BASEBALL

It is of course somewhat arbitrary to just look at Opening Day rosters.  You could just as easily look at the roster after game 107.  Still, it is fun to watch the evolution of a team over time and while Opening Day Rosters are easy to get, game 107 rosters would take some effort.  Here are the last 3 Tigers’ Opening Day rosters.  The colors in 2013 show how many seasons in a row the player has been on Detroit’s Opening Day roster.  Green shading indicates 3 or more years. Yellow shading indicates 2 years.  Orange shading indicates that this is the first year.  The colors in 2011 and 2012 just match 2013, they do not refer to prior years.

I added Smyly at the end in 2012 since he was named the 5th starter, but was not on the Opening Day roster because off days allowed the Tigers to use 4 starters for a couple trips through the rotation.

Here are the 2009 and 2010  rosters if you want to go further back.