Tigers could have a bit more roar this season

Lakeland, Fla.— A new-model baseball team has rolled off Tigertown's assembly line six weeks after spring camp convened. How well that new Tigers team will perform, how strong a playoff run it can mount, is a matter to be resolved during the next six months and 162 games.

The capsule summary on this group is that it should be better than last season's 81-81 team, primarily because the pitching should be a gear better.

But the mosaic that is a 25-man roster should be viewed in detail, position by position, to gain a better sense for whether there's a playoff ticket waiting for manager Jim Leyland and the 25 players he has decided to take north ahead of Thursday's opener at New York against the Yankees.

Infielders

Miguel Cabrera, first base: Spring camp has been a reprise of his 2010 regular season. He has played superbly. He looks fabulous, having dropped the few pounds he gained during his February layoff. Cabrera is as loose and engaging as he was during his 2010 MVP runner-up season. Is there another alcohol lapse in his future? It's a question that won't disappear because of the stunning incident last month at Fort Pierce, Fla. But in terms of baseball performance, Cabrera, who next month turns 28, looks as if he could be warming up for a first-place finish in the 2011 MVP race.

Will Rhymes, second base: He can lash a single up the middle or drive a double up the gap. His defense is solid. He can run. He is aggressive at the plate and not prone to take walks. He won the second-base job in a tough race. The Tigers like his left-handed bat as well as his scrappy style.

Jhonny Peralta, shortstop: Big questions here, at least until Peralta comes out of his spring-training funk and shows that he can drive the ball and drive in runs. If he doesn't snap out of it — and at age 28 that should yet happen — the Tigers will march Danny Worth onto the roster and begin their transition to a new shortstop.

Brandon Inge, third base: Pencil in Inge for the same season Tigers fans — and Inge critics — have come to expect: .235 batting average, 15 home runs, 75 RBIs, 160 strikeouts, and a few hundred terrific plays at third base.

Ramon Santiago, reserve: Worth's ascent has made Santiago less of a fixture. The Tigers no doubt are trying to trade him in an effort to get Worth into the picture.

Outfielders

Ryan Raburn, left field: He quietly has tied Cabrera for the team lead in home runs (four) and has mashed the ball for a solid month. Raburn turns 30 next month and looks, at long last, as if he's ready for a career season. Something along the lines of 25 home runs and 90 or more RBIs is not a stretch. He is no Nureyev when it comes to tracking fly balls. But his defense is better than people acknowledge, and his arm is five-star.

Austin Jackson, center field: There could be some regression from last year's .293 batting average and that preposterous .396 mark on balls that Jackson put into play. Or, he could start the season modestly and gain steam during the schedule's latter months. It doesn't matter. Jackson is superior to Curtis Granderson as a fielder and, at age 24, is maturing into a player and hitter who someday soon should be an All-Star.

Magglio Ordonez, right field: It isn't as easy as it once was for a hitter as skilled as Ordonez. He acknowledges that age has become his foe. But it's a relative statement. He should be good for another season in the .300 vicinity with ample extra-base hits.

Brennan Boesch, outfield : He has a bat so potentially -- potentially -- wicked that Leyland went with him over Andy Dirks and Clete Thomas. No one is sure if Boesch will be last year's second-half hitter or someone who at least approaches what he did in the spring. But even anything at the half-way point would gratify the Tigers, who know how fast he can break up a ballgame.

Casper Wells, outfield: He has the power, speed, and defense to be a plus on Leyland's roster. What he can't do is press, knowing how competitive the scene has become with Andy Dirks and Clete Thomas and others waiting for a call-up should anyone falter.

Don Kelly, outfield: He is what Brandon Inge once was to the Tigers. You can play Kelly at eight positions, nine if you count designated hitter. Kelly is the team's No. 3 catcher, although don't expect that option to be exercised this side of an emergency. Kelly can also hit with some pop.

