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.

Sorry to neglect the blog the last couple days. Between opening day stuff, a long drive to Vero and a sometimes glitchy computer, it's been a tiring couple days, but we should be OK from here on out. Anyway, to review the roster moves:

Logan, Gomez, Kelly, Mercado, Woodyard, Hessman and now Roman Colon are headed to the minors, presumably Triple-A Toledo for all of them. Former Twins catcher Rob Bowen has been added. So between now and Saturday, the Tigers have to cut a pitcher (German most likely, Grilli possibly) and figure out what to do with Bowen.

Bowen is out of options, so he has to either go north with the big club or go through waivers again. I'm guessing it's the latter, since there's no real reason to carry three catchers and Bowen hasn't shown any reason to stick.

1. Pena was the classic example of a player needing a change of scenery. Leyland said as much before the game, and while I'm not as confident as other people he'll blossom somewhere else, I'm certain he would never do it here if he stayed. There's been too much history to let that happen. Pena wasn't going to get the at-bats needed to emerge at the big-league level. Even if he was the only first baseman here, he was pressing far too much to make any difference here. The big salary was working against him developmentally, and he wouldn't have taken an assignment back to the minors well enough to get enough out of it. He might come back to bite the Tigers, but can it really be called that when he had zero chance of doing the same thing here?

2. Don't be surprised if other players start asking Leyland where they stand on this team, as Pena did. Leyland said once he got to Legends Field this morning, another player asked to see him and asked that same question. In this case, Leyland couldn't give a definitive answer. He was either going to make the team, not make the team, or be traded. Leyland wouldn't name the player. I checked a couple of likely suspects who made the trip, and both said it wasn't them.

The Tigers released Carlos Pena this morning. They'll owe him 45 days pay, meaning $700,000 of his $2.8 million salary. Details to follow.

For anyone who cares, the Reds signed former Tigers center fielder Alex Sanchez to a minor-league contract this weekend. He'll report to minor-league camp, not the major league version. We'll see if that starts Sanchez on the path of Triple-A veteran so many other ex-Tigers have followed or if he can salvage something out of a career that has plummeted in the last 12 months and 10 days.

By the way, former Mud Hen Dewayne Wise looked like he had a chance to win a spot on the Reds roster as a backup outfielder, but he sprained his ankle Friday night.

Take a good look at the lineup from Saturday, because Jim Leyland said he'd use it if the opener was today:

1. Curtis Granderson, CF
2. Placido Polanco, 2B
3. Ivan Rodriguez, C
4. Magglio Ordonez, RF
5. Dmitri Young, DH
6. Craig Monroe, LF
7. Carlos Guillen, SS
8. Chris Shelton, 1B
9. Brandon Inge, 3B

Having Guillen and Shelton batting seventh and eighth is a pretty good sign of balance in the lineup if everyone stays healthy. Batting Pudge back in the third spot will probably spark some debate. Leyland is staying true to his statement that he believes last season was an off year for someone he considers a pretty good hitter.

"I just think he's been a professional hitter his whole career. Hopefully he can be that way this year," Leyland said.

Before debating whether Dmitri should be batting fifth, keep in mind that he's a switch-hitter coming after three consecutive right-handed batters. Monroe and Shelton are both righties, so the only other non-righty to put in there would be Guillen.

Now that Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya are both on the team, the Tigers have nine pitchers decided, three left to go, and more than a half-dozen guys left in camp to consider. It'll be an interesting final stretch if only because putting the two youngsters on the squad leaves some semi-experienced guys fighting for jobs.

At least one of the two rotation runners-up, Jason Grilli and Roman Colon, will probably make the staff as a long reliever. Grilli is out of options, while Colon still has one. Considering Colon has been a seventh-inning guy before, though, both could make it. If that happened, the Tigers would have Chris Spurling, Franklyn German, the two lefties (Hector Mercado and Bobby Seay) and Mark Woodyard fighting for one spot.

German is out of options, too, but that probably wouldn't be enough reason to keep him if he doesn't warrant a spot. Spurling struggled early but has settled down since, and he's coming off a solid second half last year. Leyland said Friday morning he'd like to have a second lefty reliever, but he won't keep one just for the sake of keeping one. We'll see where this goes.

