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Front office personnel: A+. Came in and cleaned house on the amateur scouting/draft front as well as the training front. Way overdue. Reports have indicated alignment throughout the organization, which may have been the "je ne sas quoi" that was missing in the Avila era. This is partially incomplete, as usually this building bleeds into the second offseason hiring period, which may be where that "GM" role gets filled. Player development: A+. Players are by-and-large getting better, both at the big league and minor league level. The minor league system is healthy, and NP's are becoming prospects. Player acquisition: A. A lot more good than bad here. People will point to Maton being a flop or the flubbing of the Rodriguez deal, but across the board there has been positive arbitrage this year. Even very minor trades like Davis for Allen, Lockhart for cash, Leonard for cash may pay dividends. I like the willingness to scour the waiver wire, even if most of the acquisitions on that front come up empty. Draft: A. Mostly incomplete, but I like the different approach after too many years of the Chadd/Pleis stubborn, uncreative mess. Overall an A so far.

I mean I am just shocked this is the first time this has come up. 😅

Grade is really incomplete at this point, but I'll give him a B-(with C being average) Positives - Seems to be genuinely analytics driven especially in staffing seems to work tirelessly in an effort find hidden gems. It sounds as if he had a great draft (according to experts), but there are so many unknowns there Player development went well his first year, altough hard to know how much of it was him. Negatives - I was hoping he'd take more chances in free agency/ trades regarding hitters. Somebody has to say it...Should have kept Candelario Failure to trade Rodriguez at deadline. I know there is a lot of blame being thrown around, but I think he has to own it. Overall, he seems a bit tentative in making big moves. That is excusable with a new team to evaluate, but it's something to watch going forward.

Front office personnel: I'll be honest in saying that I don't know the ins-and-outs of the front office personnel like Ed does, but it does appear from the outside that each level seems a lot more in-sync with each other than at times in the past. Some of that transition did start during the Avila era, but Harris has his fingerprints all over this as well. I would also add a comment about AJ Hinch in here - he seems bought into this new approach in a way that he didn't seem be as much during Avila. Contrary to some occasional social media commentary about there being daylight between Harris/Hinch, I have seen little actual evidence this is the case as well. A PD: Lets take a trip down memory lane to.... February 2023 (around 6 months ago). The Keith Law's/Pipelines/Kiley McDaniels were all releasing their collective rankings of the farm system, and Tigers fans were losing their collective ****s over the results. The farm system sucks, it'll take years to fix this, the Tigers are hopeless, yada yada yada. Fast forward to current day, MLB Pipeline has them at 13 (up from 25), Kiley McDaniel also has them at 13 (up from 21).... I don't believe Keith Law has done a rerank thus far, but some Tigers prospects have risen in his top rankings and he has suggested some complementary things about the Tigers system.The usual caveats about farm system rankings being stupid apply, but it does suggest a pretty significant improvement regardless. Does this org still have a long way to go? Yes. Are there problems that need to be addressed? Sure. But having said all that, I don't know how you can look at the results over the past six months and not see that as a smashing success for PD for this new regime. A+ Player Acquisition: Probably the one area where some improvement may be needed.... Harris gets graded overly harsh by the "smartest guys in the room" on Tigers Twitter in this category and, partially, I think he gets dinged a lot because a lot of his successes have come from the deals that don't get a ton of fanfare, as Ed suggests. He has managed to bring a few guys on cash deals that have helped prop up the farm system and are guys that, theoretically, could wear a Tigers uniform at some point down the line. Eddys Leonard is probably the best example... for whatever came of the ERod deal falling apart, that's a pretty solid consolation prize. Zach McKinstry as well.... not a franchise altering deal, but he's been a useful pickup regardless. As far as the trades and free agency are concerned, I'm mostly fine with the trades.... Maton has not played out as expected, but in terms of value, I think he received back a fair value for an inconsistent reliever with control issues. And I do believe that a number of Tiger fans, when evaluating this particular deal (or exhibit their frustrations with the players acquired) probably overvalue Gregory Soto juuuuuuusssst a little bit. The Jimenez trade was pretty good... Malloy has defensive issues, but at the very least, he seems like a player that could provide some value with the bat at the ML level. Again, not bad for a reliever who, up until last year, really hadn't found Jesus on the mound. The ERod trade falling apart wasn't great and he bears some responsibility. Letting Candy walk was fine, no, they didn't need to keep him.... the bigger issue was the lack of viable replacement. If I had to pick one thing to criticize, it would be that, it was a risk that didn't work out. As far as the waiver wire is concerned, I don't how people criticize Harris over this stuff... sure, they haven't all worked out, but for as much as we heard regret over not resigning Andrew Chafin on this board earlier in the season, they basically found his replacement (Tyler Holton) on the waiver wire. No org is gonna hit 100% of the time on this stuff, but even hitting on a couple of these can help.... pretty satisfied here. B Draft: It's too early to really say, but the difference in approach was apparent. Additionally, it's been nice to see the org be a little more aggressive with these new kids and getting them playing early. INC I would love to submit an additional category for judgment: Tigers Social Media During Scott Harris' first year. Harris inherited a mess all around with this organization. Farm system was in rough shape, very little positive to say, it was common, it not expected, for this team to finish high 90s/100s for losses. And a few months later, the organization is probably in better shape that it has been in a long time.... in the case of the farm system, it's possible that it's a better and more sustainable farm that it has been in my lifetime even. Despite all of that, despite the fact that they are beating the low expectations set for them at the outset of the season, I get the impression that a lot of folks think Harris is doing a terrible job or think he should be run out of town. And it's sort of ridiculous. I get the disappointment after the ERod trade fell through or the fact that the Candelario decision didn't work out.... I also get the urge to just promote Colt Keith as fast as possible (certain folks with podcasts were ready to promote him after 80 ABs in Erie this year, iirc), but I also think that we've seen examples in the past of guys getting promoted too fast or before they are ready (ie. Spencer Torkelson) and how hard that pressure can be on those players. I understand that this fanbase is jaded after years of bad teams, but the way that the outward, social media portion of the fanbase has treated this first year isn't far removed from the "Jeff Riger" or "Mad Dog Russo" style of shock jock commentary that brings out the worst in sports fans. And given the results on the field and the marked improvement, it's completely unwarranted. D-

