My question is the same as it always is in these situations: how can a manager be the right man for the job from October through March, then suddenly become not the right man six games into the season?
I don’t mean to defend Garner, who although he was dealt a lousy hand in Detroit is very high on the list of managers whose reputation far outstrips their performance. I just have to wonder what good it does to let one guy run the team all through spring training, pick the roster, set the rules, get to know the players, then dump him because the team has a six-game losing streak.

He failed to properly evaluate the personnel he inherited, so he let guys like Frank Catalanotto slip through his fingers. He failed to spend money properly, making people like Todd Jones and Brian “Speedy” Hunter rich. He made bad, convoluted deals that always seemed to involve Brad Ausmus. His drafts, which in theory should have reflected his skills as a talent maven, didn’t turned out particularly well.

Brian: Can the Tigers win a game?
Chris Kahrl: I like theoretical questions.

“It won

At the end of the day, those of us who want to defend Phil Garner as a manager are short on conventional arguments, seeing that the one winning season is now a decade old. But we plead mitigating circumstances. It was not his fault that he was asked to manage nine straight losing teams.

Smith was in his 10th year as the Tigers