Sunday Short Hops - 04/08

Happy Easter, everyone! It looks like the Tigers may have had their Easter egg hunt a day early, and found their home run bats. Nice to see the guys flex a little Motown muscle yesterday with three long balls. I was particularly happy to see Gary Sheffield's first home run in a Tigers uniform.

But not even the chilly April weather that's plaguing the Midwest and Northeast can cool off our main man, Curtis Granderson. So far, he's starting off the season very nicely, showing some power and improved patience at the plate. (And I'm also happy because he's making my fantasy team look good.) And the fun could continue against Duckworth, as Granderson has had some success against him (albeit in only three at-bats).

Jim Leyland's shuffling of the starting rotation (due to Thursday's postponement) leaves the Tigers with an appealing match-up today. Duckworth was likely set for AAA Omaha until Luke Hudson went to the DL with a shoulder injury.

▪▪  Today's Detroit Free Press has a harrowing feature on Carlos Guillen and a scary encounter with tuberculosis earlier in his career.

▪▪  Bad news on Vance Wilson's elbow injury.  Apparently, it's not healing as well as the Tigers would've hoped.  Looks like Mike Rabelo can get a bit more comfortable with the big league club for now.  Here's more (much more) from Mack Avenue Tigers.

▪▪  Yesterday's losing effort notwithstanding, Jason Whitlock is just fine with Gil Meche (but not so much with Mike Sweeney).

▪▪  On his blog at Yahoo! Sports, Jeff Passan sits back and enjoys the Tao of Leyland.

▪▪  And I don't know about you, but I've really enjoyed watching Tony Pena, Jr. play (despite him beating the Tigers on Friday). Today's Kansas City Star has a nice feature on the Royals' new shortstop sensation (three triples in the team's first four games) and the role his father played in his development.