Jim Leyland hopes he will be able to send Carlos Guillen back out to left field on Friday. Guillen jokingly says he’s not sure he will be able to run that far by then.
        “Sometimes I feel good, sometimes I can hardly walk,” said Guillen, who has been hobbled since Opening Day by an injured Achilles tendon in his lower right leg, where, he said, he has now developed tendinitis. “It just hurts.”
        As a result, Guillen has spent more time serving as the Tigers’ designated hitter than he has playing the outfield.
        And adjusting to the role of DH has not been easy.     
        “I’m used to being in the field every day,” Guillen said. “You feel more in the game when you’re in the field. I don’t feel comfortable as the DH. Maybe one or two days would be okay. But everyday? It’s not me sometimes.”
        In an effort to stay loose between at-bats, Guillen often goes to the batting cage beneath the Comerica Park stands.
        “You have time and you think,” he said. “Maybe you think too much.”
        When the Tigers cut Gary Sheffield loose at the end of spring training, the plan was to make Marcus Thames their primary DH, but also use the position as a place to rest Guillen and Magglio Ordonez on occasion.
        With Thames on the disabled list indefinitely and Guillen still hurting, Leyland hasn’t had that luxury. “I don’t want to monopolize the DH with one guy,” the manager said.
        The best cure for what ails Guillen is rest.  But the Tigers can’t afford to be without a man who is one of the key elements of their offense. “It gets better when he rests, but I need him to play,” Leyland admitted.
        “If you’re walking, you’re not resting,” Guillen send.
        “Every team gets nagging injuries,” Leyland said. “But I believe Guillen played hurt all last year. I think his back really bothered him. And it showed. I don’t want him to have to go through that again. That’s not fair to him.”
         

        The curse of the Tigers’ back-up catchers continues.
        “It’s beginning to look that way,” said Matt Treanor Monday, forcing a smile, as he contemplated hip surgery in New York later this week, followed by six weeks to three months of arduous rehab.
        Meanwhile, Dane Sardinha will be the Tigers’ back-up catcher, spelling Gerald Laird once a week or so.
        It is a continuation of a trend that began in 2007 when Vance Wilson, who was slated to be Pudge Rodriguez’s back-up, tore a ligament in his elbow during the last week of spring training and underwent Tommy John surgery.
        Wilson hoped to back behind the plate by the middle of the 2007 season. But in the spring of 2008, he was still rehabbing. Midway through the ‘08 season, Wilson had to undergo a second Tommy John surgery. At the end of last season, the Tigers let him go.
        In mid-December, they signed the free agent Treanor, who has a history with Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski dating back to 1997.
        Treanor, who spent 10 1/2 season in the minor leagues before he finally reached the big leagues in 2004, owned a .237 career average when he joined the Tigers. However, he failed to get a hit in 13 at-bats this season.
        During spring training, Treanor, who underwent offseason surgery to repair a sports hernia, quietly flew to New York to receive an injection in an attempt to treat what has been diagnosed as a torn labrum in his right hip.
        “I knew about this (injury) for a while and I tried to get around it,” Treanor said.
        “The doctors told me there was a possibility it (the injection) might not take. And it didn’t. I tried everything I could to get through this. It just didn’t happen.”
        Treanor isn’t sure how long he will be sidelined. “It could be six weeks and it could be 12 weeks,” he said, forcing another smile.
        “I definitely want to be back at the end of the season. That’s the goal.”
        Treanor’s one-year $750,000 contract expires at the end of the year.

