Bless You Boys: An SB Nation Community

Navigation: Jump to content areas:



Around SBN: Phillies trade for OF Matt Stairs Bar-right-arrows



Could Dontrelle Willis Be Injured?

As Tigers fans covet the most colorful Easter egg that the team could've left in their basket, with the reported signing of Miguel Cabrera to an eight-year contract, perhaps there should be some concern about the teammate that also came to Detroit in that blockbuster December trade.  

Could there be something wrong with Dontrelle Willis that we don't know (or haven't been told) about?  From Buster Olney's ESPN.com blog yesterday (subscription):

One thing to watch with Willis: Two scouts who watched his last outing thought he might have been fighting some discomfort; he was shaking his arm and twisting his shoulder as if he were having trouble getting loose.

I watched some of the game, but admit I wasn't looking that closely at Willis while flipping back and forth between the Tigers game and NCAA Tournament first-round contests.  So I didn't notice Willis trying to get loose while he was on the mound.  

But in a Detroit News recap of Friday's effort against the Toronto Blue Jays - during which Willis gave up five runs, seven hits, and four walks in 3 1/3 innings - Tom Gage pointed out that Willis is the only Tigers starter who hasn't pitched at least four innings in an appearance this spring.

The D-Train, however, says he's fine and that he feels strong.  And Jim Leyland thinks (or is saying publicly) that Willis' struggles are due to his "funky delivery" (or "variations of funk," which would be a great name for a band) that hasn't found the right mechanical consistency, and thus made it difficult to locate his fastball.  

So do we chalk this up to the classic (trite) Spring Training excuse of "he's just working on something"?  Or is this the sort of thing that compelled Leyland to say the Tigers aren't ready for the regular season to begin?

0 recs | Comment 1 comments

Story-email Email | Print |

Comments

Display:

D-Train
Obviously, d isn't ready yet.  Only he and Chuck Hernandez can  really know what's going on.  I feel bad for him because he wants to do well and is very hard on himself.  At least he admits his failings and hopefully, he can move foreward from there.  

Grandy broke his finger, too.

by densogirl on Mar 23, 2008 10:38 AM EDT   0 recs

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

"Bless You Boys" was the catchphrase used by former Detroit sportscaster Al Ackerman when reporting a winning Tigers score.

FanPosts

Community blog posts and discussion.

Recent FanPosts

Tigers_small
Honest expectations for 2009
Halloween_2007_small
Fixing the Detroit Tigers
Halloween_2007_small
Projecting Armando Galarraga's 2009
Small
Question for you guys?
Misc_019_small
What is the fascination with Zumaya?
Peter_small
2009
Tigers_small
Tigers fans not loyal?
Tigers_small
Kyle Farnsworth was, is and always will be my Tiger
Old_english_d_small
Pudge to the yanks
Recent_family_ones_july__07_091_small
Help: What's your opinion of Ryan Raburn?

Post_icon New FanPost All FanPosts Carrot-mini


Site Meter