It's official. Jim Leyland named Verlander the fifth starter and Zumaya as one of his relievers. Verlander will start the first Saturday of the season at Texas. Zumaya, meanwhile, could end up in a major role for the Tigers, though not as a setup man or closer.

"Not only is Zumaya going to pitch on the team," Leyland said, "I think he's going to pitch in some huge situations."

As for Jason Grilli and Roman Colon, the other two contestants in the fifth starter race, Leyland said they're both in the running for the remaining three spots in the bullpen. Grilli starts today against the Astros. Colon is slated to pitch tomorrow.

Justin Verlander retired all six batters he faced before a 44-minute rain delay in the second inning. That's about three innings less than the Tigers wanted him to go, but he looked good, fanning Aaron Rowand and Mike Lieberthal on back-to-back called third strikes.

Joel Zumaya worked the fifth and sixth with one single allowed and one strikeout. Jim Leyland admitted before the game that if he makes the team, it would likely be as a reliever. That said, Leyland also hinted that he has a good chance to make the team.

Wilfredo Ledezma optioned to Triple-A Toledo. Chad Durbin, Lee Gardner, Kevin Hodge, Ryan Ludwick, Brian Peterson, Josh Phelps, Max St. Pierre and Reggie Taylor all assigned to minor-league camp.

Phelps is a slight surprise in the fact that it happened this early, but the logjam at first base/DH wasn't in his favor, with or without Pena. The bigger surprise is Ledezma until you consider his struggles in camp. When you consider that he came into spring training with a real shot to make this team, especially with Leyland looking for a second left-hander in the bullpen, then you could say Ledezma pitched his way off of the roster. I still think he has a chance to make it with this organization, but he has to regain his confidence and learn to work the strike zone again.

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.

I think I've said this before, but I'll repeat: Don't make too much out of scoring 15 runs in a spring training game, even if it is the Yankees and a darn good pitcher they hit around. Again, the wind was blowing out. Brandon Inge's home run hit about halfway up the backdrop behind center field, and Alexis Gomez cleared the scoreboard. Now, the ones from Dmitri Young and Magglio Ordonez, those were hit on a line. They didn't have a chance to catch any wind.

So why were the Tigers taking advantage of the conditions and not the Yankees? Bonderman kept the ball down. He said he's not where he wants to be yet, and he says he's only doing well because the hitters aren't where they want to be yet either, but I think he's pretty close to ready. He got a little tired in the fifth inning and wants to stretch his arm out a little more between now and the regular season, but that's about all he may need.

As for the hitting, Jim Leyland was paying more attention to the approaches than the results, and he liked what he saw. I wasn't tracking counts to hitters and probably won't get into that until the last week of camp (it's spring training for us writers, too) but I believe most if not all the homers came early in counts. From their swings, Craig Monroe and Dmitri Young don't look like guys who have missed much time.

As for other stuff, Leyland said he'd start Curtis Granderson in center field if tomorrow was opening day. If that's a surprise, you probably lost track of the spring games. That's OK; I had to remind myself a few times that today is Monday. That's what happens when every day feels the same down here.

These days of spring training can get repetitive, but judging from the weather still looks like in Detroit, I'm not going to complain. Plus, whenever somebody gets cut down here, I don't have to hear Leyland say that he's "not with us."

On a last side note, Robert Fick stopped by the Tigers clubhouse Monday. He's coming off elbow surgery and wanted to pay Dmitri Young a visit.

Back after a few days off to take a breather this spring. Like a reliever getting ready for back-to-back days, I'm probably on call the rest of the way out.

Joel Zumaya looked just about unhittable Sunday in his two innings of work. His curveball seems to look better each time out, including a nasty one that started inside and broke over the plate on Brad Ausmus for a called strike three. Jim Leyland said he's still in consideration for a starting spot, but this very much had the feeling of a long relief audition. He warmed up quicker than usual. He pitched two innings at a point in the spring when starting candidates are pitching twice that much. And he didn't pitch the eighth inning, instead leaving Chad Durbin to go the last two innings -- and as a side note, Durbin is putting together a nice spring after a rough start.

It might well be that Leyland is just weighing his options, but it's hard not to look at the picture right now and view Justin Verlander and Jason Grilli as the candidates for the fifth spot in the rotation -- Verlander the gifted young arm, Grilli the more veteran option. As fantastic as Zumaya's stuff is, as good or better than Verlander at times, he's still very excitable.