        In his eulogy at Mark Fidrych's funeral services on Friday former Tiger slugger Willie Horton said there should be a special place in baseball's Hall of Fame for guys like The Bird, players who had such a huge and positive impact on the game.
        I can assure you Horton spoke from the heart.
        Beginning in spring training of 1976, the two formed a unique bond.
        Horton, the muscular 32-year-old black veteran from the streets of Detroit was one of the first in the Tigers' clubhouse to befriend the skinny 21-year-old rookie from rural Massachusetts.
        "I could tell he was everyday people," Horton explained at the time. "He wasn't trying to prove nothing to nobody. He was just being himself."
        When Jack Hand, the Tigers' clubhouse attendant decided, shortly after the season began, that he could no longer afford to provide soda pop free of charge to the players, Horton and Fidrych decided to go into the soft drink business themselves.
        Horton brought a cooler from home and the two players filled it with refreshments.
        "The Boomer and The Bird -- The B-and-B Pop Store," Horton called it.
        Payment was on the honor system. "If they want to give a donation they can," Horton explained.
        In June, when Horton, the enforcer, went on the disabled list with inflamed ligaments in his foot,  he left Fidrych in charge of the store. And the players, accustomed to free pop, stopped paying.
        When Horton returned a couple weeks later, he found Fidrych more frenzied than usual.
        "They robbed us blind!" The Bird shrieked. "They wiped us out! They beat the (bleep) out of me and robbed us blind!"
        Horton laughed and wrapped one of his massive arms around Fidrych's neck.
        "I guess we're just going to have to restock the store," he said.

        When spring training began, the Tigers were counting on Jeremy Bonderman to be a part of their starting rotation once the season opened. They were hoping Dontrelle Willis could be their fifth starter. When camp began, Joel Zumaya was very much a part of Jim Leyland’s bullpen plans.
        Today, all three are still in Lakeland, each pitcher continuing his comeback in his own way.
        Zumaya, who is certainly the closest of the three to being ready to rejoin the Tigers, is scheduled to start for the Lakeland Flying Tigers against Clearwater on Wednesday.
        It will be Zumaya’s second Florida State League start. If all goes well, his next stop may be at Erie or Toledo.
        “We’ll evaluate him today as far as moving him to another level,” Leyland said Wednesday.
        Best case scenario: Zumaya could be back in the Tigers’ bullpen by May or maybe a bit sooner
        Bonderman played catch in Tigertown earlier this week and, according to Leyland, will throw off the mound “soon.”
        Obviously, he is quite a bit farther away than Zumaya.
        “All I know is, he’s feeling real good right now,” Leyland said. “No pain. He’s throwing free and easy.
        “I don’t want to sound cold,” the manager cautioned, “but we’ve been down that road before.”
        It will probably be at least another month before Bonderman comes back.
        Willis, who was placed on the disabled list late in spring training after being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, “threw to hitters” in a minor league camp game earlier this week, according to Leyland.
        Leyland phoned Willis a couple of days ago to see how he was doing.
        “He seems upbeat,” the Tigers manager reported.
        “He said, ‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.’ ”
        However, Willis’ return remains the longest shot of the three.
        “I want to get ‘em all back,” Leyland said Wednesday. “But I want ‘em to be right. I want ‘em all to be able to perform and be successful.”
        If that ever happens, the Tigers’ pitching staff will look a whole lot stronger.

        Tuesday’s rainout left the Tigers with three off-days in the next week and gave Jim Leyland a chance to tweak his starting rotation, skipping Zach Miner, who was shelled on Monday, next time around.
        Although Miner had a ready-made excuse because of Monday’s weather, Leyland was clearly less than pleased with the right hander’s slow-poke, eight-run, three-home-run performance.
        Armando Galarraga will start as scheduled in the homestand finale at Comerica Park on Wednesday, and Justin Verlander will open the road trip in Seattle on Friday. Edwin Jackson will start Saturday and rookie Rick Porcello, who was supposed to pitch Tuesday, will make his second start of the season on Sunday.
        Galarraga, not Miner, will start April 21 in Los Angeles.
        After Monday, the Tigers don’t have another off-day on their schedule until April 30.
        By then, the Tigers hope, Jeremy Bonderman may be close to ready to rejoin the rotation.

