With Curtis on vacation this week it looks like I am taking over the site for the week, so now you get to hear my thoughts on Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski getting contract extensions in the middle of the season.  First, I love what Jim Leyland brings to the Tigers, he is a great manager and we are lucky to have him.  The problem is every single season he has been here, come the second half of the season the wheels completely fall off the bus and we skid into the finish line.  I don’t know why it happens and I don’t know what causes it, but something needs to change.  And if that takes replacing the manager at the end of the season than that may have to happen.

Secondly, they gave out these extensions to remove the “lame duck” tag off of both of them, which is another concept I don’t get.  So if your manager may not be back next season, you (as a professional athlete paid to play a game for a living) are going to ignore everything he says, but as soon as he signs a piece of paper everything is perfect again?  That concept is mind-blowing to me, and if it has any effect on any player it is complete crap in my opinion.

Finally on to Dombrowski, I like most of the moves he has made as the GM of the Tigers.  Maybe every trade didn’t pan out the way we would have liked (Jair Jurrjens anyone?) but he always seemed to try to make a move that should improve the ball club.  Also his aggressiveness in the draft has allowed us to draft and sign guys that other teams were afraid to pay big money to.  Some of his shortcomings include finding solid relievers in the draft, which has handcuffed his manager this season and prior, but all in all I think that Dombrowski deserves to be around for another four years, but what he does this offseason with big money coming off the payroll (mainly Magglio) will be telling to how his future here in Detroit should go.