Leyland's requirements aren't a laundry list, and stealing lots of bases isn't one of them.
"Stealing bases is an option," Leyland said. "But I can tell you this: The stolen base thing, in my opinion, the last several years has gone totally crazy. There's so many stolen bases that haven't meant anything. Guys are stealing third with two outs and getting stolen bases, that's the biggest bunch of [garbage] in baseball. They've got all these stolen bases and it didn't mean [anything].
"To me, there's only one basestealer in the world, in my opinion, and that's the guy who when everybody in the ballpark knows he's gonna steal, including the other manager and the catcher, he can still steal you a big base. Like a Lou Brock or a Rickey Henderson or Joe Morgan, that's a basestealer. They're going in a one-run game in a big situation and they're going to make it. That's a basestealer."
Whether Logan or Granderson can be one of those basestealers remains to be seen. Logan has shown the speed, but not always the aggressiveness. Granderson is working on aggressiveness, but can't match Logan's speed.
Regardless, somebody's going to be the leadoff hitter -- maybe just one of them.
Fortunately, they don't talk work at home.
"We don't have any animosity," Logan said. "He's my roommate. We help each other out."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Notes: Rogers given Opening Day nod

02/22/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Jeremy Bonderman doesn't resent Kenny Rogers' Opening Day assignment. He wouldn't mind having Rogers' golf game, though.
Tigers manager Jim Leyland made his "likely" decision official Wednesday: Rogers will start the Tigers' season opener April 3 at Kansas City. Jeremy Bonderman will start the second game April 5 and then the home opener April 10 against the White Sox.
It's an early announcement for an assignment compared with previous years, but it's quintessential Leyland. By eliminating a competition, he's eliminating a potential distraction.
"If you know, why be bullheaded about doing it," he said.
He's also creating a reason to delve into history. It'll be Rogers' fourth Opening Day assignment, but at age 41, he'll be the oldest pitcher ever to start a Tigers season opener. Detroit has had only one pitcher that old start any game; Wild Bill Donovan made a spot start to win the final game of the 1918 season.
Donovan's start was his first game in two years and his final game ever. Rogers has been going strong for years isn't finished yet. He made his Major League debut when Bonderman was six years old, and he had 132 wins over 13 Major League seasons by the time Bonderman made his pro debut. Just as important, Rogers has won 58 games over four years since.
Leyland said it's the "respect factor. I think he's certainly earned that over his career."
Rogers does not have to deal with any reference as the oldest Opening Day starter in history, or even in the past year. Randy Johnson was 41 years old when he started the Yankees' opener last season against 41-year-old Red Sox lefty David Wells, who turned 42 the next month. Rogers won't turn 42 until November.
Nonetheless, Rogers' assignment is a vast contrast from Bonderman, whose start last year made him the Tigers' youngest Opening Day starter since Josh Billings in 1928.
Leyland unofficially announced Rogers earlier this week.
"We had already talked a little about it," Bonderman said. "I knew what was going on. I'm fine with it. Any way I can help the team."
Not to say Bonderman doesn't want to be a No. 1 starter. He approached the Opening Day honor with a competitive streak last year in Spring Training, earning the nod over Jason Johnson. And as was pointed out, there's a fair chance he'll start another opener in the future.
For now, though, starting the home opener with the defending World Series champion White Sox isn't exactly an insult.
"You can either take it as a way to motivate yourself or be happy with what you've got," Bonderman said. "I'm definitely happy with where I'm at right now, but I definitely know I need to get better."
Being around Rogers, Bonderman hopes, will help make him better. Though they're different styles of pitchers, they've already talked pitching.
"I'm trying to use some of the stuff that he does and try to put it in my game," Bonderman said. "Yeah, he's a different pitcher, but there's things that you can learn from a guy that has been around as long as he has. When he talks, I listen. There's one or two things you can take from any guy and put it into your game. It might work. It might not.
"I've never had a guy like Kenny on my team, to have a guy there every day to go through stuff with you and explain why you do this or why you do that."
They spent time together during TigerFest, and they've already been golfing together here. Bonderman doesn't feel the age difference, even though Rogers is closer in age to Bonderman's father than he is to Bonderman.
"When we're playing golf, he's a fun guy to be around," Bonderman said. "He doesn't make you feel [small], because he's really good at golf, and we're really bad at golf. We're totally different on the golf course."
Different respect factor: Leyland didn't announce any other starting assignments, in part because he still doesn't have a No. 5 starter. It's a safe assumption that Mike Maroth and Nate Robertson will start the first two games at Texas, not necessarily in that order, followed by the fifth starter.
One reason Leyland won't skip his fifth starter in weeks with off-days is he wants every starter to feel just as important as the first one. He wants his bullpen to feel the same way.
"There's 12 pitchers," Leyland said, "but there will be no 12th pitcher. You'd better be able to get a big out, or else you'll be the 13th pitcher."
It's all in the legs: Asked why more pitchers seem to pitch into their 40s now than in previous eras, Leyland pointed to better training and more attention to nutrition. While guys such as Rogers, Johnson, Wells and Roger Clemens have different styles, they have something in common.
"They all have good legs," Leyland said. "Nolan Ryan? Real strong legs. Roger Clemens? Real strong legs. Tom Seaver? Real strong legs."

