Mike Berardino of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel talks to assistant general manager about Al Avila about the growing phenomenon that is Rick Porcello. Once again, the comparison with Josh Beckett is invoked, but is Porcello ahead of him at this stage of development?
(The article is syndicated on Freep.com today, as well.)
Detroit Free Press photographer Eric Seals sent along links to a video he shot of the Tigers' picture day. It's pretty entertaining to see the whole roster go by in fast-forward. He also shot another video with fans getting autographs in Lakeland and thoughts from a few players about their signatures.
(The video is embeddable, so I can post them here later on. But for now, it only seems fair to point you to Freep.com.)
The Sports Mitten takes a walk on the bright side of Tigers Spring Training so far, and looks at what's shaping up to be a promising bullpen.
Speaking of that bullpen, Jason Beck highlights Scott Williamson's rebound from his disastrous Sunday performance with two perfect innings yesterday.
In that same blog post, Beck also mentions how Rick Knapp's knee-to-knee dril has really helped Casey Fien.
I don't feel quite as bad about not knowing that Netherlands WBC hero Yurendell de Caster was in the Tigers' minor league system, since Ramon Santiago had no idea, either.
As he did with the Tigers batters, Blake looks at what might have been with the Detroit pitching staff had the front office made different decisions with a couple of contracts.
The Daily Fungo posted a video you may have seen before, but one worth watching again: Conan O'Brien visiting some folks playing old-time (1860s-style) baseball and the surprisingly attractive women who watch them.
(Come back soon, Conan! Jimmy Fallon's pretty good so far, but he's no Conebone.)