More fawning bullcrap on the inscrutable wisdom of Obi-Wan Leyland

Probably about 20 current MLB managers and as many other non-current managers.

 

This is one of those cases where everyone is right.

Just as he must get much of the blame for the Tigers' collapse, Leyland must get a lot of the credit for winning 95 games with a franchise that hasn't sniffed 90 wins since Alan Trammell had hair on his head.

It'll be interesting to see what happens next year. Starman is right re: Leyland's penchant for ducking and running. I don't think he did that in Pittsburgh--the team was about to be sold and moved before McClatchy stepped in--but he surely did it in Florida and, particularly, Colorado. It'll be interesting to see what happens now that both sides are used to the other.

 

The young pitchers hit the wall . . . and The Gambler wound up hyperventilating like
Roger at his flightiest.

It's morning, in America . . .

 

BTW, Wright Thompson has a pretty good feature on Leyland at the WWL right now - I like the way they've packaged his pieces (this, the New Orleans piece, etc.). Very design-conscious to supplement good content.

 

Design is overrated [/waiting for dyepack in 3...2...]

 

BYH, the team had been sold and McClatchy came in in Feb. 1996, Leyland quit the end of 1996 because Leyland thought the salary dump that McClatchy did near the end of that season was a sign the team was back on the market.

 

Angle measure of content: 179 degrees.
Angle measure of design: 1 degree.

The two are supplemental.

 

Not quite. Leyland had been led to believe the Pirates were going to upgrade. He went into a late season meeting with notes about which free agents he thought were worth pursuing. McClatchy told him they were tearing things down and looking to unload the few ML-caliber players they still had (Jay Bell, Jeff King, Denny Neagle). Leyland saw another five year plan coming and left.

 

The strategic brilliance of Jedi Master Leyland certainly coming to the fore tonight.

 

God In Heaven help me, I just heard somebody on the radio -- don't know who, but I think it was a paid professional -- saying the horsewhipping the Tigers took in Game 1 was all part of Leyland's plan.




See, Leyland is Experienced and Seasoned, this dude went on, and he knows the most important thing in any series, if you don't have home advantage, is to win One Of The First Two Games. As part of an ingeniously-conceived plan to do just this, the Grizzled and Savvy Leyland has put all his chips on Game Two, and had it all planned ahead of time. He didn't say that Leyland exactly "tanked" the game tonight, but he "took some high-risk shots" which he knew probably weren't likely to succeed, so as to build a sense of overconfindence in the Yankees.

Moreover, the argument continued, the canny and crafty Leyland started Robertson, stuck with him even though he was getting hammered, then brought in some of the deep-deep bullpen guys, who got slapped silly themselves, in a calculated plan to let the Yankees take their big swings against the "second-line" pitching, with the first team, starting with Verlander, coming in tomorrow.

I guess maybe the five straight losses down the stretch in the regular season were all part of a crafty ingenious plan, too. If the object is to build overconfidence in your opponents, he couldn't be doing a better job.

: : : :

 

As constituted, Detroit had virtually ZERO chance in this series, going in. I have issues
with Leyland, but won't put him down for getting drilled in this set. Nothing going on here . . .

 

I think the better team won tonight. Compare the lineup, the starters and bullpen, and the Yankees own damn near every advantage there is in this series. Should the Tigers lose, that's going to be the reason.