Detroit Tigers Team Report

INSIDE PITCH Listening to Dontrelle Willis, he's anxious to get talk about his anxiety disorder out of the way. The Tigers don't want to go into details about the problem, which was diagnosed in spring training. The Tigers put the struggling left-hander on the disabled list and let him quietly work his way back. Legal issues might be a factor, but from listening to Willis it does not appear he is exactly clear about what was going on, either. "I have no condition," he said after rejoining the team Friday in Cleveland. "My condition is me going out there, playing baseball and having fun. If God doesn't want me to do this, I'll find something else. I'm fine with that. "Right from the time they put me on the DL, I was constructive about it. I didn't mope. I handled it like a professional. I worked hard all the way up the ranks, and at each level, I told them if I haven't earned moving up, don't move me up. It's been a traveling circus, but it's been a good one. They liked the way I handled my business, even on the days I didn't pitch." Willis has been around the plate even when he walked hitters during his rehab starts. His hit total has been good and he's been stingy with runs. He credits the organization and everybody around him for being helpful. "Everybody worked with me, not just doctors, but the coaching staff and everybody," he said. "I'm happy they're happy with my productivity, but mostly I'm happy with myself and the way I went about everything. My body feels good. It all feels good. "I know I've been terrible, but that was yesterday. I'm a guy that shoots from the hip. I was just playing bad." Now it's come down to getting results on the mound. Willis hasn't won a game for the Tigers since they obtained him from Florida two winters ago.NOTES, QUOTESRHP Rick Porcello was struck by a thought during the weekend as he got his first look at Cleveland's Progressive Field: "It was cool to be in the same town where my grandfather played," Porcello said. His mother's father was Sam Dente, a shortstop who played on the Indians' 1954 squad that won 111 games and lost in the World Series to the New York Giants. Dente died in 2002, when Porcello was barely a teen-ager. "I only met him twice," Porcello said. "I was real young, so I never got to talk to him about baseball. I'm kind of disappointed in that regard, but it's still pretty cool to have a grandfather that played in the big leagues."C Gerald Laird is one of several Detroit players fighting through a hitting slump. The veteran catcher was hitless last week and now has just one hit in his last 32 at-bats after Sunday's 0-for-3. But he contributed to the Tigers' 4-0 victory at Cleveland on Saturday night with a simple groundout. It came with one out and runners at second and third, however, and drove in the first run of the game. "I know I've been struggling," Laird said, "but you have to continue to grind it out and bear down. I was able to muscle it to short to score a run." A prolonged at-bat that included several barely foul liners to right his last time up might be a prelude to the slump's end later this week.1B/3B Jeff Larish is seeing the benefits of making a short return to Class AAA Toledo. The reserve corner infielder was Detroit's DH Sunday and hit his second home run of the season after collecting his first major league triple the night before. Larish got a rare start at first base Saturday night with 1B Miguel Cabrera serving as Detroit's designated hitter. "I really think with Larish, you're seeing the benefit of him going to Toledo and getting to bat for two weeks," manager Jim Leyland said. "I know that was part of the reason they sent me down, to get comfortable at the plate and help whenever I can," Larish said. LHP Bobby Seay had a tune-up performance Sunday in Cleveland. Seay, who if he's used will be facing the left-handed hitting sluggers in the heart of Minnesota's lineup Tuesday and Wednesday, worked a 1-2-3 seventh against the Indians and then retired the two batters he faced in the eighth before being relieved.BY THE NUMBERS: 25 RBI by Detroit's two shortstops through Sunday, most of any team in the majors. Backup SS Ramon Santiago had 13 and regular SS Adam Everett 12. QUOTE TO NOTE: "This is not experimental and it's not developmental. This is the big leagues. He's going to the rotation and we expect everybody there to help us win games. The expectations are no higher on him than anyone else." Manager Jim Leyland, on the scheduled return Wednesday to the Detroit rotation of LHP