Good news, bad news

There was good news out of Tigers' camp regarding Justin Verlander. The 2006 ROY tossed six scoreless innings yesterday against minor leaguers. It was his sharpest performance of the spring, according to reports. Verlander has been struggling with his location and has an ERA over 8 this spring. Detroit's brass supposedly isn't concerned because Verlander was prohibited from throwing during the offseason, so there was the expectation it could take time for him to get into a groove again. We'll see.

Bad news for Chris Shelton, who got sent down despite hitting .388-2-5 in 49 spring ABs. The news wasn't entirely unexpected because Shelton was battling Marcus Thames for the backup job at 1B -- and Thames is out of minor league options.

Neifi Perez got the last non-pitching spot, beating out Ramon Santiago. Perez is hitting .324-0-4 in 37 ABs this spring and has 9 walks against 6 strikeouts.

Righthander Chad Durbin got the final spot in the bullpen over lefthander Bobby Seay and righty Zach Miner.

So with a week to go before the opener, the Tigers' roster is set. GM Dave Dombrowski said he's "never" had a roster set this early. Jim Leyland didn't see any reason to drag out the process and wanted guys to have time to adjust to the news.

Here's the team:

Starters are RH Jeremy Bonderman, LH Kenny Rogers, RH Justin Verlander, LH Nate Robertson, and LH Mike Maroth. The bullpen is RH Todd Jones, RH Joel Zumaya, RH Fernando Rodney, RH Jose Mesa, RH Jason Grilli, RH Chad Durbin, and LH Wil Ledezma.

The catchers are Ivan Rodriguez and Vance Wilson. The infield has Sean Casey, Placido Polanco, Carlos Guillen and Brandon Inge with Neifi Perez and Omar Infante as backups. The outfield is Craig Monroe, Curtis Granderson and Magglio Ordonez with Marcus Thames as the fourth OF and reserve 1B. Infante also can play CF. Gary Sheffield is the DH.