Catcher

Alex Avila: He was barely a year into his new position when the Tigers drafted him in 2008. A year later he debuted in Detroit with a bang — five home runs — but then the tough stuff began. He had to refine his skills at the toughest position on the field at the same time he was supposed to be developing as a hitter. It's not an easy progression, as Avila proved last year.

Victor Martinez: It's no secret that the Tigers signed him to a whopping contract as something other than a backup catcher. Martinez is one of the better switch-hitters in baseball. He'll be planted behind Cabrera in the No. 5 slot. The Tigers were in trouble without him. With him, they've planted an indispensable hitter into the middle of their order.

Starting pitchers

Justin Verlander, right-hander: He has never looked stronger, has never thrown with as much command, and has never seemed more glued to his role as he has appeared through spring camp. Verlander knows what's at stake for him, for his team and, in his case, for his baseball legacy. It's what happens when you're as talented as he is and when, at age 28, you're already closing in on 100 career victories (17 to go).

Max Scherzer, right-hander: He is a power pitcher with a high-horsepower intellect and immense drive. It's a nifty package to take into a new season when you're still four months from turning 27.

Rick Porcello, right-hander: Even the Tigers can get impatient with a 22-year-old pitcher. Porcello is in his third season, which is why it's easy to forget that he wasn't even of drinking age when he won a rotation spot two years ago. He's still learning the pitching game. He doesn't overpower hitters, so his location must be consistently good.

Phil Coke, left-hander: He looked good for much of the spring, but took some knocks late. The switch to starting is still in progress. If things don't work out, he goes back to the bullpen, Andy Oliver moves in, and the Tigers probably strengthen their seventh-inning options. But they'll give this experiment a full and necessary opportunity to work.

Brad Penny, right-hander: Talk about incentives. If you're a 32-year-old proven starter, with a great body and arm, working on a one-year contract with free agency eight months away, what kind of year can sheer will, alone, deliver? He has talent — and as much motivation as any player on the team.

Relievers

Jose Valverde, right-handed closer: He is healthy, smart, loves his role, and on most occasions will craft a fast ninth-inning exit and save.

Joaquin Benoit, right-handed set-up man: He was all but unhittable in 2010. And he wasn't much different during spring camp. Benoit has a blowtorch for an arm and is regarded by Leyland as one of the most intelligent players in the game. The Tigers rather like their three-year investment in Benoit.

Ryan Perry, right-hander: When he came up two years ago, he broke bats, gave up hits as if they were his life savings, but went to too many three-ball counts. He isn't quite as overpowering as in 2009. And when he's off he gets hammered. But the Tigers believe Perry has lacked only one thing: time.

Daniel Schlereth, left-hander: Great arm and athleticism, which is why he was a first-round draft pick. Schlereth's fault line is his breaking ball. When it's on, he's deadly. When he hangs it, there's trouble. But he could be to the bullpen what Coke was in 2010.

Brayan Villarreal, right-hander: He'll get the ball when the Tigers need a seventh-inning strikeout. His fastball/slider combination is poison — when he has command. Look at Villarreal's track record and those ratios: more than a strikeout per inning, less than a hit per inning.

Brad Thomas, left-hander: Solid, smart, good for a couple of innings, and increasingly invaluable. He's gotten better bite on his breaking pitch, which for Thomas is the whole story.

Enrique Gonzalez, right-hander: The Tigers' closest thing to a long reliever, Gonzalez can give you two or three trustworthy innings, which is all they need.

It's no perfect science, deciding on an Opening Day roster. Leyland, though, has spoken. And this is the group he hopes will play well into October.

Projected Opening Day lineup

1. Austin Jackson, center field

2. Ryan Raburn, left field

3. Magglio Ordonez, right field

4. Miguel Cabrera, first base

5. Victor Martinez, designated hitter

6. Jhonny Peralta, shortstop

7. Alex Avila, catcher

8. Brandon Inge, third base

9. Will Rhymes, second base

lynn.henning@detnews.com

lynn.henning@detnews.com