Leyland's Tigers Have Too Many Good Players

by Charlie Wilmoth on Mar 10, 2008 1:28 AM EDT in News

Leyland thinks Cabrera and Willis will settle in nicely on a team loaded with talent.

"Over here, Dontrelle doesn't have to be the guy," Leyland said. "He can just tag along with the other guys. Same with Cabrera. He doesn't have to be the guy."

Could the Tigers have too many good players?

You bet they do. I think we all know what's going to happen here.

World Series: Leyland congratulates former team, cites "bad players" as reason for Pirates victory

Monday, November 3, 2008
By Paul Meyer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jim Leyland yesterday congratulated Pirates manager John Russell on the Bucs' World Series sweep of the Kansas City Royals.

"I thought they had some real nice pieces last year," the Detroit manager said. "But, fortunately for them, all those pieces crumbled this year."

Leyland, one of three former Pirates managers on the Tigers' staff, is well aware of the injuries and bouts of ineffectiveness enjoyed by the Pirates' few good players.

"I hoped they would do tremendous," Leyland said, "but Ian Snell lost velocity, Tom Gorzelanny's arm fell off, and Jason Bay's 2007 slump continued, and so they ended up flying past us and winning it all."

Detroit suffered a disappointing season in which the offense scored 1,000 runs and Jeremy Bonderman and Justin Verlander emerged as the best starting pitchers in the American League.

"Over here, Jeremy and Justin didn't have to be the guys," Leyland said. "In fact, I specifically asked them not to be the guys. Same with Cabrera. He didn't have to be the guy. But he was. And look what happened to us."

Cabrera hit 35 homers and drove in 155 runs in his first season in the American League.

"There's a fine line between having enough stars and one too many," Leyland said. "We had way too many. We could have used more guys like Jose Bautista and Xavier Nady - you know, guys who are just good enough to not be embarrassing."

Leyland thinks Russell did a solid job in his first year of managing.

"John waited a long time for the opportunity," Leyland said. "He took advantage of it. Jim Leyland had lots of good players. Bobby Cox had good players. Even Tony La Russa had some good players. Russell didn't. If you have bad players, you'll do fine."

Leyland noted that all managers know the game.

"We all know the hit-and-run," Leyland said. "We all know about playing the infield in or back. Now, people get tired of hearing this, but the team with the worst players is going to win. I'm sorry. That's just the way it is.

"If the best players execute against a team of players who aren't very good players, the best players are not going to win."

Leyland sighed. "Unfortunately, we had way too many good players."

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nice!

good stuff!

by Deaner on Mar 10, 2008 8:12 AM EDT reply actions

I like...

...how your Jim Leyland doesn't use adverbs.

I don't know if it's true in real life or not, but it's funny anyway.

by scoreboard on Mar 10, 2008 8:20 AM EDT reply actions

Not using adverbs

Yes, he actually does that. Most of the quotes, including the ones where he says "tremendous" instead of "tremendously," and so on, are just slight manipulations of quotes from the article.

by Charlie Wilmoth on Mar 10, 2008 3:57 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm not sure

I'd count Willis as a "good" player anymore, given the precipitous climb in his ERA, WHIP etc. and precipitous decline in his ERA+ the past couple years, plus his huge innings load perhaps portending a stay or two or three on the DL. In fact, I have a beer bet that he won't be around long enough or be effective enough to win 15, even with the vast difference in the Tigers/Marlins offenses. It's hard enough to win 15 when you're still pretty damn good, much less putting up ERAs near 6.

by bucdaddy on Mar 10, 2008 11:50 AM EDT reply actions