updated: Tram fired, Leyland hired!

[mcqfesijiba]

My biggest concern is that Dombrowski doesn't seem to put much effort into finding a manager.

Do not discount the "Ilitch meddling effect". Pujols was for the most part an interim guy, so I really can't hold that against Dombrowski. It was during the transitional time when Dombrowski became GM following Garner and Smith's firings, which should have happened sooner than they did. Ilitch was a big part of the reason for this for not immediately making Dombrowski his GM. Everyone knew Ilitch brought in Dombrowski to ultimately be GM not just President, but the delay in making the move official was a major error on Ilitch's part. Once the season starts, the choices for managerial candidates is much slimmer.

Then Trammell. Was he even Dombrowski's choice? The big rumors are that Trammell was Ilitch's choice, not Dombrowski's. Under no circumstances did I ever get an impression that Dombrowski was a big Trammell-guy. I'm sure any Tigers' fan knows the rumors about Trammell's hiring as well as I do. Sell some tickets by hiring a Tigers legend.

I guess that gets me to my point that in my opinion this is Dombrowski's first real managerial hire for this organization. Dombrowski is a guy who has strong preferences towards guys with past ties and Leyland certainly has them, while the previous guys simply did not fit Dombrowski's mold at all. It's hard to estimate how much effort was put into this hiring. I have a feeling the decision was made before Trammell was ever officially fired due to how quickly it came to be, although first they quickly had to get some minority interviews out of the way to fulfill the "process".

Geez, everytime I try and break down moves made by this front office, I see what a mess it is and it always seem to go back to the root, Ilitch.