Andrew Miller shut down for 2007

According to this article by Tigers beat writer Danny Knobler, Andrew Miller is done starting games for 2007. Miller was optioned back to High-A Lakeland but was told not to report and take a few days off and when the Tigers return from their series in Oakland, Chuck Hernandez and Andrew Miller will work together.

How does this relate to Jim Leyland? Well, he has admitted he pushed extremely hard to bring Miller up and feels no regrets for potentially stunting the best pitching prospect we had in the Minors (he's lost rookie status and for most prospect lists, no rookie status = not a prospect). He said that he took full responsibility for this failure but does not feel sad that he did it. Going as far as to say:

"At the time, I thought he gave us a better chance to win. He isn't quite ready for this. I'm not sad that I did it. Sometimes you find out a guy's ready, and sometimes you find out that he's not.

"We took our shot. We're not going to be bull-headed and do something stupid.''

Well it's a good thing you sent him down after his meltdown of a performance in Kansas City a couple days ago before you "did something stupid" like, stunt his growth, perhaps.

I don't know what's worse, a manager that gets to push for kids to come up early and perhaps stunt the growth of a top pitching prospect or a General Manager that lets his manager talk him into calling up a top pitching prospect and, consequently, possibly stunt his growth.

Fire Jim Leyland

I'm not normally this hasty. I like to give things time and see what plays out. But, after the debacle that has been Jim Leyland "leading" this baseball team, it's already time for a change. I don't care how much of a motivator you are, if you continue to put the ballclub in the worst position to win a game (routinely bringing in Jason Grilli to throw meatballs when he was struggling, playing Neifi Perez extensively, not playing Omar Infante, taking out pitchers too soon [Nate Robertson against Cleveland], using Timo Perez ahead of Thames or Ryan Raburn or Cameron Maybin and then hitting Perez 3rd in the lineup) then you aren't doing what you're being paid to do.

And this isn't a new phenomenon either. He's a sub .500 manager in his career and has only had 7 winning seasons out of 16 (probably going to be his 8th this year) who routinely manages "by his gut" which just puts strain on the team when we're constantly going to a dry well for water.

So from here out, this is here to second guess, criticize, damn all the terrible decision's he makes. Like hitting Timo Perez 3rd in the heat of a playoff push when we can't afford to give at-bats away when we have Pudge and Brandon Inge sucking it up way too high in the order as it is.