JASON BECK'S SPRING TRAINING NOTES

Day 1: Prince Fielder’s rock show hits Lakeland
BECK'S BLOG
Posted on February 20, 2012 at 6:54 pm

Let’s be honest: It’s not as if the Tigers haven’t had a superstar before. They didn’t have one when Ivan Rodriguez signed in 2004, which made him the potential savior of a 119-loss team as soon as his car pulled into the parking lot at Tigertown that February. Miguel Cabrera was a superstar on the field when the Tigers got him about four years later.

Justin Verlander has pitched his way into superstar status, complete with his image on the cover of a video game and a cereal box, and his face on Conan. In many ways, he’s the face of the franchise, and baseball’s headline attraction each time he takes the mound.



Still, there’s something about Prince Fielder. And his arrival at camp Monday drew a reception that hasn’t been seen here in a while, whether from television cameras, microphones, fans or even teammates. Maybe it’s the fact that he grew up a Tiger. Maybe it goes back to the draw of a big home-run hitter. Or maybe it’s the fact that one of the best free agents on the market actually chose Detroit. Or it might even be the fact that a Tiger has the third-largest contract in baseball, . Whatever the reasons, Fielder’s arrival Monday had the attention of an event.

Fans, who had been asking when he was expected to show for a couple days, lined up against the fence separating the practice complex from the clubhouse for a chance at his autograph. Photographers followed his every move around the fields, then his interaction with fans. His warmup throws with new teammate Miguel Cabrera became a sight.

Teammates weren’t immune to it, either.



“When star players show up, people take notice,” manager Jim Leyland said. “They might say they don’t, but they do, particularly the young guys. I don’t mean they’re in awe or anything, but heck, that’s pretty nice. Heck, that’s a thrill.”

Then he took batting practice with Cabrera — back-to-back, like they’re expected to bat in the order when the games start.

“It was fun,” said Brennan Boesch, who shagged fly balls (or watched home runs) while they hit. “I mean, they’re in my opinion the best left- and right-handed hitters — especially with power — in the game. They’re great hitters, too. They’re not just sluggers. Obviously, everyone knows what they can do — Prince from the left side, Miguel from the right. So it’s a deadly combination to have, and you’re glad to have them on our side.”

The chemistry seemed to be immediate, Cabrera watching Fielder’s homers in awe, and Fielder joking about how hard Cabrera hits the ball.

“Double,” Cabrera said about one of his own drives to the gap.

“What???” Fielder exclaimed, looking out beyond the fence. “You hit that alligator.”

There was no alligator out there; Lake Parker, where many a gator call home, is beyond even these sluggers’ reach. But you get the point: They enjoyed hitting with each other, and they admire talent.

And a lot of fans admire what Fielder can do, which is why he had the crowd he had. Whether Fielder relishes that kind of response or not — he said he got used to people asking for autographs when he was a kid — he’s getting that reception.

(Page down after photo for more camp notes)



Speaking of rock stars: Look for a bigger story Tuesday, but Justin Verlander talked with reporters Monday morning about his upcoming season and how he worked this offseason. He said he turned down some off-field opportunities this winter because they would have interfered with his training routine.

“What I tried to do,” he said, “was choose the things that would be fun and brought the most attention to the Tigers, myself, the organization, the city. Those are basically the things that I kept in mind. And obviously, doing the Conan show was huge, being on the cover of the game, going out and shooting the commercial. And I’m doing a couple other cities that are in the works but haven’t come out yet.”

The Conan appearance, he said, was “awesome. That was a lot of fun. I was a little nervous going into it, didn’t know how I’d feel. Then I sit down in the chair and just start talking and I felt very at ease and just had fun with it.”

That, he said, was his favorite thing of the offseason.

“That, and shooting a commercial with Kate Upton isn’t too bad,” he said with a smile.

Monday, by the way, was Verlander’s 29th birthday. He got a watch.

