Detroit — Dressed spiffily in an orange-and-blue Tigers' ugly Christmas sweater, which really wasn't that ugly at all, Franklin Perez smiled wide when asked about the weather.
It was in the low 20s on Saturday afternoon — certainly a bit of a shock for Perez, a native of Venezuela who now lives in Orlando, but not in a bad way.
"It's not that bad," said Perez, making his first visit to Detroit. "I like this weather. I feel good."
That last comment, of course, should be most comforting for Tigers fans, who don't have much to cling to these days besides the cautious optimism that the minor-league system — so awful and so gutted for so many years, if not decades — really is on the rise, particularly in the pitching department.