A few other items of note were Dmitri Young and Craig Monroe tallying five hits collectively off Astros starter Roy Oswalt. Last but not least, while I mentioned the solid performances in the simulated game back at Marchant, I didn't point out Jamie Walker in center field. He was running down fly balls, including a nice running grab retreating into relatively deep center. I'm not expecting him to challenge Granderson or Logan, but it's a nice piece of work. It should be a brief source of pride until he has to wear a Wichita State shirt as payback for his Tennessee Volunteers falling to Nate Robertson's WSU Shockers Saturday in the tournament.

I don't normally talk shop here, but I figure this might come up.

By now, my story on Jim Leyland saying this team has no identity and no swagger is already online. And while it's classic Leyland material, I'm sure somebody out there will brush it off as Leyland using the media to test the players, and the media gobbling it up.

Here's the thing: We'll gladly take it. In this situation, we don't mind being used.

This issue came up last year when Dmitri Young insisted last September that he was legitimately hurt and accused some people in the clubhouse of doubting him. To me, in these cases, I'm not taking one side or the other by printing it. I wasn't going to run tests on Young's leg last September, and I'm going to gauge how mean the players are. To me, the statements themselves can be the news depending on who they're coming from.

In Wednesday's case, there's little doubt in my mind that Leyland was putting the swagger thing out there in print to see how his players react. I have no idea whether or not he believes it, and that's fine. Leyland can use the media to determine a story and advance an idea. If you don't get around to what he wants to discuss on a given day, he'll get around to it for you. To me, though, that's a good quality to have in a manager. It's something I'm not sure Alan Trammell ever had -- not that he was a bad manager for it, but it wasn't in his nature. He's not built like that. Leyland definitely is. We'll see where it leads when we get into the regular season.

It occurred to me that with Danny Knobler and Tom Gage on vacation until this weekend, I'm the lone blogger for the time being, so I should probably be more diligent about filing this. Hopefully somebody's reading.

Jim Leyland said after the game that he wouldn't judge any pitcher or hitter on this game the way the wind was blowing out, and I can't blame him. Ramon Santiago's hitting the ball great, but don't look at his second home run of the spring and think he's a power hitter. Leyland said again today how much he likes him, though.

Zumaya pitched pretty well despite the homers. You can tell Leyland loves the way he gets ahead of hitters, though he struggled to finish them off on this day. He's like Bonderman in that he finds a quick rhythm when things are going well. He can also long toss about as far as any pitcher I've seen in five years on this beat.

A lot of folks have asked about Josh Phelps and his chances of making the team, and to be honest, I can't see how it would happen unless one of the first basemen is traded. But he's really showing something the way he hits the ball. He singled in his first two at-bats, giving him six consecutive hits, and they were both legit, well-placed ground balls. He said this morning that he considers himself a doubles hitter with some power, not a big-time power hitter, and that's the way you want a hitter to think if he has any chance of succeeding at Comerica Park.

For those of you planning to watch Thursday's game against the Yankees on FSN, you'll be able to watch Leyland and most of the veterans. Leyland had planned to make all the road games, including Thursday's split-squad against the Nationals in Viera, but he was "encouraged" to stay at home for this one. We'll see if that's enough to get some eyes off of the NCAA Tournament Thursday afternoon. Haven't heard whether or not he'll be wearing a microphone.

Not many regulars going to St. Petersburg tomorrow -- Nook Logan might be the only one, in fact -- but I'll be there. Hopefully I can find a good place for dinner there near the ballpark after the game so I can wait out the rush hour traffic. I'll take suggestions if there are any ideas.

OK, I didn't get an update in-game. My apologies. I wasn't in Clearwater for Verlander's game, but it's available on Gameday Audio if you're interested. As for the game in Lakeland against the Pirates, Ledezma's struggles didn't help him. He wasn't walking guys, which is good news, but he fell behind hitters and was forced to come over the plate. He seemed to be spotting his curveball and offspeed stuff better than his fastball.

