So, it is now less than two weeks until the Major League Baseball season opens for real. Thank goodness. Spring Training was nice to have back, because at least there’s something going on, but man, right now it feels like it will continue forever. I can only imagine what the players think. Well, Nate and Curtis tell us.

A few more cuts were made. As always this season, nothing surprising. (Even when cuts of guys who were on last season’s team are made, it won’t really be surprising). Cameron Maybin was the chief name to get the cut. Brent Clevlen did as well.

Jason Beck:

Clevlen and catcher Mike Rabelo were optioned to Triple-A Toledo. Non-roster players Maybin, Craig Dingman, Brent Dlugach, Joey Eischen, Mike Hessman, Kevin Hooper, Dennis Tankersley and Brandon Watson were assigned to Minor League camp.

The Hardball Times released its division predictions. It came up with 83 wins for Detroit, less than PECOTA. The White Sox and the Indians were all at that mark. The Twins romp with 89 wins. I don’t buy that for an instant. I just don’t see that Twins starting pitching as being strong enough to run away with the division. While many seem to overrate the Central, this analysis seems to underrate it.

One other prediction. This one via MLB2k6 simulated by gaming site IGN. Tigers win the Central with 86 wins, meanwhile it is the AL East with 3 teams gaining 90+ wins. In their league leaders, Bonderman has the most strikeouts with 186. Which sounds low, but hey, it’s a video game… which also predicted the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series.

The Tigers may have their first real injury scare. Not a major player, not an injury you don’t want to see anyway. Rule 5 pick Edward Campusano left his split squad game against Atlanta Sunday. Jason Beck:

Campusano had just struck out Braves Minor Leaguer Willie Cabrera on a breaking ball when he hunched over, his hands on his knees. Assistant athletic trainer Steve Carter attended to him, and he was immediately removed from the game.

Depending on the diagnosis, the Tigers’ relief picture could become more complicated. Campusano was looking strong as a second left-handed relief option alongside Wilfredo Ledezma, a race that includes Bobby Seay, Felix Heredia and Tim Byrdak.

Still worried about that Humberto Sanchez trade?

New York Post
Humberto Sanchez, a key ingredient in the Gary Sheffield deal with Detroit, looks as if he won’t get to throw in a big league game this spring due to a right forearm injury.

“I am tempted to think he will get his work on the minor league side,” Torre said.

Yes, he wasn’t expected to make the team out of the gate. But it still has to be a setback to the New Yorkers that the jewel of their Gary Sheffield trade starts off the season injured. That is precisely why I was happy to trade him to the first team that offered something nice in return.

As a follow up, the Tigers made their first cuts today, per Jason Beck:

• Andrew Miller to Lakeland, as expected.
• Kyle Sleeth to Erie, a good place for him.
• Jordan Tata to Toledo, where he spent most of last season.
• Virgil Vasquez, hot off a nice Arizona Fall League, to Lakeland Toledo also.
• Non-roster invitees P Jair Jurrjens, C Gabe Johnson and C Dusty Ryan to minor league camp.

That final bullpen spot? Freep’s Jon Paul Morosi reports we can keep track of a couple less names.

Out of the running, according to Jim Leyland, are Felix Heredia and a few others. Notably, and not surprisingly, Andrew Miller will not make the team.

So who is in the running? Lefties Edward Campusano, Bobby Seay and righties Zach Miner and Chad Durbin for sure. Also possibly in it is Yorman Bazardo, whose progress I have no watched too closely because I was sure the recent tradee had no shot at making the team.

Other than Bazardo, and I guess Durbin, I am not surprised by this. I pegged Rule 5 pick Campusano and Seay as the two most likely guys to pick up that last spot, as Leyland wants a second lefty and Campusano would end up with his former team if he didn’t crack the major league club. Miner was a starting pitcher for most of last year, so Leyland knows what to expect and does like talent. Durbin, who Leyland says is good enough to be a starter, is out of options. If Detroit does not keep him, he’s liable to be snagged by another team. This isn’t a real bargaining chip if the Tigers try to move him before spring training is over. But Durbin is certainly pitching himself onto someone’s roster — so far.

A bench clearing mull? This early? It’s Spring Training! There’s no brawling in Spring Training!

Well, there wasn’t any fighting Saturday. Some mulling around the mound a bit. Some jogging over from your dugout and bullpen I guess, judging from the pictures at the Detroit News. A couple of ejections. Not much else.

You’ve heard the backstory by now so I won’t repeat much. Josh Beckett hit Gary Sheffield in the ribs, Magglio Ordonez in the head — sending him to a clinic for tests, which came back fine — and nearly hit Brandon Inge in the head. Todd Jones took exception and pitched behind JD Drew. He got ejected. Jim Leyland jawed with the third base coach for the Red Sox. Leyland got ejected. And the benches jogged to the infield for some discussion on golf times or bass fishing holes. Whatever it is they do. I wish Curt Schilling blogged about that!

