Should Tram be fired right now?

[moochman]

Or wait until the end of the season?

The evidence that Tram has to go is starting to mount as the season wanes. Tram is too inconsistant in how he treats his team to have them be a cohesive unit the is needed to field a competitive team.
I'll sight a few reasons:
He benches Infante for base running error on a slow roller that changed course and veered fair while Omar didn't run it out.
Pudge meanwhile has made baserunning blunders that would shame a little leaguer and there is no retribution.
He also leaves Inge in at 3rd despite lazy errors and poor ABs. Pur Palanco there and send Brandon a message that lazyness is not to be tolerated.
He takes out Robertson after 80 something pitches in the midst of a 2-hitter. Why?
He lets Bonderman pitch after getting hit with the liner and admits that his forearm is sore. Why? Now Bonderman has a sore elbow, coincidence? Granted it's not liek throwing an Octopus, but...
My point is the handling of the pitching staff makes no sense. He is a slave to the pitch count, supposedly to save arms from injury, but he pulls a pitcher with a low count while tossing a gem and puts Bonderman at risk for no good reason.

He obviously is overmatched and must go. I think he should've been fired after the embarrassement that was the game last night. If nothing else is would send a much needed signal to the team that this sort of play can't be tolerated. And they had better sweep out the whole bunch and bring in an outsider.
They need to distance the team from the ruins that have become of the Trammel era.

[mcqfesijiba]

If it were the case that maybe the bench coach or someone in the staff were to take over on an interim basis, than maybe, but more likely if Trammell is gone, then the whole staff is probably gone, and therefore there is no point in grabbing some guy off the street to manage a team for a couple of weeks. What they need to do is take action as soon as the season is over and decide if they are going in a different direction or not, and if so, go through a legit managerial selection process. And above all else in the process, STAY OUT OF THE DECISION ILITCH! What I always heard about the original interviews where Trammell came out the winner was that Ilitch did his usual meddling in the process and was eying Trammell from the start. I just wonder how fair the interviews were to people other than Trammell.

I don't dislike Trammell totally as a manager given my past of defending him, but it would probably be mutually beneficial for both sides if Trammell didn't come back next year. He is too inexperienced for this franchise that is still messed up beyond just the product on the field. He may want to get into some lower pressure and hopefully more stable situations to gain some useful managerial experience. The job here in Detroit is a monster right now that is probably tough enough to eat up even more experienced guys.

Or wait until the end of the season?

The evidence that Tram has to go is starting to mount as the season wanes. Tram is too inconsistant in how he treats his team to have them be a cohesive unit the is needed to field a competitive team.
I'll sight a few reasons:
He benches Infante for base running error on a slow roller that changed course and veered fair while Omar didn't run it out.
Pudge meanwhile has made baserunning blunders that would shame a little leaguer and there is no retribution.
He also leaves Inge in at 3rd despite lazy errors and poor ABs. Pur Palanco there and send Brandon a message that lazyness is not to be tolerated.

He does have a high number of errors, but he's still somewhere around average in terms of fielding percentage. I think he's doing quite well for a first year full time 3B. He still leads all MLB 3B with over 100 GP at the position in range factor and he leads the league in total chances at third by quite a margin. In fact he has 13% more chances than the next most. To be honest, given his range, I sometimes wonder if he'd make a better SS than 3B. He was a college SS afterall. If they don't land a Furcal, I wonder if it would be worth a shot to switch Guillen and Inge next season.
While Inge's atbats haven't been great this second half, not like anyone short of Ordonez, Polanco, Pena (sometimes), and D Young (also only sometimes) are having much better at bats. He probably could be given a day off more often than he has been, as the heavy burden of playing time may have been a factor in his slide as the season progressed.

He benches Infante for base running error on a slow roller that changed course and veered fair while Omar didn't run it out.
Pudge meanwhile has made baserunning blunders that would shame a little leaguer and there is no retribution.

Is anything that involves Pudge ever normal these days?

By the way, you want a manager who can REALLY handle a pitching staff. Well, Dusty Baker may be let go by the Cubs this offseason. Pitch counts? Dusty doesn't know the meaning of the word, hahaha.

[moochman]

STAY OUT OF THE DECISION ILITCH!

It probably doesn't seem like it, but I've agreed with alot of the points that you've brought up. None as much as this one. Ilitch needs to let Dombrowski do his job or Dombrowski will be doing his job somewhere else.

The task at hand for whomever replaces Tram is daunting. This team looks like they peaked The pitching has regressed, and hitting disappeared. Hard not to think that the team has left the building. I read a quote from Gibby, citing the great teams they were playing as the reason for the losing streak/poor hitting. He said they were fighting for a playoff spot and the Tigers need to play with the same intensity. Sorry Gibby, but if you are not only seeing but acknowledging that attitude by not benching the dogs.

Pudge being dog numero uno. He obviously doens't want to be in Detroit anymore, and judging by the comments made by Maggs I have to wonder how much of an affect his attitude is having on a frail bunch.

[mcqfesijiba]

One has to wonder when the decision on Trammell's future comes, who's decision is it ultimately, Dombrowki's or Ilitch's. If it comes down to Ilitch, he can be real stubborn, so there could be trouble on that horizon.

As far as Pudge goes, he needs to realize he is no longer this team's superstar. .298 OBP!? Ugh. 47 RBIs!? Ugh. 7BBs/84Ks!? Ugh. He's still a stud defensively, but I'd like to see him take some responsibility. He's clearly having a subpar year offensively and it may very well be a trend for him as he finally starts his decline. He can complain all he wants, but he's let this team down offensively. Give him a good team next year, and he'd most likely back down on his comments. It'll be too hard to get rid of him, so that's the best case scenario we can hope for.

Magglio, on the other hand, is this team's superstar and his comments were justified. They were on the money, while at the same time not coming off in an egotistcal way like Pudge sometimes does. Magglio has played like the player we bargained for. Him + Polanco = 2 players I will be very happy seeing return in the lineup next year. Let's just hope they have a little more help out there.