MLB's New Edicts For Speedier Play Just Plain Silly

Major League Baseball wants Jim Leyland to jog to the mound. They want hitters not to leave the batter's box. They want pitches thrown in a timely fashion. All of this, and more, in order to perhaps shave a few minutes of game time off the clock.

Hogwash. And Leyland agrees.

"Baseball is like a movie," he told reporters yesterday about the new mandates, which go into effect today as a means to speed up game play. "If it's good, people stay. If it's bad, people leave."

Well said.

Nothing in my first paragraph is made up. Part of the new world order is indeed that managers are asked to jog to the mound instead of walk. The other stuff is true, too.

Would it be crass to mention that part of the reason why games are so long is because of the amount of time between half innings, which has steadily risen due to increased TV ad time?

I agree with Leyland. While I think games are definitely longer than they used to be, I don't know of any tangible evidence that this in any way affects attendance or TV ratings.

"When the Tigers win, people stay. When we're losing, some leave," Leyland opined, extending his comments. Then, some wry humor.

"I smoke three packs (of cigarettes) a day. And they want me to jog to the mound?"

Look, some pitchers work fast (Justin Verlander). Some work slow (Kenny Rogers). Some hitters stay in the box (Curtis Granderson). Some step out a lot (Carlos Guillen). Some pitchers throw to first base a lot. Some don't. And so on. It's all part of baseball, which was never a cookie-cutter sport to begin with, when it comes to its players. And what's the difference if a game takes 2 hours, 45 minutes, or 2 hours, 36 minutes? I mean, really.

It's silly, to steal another of Leyland's words as he talked about the new edicts. Just like the fashion police and their insistence that managers wear official jerseys instead of the pullover warmups. Silly.

Funny how quickly they'll move on stuff like that, but not so much on little things like the use of steroids in their game.

Actually, it's not so funny after all.

Grilli: Removing The Mayor Beginning Of Tigers' Woes

But Leyland Begs To Differ


This crazy, upside-down Tigers season of 2008 has just taken another little dipsy-do.

In this corner: Jason Grilli, deposed relief pitcher -- banished to Colorado last month after some turbulence in Detroit (literally in Detroit; he pitched OK on the road).

And in the other corner: Jim Leyland, flabbergasted, cranky Tigers manager -- sentenced to remain the Tigers skipper during his own time of turbulence.

Grilli said some things that got themselves printed, and made their way onto the Internet, and through the miracle of something called reading, burrowed their way under Leyland's leathery skin.

If only the team hadn't lost 1B Sean Casey, Grilli said. No Mayor, no harmony. And just like that, the Tigers' chemistry turned into a botched experiment by the Nutty Professor. Well, maybe there's something to that; you can't spell "harmony" without "mayor", you know.

Nonsense, says Leyland.

"Sean Casey? We're not doing well because we got rid of Sean Casey?," Leyland harrumphed, using some colorful language in the process. The manager went on to poo-poo Grilli's assessment of the clubhouse atmosphere. "Everyone's doing the same bleeping thing. They're walking around, bleeping joking, whatever the bleep they do. Nothing's changed."

Then this: "Jason Grilli isn't here because he didn't pitch well in pressure situations and he didn't pitch well in Detroit," Leyland said firmly. "If players want to start talking, then I'll start talking too. He should worry about Colorado."

There was more to Leyland's rant, which you can listen to here.

Leyland also made reference, later on in the sound bite, to players currently on the team who he accused of "popping off" to the papers with "weak bleep." He indicated that those were diversionary tactics and that those players will hear about it. Not really sure what he was talking about, although I know Brandon Inge and Gary Sheffield had made some comments about the team's work ethic, which weren't terribly complimentary. Inge lamented that the '08 Tigers have now become "the teams we used to beat" with hard work in the past. Sheffield seemed mystified by the team's relaxed demeanor. "I don't know if that means that we don't have a killer instinct or we're just a real loose team. I've never seen anything like it," Sheff said.

