I've never heard of half these guys, and the ones I have are way past their prime

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This season’s spring action got underway on Thursday, February 22nd, when our Tigers took on Division II collegiate outfit, the Florida Southern Moccasins, at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland.  Eight Tigers pitchers obliterated the overmatched hitters, en route to 19 strikeouts on the day.  Four Tigers errors, including two of the throwing variety from catcher James McCann, enabled the Mocs to carry a 1-0 lead into the bottom of the 7th.  That’s when Florida Southern’s centerfielder lost a couple balls in the sun that led to a 3-run inning.  Three more insurance runs in the 8th sealed the victory.  We’re not going to read into this one on any level.

A day later, the Tigers traveled to Steinbrenner Stadium to take on the Yankees in front of 10,000 senior citizens.   The pitchers continue to be ahead of the hitters, as the two squads combined to go 2 for 19 with runners in scoring position.  The Tigers managed just one run, on an RBI single by 32-year old non-roster invite Chad Huffman, plating off-season acquisition CF Leonys Martin.  The 29-year old Cuban defector Martin, more known for his glove and speed than his bat, is battling for a platoon role in CF.  Tigers pitchers surrendered a horrific SEVEN walks on the day, and southpaw minor leaguer Austin Sodders was tagged with the loss after yielding three earned runs in the sixth.  If we can take anything positive out of this game, it’s that Miggy made his Spring Training debut and had a basehit in two at-bats.  Also, unlike Thursday’s affair, the Tigers played error free ball.

On Saturday, the 24th of February, the Tigers picked up their first win of 2018 over a professional baseball outfit.  Write that one down on your calendars.  Jeimer Candelario, the key cog in the deal that sent Justin Wilson and Alex Avila to the Cubs at last season’s trade deadline, doubled and homered, as the Tigers held on to beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 5-4.  Jordan Zimmermann threw two innings of shutout ball to pick up his first victory of the Grapefruit season.


The Pittsburgh Pirates rolled into Lakeland on Sunday, and nine innings of baseball was not enough to determine a winner, as the game ended in an 8-8 tie, European soccer style.  The Tigers blasted three dingers on the day, including Nick Castellano’s first long ball of the Spring.  Detroit held a one-run lead entering the 9th, but Zac Reininger couldn’t shut the door, giving up an RBI double with two outs.  Interestingly, Reininger made 10 appearances with the big club last season, nearly all of which were blowout losses for Detroit.  Here is Reininger’s game log from 2017.  Not too many high leverage situations there:


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