Cruceta yet to report; Minor impresses Leyland with sinker

02/16/2008 8:33 PM ET
Notes: Determining 'pen a priority
Cruceta yet to report; Minor impresses Leyland with sinker
By Jason Beck / MLB.com

LAKELAND, Fla. -- The phrase is a familiar one for manager Jim Leyland every Spring Training. It just has a special ring this year.

"Like I said, we don't have a 12th pitcher. We have 12 pitchers," Leyland said Saturday morning. "And those guys are all expected to get big outs."

Some of those big outs will be in the seventh inning. Determining which pitchers can get them will be one of Leyland's bigger tasks this spring.

With Joel Zumaya expected out for the first half of the season, his absence leaves an opening in the seventh inning. Instead of being able to use Zumaya and Fernando Rodney back-to-back, Rodney will be largely set aside for the eighth, leaving others to bridge the gap once the starters are out.

The contestants range from relievers who have been on the club a while -- such as Jason Grilli and Zach Miner -- to gifted arms from other organizations -- such as Francisco Cruceta and Denny Bautista -- to at least one veteran arm trying to give it one last shot in Matt Mantei. Sorting them out is one reason Leyland considers this a "huge" Spring Training, regardless of the strength of his lineup and rotation.

"I've already addressed this with our staff; we have to work our tails off this spring to complete our bullpen," Leyland said. "We've got to really eyeball guys. We've got to do a better job than we've ever done at projecting what guys are going to do when ... there's 40,000 people [watching]. We've really got to do a good job of that this spring."

Leyland wants coaches and instructors alike in that process -- watching and evaluating relievers. It speaks to the challenge Leyland considers it to evaluate pitchers in Spring Training on how they'll perform in big regular-season situations.

If it was on talent alone, it might be easier. Cruceta, the right-hander the Tigers signed out of winter ball in November, has long had the stuff to impress people, as has non-roster invitee Bautista. So far, it hasn't translated into success for them, but the Tigers saw something in each of them to make it worth their while to see if they can take that step.

Both are more experienced now. Cruceta is 26 years old, Bautista is 27. Moreover, both had success locating their pitches and getting outs in the Dominican League this winter, earning them spots in last week's Caribbean Series. The Tigers had to put Cruceta on their 40-man roster to beat out other teams in signing him, while other clubs had been looking at Bautista before Detroit snagged him from the Rockies for Jose Capellan during the Winter Meetings.

Plenty of teams liked the two pitchers' stuff, but judging how it will translate could be tricky.

"You have to figure out why they haven't had the results with that equipment," Leyland said, "and it's hard to do crammed into a short period of time in Spring Training. Pitchers, they're rare breeds. You see them all over baseball. Every year, someone will pop out and have a heckuva year. [Matt] Herges and [LaTroy] Hawkins did that last year [in Colorado].

"That's what you have to [figure out]: Can this guy be our guy? You know the potential's there, but let's start from scratch. Why has this guy not been successful? You try to cram all that in. But you have to understand, every camp has that same situation."

Speaking of Cruceta: He remains in the Dominican Republic taking care of visa issues. With catcher Dane Sardinha in camp and in gear Saturday, Cruceta was the only pitcher or catcher who had yet to report.

Early impressions: Leyland intentionally tries not to make much of early throwing sessions, in part because he doesn't want pitchers trying to overdo it to make an early impression on coaches. Still, he liked what he saw from some of his pitchers early. Particularly, he liked what he saw from Virgil Vasquez, who kept his pitches from wandering up in the strike zone, something that had been emphasized to him last season.

Zach Miner, meanwhile, also looked strong early on with his sinker.

"If Zach Miner can throw the sinker like he did [Friday], and locate it like he did, he's going to get a lot of outs," Leyland said.

Miner could be viewed as a starter if needed in that role, but he's also a bullpen candidate, since that's where the Tigers have openings on their roster.

Quotable: "I've been here for a week now, and I'm enjoying it. The guys are awesome. You always hear [from players], 'Well, we have a great clubhouse.' Well, we really do have a good clubhouse in here. You see a lot of friends, a lot of guys golfing, a lot of guys going out after dinner. It's a good group of guys here." -- Mantei on the Tigers' team chemistry.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com.
This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.