These initial outings by starting pitchers in Spring Training are of the "blink and you'll miss it" variety.....but anytime your Ace takes the hill its an event worth noting.
Is there a more important Tiger right now? Is there any hope of contending if his season looks more like '08 rather than '09?
Personally I think he's ready to keep rolling. I think he's a strong guy and tough one as well who is ready to battle it out. I don't believe there is any chance his spiffy new contract takes away any of the warrior mentality he takes the hill with.
His massive workload is the only worry. He pitched a ton of innings last year and faced a lot of batters. You gotta work to strike out 269 batters in one season. The good news is that he looked strong in September and October....he wasn't running on fumes like Edwin Jackson was by the time August rolled in.
The highlight of my trip to Kansas City was perhaps witnessing the turnaround of Verlander's season in some respect. He had struggled in his first couple of starts as many will remember. Just after getting cuffed around in his previous start I was able to watch from maybe 25 feet away as Verlander and pitching coach Rick Knapp worked through Verlander's "throw day" work out in the Kansas City bullpen. Knapp and Verlander were chatting after every other pitch or so. I'd estimate that Verlander threw about 80 pitches that day....90% of them were from the Stretch. I'm guessing they were working on something specific that was hurting Verlander through the first few outings with runners on base. Well....either because of what they worked on that day or by sheer coincidence, Verlander took off for the rest of the season from there forward. One of the better seasons by a Tigers' starting pitcher in my lifetime if I were going to rank them.
Can he do it again in '10? (or at least a reasonable facsimile thereof!) We shall see....
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