Jim Leyland Swings a Big Stick

There was an article published in the USA Today yesterday about the Tigers and their clubhouse. Former MR pitcher Jason Grilli (traded to Colorado) popped off about the clubhouse being stagnant. Gary Sheffield said the team is too relaxed. Carlos Guillen, suddenly one of the most error prone fielders on the team, has the audacity to insinuate that a team with the second highest payroll in baseball was suffering from unfair expectations.

Look, the Tigers have been inexplicably bad this season. Their level of suck in churning out the American League's worst record has been, in a word, epic. And 2006's magic man, manager Jim Leyland, has had absolutely no answers for it. It's baseball. It happens. Yet, whatever ails the team on the field, one thing you couldn't accuse Leyland of doing is throwing his players under the bus. You don't know what goes on behind closed doors, but at no point this season (or in the last three) has he called out players in the media.

The USA Today article, though, saw him walk right up to the edge. This audio clip (look at the list of audio links on the right of the linked page) of Leyland taking a huge swing at players talking to the press is simply awesome (especially towards the end of it). At several points he just rips Jason Grilli to shreads:

Grilli should worry about Colorado. And if Jason Grilli’d done a better job, he’d still be here. So I don’t wanna hear any weak s**t from Jason Grilli right now either, because he belongs to somebody else.

But he also fires several warning shots across the bow for the rest of the team:

I’m not lookin’ for problems here but I’m a f**kin’ man, I look in the mirror, when I’m horses**t I’m horses**t and right now I’m horses**t and there’s a few f**kers in that clubhouse right now that are horses**t too, and they need to look in that mirror. Don’t look in mine, look in theirs. And don’t look at the f**kin’ guy next to ‘em, look in the f**kin’ mirror yourself. Don’t be pointin’ f**kin’ fingers over here and there… that’s all weak s**t, really [bleep], some of the other s**t I read in the paper today, that’s weak f**kin’ s**t. WEAK.

But that's not my favorite bit. That was saved for this exchange with one of the team's beat writers, Jason Beck (who is damn good at what he does):

What d’you think, Beck? You write a f**kin’ horses**t story, you don’t blame [Detroit Free Press writer] John Lowe, do you?

That comes at the end of the clip and the assembled reporters just flat out crack up at that point. It's gold, Jerry! GOLD! Anyway, Leyland's dead-on ball's accurate with this one. I'm not saying it'll give the team the jumpstart it needs (though they beat the Mariners 12-8 last night), but like "Big Stick" Leyland says, it sure as hell can't hurt. If you have five minutes to kill, listen to the whole audio clip, which can also be downloaded from here.

(A big tip 'o the cap, by the way, to Roar of the Tigers for transcribing all the best kibbles and bits.)

What's This? A Winning Streak?

Given their 2-10 start, I've been refraining from saying a thing about the Tigers. It's the kind of thing that, when talked about, only makes it all seem worse. Fortunately, the kitties seem to be warming up alongside the weather. Last night they pounded Cleveland 13-2 (with a rook on the mound, no less) to get to 5-10 overall. If you had told me before the season this was the kind of start they'd have, I'd of told you that you were... well, beyond stupid, really. Shows how much I know. Regardless, that lineup was too good for them to not start scoring some runs and if the bullpen can settled down -which it's showing signs of doing- I think the Tigers will be above .500 by the end of May. (I just won't hold my breath over it.)

Anyway, in a few hours we'll be packing up the car and the kids (yes, the kids are getting packed away) for our trip to EuroDisn- er, Bill's. It's always a recipe for fun and frivolity when I get to shamelessly demolish Bill in a variety of boardgames that I'm seeing for the first time that he's played to death.

Have a good weekend, everybody!

Tigers Go Crazy

Crazy like a fox!!!

My goodness. Dontrelle "Please, please, please let 2007 have been an off year" Willis and Miguel "I'm just 24!" Cabrera? Wow. I mean wow. The Tigers lineup was already among the best in baseball, now it's just... muurrrderous. (Pun intended.)

Yeah, they had to give up *a lot* to get those two. Maybin and Miller are as close to being sure things as it gets. And Rabelo and the three other farm pitchers are all quality prospects. (De la Cruz in particular has significant upside.) But that's just it, it's still all prospects and the Tigers are getting *young* guys with major league track records. Given that they were already World Series contenders, especially after trading for Renteria earlier in the off-season, this has got to make them favorites.

The amazing thing to me is still that we're talking about the Detroit freak'n Tigers. Four years ago this team lost 119 games. It just blows my mind to even think about this franchise as being one of the elite in baseball. Dave Dombrowski, name your Christmas gift and you shall have it. My first born? A BJ? I don't care. It's yours!