Fire Millen? No, Fire Leyland!
Should Dave Dombrowski decide to listen to Lynn Henning’s advice and play for the future, he needs to follow suit and get new blood in the dugout. If the front office decides the future isn’t now Jim Leyland’s act (whatever his act may be) needs to go.
Detroiters have become extremely too familiar with Leyland’s post game mouth-full-of-marbles press conferences. If it isn’t “we just didn’t hit tonight”, it’s “we got outpitched”. ”Well, we just have to play better. We can’t expect to win when we don’t score. We’ll have to see what happens.” Really Jim? Really Mr. Ilitch? How any freakin’ times do we have to hear this?
The Tigers magical 2006 season seems like it was ten years ago. Following the World Series collapse, the Tigers rebounded to a white hot 52-34 in the first half of 2007. But, what has become an all-too-typical late season collapse, including an 11-18 finish, dropped the Tigers to second place in the division and out of the playoffs. 2008 brought an 0-7 start and an 8-18 finish which culminated into an 74-88 record and a last place finish in the American League Central. We all remember what happened last year. The Tigers had a seven game lead in the middle of September and became the first team in Major League Baseball history to lose the division with a three game lead with four games left in the season. A loss in game 163 allowed the Twins to leapfrog the Tigers into the playoffs.
The team has looked lifeless, clueless and hopeless in the first six games of the 2010 second half. What was Leyland’s reaction after last night’s butt-whooping? ”We’ll have to see what happens.” Thanks, Coach.
How about managing instead of throwing out the same lineup day after day? I’ve heard for years that you’re a players coach. You don’t like to blow up in front of the team because it loses its luster. That’s fine. I know it worked a few years ago. Any blow-ups that have happened since then have not been made public. Instead you sit back and watch your team get outscored 37-14 in the six games since the break. TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT ONE TIME, JIM. Maybe move Boesch into the three hole today against the Rangers right-hander Colby Lewis to get him going again. Maybe try playing for one run at a time FOR ONCE. Scoring one is better than not scoring at all. For the record, I have been repeating this rant for years.
Leyland’s act is old and tired…it resembles well, it resembles him. The Tigers have too much youth and attitude to be bogged down by a stagnant skipper.
Mr. Ilitch, if your front office men are going to play for next year and the year after, the clubhouse needs new blood. There are many good baseball minds out there. Many who will fight and claw and try different things to win. The “we have to play better” line is for the birds. I’ve had beyond enough of it and I hope you have too.
Thanks for listening.
Other Leyland posts:
You aint go no alibi, you ugly
Is Leyland a quitter?
Category: Detroit Tigers
Create A Bumper Sticker
Loading ...
Im going to go ahead and disagree here Tim. I think you have to take a step back and look at this 2010 team as a sum of its parts- those parts include:
1 Reliable Starter (Verlander)
1 Slam the Door Closer (Valverde)
2 Consistent veteran hitters (Cabrera, Ordonez)
1 Streaky hitter who's a butcher in the field (Guillen)
5 Rookies (Worth, Avila, Boesch, Jackson and I'll throw in Kelly)
0 Catchers who can hit
Is that a playoff team to you? Theres simply too many holes to fix anything for this season. I'll give you Scherzer and Bonderman, but they dont have a 4th or 5th starter. They dont have a setup man anymore. The rookies, lets face it, have outperformed expectations. Their stats will find their norms soon. Those norms wont be bad, but none of them are going to be hitting .340 anymore. They dont play defense exceptionally well, and they have the 3rd fewest steals in the AL.
I think Dombrowski is doing the right thing. Playing for 2011, or 2012. Season these rookies. Wait out the contracts of Bonderman, Robertson, and Willis. Acquire a SS, C and a LH starting pitcher in the off season. You still have your core of Verlander and Cabrera locked up for a long time.
Whether JL is around or not is probably of minimal impact.
To answer your question of whether this is a playoff team or not: why can't it be? The AL Central is there for the taking. The Twins and White Sox are both looking to improve, why shouldn't the Tigers? The Tigers are younger than either team, sure, but they have minor league "tools guys" who might be wasted should Boesch and AJax not completely fall on their face.
I'll give you that two of the five rookies you listed (even though Kelly isn't a rookie) have outperformed expectations, however guys outperform expectations on every team every year (and vice versa). The White Sox couldn't expect to get what they're getting out of Alex Rios, but expected more of Gordon Beckham. The Twins expected more of Mauer, but have to be thrilled what they're getting from Liriano (injury concern). It goes both ways.
My point of this (Fire Leyland) post is that Leyland does very little other than fill out an identical lineup card every day and sits around waiting for three run bombs. You, me and the guy next door could do that. I disagree that whether he's here or not is of minimal impact. The best teams in the league have managers who aren't afraid to try new things and switch up their strategies depending on the game. Shoot, Leyland he so adverse to change, when he gives Magglio the day off, he'll put Raburn or Don Kelly in the three hole. Neither of those guys are three hole guys in Toledo let alone spot duty with a big club.
Mike Scioscia, Ron Gardenhire, Tony LaRussa, Charlie Manuel, Terry Francona, Bobby Cox – all of those guys do the little things it takes to win. Leyland hasn't done that here (or anywhere for that matter).
And, as far as I'm concerned, Dombrowski can go with him. Yes he swindled Cabrera from the Marlins, but his atrocious contracts have kept the team from making a major deadline deal to "play for this year" for three years now.
I guess what I meant to say is, with this group of players what would you have Leyland do? Its not like Santiago, Worth, Raburn bring anything new to the table. Everyone of those guys is replacement level or worse according to fangraphs.com.
They cant suddenly become a running team, because nobody outside of Jackson possesses any speed. With Cabrera, Ordonez and Boesch, they have to be a 3 run homer team. To quote Dennis Green – They are who we thought they were.
I hear ya about Raburn and the bunch being replaceable. They're beyond replaceable. But, you'll rarely see Leyland play any type of small ball with the bottom half of his order. If Guillen or Inge lead off with a hit or walk, Leyland should be bunting or hitting and running to get them to second base with one out. He never does that.
And like I said in my post, I really think he should switch Boesch and Magglio for a few games. I think Cabrera the bodyguard would do Boesch some good right now. It may be off the wall, but they need Boesch to hit and this is something that could lead to him finding a groove again. We all know he isn't a .330 stick, but his batting average is plunging now.
Jim Leyland's smoking is very annoying. I'm sure that his second-hand smoke causes decreased lung capacity and watery eyes for the players.
Great article! I agree!
Check out my thoughts at talksportsdetroit.com