Ilitch Right To Keep Leyland and Dombrowski

Following a press conference to announce Mike Madano as the newest Detroit Red Wing, owner Mike Ilitch took the opportunity to inform the media that Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski would return to the team next year.

The announcement probably won’t be terribly popular around the state of Michigan as the Tigers continue in free-fall mode as the DL looks more formidable than the nightly batting order. The future of Jim Leyland is now starting to be discussed on a national level and fans continue their disparaging analysis of Dave Dombrowski with the benefit of hindsight.

Yes, it seems that Mr. I is going against popular opinion. But popular is always right, isn’t it?

(I’ll ruffle some feathers after the jump)

Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski made a baseball wasteland relevant. Some of the results have been disappointing but 2006 proved the team can compete and 2009 showed they aren’t a fluke. Sure, they haven’t gotten over the proverbial hump but that is hardly cause for a house cleaning; all you need to do for proof of that is look across the street to Ford Field.

The voice of dissent is generally loud and lacking in solutions. Anyone can leave an anonymous comment in bold face caps and it seems that everyone is. My problem is that no one seems willing to engage in any sort of intelligent discussion about what should happen as a result of a firing.

Want Dombrowksi gone? Fine, who should replace him? I can hear the response now: “grumble, mumble, grumble, that is for the organization to figure out”.

Think Leyland should be fired? OK, what man would you like to see manage this team? Another retread manager or former Tiger whose ceiling of success is mediocrity? Names like Buck Showalter don’t excite me. Yes, I know the Orioles are 4-0 since he took over. Congratulations Baltimore, you’re 36-73 overall, we’ll see how that works out long term. Kirk Gibson? Seems an awful lot like Alan Trammell to me.

Not every disappointment or failure warrants a rolling head (or two). Fans always need something to talk about and scapegoat to pin their problems on. That is fine, but it doesn’t mean they’re right. Mike Ilitch didn’t speak to the future of hitting coach Lloyd McClendon. Vindictive Tigers fans might get a fall guy after-all, I’ll talk about that later…