Friday update

I know the Tigers offense looks mighty impressive by the numbers after two numbers, but keep in mind the opponent. The Reds are the Reds; they’ll hit up a storm again this year, but building a pitching staff is the biggest challenge the new regime in Cincinnati will face. Plus, most of the pitchers the Tigers faced the past two games are on the fringe of that staff at best.

That said, Carlos Guillen and Magglio Ordonez look like they’re getting their timing down already. Ordonez hit a first-inning drive so hard off the left-field fence, the best he could do was a single. That wasn’t Ordonez being slow; that was a liner being smacked. The Tigers will lose them next week, but the way they look now, it won’t cost them anything from a training standpoint.

If you’re wondering why the Tigers had the DH in a National League park Friday, it’s because the Reds wanted it. The Tigers will also have it when they go to Vero Beach to face the Dodgers and to Clearwater to face the Phillies. They will not have it, however, against the Braves at Disney World. Kind of makes all that pitchers BP seem like it went to waste, but Leyland said he wouldn’t have had them bat this early in Spring Training regardless.

Speaking of Leyland, he’ll stick to his plan and go with the split-squad to Winter Haven Saturday against the Indians. He doesn’t need to look at how Rogers is progressing. He does need to look at Ledezma and Zumaya.

Leyland went out of his way to praise pitching coach Chuck Hernandez for his emphasis with pitchers on locating the fastball. He knows Verlander and Zumaya can fire away, but they’ll have to spot those fastballs if they want to impress this staff. Simply throwing a ball 100 miles per hour isn’t going to do it.

Hope that helps. I’m staying back with the Tigers at home against Italy Saturday, so hopefully that’ll complement those of you listening to the other game against the Indians on the radio.