Bottom line: when comments like Jason Grilli's are enough to set Leyland off, it's obvious that the skipper's nerves are frayed and that he might be showing signs of overt frustration. Let's hope that this isn't seeping into his players' psyche.

Monday Morning Manager

(my weekly take on the Tigers)

Last Week: 1-5
This Week: (5/20-22: SEA; 5/23-25: MIN)

Oh, to be a fly on the wall. Assuming that flies have great hearing; they must, for all the times people have wanted to be them.

Today manager Jim Leyland is set to meet with GM Dave Dombrowski. They have, in Leyland's words "issues" to discuss. Lots of them. The kind that normally befells teams with the worst record in their league, which the Tigers possess at 17-27.

The speculation is that some of the issues will be Dontrelle Willis (what to do with him and Armando Galarraga now that the former's minor league rehab stint is over with); Gary Sheffield (like, should we buy him out?); and Miguel Cabrera ($150 million for WHAT?).

These may be on the agenda, along with others. Regardless of what is actually talked about, wouldn't you just die to get your hands on the transcript?

Last week I wrote that the Tigers were burning through their bag of tricks like a teenager through his allowance. Players have switched positions -- both on the field and in the batting order. The manager has yelled. The manager has gently prodded. Rookies have been called up. Rookies have been sent down. Veterans have been cut. Veterans have been put into the field, then removed. Socks have been worn high. Now this -- a tete-a-tete between the manager and the GM, on the team's off day, no less.

And it's only May 19, folks.

Of course, the calendar is both a blessing and a curse. The good news is that there are still 118 games to be played. The bad news? That there are still 118 games to be played. Depends on how you look at it.

Me? I'm still holding on to my pathetic little 2007 Yankees example. You know, how the Yanks started 21-29 but still came roaring back to claim a playoff spot -- at the Tigers' expense. So if the Tigers can go 4-2 this week, they'll match that 21-29 start, and all will be OK.

Somehow I doubt that Leyland is going to try to sell that to his boss today.

Leyland Again Presides Over A Long Stretch Of Bad Baseball In Detroit

So, Mike Ilitch is spending over $100 million for THIS?

I know he's not the type, but I wish Tigers owner Ilitch would summon manager Jim Leyland into his office and say, basically, "WTF? I've got the second-highest payroll in the big leagues and THIS is what I get for my pizza dough?"

This is simply unacceptable.

Twenty-five percent of the baseball season is in the books. We're through the first turn. The first quarter is in the books. And the Tigers sit at 16-25, one of the worst records in all of baseball -- for a team widely expected to have one of the best records in the game. If the Tigers ever hope to reach .500, it likely wouldn't come much before the 70th game. They'd still have to go 19-10 to do so. It's conceivable that .500, if it's in this team's future, won't happen until damn near the end of June or beyond. THEN how buried will they be in the divisional or wild card races?

Nine games below the break-even mark isn't a small amount, folks. Even a nice five or six-game winning streak still puts them a short distance away. Then what? Lose a few more? Fall to eight or nine games back again?

Let's examine something. And I'm about to be very unkind to Leyland -- and I guess I mean to be.



In 2006, the Tigers were 76-36 in early August. Then they finished 19-31 -- nearly one-third of a season playing .380 ball. It damn near knocked them out of the playoffs. Yes, they recovered in the post-season. So kudos there. But some of that was Kenny Rogers being unconscious and guys like Alex Gomez coming out of nowhere.

Last summer, the Tigers had the best record in baseball at the All-Star break before a 40-game rut from late-July thru August (16-24) did them in. Another 25% of a season wasted away.

Now this.

Yes, managers get too much praise and too much blame. And Leyland probably got too much praise in '06 -- and it was only the team's surprising post-season that pulled his rear end away from the fire. Had the Tigers gone down meekly in the ALDS against the Yanks, that, combined with the team's awful stretch run, would have cast a nasty pall on what had been a great year.

