LAKELAND, Fla. -- Much like David Price, Tigers manager Brad Ausmus has a greater comfort level coming into this spring.
Ausmus never seemed flummoxed during his first season as a big league manager, but like players, he's making adjustments along the way.
"A lot of things we're doing are similar but the stressing of certain fundamentals has become a little more ardent, so to speak," Ausmus said the other day before the team played the Philadelphia Phillies in Clearwater.
"We had the same plays last year but I've stressed them much more and I've really pushed in our morning meetings, reminded them we've got to keep running these, I want everyone to be comfortable with them. I don't want to leave Lakeland and go to Detroit and have guys question whether they'll be able to run any of these plays."
Ausmus said the staff also learns which players are capable of running the plays.
Bench coach Gene Lamont, who has known Ausmus since Ausmus played for the Houston Astros and Lamont was the third-base coach, has seen a little difference.
"I think he's a little more relaxed," Lamont said. "For a first-year guy last year, he wasn't uptight at all. I'm not saying that. But this year he knows the players. Last year you try to act like you're real calm but now that you do know the players, you can mess around with them some. I think that's probably one of the biggest differences."
Ausmus certainly consults with his coaches but he knows that ultimately he has to make the calls, which he did even in 2014.
"I'll still bounce stuff on Geno and Jeff Jones -- they're the most closely involved with me about the strategy of the game," Ausmus said. "But make no mistake about it, I made the decisions. There were often times that Gene or Jeff Jones would say 'A' and I would choose 'B.' And there were many times that we'd be on the same page and I'd agree with their assessment. And there were even times they'd persuade me into doing something that maybe I was thinking differently about.
"It's a give-and-take, but ultimately, I'm making the decision."
POSITIVE SIGNS FOR IGLESIAS
Crazy injuries to his right shin notwithstanding, Jose Iglesias appears to be back on track.
Tigers manager Brad Ausmus has been careful with Iglesias this spring, not playing him on back-to-back days and making sure he gets opportunities to get off of his feet.
All of that is because Iglesias missed all of the 2014 season with stress fractures in both shins.
Then last Friday in Port St. Lucie, Iglesias had a bad slide on a stolen base, hitting his right shin.
Just when he was ready to play again, Iglesias got hit in batting practice with a J.D. Martinez line drive in the same spot.
Iglesias returned to the lineup Tuesday at Clearwater and emerged unscathed.
Ausmus also knows that at some point, Iglesias will have to demonstrate that he'll be able to play on a daily basis.
The other day, Ausmus said the next step would be playing in back-to-back games.
That is scheduled to happen today and Friday.
Iglesias made the trip to Kissimmee to play the Houston Astros, starting at shortstop.
Friday's lineup shows Iglesias in as the designated hitter.
"Maybe that was good, it showed that he slid in the one time and came back from it real well, then he got hit with the line drive and he's ready to play so I think that's good," bench coach Gene Lamont said before Thursday's game in Lakeland.
After a sweaty hitting session in the Tigers' indoor batting cages on a humid day, Victor Martinez was far from done.
Martinez and Miguel Cabrera joined their teammates for the early warm-ups, with Martinez doing some very light non-anti-gravity treadmill jogging for the first time.
Martinez was careful to skip some of the warm-up exercises, notably the ones where you are on one leg and reach down to touch the ground before switching legs.
"Victor ran some straightahead sprints, ran some agilities, did well," Tigers head athletic trainer Kevin Rand said. "We're just working him on a program to get him to where he's ready to base-run."
Rand said Martinez ran on the AlterG anti-gravity treadmill Wednesday.
"We'll still use that as a recovery tool, too," Rand said. "I ran him on that yesterday with a brace. I wanted him to really build up a good sweat with the brace and see how he handled that. He did very well."
Rand did not have a timetable for when Martinez would be ready to run the bases.
Cabrera is also making progress in his rehabilitation from offseason surgery on his right foot/ankle.
"Miggy's running on the ground," Rand said. "Miggy did sprints today, he did agilities today. He's been fielding ground balls progressively."
Rand said Cabrera has been fielding grounders for the last 4-5 days and is starting to range a little to each side.
Both Cabrera and Martinez continue to take batting practice on the field with the rest of the team.
AVILA UPDATE
The Tigers are clearly hoping Alex Avila's back issue is a short-term thing.
Avila left Wednesday's game after one inning because of lower back tightness, the second time this spring his back has tightened up on him.
"Alex was a little bit better today, a little bit looser," Tigers head athletic trainer Kevin Rand said. "We had him worked on, and he's being worked on again tomorrow."
Originally scheduled to play first base Thursday in Lakeland, Avila is now in the lineup for Friday's game at the Atlanta Braves as the starting catcher.
Rand said this back problem was different from his first one.
"Before it was bothering him flexing," Rand said. "This was bothering him extension. But he's been doing a lot of driving around the state."
Jordan Lennerton started at first base Thursday in Lakeland.
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COMPLETE TIGERS SPRING TRAINING 2015 COVERAGE
