DETROIT -- Ron Gardenhire's grumbling about the Detroit Tigers' sloppy fundamentals will find a receptive audience today in Lakeland, Fla.

Gardenhire, general manager Al Avila and farm director Dave Littlefield will sit down with the organization's minor-league staff members in their annual meeting.

The message: Get with the program, or find a new home.

"Everybody can be replaced. That's not the message we want. We just want everybody to get on board with the way we want things taught," Gardenhire said.

Gardenhire's grievances in the final month of the season included missed cut-off men, lazy defense and poor fundamentals.

He harped on the way second baseman Dawel Lugo flipped the ball in double plays, the way Jeimer Candelario popped up on ground balls and the way outfielders lobbed the ball into the infield.

"That's really important to make sure our people in the lower minor leagues are on top of this, our staff guys," Gardenhire said. "Believe me, the farm director is on top of it. Littlefield gets it. He knows it. Al has talked about it. Our people have to be better in the minor leagues. They have to pound it in or we're going to find new people. He's told me that. He's made that clear. And he's going to make it clear down in these meetings in Florida."

It's worth noting that almost none of the players who drew Gardenhire's ire in the final month of the season came up in the Tigers' system.

Indeed, for most of those players, their primary exposure to the Tigers organization was in Triple-A Toledo, a team managed by Doug Mientkiewicz, who was hired on Gardenhire's recommendation.

But the Tigers will eventually have more prospects arriving in Detroit after an extended stay in the minor-league system. Gardenhire would like those players to already be indoctrinated in a consistent philosophy, from teenagers in the Dominican Summer League to the big-leagues.

"It's about making them understand what we want to do up here, so when they get here they're prepared for what we do for here and our routines and what we expect," Gardenhire said. "And that's just starting it from the ground up. Our expectations are for them to be able to hit a cut-off man. For a second baseman to know how to feed the ball to second base. So it starts down there and by the time they get here, you get almost the finished product of a player. They're ready to handle it because they've been through it at every level."

The Tigers already have an organizational blueprint dubbed "the Tiger Way" that informs their developmental system. But Avila said it's always ripe for revision and he's eager for Gardenhire to leave his imprint.

"That Tigers Way of baseball is a book that's ever-changing and being renewed every year as we get new ideas and test things out and find out what's worked and what doesn't," Avila said. "We need to clean some things up and get better. Our Major League coaches will be (in Lakeland today) and they are going to be involved in giving their opinions as far as what we want accomplished there. It's something that you start from the rookie leagues on up and build that winning culture and teach baseball the right way."

Gardenhire said he wants to start seeing more consequences for players who don't adhere to that "right way."

"Running a ball out should be the easiest thing. It takes no talent in the world to do that," Gardenhire said. "But (a policy) should be in place down there where they get jerked out of a ballgame if they don't run it out, so by the time they get here they understand that's the way it's going to happen in the big leagues. All the minor-leaguers need to hear that and know that. It sounds silly, but it's the way you're supposed to play. We want it to be pounded into them, right from when they get into this organization, how they play this game."