Dontrelle Willis is going back to his old motion, but the early results aren't encouraging:

I realize that Spring Training is a time for players to work on things, and you have to take that into consideration before judging any results. But geez, shouldn't Dontrelle Willis have his mechanics mostly worked out by now? His old leg kick popped up a few times last night. --snip-- Did falling into old habits work? Not so much, it seems. Willis gave up five runs (four earned) on seven hits, with two walks in 2.6 innings last night. (I missed most of the D-Train while watching the Michigan-Clemson basketball game, so can't really judge how he threw, but imagine that Willis's performance compelled many to change the channel.) Maybe getting back to something familiar helped him. (Jim Leyland and Rick Knapp seemed to think so, but they're just being supportive.) I guess we'll find out in his next appearance. But with about three weeks left in Spring Training, it's beginning to sound more like everyone just wants to find something -- anything -- that works.

Willis has now thrown nine innings this spring, and given up 17 hits and seven walks, with only four strikeouts. As David Pinto notes, "unfortunately one of the more interesting characters in the game may be on his way out." As Neyer notes, "unfortunately the Tigers still owe this interesting character $22 million." I know I've been harping on this for something like a year now, but some things really deserve harping, and unfortunately this is one of them. With Willis coming off a season in which he went 10-15 with a 5.17 ERA -- in the National League, no less! -- Dave Dombrowski apparently thought investing $29 million in this interesting character was a good idea. Dombrowski's done plenty of smart things over the years, but I sure would love to know what he was thinking about with this one.