Damon And Leyland Not On Same Page And I Know Why

August 19, 2010 10:15 AM

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So.. let me get this straight. The Tigers say they are upset with Brett Gardner of the Yankees for his slide on Carlos Guillen from Monday night? HMMM. That is funny because on Monday after the game, nobody said a word. Jim Leyland was asked about it and responded with “The kid did what you’re supposed to do, hard and clean to break it up.”

That should have been the end of it. The manager is the leader of the team, Leyland, for all his second half fold foibles, always has his players’ backs and vice versa, right? I guess not.

Last night, albeit two nights later, Jeremy Bonderman plunks Gardner on the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning. Yes, Carlos Guillen had to go on the DL yesterday, but why wasn’t Gardner hit on Tuesday by Justin Verlander? Did the Tigers really think Guillen was NOT going to go on the DL? Is that why they waited? Weak. And if Leyland said the slide was clean, then why hit him at all? I have an idea.

Gardner was hit because Johnny Damon probably fired up the troops. Damon was told by the Yankees “goodbye” this off-season and now Gardner is his replacement in LF for the Yankees. If it was Jorge Posada that slid in to Guillen Monday, would the Tigers have hit him two nights later. Listen to Damon, think he is bitter about Gardner taking his spot?

“If anyone over there thought it was a clean slide, then we have a different opinion on that,” said Damon, who spent four years as a Yankee. “It’s part of baseball. But I thought the slide was dirty, and I’m sure a lot of those guys would agree. Gardner, the other day, he actually possibly ruined or ended Guillen’s season.”

The Tigers should have listened to Leyland. It was a clean and hard play. If they were mad about it, hit Gardner the next game. Waiting until Guillen goes on the DL is lame. Of course Carlos was going on the DL, he goes on the DL all of the time! They could have gotten Miguel Cabrera killed out there last night with this absurd garbage. Cabrera is thee best player in baseball right now in my opinion and he had to get plunked? Go out and beat the Yankees, that is the best retaliation.

Damon And Leyland Not On Same Page And I Know Why

http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/umpire-warnings-fair-or-foul/ Umpire Warnings: Fair or Foul? – Bats Blog – NYTimes.com

[...] Johnny Damon was widely quoted after the game: “If anyone over there thought it was a clean slide, then we have a different opinion on [...]
Charlie

My opinion on this was that JV was a little too important to risk losing to a bean-ball war. The Tiger’s were on a decent run, albeit it a small run, but still something positive. Verlander was quite capable of continuing that, and Leyland simply couldn’t risk losing him to a suspension from initiating retaliation.

Secondly, say Verlander comes out and smokes Gardner with a first pitch, 99 MPH fastball in the back, the next day. It would have undoubtedly lead to an instant warning, as did Bonderman’s shot, and taken away a large part of Verlanders game. He would have to have limited his inside pitches, or been extremely careful pitching inside, to make sure not to make a mistake and get booted.

Why risk any starts for Verlander with a suspension, or limit his ability to use the inside part of the plate in a big time match up for retaliation, when you can wait a day and throw one of your lesser pitchers to the wolves if needbe?

Sure, the season’s done and every intelligent fan knows that. But, you as a coach can’t come out and risk losing your second best player for the sake of revenge when you already know you have no other talent to turn to.