Actual workout item of the day: Watch these drills for enough years, and it sometimes looks like a ritual rather than an actual exercise. But manager Jim Leyland takes these things seriously, and he lets players know if he doesn’t like what he’s seeing. He met with one group of pitchers during pickoff drills and hammered home the point that they need to make their pickoff move look as much like a normal delivery as possible until they’re whirling and firing. Of course, Leyland has been hammering home the need for Tigers pitchers not named Verlander to hold runners better for a few years now.

The Tigers don’t have all-day workouts, but when they’re working, Leyland wants them to be productive. He didn’t use his most common phrase today — Work Hard, but Work Smart — but he related it to game situations.

“I think it makes you better in close games during the season if you have more discipline,” Leyland said. “I truly believe that. I believe disciplined teams perform better from the seventh inning on.”

Actual workout item runner-up: Nobody, and I mean nobody, has more fun in spring training workouts than Jose Valverde. I said it last year, and the year before, and it still holds.

Valverde was yelling and cheering during random parts of pitchers fielding practice Monday morning. He covered first base with a flair every once in a while, drawing a cheer from the fans in attendance. He slammed his glove to the ground in mock disgust when Phil Coke missed a throw to first. He doesn’t blow these drills off, mind you, but he has fun doing that.

The better sign of who takes these early workouts seriously will come when Jim Leyland starts trying to hit fungoes past pitchers during infield work.

Non-workout item of the day: Remember when Gerald Laird joked a few days ago that he would be picking up whatever loose change fell out of Prince Fielder’s locker next to him, because “he’s making $213 million more than I am.”

Fielder saw it, and joked upon his arrival Monday that he would be watching his money.

“Yeah, I heard about that,” Fielder said. “I’m going to make sure I keep all my change in my pocket.”

Quote of the day: “Beck, you missed my bullpen.” — Don Kelly on his way in from batting practice. He did not actually throw a bullpen session.

Day 2: Peralta prepares for new rapport
BECK'S BLOG
Posted on February 21, 2012 at 7:14 pm

It takes a very secure individual to hit in the same batting practice group as Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder. But Jhonny Peralta wasn’t particularly worried about that as he watched the two launch home runs into the back trees on the Tigertown complex Monday.

Like everyone else around, he just took it in. Then he went about his regular routine, hitting line drives to left field and looking for solid contact.

Peralta has been in this situation before. He was part of a powerhouse lineup in Cleveland in 2007 that included Victor Martinez, Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore. But that, he said, doesn’t compare to this.

“It’s unbelievable watching those two hitting,” Peralta said of Cabrera and Fielder Tuesday morning. “They make it look so easy and they go out so far.”

It takes a similarly confident individual to handle the potential brunt of the infield shift that will put Fielder and Cabrera on the corners. But Peralta, who grew accustomed to Brandon Inge’s range at third last year, doesn’t seem worried about that either.

Peralta is going about his business, like he always does.

Tigers officials have said Cabrera’s return to third base will have no impact on Peralta at shortstop, that Peralta won’t be called on to make do anything more than he did last year. There will be balls hit to third that Cabrera might not get, that Inge might have gotten, but it won’t fall on Peralta to make up for it.

Peralta saw Cabrera play at third base during a three-game Interleague series in 2007 and a couple times in the opening month of the 2008 season, but doesn’t remember much of it. He’s going into it with an open mind, ready to learn what Cabrera can do.

“We need to see how it goes in Spring Training, see how he goes to the left side,” Peralta said. “That’s why we’re here in Spring Training.”

Peralta spent the offseason going through the same training program he had last offseason, when he made the transition from third base back to full-time shortstop.

Road to nowhere: Infielder Danny Worth reported to camp Tuesday after arriving in Lakeland around 1 a.m. His cross-country drive from southern California took about 2 1/2 days after getting in his car and hitting the road Saturday afternoon.

It would’ve been about two hours shorter, but he lost his way in Oklahoma, where he was intending to change interstates off of I-40 and head further south at some point.

