While watching the celebration last night, I couldn't help but feel sorry for Bosch when he was being interviewed. He looked like he was on the outside looking in. Didn't have any champagne poured over him and seemed so sad. Maybe he will play today. I know he hasn't been playing lately since he hasn't been hitting a lick. My son said he has been pulling his head off the pitch. Someone should tell him that if that is the case. You are a member of the team too, Brennan. How many players can they have on roster for playoffs?

i think that the tigers coaches are brutal. boesch has been swinging at the first pitch of late, in every at bat.

why not give the guy the take sign and advice him to look at more pitches?

clearly he off balance as he isn't driving the ball.

i don't think that he will be back as they will be grooming both castellanos and garcia for the OF. boesch will be traded this off season for a pitcher.

It would be a huge mistake to give Avisail a starting job next year. I've watched him play and he just isn't ready yet.

next year? the guy is going to be playing in this year's playoffs.

Boesch is already finished with the Tigers. He has shut out the coaches:

http://www.mlive.com/tigers/index.ssf/2012/08/detroit_tigers_brennan_boesch_12.html

"He's struggling right now," Leyland said Sunday after an 8-3 loss to the Texas Rangers. "I don't know what to do with him, because he's fighting himself. He gets mad when we talk about relaxing, but he's just fighting himself. I don't know what to do with him, to be honest with you."

He has a Chris Shelton attitude.

Could be career over time.

It's because the Tigers have no OF depth. They don't have a choice. Next year at least they can sign a FA.

well they still have boesch. do you think that'll cut him loose? did he even play last night?

leyland was determined to get raburn on track during the course of the season. with the playoffs about to start you would think that he would give boesch the same consideration.

boesch seems to be in the dog house though.

<<It would be a huge mistake to give Avisail a starting job next year. I've watched him play and he just isn't ready yet. >>

Agree 100%. He's filled in decently, but counting on him to play RF everyday for next year already is pretty insane.

Brennan has some tough competition. He bats LH. So do Berry and Dirks. Andy is a no-brainer. He's been playing at the top of his game. Berry looks great in the OF and he has speed. It's hard to make a case for Brennan with those other two as options.

Not likely you'll see Brennan unless they choose to stack the deck completely for a hitting matchup. But that would mean they'd sit A-jax. Just not gonna happen unless he's hurt or sick.

I think Brennan had an OK audition but OK wasn't enough.

For RH bats, A-jax is a lock of course. So the other two slots have only two possibles on the roster for a RH lineup. Delmon and Avisail. Not much competition there, but there isn't as much need either. So Avi will get starts against LHP for now. And we'll use Andy or Q-bear despite the matchup.

I don't know about the development thing. Guess you could argue that a "full" year in Toledo would be good for him.

But I am not sure what has been "seen" that leads to the conclusion that he is not ready.

He surely is a more assured fielder than Boesch and I would guess that he would hit better than Boesch next year, particularly if he is started against lefties early and then worked in to a more full time role. Thus far his numbers against R/H M/L pitchers are good - very small sample.

One thing working in his favor is that Miggy seems to have "taken him under his wing" - and if he is a listener, that's good. That also appears to be a quality that Boesch is lacking.

I feel relatively comfortable with Berry , Avisall and Dirks available for the corners, but I wish there was a little more power there. Omar is available as back up in emergencies.

With Victor coming back we can use speed from Berry and some from Dirks. We do have power elsewhere in the lineup.

I would prefer a trade for a good defensive shortstop ( or 2nd baseman -move Omar over), to focusing on an outfielder. But , as usual, the decisions must be made based on what is available.

<<I don't know about the development thing. Guess you could argue that a "full" year in Toledo would be good for him.>>

I would go there. Platooning a RH outfielder won't get him much action. I think it would benefit Mini-mig (and us) greatly to have him as an everyday guy in the minors for most of next year.

Raburn had every opportunity to prove himself and so has Boesch.

Boesch has played in over 130 games this year and only recently was benched in favor of Berry. Track when Detroit's winning streak started and you'll see it's at about the time Boesch started sitting. Terrible defense, terrible offense and a poor attitude; he has been given plenty of time to get going and it hasn't happened. There's no reason during a playoff hunt to give him even more chances.

Watching Garcia one can see he has a better center of gravity then doe either Berry or Boesch.

Dirks I think of all the outfielders shows this the most when at the plate. Dirks and Jackson seem the most comfortable. In that regard, Garcia has a similar look, but he doe need some time to hone himself.

Berry in all his drive to perform does not shoe a confident center of gravity. I think he could turn into one of the ball players if he could spend time with someone like Cabby or Dirks and figure out how to relax and find his feet.

Good point.

His numbers do suggest , however, that he should get some kind of a shot in ST - even his limited numbers against R/H pitching.

When Miggy worked with Avila in '11 Alex was terrific.

Evidently it didn't stick.

If Garcia stayed up the Board would "go nuts"each day over who among the three should start

Good points

Berry does look awful on some pitches, as you say, completely off balance

One of the pluses in keeping Garcia up , if we do not trade for someone, is that Berry often seems to have his worst looking at bats against lefties.

Dirks had a great year , but for some reason I will have to see him repeat it before I can be a complete believer. Hope so - he seemed to benefit from winter ball last year, don't know his plans.

I would like to see Berry work on his bunting over the winter, somewhere.

I called Boesch's impending change of scenery immediately after that interview in which Leyland openly said he did not know what to do with Boesch anymore.
If we take into consideration Boesch's woeful hitting (and fielding) performances this year, and combine it with him being too stubborn to take advice from his team's coaches ..then he deserves to be banished to the bench and ultimately sent packing.

Boesch has nobody to blame but himself.

I agree, Bob....I havn't seen anything from Garcia that says to me he's ready to be an every day major leaguer. I think he has to play every day at Toledo next year and find some power. He's still a baby. If he plays part time in Detroit, he will not progress.

Castellanos from what little I've seen of him is further ahead as a hitter, but clearly, we don't know anything about how he'd manage major league pitching. They have to find him a position. I don't see either of them as being anywhere near the Trout or Harper category (who is) even though both those guys are 1-2 years younger.....maybe not than Castellanos. I think Garcia is good enough defensively...he has to work on his cutoffs, etc. But I think he covers the ground and catches the ball plaenty well enough.

Boesch needs to play winter ball. Dirks, as Leyland has stated, does not. Brendon needs to play every day. See a lot of pitches and find a swing again.

It's too bad. He is the single worst assessment of ball player I have made in a while. Not since Wilken Ramierez, have I seen a guy I thought was the "it" guy....who wasn't.

Did I ever tell you guys how I thought Wilken was the next coming of....yes...I'll say it again....Roberto Clemente?

Was just following the Rangers-As game and noticing Nelson Cruz's stats.

He has the kind of line you would want Boesch to have. Not the best hitter in your lineup, but very productive.

.259 avg.
24 HR
90 rbi
.777 OPS

Not great, but it sure would be nice to have a corner outfielder in Detroit with that line. Delmaon Young was as close as we could get...at a pretty steep price too.