It’s old news, but Pudge has been AWOL from the team for the last week during his suspension. And then of course, he had difficulty making it back on time from his sabbatical and wasn’t at the ballpark on time last night.
Terry Foster reported this morning that when Rodriguez asked Trammell and Dombrowski for permission to leave the team, he was told no. Rodriguez then went to owner Mike Illitch who gave him the thumbs up. Believe it or not, this might be the most disturbing part of this whole fiasco.
Dombrowski and Trammell did their jobs, and Illitch undermined their authority. In the pursuit of appeasing his superstar, he alienated his CEO/President/GM, his manager, and the rest of the clubhouse. If there is anybody that Illitch needs to worry about making happy it is David Dombrowski. Rodriguez has two more years on his contract, Dombrowski has one. As a free agent Dombrowski will be more sought after than a 35 year old catcher. The Tigers aren’t contending this year, and probably won’t be next year as well while they break in Justin Verlander, Joel Zumaya, and Curtis Granderson. They can’t afford to go through another front office shuffle and another 5 year plan.
Now back to the Pudge situation. He probably should have been with the team during the majority of the suspension. If he needed a day or tow to take care of fmaily business in Miami, it probably would have been pretty understandable. Instead, he was in Colombia for some reason – and waited until the last minute to join his team. If he was upset that Dombrowski gave up on the team when he traded Farnsworth, then Pudge gave up on his team by not being with them. His personal business is his personal business, but when it comes to not being with his teammates they have a right to know.
On the pregame show tonight they mentioned that Pudge was with the team, but he wasn’t in the lineup. They also indicated that Rodriguez met with the team. Hopefully things are resolved and the team can move forward.
LA Clippers.
There has been some reporting that Pudge’s situation stems from his upcoming divorce, and that teammates aren’t necessarily all that sympathetic about what’s going on. Whatever the facts, though, going over the heads of the manager and GM is bad form.
I also wish people would stop grumbling about Tram. He has an upbeat attitude, which means a lot when you have inferior talent. (There. I said it.) If Sparky went nearly 20 years with the organization with one WS, I’m pretty sure that the organization can cut some slack to a guy who’s only starting to break in the next generation of Detroit ballplayers.
Agree re Tram wholeheartedly. Let’s see what he can do with a good team. Losing DD would likely be an unmitigated disaster. Ilitch would not have the wherewithal to find anybody near as good. They would be doomed to some Chuck LaMarr/Syd Thrift level of GM who would ruin the team in nothing flat.
As for Pudge this is the first I have heard he went over heads. I really wish Ilitch would just back off and let DD and Tram run the team. I wonder which 30+ Scott Boras client superstar they will overpay this year. Pudge will be fine if he gets hot and they win a few games. If he is really ripping up the clubhouse they should let him sit awhile healthy or not. I wouldn’t trade him unless he is creating a big problem as opposed to an annoyance, but at $10 mil a year there is little doubt he would go through waivers…. Most of the contending NL teams could use a catcher and they pretty much all have good farm systems.
Is Shelton ion the running for rookie of the year or does he not have enough bats in….