Jeff Riger: Second Guessing The Skip

The Tigers are in the midst of yet another winning streak as they edged out the Twins 8-7 at Comerica Park to make it 3 wins in a row. But just because the team has won recently doesn't mean that the skipper won't get second guessed. For instance on Monday, the Jim Leyland pinch hit Casper Wells for the hot hitting Andy Dirks who already had a couple of hits because, according to Leyland Well's hits lefties and there was a left hander on the mound. Well on Tuesday Wells was at the plate and there was a righty on the mound but Wells got to hit in the 6th and ended up striking out. In Tuesday's game, in the 7th inning, Leyland left Max Scherzer in to face the left handed hitting Justin Morneau who hit a 2 run homer, his second of the night. Leyland after the game blamed himself for not taking out Scherzer acknowledging that he should have put in one of his many lefties in the pen. But who cares...right? They won so these questions need not be asked...right? WRONG!

I understand that it's really easy to question moves after seeing the outcome of them and I also get that Leyland makes hundreds of decisions during a game and the majority of them turn out to be right which he doesn't get credit for. But I have to whine and moan about Leyland's soon to be decision of putting Ryan Rayburn back at 2nd base on Wednesday instead of letting Danny Worth remain there for at least another game. Rayburn continues to struggle, hitting under .200 while Worth is coming off a 2 for 4 game where he scored the winning run in the 8th inning on Tuesday night. I know Leyland thinks that Rayburn will eventually return to his hot hitting of the second half of last season but how long will he get to achieve that feat?

Worth has tremendous upside for the main reason that we have no idea what it is. We know he is possibly the best infielder on the team right now and if his bat can get hot then he would be a no brainer at second base. The same goes for the rookie Dirks. Dirks, in his limited time at the major league level has really impressed. He can play a flawless left field while he is coming along at the plate and he has speed as well on the base paths but he too sees Rayburn play over him. On Tuesday night Dirks sat while Rayburn once again got ate up in leftfield only to hear Leyland defend his defensive skills after the game. Of course there is also the fact that Leyland named Rayburn his everyday 2nd baseman so why would he play leftfield?

It must be tough for Leyland to make sure that everybody plays and feels part of the team while also trying to get his best players on the field at the same time. But there also has to be accountability! If a player doesn't succeed he needs to sit, not forever but for enough time that maybe somebody else can get a chance and help the team win games. Right now, Rayburn is that guy that has to sit while Worth and Dirks should get a chance to prove that they are ready to make an impact in the bigs.

If I made the line-up everyday this is what it would look like...

Jackson-CF
Dirks- LF
Cabrera- 1st
Martinez- DH
Paralta-SS
Avila- C
Boesch- RF
Kelly- 3rd
Worth- 2nd

Of course this would change when Magglio Ordonez comes back. What do you think?