It’s always frightening when a pitcher throws inside with little control. At the major league level, a baseball can be, if not lethal, then a pretty dangerous object when it isn’t controlled well. At Boston’s MLB.com site, Beckett says he just didn’t have it, no malice intended. We’ll never really know, so it doesn’t work to speculate. Just, you know, it’s spring training. Try not to maim anyone, Becks. We’re not the Yankees or something. Still, if the Tigers begin developing true rivalries with some of the better clubs in baseball, as the Red Sox are, it can only be a good thing.

In other news, Justin Verlander continues with his spring struggle and admitted he is behind where he was last year. That statement could be a bit disconcerting after his arm was stretched to new limits by adding 75+ innings to his previous maximum — if you let it. The season is several starts away. There’s really no reason to get worried in March. If you want to get worried in April or May, by all means. But let’s let this play out a bit more first, hey? He’s just getting his arm up to speed, and Leyland thought that was too much speed and not enough control. That’ll come. I’m not worried. Yet.

And as Jason Beck pointed out at his blog, Edward Campusano looked good again, as he has throughout the spring. Leyland is certainly putting early innings on his warm to give him a good look. He just might be that lefty answer, and another Rule 5 steal by Dave Dombrowski. That, too, is too early to tell. But it’s certainly a nice development.

Side note, and another shout out for people to read Schilling’s blog, as it is certainly fun for a baseball fan: Schilling was asked what baseball players he would pay to see. Among the pitchers he listed were Justin Verlander and Jeremy Bonderman. Not bad!

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While Baseball Prospectus recently reminded us not to think too much of Spring Training statistics — true — you still have to look at the start Placido Polanco put together and smile.

He extended his streak of reaching base to nine plate appearances. He’s batting .667 now. Pudge batted lower in the lineup, but he’s .500 for Spring.

On the pitching side, the past two games have given the lefty relievers a chance to play. Wednesday, Edward Campusano threw a scoreless inning. He continues to pitch well this spring. Seay pitched scoreless 10th and 11th innings, allowing three hits. Thursday, Felix Heredia bounced back from his walk-off loss to the Yankees by getting through two innings on the minimum of six batters. He allowed a hit but no runs, obviously.

Lynn Henning touched on this topic in a recent Burning Questions. Henning thinks none of the lefty reliever candidates will win a job or they’d be employed by someone else. So Detroit will need to make a move. You don’t just go around making deals for the sake of making deals. It’s always easier on paper — and in the paper — to come up with a deal that sounds good. While he makes a valid point several pitchers really have slim to no shot at being the lefty solution, I still think Seay and Campusano have decent shots, especially the Rule 5 pick, Campusano. I think he’s a bit of a pessimist on that point.

The logic that dictates Campusano not making the team, if his good spring continues, is basically not wanting to put him into the typically high-leverage situations you throw a LOOGY at. He has barely pitched above A ball. That’s quite a jump. But Leyland has an eye for talent — Neifi notwithstanding. Ultimately he’ll be the judge of whether he can trust Campusano. While there’s no reason for Leyland to bash him, he does not seem to give out praise feintly either, so I trust his view that Campusano may be the answer.

[Leyland on MLB.com]
“So far, from what I’ve seen, he’s one of those guys that he’s certainly earned enough that you keep looking,” Leyland said. “You don’t look at him and say he’s on the club, and you don’t look at him and say he’s not.”

Box — Thursday
Box — Wednesday

Addition made to the bottom

Here’s some ranking from MLB.com writers

Starting pitching — Tigers ranked first in MLB.

[MLB.com]:
The Tigers’ rotation ERA of 4.00 was the best in baseball last year, and the unit also set the standard in wins (75) and winning percentage (.615). Ace Kenny Rogers (17-8, 3.84 ERA, 204) once again heads up an exceptional rotation that will also include Jeremy Bonderman (14-8, 4.08 ERA, 214), Nate Robertson (13-13, 3.84 ERA, 208 2/3), Mike Maroth (5-2, 4.19 ERA, 53 2/3) and Justin Verlander (17-9, 3.63 ERA, 186).

Relief pitching — Tigers ranked fourth in MLB (Minnesota was No. 1)

[MLB.com]:
Left-hander Jamie Walker will be missed, but the Tigers should still have one of the more effective bullpens in the game … The Detroit bullpen held opposing hitters to a .242 batting average last season, the second-best showing in baseball behind the Mets.

And from The HardBall Times, the Tigers picked up an honorable mention in the American league for their bench. (LA Angels were tops.)

