Detroit's rough start not that surprising

<p>Detroit is the least surprising of the early-season surprises.</p><p>Sure, with the Tigers' lineup, it's difficult to believe they lost their first seven games. But talk about the Tigers winning a championship seems a bit far-fetched this year, even with their high-priced payroll and fancy lineup.</p><p>For all the money general manager Dave Dombrowski has been allowed to spend, the question that hangs over the team is why it didn't make more of an offseason effort to address major needs on the pitching staff.</p><p>This is a team that opened the season with Denny Bautista, the man who gets managers fired and keeps scouts employed, as the eighth-inning setup man.</p><p>This is a team that was willing to cross its fingers that Dontrelle Willis suddenly would move from the National League to a more hitter-deep American League and find happiness, even though scouts have been concerned since the start of last season the 200-plus-inning seasons at a young age have taken a toll on his arm.</p><p>It's great to add third baseman Miguel Cabrera and then get ownership to step up and hand him a seven-year, $141 million deal. He is a definite upgrade over Brandon Inge. Inge, however, is a solid third baseman, and considering he already is signed for two years, the question is why the Tigers didn't put their resources into reinforcing their pitching staff.</p><p>On the field, they lost their first seven games and eight of nine so far. They are also on the verge of challenging history: No team has opened a season 1-9 and made it to the postseason.</p><p>Nine teams have rebounded from a 2-8 start to reach the postseason -- the 1914 Boston Braves, 1935 Detroit Tigers, 1951 New York Giants, 1974 Pittsburgh Pirates, 1977 New York Yankees, 1991 Minnesota Twins, 1995 Cincinnati Reds, 2001 A's and 2007 Philadelphia Phillies.</p><p>EARLY INJURY WOES</p><p>Tampa Bay is facing a painful reality. After a spring spent believing they could be at least on the edges of the AL East race, the Rays were broadsided with injuries. Not only do they have eight players on the disabled list -- that's one behind major league-leading St. Louis -- but the injured include their No. 1 starter (Scott Kazmir), No. 3 starter (Matt Garza), starting catcher (Dioner Navarro), starting designated hitter (Cliff Floyd) and starting right fielder (Rocco Baldelli).</p><p>Of St. Louis' nine players on the DL, four are possible rotation members -- Mark Mulder, Chris Carpenter, Matt Clement and Joel Pineiro.</p><p>The Marlins and Mets have eight players on the disabled list, but they're not of the same magnitude. Sergio Mitre would have been in the Marlins' rotation, and the Mets are missing starting pitchers Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez and left fielder Moises Alou. An argument can be made the Mets are better off with Mike Pelfry over Hernandez, anyway.</p><p>INFIELD CHATTER</p><p>Left-hander Francisco Liriano, recovering from elbow surgery he had in November 2006, is going to make at least one more minor league start before he is called up by Minnesota. In his first two starts -- one for single-A Fort Myers (Fla.) and one for tripple-A-Rochester (N.Y.) -- Liriano has a 7.56 ERA. He needed 88 pitches to get through four innings against Baltimore's Norfolk (Va.) affiliate Tuesday.</p><p>CLOSING STATEMENT</p><p>The Nationals aren't finding their new ballpark to be the attendance booster they had hoped for. They sold out (39,389) their March 30 opener against Atlanta, but in returning to Nationals Park this week, they drew only 20,487 for Monday's game with Florida and, after having Tuesday off, sold only 23,340 for Wednesday's game and 24,459 for Thursday night.</p>