Finally Leyland blows his stack!

Thanks Jimbo! Now! LET'S GET THIS MACHINE ROLLING!

what do you mean blows his stack???

CHICAGO -- The winless start is over, but the Tigers are still stumbling. Literally.
The visual symbol of the Tigers' season to date came on Sunday afternoon, when third baseman Miguel Cabrera ran into third-base umpire Doug Eddings on Jim Thome's pop fly. Kenny Rogers had jammed the power-hitting Thome, but when the ball dropped beside third base in fair territory as Cabrera struggled to get up, it became another White Sox single in between two grand slams in what ended up being an 11-0 Tigers loss.

It was an innocent play; Cabrera simply tripped over Eddings' foot when he broke into foul territory for the ball, and a strong wind blowing from left to right carried the ball back into play. But the image is what will be remembered.

It's not that play that Cabrera is talking about when he says he's embarrassed. It's the season to date, for him and his team.

"It feels embarrassing," he said. "It feels like everybody's behind me, laughing."

Manager Jim Leyland was not one of them. He met with his team with the doors closed in the clubhouse after the game.

"I was ticked off," Leyland said. "I finally got ticked off, to the point where I didn't really hold it in very good. I meant what I said. I'm not going to get into what I said.

"There's one thing that sticks out to me right now that's going on, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back to me. And that's why I'm ticked off."

He wouldn't say what it was about. But given Leyland's longtime focus on not wasting at-bats, the way the Tigers went down at the plate quickly once the White Sox pulled away could not have sat well.

Cabrera, too, has tried to remain upbeat in his first two regular-season weeks as a Tiger. But his frustration was clearly evident, mainly at himself, but also in general.

"Right now, we have a team that can win," Cabrera said. "But when we see what we've seen in the field, it's no good."

Sunday was a rubber-game defeat rather than a sweep in the three-game series, but it was resounding enough to erase what little consolation there would've been from Friday's win. The Tigers returned to Detroit as baseball's first team to double-digit losses this season, and the stats go beyond there.

Only six Tigers teams have scored fewer runs over their first 12 games than this one, according to baseball-reference.com, and only six others have allowed more runs in that same span. Their run differential is a staggering 45.

"Where we're at makes sense," Leyland said, "because that's the way we've played. The way we've played, it's not surprising that we're 2-10."

A Tigers lineup expected to score runs in bundles was shut out Sunday for the fourth time this season, one more than the Tigers were blanked for all of last year. That's combined with a pitching staff that has given up double-digit runs three times since last Sunday.

Kenny Rogers remains the only pitcher to throw a quality start, having done so in the second game of the season. But on Sunday, he had the latest Tigers start that didn't last through the fifth inning.

After losing in Boston last Tuesday, Rogers was very disappointed in his lack of command. On Sunday, he said, it was even worse. He allowed seven runs on seven hits in four-plus innings, but his four walks were the more telling stat, as he struggled to put the ball where catcher Brandon Inge was spotting for it.

After walking two and giving up an infield single to load the bases with one out in the third, he tried to spot a sinker on the outside corner to Paul Konerko. Instead, the sinker moved over the plate, and Konerko sent it over the center-field fence for a 5-0 lead.

"It's frustrating, because we needed a better start," Rogers said.

Even if they had gotten one, though, it wouldn't have mattered. The Tigers haven't scored in 19 innings since Cabrera's RBI single in the eighth inning on Friday night.

Leyland's frustration was more general. He has remained relatively calm through it all, and he still talks about not pushing a panic button with his club. He couldn't keep calm forever, though.

But after a loss like this, it wasn't just frustration he was feeling. It was introspection. As he has done before, he took the responsibility for the performance.

"You always feel from a manager's standpoint that you're not pushing the right buttons," Leyland said. "'Are you saying the right things?' Stuff like that. You beat yourself up harder than anybody else, obviously. So you always try to think, 'Are you doing different than you did with them the last two years?' Right now, I can't find anything.

"I've talked to the players. I tried pumping them up a little bit. I'm not a rah-rah guy, but I try to talk to them during batting practice. I'm doing the same things. We're just in a funk. But you still have to accept responsibility for that as a manager. Can I get them out of the funk? No, I don't think so. They have to get themselves out."

The longer it goes, the deeper it seems to get.

Jason Beck is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Closed door meeting...And I hope they ALL got their asse's reamed out good!

Tigers shut out again; Leyland lets them have it
by Danny Knobler
Sunday April 13, 2008, 4:52 PM

CHICAGO -- Yes, this was the one that did it.

The one that set Jim Leyland off. The one that got him going, the one that brought on the eruption so many Detroit Tigers fans have been waiting for.

If you've been saying that what the Tigers really need is a good talking-to, well, your theory is about to be tested. Sunday, after a lifeless 11-0 loss to Chicago that dropped the Tigers' dreary record to 2-10, they got talked to.

Yelled at, really.

"I finally got ticked off to where I didn't hold it in,'' Leyland admitted. "There was one thing that sticks out, and that was the straw that broke the camel's back.''

