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Niyo: Avila's sales pitch for Tigers a big challenge

Detroit — As marketing pitches go, Al Avila knows this one is a tough sell.

“Everybody talks about this season as, ‘Are the Tigers gonna be that bad?’,” the Tigers' general manager said at a Detroit Sports Media luncheon Wednesday, a day before his team rolls out its annual winter caravan ahead of spring training.

But the truth is, they just might be. Probably not bad enough to give the 119-loss Tigers of 2003 a run for their money. But bad enough that the unsold tickets to this weekend’s TigerFest certainly won’t be the only ones the team is scrambling to unload this year.