“I just missed the highway,” he said. “I took a wrong turn around Oklahoma City.”

That led him onto the back roads of Oklahoma and Texas, an adventure he joked about on his twitter account.

“Every house looks like it could be in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” he said.

He made it, but this might be the last time he tries. He has driven the trip the last few years so that he would have his own car around and could ship it north with the team once the season starts, but he’s thinking he might fly and have his car shipped to Florida from now on.

“Boesch always makes fun of my driving,” Worth said as Boesch shook his head from the next locker over.



Actual workout item of the day: As chronicled on the site Tuesday, nobody provides a running commentary on his own Spring Training mound sessions like Justin Verlander. He took an intensity and a purpose into every pitch he threw last Spring Training, and he’s doing the same this time around. So when he doesn’t like a pitch, it isn’t hard to tell.



Sometimes, it’s clean enough for publication, like when he asks his catcher (Gerald Laird, in Tuesday’s case) about location and life on a pitch. Other times, he’ll simply mutter in frustration. But he lets it loose with game velocity.

His opinion on his first formal throwing session this camp was mixed.

“It went OK,” he said. “Not as good as I would like, but not as bad either. The major thing at this point is making sure the ball’s coming out all right and my mechanics are good.”



Non-workout item of the day: For years, we’ve heard Jim Leyland talk about Tony La Russa and reference their many phone conversations. La Russa’s arrival in camp Tuesday morning to start a two-week stint shadowing Dave Dombrowski was a chance to see their rapport in person.

“I’ve got one goal,” La Russa said. “That’s to have him stop smoking and eat tofu.”

Later, La Russa said, “He’ll eat tofu before he stops smoking.”

Leyland shot back, “I didn’t start smoking until I started coaching for him.”

At one point, Leyland called closer Jose Valverde into his office because La Russa wanted to meet him. Valverde walked out of the office like he had been told he’d been traded.

At another point, Miguel Cabrera came in on his own and introduced himself.

La Russa: “Is he on your team, too?”

Leyland: “You’re not the only guy who had a Pujols.”

Quote of the day: “I’m looking for a legitimate, confident swagger, without being a total, cocky [jerk]. I don’t have any problem with guys that talk it, if they can back it up.” — Leyland

Day 3: The road back for Alburquerque
BECK'S BLOG
Posted on February 22, 2012 at 8:53 pm

While Tigers pitchers build up their arms on the bullpen mounds at Tigertown, lined up one after another, Al Alburquerque is back in the weight room, working out on his own.

Some days, he’s getting in cardio work, getting his body in shape. Other days, he’s strengthening his arm around his surgically repaired elbow. All the while, he’s trying to keep his focus in the weight room, not letting it wander out to the fields.

It isn’t easy for him, but he’s pretty steadfast about it right now.

“I keep my mind only on working, working, working,” he said. “That’s it.”

For somebody coming off a breakthrough season before a bone fracture in his elbow cost him the first half of this season, Alburquerque’s spirits are remarkably high. He has talked with teammates who have been through the rehab process, including new Tiger Octavio Dotel, and he’s confident he can make it back. He’s determined to make it back by the All-Star break, as Tigers medical personnel have cautiously forecast.

So far, it is difficult to see him on a given day without a smile on his face.

Like Alburquerque, Joel Zumaya had a screw inserted into his elbow to stabilize the joint after a fracture. When he tried to come back last spring, he made it through one outing before pain in his elbow shut down. Eventually, Zumaya had to undergo the surgery again, this time with noted surgeon Dr. James Andrews inserting a titanium screw.

There’s a difference in the situations. For one thing, Alburquerque said, the fracture is in a different location. Also, Dr. Andrews didn’t do Zumaya’s first surgery, but he did Alburquerque’s. He also used a titanium screw.

As long as Alburquerque makes it back, he’s supremely confident he can be effective. He also could be somebody who makes a big impact on this team down the stretch.