But Leyland has now presided over three horrible runs in three seasons in Detroit: the 50-gamer in 2006, last year's 40-gamer, and this year's 16-25 start. That's 130 games of bad baseball. There was a time when Jimmy Leyland could have been mayor of Detroit. Now I think he'd be hard-pressed to beat even Kwame Kilpatrick in a primary.

And I don't like how fragile the team's chemistry seems to be. In '06, Placido Polanco went down with an injury and things went sideways. Last summer, Gary Sheffield hurt himself and things went sideways. This year, Curtis Granderson misses the first few weeks and things went sideways. How can one player's absence, no matter how good he is, wreak such havoc? Isn't it the good manager who doesn't allow that to happen? Don't the good ones make lemonade when the baseball gods present them with lemons?

I admit, I'm a little cranky. At least the Pistons and Red Wings have provided ample distraction. But they can't play forever. Sooner or later we're going to have to pay more attention to our Motor City Kitties.

Something drastic needs to be done if this malaise carries on much longer. I'm not sure what that is, but it needs to be BIG.

Sheffield, by the way, is done. I've said it before: I'll bet you three coneys that Sheff hangs 'em up before the season is over with. That'd be sad, as we only got to see the REAL Gary Sheffield for about half a season. But he's still hurt, isn't getting any better, and it's only out of deference to his great career that the Tigers haven't cut him loose by now.

Yes sir, if I was Michael Ilitch, I'd be a little perturbed right about now. Maybe he's too caught up in the Red Wings as well.

Sain Got Dumb In One Year; Did Hernandez, Too?

The Tigers had the Midas touch in 1968 -- from Gates Brown's clutch pinch-hitting to Jim Northrup's grand slams all the way to manager Mayo Smith's decision to shift Mickey Stanley to shortstop in the World Series. Everything worked. Come-from-behind victories were the team's modus operandi. Smith and his coaches could do no wrong.

Until one year later.

Pitching coach Johnny Sain was heralded in '68 as the guru behind the success of guys like Denny McLain (31 wins) and Mickey Lolich (3 wins in the Series) and just about everyone else who took the hill for the team. He was glorified just as Roger Craig was in 1984. And as Chuck Hernandez was in 2006.

Here's Tigers manager Jim Leyland, speaking of the outsiders' furor over the job Hernandez is doing in 2008 -- a season so far that belongs in the trash heap when it comes to pitching staff performance: "I don't think there's a thing wrong with the pitching coach," Leyland told the Detroit Free Press. "He's the same pitching coach who when we were winning (games) 3-1 a few years ago, had everyone bragging about him and wanting to sign him for 20 years."

True enough -- about how Hernandez was praised in 2006.


Chuck Hernandez


Coaches always get more credit and blame than they deserve. Always. Johnny Sain knew that all too well.

Sain, part of the old Boston Braves' rotation that spawned the catch phrase, "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain," (Sain paired with Warren Spahn to produce a top-heavy rotation), was out as Tigers' pitching coach in 1969. He got dumb real quick, apparently.


Johnny Sain


Smith, who fired Sain in a dispute over how the pitchers were being handled, himself got dumb a year after canning Sain. Mayo was fired after the 1970 season.

I feel Leyland when he tells us that Chuck Hernandez is a good pitching coach. I know that the reason the starters have been so awful can't solely be blamed on him. I know that Hernandez might not be doing many things differently than in 2006, when the Tigers' staff was among the best in baseball. But here's the rub: it doesn't matter. Something's not right this year (the staff faltered in '07, too) and maybe it's time that Hernandez does indeed try a new approach. The paltry percentage of quality starts being turned in by Tigers pitchers in 2008 is embarrassing. What's more, it's hurting the team, big time. The on-again, off-again offense isn't able to compensate. It's a big reason why the Tigers sit at a ghastly 16-23.

Chuck Hernandez isn't the reason the Tigers pitchers are floundering. Not the only one, anyway. But he's not free from blame, either. To suggest otherwise is being disingenuous.