        The year that Rick Porcello was born, Jim Leyland managed the Pittsburgh Pirates to a second-place finish in the National League East. By then, Leyland had already been in the game for a quarter of a century.
        The year Porcello turned nine, Leyland won the World Series with the Florida Marlins.
        Leyland played in 446 games in the minors and managed 1,402 others. Porcello has played in 24.
        Leyland has managed 2,694 big league games. Porcello has pitched one.
        The 20-year-old Porcello, who won’t even be able to legally buy a beer until December, is scheduled to make the second start of his big league career Tuesday afternoon against the Chicago White Sox in a key early battle in the AL Central division race.
        But Leyland isn’t worried about Porcello’s youth.      
        “Age, to me, is just a number,” Leyland said Monday. “He’s more mature than some 25 year olds I’ve been around. If I’m afraid to use him, I should send him out.
        “It’s got to be mind-boggling,” Leyland admitted. “I know it was mind-boggling to me when I first got to the big leagues.
        “But I think he’s figured things out pretty good. He’s figured out there is breakfast in the lunch room when he gets here in the morning. And he knows there is a nice spread after the game. This is a pretty good gig.
        “He’s walking around here like a 10-year veteran. He handles himself well, this is a neat thing for him.
        “I look at him as a major league pitcher,” Leyland continued.
        “He and Ryan Perry are here because we thought they could help the team. If they  help, then they shouldn’t be here. This is about performance.” 

       

        Joel Zumaya is some 1,200 miles away, beginning another rehab assignment in Lakeland, Fla. But the star-crossed right hander remains very much on Jim Leyland’s mind.
        The Tigers not only want him, they need him. Zumaya could be the missing piece in Leyland’s plans for the seventh, eighth and ninth innings.
        “He’ll be a welcome addition when he comes back,” Leyland admitted. “That’s a little gap that we really need filled right now.”
        Zumaya threw an inning against the Class A Tampa Yankees Saturday night. He walked the first two batters he faced and yielded two runs.
        But the results were of no consequence. So long as Zumaya continues to throw pain-free, the Tigers will consider that progress.         “To me, there is no setback for Joel Zumaya as long as he’s healthy,” the manager declared.
        “We’re going to do this right, we’re not going to rush it,” Leyland cautioned again Sunday.
        “We don’t want Zumaya coming back up here, getting shut down again, and going back on the disabled list.
        “We’re going to do it smart. We’re going to do it right. There are no guarantees in this, but we’re going to try to make sure, once he comes back, he stays.”
        Zumaya will probably pitch another game or two in Lakeland before moving up the minor league ladder to Double-A Erie or Triple-A Toledo on his way to Detroit.
        “That all depends on his health, on how he’s feeling, how he’s doing,” Leyland projected.
        Although Zumaya was feeling under the weather on Saturday night, his pitches were still clocked at between 94 and 97 mph.
        “I’m not worried about his velocity,” Leyland insisted.
        “He’s got to be able to throw 97, 98 mph when he needs to, but he’s got to get his breaking ball over the plate, too,” Leyland said. “These are big league hitters. You can’t just throw fastballs by them, even if they are 98 mph.
        “Nobody knows for sure if his velocity will ever be the same,” the manager admitted. “But, as long as he’s got his good curve ball, Zumaya at 93, 94, 95 mph will be fine.”
        Leyland also had words of praise for reluctant reliever Nate Robertson’s performance out of the bullpen on Saturday, when he pitched two perfect innings against the Rangers, to get the Tigers to the eighth inning.
        That allowed Leyland to employ Bobby Seay, Ryan Perry and closer Fernando Rodney the way he wanted to use them -- not because he had to.
        “We all know what the situation is, but what Nate did was as good as somebody giving us five innings as a starter,” Leyland declared.
        What affect will that outing have on Robertson’s attitude toward his presence in the  bullpen?
        “We’ll see,” Leyland said. “Hopefully, it was encouraging for him. Because it was also one of the keys to us winning the ballgame.
        “You won’t win unless your bullpen is good,” Leyland added. “That’s just the way it is.
        “We’ve got to figure some things out from seven to nine,” he admitted.
        And Leyland won’t have his bullpen set up the way he wants it until he gets Zumaya back -- which probably won’t be before  next month, at the earliest.