Early arrivals piling up: Brandon Inge has never been a particularly early arrival at Tigers’ Spring Training, except for maybe the days when he was a catcher and had a responsibility to work with Detroit pitchers. That was never going to change this year at age 34. So the fact that he isn’t here yet shouldn’t be a surprising development, and probably not a statement about his feelings about his situation.

He knows what he needs to do to get ready for the season, and he knows what early workouts entail. He also knows his situation with the Tigers isn’t going to change whether he shows up early or not.

What makes Inge’s status stand out this year compared to others is the fact that so many others have reported early. Andy Dirks, who was in the Dominican Republic for winter ball from mid-December until Feb. 10, reported to Tigers camp on Wednesday, ending his brief trip home to Kansas to rest up. He was probably the last player besides Inge with report with a realistic chance to make the 25-man roster.

There are others on the 40-man roster who haven’t yet reported, but they’re coming from other countries, such as Avisail Garcia and Hernan Perez from Venezuela. Victor Martinez hasn’t yet made an appearance, but his knee injury makes his situation different. He’s expected to stop in at some point, but won’t be doing much with the team, mainly rehabbing on his own while he awaits his surgery to repair his ACL.

Inge has a conversion to do if he’s going to compete for the job at second base, but that work doesn’t begin until full-squad workouts do this weekend. Most of what position players do this week has involving hitting work in the cage and batting practice on the field.

Actual workout item of the day: Though Doug Fister made his name as a Tiger down the stretch run and postseason last year, you can make the case that the coaching staff is still learning him. After all, this is his first Spring Training with the club. What they’ve seen so far is looking just as impressive.

Jim Leyland doesn’t usually like to rave about particular pitchers and their bullpen sessions, because they’re bullpen sessions. But Fister stood out to him on Wednesday.

“You can see why he’s successful,” Leyland said. “He does the one thing that we preach forever in this game, and preach long after I’m gone: Command your fastball. He’s really good at it. I mean, he was throwing today, and wherever [the catcher] wanted to catch it, that’s where he threw it.

“To me, he’s really a guy that I’d be watching if I was a young guy, just because of what he can do with the ball, where he could put it. I mean, he’s a perfect example of what we’ve talked about for a thousand years: Command your fastball. It’s only his second time throwing down here, and he was throwing the ball pretty much right to where he wanted to every time.”

Others who watched Fister on Wednesday added it wasn’t simply fastball command. He could make his fastball move one way or another, seemingly at will, and hit the spot. It’s something not often seen from tall, lanky pitchers, and certainly not at a young age.

Non- workout item of the day: The folks behind Justin Verlander’s Fastball Flakes were at Joker Marchant Stadium on Wednesday, giving up free boxes for players and reporters. And Verlander, whenever he saw somebody snacking on it, asked them how it was.

The reviews are good. They’re corn flakes with a frosting of sugar, and according to the box, they’re a fat-free food. If you live in Michigan, they’re available at Meijer store, with Verlander donating his share of the proceeds to the VA medical centers in Detroit and Ann Arbor.

The company behind the cereal has been successful with similar products in other cities. In Cincinnati, for instance, you will soon find a cereal named for Joey Votto, fittingly resembling Cheerios. In Pittsburgh, you will find Fleury Flakes cereal, named for Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.

Non-workout item of the day, part 2: Octavio Dotel and Daniel Schlereth are both listed at six feet tall, which led to the question of which one is actually taller. So Schlereth, being a good sport, stood next to Dotel in the clubhouse and measured. Turns out Dotel is a little bit taller.

Schlereth considers himself to be a tick over 5-foot-10. He is not the shortest pitcher in the league. Royals left-hander Tim Collins, for one, is listed at 5-foot-7. Schlereth broke into the big leagues in 2009 with the Diamondbacks as a teammate of Tom Gordon, who’s listed at 5-foot-9.

