SATURDAY, 2:21pm: Tigers manager Jim Leyland shared some rather strong words with the media Saturday afternoon in response to Boras' comments: (Quotes courtesy of MLive.com's Chris Iott).
"I'm very respectful of Scott Boras, but I'm not going to listen to his (nonsense)," Leyland said. "Scott Boras might be better off if he lets Magglio and myself handle this instead of him. … "This is about Magglio Ordonez and a manager trying to do something that he thinks may help and get him right. Is it the right thing? I don't know. But that is what this is about. And I'm not going to take shots from people in the newspaper that are untruths."
"If it's the truth and I'm wrong," the manager continued, "then go ahead and punch me in the jaw, but don't give me this (nonsense)."
FRIDAY, 5:43pm: Lynn Henning of the Detroit News reports that Scott Boras says there's "no compelling reason" behind the Tigers' decision to bench Magglio Ordonez indefinitely. Boras called the move "myopic," providing many stats to show why Ordonez deserves to play. For example, he's hitting .301 over the course of the last 30 days.
Ordonez's contract calls for vesting options that would kick in depending on the number of times he bats this year, so the Tigers' decision to bench Ordonez seems financially motivated. He needs 215 plate appearances for an $18MM option to vest for 2010, and there's another $15MM at stake for 2011.
Meanwhile, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports argues that the Tigers should release Ordonez instead of just benching him. As Rosenthal says, his .343 slugging percentage is hardly better than the numbers Rey Ordonez put up.
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