Leaderboard

Fans: spend money good! Fans two years into a contract: why did you spend that money? We are stuck with this guy in the lineup? What a stupid move.

By the way, I just now looked it up, and for the last 28 days, Jeimer is slashing .183/.253/.390 for an OPS+ of 71. So … maybe not 2/20 plus option after all … 😁

if we can stay even close to this healthy for any period of time we will be in great shape.

So how come you hated Candelario? 🤣🤣

was mentioned earlier, but Malloy and Keith don't need to be added to the 40 this winter, so in (I assume) April 2024 they will be added to the 40 and 26 man rosters and come North. the tigers have at least a rational reason (defense) to keep them at Toledo now. that gives Harris two 40 man roster spots to churn all Winter.

Cabrera

Nevin and Lipcius can play part time. Malloy and Keith need full time work in AAA.

I can tell you right now that if, for instance, the ERod thing had happened on Avila's watch, I probably would have had the same reaction. And I feel the record, much of it spent being lumped on with the hardcore Avila slappies, would back that up. Perhaps some of us just aren't hung up on "blame" more than trying to assess what actually happened, I don't know. I can't speak for others, but that's how I tried to approach the Avila era, and that is how I am trying to approach Harris.

I spent practically every day of the first six weeks of the offseason advocating for his return!

It may or may not be their fault, meaning of their own doing, but it is 100% their responsibility.

I don't care about no Bayesians. This is the USA.

I read he may have been injured but not seeing it other than some tweets so no sure the validity

I think it depends on what you define as a 'streak'. I look at it primarily on a daily basis. There are days when a hitter isn't missing anything or a pitcher has pin point control and that often tends to hold through the individual game. Once the sun comes up again, I would agree. The day is the basic boundary for highs and lows. You can also apply a little observation. A guy that is 2/4 and has barreled up all four is not the same situation as the guy who is 4/4 on one hard hit and 3 seeing eye grounders. So if the research doesn't dive in to the story behind the gross results, I'm not sure if it's as determinative as I would want. You would have to separate BaBIP luck out. My basic beef is with managers who are paying attention to the game they see in front of them when it doesn't agree with their preconceived notions of probability. Plus from the other side, any hitter will tell you he is not the same guy everyday (except for maybe Cabrera at his peak).

The problem is that these states end as quickly as they begin. A player on a hot streak will only continue to hit until he is no longer hot and that can happen in his next at bat. Tango, et al showed in The Book that being on a hot or cold streak has little predictive value. Players have a strong propensity to hit at their norms regardless of their recent past. Now, if the manager actually sees a real change and thinks it can continue, I guess he can roll with the hot streak. In general though, a hot streak is not indicative of a changed man. I didn't watch the game today, but I assume he was removed for a lefty? How many of his previous 7 hits were against lefties?

what frosts me about it is that is a fundamental misuse of statistics and statistical theory. When a guy goes 7/8, he is not the guy your season stats say he is, he is a guy who is seeing the ball unusually well and you are perfectly justified in riding his hot hand. The idea that every player always represents the same sample population is a total fallacy. They are on average, but only on average. In any specific instance, a human being may be passing through any of various states of being/emotion/health/*performance*.

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.

Smartest guy in the stadium syndrome.

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.

He did have a real excess weakness for switch hitters, to the point where he pretty much ignored the fact that too many of the SH he brought in couldn't actually switch hit, they just stood in the opposite batters box to take some of their outs.

I'll give you one thing that does give me pause, and that is the approach to their major league hitters. Despite the excellent results lower in the system with Malloy, Perez, Keith, Lipcius, Bigbie, Meadows, the hitters at the MLB level, with the exception of Greene, all seem to hit below their potential. They may all be terrible hitters for sure, but I'd have like to see at least a couple guys on the MLB roster make more progress. Carpenter has, but Carpenter went out of the org for his hitting coaching. Torkelson has found his power but I think he has the tools to be a better OBP guy than he is and there has been little progress for him on that front. For me it comes down to the 'control the zone' mantra. I think it is fundamentally misguided as a primary objective because it is a symptom, not a cause. There are a few hitters that get too aggressive, but in the overwhelming number of cases, guys are not trying to swing OOZ. The cause is too little decision time - stressing to guys to 'look for pitches' misses the mark IMO. They are all doing that to the best of their ability. The emphasis needs to be on how to get into an approach that allows you more time to your decision point - which is exactly what the guy Carpenter has worked with stresses. Maybe that is going on in the background, but I find their public statements on the team's approach to hitting to be unlikely to yield much result.

Harris is rescuing guys, and we had to let a bunch of guys go, and a bunch more will go this winter.

I see him as a s**t talker who usually backs up his s**t talk, but I get how people can be turned off by his personality. That said, if being a self-centered ass is disqualifying, then probably 80% of D-1 coaches gotta go! As for kicking out half the roster of a 1-11 team, so what? I'm not gonna hold it against a guy for taking advantage of the rules available to him to improve his roster. They were 1-11 for a reason.

Feel free to question him all you want. It doesn't mean we're all obliged to agree with you in every case. I'd suggest your position on this is the majority one as well and the rest of us are the ones pushing back on the conventional wisdom that Scott Harris is 100% to blame for how everything went down wrt ERod.

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

It's nice to see Tork getting hot again.

Don't bash me for saying this, but... Pounding a team in the first inning like this (can't we do this every game please?)... Brings back echoes of 1984...

I like the old days as much as the next guy, but I’m glad they don’t do the silent treatment for rookie homers anymore. That was nonsense.

Hope to be proven wrong, but Nevin never seems to hit in the MLB when given a chance.

Must win! If we lose this we need to blow it all up and start over.

Agreed. Even all variables aside coming into this specific game, the first few games of every season is a crapshoot while teams figure stuff out and get into the groove. Even if you think the Chiefs are heads-and-shoulders above the Lions (I don’t), worse teams beat better teams all the time in week one. Last year, the Bears beat the 49ers, the Steelers beat the Bengals, the Commies beat the Jaguars, and the Bucs held the Cowboys to 3 points. None of those would be expected in a vacuum, but week one always has unexpected outcomes.