AL NOTEBOOK: LEYLAND PLANNING `IF' TIGERS GET IN.

Byline: DOUG PADILLA Staff Writer

OAKLAND -- The Detroit Tigers' spot in the postseason nearly is wrapped up -- not that the team's manager wants to talk about it.

Getting Jim Leyland to discuss the playoffs this past week was a near impossible task. It was something along the lines of actually turning the Tigers into a winner after years of struggle.

When hired as the Tigers' manager in the offseason, Leyland admitted he knew very little about the team he was taking over and knew less about the team's division, which is home to the World Series champion Chicago White Sox.

Ignorance has never been such bliss.

The impossible dream nearly is complete now. It would take a historic collapse for them to not get in the playoffs, at least as the American League wild card. It will be their first postseason appearance since 1987.

So how will Leyland handle the team's rotation once they clinch?

``If we're fortunate enough to get in and clinch a playoff spot -- if, I said -- then the No. 1 thing to do is align your pitching the way you want it,'' Leyland said. ``Would you do that at the expense of the division? I don't know about that. You might. If and when we get in -- and I emphasize if -- we'll take care of that.''

Leyland says he doesn't know if winning the division is a top priority, but he might want to re-evaluate. Winning the AL Central and opening the playoffs against Oakland instead of the New York Yankees would have its advantages.

As for setting up that rotation, Kenny Rogers is the obvious Game 1 starter, giving him a chance to recuperate in time to start Game 4 at Oakland. Rogers is essential for Game 4, which would either clinch the series or save the Tigers from elimination.

It would be a no-brainer, since that game would be at Oakland. Rogers is 25-4 with a 3.46 ERA at McAfee Coliseum.

Yanked around: The Yankees have been tugged and pulled recently, and it has nothing to do with George Steinbrenner, Alex Rodriguez, the Boston Red Sox or the building of their new stadium, set to open in 2009.

No, the team from the Bronx is getting yanked -- pardon the expression -- around by National League teams. One version of the 2007 schedule had the Yankees playing at San Diego in interleague action next season. It was later changed so that the Yankees would play at Colorado instead of San Diego.

The Rockies don't draw as well as the Padres so the reason for the switch seemed obvious.

``We made another switch, basically at the commissioner's request (to accommodate Denver), and that's when the Padres lost the Yankees and got Boston,'' said Katy Feeney, baseball's senior vice president for scheduling, to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Blame me: Terry Ryan, Minnesota's general manager, was watching from the press box at Fenway Park this past week when the Red Sox's David Ortiz hit his 50th home run. It was Ryan who released Ortiz after the 2002 season.

``Plain and simple, it was a bad decision,'' Ryan told the Boston Globe. ``I just made a bad decision. It was me. Nobody else is to blame.''

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