Morning Prowl: Victor Martinez, Al Alburquerque

Tigers meet after Sunday’s loss « Beck's Blog
Closed door meeting? Not officially anyway. But the players were clearly not happy about their recent performances.

Martinez on track for Wednesday return | tigers.com: News
Victor Martinez will be joining the Toledo Mud Hens for a couple of rehab games this week in Pawtucket and could return to the club as soon as Wednesday. Jim Leyland said he'll return to his No. 5 spot in the lineup. Which is good since Brennan Boesch has not been a good custodian of it as of late. Not decided yet is whether the Tigers will keep barely-used backup catcher Omir Santos

Detroit Tigers reliever Al Alburquerque matches feat last accomplished in 1984 by Willie Hernandez | MLive.com
Al-Al's slider was the stuff dreams are made of Saturday. Something like that anyway. He struck out six batters of the nine he faced, matching a feat by Willie Hernandez in 1984. It wasn't in this story, but Max Scherzer called Al-Al's slider one of the best he's seen. Certainly high praise. But that name? It has nothing to do with New Mexico, Al-Al says.

Tigers brass must address woeful offense — one way or another | detnews.com
I agree with Lynn Henning that the Tigers need help at third base. Re-signing Brandon Inge was for a multi-year deal was not the best move of the offseason. But really the thumpers in the lineup have to thump, and Austin Jackson has to get on base. If those things aren't happening, bringing David Wright to Detroit really just wastes prospects.

Why bunt, or not bunt, Saturday " Beck's Blog
There was some debate whether the Tigers made a good decision in not playing for one run in Saturday's game. With Cabrera on second in the 13th inning, Leyland opted not to have Boesch bunt Cabrera to third. MLB.com's Jason Beck points out Boesch has just one sacrifice bunt in his entire professional career, although the team could have brought Ramon Santiago off the bench to do the trick. At home, I think you do play for one run. One run is a walkoff. On the road giving away an out is a little more dicey, and the Tigers' batting order as of late doesn't give a lot of confidence in getting a run home from third either way.

Coming soon to Detroit: Ex-Tiger Curtis Granderson | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
As strange as it seems, Curtis Granderson has not returned to Detroit since the Tigers traded him during the 2009-10 offseason. He was injured during New York's trip to Comerica Park last season. Granderson remains my favorite non-Tiger, but that's probably not going to change. I just hope he has an unproductive couple of days, or if he's productive, the rest of his team isn't!

DesigNate Robertson: The Magical Return of a Strange Visitor from the East
If we have to bully Rogo into writing these more, we will. It's actually one of my favorite themes at any Tigers site out there.

Tigers on the bus | Roar of the Tigers
Only Sam could imagine the fun bus trip the Tigers must have taken from Comerica Park to Cleveland this weekend while the Red Wings had the Ilitch plane out on the west coast. Based on my understanding of minor league bus trips thanks to Dirk Hayhurst, it seems Inge is the one enjoying himself the most.

MLB.com: Royals sweep Twins
We mean realllly enjoying the baseball season.

MLB.com: Mayday! Mayday! Someone save the struggling Sox!
It seems only the Indians and Royals are enjoying the baseball season this year.

When does 'still early' become 'too late?' | whitesox.com
Paragraph of interest:
"There was a lot of complicated math in Jazayerli's study, but his conclusion was that, generally speaking, a team is what it is at about the 48-game mark. There are lots of exceptions to the rule, including last year's White Sox, but the rule of thumb is that once that threshold is reached, a team's current record has as much predictive value as any kind of preseason projection."