Quote of the day: “I know they’re really good, but even if you’re really good, you burp.” — Jim Leyland on the Detroit Red Wings’ NHL record home winning streak, now at 23 games.

Guillen has a place in Tigers history
BECK'S BLOG
Posted on March 6, 2012 at 8:40 pm

Carlos Guillen wasn’t the first move in the Tigers’ comeback from 119 losses to the World Series in three years (remember Rondell White, Fernando Vina and Jason Johnson?), but he was the first one that really paid off. He was the consolation prize for the Tigers losing out on Rich Aurilia, the shortstop who was supposedly their earlier target. But when the M’s got Aurilia, they basically unloaded Guillen on Detroit for Ramon Santiago and a middling shortstop prospect named Juan Gonzalez.

Aurilia was dealt out of Seattle by the trading deadline, sent back to the National League. Guillen’s career took off in Detroit, where he spent eight seasons. Without him, they don’t make the comeback. Heck, without Guillen, they might not have been able to woo Pudge Rodriguez a couple weeks later, or Magglio Ordonez the next winter.

As difficult as it was for Tigers fans to find patience through Guillen’s injuries over the last four years — the knee surgery, calves and back problems, shoulder issue, and other bumps and bruises that aged him in a hurry through his early 30s — his prime years became overshadowed. He had a .920 OPS in 2004 and 2006, and just missed another .300 with 21 homers and 102 RBIs in 2007. He had the highest Wins Above Replacement of any player on the 2006 team, topped only by Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer and Grady Sizemore among AL players. He also hit for the cycle that year, the last Tiger to do so.

He still had his moments in his later years. He homered 11 times and drove in 35 runs in 57 games down the stretch in 2009, an .874 OPS for a player whose shoulder basically reduced him to a left-handed hitter for the rest of that playoff race. His willingness to stand in on a double play with Brett Gardner barreling in on his shoulder basically won them a game at Yankee Stadium in 2010, while also leading to microfracture surgery for his knee. And of course, there was the home run off Jered Weaver last July.

In one of his last games before he got hurt again last September, he went 3-for-5 against the White Sox in Chicago, plating the first run on his final Major League homer and driving in the go-ahead run in the 10th inning for another victory in their 12-game winning streak.

He was sidelined far too long the last few seasons, but he had his moments. Added with his prime years, and his body of work is worthy of being remembered as one of the biggest parts in the Tigers resurgence.

Game 5: Tigers remain unbeaten
BECK'S BLOG
Posted on March 8, 2012 at 3:46 am

Jim Leyland says each spring training before the games start that he has three goals in mind:

1. Get the Major League roster ready to play.
2. Try to get a look at some of the prospects in camp.
3. Play close to .500 ball so that the fans don’t get nervous.

They’re playing a lot better than that for the first handful of games, which is doing nothing to temper expectations for the regular season.

Normally, when a team goes on a dominant stretch of play in spring training, it means the team has more depth in prospects and minor-league free agents than other clubs. And to be fair, Quintin Berry helped win a game for the Tigers a couple days ago with a two-run triple. But for the most part, this run the Tigers are on centers around a starting lineup — including eight RBIs on three hits in three games from Ryan Raburn — and a pretty stingy pitching staff.

They’re scoring a good number of their runs in the early innings against the Major League portion of their opponents’ rosters. Of course, most of those runs came on that windy Sunday afternoon against the Braves, and against one of baseball’s best pitching prospects.

Take away Sunday’s 18-3 win, and the Tigers have still won four games by a 14-4 margin, not counting Florida Southern. They’ve allowed just seven runs all spring, and two of them came in the eighth inning of that 18-3 game.

“We’re doing OK,” Leyland said. “What I like we’re getting some guys in there and everybody’s getting their work in. I mean, you always want to win games, but I don’t care that we’re 4-0 or whatever we are. You always want to play around .500. We’re OK win-wise, but we’ve got a lot of work. We’re getting a lot of work in. That’s good.”

