Verlander trying to take new attention in stride

DETROIT (AP) - After becoming the first starting pitcher in a quarter-century to win the Most Valuable Player, Justin Verlander was ready for a different kind of offseason.

He's on the cover of a video game now - and even appeared on Conan O'Brien's show to promote it. The Detroit ace isn't shying away from all this extra attention, but he's determined to stay focused on the season ahead. The Tigers begin spring training workouts for pitchers and catchers in less than six weeks.

"I'm trying to keep everything as normal as possible," Verlander said. "It's easy to get pulled in a lot of different directions."

Verlander will be hard pressed to top last season's dazzling performance. After winning 24 games and leading Detroit to the AL Central title, the hard-throwing right-hander became the first starter since Roger Clemens in 1986 to take MVP honors. Along the way, he threw a no-hitter, led the league in strikeouts and routinely reached triple digits on the radar gun, becoming one of the game's most recognizable faces and helping the Tigers reach the AL championship series.

Of course, Verlander also threw a career-high 251 innings, and that doesn't even count pressure-filled starts in the playoffs against the New York Yankees and Texas Rangers. At 28, Verlander is in the prime of his career, but following up on last year's heavy workload will be a test. He says his offseason regimen hasn't changed much - although he had to wait a bit to start preparing for 2012 because his 2011 season lasted well into October.

"Just kind of pushed it back a couple weeks," he said in a brief phone interview with The Associated Press.

Verlander took pride in his preparation last season. After some disappointing Aprils, he showed up at spring training with a different approach, treating the preseason a bit more like the regular season.

Verlander was solid for his first few starts, then his season really took off in May, when he threw his second career no-hitter at Toronto.

Soon after that, Verlander established himself as the front-runner for the Cy Young Award and even reopened debate over whether pitchers can be MVPs. He ended up winning both awards.

The hoopla from the regular season helped prepare Verlander for the offseason - and the celebrity status that comes with all his honors. He takes it mostly in stride, although there are times his place among baseball's stars really hits home.

"When I was the cover of the video game, that was pretty cool," he admitted.

Verlander is on the cover of Major League Baseball 2K12 and is helping promote a contest in which competitors can try to qualify for a possible $1 million prize by throwing a perfect game on their Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 consoles. The competitors with the top eight perfect games qualify for a live tournament to crown the champion.

Verlander was on O'Brien's show Wednesday night to talk about the contest. He also chatted a bit with the TBS host about his superstitious habit of eating from Taco Bell the night before his starts.

Soon it will be time for Verlander to put his offseason obligations to the side and report to spring training. It's been a quiet offseason so far for the Tigers, whose biggest addition to this point has been reliever Octavio Dotel.

Detroit also signed backup catcher Gerald Laird, whose job will be to catch an occasional game and allow starter Alex Avila to rest. Avila was one of the biggest reasons behind Detroit's successful season last year, hitting .295 with 19 home runs. But he also started 130 games at catcher and took a beating behind the plate.

"I think he got worn down by the end of the season," Verlander said. "He would never admit that."

Aside from his own team's moves, Verlander has also kept an eye on the rest of the free agent shakeups around baseball. The Los Angeles Angels signed Albert Pujols, meaning the slugger will now be in Verlander's league. They also signed C.J. Wilson, who pitched for the Texas team that beat the Tigers in the ALCS.

"The Pujols-C.J. Wilson signing was a big splash," Verlander said. "Obviously, I'm excited to face Albert."

Pujols is 5 for 10 lifetime against Verlander, including postseason at-bats. He homered off him in the 2006 World Series, when Pujols was playing for the St. Louis Cardinals. But Verlander was a rookie back then.

He's a much different pitcher now, and in a little over a month, he'll be back with his team and ready to take the mound again.