DETROIT -- Tigers officials are still finalizing which Minor Leaguers and how many they'll bring up next Monday, when rosters expand from 25 to 40. Most likely, though, it won't be a huge list, whether the Tigers are any closer to contention or not.

"I've never liked to overload [the roster] in September too much," manager Jim Leyland said. "You kind of base it on what you think makes the best sense."

Leyland is not a big fan of large-scale September callups as a rule. As he has said every year, expanding rosters for the final month of the season takes away from the management strategies down the stretch. Where a team can force an opponent to exhaust its only lefty reliever sooner than it'd like, for instance, expanded rosters could mean more room for lefty relievers on a team. Those matters can decide a game that decides a pennant race.

With the Tigers' position in the American League Central standings, that isn't likely to be an issue. If Detroit remains double-digit games back at the end of August, that won't change the team's approach for the final month. In other words, Leyland won't bloat the roster and have the equivalent of a "tryout camp," as he put it.

"I'm going to play our [regular] team," Leyland said.

Several position players that had callups this season, however, are possibilities to get another call for September, according to Leyland. That includes players like Brent Clevlen, Michael Hollimon, Jeff Larish and Clete Thomas, though Leyland emphasized that nothing had been decided.

They're not going to play, though, if they don't have much use. And they won't be called up if they're not going to play. Those are the issues that Leyland and team president/general manager Dave Dombrowski must decide.