        Fans flocked to Comerica Park by the tens of thousands Friday, the employed and the unemployed.
        Jim Leyland could feel their pain.
        “My heart aches for those people who are trying to feed their families,”  the Tigers’ manager said with obvious emotion, as the grills smoked and the adult beverages flowed at the tailgate parties, and people, many with jobs and many  without, lined up outside the ballpark gates.
        “I’ve got family members who are out of work over the recession. I know what it’s like.
        “My dad was a factory worker,” Leyland continued. “He worked in a glass factory that made windshields for GM products. I worked there myself.
        “I hope they understand we have a great appreciation for what they’re going through. We get a paycheck every two weeks. We’d like to get off good and perk them up a little bit. There’s not much more we can do other than bust our butts, and give them a good effort.”
        Inside Comerica Park, as the sun climbed in the sky over the Ford Field roof, beyond the upper deck in left, the red-white-and-blue buntings draped over the railing were flapping in the breeze. The logos of Ford and Chrysler have joined General Motors atop the center field fountains.
        In the Tigers’ clubhouse, Carlos Guillen was moving into the spacious corner locker that formerly belonged to Pudge Rodriguez and Magglio Ordonez was moving into Guillen’s old locker, just inside the door.
        Other players were busy relocating, too.
        Out on the field, The TV cameras were set up, presumably interviewing one another since the players were not even dressed.
        Opening Day in Detroit.  It is a day like no other, in good times and bad. It is The Place to be -- and be seen.
        “Opening Day is a neat thing for all of us,” Leyland said, hours before the start of the game. “It’s a great day for the city, the atmosphere and everything. Downtown is bouncing.
        “There was a lot of energy around my hotel last night. I met people on the elevator who live here, 10 or 15 miles from the ballpark, who stayed downtown last night so they didn’t have to fight the traffic.
        “But it’s pretty much a work day for us. All of the hoopla is for other people to enjoy. Hopefully, we can give them something to cheer about.”
        Last year on Opening Day, Edgar Renteria batted leadoff and played shortstop. Gary Sheffield was the designated hitter.  Pudge Rodriguez was the catcher. Jacque Jones played left.
        Only one player remains from the Tigers Opening Day lineup of 2004, just five years ago. That is Carlos Guillen. He played shortstop back then.
        Things change.
        On Friday, the Tigers remembered beloved announcer George Kell, who passed away last month.
        Instead of the obligatory politician, three Detroit auto workers threw out the ceremonial first pitch.
        Times change.
        Opening Day doesn’t.
        I left home shortly before 8 a.m. Friday.
        “Why are you leaving so early?” my wife asked.
        “It’s Opening Day,” I explained.
        Enough said.
       
                                                                                                               

        At age 40, Gary Sheffield is not the player he was 10 years ago, or even two years ago. Nevertheless, look for him to have a significant impact with his new employers, the New York Mets.
        The Mets’ decision to offer Sheffield a contract, three days after the Tigers cut him loose, was no sympathy move. This isn’t a ploy to give Sheffield a chance to hit his 500th home run or to sell tickets in the Mets’ new ballpark.
        Sheffield lives life with a chip on his shoulder. He always has. There is nothing in baseball that Sheffield enjoys more than proving people wrong about him.
        Now he will have a chance to throw last week’s shocking release back in the Tigers’ faces.
        Remember what happened during the first four months of the 2007 season after the Yankees wrote Sheffield off in New York and traded him to the Tigers for a trio of minor league prospects?
        Determined to show the Yankees they had make a mistake, Sheffield was batting .306 with 23 home runs and 65 RBI for the Tigers when, while making a rare appearance in right field, he collided with Placido Polanco and severely injured his shoulder.
        And the Tigers never saw the same Sheffield again.
        But I saw the fire, the hurt, the anger in Sheffield’s eyes in Lakeland earlier this week, minutes after the Tigers told him to take a hike.   
        Sheffield never liked being the Tigers’ designated hitter. And he never tried to hide that fact.
        Jim Leyland knew Sheffield would never be happy sharing those DH duties in order to give Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen an occasional breather.
        But Leyland didn’t feel comfortable playing Sheffield in the outfield, even sparingly.
        However, Mets’ manager Jerry Manuel, the former Tigers’ infielder who was a coach with the Florida Marlins under Leyland in 1997 when, with Sheffield’s help, the Marlins won the World Series, said Sheffield could be New York’s regular right fielder this summer.
        And, as you may have noticed, two other National League teams, the Phillies and the Reds, were interested in Sheffield, too.
        Sheffield is convinced he can still play the outfield. Obviously, some other people agree -- even if the Tigers don’t.
       