The highlight of the game, without question, was Clevlen's throw. I mentioned it in my notebook, but it probably didn't do it justice. It was like a line drive from center field back to the plate to nab Freddy Sanchez trying to score. The more I watch of him, the more impressed I am with his athleticism. Hard to believe his high school ran the option when he was the quarterback.

As much as we've pointed out Logan's rough stretch the last couple days, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention his 1-for-2 game with a walk and run scored. He looked again like he was trying to be a superhero, including a diving attempt at a drive to deep center. But he was more under control Monday.

I'd also feel guilty if I didn't thank the maintenance crew at Joker Marchant Stadium for their quick work when the elevator leading to the press level stopped with a certain reporter stuck inside. Thanks much.

In case anyone was wondering what the move was today, the Tigers optioned Kyle Sleeth to Class A Lakeland. More of a formality, since he won't be ready for the regular season anyway.

Also, Omar Infante is in the starting lineup for the split squad at home today, playing second base. He said this morning his shoulder feels fine now.

I wanted to go see Verlander pitch in Clearwater, but the job calls for me to stay back here. Our Phillies reporter will be watching Verlander, so hopefully I can get an update this afternoon.

Skipped an entry yesterday with the long drive back from Fort Myers. Hopefully we'll be back on a daily track until I get a couple days off next weekend.

It was hard to evaluate anything hittingwise from Sunday's loss considering how Roy Halladay was pitching. He probably could've tossed a shutout if he didn't have a pitch count. His stuff is that good already. Jim Leyland was willing to accept that, but he wants to see his hitters trying to battle pitchers like that when they come along, the idea being that if the Tigers hold up their end pitchingwise, one hit will probably make the difference.

Pitchingwise, Roman Colon put together his strongest performance of the spring. He allowed just one fly ball in play; everything else was on the ground. That's the design of his approach this spring, keeping the ball low in the strike zone. It's an odd transition for someone who was seen as a power pitcher when he came over in the Kyle Farnsworth trade, but we'll see if it works. It would seem to make more sense as a starter than a reliever.

Nook Logan's rough day Saturday seemed to carry into Sunday. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and a double play, though Halladay didn't give him anything in two at-bats. In the field, he made a diving attempt at a Sergio Santos liner into the gap and missed. It would've been a great grab if he caught the ball. If he hadn't dived, it probably would've gotten by him anyway. Later, former Jays first-rounder Miguel Negron stretched a line drive to right-center from a single to a double, beating Logan's throw into second. That was probably the stranger play, as Negron didn't hesitate rounding first.

It's been a rough spring for Logan, who has worked on situational hitting but is 2-for-22 so far, and it shows in his face. He was shaking his head as he walked into the dugout after one of his at-bats, and that's not normal for him. If everybody who had bad games in spring training was cut, Leyland said earlier in the day, they wouldn't have enough players to field a team. Still, it was noticed, and outfield coach Andy Van Slyke met with him afterwards regarding the game.

The trick about Logan is that he's an incredibly streaky player. A year ago at this point, he was tearing up spring training, but he went 20 at-bats or so without a hit after that and was nearly beaten out by Alexis Gomez. Then he hit again in April and May. The point is that his camp could flip in a week, so I'm not making any predictions. Curtis Granderson has obviously had the stronger spring and would seemingly have the center-field job, yet he's still the one starting in a corner spot when they're in the lineup together.

I also wrote today that Leyland has a meeting planned Friday and could make cuts Saturday, but nothing before that other than a procedural move. He basically said that nobody's leaving camp until Saturday at the earliest. If you read into it, that means Carlos Pena will not be cut on March 16 to save money.

By the way, just finished watching Fernando Rodney mop up a scoreless ninth inning for the Dominican Republic against Puerto Rico. His fastball topped out around 94 mph, and his changeup around 81-82. His cap was pretty well tilted on his head, but that's fine.

Though the Tigers put on a home-run parade in Friday's 12-3 win over the Dodgers, Jim Leyland didn't want to make a big deal out of it. The wind was blowing out strong here all day, and Leyland said it could've easily been a 14-11 game. The difference was that Detroit's pitchers managed to keep the ball on the ground much more, especially Chris Spurling and Jordan Tata. It was a nice bounceback outing for Spurling after giving up the two home runs Wednesday to the Braves.

