Panic in Detroit?

It's still very early in the season, but is the glass half full or half empty for the Tigers?

The Detroiters won their first one-run game of the campaign Friday night, beating nemesis Minnesota 5-4 in 10 innings. It was the Tigers first win over the Twins in their last 10 meetings. Glass half full.

Despite the victory, however, a disturbing trend continued. Kyle Farnsworth couldn't protect a 3-2 lead in the seventh and Troy Percival blew his first save chance by failing to protect a 4-3 edge in the ninth. It took Pudge Rodriguez's second HR of the season to bail out the team. Glass half empty.

Percival hadn't allowed an earned run against Minnesota in his career prior to this season. Now he has twice given up runs. The bullpen, a major trouble spot last year, was supposed to be much improved with Farnsworth brought in to pitch the seventh, Ugie Urbina moved from closer to eighth-inning specialist and Percival was signed as a free agent to preserve wins.

So far, Farnsworth has given up five runs in 9.2 innings, Urbina seven runs in 8.1 innings and Percival four runs in 7.1 innings. It's the primary reason the Tigers are 1-5 in one-run games. Detroit led or was tied in the seventh inning in five of those six one-run contests. Glass half empty and leaking.

But, at least the team has been competitive. That's something that couldn't be said two years ago when the Tigers were losing 119 games. And the Farnsworth-Urbina-Percival relay is too good to be this bad over the entirety of the season, right? It's only April. It's cool weather. Worry in June. Glass half full.

The bats are producing for the most part. Brandon Inge is proving last year wasn't a fluke by hitting .369-2-11 and Carlos Guillen, .393-0-6, is showing no ill effects from his knee surgery. Speedster Nook Logan is batting .414 in his audition for CF job. Pudge is Pudge, batting .344-2-10. Dmitri Young, the most overlooked Tiger, is .328-4-14 and Rondell White is .291-3-10. That's five regulars batting .328 or better, from a club that could barely hit .200 two years ago. And Magglio Ordonez has hardly played. Glass half full.

Detroit is 4-2 against KC but 0-2 vs. the White Sox, 1-2 vs. Cleveland and 1-3 vs. Minnesota. Glass half empty.

So it's really hard to get a handle on this team. There was some talk a week ago that Alan Trammell's job might be in trouble, which hardly seems fair. I have to believe the hitters will keep hitting, and getting Maggs back at some point will be an additional boost. The starters have been inconsistent, which is to be expected given their age and experience. But they should continue to improve. The bullpen should get better.

No less a baseball sage than Sparky Anderson recently was quoted in the Detroit Free Press as saying, "Give the season some time -- they've only played 15 games, which means there are still 147 to go. I always used to say, when I managed, to give it 40 games and let me be 20-20. That gives you a chance to win it -- how far behind can you be if you're .500 after 40 games?"

Or maybe what we've seen so far is what we're going to get and the Tigers struggle to win 70.