Jim Leyland: "They Don't Know BLEEP About The Lineup"

By Jeff Riger

There seems to be a couple constants when talking about the Tigers these days...

1. The team is way too inconsistent to predict what will happen next.

2. Jim Leyland gets irritated when forced to talk about his lineup.

On Tuesday Leyland was back at it, defending his moves to the media even though he has claimed many times that he is finished talking about the lineup. Before the middle game of a 3 game series with the Indians, Leyland filled out a card that featured Prince Fielder as the designated hitter for the first time this year along with Don Kelly getting a start in Fielders place at first base. And, if that wasn't controversial enough, Leyland also left Delmon Young's name off the card, considering he has struggled throughout his career against Indians pitcher Justin Masterson. Young actually asked Leyland for the night off and the skipper happily obliged when he realized that his usual DH is 3 for 20 against Masterson.

Of course once the lineup came out there was, as you could assume instant outrage on the phone lines of 97.1 "The Ticket." It was actually tough to gage what fans were most upset about? For some it was the absence of Young, a player hitting .328 over his last 28 games with a .958 OPS. While others were upset about Kelly cracking the lineup, considering how much he has struggled all season long. I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but the unveiling of the lineup has become a daily "whine fest" in metro Detroit!

Now I might get called names for saying this, but the lineup actually made sense even though it did not work!

Fielder has played first every game this season and it was only a matter of time before Leyland got him off his feet to get a break. Of course most people are upset that Leyland picked Kelly to be Fielder's replacement, but that makes sense too. Who else should play first? It's obvious that Kelly has struggled all season long but he did have great numbers against Masterson (5-15) and actually got one of the 4 Tiger hits on Tuesday night. Kelly was later pinch hit for; he got just 2 at bats. What's the problem? As for Young, I have never heard of a player asking the skipper to not hit against a pitcher, but that is apparently what went down. Leyland admitted on the pregame show with Dan Dickerson that he actually appreciates when a player informs him of such issues. So, even though most people find it strange, isn't it best that Young did not face Masterson no matter how hot he has been? Seemed like Masterson was already in his head, give someone a chance that may have more success. Young did get up in the bottom of the 9th inning as the Tigers trailed 3-2; he grounded out to end the game.

This brings us to Leyland feeling the need to defend his decisions...

The manager apparently made out this lineup 4 days ago and while he informed some media members of it, not everyone was in attendance for the announcement. So, of course there were questions, questions that Leyland became instantly annoyed about.

"You guys aren't getting this story, somehow you are missing this" Barked Leyland. He then went on "I'm going to go through this one more time. I have talked to Prince 5 times this year about when he needs to get off his feet. This was set up four days ago, this is not a shock to anybody, Prince knew he was DH'ing; he's ready for the DH spot tonight. I don't know how you guys are missing all this?

Of course Leyland's comments on playing Don Kelly rubbed fans the wrong way as well...

"He's getting the start tonight because this is the night that I'm DH'ing Prince and he has had success against this guy. He has not had a good year obviously here but that's OK. I'm tickled for him, I like good things to happen for good people and he deserves it. I mean he hasn't had a good year but what he has done in recent years is worth something and he's a guy that made sense because he is a very good outfield replacement and he can play all over."

People seemed to be the most irritated with Leyland being happy for Kelly. Fans, after hearing the skipper's reasons thought Leyland was playing Kelly because he likes him rather than him being the best option to win a game. I didn't feel that way, but the masses have spoken. In fact the original question to Leyland was about how he feels for Kelly getting another chance? That seemed to have got lost as people filled Twitter to complain.

After Leyland seemed to re-hash his lineup for what seemed to be the 5th or 6th time, I felt the need to find out if he has had lineup issues in every city that he has managed in? Were the lineups as controversial and talked about in Pittsburgh, Miami and Denver as they have been in Detroit? Is there always second guessing when it comes to the managers lineup?

"I don't mind the second guessing type of thing but I have never been in a place where they talk about the lineup so much. Who plays? Who doesn't? What they need to do is they need to email you guys their lineups and then you guys can bring them in here to me and I'll be sure to write that down and put it on my big card and that is who I'll play because they don't know a (expletive expletive) about the lineup. They have no idea who is nagging, who's hurt and who hits who doesn't hit who?"

Leyland wasn't finished on the issue.

"They don't know (expletive) about the lineup. They act like you just go poof and pull players out of a hat to put in a lineup. It doesn't work that way. Believe me, we think things out, we have a reason, I just gave you all the numbers, its right there so they can have fun with it. But, I have never been in a place where they talk about the lineup so much, never ever in my life."

Well, this lineup did not work as Justin Masterson dominated Detroit bats on Tuesday night through 6 innings but the thought the process behind it, I thought was solid. I can't wait to see Wednesday's lineup and the questions and comments that come with it.