The forecast for the Detroit Tigers’ home opener Friday is overcast with likely downpours. However, this annual spring passage rarely is met with gloomy predictions, even when chances of contending may not be as realistic.

The Detroit Tigers won’t be eliminated before their first home game, despite the compounded road difficulties and personnel questions that reared up quickly in road series against the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles, the latter of which ends tonight, before the Tigers open at Comerica Park against Kansas City.

But contention is a delicate balancing act, generally reserved for teams that overachieve, find reliable pitching and timely hitting, make plays in the field, keep key players healthy, have a manager with a golden touch, and that can somehow manage to beat the Yankees.

The Tigers didn’t get through a week of the season without raising some serious questions about every one of those issues.

They still benefit from playing in the unpredictable American League Central, but to be the team that grabs an up-for-grabs division, they have some things to resolve, many of which have direct impacts on each other.

The Tigers have to decide whether Ryan Raburn is really their everyday left fielder, as trumpeted all spring.

Raburn has struggled as a platoon or bench player. Problem is, if Brennan Boesch keeps driving the ball like a rising superstar, he has to play. And Magglio Ordonez has to play every day, whether in right field or as designated hitter, the latter of which Victor Martinez was brought in to play. So whither Raburn?

The Tigers have to decide how much to use Martinez behind the plate, which could ease some of the outfield questions by shifting Ordonez to DH and putting Boesch in right field. But that puts Alex Avila on the bench.

Now, if the corner outfielders are hitting even when Ordonez isn’t one of them, putting Martinez at catcher is a major offensive upgrade. It also could help defensively, since the Tigers have shot to the league lead in wild pitches, which aren’t credited to Avila but likewise weren’t saved by him.

Boesch’s bat and Avila’s defense will make these determinations.

The Tigers have to decide who can bridge the gap between their starting pitching and setup man Joaquin Benoit. A healthy Joel Zumaya could address that issue, though world peace and economic stability seem as imminent.

Brayan Villarreal is unproven and Ryan Perry unreliable, although the Tigers would love to see one of them seize the role. Otherwise, Phil Coke, a career-long reliever and current fifth starter, might be forced back to the bullpen.

The Tigers have to decide which role Coke fits better, and whether they really want to bring up yet another young starter, 23-year-old Andy Oliver, to fill the fifth rotation spot, behind 22-year-old Rick Porcello and 26-year-old Max Scherzer. If the latter two could stretch out to 200 innings, it certainly could ease that decision, whatever it is.

But if Porcello can only go 170, and Scherzer gets hit like he did all spring and in his first start, Oliver makes the quick trip up I-75, from Toledo, in a hurry.

The Tigers have to decide what to do with promising youngster Casper Wells, who can run, hit with power, and play all the outfield positions, but has no chance of cracking the Ordonez-Raburn-Boesch-Austin Jackson logjam.

The Tigers have traded away young prospects such as Jair Jurrjens, Cameron Maybin and Gorkys Hernandez in recent years, and Wells’ development could give them some flexibility when considering whether to trigger another deal involving an outfielder.

Ultimately, the Tigers have to decide what to do with manager Jim Leyland and general manager Dave Dombrowski, both long-proven performers in the final years of their contracts. After doing more with less in the 2006 AL championship season, the Tigers haven’t found that magic again.

The answers to the aforementioned questions -- along with good health and fortune, Jackson’s ability to reduce strikeouts and increase stolen bases, consistency in at least three rotation spots, the development of young players like second baseman Will Rhymes, and finding a way to win road games -- all will go a long way to determining that decision.

The energy of spring, a Sparky Anderson flag-raising and a military flyover will carry the Tigers through the home opener.

After that, 155 more games, and not nearly that long to find definitive answers.

E-mail David Mayo: dmayo@grpress.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/David_Mayo