At last, the games are about to begin! In roughly three days, this will be old news but today this is exciting buzz time. Tomorrow afternoon, the Detroit Tigers take the field for their yearly exhibition against Florida Southern. James Schmehl of MLive posted the lineup set to take the field in the first inning:
1. Austin Jackson, CF
2. Brennan Boesch, RF
3. Miguel Cabrera, 3B
4. Prince Fielder, 1B
5. Delmon Young, LF
6. Alex Avila, C
7. Jhonny Peralta, SS
8. Andy Dirks, DH
9. Ryan Raburn, 2B
Snap impressions? The top of the order looks pretty good to me -- and I suspect the first seven spots are a good projection of the opening-day order. Of course, we all hope Jackson learns how to get on base more often by then. Talk of an improved swing in the offseason (which is really no different than talk of adding a changeup) has optimism buoyed on that front. But really, there aren't a lot of great options for leadoff unless you intend to go completely non-traditional. And we all know that's not going to happen.
You can quarrel a bit whether you want to see Delmon Young batting so high, but at least he's not second or third, right? Manager Jim Leyland is clearly trying to take advantage of going righty-lefty-right-lefty-righty-lefty-etc in the order.
What say you?