Pitchers and Catchers Have Reported

Spring Training has begun! The Tigers come in with a few questions. The biggest will be who will win the second base job. Carlos Guillen isn't expected to be ready for the start of the regular season, as he's still recovering from knee micro-fracture surgery, the result of Brett Gardner's take-out attempt at second base while Guillen stood in to complete a game ending doubleplay against the Yankees.

There's some talk that Scott Sizemore looks alot better this year, having fully recovered from an off-season broken ankle that limited him most of last year. Will Rhymes showed a good all-around game late last year. Danny Worth is the best glove of the three, but the weakest bat.

It remains to be determined if Ryan Raburn will win the left field job outright or perhaps Brennan Boesch or Casper Wells will play well enough to stick on the roster and earn a platoon. Boesch hit well in the first half last year. Wells hit pretty well late. Boesch is a left handed bat, maybe not quite at the massive premium as last season with the addition of Victor Martinez, but still something the team doesn't have alot of. Wells would be the second best defensive outfielder on the team behind Austin Jackson.

It seems like Don Kelly will make the team because he can play pretty much every position on the field well, including being a third catcher. That's needed for games when Alex Avila is catching and Victor Martinez is the DH. If a pinch hitter for Avila is needed that leaves Kelly with the ability to catch. Apparently Jim Leyland has said that Brandon Inge won't be asked to catch even in an emergency like that, even with his catching background.

There is possibly one bullpen spot up for grabs. The starting rotation is locked in now that Brad Penny is in and Armando Galarraga is gone. The spot of left handed relief specialist to replace Phil Coke, who's now a starter, is up in the air between a couple candidates. Daniel Schlereth pitched pretty well in late September which maybe gives him the inside track.

Getting Justin Verlander hot early is going to be important since he's been mediocre at best in April the last two seasons. Getting Rick Porcello going early will be big too. He was horrible up until August. Max Scherzer was horrible until July.

Getting some bats other than Miguel Cabrera hot early will also be big. Hopefully Austin Jackson can pick up where he left off last year, and Magglio Ordonez from where he left off when a broken ankle ended his season in late July. The offense has to give Cabrera more help than it did last year. He's probably not going to hit near .330 like he did last year. I'm sure he'll be near .300 or even higher, but .330 is alot to ask. Victor Martinez is hear to pick up some of that slack. Alex Avila will have to hit better than he did last season, and he'll need to hit better than the offensive black hole that was Gerald Laird.

So there's work to be done in spring training for sure.