Duane Below has edge in competition to be Tigers' fifth starter

Lakeland, Fla. -- Things seen, heard, and metabolized a week into Tigers spring camp:

Duane Below: Most fans probably have him at the back end of their list to win the fifth starter's job.

I've got him first, all because he is the oldest (26) and has the most minor league experience as a starter (112 games) among six pitchers who are officially competing.

Jacob Turner and Drew Smyly have elite talent. But it's difficult to believe either will be ready by the end of spring camp. You can't say for sure — and Smyly might overtake everyone before it's over — but right now they're third and fourth.

Adam Wilk is running second. Again, it's a matter of age (24, three years out of college) and the ability to throw strikes that make him this week's runner-up to Below in Most Likely to Succeed.

Andy Oliver has exceptional stuff. If he has his mechanics ironed out and throws strikes during his auditions, 2012 could make him the front-burner prospect he was two years ago.

Casey Crosby still is on the green side and the Tigers are at least pondering a relief role for him. But his stuff is top-drawer. He'll be interesting to watch.

The entire order could change six weeks from now. But today, Below looks like the guy who ekes out a promotion.

Doug Fister: You can talk about his pitching. And you should, because this guy is good.

But what stood out during this week's workouts is how exceptional is his athleticism. Fister covers so much ground, so fast, that he made most of his cohorts look like amateurs during fielding drills.

He takes strides that are a blur, gets the baseball in a blink, and rivets a throw to first base. No matter the drill, Fister commands.

When they traded for this guy seven months ago, the Tigers got a Triple Crown thoroughbred.

Rick Porcello: I'm with anyone else, and that includes manager Jim Leyland, who believes Porcello will have a big season.

It is simply a matter of age and talent likely merging three years into a 23-year-old's big league experience.

I suspect you'll see a bit more spice on his fastball, greater authority with his secondary pitches, and the ability to last deeper into games.

This game takes time — more than fans who are understandably impatient care to grant it. But it would be no surprise if Porcello makes the biggest jump of any Tigers pitcher.

Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen: There's a void in camp. And you knew a year ago it would come to this.

Ordonez and Guillen, two of the classiest and most decent men I've covered, are gone and no one can quite assume their roles as the wise, good-humored, consummate professionals they together were.

They helped restore baseball in Detroit during their years here. And it wasn't only because of their talents. It was because they were excellent examples of how to conduct one's life.

The happy warrior — Jose Valverde: Never have you seen a pro athlete so appealingly uninhibited. No matter what practice field he's on, no matter what group he's with, he yells, and exhorts, and joshes, in a mega-decibel voice you can hear all the way to Volusia County.

He takes baseball seriously, as anyone knows. But he mixes in just enough spirit and spontaneity to make his workouts a kind of extended Mardi Gras party. He is a certified trip.

Tony La Russa: It's a nice tribute La Russa is spending his first spring camp following retirement with the Tigers.

In part, it's because of his friendship with Leyland. But it is equal parts respect for the Tigers and for Dave Dombrowski, with whom he worked when both were with the White Sox in the late 1970s and early '80s.

La Russa is a bright, multi-dimensional man. He could have ended up in 29 other camps that would have been happy to have accommodated one of the great managers in baseball annals.

But he's spending a couple of weeks with the Tigers. Not surprisingly, he's trying to learn a few things, in this case some of the front office's finer points from Dombrowski.

It's nice for La Russa. And it's a nifty compliment to owner Mike Ilitch's baseball team.

lynn.henning@detnews.com

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