Leyland can't stop praising Brent Clevlen. After Friday's game, which featured Clevlen's third homer in five days, Leyland called him "a helluva prospect. He's one of the best I've seen in a while. I like him a lot." I don't think Leyland likes him enough to take him with the big club out of camp, but I think Leyland's putting him in his picture for the near future. The spot appearances in center field, including a late-inning stint there Friday, are for a purpose.

This time, it's Omar Infante, who has tendinitis in his shoulder. Much like last year, he was feeling it for a while but didn't tell anyone. Jim Leyland noticed he was wincing in pain when he threw and told him to see the trainers. MRI results were OK, so it's not expected to be a major injury. Still, he had something similar last year that affected his throwing for a while, so this should be a concern.

Meanwhile, Craig Monroe now has a right quad injury he suffered while working out to get back from his oblique injury. Both he and Dmitri Young, who also has a strained quad, are supposed to stay off baseball activities for the next three days.

All these absences come at a tough time with the Tigers embarking on back-to-back long trips. Five or six players, all youngsters, will have to go to both Vero Beach on Friday and Fort Myers on Saturday, both of them long bus rides. The rest will play one day and have the other one completely off, meaning don't report to the ballpark. They're only spring training games, but it has Leyland worried that his young players are playing too much.

Verlander's outing led my notebook, so you can read about it there, but I didn't have room for what happened after that. Ledezma looked by far his best all spring, games and bullpen sessions combined. He struck out Adam LaRoche to get out of the two-on, two-out jam in the third inning, then retired seven of the last eight batters he faced. It should've been seven in a row except for a fielding error in the fifth. As always, the key with Ledezma is consistency, so he has to repeat it. But he didn't look afraid to challenge hitters Wednesday.

The bullpen kind of fell apart from there. Franklyn German was throwing nasty stuff, but didn't seem to have any idea where it was going. He hit back-to-back batters in the eighth to load the bases with no one out and start Atlanta's game-tying rally. But just when it seemed like German was going to lose it, he struck out back-to-back hitters to strand the bases loaded. Leyland said it wasn't fair to judge German today because his pitches were moving so well. An inning later, Chris Spurling gave up back-to-back homers to Jonathan Schuerholz, who now leads the Braves in homers this spring, and James Jurries. It's early in spring training, so take it for what it's worth.

For those of you looking for how Verlander did today, he gave up a run on four hits in 2 2/3 innings with a walk and two strikeouts. He gave up a home run to Michael Ryan, the first batter of the game, and worked into a lot of full counts early. He showed a nice pickoff move to retire Edgar Renteria straying off first in the third inning, but gave up a single and a walk after that and was pulled with 60 pitches, a lot of them fastballs.

Matt Mantei strained an oblique muscle pitching in Tuesday's loss to the Indians. It was bad enough after the game that he said it was painful to breathe. He's hoping some medicine lessens it by tomorrow, but he thinks it could be serious. If it's a major injury, he's probably done, which would take a potentially valuable bullpen arm out of the running.

Fitting to see Jim Leyland managing against the Braves Monday with all the history they've had against each other. Atlanta's pitching kept Leyland out of the World Series in 1991 and '92 before Leyland got his revenge in Florida with the '97 NLCS. But think about this: When the Braves started their run of division titles in '91, Leyland had just established himself as one of the game's best managers. He managed five more years in Pittsburgh, then two more teams after that, then got out of the office for six years. Now he's back, and the Braves' run of titles is still going.

Meanwhile, the Tigers haven't had a winning record since 1993. And though Leyland said he doesn't believe in the culture of losing, he couldn't deny that a winning record would mean something here, even if it doesn't mean squat to him:

"It would probably be a good year for the Tigers this year. It's not
even close to what you're talking about or what you're in the business
for, no. Under normal circumstances, is .500 good? No, not at all. But
under the circumstances when you're 20 games under and haven't done it
for 12 years, you have to start somewhere. I would not happy, but it
would be better than being 20 games under. No, .500 basically means you
kissed your sister."

This is from a guy who in 1986 took over a Pirates team that won 57 games the year before he got there AND had the Pittsburgh drug trial. Asked what he did in Pittsburgh to change the attitude, Leyland said:

"I had to change the players. And that's what we'll do here, if we need to. It's real simple: If I don't do the job here, they're going to change me. Well, at some point you have to say if the players aren't doing the job, you change the players. And I talked to the guys about it. It's not a threat. It's common sense. It's a fact."

