I don't want to live on this planet anymore

Tigers extend contracts of Jim Leyland (2012) and Dave Dombrowski (2015)


My reaction, in a montage of images:

Dombrowski I can live with most days; while I want to throw him off the Ambassador Bridge for literally having nothing to show for talented 2B Scott Sizemore, not to mention some of his other boneheaded, short-sighted moves (o Jurrjens, where art thou?), he's done some good things while he's been in Detroit.
Leyland, however, proves that you don't have to do a good job to earn your money, or in this case, a new contract.  This was his put up or shut up year (a gift, as far as I was concerned, since I think last year would have been a nice time to cut bait) and he has yet to prove anything in a very weak AL Central.  Leyland is living off the afterglow of a lucky World Series appearance five years ago (plus a ring from almost 15 years ago) and he's done nothing since to earn his multiple contract extensions.


For those of you that don't know, here's how Leyland's teams performed in the second halves of his first five seasons in Detroit.  If you can count that high, you can see that this is less than a .500 winning percentage and therefore not good.


In 2006 the Tigers basically rode a ridiculous first half to an extremely lucky Wild Card berth, which should have been a division crown, something Leyland hasn't even been in the ballpark of (if you'll pardon the pun) since.  The 36-38 2nd half finish was the start of an alarming (unless you're Detroit's front office) trend.


2007 and 2008 saw a great start and typically poor finish, then a horrible first half plus .500 second half, respectively, and in both seasons, of course, Detroit failed to make it to the postseason. 2008's finish was particularly poor, not that the playoffs were realistic after a .500 start.  


2009, now that was a banner year--another strong start gave way to a .500 second half in which the Tigers found a way to almost earn a return trip to the playoffs, then give the Twins a foot in the door, then mismanage their way through a loss in the 163rd game (albeit with an indefensibly-missed Brandon Inge HBP).  Leyland favorite and titanic mountain of suck Gerald Laird got to remain in the game despite going 0-6 with two strikeouts in the most crucial game of the season and his team deservedly lost by a run in extras.


2010's second half was basically the opposite of the first, which meant that the Tigers got to enjoy another .500 season, some fine October golfing and the World Series on TV for all I know.  "Wonderful!" Jim Leyland cackled from his fortress of doom and incompetence.  "More opportunity to arrange some ill-timed poor decisions and make myself even more stubborn about hitting my second baseman second.  Polanco's still our second baseman, right?"


2011's first half saw the Tigers finish five games above .500, a not terrible record in a not-great division.  If you're of at least below-average intelligence, you can probably surmise that Detroit will continue its trend of sub-.500 second half baseball and miss the playoffs for the fifth straight year (after making it by a hair six years ago).  Still, it's reasonable to hope your team bucks this trend.  However, awarding another year of a contract to the guy that's been leading your team down this cliff instead of making him prove that he can find a safer way down?


Instead of canning the source of the problem (when the inevitable happens, may as well let him finish out the year) and going into the offseason with a plan to improve, Detroit will probably suffer through more Leylandball next year, fire him in the middle of the season then have to go through the annoyance of an interim manager and candidate search.

Listen:  fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.  Fool me three times, that's a crowd.  Fool me four times, maybe I should start to see a pattern.  Fool me five times and I'll give you a contract extension.

Happy debut to Jacob Turner

Before I get on with today's post, I thought I'd note that this is my 200th post since I began this blog late last August.  Everybody likes nice round numbers like that, and it's a milestone I'm happy to have reached.

Now, onto things that deserve more celebration.  Jacob Turner, Detroit's #1 prospect (two years running!) made his Major League debut this afternoon against the Angels of Los Angeles/Anaheim, California.  It was great to see a kid just a couple years removed from high school pitch his first Major League game, at home, no less.

