Lots of good coverage of the MLB draft out there. As it should be with first-rounders, everybody around the Tigers seems quite pleased with their selection at #10: five-tool high school centerfielder Cameron Maybin. The thing about baseball is, in a few years, you might know whether he’s a bona fide major leaguer or not.

Mlive’s Cutoff Man has some looks at Maybin and some of the other picks.

Billfer at DTW has even more insights, including this: “I love pick of Maybin. From all the information I could find the Tigers have a star in the making. The Tigers don’t have any position players in their system with his ceiling.”

Among other articles out there recently (I’m playing a little bit of catch-up):

Pitching coach Bob Cluck talks about Jason Johnson adding a sinker and slider, both the mental side of being accepting of the change and having the confidence to throw them and the physical side of blisters and calluses.

Lynn Henning points out that Carlos Pena, recently sent to the minors, might be just fine even if he never makes it back to the big leagues. Seems he’s closing in on an engineering degree.

And finally, Tom Gage at the News takes advantage of the easy math day (the 162-game season divides neatly into 54-game thirds) to point out that Brandon Inge — he of the .227 career average entering the season — is on pace for 195 hits, which would be the most for a Tiger since manager Alan Trammell recorded 205 in 1987, the last playoff year for the team.

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