Tigers manager Jim Leyland has often taken the time before games to explain his thought processes about that night's lineups to reporters, who share that information with fans. Asked Wednesday night about his pre-game comments on playing his full roster, Leyland went off on a pretty good rant with the media, as shown on Fox Sports Detroit:
I've always been a guy who believes you play your total roster. but I made a decision today after talking to you guys before the game that I'm not going to discuss my lineup with anybody anymore. it's going to be posted and you guys can look at it and people can have fun with it or whatever. But I'm not going to explain on a daily basis why I play certain people. It's really a waste of time.
I told you before the game I was going to play Danny Worth to get a little life out there. (Ramon Santiago) is treading water a little bit, playing too much. I've kind of made explanations over the years. But I've just made up my mind, look at the lineups when you come in, and that's the lineup. You can have fun with it with your readers and everything. I don't blame them. It's fine. But I'm just not going to sit here and explain it every day about who's playing.
People act like when you're playing somebody that you have 30 guys. You only have four extras, and one of them's the catcher. So it's not like you have seven other choices and how did you come up with this lineup. I want to be fair to the people because their passion is so great here. But it's not like you have seven guys to choose from. I didn't play (Avila) tonight, so that's one spot. I gave Santi tonight because he's trading water. I didn't play Berry because it's a tough left hander and they're hitting one-something off of Wilson. I didn't play Donnie Kelly.
It's pretty simple if you think about it.