What a Jacob Turner may look like

Turner showed a great deal of poise throughout his 5 1/3 innings, striking out six while giving up only three hits and walks each.  Leyland felt compelled to remove him mainly because of his increasing pitch count (ultimately 96) and the fact that he walked his final batter.  Old Jim has always been stuck in his NL ways and today was no exception as his pitcher knocked in the winning run thanks to his decision to put in Phil Coke, who was really responsible for the loss with which Turner was tagged.  There's no way to sugar coat it:  Coke sucked ass today, and as usual I prayed for the day when the only team Leyland was managing has online drafts and weekly roster move limits (not that he'd even know how to use a computer, much less a relief pitcher).

Leyland rant aside, Turner was a bright spot today.  While he won't be with the team again for a while yet (this was just a spot start), he brought some positive attention to the team and really showed flashes of talent and maturity for a pitcher his age.  One of the funnier moments was Fox's interview with Turner's dad, whom they pointed out was the source of Jacob's calm demeanor.  Considering Mr. Turner sounded as excited as Joe Buck calling the All-Star game, I'm sure they're right.

While it's not officially the trade deadline yet, I'm relieved that it doesn't appear the Tigers will be swindled out of Turner and will get to enjoy Baseball America's current #11 overall prospect for a few years, at least.  The fact that they were even considering it in terms of picking up a guy like Ubaldo Jimenez scares me.  I might have said the same thing a few years ago about trading Andrew Miller in the Miguel Cabrera/Dontrelle Willis deal, but I had fewer misgivings then because I knew what Cabrera was capable of, so the fact that Miller has done absolutely nothing doesn't affect my view of that deal.  Turner, however, really does look like a future front-line starter, and I'm leery of how well a pitcher will do moving up to the American League.  (As it turns out, as I was writing this, it appears Jimenez was sent to Cleveland, one of Detroit's AL Central rivals)  Hats off to Turner on a great start, and now, a big preliminary thumbs down to Detroit's front office on another potentially disappointing trade with Seattle.

The previous trade I'm alluding to is obviously not the one in which Detroit received Carlos Guillen, but the one in which we sent Luke French and Mauricio Robles for an obviously downward-trending Jarrod Washburn, who did squat for Detroit and then didn't sign with another team the following year because he was done.  Robles looks like he has legitimate talent, and that trade was a waste, just terrible.

The Tigers admittedly needed rotation help (you mean Brad Penny wasn't the answer?) and I do give credit to Dave Dumbrowski (very original of me) for working towards that.  Still, they gave up waaaaaaaay too much for Doug Fister and David Pauley.  No, I don't really mind the departures of Casper Wells (now what am I gonna do with this?) and Charlie Furbush, but besides those two guys, we're losing a very good 3B prospect in Francisco Martinez (Detroit's #4 prospect)

AND apparently a player to be named later, rumored to be one of last year's top-three picks.  While I seriously doubt it wasn't top pick Nick Castellanos (also a 3B), that means it's either Chance Ruffin or Drew Smyly, both of whom are pitchers.  WHY?!  Goddammit, Dumbrowski, stop trading all of our good prospects for nothing.  Remember Jair Jurrjens?  You probably don't because you shipped him out of here for Edgar Renteria's non-AL-hitting ass.  And it's not like we're sitting pretty at the 3B position right now--Inge literally forgot how to hit, Betemit is only a stop-gap, Don Kelly has positional A.D.D., and you don't want to be putting all your eggs in the Castellanos basket when he's this young.  This is just another questionable front office move this year, with another big one being the Scott Sizemore swindling trade by Oakland.

Listen, I want to see Detroit win first and foremost, and I understand that sometimes you've got to deal your prospects for big league team help, I really don't feel like we got much better here for what we gave up, and frankly I can't wait for a new regime change in Detroit when we fail to make the playoffs yet again this year in a very weak AL Central.  Fortunately, while I still have to wait less than a day to make it official, it looks like the bright future of Jacob Turner will be enjoyed by Detroit's fans, not another team's, for the near future.  Here's to many more Turner starts, maybe even as soon as next year!