All Activity

First 1/3 of the season is now complete. Tigers are one game above the Angels and Rockies for the worst record in MLB Baseball is a hard, cruel game.

It is nothing like it used to be when a hundred cars were trying to get in. 33 most years now. I don't know half the drivers or where they came from. But the race was great, and the finish was spectacular. Talk about some nads... There is a race the night before at Anderson Speedway in Indiana. The Little 500 it's called. 33 sprint cars on a 1/4 mile track for 500 laps. Wild race. Normally I can watch it be couldn't this year unless you paid. A guy named Cody Swanson won. This guy flat out dominates sprint car asphalt. Never been in the Indy - that is a travesty. I think it was Johnny Rutherford who said something like: there are more car salesman at Indy than there are race car drivers. He might be right, and that's why the field is the way it is - minus guys like Swanson.

I think a lot of Harris's major league decisions are more or less made for him by the circumstances he finds himself it. He can't sign Hall of Fame- or All-Star-level free agents if there's someplace else they'd rather go, and at this point there always is; he can't trade for controllable All-Star-level players without giving up at minimum Max Clark, the only player who could conceivably unlock such great players in trade; he can't trade for blue-chip prospects without giving up Hall of Fame- or All-Star-level players we have, of which there is one and perhaps (or perhaps not) two; and he can't simply pick up everyday regulars and above average pitchers off the waiver wire or the minor league free agent pile, or else trade our dregs for guys like that other teams will make freely available in trade, unless he gets good and lucky. All that really leaves Harris is to develop the talent we have in house already and hope it works; as well as draft good players and sign good international amateur free agents in the future, develop them, and hope that works. And if/when we get enough of those players developed and we have enough of them helping us win at the big league level, then we'll be in a better position to make trades for actual really good players as well as make Detroit a more desirable destination for actual really good free agents. Because in this game, there's no escaping it: you have to get good first before you can get a lot better. I acknowledge this mightily frustrates most of the posters here who will tell us it's not their job to know what moves Harris should make because they themselves don't work in front offices, but damn it, Harris does, so he should just make awesome moves happen. And for a fan, that's a defensible feeling, and actually, they don't even have to defend that feeling. That's part of what being a fan is all about. But just because a fan demands Harris should wave his magic wand or else find another job, that doesn't make it a reasonable benchmark by which Tigers ownership should judge Harris's performance, and thankfully, this ownership does not use that benchmark. So vent away and call for his head (and A.J.'s head) all you want, because it's not going to happen anytime soon, and I'm fine with that.

If you only pay your players for what they do in the regular season and ignore how they perform in the playoffs, don't be surprised when all you ever have is a regular season team.

The problem with getting rid of Harris is….who then replaces him? Either a retread former GM that didn’t perform well which is why they’d be available, or a new-to-role guy like Harris was to start. That would bring all different philosophies on use of analytics, drafting and scouting, etc. Do we really need a third complete overhaul in the last 20 years? Harris currently is frustrating me with the major league roster decisions, but he’s been great at focusing on building up the organization and he has done a fantastic job with the draft to this point. I’d rather give that stuff more time to bear fruit than start over on something else.

Unfortunately, the larger sample size shows pretty much 20 points 10 rebounds a game and some defensive improvements during the larger regular season sample size including an All Star and 3rd All NBA selection. I've said all along that regular season especially in the NBA doesn't really mean much because the competition is mostly tanking teams, good teams that are cruising or injured teams/load management but I'm pretty sure a lot of negotiations are based on a larger sample size of numbers which is what the regular season encompasses most of. His All Star and All NBA selections only strengthen his case. Personally, I think it's a mistake to give him the projected numbers that are being put out there but I believe if the Pistons don't somebody would. I'd rather somebody else take on that contract but I think that's highly unlikely so I'm resigned to the Pistons overpaying him.

That is the beauty of restricted free agency. I set my price, and he has the ability to go out and set the market price. If he can't, guess who set the price right. If he gets a bigger offer, we deal with it then. If we're being honest, $25 million per for a guy that played bad defense and just averaged 10 and 8 in two playoff series is pretty generous and probably overpaying him. A center who doesn't shoot from more than 3 feet from the rim had a 51% FG% for the playoffs.

Hopefully Glyber gets healthy so we can get a bag of balls for him at the deadline too. Opens up the position for someone.

If you want to trade him wouldn't seeing him perform successfully in the NHL be the biggest boost to his value you could achieve? Especially if your internal eval was that he didn't have the stamina, bring him up early in the season when had the energy, send him back for whatever reason later.

