Willis to Lakeland
posted in 2008 season |The Tigers optioned Dontrelle Willis to Single-A Lakeland today, the Free Press is reporting (hat-tip Bilfer for IM-ing me the news)
Something was seriously wrong that the organization was going to have to deal with in order to get anything resembling its investment out of him. The name of Rick Ankiel was tossed around, and Steve Blass. I didn’t see how much Wllis struggled to throw a strike with my own eyes, so I can’t really opine on that matter. Hopefully it isn’t that bad. But it really doesn’t sound good.
As Jim Leyland points out, you feel for him.
Leyland said of Willis: “My heart is broken for the kid.” (Freep quote)
Willis should find time to work it out and I’m sure will have a more supportive environment to do it.
A short note on booing: I don’t really care if fans boo when it’s deserved. If someone’s dogging it, if a team is dogging it, whatever, boo away. It’s your money, you’re paying to watch them, if they’re not giving you your money’s worth, Boo. I’m cool with it. But Willis is not one of the guys you boo. It’s not like he went out there to fail or gave a poor effort. He really didn’t deserve that kind of reception from the boorish-acting fans.
Sphere It
They need to rework his mechanics in Lakeland. I know he’s been sucessful with the high leg kick (and it’s probably distracting to hitters) but there are just too many moving parts to be consistent… something needs to be done.