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Rogers takes opening nod in stride

02/23/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Kenny Rogers isn't going to get too excited about an Opening Day start. After 17 years and 190 wins, he's still grateful he got any start at all.
"I got one [win]. That was more than I ever thought I would get," he said Thursday. "My career is pretty much a major fluke. I'm probably not the guy who should've been in the big leagues, or even the Minor Leagues when I first started. I was very fortunate in a lot of ways that people would take a chance on me. I've benefited far more than anybody could ever have dreamed of."
He doesn't remember his first Opening Day start back in 1995, but he remembers being a 17-year-old in the Minor Leagues fresh off the farm down the road from here in Plant City, then later being a young pitcher with the Rangers watching Nolan Ryan and Charlie Hough go about their business in their later years. He doesn't recall specifics about his early struggles, but he knows there were enough of them to teach him the lesson that throwing harder isn't always better.
He's gathered enough from his experiences and learned from them to forge out a little career for himself. He's now the graybeard sitting in a clubhouse corridor cluttered with younger, stronger arms, yet he's the one getting the opening nod.
He's also been through enough to know better than to get caught up in honors.
"Every day that I get to go out there and pitch, I feel very fortunate I'm still here," he said, "still able to compete with the talent around me in this room, much less in the league. Those are things that keep pushing you, keep that competitive spirit alive for me."
He's competing pretty well. At age 41, he'll be not only the oldest Opening Day pitcher in franchise history, but only the second 41-year-old pitcher to start any game for the club. Considering he has a two-year contract, he has a good chance of breaking that mark, too.
Rogers has quietly left an impression already in bullpen sessions. While Detroit's younger arms work on the mound, Rogers hits his spots, rarely forcing a lunge from his catcher. He's one of the first names Vance Wilson mentions when asked who looks strong so far in camp.
Rogers, however, isn't anywhere near where he wants to be.
"At this stage, it takes a lot more, unfortunately," he said. "It's just getting where you feel capable of doing what you normally do. My arm's probably not where I want to be, just like every other player and pitcher here. You have to make yourself physically as comfortable as you can on the mound. We've got a whole month to get ready. That's plenty of time for me to get ready, without a doubt."
Because there's so much time, he doesn't want to think about Opening Day yet. At this point, it's a possibility in his mind, not a guarantee.
"I don't look ahead and take it for granted," he said. "I still want to think that I've got a lot of work to do to get prepared, get out there and make sure that when I do stuff on the mound, that I'm prepared to go out there and be successful. Just because we have a set rotation, I've still got work to do to make sure that I'm able to do my job."
When Rogers talks about his work, it reflects that he never really expected to make a career out of this to begin with. When scouts told him he had a chance to be drafted, he says he didn't really believe them. In his mind, he was still planning on working the fields that summer to make money. When he finally got to the Majors seven years later, he looked at Ryan and Hough as older guys who went about their business at their own pace.
Now he understands why.
"I didn't look beyond that [time]," Rogers said, "but knowing now what it feels like and what it takes to still be out here and the things you go through when you're younger, that you feel great and nothing hurts and everything moves the way it should move, the difficulties you have to overcome now are much different. Now I understand a lot about how much they had to go through just to be able to compete."
He's doing that now -- running miles, lifting more than he used to, throwing with a purpose, experimenting when he's on the mound. The latter part, to him, is the most important. It's why he learns from younger pitchers almost as much as they learn from him.
"Every start's different for me, so I'm just making those adjustments for a given day to go out there and compete but also to be successful," he said. "Those are things you can't really teach someone in a lot of ways. You have to have an understanding.
"I'm always willing to learn. I think that has benefited me a lot. I'm able to add certain things in my repertoire and in my thinking. Everything makes a difference out there between the lines, whether it's a certain pitch or just your demeanor on the mound."
His demeanor right now isn't to celebrate an Opening Day start. It's to prepare for it.

