Henning: Tigers' spot starters remain a toss up

Lakeland, Fla. — Potentially, it’s a neat rotation the Tigers are forging during 2017’s spring camp.

Justin Verlander, Jordan Zimmermann, Michael Fulmer, Daniel Norris, Matthew Boyd.

Drag 800-plus innings from them in 2017 and the Tigers are probably in October’s playoff mix, or at least in the chase through September.

It gets tricky only when you toss in big-league probabilities.

The reality is that starting rotations inevitably run into the disabled list. The big-league average since 2011, as compiled by Fangraphs.com, is that teams need 10 starters during a 162-game season. The Tigers last year had nine different pitchers start games. The above five were involved, as were Mike Pelfrey,…