"We'll make sure. We're not going to abuse anybody. You can't just baby them along forever. ... Zumaya needs ... to pitch two or three innings at a time instead of one inning at a time. If it backfires, it backfires. I want to get him out there three innings at a time (so) he builds up to do that. He doesn't have any innings the last two years."

Zumaya's last two seasons have been abbreviated by assorted surgeries and ailments. "If we can't push him along, I'd say there's a chance he wouldn't break (camp) with the team," Leyland said. "Now, I don't want to see headlines saying that Zumaya won't make the team, because I'm praying to God that he will. But my point is if he can only pitch six innings (in spring training), he's not going to be ready to pitch at the big-league level. I'm hoping that's not true, and I don't think it will be."

--3B Brandon Inge is one of the keys to the Tigers bouncing back from their last-place AL Central finish of a year ago. Improving the club defense was one of the reasons manager Jim Leyland switched Inge back to third from behind the plate. Part of that is predicated on Inge improving his offense, which has seen a two-year decline.

"If Inge gives us more offense, and (RHP Joel) Zumaya solidifies the bullpen no matter what role he's in, that's a huge difference," Leyland said. "(Zumaya) is a force when he's right. If (he is) totally healthy, and you've got Inge producing runs, that makes us real good."

Inge swatted 27 home runs in 2006 but only totaled 25 in the two seasons since. The bottom of the batting order is a potential big weakness for the Tigers this year.

"I think we're gonna have a little more production than people think at the bottom of our lineup," Leyland said. "Not necessarily home runs. But we'll do a better job there of baserunning and moving along runners and getting two-out hits. I think Brandon Inge is a big, big key there. He actually didn't have a bad ratio of RBIs to at-bats last year (51 in 347 at-bats), and I think we're going to get him to where we think he can be. That'll be a big help."

--LHP Dontrelle Willis needs to get back to throwing strikes if he hopes to beat out the competition for the only rotation opening the Tigers have entering spring training. Willis had a 9.38 ERA in his puny total of 24 innings last season. He held opposing hitters to a .209 batting average, but he was hurt by walking 35 batters. Willis only allowed 18 hits, but most of them came with runners on base.

--RHP Edwin Jackson will be concentrating on working short first innings this season, one of his weaknesses with Tampa Bay a year ago. Jackson, acquired in an offseason trade with the Rays, gave up his most runs (19), most hits (40) and home runs (five) in his opening inning of work. Batters averaged .323 against him in the first inning, and his only frame worse than that was the ninth (.571). But now that he's aware, it's an area where he can bear down once the exhibition season begins.

--LHP Bobby Seay has gone from being a one-batter pitcher when he first joined Detroit to a southpaw the Tigers can use to get a string of hitters out. Seay, 30, has appeared in 118 games for Detroit over two seasons but is averaging less than an inning per outing. Last season Seay faced more right-handed hitters, though, as manager Jim Leyland used him as a bridge to get to the next inning. It's hurt some of his statistics, though. Two years ago Seay held lefties to a .209 average, but last year that mark soared to .303. Now he has to get used to facing both left- and right-handed hitters in the same game.

BY THE NUMBERS: 100 -- Percent of batters LHP Dontrelle Willis ended up walking last season after going to 3-0 counts. Wildness and a knee injury limited Willis to just 24 innings with Detroit last season. He went to 3-0 on 17 batters and walked every one of them.

QUOTE TO NOTE: "I think the writing's on the wall. Let it play out and let the best man earn the job." -- Detroit manager Jim Leyland on his rotation. He has seven pitchers competing for five spots with four of them (RHPs Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Armando Galarraga and Edwin Jackson) having an edge entering the competition.