Dontrelle Willis, who has been out all year with an anxiety disorder.ROSTER REPORTLHP Dontrelle Willis, diagnosed in spring training with what the club called an anxiety disorder, comes off the disabled list Wednesday to make his first start of the season for Detroit, in Minnesota. "I'm not trying to be a doctor. I'm a baseball player," he said. "Even on the disabled list, I felt fine. I'm not a depressed guy. Maybe I'm hard on myself, but I wouldn't have gotten here if I wasn't." RHP Rick Porcello came out after five innings of one-run ball Sunday because he'd thrown 95 pitches. "We could have lasted longer," manager Jim Leyland said, "but he wasn't going to. He pitched fine, but he's a young guy, and I'm going to take care of him. That's the promise I made myself in spring training. It's what we all agreed upon. He deserved to be on the team, but he's someone we watched very closely last year. He didn't throw a lot of pitches, and that explains why I took him out. Could he have gone more than 100? Sure, but suddenly you're asking something of him I don't want to ask right now. I'm not going to do it. He's very young, not real experienced, and he's very good," Leyland said. "It will take him time, just like we knew it would. We're not going to get away from the plan, no matter what anybody thinks." 3B Brandon Inge has a modest three-game hitting streak after going three straight games without one last week. Inge reached base in the first 24 games, the most since 1976 for the Tigers, but went 0-for-11 after that streak ended. He hit in each of the Tigers' games in Cleveland during the weekend, however, going 3-for-10.RHP Edwin Jackson seems in the process of lowering his walk ratio for the third straight year, one of the key reasons manager Jim Leyland cites for his success. Jackson walked just one batter Saturday night in his seven innings in a 4-0 win at Cleveland. He is walking just 2.7 batters per nine innings so far this season after a 3.8 ratio last season. His walks-per-nine-innings mark was 6.2 in his first season with Tampa Bay in 2006, but 4.9 the following season. "The control is about getting more of a feel, more of a rhythm," Jackson said. "It's repetition, and you get better the more you throw. It's no big secret, just getting a feel for throwing strikes." Jackson is 2-2 with a 2.60 ERA.RHP Fernando Rodney worked consecutive non-save ninth innings on Saturday night and Sunday. His first game wasn't clean but it was scoreless. The second was a little messy because Rodney couldn't put hitters away with two strikes, giving up two runs on an RBI double and a wild pitch in a 5-3 win. "I thought it was perfectly fine to bring him back because we're off (Monday)," manager Jim Leyland said. "If we weren't, it might have been different. Rodney was tremendous, other than the fact that when he got a chance to go for the kill, he tried to run right through them instead of continuing to pitch. He threw a couple of pitches as hard as he could, and that's not good, because he's pitching all year." MEDICAL WATCH: LHP Dontrelle Willis (anxiety disorder) went on the 15-day disabled list March 29. The disorder was diagnosed through blood tests. He made a rehab start for Class A Lakeland on April 21, and he started for Class AA Erie on April 26. He pitched for Class AAA Toledo on May 1 and May 6, and he will be activated to start for Detroit on May 13. LF/DH Carlos Guillen (left shoulder inflammation) went on the 15-day disabled list May 5. C Matt Treanor (torn labrum in right hip) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to April 24. He had surgery April 30, and is likely out for the season. DH/OF Marcus Thames (left ribcage muscle strain) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to April 19. He won't begin any physical activity for two to four weeks, and he will need a rehab assignment before returning to the Tigers. RHP Jeremy Bonderman (right rib removal, blood clot surgery in June 2008) went on the 15-day disabled list retroactive to March 30. He might begin a rehab assignment in mid-May. ROTATION: RHP Justin Verlander RHP Edwin Jackson RHP Armando Galarraga RHP Rick Porcello BULLPEN: RHP Fernando Rodney (closer) RHP Joel Zumaya RHP Brandon Lyon LHP Bobby Seay RHP Juan Rincon LHP Nate Robertson RHP Ryan Perry RHP Zach Miner CATCHERS: Gerald Laird Dane Sardinha INFIELDERS: 1B Miguel Cabrera 2B Placido Polanco SS Adam Everett 3B Brandon Inge INF Jeff Larish INF Ramon Santiago OUTFIELDERS: LF Josh Anderson CF Curtis Granderson RF Magglio Ordonez DH Clete Thomas OF Ryan Raburn