8 thoughts on “Leyland hired”

1. Umm, I like this move, but aren’t they going to get in trouble for not parading a couple minorities around before deciding? I thought we already learned from the Lions.

2. Dombrowski has already interviewed Bruce Fields and Juan Samuel for the position

   Sorry, should have read the other post first. As usual, Billfer’s way ahead of me.

   BTW, Congrats on a great year, Billfer. You’ve managed to keep the site very informative and interesting, despite a pretty blas

3. while I have only commented once or twice on this site, I have throughly enjoyed it. Keep up the outstanding work!! Oh yeah, while Trammell will always be perhaps my favorite ballplayer, I think Leyland will be a better in game tactition. How is he with young players?? I can’t recall. Then again, Sparky wasn’t supposed to be good with young players.

4. I can’t help but feel like the fact that Dombrowski essentially decided who the next manager would be before Tram was out will come back to haunt us. I’m also somewhat ashamed at the way we “interviewed” some minorities for the position when the job was all but offered elsewhere.

5. I’m pretty sure tram was fired with DD knowing he would hire leyland… kind of a shitty way to treat tram. If leyland hadn’t been interested i wouldn’t have been surprised to tram back next year.

   That said, i love leyland… he’s from my hometown. Good man
   
   hah

6. Yeah, the notion that anybody besides Leyland had a shot at this job is so much BS. That said he’s been successful in the past and DD knows him well. But he’s not a miracle worker; he’ll need the horses. The nice thing is that given the horses he has proven he can win.

   He developed quite few young guys with the Pirates. Bonds, Bonilla, Jay Bell and Jason Kendall all got their first shots under Leyland. And he stuck with some of them when they struggled (Bonds hit .223 as a rook). Also Doug Drabek, John Smiley and Denny Neagle got their starting shots with Leyland. He won with underpowering pitchers (Zane Smith, Bob Walk), good D and a couple of boppers. He also let Jose Lind suck up a billion or so outs.

   I remember those Pirates teams as tough guys to play against. Guys like Van Slyke who would beat you any way they could. Mike LaValliere, Gary Redus. They had limitations too: Leyland never had a decent 1B (Sid Bream, Brian Hunter, Kevin Young, etc.) But the Pirates had budget issues in those days as well. Leyland put together good pens with spare parts (Bill Landrum, Stan Belinda, etc.) Who were his pitching coaches? The ’97 Marlins team didn’t leave much of an impression on me; likely because they were broken up so fast. What I do remember is that DD cobbled together a collection of kids and free agents and Leyland took them to the top. He’ll be a good manager. Hope they get him some more players.

7. Very disappointing the way Tram was booted. He loves the Tigers but I don’t know if he can sit around off the field and be DD’s lap dog.

   I will be bitter for a while, but I like Leyland, altho my most vivid memory of him is leaving Drabek in to hit in game 7 of the 92 NLCS up 2-0 in the 9th inning, then Drabek losing in the 9th when “Sid Slid” (tho he’d been removed by that point) I’m no manager but I was rooting for the Pirates and that cost them the series.

   Good luck Tram.
   
   Good luck Mr Leyland, 2006 is the year we are supposed to be able to contend, Tram can’t ‘take us to the next level’ lets see if you can. And does the 2006 contending time table get pushed back for Jimmy since he’s new on the job? (I told you I was still bitter)

8. Jeff & Hawk – thanks for the kind words. I’m sorry I kind of tailed off during the swoon – it just became hard to keep rehashing the same stuff.

   I agree that this doesn’t “feel” right. But on the other hand, if Leyland is the guy that they wanted, then why wait? As for Fields and Samuel, I’m pretty sure they knew what was happening. Hopefully, the Tigers will reward them for their loyalty.

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