Heading for the home stretch

Sorry about no post last night. Having a night game plus having Ilitch talk afterwards made for a long evening, and I pretty much crashed soon after I finished my notebook. I’m not suggesting anything Ilitch said Tuesday night was earth-shattering news, but it’s news nonetheless. I also don’t think Ilitch’s relationship with his new manager is going to be all that critical either. As Jim Leyland put it, he doesn’t think Ilitch is looking for a new best buddy, he thinks Ilitch is looking to win games.

The question now is how much what happens over the final week and a half determines whether or not the Tigers win. The off day each spring is usually the point where camp hits the final stretch and priorities change to figuring out the roster and putting everyone on track for opening day. The feature stories that clutter the first half of spring training pretty much vanish, and the analysis and smaller-picture pieces take over. Expect a lot of fifth starter and bullpen stories, starting with Verlander and Zumaya both pitching Thursday. You’re also probably going to read a lot about Leyland cramming a lot of fundmentals and strategy work into the final days now that his whole squad is here. This is where we’re going to see what effect the WBC really had on this team, because in any other year Leyland would’ve had weeks to work on these. The other upshot of the off day is that it provides a chance to check out the minor league games on the back fields.

Expect some more cuts coming Thursday. I’ll let you know if/when it happens.