        In Jim Leyland’s 18 years as a major league manager he has never had a starting rotation that was entirely right-handed or left-handed. Until now.
        Nevertheless, Leyland is happy with this season’s all-righty rotation of Justin Verlander, Edwin Jackson, Zach Miner, Rick Porcello and Armando Galarraga.
        Nate Robertson, who thought he was going to be the Tigers’ lone lefty starter, disagrees.
        “Maybe my time in this organization is nearing its end,”  Robertson, who will open the season in the bullpen, said Thursday. “I think the cycle of a player’s time in certain places comes and goes.”
        Robertson, who has two years and $17 million remaining on his contract, has been  a starter for all but six games during his six seasons in Detroit. He is 49-65 as a Tiger.
        “In my conversation with Nate, I explained to him the importance of accepting his situation with the attitude of taking this and running with it,” said Leyland, who made it a point on Wednesday to speak with Robertson before he informed the other pitchers who was making the team and who wasn’t.
        “I understand Nate believes he is a starting pitcher. Do I understand his disappointment? Some of it. If somebody had told me in 2006 that Nate Robertson would be in our bullpen this year, I would have told them they were crazy.
        “I think Nate Robertson has an excellent opportunity to be a huge part of our ballclub,” Leyland said. “But the best way to get yourself in the position  you want to be in is to prove that you deserve to be in that position. That will be up to Nate Robertson.
        “In any business, if you don’t like your job, you’re probably not going to be very good at it,” Leyland added. “I don’t think there is anybody on this team right now that has a complaint.”
        Leyland had just finished putting the finishing touches on his pitching staff on Wednesday when looked up at the reporters gathered in his Marchant Stadium office and asked, “Do you disagree with any of these?”
        I don’t.
        I must admit I was a bit surprised that Leyland kept Eddie Bonine, a former starter, in his bullpen, and sent lefty Clay Rapada to Toledo.
        In fact, Leyland  admitted that was the toughest decision he had to make on his pitching staff.
        Leyland hated to have to send Ryan Raburn down. But the last minute addition of speedy utility outfielder Josh Anderson sealed Raburn’s fate.
        “Rapada and Raburn probably  deserved to be on the team,” Leyland admitted. “They both have legitimate complaints.”
        For now, anyway, Zach Miner is in the starting rotation and Robertson will be in the bullpen.
        But some things are going to change. You can count on that.
        “You’ve got (Jeremy) Bonderman lurking down there, and you’ve got (Joel) Zumaya lurking down there, and you’ve got the Dontrelle (Willis) situation,” Leyland pointed out.
        “I think the bullpen will get better before too long,” the manager predicted.
        “Our starters will dictate how good our bullpen will be. If our starters only go five inning and throw 120 pitches, then our bullpen won’t be very good.”
        The Tigers still have one more cut to make, but that may not happen until Friday. If the Tigers are unable to trade Brent Clevlen, who is out of options, they will place him on waivers. Jeff Larish will make the team.



