Ivan Rodriguez continued his hot spring and you have to hope that this carries over into the regular season. Pudge hit his eighth homer of the spring and after going one for two, he raised his spring batting average to .358. Magglio Ordonez also continued to rake with three hits, two runs and and an RBI while Miguel Cabrera picked up two singles and he scored twice. Justin Verlander struggled and he gave up six runs in three innings and Tim Byrdak was also roughed up. The Tigers pulled it out though with a 10-9 win. Dontrelle Willis makes his final start of the spring tomorrow afternoon against the Pirates.
Speaking of Cabrera, his blockbuster extension was finalized. Cabrera will make $152.3 million over the next eight years and it’s the fourth largest deal in baseball history. It’s fitting because Cabrera is an elite hitter and in four or five years, you’ll probably see more and more $20+ million per year deals being signed. What a lot of people forget is, Cabrera still doesn’t have an official at bat as a Tiger yet but here’s to hoping that Cabrera is the lynchpin of at least a few Tigers playoff runs.
Jon Paul Morosi wrote a very interesting article about Rick Porcello’s spring. Be sure to check it out at Baseball America.