Posts tagged JimLeyland at FanHouse

The Tigers removed Nate Robertson from their rotation on Friday, and the only surprising thing about it is that they waited this long to pull the trigger. Robertson has been nothing short of awful this year, posting a 6.09 ERA that includes a "perfect" 9.00 ERA in seven starts since the All-Star break.

Now that the Tigers have an opening, will they finally bring Dontrelle Willis back up from the minors? Fat chance. As Jim Leyland told the Detroit Free Press, "The answer, as we speak today, is 100% 'no.' "

Willis has posted a semi-respectable 4.28 ERA in five starts for Triple-A Toledo, but lurking under the surface is an unsightly 1.68 WHIP, thanks largely to his continued lack of control (he has 14 walks to go along with 20 strikeouts).

Will a trip to the bullpen for Robertson and more minor league starts for Willis really help these two lost pitchers re-discover their form? For Dave Dombrowski's sake, I hope it does.

Dombrowski gave Robertson and Willis each a three-year extensions this past winter (I'll admit it, I was actually in favor of Robertson's deal), a collective $50 million investment which has yet to pay any dividends. And because of those extensions, both Robertson and Willis are now completely untradeable, which should make things difficult if ownership demands the payroll be slashed this winter as speculated.

On Wednesday morning I wrote about Tigers manager Jim Leyland saying he wasn't sure when he was going to use Joel Zumaya again. Going off of what he'd been seeing from Zoom while on the mound, Leyland felt that something had to be wrong with flame-throwing reliever.

Well maybe Jimmy should start up a psychic hotline, because it turns out his fears for Zumaya were dead on. As it turns out, there's some loose tissue in Zumaya's surgically repaired right shoulder. As a result Joel has been placed on the 15-day disabled list, but don't let that fool you, his season is basically done.

"I think it's great news that we got" on Zumaya, Leyland said. "He blew up scar tissue. It wasn't an elbow, shoulder or anything like that. From my standpoint, that's great, great news.

"Hopefully he'll be ready by spring training -- possibly pitch again this year, but I'm not going to push for that."

I have to agree with Leyland on this one, this is great news for the Tigers. When a pitcher has gone through the type of injuries that Joel has, and throws as hard as he does, everytime you find out he's having some trouble physically you always expect the worst. So finding out that it's nothing major and won't require any additional work being done, it's a huge relief.

Sure, Zumaya's absence is only going to make a weak Detroit bullpen that much weaker, but the odds of the Tigers making a playoff run were very much against them anyway. At least the team can now look forward to having a healthy (fingers crossed) Zumaya for the 2009 season, which would go a long way in helping the Tigers get back to the top of the AL Central.

While the Tigers learned something new about Gary Sheffield on Tuesday - that he hits really well when he's angry about being placed on waivers - they also saw something they've known about for a while. Their bullpen sucks. After Sheffield's two home runs helped get a lead for the Tigers, the Detroit bullpen came in and blew the game like they normally do.

Tuesday's goat was Joel Zumaya, who walked three Blue Jays and gave up the game-winning runs without recording an out, all to the chorus of boos from the hometown crowd. As a result, Jim Leyland doesn't plan on using Zumaya again anytime soon, but it's not because of his performance. No, The Black Lung fears that there's something wrong with Joel and that he's not telling anybody.

"I can assure you, I'm not going to have Zumaya for a while, even if everything checks out all right," Leyland said. "All I know is there is a problem. Joel is not himself. I can see it in his face. I can see it in his demeanor."

Asked how long Zumaya might be out, Leyland said, "Right now, I don't feel comfortable pitching Joel. I'm not talking about because of results. I'm talking about because something is not right.

"It's going to be next year until he gets back to 100%."

Normally, when a player spouts off nonsense and his manager is asked for comment, said manager will offer something like, "I just don't know what to say," or "he's entitled to his opinion," or something else deflective and insubstantial.

Not Jim Leyland. You rarely see a manager turn around and give his player the business like this. Gary Sheffield probably isn't a moron -- we all say stupid things when we're bored and navel-gazing -- but Leyland sure made him look like one.

Today's Dugout is after the jump.

The Tigers Gary Sheffield has been in the papers a bit lately thanks to some comments he made to the Boston Globe in recent days. In the article Sheffield says he'd be open to a trade if the Tigers felt like moving him was the right thing to do, and that he'd be happy to go somewhere else in hopes that he'd get to play in the field everyday and possibly win another World Series.

You see, Gary isn't that big a fan of his role as designated hitter (which is something he's hinted at before).

"I can be in the outfield and play every day. I don't want to DH. I don't feel like a baseball player when I DH. I don't know how to be the leader that I am from the bench. I can't be a vocal leader. I can't talk to guys from the bench because I don't feel right about it.

"I'm in a role now where I don't know what to do, really. The guys are out there busting their butt for nine innings, they come in and they hit and they grind. I just sit down and hit. That's all I do, so I can't be in a leadership role from that position."

