Jeff Riger: I Know You Don't Want To Believe This!
As I sat in the Comerica Park press box after watching the Tigers beat the Royals 2-1 on a Ramon Santiago walk-off homer in the 10th inning, I came across something pretty interesting on the Internet.
According to a Sports Illustrated poll asking Major League players what manager they would most like to play for, Tampa Bay's Joe Maddon was the majority answer. After Maddon was the Red Sox's Terry Francona and coming in third was Detroit's own Jim Leyland.
Yes, you read that correctly, Leyland and Detroit would be a welcome destination for many major leaguers -- if those players had the choice.
Now the above information by itself proves nothing, players like Leyland, this is not some enormous revelation. However the fact is that Leyland, if the Tigers make the postseason, could be the front runner to win the AL skipper of the year award. For all the punishment the man once known as the "Wizard of Woodward" has endured from the media and fans about his bizarre line-ups and random blow ups, he has persevered and has had the Tigers in first place for the better part of three months.
And whether you choose to believe it or not, the one year extension awarded to Leyland back on August 8th seemed to be well deserved, considering the team has gone 13 and 8 since.
So does Leyland deserve the award? I say yes if the following doesn't happen.....
Currently the Angels trail the defending AL Champion Rangers by three-and-a-half games in the AL West. If Los Angeles comes back and wins that division then I would give the award to Mike Scioscia considering their recent run. Back on August 18th, the Angels fell to a full seven games out and it looked like Texas was going to run away with things.
However Scioscia has been able to guide his team to an 8 and 3 record since and never allowed his guys to fall completely out of contention. Add that to the fact that the Halo's don't have a single batter hitting .300 and their fourth and fifth pitchers have just 11 wins combined and it's pretty clear, at least to me who deserves the honor. But again, they have to catch the Rangers for me to give it to Scioscia.
What if the Angels don't win the West, who other then Leyland would you give it to? Look over the East and if the fact that the Red Sox and Yankees have almost a combined 400 million dollar payroll doesn't automatically disqualify Francona and Joe Giradi, well it should. Other then Boston and New York in the East, no other team's manager would even be in the running for the award which moves us over to the Central. If the White Sox or Indians catch the Tigers then I would have no problem with giving the award to Manny Acta or Ozzie Guillen, however I don't see that scenario playing out.
For all those who say Acta should get it no matter what, because the Indians were picked by nobody to compete, I would say those same people thought the Tigers would also not compete and winning the division would be a more impressive feat for Detroit then almost winning it would be for the Tribe. So we move back to the West.
Other then the Angels I could not fathom giving the award to the Rangers Ron Washington because his team is stacked and even though it is hard to get back to the playoffs, he arguably was set up the best to do it of anyone in the AL. With names like Michael Young and his .330 plus average to Josh Hamilton with his almost 20 homers and 70 plus RBI, even though he missed several games to injuries, how could this team not win the division? Texas also has 4 guys with 20 plus homers and they also added Adrian Beltre in the offseason, so again, there is no way I would give the award to Washington.
I recently asked Leyland what it means to him to be mentioned as a potential AL Manager of the year candidate considering it has been such a tumultuous season and he responded "I've been there before so I don't worry about stuff like that. I don't worry about any postseason awards for anybody, particularly myself! We have to win games, we have a lot of work to do in the next month and a week and that kind of stuff all takes care of itself."
Leyland has to give that politically correct answer and he's right, if the Tigers win games down the stretch which results in winning the division, things will take care of themselves and one of those things will include the long time Skipper winning a well deserved honor, even if he does continue to play Brandon Inge and Magglio Ordonez on an almost daily basis.