       

        Gary Sheffield was scheduled to meet with the Cincinnati Reds on Thursday and could sign with another team any day.
        Jim Leyland says a manager and a general manager from two different teams have called him, asking about Sheffield. Sheffield told Leyland three clubs have already contacted him.
        “He’s looking for everyday playing time , which I couldn’t promise him,”  Reds manager Dusty Baker told a Cincinnati radio station.
        Any team signing Sheffield will only have to pay him the major league minimum $400,000. The Tigers will still be on the hook for the balance of his $14 million salary
        Late last September, when Sheffield was closing in on his 500th home run, the Tigers made plans to celebrate the historic occasion and purchased an appropriate gift.  “It is absolutely beautiful,” Dombrowski said.
        If Sheffield does hit that 500th HR, this week, or next week, or next month,  on behalf of some other team, will the Tigers still send him his gift?
        “I haven’t thought about that,” Dombrowski admitted.
        In my mind, the more relevant question is:  If Sheffield signs with a contender and that team, with Gary’s help, gets into the playoffs, will he send the Tigers part of his post-season bonus check?

        Come Monday night, if the Tigers take a lead into the bottom of the ninth inning of their season opener in Toronto, Fernando Rodney -- not Brandon Lyon -- will be summoned from the bullpen to try to save the win.
        “I haven’t named Fernando Rodney as my closer,” Jim Leyland declared Wednesday. “But on Opening Day he will be.
        “That doesn’t mean  he’s going to close every day,” the manager cautioned. “I don’t know.
        “All I am saying is, if we have a lead in the ninth inning on Monday, he will be. And that’s the end of that conversation.”
        It is likely Lyon will also be used as a closer. So could Joel Zumaya after he comes off the disabled list.
        “Fernando Rodney is in the best shape he’s been in since I’ve been here,” Leyland said. “I think he’s going to have a good year. He needs to be, and I think he will be, a big pitcher for us.”
        As a show of team unity, many of the Tigers swapped uniforms for Wednesday’s game.
        Justin Verlander and Gerald Laird traded shirts, Magglio Ordonez wore Al Kaline’s No. 6, Curtis Granderson and Josh Anderson wore each other’s names and numbers, and Brandon Inge wore the Bat Boy’s jersey.

        The kids made it.
        In a move that was reminiscent of 2006 when Justin Verlander and Joel Zumaya made the team in spring training, rookies Rick Porcello and Ryan Perry were named to the Tigers’ pitching staff Wednesday morning as Jim Leyland readied his roster for Monday’s season opener in Toronto.
        “I think it’s exciting, I like their ability, I think they’re very talented individuals,” said Tigers president and general manager Dave Dombrowski.
        Porcello, just 20 years old and less than two years removed from high school, joins a starting rotation that will also include Verlander, Edwin Jackson, Armando Galarraga, and Zach Miner.
        The hard-throwing 22-year-old Perry, last summer’s No. 1 draft pick with just 14 professional games under his belt, will begin the season in the bullpen along with Brandon Lyon, Fernando Rodney, Bobby Seay, Nate Robertson, Juan Rincon, and Eddie Bonine. Robertson and Bonine were both starters last year.
        The chances of both Porcello and Perry making the team this spring were enhanced by the fact that Jeremy Bonderman and Joel Zumaya are on the disabled list and not yet ready to pitch. Both are expected back, possibly before the end of April.
        Porcello was 0-1 with a 2.63 ERA in five games this spring, the lowest exhibition ERA of any Tigers’ starter other than Verlander.
        Perry was 1-1 with a 0.84 ERA in nine appearances. Of those pitchers who made the team, only Rincon, who is unscored-upon, and Bonine (0.63) pitched better.
        In announcing the moves Wednesday,  Dombrowski shied away from comparisons between this spring’s surprises, Porcello and Perry, and the tandem of Verlander and Zumaya in 2006.
        “I wouldn’t put that on any young guys,” Dombrowski said. “Verlander and Zumaya were outstanding young players who gave us a shot in the arm.”
        The Tigers optioned utility man Ryan Raburn and reliever Clay Rapada to Toledo on Wednesday, reassigned pitcher Scott Williams and reserve catcher Dane Sandinha to minor league camp and placed Mike Hessman on waivers for the purpose of giving him his release.
        That leaves them with one more cut to be made before Sunday’s 3 p.m. roster deadline.
        In all likelihood, left handed hitter Jeff Larish will make the team over Brent Cleven.