Thursday update
These can be the difficult days of spring training, when everyone is pretty much getting ready for opening day and the games seem to have no bearing on anything. That goes especially when the roster is already decided — yes, they have one more move to make, but Leyland has said he’s made up his mind and he’s waiting on procedures before he can do actually do it. (That means they’re waiting to see if Franklyn German can clear waivers.) Other than the Indians winning the prestigious Polk County Cup, there wasn’t really much going on Thursday.
Jeremy Bonderman gave up four runs on three homers today, but Leyland chalked it up to him falling out of his groove and putting about a handful of pitches in the same place. He adjusted out of it after that, as is his habit in the regular season. Another 2-for-4 day for Hafner, who’s up to .386 for the spring and looks to again be a thorn in the Tigers’ side.
Fernando Rodney looked good for two outs in the sixth before hitting Victor Martinez with a pitch. Martinez didn’t appreciate it, probably because Dmitri Young was hit in the previous inning. Rodney didn’t say anything, didn’t look Martinez’s way, but he walked off the mound in the direction of home plate. Martinez ended up scoring Cleveland’s go-ahead run, albeit in a spring training win.
Two more games to go, both against the Devil Rays. The Tigers won’t do batting practice tomorrow, instead opting to spend most of their morning on drills before hitting in the cage. They’ll work out Sunday and Tuesday in KC, too, and you get a feeling Leyland is trying to cram in as much work as he can before the season gets going.
Jason Beck
Jason , what does ‘procedures’ mean? Also, did Carlos Pena clear waivers do you know?
I am wondering how you feel about the team stumbling out of spring camp? The bats seems to be cooling off. Their record is good overall but much of those games were not played with the WBC participents.
By the way, I heard that Pena did clear waviers. Is that right?
Correct, Pena did clear waivers. The difference in that case was that since the Tigers released him, they didn’t have to wait for him to clear. Procedures means they have to wait for German to clear waivers before outrighting him to Toledo.
Maybe it is stumbling or maybe some of them are just tired of games that do not count. I hope it’s the later. A couple of them seemed to have only reached luke warm in the spring as well. Hopefully they can all turn it up a few notches when the bell rings. The pitching has been pretty good I think although I worry a little about the two lefties of last season. They’ve been about as good as they’ve been bad in the past but now we need them to be more good than bad. I’m really expecting Leyland to overhaul and improve there long haul performances. This mainly means deviating from Trammell’s pitching approach. I see that Infante played some in left field yesterday. May be a good idea and Leyland likes him too.