Source: http://detroit.tigers.mlb.com/

Notes: Leyland knows his staff

02/23/2006
LAKELAND, Fla. -- Jim Leyland doesn't have an oracle that tells him when to go to the bullpen. He doesn't consult a higher power when starters are tired, nor does he use tarot cards to tell when his closer is ready. He doesn't even delve into the mechanics of throwing.
Yet ask many who have played for him, and they'll say he knows how to handle a pitching staff better than anyone in baseball.
"Jim Leyland, in my career, has been the best manager at running his bullpen," said Matt Mantei, the one pitcher in camp who has experience with Leyland. "He's been the best manager at going out in the outfield and asking his pitchers how they're feeling every day and not having the pitching coach worry about it."
For Leyland, it's a combination of knowing his pitchers and reading the hitters they face. When he asks a reliever each day whether they can throw, he doesn't want to hear that they can give him an inning that night. An inning, to Leyland, can mean anything from six to 40 pitches. He wants to know if they can go that night, and he can take it from there.
"You've got to know your staff," Leyland said. "There are some guys that you don't want to overexpose. Some guys are tremendous pitchers on a ballclub if they're used just right, and there are some guys that if you try to overexpose them, they'd probably be back in the Minor Leagues. So you have to get a feel for that."
Leyland doesn't pretend to have any special talent for it. He thinks his previous career as a Minor League catcher helped, and his years managing in the Minors allowed him to learn from trial and error.
"I'd be like everybody else years ago in the Minor Leagues," he said. "I'd walk out and a guy would talk you into staying in. You turn around and next thing you know, there's a double off him and you think, 'I'm the dumbest [manager] that ever walked.' So you learn, through trial and error, [over] all those years."
That's how Leyland learned to signal for a reliever as soon as he walks out of the dugout, not after he's made it to the mound and given the pitcher a chance to plead his case. If he doesn't make that sign right away, he's already decided the pitcher's staying in.
The rest falls under the oft-used Leyland category of common sense. To find out what a pitcher has left, watch the hitters.
"With the naked eye, you can usually tell," he said. "But the hitters usually tell what kind of stuff they've got. If in the first three or four innings they're hitting it over the first-base dugout as a right-handed hitter, and all of a sudden in the sixth inning they're hitting it 20 miles over [the other direction], you've got a pretty good idea [the pitcher has] lost his fastball. There's little signs."
Rules are rules: Leyland had a meeting with a selection of players Thursday morning to set the team rules for the season.
Leyland picked about 10 players to take part. Some veterans were easy choices, such as Ivan Rodriguez, Dmitri Young and Kenny Rogers. But not all of them had seniority. Nate Robertson was part of the group, even though he has little more than two seasons under his belt.
"I don't think it was a knock on anybody else by picking those guys. I think that he felt we were good mediators," Robertson said. "He picked a pretty good variety of people in there, all the way from one of our oldest guys on the team to me, being a younger player."
The meeting and the list of rules went pretty much as Leyland expected, and his rules remained largely intact. "The rules are still there," Leyland said. "but there's some adjustments to it."
Some of those rules weren't open for debate, such as those set by the club for contractual purposes. Leyland wanted to talk about the ones he was setting in place.
"The guidelines are set," Leyland said. "Let the games begin, see how it works out."
The next part is all about Leyland.
"In the end, it's really not the rules you set, but how you enforce them," Robertson said. "He's not big on that fine system. I don't think he's a guy that you want to cross, though. I don't think guys are willing to go to that point."
Frankie goes to the slider: By this point in camp, most bullpen sessions are repetitive, meant primarily for stretching out pitchers. Pitching coach Chuck Hernandez, though, watched reliever Franklyn German for much of his session and interrupted him at several points to work on grip and arm angle for his slider.
Last year the slider was part of German's big Spring Training that put him on last season's Opening Day roster. He used it extensively early in his career, when he was a starter in the Minors, but A's coaches had him give it up for a splitter when he became a closer. When the season began, though, German rarely went to it. A year later, he's back at it.
"It breaks good," German said. "All I need is a little more confidence to use it."
Prospects on the list: Tigers farmhands took up three of the top 35 slots on Baseball America's annual top 100 prospects list, released Thursday. Justin Verlander placed eighth, Cameron Maybin 31st and Joel Zumaya 35th. The magazine put this year as the ETA for both Verlander and Zumaya to reach the Majors, and 2008 for Maybin, who has yet to play a game of professional ball.
Earlier this week, Verlander and Zumaya placed 15th and 28th, respectively, in the Baseball Prospectus top 50 prospects report.

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