Monday Morning Manager

(my weekly take on the Tigers)

Last Week: 2-4
This Week: (5/13-15: at KC; 5/16-18: at AZ)

Last week SHOULD have been one of the most exciting, biggest weeks of baseball in Detroit all year. It SHOULD have been brimming with suspense and drama. And the results of the games SHOULD have determined whether the Tigers would be in first place or not by the end of the week.

Last week's seven home games with the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees (limited to six due to Sunday's rainout) figured to be, as one looked at the calendar, a momentous week for the Tigers and their fans. An early season indicator of how our Bengals measured up against the big, bad beasts of the East.

But here's what actually happened: four humdrum losses, devoid of almost any degree of tension; one nice come-from-behind win, and one escape job in the 9th for another win. Two wins, four losses. And this sobering reality: the Tigers are nowhere near the class of the Bosox. Forget their 4-1 record against New York. It's the Red Sox who are the standard bearers in the American League, and maybe all of baseball. And the Tigers are 2-5 against Boston, and they've earned that .286 winning percentage, every last decimal of it.

The week started tenuously, with the Tigers coming off a horrific three-game sweep at the hands of the Twins in Minnesota. This following a three-game brooming of the Yankees in New York. Go figure. Anyhow, the Red Sox loomed right away last Monday, and any hope that the Tigers would find their NY mojo dissipated quickly as the Red Sox easily took the first two games of the series. And they darn near snatched the third game, too -- twice erasing four-run deficits. Only a near-miraculous comeback against Jonathon Papelbon in the ninth inning saved the Tigers from an o-for-4 against Boston. Then the Tigers, in Game 4, showed why they're spinning their wheels in 2008, as any momentum from the previous night's walk-off win vanished. Josh Beckett saw to that. Yet another good pitcher who's silenced the Tigers bats. Some not-so-good pitchers have done that to them this year, too.

Interesting set of games coming up this week. Three in Kansas City, which has faded after a fast start but which still has some very talented starters in their rotation, and a weekend set in Arizona. The Diamondbacks are 3-7 in their last ten, but prior to that were as hot as the southwest desert. They lead the NL West by 3 1/2 games and are threatening to bury everyone except Los Angeles in that division.

The Tigers will continue to rock back and forth until they get more consistent starting pitching and somehow shed this label of having a feast or famine offense. Twenty-five percent of the season has been played, and the Tigers are still stuck in the mud. If they don't improve soon, that mud will start acting like quicksand.

Hard Hat Area: Coaching Boxes, And It's A Good Thing

At first blush, MLB's directive to have all base coaches wear batting helmets during games might seem overkill -- an overreaction to the tragic death last summer of minor league first base coach Mike Coolbaugh, who was struck in the skull by a batted ball and died. I know some coaches were very resistant, i.e. the Yankees' Larry Bowa, who felt their rights were being infringed upon. Plus, the helmets are probably considerably less comfy than a regular cap. I get all that.

It's also tempting to say, "Why the fuss? Coolbaugh's case was one in a million. It's unlikely to ever happen again."

But really, when you think of it, I'm surprised that it hasn't happened MORE often.


Mike Coolbaugh


Base coaches aren't exactly the picture of lean, mean physiques. It's hard enough to evade a line drive, even when you're young and agile. Sometimes you just get frozen. So if you're in your late-40s, early-50s, and are carrying some junk in the trunk ... get my drift?

Think back to the (thankfully) comic image of a retired Tommy Lasorda in the All-Star game several years ago. Coaching third base, Lasorda ended up on his rear end trying to avoid a bat that slipped out of someone's hands. That was a bat -- traveling considerably slower. What if that had been a ball heading Tommy's way? You think he'd have a prayer of avoiding it?

Granted, the likelihood is still slim that what happened to Coolbaugh will happen again anytime soon, but I still think we're amazingly lucky that it hasn't happened before, several times over, throughout baseball history. Seems that donning a helmet isn't that big of a deal, to help ensure that tragedy doesn't strike again.

Besides, that Bowa always was a truculent little rascal.