TRACKING THE TIGERS
• Sunday's game: Kenny Rogers gave up a grand slam to Paul Konerko, and Zach Miner gave up a grand slam to Joe Crede. Oh, and the Tigers were shut out for the second straight day, losing 11-0 to the White Sox. And yes, this game did set manager Jim Leyland off for his first postgame tirade of the season.

• Record: 2-10

• Slammed and slammed again: According to home run historian David Vincent, Sunday's game was just the sixth in Tiger history in which they allowed a pair of grand slams. Three of the six have come against the White Sox. The other five: May 1, 1901 in Chicago; April 27, 1983 at California; Aug. 7, 1984 at Boston; May 19, 1996 at home against Chicago; and June 4, 2005 at home against Baltimore.

• Next up: 7:05 tonight vs. Minnesota (Jeremy Bonderman vs. Nick Blackburn), FSN Plus.


Leyland wouldn't say what that one thing was, but past explosions have been set off by a feeling that the Tigers gave in when they got down in a game. Sunday, after Joe Crede's sixth-inning grand slam gave the White Sox a double-digit lead, the Tigers made the next nine outs on just 24 pitches.

Crede's grand slam was Chicago's second of the game, but what stood out even more Sunday was that the Tigers were shut out for a major-league high fourth time in 12 games.

"I wasn't sure we'd be shut out four times all year,'' Leyland said.

So he exploded. He let his team have it, in a way that he didn't after they got swept by Kansas City in the opening series, or after they were routed 13-2 by the White Sox eight days ago.

He exploded Sunday, and they understood why. In fact, Magglio Ordonez said, the Tigers can understand anyone being angry with them right now.

"The owner, the general manager, the fans,'' Ordonez said. "Everyone. I'm disappointed with everything that's happened. I don't understand it, when you see the players we have. I'm disappointed, and frustrated.''

Ordonez went 1-for-10 in the series, and he's hitting .234 with three RBIs. Miguel Cabrera is hitting .175, and he's driven in one run since opening day.

"I feel bad,'' Cabrera said. "It feels embarrassing. I feel like everybody's behind me laughing. I feel like I'm playing my worst baseball.''

He's not the only one. Kenny Rogers failed to complete five innings again Sunday, sending his ERA to 6.75 and giving the rotation as a whole an American League-high 6.38 ERA.

"I'm disappointed, without a doubt,'' Rogers said. "There's more expected from me.''

There's more expected from all of them, even now. Leyland keeps saying day after day that he believes the Tigers have a good team, even as each loss requires another explanation of why they look so awful.

"We look bad,'' he admitted Sunday. "You always feel from a manager's standpoint that you're not pushing the right buttons. Are you saying the right things? You beat yourself up harder than anyone else. You ask yourself whether you're doing something different from what you did the last two years.''

The Tigers' last five losses have each been by five runs or more, so there have been precious few buttons for Leyland to push during the games. The buttons he's talking about are the mental ones, the one he hoped to reach with Sunday's little postgame talk.

He kept trying to push them in other ways. A week ago, he had said that ranting and raving wasn't the right approach with this team. Even Sunday morning, when he was discussing the Tiger injuries, Leyland said he saw no reason to yell and scream.

"Let's just wait and see what happens,'' he said.

What happened was another shutout, another terrible game. What happened was that Leyland could wait no more, and could hold it in no longer.

Now we'll see if it works.

Posted a similar article in Team Discussion...

Guess I was just excited to see the ol'man finally blew up!

WOW! Lap! GMTA!

Hopefully that is what they need - a good yelling at!

Come on Tigers!

they need to get off their butts and earn those $$

Merged 2 similar threads

he shouldn't have let it go this long!

Lets hope history rings true a second time. Remember last time he went off? OH YEAH!

He should have done that a couple of games ago!

Kick their Jim!

swiss_tiger wrote:

He should have done that a couple of games ago!

Kick their Jim!

at LEAST a couple of games ago!

I like it when he was on PTI on ESPN, Leyland basically said, "I just completely lost it".

We still love ya Jimmyboy!!

just don't walk away now!

He only walked away from all of his other jobs because he was hoping the TIGERS would eventually call.....

tigersaint wrote:

I like it when he was on PTI on ESPN, Leyland basically said, "I just completely lost it".

We still love ya Jimmyboy!!

That's so funny, lol, I don't blame him for losing it. He's hilarious, I really like Jimmy

iluvpudge7 wrote:

tigersaint wrote:

I like it when he was on PTI on ESPN, Leyland basically said, "I just completely lost it".

We still love ya Jimmyboy!!

That's so funny, lol, I don't blame him for losing it. He's hilarious, I really like Jimmy

He needs to lose it on 'em more often!

should have done this last night ----> LOL

Yeah really iluvpudge, I mean, if it were to be a close game, then I wouldnt have had too much of a problem with it, but it was bad, so I was pissed, so they better bounce back!

iluvpudge7 wrote:

should have done this last night ----> LOL

more like KICK THEIR BUTTS...

oh, wait, that's my job!