He did me a favor once. Big Country came into our station in Georgia in 1993. We needed a couple of extra mics for their performance so I went into the Prod Studio and grabbed a mic, including the mic arm and I grabbed it where the springs are and got the palm of my hand stuck in the springs and it hurt like hell and folks were scrambling to find a screw driver and Stuart just walked up and said "sorry about this" put his hand on my shoulder and with his other hand just yanked it off my hand. It didn't hurt all that much when he did it. Not like I thought it would. He said "that's the only way it was coming off..........I've done it too". It left a bruise and he signed my bruise with a sharpie.

Per "The Book," small sample hot streaks for hitters tend to be not-very-predictive because a lot of times it comes in multiple plate appearances against the same pitcher. Thus, the hot streak could be a result of a pitcher being a particularly good match-up, poor quality, etc. Were any of those 8 PA's against a LHP? A batter versus a RHP is not the same batter as one against the LHP, particularly a left-handed batter.

Lange really tried to blow it but the WSox are SO bad....

Tork’s 25th home run pulls him into a tie for 25th in MLB. I believe he is in the top 4 or 5 among players under 25.

Yeah, but then you mess up and name him Bennet. At least go by Ben, or Bennie. 🤨

Bennett Sousa is why you want your son to be a lefty.

Harbaugh is a weird idiosyncratic dude. [deleted entire political point that ran several paragraphs of problematic appreciation for his weird idiosyncrasies]

Incomplete. It's very difficult to separate Avila successes and failures from any analysis of Harris. A vast majority of the major and minor league players and coaches and staff are Avila's guys. Harris has a few clear, but not crippling, self-inflicted hits: Candelario let go to save $2M with no one lined up to replace him; losing Chafin over money and then downgrading to Schreve; bringing back an obviously cooked Schoop; whatever part of the ERod fail that falls to him. The transactions he has actually made have all generally made sense, both from a big plan perspective and a talent perspective. What I wanted from him was more moves. And that is what I want this Winter. Doing just a handful of transactions this Winter would be hugely disappointing. But I suspect he is going to use 2024 to fold in Meadows, Keith, Malloy and others, and ignore acquiring establish hitters. And that will mean a lot of growing pains. Yet again.

I would say this: If Harris's development team can coax out major steps forward for Roberto Campos & Christian Santana and Josue Briceno (I'll add Dingler in here too, and maybe even Trei Cruz)... Then I am giving MAJOR props to both Avila for selecting those guys and Harris for developing those guys... IMO.

