AROUND THE HORN: Pudge ready to invest in Leyland's program.(baseball teams)

Byline: John Lowe

Feb. 17--LAKELAND, Fla. -- Jim Leyland said the Tigers won't go anywhere unless the veteran players buy into his program. Ivan Rodriguez sounds ready to invest. "If he asks me to do things, I'm going to," Rodriguez said Thursday after the first spring workout. "He's the skipper, and you have to follow his rules. Whatever he tells me to do, I'll do." That is the making of a strong player-manager relationship -- the kind Rodriguez didn't always have with Alan Trammell, his manager for the previous two seasons. Without drawing any comparisons to Trammell, Rodriguez called Leyland "a great manager -- the manager we need." Leyland said Rodriguez wants to catch 140 of the 162 regular-season games. The only big-league catcher to start 140 games last season was Oakland's Jason Kendall. Rodriguez hasn't started 140 at catcher in seven years, since his MVP season in 1999. "I'm an everyday player," he said. "I hate to sit on the bench." Rodriguez looks about the same as last season, when he showed up a couple of dozen pounds lighter than the year before, then had his worst offensive season since his first full big-league year. He finished with 14 homers, 50 RBIs and -- thanks to 11 walks all season -- the lowest on-base percentage (.290) of any American League regular. Rodriguez refused to talk Thursday about last season, except to say he took off about five pounds too many. "I was about 185-187 pounds," he said. "For a catcher, that is a little light. I'm going to start the season about 190. If I can stay at 190-195, I think it will be good for me." STAR-STRUCK: Tigers reliever Todd Jones is excited he gets to join so many stars on the U.S. team in the upcoming World Baseball Classic. "When you go down the roster, and you see my name, it feels like a typo," Jones said. "It feels like one of those Christmas presents that a die-hard Green Bay Packers fan would get: Someone superimposes your name on the Packers' Diamond-vision, and you pay $9.95 to get an 8-by-10 photo of it."

Jones, the only Tiger on the U.S. team, does have some qualifications: 40 saves last season with Florida and 226 in his big-league career.

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