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Riley has proved he can be. Tork is showing potential of possibly being. We don’t know what Dingler is quite yet. No one else is in that realm. So you’re right—we’re short on talent. But please remember: we are not at peak Harris Tigers. What we’re seeing right now is a bonus team. These guys weren’t supposed to get to two straight divisions series so soon. We weren’t supposed to start seriously contending until next year, and maybe even 2027, because that’s how long it takes to overhaul a major league system from scratch, which is what Harris has been charged with doing. But here we are now, way ahead of schedule. Through canny pickups by Harris and great managing by Hinch, we have gone to two straight division series. Just roll that around in your mind for a second. Now consider that we have a whole gaggle of pedigreed position players poised to descend on Detroit from our system: Kevin McGonigle. Max Clark. Josue Briceno. Thayron Liranzo. Hao-Yu Lee. Bryce Rainer. Max Anderson. They may not all make it here, and they may not all do really well once they get here, but it’s a halfway decent bet a couple of them will be All-Star level, and a couple more will be good enough to contribute to a first division team. But we’re also not limited to who comes out of the system. There are a couple other ways we could add an impact player to the team, and I think it’s fair to give Harris the chance to do so once the time is right, which is looking like perhaps this winter. We’ll see what he does, and I think we all would like to see him do something. It may not be the most obvious sexy thing, but then, we didn’t know Gleyber Torres was the sexy thing the moment we got him, either. And on top of all this, remember this as well: this team of non first-division regulars you regard us as being? This team has gone to two straight division series. Now just imagine the potential of a Tigers team that has actual first-division talent.

I agree that there are almost no scenarios in which a trade of Skubal does not make us worse next year, which is why I’m so against it. I absolutely don’t agree not trading Skubal sends us into loser limbo for the next ten years. This relates to a post I made maybe a week ago, that the Avila reign of error has really scarred the Tigers fan base. The idea that if we keep Skubal, then let him walk for nothing in free agency, that will make us terrible for ten years? That’s thinking borne of those Avlla years, because that’s exactly what would have happened under him. It’s that fatalistic thinking that we’ve gotten so used to, and perhaps a bit defensively to prevent us from giving our heart to anyone new only to see him stomp all over it with the boot of incompetence. I also don’t agree that if we do trade Skubal, we guarantee ourselves ten good years after that, because think about it: if we are willing to trade Skubal now before his walk year, why wouldn’t we be willing to trade Kevin McGonigle, or Max Clark or Troy Melton or Josue Briceno etc., before their walk years? What makes trading Skubal so unique now that we would never do so with those other players? That makes no sense to me. In the end, I promise you that if we were to trade Tarik Skubal this winter and the Tigers have a substantially worse season next year, Scott Harris would get absolutely crushed, and rightly so, for kneecapping the franchise's momentum toward perennial contention. We are no longer the 2019 Tigers. We are not in perpetual rebuilding mode. We have no interest in looking forward to any more draft lotteries. We are contenders now, and we have to act like it, and that means not trading away your Cy Young ace for a bag of magic beans. But that also means Scott Harris needs to make the moves that get us to the next step up the contention ladder next year. Pressure’s on him now, as it should be, but at least let’s give the guy a chance to deliver on that. And if he doesn’t—if he pussyfoots around, runs the same kind of team out there in 2026, and we stumble backwards because of him—then I will gladly join in the chorus of boos that rain down on him a year from today.

Honestly, it’s hard to feel bad for this maga clown https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1AF6V1ktKT/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I can’t even fathom what it must be like to get the worm in your brain and just go off the deep end. It must be something like getting hooked on meth. The wildest thing about it all is that by breathing fire at people and cheering for the worst for everybody not exactly like them, they honestly believe they are preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don’t even think they are being cynical about it all, which is the only thing that would make any logical sense, because they simply can’t see what that which they’re doing looks like from the outside. Textbook cult stuff.

