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Mike Ilitch: Jim Leyland, Dave Dombrowski Will Return In 2011

With the Tigers' season essentially going down the toilet, there has been a lot of talk about what the future holds for this team. The talk has ranged from which players the Tigers should go after in the offseason, to who they should bring back or let go and to if Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski should keep their jobs.

There's no doubt that Leyland and Dombrowski have gotten the Tigers franchise turned around and have done wonders for this team over the years, but many fans want to see a change happen. After all, Leyland's decisions as a manager are often dumbfounding, and he has been unable to get his teams to keep playing well over the entire course of a season. Yes, he led the Tigers to the World Series in 2006, but they haven't been back to the playoffs since.

As for Dombrowski, he has made many great moves that got the Tigers in position to be competitors in the AL Central and in MLB in general. The problem is that he has made just as many questionable decisions, and despite having an owner who is willing to spend to win, all the Tigers really have to show for it is that one World Series appearance in 2006.

It was expected that there would be lots of speculation about the futures of Leyland and Dombrowski as this now-mediocre season starts to wind down, but Mike Ilitch's comments after Mike Modano's press conference today made it clear that change won't be coming to the manager and GM positions.

"I'm staying with Dave and I'm staying with our manager," Ilitch said. "I feel we're gonna move forward. I think we'll be solid."

All of the Tigers' problems obviously can't be attributed to bad managing, as injuries have just ravaged this team, but I have to admit that I have grown tired of Leyland. What he has done with this team since taking over as the manager deserves a huge pat on the back, but it's just frustrating to watch him constantly mismanage his bullpen and throw out ridiculous batting orders, and it's even more frustrating to watch the Tigers fade down the stretch every year. Again, the losing isn't all on him, but at some point the Tigers need to move in a different direction, because I just don't see them getting over the hump in the future as long as Leyland is the manager.