So whaddya think, Tigers fans? Miguel Cabrera showed up to camp early on Monday and all eyewitness accounts say he'd have trouble making the Marlins Manatees if he were still playing in Florida.

Cabrera (left) wouldn't put a number on his weight, but he did say he feels in good shape and plans to drop a few more pounds before the Tigers head north to the start the season. So, yeah, you have to imagine a big sigh of relief came from Motown yesterday and it's good to see Dave Dombrowski's grand plan wasn't derailed by a bad offseason diet from a dude who has struggled with his weight in recent years.

In fact, the only downside of this story is that Brandon Inge can't say "I told you so." (But as we've repeatedly seen since the Cabrera trade, no one really cares any more what Inge has to say.)

Anyways, both city papers agree that Cabrera looked rather good.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Cabrera was in the clubhouse early. In an 8:15 a.m. meeting with reporters, he delivered a trio of impressions beyond his cheerful and optimistic words:

He looks bigger in person than on TV. He isn't overweight at all. And his whole demeanor is that of a liberated man.

And a well-conditioned man, at that, from all indications. The weight challenge that Cabrera faced a year ago when he was slamming big-league pitching and playing third base for the Florida Marlins appears to be a past-tense issue.

"No belly," Cabrera said, laughing at an eyewitness report that had his old Marlins teammate, Dontrelle Willis, patting him playfully on the stomach when he showed up Monday.

Hopefully the poundage talk is now all out of the way and we'll be able to focus on the numbers that Cabrera will put up in that sicker-than-sick Dee-troit lineup. Just wondering: How many AL pitchers had nightmares last night?

• Cabrera hits camp with constant swing, changing size / Detroit Free Press
• Tigers' Cabrera ready and raring to go / Detroit News 

AP photo

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