Wednesday's Tigers Lineup; What the Heck is Leyland Thinking?!

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier 

The Tigers are struggling, that's obvious. They have run into the second best offense in the American League in Boston and are scuffling to score runs. Even their ace Justin Verlander couldn't give them a win, so Manager Jim Leyland sent down the wallowing Ryan Raburn and brought up catcher Omir Santos from the Toledo Mud Hens.

Why would he do that? Bringing up Santos gives the Tigers three catchers on the roster with Alex Avila and Gerald Laird; well Leyland's lineup for Wednesday's game with the Red Sox shows why he called up Santos.

Quintin Berry CF
Danny Worth 2B
Miguel Cabrera 3B
Prince Fielder 1B
Delmon Young LF
Brennan Boesch RF
Jhonny Peralta SS
Alex Avila C
Gerald Laird DH

First off, what the hell is Leyland thinking? Oh the team just lost two games to the Red Sox and we're trying to avoid being swept; let's put Delmon Young, the worst left fielder possibly to ever play baseball in the field and have him to to catch wall balls off the Green Monster. And you know what? We've shown absolutely no confidence in Worth to this point, so lets throw him in at second in the order and see what happens.

But wait, there needs to be a designated hitter and we already put the butcher in left field so who can give us a big bat in the order? Certainly not Andy Dirks, one of the best hitters on the team, let's put Laird out there as the DH, he can get us some big hits.

Santos was needed specifically for this lineup, because with Laird DH'ing, if Detroit needs to replace Avila they can't use Laird or else they would lose the DH, so Santos fills that void. Because of that reason Tigers fans can expect to see this completely idiotic lineup several more times before Austin Jackson returns from the DL. 

This lineup is complete lunacy and shows that Leyland has no idea what to do with this team and his lack of a consistent lineup is hurting this team. If the Tigers can go out and have the same lineup each day they would begin to gel as a club and begin to hit.

Boston has Jon Lester pitching tonight, which if you look at it could be why Leyland pulled Dirks out of the lineup "to play the matchups," but Lester is 0-4 against the Tigers in his career; put the best team on the field every day, regardless of the pitcher and you will win games.

Sorry, but if this doesn't put a fork in Leyland, nothing will. 

Gerald Laird Injures Knee, Will Miss Time

By Sean Gagnier
@SeanGagnier

This is not what Jim Leyland or Alex Avila wanted to hear - Gerald Laird collided with Don Kelly attempting to run down a fly foul ball and injured his knee. Laird went down, grabbing his knee in pain and needed trainer Kevin Rand to help him get off the field.

It looked bad, and for Laird it probably felt bad, but things aren't as bad as they look. The Tigers announced that it was only a knee sprain and that Laird would be listed as day-to-day and would be reevaluated on Saturday.

Laird seemed upbeat about the injury saying that he was glad he didn't blow it out.

Avila is probably happy he didn't blow it out as well, seeing as he caught darn near every game down the stretch last season when Victor Martinez was injured. The stress of catching every day may have helped to inflame Avila's knees and add to his tendinitis last season.

Fresh out of knee surgery to clean out the tendinitis caused by his last back-up catcher's injury, an injury to Laird was not what Avila hoping for.

While the doctors don't believe Laird's injury is serious, if on Saturday during the reevaluation they deem things to be more serious the Tigers could turn to a number of prospects in the minors. Rob Brantly has been tearing things up in the minors and could be the best choice but Bryan Holaday or James McCann could also get a call.

Perhaps they go with Omir Santos, Avila's back-up last year after the injury to Marinez. They signed him to a contract as an insurance policy but he was less then stellar at the plate. One of the prospects may get the call over him.

Only Saturday and the doctors will be able to answer the questions now.