Tiger Geist

What I’ll be watching for this spring:

1)  How does Gerald Laird want his career to turn out?  An above average to excellent defender, or as a balanced baseball player?  Laird was so bad offensively in 2009 that Detroit went through three backup catchers trying to improve the position.  As much flak Brandon Inge has received in the past, at least he took giant strides to improving his hitting by adjusting his swing in the winter and spring of 2009.  What will Laird do to improve himself?  Contract year, and he may have a hard time reaching his current salary of $4million without an increase in offensive production.

2) Brandon Inge is in his contract year, coming off a serious injury, and detroit has a serious lack of depth at third.  Will Detroit make a move, or shift a player?  What about shortstop, where Adam Everett signed another one year offer in the off-season.  Does Brent Dlugach switch positions to third, or does Detroit keep him at short in Toledo?  Does Detroit have anyone close to major league ready in case of injuries to the left side of the infield?

3) How long will Detroit play the Dontrelle Willis charade?  As Jason Beck mentions, Phil Coke may not get a shot at starting since there are only so many innings in the spring.  So what is Detroit’s move?  Keep Willis until final cut-down, hoping for an physical injury…. hope for an injury settlement due to his anxiety disorder, or cut him hoping to recoup $400k if another team picks Willis up?  There is no way Willis goes north on the 25 man roster.  When will Detroit man up to that fact?

4) Detroit’s young outfield.  How will guys like Wilkin Ramirez, Casper Wells, Brennan Boesch play this spring?  Will they further push Carlos Guillen?  What kind of battle will Ryan Raburn and Clete Thomas put up, on a team that may only have room for one of them?  I’m still not ready to hand the centerfield job to Austin Jackson.

5) Is there any swagger to the Tigers?  Does anyone step up in the clubhouse?  This one might be hard for a fan to figure out.  Maybe this is a reason the Tigers are so big on Johnny Damon… there is no clubhouse leader.  I had always this pegged this on Carlos Guillen or Gerald Laird, but there isn’t one.  How do we know?  If Detroit had a strong clubhouse leader… Miguel Cabrera would never have played his fateful game late last season.  The front office whiffed on their chance to bench Cabrera… Jim Leyland whiffed on his chance… and the players didn’t do anything about it.  Would Derek Jeter or Paul O’Neill have allowed Cabrera to play?  Not a chance.