Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire spoke to reporters ahead of the team's winter caravan kickoff Thursday afternoon. Tony Paul, The Detroit News
Detroit — When Lloyd McClendon, the Tigers’ hitting instructor, watches Christin Stewart swing the bat, he sees a little — or maybe even a lot — of Prince Fielder, the former All-Star slugger that McClendon spent two seasons with in Detroit. The muscular build, the short swing, the left-handed power.
And there are days, McClendon admits, when he watches the results that he finds himself marveling at the possibilities, like he did that afternoon last September, when the Tigers’ young outfielder — a couple weeks after his major-league debut — hit a towering upper-deck shot into the Pepsi sign in right field at Comerica Park.