Morning Prowl: Zumaya, Porcello, Firesales, and Rumors

I think the theme of it was “they’re both from wisconsin and wisconsin is near michigan, right?”

No, I didn’t know that off the top of my head. I heardn’t heard of either play, haha!

Verlander looks pretty filthy today

Great to hear about Verlander’s positive outing! In my opinion, with the pitching situation that is before us, I will really depend on the coaching to utilize the players for the wins. I would like to see more aggressive base running, selective pitching in key situations and a return to playing “small-ball”. Yes, this is common sense (even though most of the time it is not that common!), but hopefully the Tiger’s do not leave pitchers to self-destruct over the course of multiple innings…In times like these, it is time to get creative!

Just got home from work and recorded the game on the DVR. Thank God, I checked the score before I watched! Brandon Lyon is going to kill me.

Well, hopefully the Tigers will get off to a good start. If they have a good team people will find a way to buy tickets. Probably single game tickets and maybe no 40,000 plus every home game, but the stands will be full if they are winning. If they can’t win, then get rid of some of them at the All Star break or end of the season.

We really do have a good team, but whose gonna step up and be our closer?

From Kevin Goldstein’s Spring Training Notebook at BP:

“As for one of the key pieces that Detroit received in return for Maybin, lefty Dontrelle Willis continues to be anything but special in Tigers camp, and one evaluator isn’t sure that he’ll ever be able to return to All-Star form. "There are three things that stuck out for me when I saw him this spring,” he began. “First, he’s a lot heavier—his thighs are enormous, and I think that impedes his athleticism on the mound, as he can’t contort his body the way he used to. Second, his mechanics are different. They’ve ‘cleaned up’ his delivery, but that actually makes him less effective, because it’s taken away his deception. He was a freak before, and would never throw the same pitch from the same slot, but now he’s just an ordinary three-quarters [delivery] guy.” Using his final point to explain how these physical issues may be effecting him mentally, he continued, “Third, his mound presence and demeanor are different. He looks content to survive and does not display any confidence out there. He worked behind most hitters and would shake off his catcher—almost as if to say ’it’s OK, I got it’—whenever he would fall into trouble.” The bottom line, the scout summarized, is that Willis is nowhere near ready for a rotation job. “His line was awful when I saw him, and the opponent bailed him out with some double plays and hard-hit balls right at people,” he said. “If that was the regular season with a full big-league lineup, he would have had no shot.”"