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DETROIT -- The moves were swift, unexpected and every bit as dramatic as Detroit manager Jim Leyland had intimated over the weekend.
Well, intimated is probably a bit informal. A frustrated Leyland had practically shouted from the top of Minnesota's Metrodome there would be significant changes for his scuffling team.
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| A fed-up Gary Sheffield is willing to put his health at risk by returning to the field. (US Presswire) |
Not a significant re-striping of the Tigers.
But whatever malaise is clouding this club is refusing to release its grip, so Leyland and general manager Dave Dombrowski yanked another ripcord on Monday, handing a left fielder's glove to former designated hitter Gary Sheffield and designating veteran outfielder Jacque Jones for assignment.
The moves were decisive and, yes, a bit desperate.
Sheffield is 39, has been bothered by a sore right shoulder following offseason surgery, and started only 12 games in the outfield in 2007. But he's also hitting .183 this season with two home runs and five RBI.
He signed off on DH'ing two winters ago when the Tigers rescued him from New York.
But, now?
"I think that's a position for guys who can't do nothing else," said Sheffield, who not only played left field for the first time this season Monday in a 6-3 loss to Boston, but also was dropped from third to sixth in the lineup for the first time all year. "You have to accept it in your mind. I never realized how mental it is.
"I was noticing fans in the stands, popcorn vendors ... I was noticing things I never noticed."
This is a huge week for the Tigers, too huge for them to be noticing the popcorn vendors. True, each week gets bigger the longer their sub-.500 sluggishness lasts, but when the season started, financially speaking, there were three superpowers in the American League -- the Tigers, Red Sox and Yankees all have payrolls north of $130 million.
This week, they're playing host to a superpowers summit in Comerica Park, with the Red Sox visiting Monday through Thursday and the Yankees due in Friday.
On Monday night, as the Tigers (14-19) lost their fourth in a row, it looked like a lot of other lost evenings. They coaxed eight walks in five innings from Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka but could push across only one run. They wound up leaving 11 aboard.
"I don't know if it's going to work or not," Leyland said. "I do know that every once in a while you need to send a message that this is about production. That's what we're all here for -- the manager, the coaches, we're all included in that."
The Tigers thought they finally had found the proper combinations last week in New York as they completed their first three-game sweep of the Yankees since Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich were in the rotation.
Then they went to Minnesota, got hammered, and here we were.
"One thing I want to make perfectly clear," an obviously agitated Leyland said in a staccato-style briefing before the game (punctuating the end of many answers with a terse "next question"). "Jacque Jones is not the reason we're four games under .500. He's nothing but a class individual.
"Sometimes your moves just fit this way or that way. It could have been somebody else. In no way, shape or form is anybody pointing fingers at Jacque Jones. That would be totally unfair."
But as Leyland noted, it's his job and Dombrowski's job to figure this thing out.
Sometimes that involves leafing through the employee suggestion box.
It was Sheffield who first approached hitting coach Andy Van Slyke a few days ago with the suggestion that perhaps part of the solution to get his anemic bat going might be to get his butt off the bench during the long stretches between his at-bats.
The chatter went from Van Slyke to Dombrowski to Leyland, who had a long talk with Sheffield on Sunday in Minnesota.
"If having Gary Sheffield in the field concentrating on every pitch helps him swing the bat, we're going to do that," Leyland said.
Then, Leyland anticipated the barrage of questions that was sure to follow by answering before they were asked.
"He's healthy now," Leyland said. "If he gets hurt, it happens."
You wonder how many more parachutes these Tigers have left before the nightly landings become softer. Only two weeks ago, the skipper shifted Carlos Guillen from first base to third and Miguel Cabrera from third to first in a move designed to tighten up a worrisome defense.
Cabrera had made seven errors at third base, and Guillen already has made four since he has been moved to third. There is some thinking that with Jones gone and Sheffield in the outfield, the Tigers' eventual look will feature Guillen at DH and Brandon Inge at third. If it's defense you want, that's their best alignment. However, that also effectively would neuter one of the savviest players in the lineup. Guillen can contribute only so much if he's not in the field.
But that's the weird thing about all of this attention the Tigers are paying to their lineup. There are legitimate questions surrounding their pitching staff (Nate Robertson alone is getting pitching coach Chuck Hernandez killed on the local sports talk radio), there is little speed and the Tigers' defense is nowhere close to airtight (11th in the AL as this monster homestand opens).
Yet, after Leyland's comments in the Twin Cities, the Tigers' lineup Monday was the most anticipated thing in Detroit since a new Supremes record back in the day.
The results were eye-popping, too: Catcher Pudge Rodriguez (.248) was batting ninth for the first time since May 6, 1992. Shortstop Edgar Renteria was in the eight hole for the first time since June 23, 1996. Magglio Ordonez was the DH.
And, of course, there was Sheffield, trotting out to left, with all of those questions right behind.
Can his legs hold up?
Will his shoulder hold up?
Does he have enough arm anymore to make the throws?
"Based on the way I used to throw before surgery ... I'm throwing better than most left fielders right now," he said. "I don't throw like I used to."
The important thing, he said, is that whether he's in left field or at DH, "I can't be pulling off the ball like I'm doing, no matter where I'm hitting." At least he was patient Monday. After popping out to left field in the second, he walked three times.
That's little consolation to Jones, who was slogging along with a .244 on-base percentage and .165 batting average, which made him utterly expendable when Sheffield finally had enough of DH'ing.
"It's very tough because I feel like I've got something to do with it," Sheffield said. "I'm sure Jacque's played long enough to understand the way this game works."
There are indications that, despite Leyland's strong presence, it is Dombrowski -- and the GM alone -- who is calling the shots. That's a healthy delineation of power, of course: the manager writing the lineup, and the GM making roster decisions.
Leyland said he called Jones and Marcus Thames into his office Monday afternoon to tell them to expect more time at DH than in the field given the manager's new plans for Sheffield. Then Dombrowski came down to meet with Leyland.
And then Jones was called in a second time and told, see ya.
"Right now, to me, we're not playing as well as we're capable of playing. The pieces haven't jelled," Dombrowski said. "Sometimes when you make moves, you're surprised."
He recalled his days as GM of the '97 Marlins, a club loaded with all-stars such as Sheffield, Moises Alou, Bobby Bonilla, Kevin Brown, Alex Fernandez and catcher Charles Johnson, among others. But it wasn't until the Marlins installed then-little-known Craig Counsell at second base that they took off and, eventually, won the World Series.
Nobody here is expecting Matt Joyce -- the man recalled from Triple-A Toledo, playing center field and batting seventh against Boston on Monday -- to have that kind of presence.
But everyone here is expecting Dombrowski and Leyland to find the right combination before everybody turns their attention to new Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez and his team later this summer. Fortunately for Detroit, the other four clubs in the AL Central are chasing their tails, too.
"I don't think you expect some miracle to happen in one game, two games," Leyland said.
The skipper said he intended to check with the trainers to make sure everything went OK with Sheffield -- he only had one putout, a nice catch of Mike Lowell's drive to the left-field fence, though he chased several base hits. Assuming it did, Leyland said he plans to play Sheffield in left field again Tuesday night, put Ordonez back in right field, use Inge at third and have Guillen be the DH.
"I just feel like a baseball player," Sheffield said. "I've been kept in the cage for a while."
Now it's the Tigers who continue pacing.