Is Victor Martinez Ready?

What do we make of a player coming off a long-term stint being injured? In the last 14 months we have witnessed Adrian Peterson return eight months after tearing his ACL and MCL to rush for 2,097 yards while winning MVP, yet we have also watched Derrick Rose tear his ACL ten months ago, not yet return to action, and recently state, “I wouldn’t mind missing the season.” Clearly, Rose is either pessimistic about being 100% by seasons’ end, or he is just enjoying his time off watching cooking shows and reruns of Maury.

Last January, we found out that Detroit Tigers’ designated hitter Victor Martinez had a torn ACL and was going to miss extended time. Fortunately, Detroit remedied the situation by throwing money at Prince Fielder, and he powered them to a spot in the World Series. Unfortunately, this money-throwing strategy was unsuccessful for yet another year when it came to fixing Detroit’s school system.

Even without playing any preseason games yet, Tigers’ fans are drooling over their projected batting order, like they’re a bunch of corpulent pre-corpses confined to their Rascal Scooters in an Old Country Buffet line. An order featuring Martinez, Miguel Cabrera, and Fielder one after the other is truly a recipe designed to shatter the egos and confidence of opposing pitchers.

Both Martinez and Tigers’ skipper Jim Leyland have claimed that Martinez is at 100% and should be ready to go for the season. Will he be able to regain the form that he had in 2011 when he batted .330 and knocked in 103 RBI? Or, will this be similar to when you stand up too fast before immediately feeling dizzy and having to sit back down because there isn’t enough blood in your head and, also, you forgot your torn ACL hasn’t fully healed yet?