But do they have little confidence in him, and if so, are they being reasonable? Remember, as late as the all star break, Cossa was being touted as the number one prospect to watch in the AHL all star game. From the article I posted earlier in the thread: “The 2021 first-round pick is enjoying his best season as a pro and proving the patience can pay off. The Detroit Red Wings have taken the slow-and-steady approach with their 6-foot-6 goalie prospect and he’s posted a sparkling .928 save percentage while backstopping Grand Rapids to the best record in the league.” In the meantime, by the all star break Cam Talbott had accumulated a save percentage of about .885. If you are Cossa, don’t you assume you have done all you need to do in order to get a call up? Don’t you assume you could provide the NHL franchise a better option as the #2? Or at least a chance to prove it in a single start? But the call doesn’t come. I can see how it would weigh on a kid. “Don’t they believe in me? Am I doing something wrong?” Suddenly, because of the way you’ve been handled by the front office, you start to doubt yourself. I have defended Stevie in other ways but I think he has mishandled Cossa and set his development back.

For 3 years and basically in title only as he is president of baseball operations here and not GM. Giants had the same structure and Frahan Zaidi from what I read made the final and tough decisions. Only was asst GM or GM for around 4 years before being president here. Also only 35ish when he became in charge and younger than a lot of players. Yes I would say to relationship building and leadership of a baseball Organization he would be consider “Green” and that Illitch was banking on long term growth and learning when hiring him.

I have a second thought take on this as well. I had to sit through a sales training course once with my fortune 100 (pretty close to living purgatory for an engineer!). So our sales system consultant trainer is trying to set us up for a role play exercise and he starts hammering on the idea that you always have to get one more thing on the deal - so he tells us an anecdote about going out to buy a car for his daughter and from his description he's got a great deal on the table and he decides now he wants a set of floor mats thrown in. The car guy finally balks at that and our guy walks out on the deal. That's supposed to be our model - walk out on a great deal because they have to give you more no matter what. So we get to the role play and the topic in the groups was 100% "this guy is an idiot!" but that's the way people the sales world often think (think "Glengary Glenross"!). That's the world Trump comes from. Shoot yourself in the foot for your ego.

Maybe it has nothing to do with Cossa and everything to do with the Wings situation. Cossa has a higher trade value than any of their other goalies. I think they like him but desperately need some quality prospect capital to put into a deal they hopefully make this summer for a top 6 forward.

I'm wondering who wrote that tweet for him. Maybe somebody texted it to him so that he could just copy and paste? Or maybe it's that aide that's with him at strange times again.

That's ridiculous, we'll never agree that an All Star, All NBA 3rd team 22 year old center is worth $20-$25m on the open market. I'm not even a Duren fan as I've stated many times and I prefer not to have him as a Piston for north than $30m/yr and even 30 is pushing it but the numbers and accolades are there to get him big money whether we like it or not. The market you're setting for him isn't realistic.

correct. Not really implying that anyone is close to being fired, I was just arguing that I think under any hypothetical, the connection from Harris to Hinch is pretty strong.

New and Green? Wasn't he the GM for the Giants for several years before he came here? He wasn't that green.

Seems hard to understand why an athlete who's been competitive all his life would decide to take off at the objective point of his life's ambition - unless he was on the take (always has to be considered today!). I would think there has to be more to it. Pistons better figure it out though.

For those who gave all

Hinch is a well respected manager and like all managers he has strengths and faults. Is he the best at his job, probably not but is he the worst? I think the answer to that is definitely no and the players seems to want to play for him which I think in professional sports is the most underrated part of a manager. As far as Harris I personally like him a lot as he directs the organization more towards what I would do. Draft well and develop and then build from there. I do not believe this would be his route if he felt like he had a short lease or a direction from management to win right now. With that said he needs to show improvement in free agency decisions and trades. I do think that is something he can and will develop but he was so new and green coming up that relationships with agents take time to build.

I can’t think of a case where a highly touted prospect got moved or given up on without a chance at the NHL level. I wonder if things would have been different if the Wings weren’t a playoff bubble team. It’s one thing giving Svechnikov and Zadina ice time to fail, burying them with low ice time, but maybe another putting a player you have little confidence in in net.

They can still be a good organization without Harris and Hinch, but canning analytics would be suicide in this era. I don't see that Gehringer is suggesting that though.

I 100% forgot that was on and missed it. Great finish.

For me, it's mostly about his playoff performance. What he did in the regular season means nothing if he can't replicate it in the playoffs. Something else nobody is talking about, his effort issue. In the Cleveland series he had a three game stretch of 2, 4, and 5 rebounds. Your 6'10" 240 pound center had 11 total rebounds over a three game span. That isn't a skill issue, that is an effort issue.