The Cutoff Man: DH Rankings, Cold Opening Days, and Animal Rights

March 26, 2013; Lakeland, FL, USA; Detroit Tigers designated hitter

(41) prior to the game against the Atlanta Braves at Joker Marchant Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

Comparing AL Central Designated Hitters – Tigers in Words

"The interesting thing about the Tigers is going to be when they rest Victor and put Prince or Miggy in at DH, they will likely get more production than they get from their starter. Wisenheimers all over the blogdom will quip that’s because those two should both be DHs, but we won’t get into that. Gains in production from those two will probably be cancelled out by the rare instance where Leyland doesn’t want to mess with the “flow of the lineup” and throws Kelly or Tuiasosopo in at DH."

Boys of summer? Tigers’ Torii Hunter knows how to block out cold – The Detroit News

"All of Torii Hunter‘s home games in 11 years with the Minnesota Twins were played indoors at the Metrodome — where cold weather wasn’t a problem.Hunter knows how to combat the cold, however. After all, he still says that one of the coldest games he’s ever played in was his first outdoors road opener — at Tiger Stadium in 1999."

Get used to it: Detroit Tigers mix, match, grind way to season-opening win over Minnesota Twins – MLive

"Leyland said he was hopeful long reliever Drew Smyly could give the Tigers three effective innings, which would have carried the Tigers to the ninth, where Leyland would have chosen a closer based on matchups. But Smyly was ineffective, so Leyland was forced to mix it up.“We did just what we told everybody we were going to be doing,” he said. “We mixed and matched.”"

Animal rights group upset with Detroit Tigers’ photos – The Oakland Press

"The Detroit Tigers are under fire for seemingly innocent Facebook photos in which stars like Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander posed with their team’s namesake.The International Fund for Animal Welfare issued a statement Monday decrying the team for posing with tiger cubs from the Dade City Wild Things Zoo."