Just When You Want to Give Leyland a Break He Does This

First of all, I have to mention this stat so you know why Leyland has pissed me off so much today. Placido Polanco is 11 for his last 18 at bats. That is a .611 BA over that stretch. Certainly not the generic Phentermine plan these guys have been on all year.

Now I will show you the line up he put out there today:

C. Granderson cf
M. Hollimon ss
C. Guillen 3b
M. Ordonez rf
M. Cabrera 1b
J. Larish dh
M. Thames lf
B. Inge c
R. Raburn 2b

No Polanco. Some dude named Hollimon that I bet none of you have ever heard of hitting SECOND in the line up where PP usually hits. Raburn playing 2nd.

So we just sweep the Whitsox and Leyland decides to give half the starters the day off. Tremendous. Are we to assume that the guys decided that they were going to go out and get blasted last night and don't feel like playing today, or that Leyland is just a moron? I will go with the latter.

Update: Tigers leading 3-0 in the 7th. Although they are winning. I still think Leyland is an idiot.

Tigers sweep the Whitesux

Been a while since I actually cared about this team. Certainly they have disappointed nearly everyone up until this point. Finally they take it to a team they NEEDED to beat. The Tigers finished up a sweep of the division leading White Sox tonight in clutch fashion when Miguel Cabrera hit a walkoff home run. Another stellar outing from Kenny Rogers went unrewarded with a win, however, but nobody can complain about a win.

Speaking of Kenny Rogers... He has been stellar over his last 4 starts. Going at least 7 innings in all 4, and allowing only 4 ERs over the stretch. He has not gotten a decision in any of those games.

Considering the loss of Bondo, the demotion of Dontrelle Willis to Single A ball, the starters have really been pulling their weight lately. Even though you thought the books would be out on Armando by now, he has still held his own in the rotation. The hitters on the other hand? Same old crap. Explode for a day and go back to minor league talent the next. Placido Polanco though is on a real tear with about 4512414 hits in the last couple weeks.

Can they please turn this around now?