What we learned: Miguel Cabrera can handle a slow roller.

What to remember from Game 5: Jacob Turner, for all the poise he shows, is still just 20. So if he falls out of form, like he did Wednesday, he might have more trouble getting back into it when he knew he only had a couple innings. At the same time, Andy Oliver is looking early like he’s moving on from last year.

Hey, it’s only Spring Training: If you thought that Miguel Cabrera’s 0-for-8 start was the sign of a longer slump, that maybe he would have trouble hitting at a lower weight, your concerns might have been a bit premature. Not only did Cabrera go deep for his first hit of the spring Wednesday, he hit it all the way over the left-field berm. He’s 1-for-10 so far this spring, but the lone hit was impressive.

The highlight play you missed: It wasn’t necessarily a highlight play, but for Cabrera’s transition to third base, Tyler Pastornicky’s slow roller was an important one. Cabrera had to charge in, but at the same time, he also took into account the lesson he learned the other day about not rushing a play, fielding and throwing with just enough time to get the out.

Looking ahead: The Tigers will potentially get a look at former teammates Fernando Rodney and Will Rhymes on Thursday, taking on a Rays split-squad at Port Charlotte. Doug Fister will get the start, with fifth starter candidate Duane Below among those pitching in relief.

To-do list for Thursday: Watch Fister take on much the same Rays squad that he shut down for a critical win last August.

Game 7: It had to end sometime
BECK'S BLOG
Posted on March 10, 2012 at 12:50 am

Maybe the Tigers really are ahead of everybody else this spring. Or at least they were.

Maybe the six days of live batting practice Tigers pitchers threw to Tigers hitters really did make a difference on both sides, giving the hitters a better sense of timing and the pitchers stronger command (Jacob Turner aside). Manager Jim Leyland isn’t going to have that much live BP next spring, but as long as they’re benefiting, he won’t apologize for it this time around.

The live BP was Jeff Jones’ idea in his first Spring Training as the pitching coach. He helped out Rick Knapp in years past, but this was his first spring really in charge of the program.

“I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve swung the bats pretty good,” Leyland said Friday morning, before the loss. “They were throwing pretty hard to our hitters right off the bat.”

Maybe it did lead to an absolutely dominant week of Tigers baseball. And except for a regrettable pitch from Adam Wilk for a Carlos Ruiz three-run homer, and a bad inning for long relief candidate David Pauley, that Grapefruit League winning streak might be continuing, though it probably would’ve ended this weekend anyway with the split-squad matchups on Sunday.

The streak is over now after Friday’s 7-5 loss to the Phillies. Moreover, if the Tigers simply were ahead of other teams, that advantage is going to disappear quick. If they keep winning from here on out, especially down the stretch as rosters shrink and depth guys head to minor league camp, then they’re probably just plain better.

Keep in mind, Patterson today was probably the first case where a non-roster player was the primary source of the Tigers offense. The other exception might be Jerad Head in the low-scoring battle that opened the spring training schedule. Patterson was able to pounce on a couple of Halladay mistakes — one of them a cutter, the other a hanging changeup.

What we learned: Eric Patterson has some power, enough that pitchers have to stay honest.

What to remember from Game 7: The Tigers haven’t forgotten about David Pauley, but they haven’t handed him a spot either, which makes his struggle in the sixth inning a tough spot. Leyland said Pauley got hurt on two bad pitches they didn’t miss and two pretty good pitches that they managed to hit.

Hey, it’s only Spring Training: Patterson is not going to be a budding power hitter. He played in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League last year and still hit just five home runs between Triple-A Tucson and San Diego. He added a third hit later when he knocked a comebacker off the pitcher’s backside, and he singled for a fourth hit in the ninth inning.

The highlight play you missed: Don Kelly made a diving stop on Hunter Pence’s ground ball hit down the third base line. He couldn’t stop the base hit, though he tried to make the throw to first. The play, however, made a big impact on the Tigers infield defense.