LAKELAND, Fla. -- Give Joel Zumaya credit for this: He knows where he wants to be with each outing.

At one point during his live batting practice session Monday morning, he was muttering to himself in frustration after throwing a split changeup that didn't do what he wanted. Never mind that his breaking ball was giving hitters fits at times. He wants to improve both of his secondary pitches.

"Last year at this time, I was only at 90 feet, throwing off flat ground," Zumaya said. "I'm trying to be 100 percent for Opening Day and just trying to work down in the zone and throw strikes. If I throw and establish those two pitches I'm working on, the curveball and change, like this guy said, I'm pretty unhittable. That's pretty good to hear."

The guy Zumaya referred to is Brandon Inge, one of those hitters who was buckled by a Zumaya breaking ball.

"Pretty dominating," was another description Inge used.

Inge paid an additional complement to Zumaya by the way he celebrated simply making contact.

Through two live BP sessions against hitters, Zumaya is giving Tigers coaches reason to believe that the troubles of last fall's stress fracture in his throwing shoulder are behind him. With manager Jim Leyland out of town for a family funeral, it was third-base coach Gene Lamont keeping a close eye on their potentially prized setup man.

"He's got a real good look in his eye," Lamont said. "I think he knows it's an important spring for him, just like we know it's important."

Zumaya's look showed a focus on improvement as he went back out to the mound. While he was happy with his breaking ball, he didn't have as much command on his offspeed pitch at times as he would've liked. He admitted to getting charged up to the point of overthrowing on some of his fastballs, adding an audible grunt on a couple of them.

"When I grunt, it's either that I'm ticked off a little bit or I just tried to do a little bit more," Zumaya said. "Usually, the ones where I don't grunt are my fastest ones. When I grunt, it usually comes out a little differently, because I'm trying to do too much.

"There won't be that much grunting this year."

Young Rick Porcello, meanwhile, continued his work to quietly take apart Tigers hitters. His second BP outing yielded few swings, let alone contact, as Mike Hessman and others tried to pick up his sinker.

"He's a good-looking young pitcher," said Lamont, who then paused as he thought about his statement. "Maybe a little better than a good-looking young pitcher. I'm glad he's in our camp."

Monday was the final live BP session for both Porcello and Zumaya. Porcello is scheduled to throw an inning of relief Thursday on the road against the Nationals, then throw a side session over the weekend before he pitches again in next Monday's annual exhibition against Florida Southern College.