He also got many other players that are being billed as parts of the team's future - Skubal, Manning, Mize, Parker Meadows, Keith, Rogers, Jung. Jobe, Madden, Flores.

He also picked Parker Meadows, Colt Keith, Bigbie, Wenceel Perez, etc... Those guys have had some ups and downs... But Avila picked them. I like a LOT of players that Avila picked. But I feel more comfortable with Harris's development team with those and any of our minor league guys (picked by Avila OR Harris). Hands down.

While we have learned more since the ERod trade crashed and burned, we never actually got the black box to know fully what happened, and where blame should fall. Without that knowledge I am fine with assigning a good deal of blame to Harris, but well short of calling it his failure. Maybe it will be revealed later, should ERod opt out.

Rodriguez was not Friedman's player. I wouldn't expect him to have much control over it. If the same thing happened to Avila, there would have been no excuses. Everyone would have been laughing at him.

I am satisfied with Torkelson's progress this year, but he still has a long way to go. He still doesn't hit enough for a first baseman, especially one who is a sub-par defender. He needs to get on base more.

It’s been brought up before that Avila had a reasonably good plan, just failed to execute much of it very well. So there were changes that took steps in the direction we now see, but lots of stumbles, or poor judgement. Trades especially.

His grade is mostly incomplete because many of the moves he has made have longer term payoffs than just now. The cleaning house is probably the most substantial thing he has done, plus the rescuing of former prospects who were in danger of no longer being considered prospects but who are now once again considered prospects. Those are probably his most impressive concrete accomplishments so far. I believe the decision-sciences aspect of running a team, the part which made Avila go “huh?!”, is part and parcel of the cleaning house because this is where that aspect would have had any real impact by this time. We will get more insights into how analytics impacts trades, free agent signings, etc., but that’s really incomplete as of now. I don’t think he has gotten any real chance to make an impactful free agent pickup because last winter Detroit was not in a position of being a desirable location with a team built to win now, and we almost certainly won’t be that this winter, either. So the idea of picking up a Matt Chapman-level guy—which a lot of fans are demanding to see even with a substantial overpay—isn’t on the table yet. The trades he has made so far have shown some promise, but it’s still too early to call, even with Maton, who everyone here is writing off but actually who had better numbers in the second half than Vierling (and who is killing it at Toledo now). The waiver wire pickups have already skunked Avila’s record with his pickup of Tyler Holton alone, and even Andy Ibanez has given us some positive results at times. But teams don’t build winning rosters with only waiver wire picks and minor league free agents—those more like round roaters out that way. I think Harris has potential on this front in the future. The draft looked pretty good but again, the grade on that is also incomplete. I’m with Oblong, the hiring of a GM is pretty more cosmetic than people would think. It’s not as though Harris will kick himself upstairs completely when he does so. Two things mentioned here, failing to keep Jeimer and to trade Rodriguez, are things he has to take responsibility for because of his position, but I think both of them might have been more out of his control than people believe. Overall, the report card is still incomplete, but I do think that he is trending strongly toward getting a solid A. I think we probably should have the ability to give him a solid grade a couple of years from now.

Not to revisit this conversation / debate again, but it bears repeating that there's really no getting around having parties take each other at their word when dealing with a no-trade clause. It's a leap of faith that literally any GM/PBO in that situation would have to take, regardless of the player or teams involved That's the thing that makes it hard for me to stick it all on him...

he did get lot harder to root for after that AFLAC commercial....

Get rid of David Chadd...A++++. Get rid of Kevin Rand...A++. Get rid of Willi and Harold, A. Sign Lorenzen and flip him, A+. Acquire an on-base freak like Malloy, A. Draft the 2023 Tigers draft, A.

Screw that, the heavy bomber thread. The Lancaster, with 4 Rolls-Royce Merlins.

B + Happy with mostly everything. Great Draft. Developmental gains. Not rushing players to the show prematurely. Looks under every rock. Taking time to properly evaluate all the inherited personnel. Good trades and free agent signings. The Erod trade was probably a good trade that got spoiled with no fault of his own other than trust which was misplaced so a small error all the same. Didn't fill third base. For the first year I think he has made a good impression but the honeymoon is now over. Big off season ahead.

30 doubles for Tork! Remember when people called him a bust? Lol

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It seems like just the other day that Michigan fans were the ones really upset that Harbaugh had support of his team.