Tigers' Leyland Disappointed Hamels Only Got 5 Games

Detroit Tigers manager Jim Leyland thinks the Philadelphia Phillies' Cole Hamels got off much too easily with a five-game suspension for hitting the Washington Nationals'Bryce Harperon Sunday night.



From the Detroit Free Press' Anthony Fenech:


Jim Leyland is an old-school manager. So when a pitcher throws at a hitter in the name of old-school baseball, and when the Tigers' manager is asked about it, he's going to give his opinion. "Personally, if I was making that (suspension), it would be a 15-game suspension, at least," Leyland said on his pregame radio interview with Tigers broadcaster Dan Dickerson on Monday.


Sunday, Hamels hit Nationals' rookie Bryce Harper with a pitch and afterwards, admitted to it, saying: "That's something I grew up watching, that's kind of what happened. So I'm just trying to continue the old baseball because I think some people are kind of getting away from it. "I don't know Cole Hamels, so I certainly don't have any qualms with Cole Hamels. I don't know the man," Leyland said. "I know he's a very good pitcher and a very talented guy, but when you come out and admit it like that. … You know, that ball could have missed and hit him in the head or something else, I mean, when you come out and admit that I think five games is way too light, is my personal opinion."


Leyland said he would give out the same sentence if it was his pitcher. "And I thought, the way I read it, and I don't know if the kid meant it in this way, but it was almost like a braggadocios thing," Leyland said. "That's not enough. There's no way."


Leyland said he thought the situation was a chance for Major League Baseball to make a statement. "We talk about our game being cleaned up or doing the right things for our game in all areas for the game, I'm 100% for that," he said. "But this is a perfect time to show that we mean business, and I think this suspension is way, way too light. "It becomes a joke," he said of umpires' in-game warnings. "Let's tell it like it is."


And by telling it like he sees it, Leyland knows he might be talked to. "I know I'll probably get some phone calls, but I don't care if I do or not because I don't know that anybody cares about my opinion," Leyland told Dickerson. "You asked me, so I'm sharing it with you. "I think, with what we're trying to do with baseball and send the right message to everybody -- young people, old people, fans, everybody else -- this is a case where, in my opinion, from what it looks like to me, the union has nowhere to go because this was two of their people involved. 


"So I think this is way too light, and I'm very, very disappointed in the sentence."