Brad Ausmus
"It's always something — if it ain't one thing, it's another." -- Roseanne Roseannadanna, SNL
The Tigers suck. Period.
It's always something. The offense. The defense. The starting pitching. The bullpen.
And Saturday, after the team lost its 11th game in 12 outings, the speculation continued as to whether manager Brad Ausmus will survive the season.
Brad Ausmus
But the players support Ausmus and don't blame him for the losing streak, Chris McCosky of The Detroit News writes:
“The manager’s not the one who plays,” James McCann said. “It’s the players. The manager is not throwing balls over the plate. He’s not the one fielding. He’s not the one hitting it. There is only so much blame you can throw that way.
“We are not hitting good enough. We’re not pitching good enough. Bottom line…Right now we’re not putting it all together. I wouldn’t put any blame on the coaching staff or Brad as the manager. Put it back on the players.”
Martinez said he never understood, even when rumors were swirling around Ausmus last season, why the first bullets seem to be fired at the manager when a team struggles.
“We’re not out there questioning his decisions,” (J.D) Martinez said. “I think it’s more on us than anyone else. We’re the ones out there playing. We’re the ones not hitting. We’re the ones not scoring runs or not getting guys out.
“He can come in here and try to hooray us all he can. But we have to find it within ourselves to get the job done.”
