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Viņa, Tigers See Good Days Ahead
Baseball Perspectives
Mike Bauman
02/25/2004
LAKELAND, Fla. -- The world of the Detroit Tigers is looking a lot brighter to manager Alan Trammell this Spring, thanks to the infusion of some very reputable veteran players.
You don't associate the likes of Ivan Rodriguez, Rondell White, Carlos Guillen, Fernando Viņa with 119 losses. It is easy to accept the notion that, with this quartet, the Tigers should be much improved, not only offensively, but defensively.
But the improvement, the Tigers hope, will be intangible as well, helping to change the attitude, the approach, the expectations of a club coming off a season that was historically bad. And in that regard, Viņa, a superior second baseman, and an all-out effort player every day of the week, appears to be exactly what the doctor ordered.
So when you ask the Tigers manager what Viņa will bring to this club, you get much more than a discussion of his tangible abilities. You also get, "the scrappiness, the feistiness, the attitude.
"I was talking to [St. Louis Cardinals manager] Tony La Russa and he was very complimentary of Fernando Viņa," Trammell said Wednesday at the Tigers camp at Joker Marchant Stadium. "And I know there's part of him that would still like to have Fernando, I'm sure. He speaks very highly of him. Here's a guy, we've already seen his work ethic, he does a lot of the intangible things. 'Scrappy,' I think that's a good adjective. He does a lot of those things that help a ball club. They may go unnoticed by certain people, but to us, we're certainly very aware of it. And that's what we're hoping that he brings."
That's exactly what Viņa expects to do. "That's my plan," he said Wednesday. "I go hard, I work hard, I go about my business in the right way, in my opinion. Young guys see that, guys who are coming up, and I think by example that breeds winning. And that goes right along with Pudge and Rondell and Carlos and all the guys that are here."
Viņa spent the last four seasons with a reasonably successful team, the Cardinals. Although his 2003 was interrupted by a torn hamstring, he was back on the field last September and he says he is at full health again now. Several clubs expressed serious interest in him, but the Tigers expressed interest to the tune of two years for $6 million. That was a healthy offer for a second baseman in the current market, but for Viņa, it had to be accompanied by assurances that the Tigers were going to take major steps to improve their situation.
"They came at me pretty hard, and they told me they were going to pick up some players, do some things here," Viņa says. "It's a challenge for me. Obviously, being on the Cardinals you have a good shot to go to the playoffs every year. And then, a team that lost 119 games, you go and sign with them the next winter, that's probably a tough decision. But it's going to be a good challenge for me, and financially it was a good deal and I just went with it.
"I had a great four years in St. Louis with Tony and the guys. Edgar Renteria, I miss him to death. But they were going in a different direction. They needed to save money to sign [Albert] Pujols and some pitchers."
To say that Viņa is an upbeat personality would greatly understate the case. A normal early morning for him in the clubhouse consists of a long series of hearty handshakes and well wishes for practically everybody who crosses his path. This is not an act. This is who he is. He is spreading good cheer, which is especially fitting because he is looking around and finding reasons to be cheerful.
"I already like the chemistry here," he says. "There's a lot of good people here. And that's what breeds winning, in my experience. We've picked up a lot of quality guys, not only guys who are good players, but guys who have won in other places. You put all that together and you never know what's going to happen.
"Pudge, Rondell, Carlos Guillen, and with the guys they had here, Dmitri Young, Bobby Higginson. Carlos Pena is a good first baseman. You got Eric Munson, who hit 18 home runs last year. You got a pitching staff, from everything I've seen they've got good arms. But last year they couldn't catch the ball, they couldn't score runs. What'd they score last year, two runs a game? Whatever it was, it was horrible. That just breeds losing. No confidence for the pitchers. So we're going to have a better defense this year, and with Pudge running the pitchers, anything can happen. I'm excited.
"I think a fair goal would be to play .500. I think we could do that if we start off decent and go the right way. They lost 119 games last year, but this year that definitely isn't going to happen. I'd like to see us win 80 games. You never know.
"Everybody knows about last year. You hear about it, you say: 'Oh, man, what happened there?' But we're getting good players, quality players. I think it'll be exciting. I'm looking forward to this. It can only get better. Other people might think about the worst, but I think we're going to play hard and good things will happen."
A steady rain fell on Joker Marchant Stadium on Wednesday, limiting the Tigers' work, but it didn't matter. The outlook was getting brighter, anyway.
"After what we went through last year, it's certainly very helpful to know that we have some guys with some credentials," Trammell said. "It does make a big difference. Last year there were lots of unknowns because of the fact that you don't know what will happen. Well, the worst happened.
"This year, we should expect to be much improved, especially offensively. That's what we attempted to do this winter. What are the final numbers? Nobody knows that. But to say that we're going to win just 43 games again, I guarantee that's not going to happen. We better not, or none of us will be around."
Saying that the Tigers will be better than last season is a little too easy, because upward may be the only direction left to them. Put it this way: With the players they have added, they will be better both tangibly and intangibly. In coming back from this far down, the second can be as important as the first.
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