[HBT]:
The Tigers have a surfeit of outfield talent and the added asset of Chris Shelton backing up at first base, but it’s hard to get excited about middle-infield backups like Neifi Perez, Ramon Santiago, and Omar Infante.

And at the Wayne Fontes Experience, Big Al has some feedback on Mike Illich’s comments about doing whatever it takes to keep winning.

[Al]:
On one hand, this is good to hear. The Tigers current payroll is just south of 100 million, around 94-95 million. It’s only going to go up over the coming seasons. It’s encouraging that the Tigers owner sees that this is a team that could be competitive for the long term, at least for the rest of this decade.

That’s if the right moves are made.

Which brings me to why the pizza man’s statement is reason for concern. When Mike Ilitch has said in the past that he would spend whatever it takes for the Tigers to be competitive, it didn’t end all that well.

I think, as long as Illich lets Dave Dombrowski know he is in control of the team, there won’t be that much to worry about. Dombrowski is experienced and pretty good at the job. If he sees something he really wants, it’s good to know Illich supports him. But if Illich dabbles too much, Al has the cautionary tale.

Curt Schilling blogs. (via Baseball Musings). I bring this up not just because Schilling is such a nerd — said in the nicest of ways — you know he’s typing it out himself. But also because he is trying to learn the changeup, just as Jeremy Bonderman is this year. So he has some interesting insight.

[Schilling]:
Things go well through the first three innings, and I throw ten changeups in that time. I literally feel like I’m throwing the first two left-handed. This is such a different pitch for me, and it’s taken three years to convince my body and arm to sync up. It’s still a work in progress, but after the first two changeups I feel as if the next five or six are very good. I even get a swing and a miss. Twenty-one years into my professional career, and I get my first swing and miss at a changeup in spring training. It feels like a national holiday.

New: David Glassko answered a question about Carlos Guillen for The Hardball Times.

He was asked whether Carlos Guillen would have value if he made a switch from short to first.

[Glassko]
He goes from being an average fielding shortstop to one of the top fielding first basemen. Now whether or not this would actually be the case remains to be seen, but you could see how a guy with Guillen’s athleticism would make a lot of plays around the bag.

Anyway, when all those changes are factored in, Guillen’s total wins above replacement drops to 6.91 over the next three seasons. Now that’s still a very good number (1.5 wins above average), but obviously two wins is a substantial drop.

According to our fielding projections, Guillen can still hold his own at short, in which case he should absolutely stay there. But he would still be a valuable player even as a first baseman.

The Detroit media reported today Al Kaline has been selected as honorary captain of the American League All-Stars this July. Knobler points out:

Except Leyland said he’ll actually call Kaline the honorary manager, “because there was no way I thought that Al Kaline will coach for me.”

“It’s a great honor,” Kaline said. “I look forward to it.”

Knobler also had a bit in his blog that says owner Mike Illich is not going to worry about the budget. He’ll spend what it takes to keep winning

“I guess the best way to word it is we’ll continue to keep the team up there,” Ilitch said. “Whatever it takes to do. It’s so hard to get it to a point where you feel like you have a solid organization. It feels good, after you�ve been down so long, to have a good organization, and I want to protect it.”

Update from Jason Beck:

“I really kind of feel like the fans feel,” Ilitch admitted, “just kind of surprised from a standpoint of being reminded how big the sport is if you perform and the effect it has had on the whole state, not just region. It’s something I always dreamed about.”

Detroit lost to Toronto, 6-4, which doesn’t matter. But with a 3-inning scoreless appearance, Mike Maroth looks like he fully grasped that No. 5 spot in the rotation. He’s feeling fine. He’s effective, which was the problem when he came back last September. No runs allowed in March. All is looking well for the fan favorite.

But what of the LOOGY battle? It didn’t go too well for today’s candidates. Joey Eischen gave up three walks, two hits and two runs in 2/3-inning. Tim Byrdak gave up thee hits, two walks and the lead. This follows yesterday’s walkoff homer allowed by Felix Heredia. Making the team is not all based on the stats and I didn’t see how today’s pitchers threw. But you would, you know, like them to do something positive. Maybe Lynn Henning is on to something with his manta of trading for one. We’ll see how it continues to play out over the course of the month.

And the old guys did well, too. Todd Jones had two(!) strikeouts(!). Earlier, Jose Mesa struck out two of the three batters he faced. I wasn’t really sure why the Tigers signed him, but if he does that in the regular season, I’ll be happy to admit I was wrong.

On the offensive side, Craig Monroe continues to pick up strikeouts. As does Brandon Inge. Otherwise, the Tigers had three strikeouts in 42 appearances. Chris Shelton went 2-for-3 with two runs in his first game of the Spring.

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