The last time we heard anything like that from a Tigers manager was from Alan Trammell in 2003. The difference was that he was saying it about a bunch of kids he was left to evaluate that year. If you believe Phil Garner was left hanging to an extent with his roster, then it's been a long time since a Tigers skipper has had the weight to hold a team of veteran players accountable.

After talking about Dmitri Young's quad injury, Jim Leyland went into lamenting his roster situation. With four regulars, a closer and a setup man out for the WBC and two other regulars injured, the Tigers are shorthanded with another set of split-squad games looming Thursday, and he's already worried he's playing Brandon Inge, Chris Shelton, Curtis Granderson and Nook Logan too much.

But then Leyland issues a thinly-veiled threat about his roster situation:

"We're going to take the 25 best guys, and surprisingly, I'm going to send this message that there's more spots available on this team than I thought there were going to be. I can tell you that for a fact. I'm not going to go in-depth about it, but I can tell you I'm surprised. We're not giving jobs away. I'm talking about in general, there may be more opportunities here than I thought there were. ...

"Everybody's got people penciled in here and penciled in there. We've played three games and I don't know what the [heck] we're doing yet, to be honest with you. But I can tell you one thing, we're not going to give jobs away."

That begs the question: Is Leyland trying to provide a spark to the minor leaguers and non-roster invitees he has to use, or is he really thinking about putting some jobs on the line? If it's the latter, it would be an odd thing to do with a team this early in camp, not to mention one that has won three of its four games and which is pounding the ball. Plus, Leyland has said that he doesn't like to make much out of spring training performances, so why put jobs on the line now?

Before you start to speculate that Carlos Pena is a target, Leyland went out of his way to say he wasn't talking specifically about Pena, that he was talking more in general. And Pena has shown pretty decent bat control so far, walking five times. If it's something other than a carrot for his non-roster guys and prospects, then it probably involves overall performance in camp rather than just game action. It's hard for me to speculate what it means, because I've only covered him for a few weeks. But he's a veteran of getting his message out through the media, and he knows a lot of players read the clips in the morning. It's something to keep in mind as we get into a tough week of games for this club this early in the schedule.

Dmitri Young's injury is being called a strained left quadriceps for now until head athletic trainer Kevin Rand, who was in Winter Haven with the other split squad when the injury occurred in Lakeland, can examine it. Before anyone asks, I don't think the lack of more comment means it's necessarily anything worse. I think it means the Tigers don't want to say anything until they have Rand's opinion on it. In this case, that policy applies to Young, too.

What this means for Young's chances of being a versatile player again, I don't know. He didn't hurt himself playing in the field, but he did do it with a simple acceleration to first base. As Leyland said in Winter Haven after he learned about the injury, "We've got a lot of time yet. Fortunately."

Dmitri Young made his first start at third base Saturday against Italy, but he limped off in the bottom of the first inning with an apparent leg injury. He was running to first base on a foul ball to right, pulled up about two-thirds of the way down the line, and immediately limped to the dugout. He didn't need help getting back to the clubhouse, but he was moving slowly. We'll see how bad it is when we get an 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.

It was a good day for Jim Leyland's intuition today. When Pudge went up to him Wednesday and said he wanted to play five innings Thursday, Leyland figured he'd be ready for a strong game -- though maybe not 3-for-3, right-center field homer, four RBIs strong. And when the Tigers had built a 5-1 lead, Leyland said he got a feeling that they'd lose if they didn't add on runs late. That could just be a manager thinking worst-case scenario, or it could be someone who figured the Reds would score runs once they got into the Tigers relievers. More likely, it's the thought process of a manager who has been through plenty of games like this, spring training and regular season.

Rodriguez was clearly the highlight of the day, but Omar Infante provided the spark late with a single in the sixth and a two-run double in the seventh. It should be noted that both three-run rallies for the Tigers came after the first two hitters in the inning were retired, though a couple of wild pitchers certainly helped. Inge was hit by a pitch and Thames walked to set up Granderson and Rodriguez for RBIs in the second, and Reggie Taylor's solo homer in the seventh seemed to rattle Ryan Wagner. He had two walks and a hit batter after that to set up Infante.