LAKELAND, Fla. -- The birds were chirping in the tall pines behind the outfield fence, and the sun was breaking through the clouds Tuesday morning when the Detroit Tigers began their first full squad spring training workout with a lap around a practice field.
The couple hundred fans on the other side of a fence cheered loudly. It was double-down-the-line kind of applause. They will get excited about anything this time of the year.
The boos and second-guessing will come later, but not now -- or during the nearly six weeks before the season opens April 5 in Kansas City.
This day was for oohs and ahhs, and many of those were solicited by a group of young outfielders who can crush the ball. Brennan Boesch, Ryan Strieby and Casper Wells were among those whom Tigers manager Jim Leyland couldn’t stop smiling about after batting practice.
“We have a lot of talent down low and up high,” Leyland said. “It’s an awful good group of players in the minor leagues, and I mean potential players. They’ve got some equipment, and it’s the most since I’ve been here.
“That’s a lot of talent. A lot of it’s not ready for now, but I’d think in the not-so-distant future There are more prospects than any camp I’ve been in, ever.”
He shook his head.
“Guys were hitting balls way over the trees,” Leyland said. “You just don’t see that. When you see veteran players doing a double-take, that’s something.”
Boesch led the Double-A Eastern League with 28 homers last year and has great power to all fields. Strieby also has plenty of pop, but hits for average and walks plenty, too. Wells hits the ball hard to all fields and displays real balance.
But they are to dream about.
Of the veterans, nobody was more impressive than right fielder Magglio Ordonez.
“Magglio’s got a whole different sound to his bat,” Leyland said. “It sounds louder than it has since I’ve been here. It’s loud -- real loud.”
The manager had plenty to smile about on the first day.
“I like our team a lot more than some people do,” Leyland said. “But Ron Gardenhire likes his team, and Ozzie Guillen likes his team. So, that’s a wash. Let’s play the games and find out.”
Gardenhire’s Twins and Guillen’s White Sox are the main competition for the division title that has eluded Detroit since 1987. It was a wild-card playoff team in making the World Series in 2006, and last year lost the Central Division in Game 163.
Leyland hopes the big pieces fit as well as he hopes, and will have to decide upon the fifth starter, backup catcher and last bullpen spot before camp breaks. He was asked about some of those moves before the first practice.
“I can’t let it shake out before we had our first workout,” Leyland said. He noted that he was still decompressing from all the buzz with Johnny Damon’s signing on Monday, and said injuries and camp developments also make it hard to go there right now.
There likely will be a major surprise in camp -- a Jeff Weaver, Gabe Kapler, Rick Porcello or Ryan Perry who just might force the club to take them north.
And, conversely, there probably will be a big disappointment -- a veteran getting released like Gary Sheffield did last year, or pitchers unable to break camp because of an injury, as was the case last March with Jeremy Bonderman and Joel Zumaya.
But for the most part, Detroit will break camp with what you would expect. Left fielder Damon and closer Jose Valverde were the final major additions.
Leyland addressed the team on this year’s mission in separate position group meetings before they left the clubhouse for that first lap. He said many of the same things he does every year about what he expects in camp, but had one new and important point to make:
“I will mention the importance of how golden wins are,” Leyland said. “The reality is, that with one more win in April, May or June, we’d have been in the postseason, too.
“I will talk of the importance of one game.”
In other words, he wants players to do all they can now to get an edge when the game is on the line in the ninth inning of Game 63, Game 98 or Game 122. You never know when the game that could mean everything will be played.
It’s about focus, and coming early and staying late.
It’s about Justin Verlander going about business as if he were trying to make the team. It’s about Damon arriving to a star’s trumpets, but still making it a point to introduce himself to every single player on the team.
It’s about becoming a championship team.
It’s about the cheers being loud and strong seven months from now.
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