The Detroit Tigers are clearly lacking veteran leadership

As the pitiful Detroit Tigers season was about to enter the All-Star break, the future Hall of Famer on the club had a temper tantrum getting himself ejected in the first inning of the final game arguing balls & strikes leading up to the break.

Miguel Cabrera was tossed in the first inning arguing balls & strikes after former Detroit Tigers starter David Price fanned the big fella with a high fastball.  Miguel thought the strike zone was considerably larger for the Boston Red Sox, he took exception to it and was removed from the game–or maybe he simply wanted to start his vacation a bit earlier than everyone else.

A knee issue will leave Cabrera limited to being a primary designated hitter for the remainder of his career.  His days of regularly playing first base are over although I expect the big fella to still play the odd game at first similar to what Victor Martinez did with the Tigers, maybe once a month Cabrera will dust off his glove and head to first.  He may have to retrieve his glove from Tigers youngster Harold Castro who needed to borrow it during a rare appearance at first the other night.

Before Miguel Cabrera was ejected he struck out on a dropped third strike; he failed even to attempt to lumber his way down to first base instead simply turned towards the Detroit Tigers dugout and was easily, eventually called out.  I think that type of effort knaws on the former players leading to former Tigers legend Jack Morris to question Cabrera’s leadership.  If we’ve learned anything about Miguel Cabrera over the years, he hates anyone questioning anything about his play or leadership.

97.1 the tickets’ Jeff Riger was one of the professionals in the Detroit Tigers locker room when hurricane Miguel hit land.  There was not a shortage of tweets, we won’t show them all, but in a series of tweets Miguel had this to say;

"Jeff Riger would go onto tweet; This Jack Morris quote was from a Free Press story last week and we believe this is the quote that Castellanos and Cabrera were angry about. “You can’t ask a guy to be anything he’s not,” Morris said. “Miggy has always loved the game. He has fun playing the game. That’s who he is"

The problem is; is this how a leader reacts to criticism?  Wouldn’t a true leader shake it off?  Maybe have a snarky comment or two, but to absolutely blow up proves that Miguel Cabrera indeed isn’t a true leader.

Remember this is the same ‘leader’ that earlier in the season blamed his power struggles on his teammates.  If you recall when he was being criticized about his power or lack thereof, he spewed out “look who is hitting in front of me, and behind me, there is no Victor Martinez, Prince Fielder or Jhonny Peralta here.”

That is true, but you were unable to win a title when they were here, so it was time to tear it down and try to rebuild the thing back up.  There is no need for a comment like that, Nick Castellanos is hitting in front of Cabrera, yet there isn’t much protection behind the former slugger a comment like that will undoubtedly risk stunting a youngsters growth rather than helping them along.  A leader wouldn’t make a comment like that.

I think Miguel Cabrera is a fantastic player, one of the best right-handed hitters of all-time.  He’s been phenomenal in a Tigers uniform; I have two Cabrera jerseys.  I don’t want you to think I’m a Cabrera hater; I’m just very disappointed with his recent actions.  Also, if Justin Verlander‘s theory of the baseball’s ‘juiced’ is true, how come Cabrera only has 5 home runs on the season?  Has he fallen off that much? If so, this is a much, much worse deal than Albert Pujols‘ who he’s often compared too.