It's all part of the strategy to justify the pogrom. The Nazis did the exact same thing to the Jews.

Hinch is an evil man, isn't he? 😁

That's one way of looking at it. Another way is that the best of Harris's acquisitions have yet to make the team, while the best of Avila's acquisitions are already here and close to their prime. Once the best of Harris's guys are here and close to their primes, let's revisit.

It's not news. It's candy.

I agree it's true that Tork and Riley and Dingler and Javy, all Avila acquisitions, were instrumental in getting us to the playoffs. It is also true that they are all flawed when it comes to walk rates and/or strikeout rates, and I believe they brought those flaws with them into the system—rather than being coached into those flaws—and that's what everyone seems to be complaining about, especially the strikeout rates. There might be room for one or more of these guys on the peak Harris Tigers. Or maybe not. It's not as though any of them have shown that they are slam-dunk perennial All-Stars, even Riley, who's probably the closest of them. It's possible none of them are on the team any longer by 2029. This remains to be seen. One of the key takeaways from my post was intended to be that firing the hitting coaches is probably not an action item this winter, nor should it be.

I'm conceding nothing of the sort. I would concede that players are not jelly that can be molded into anything coaches want. Coaches can help players get the best out of their talents, but they can't give players brand new talents.

I must hypothesize again that there is a talent issue here, specifically Avila players vs Harris players, vs it being a coaching issue. You may remember this post of mine: I which I showed that when it came to controlling the zone this season, the Harris players in aggregate were among the best in baseball, and the Avila players were among the worst. But you may be surprised to learn that the end-of-season collapse was not the same for each group, and if we isolate September, we see there was almost no change at all for the Harris players, while it was the Avila players that ended up tripping all over themselves: Full Season Team Avila Harris PAs 6093 3997 2096 BB% rate 8.4% 7.4% 10.3% K% rate 23.9% 25.5% 20.8% wOBA .317 .318 .315 wRC+ 103 103 101 Sept Only Team Avila Harris PAs 911 632 279 BB% rate 9.0% 7.8% 11.8% K% rate 26.2% 28.0% 22.2% wOBA .294 .286 .313 wRC+ 87 82 100 So I gotta continue to believe that the hitting coaching is not the issue, and that the more Harris turns over the roster to be more players he acquires, the better overall results at the plate we will see.

I'm guessing there's a generational thing at play here.

I don’t know who Christopher Kline is, but seeing from his bio that he specializes in the NBA Draft, pinch on salt applies here. That said, I don’t see how any of these deals do not make us worse next year.

What a powerful message it would send if they could get 12 million showing up for one of these during January.

Anderson has been picking up some reps at third and he’s been pretty good at it.

Honestly, I’m surprised there’s any money at all in making a Monopoly version for the 128th largest city in the country.

Yabba dabba don’t.

I think it’s a done deal Flaherty opts out of his $20MM next year because at worst, he gets a QO of probably around $22MM. The question would then be whether he takes that. I say he doesn’t, because everyone can see the numbers under the hood are better than his topline numbers. He can do better in the marketplace. I’m gonna say 3/70 for him. I’m not saying he’s necessarily worth that, but pitching is getting expensive, plus he’s a horse and gives you innings.

And this is not a dig at our new friend here—by the way, welcome aboard, @This is the year—but nearly everyone who puts together a projected roster for the following season invariably makes it up as being 90% to 100% whoever’s in the system today. It’s nearly impossible to imagine all the new players the front office might pick up over the winter. The 2025 opening day roster contained five new players.

By the way, you’re doing it wrong. Doxxing that teacher here’s not gonna do anything.

They want us dead.

I’m guessing that we will have a lot more players coming in from outside the system than just the one each year.

I’m out of reactions today, but, Thanks.

I don’t think Tucker gets ten years given his down-ish year and missing a month with injury. Seven sounds about right.

I’m out of reactions for the day, but, Like.