Obviously Gary's comments eventually got to his manager, and after reading them and being asked about them, The Black Lung couldn't do much more than scratch his head.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

With 64 games to go, the ledger is even for the Detroit Tigers. They leave Baltimore at 49-49 -- no small feat considering they were nine games below .500 at the end of May. Still, Jim Leyland's club has a long way to go to live up to the lofty preseason expectations placed upon them.

The Tigers trail the Twins by six games and the White Sox by 6 1/2 in the AL Central, and with the way the Rays, Red Sox and Yankees are playing, the wild card probably isn't an option. Resurrections aren't unheard of in the three-division era. Just look at the Phillies last year or the 2005 Astros, who were 36-41 on July 1, but ended up qualifying for the playoffs.

But those teams had horses and they had a bit of magic too (or mojo or just good fortune, whatever you want to call it). The Phillies had an irrepressible offense led by Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard and won 13 of their final 17 games. The Astros had a formidable three-headed monster in Roger Clemens, Roy Oswalt and Andy Pettitte and they won games 8-6, 12-8 and 7-6 down the stretch when they weren't stifling opposing teams with their pitching.

Unfortunately for Leyland, it doesn't look like this edition of the Tigers has the horses or the spark to mount a comeback.

Our MLB editor provides weekly dispatches from major league games in Notes From the Clubhouse.

The Tigers have done a nice job of recovering from a wretched start to the season. Expected to be a 1,000-run juggernaut, Detroit stumbled out of the gate, losing its first seven game and going 23-32 over the first two months. Entering play Saturday, the Tigers stand at 48-48. While they aren't expected to drop back below .500 for the rest of the season, the Tigers have a long way to go to catch up with the Twins and White Sox in the AL Central.

Maybe that's why both utilityman Brandon Inge and reliever Fernando Rodney are sporting brand new buzzcuts today. Detroit needs that extra push in the second half. Sure a reliable starting pitcher would go a lot farther in helping the Tigers' chances, but a new hairstyle can't hurt can it?

Who better than manager Jim Leyland, ever the gruff kidder, to comment on the new locks sported by his players?

"There's something wrong with Inge," joked Leyland before Saturday night's game in Baltimore. "He's [expletive] rowing with one oar."

"He has a good time and he plays his ass off," added Leyland in a moment of candor about Inge, who, after losing his starting role this winter, has played all over the place this season and been extremely valuable to Leyland.

As for Rodney, who is holding onto his shorn locks so he can show his mother, Leyland had a few more wisecracks. "If he shaves that [expletive] goatee, he'll look even better," said the Tigers manager. "The [expletive] shampoo will finally get to his head."

Will all this actually help Detroit? Who knows? But for a team that faced high expectations and still has a big hole to climb out of, the Tigers appear to be an awfully loose bunch.

On Thursday afternoon the Detroit Tigers were about to start a four-game set with the Minnesota Twins that they were hoping would help get the team right back in the AL Central race. Well, three days later the Tigers are finishing up their series with Minnesota just trying to salvage a game.

After finally getting above .500, the Tigers have dropped three straight to Minnesota and are a game below again, 6.5 games behind the Twins for second place. What's made the last three losses even worse is the fact that they've all been one-run defeats. It's enough to make Jim Leyland's stomach hurt, and damn it, he wants yours to hurt too.

"If they don't hurt, you should go home," Leyland said after Saturday afternoon's 6-5 loss, a game in which the Tigers were able to cut a four-run deficit to one, but came up empty after that

"I hope the guys out there are hurting as much as I am, because it's supposed to hurt. If it doesn't hurt, pack your bag and go home. That's the way I look at it.

"I'm not upset at anyone in particular, but I am upset that we just lost three close games when we're trying to fight our way back into this thing. If that doesn't hurt some people in the stomach, they should go home."

I get the feeling that Jimmy isn't too happy with the attitudes he's seeing in the clubhouse after these games right now. Though he says there's no one in particular who has upset him, I wouldn't be surprised if he does have a few people in mind and is trying to send a message. Of course, it could just be that his team realizes they're playing the Twins right now, and the Twins just have a knack for annoying the hell out of teams. It's as if they don't enjoy winning as much when they do it by two or more runs.

Yesterday I wrote about Tigers manager Jim Leyland's complaints about the Tigers only having three days off every year for the All-Star break while other teams get four days of rest. To be more specific, The Black Lung said that the scheduling was "It's a joke. Silly is what it is. Not responsible."

The Lung also asked that his quotes be printed in BIG BOLD PRINT so that MLB would hear his complaints and hopefully do something about it. Well, they heard (or read) them, and they'd like Jim to know that they're not out to screw the Tigers. At least, not consciously.

"Every club has scheduling issues that seem specific to them," said Katy Feeney, MLB senior vice-president of scheduling and club relations. "I assure you, the Tigers are not being singled out or targeted.

"I don't know the exact reason this has happened, but it could be a ripple effect from elsewhere in the schedule."

Upon hearing the news, Leyland lit up four Marlboros simultaneously, inhaled deeply and said "Daaaaaaaaaaaaaamn straight. Grumble grumble." He's such a bad ass. Obviously MLB can do nothing to rectify the situation this season, but I'd be willing to bet Leyland a carton of smokes that his team has four days off next season.