The Detroit Tigers fired Alan Trammell as their manager today after going 186-300 in his three seasons at the helm. Now certainly that record is horrendous and based strictly on performance, you can't say that firing a guy with a career .382 WP% is totally unjustified. BUT, as I pointed out with the Lloyd McClendon firing a few weeks ago, what was truly expected of this team? Is the fact that they spent several millions on Ivan Rodriguez, Magglio Ordonez and Troy Percival (foolishly, on the latter two) an indication that this team was merely adding finishing touches to a nearly-complete product? That team is, top to bottom, a very poor team. Certainly Jeremy Bonderman, Mike Maroth and Nathan Robertson provide some hope for the starting rotation. Fernando Rodney might one day be a decent closer. The young arms they acquired from Atlanta for Kyle Farnsworth may turn out to be something one day. But the lineup stinks. Bad. So, again, until the organization has a plan in place that doesn't include throwing money around on aging or oft-injured free agents, I have to view this firing as capricious and arbitrary (to quote Cosmo Kramer).
There is talk that Jim Leyland will be the Tigers' next manager. If I'm Jim Leyland, I don't want any part of that job. Hasn't he managed enough cash-poor, talent-challenged teams in middle markets playing to half-filled ballparks? If I'm the Tigers, I don't see what the appeal is with Jim Leyland. If you're going to pay him the going rate for playoff-experienced managers, you're diverting what little money you do have away from talent acquisition/development. Does anyone really believe that the problem in Tigerville was a lack of solid managerial experience and leadership? Does anyone believe that they were one gosh-darn manager away from winning the whole thing?
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