2025 Detroit Tigers General Discussion Thread

[IdahoBert]

Was there any good Tigers news today? Is the sky still breaking off in big chunks and falling to earth and are the undead still roaming the streets? I could use some good news.

[gehringer_2]

8 hours ago, 4hzglory said:

Completely agree with your first part.

 

Unless something happened this season, the 2nd isn't true as he was out telling others how great his time was here and how he was so glad to come back (at what appeared a team friendly deal).

IIRC, didn't Hinch take him to task a little in a presser last month? I suppose that might have ticked him off but that seems like quite a stretch. But that's the only thing I can come up with.

[Sports_Freak]

On 9/3/2025 at 9:12 AM, CaliforniaDreaming said:

I wish there was a bit more of the "chaos" still being used. I'm a big fan of the opener strategy, especially now that there is an extra arm in the bullpen. I wish most of our struggling starters (like anyone not named Skubal) had an opener pitch before them.

Start the bullpen arms. That way we have more time to catch up.

[4hzglory]

Sewald with an scoreless innings in WM tonight.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, IdahoBert said:

Was there any good Tigers news today? Is the sky still breaking off in big chunks and falling to earth and are the undead still roaming the streets? I could use some good news.

Meadows with a double and run scored for the Hens.

Best I can do.

[Edman85]

Astros are losing - bye lead would grow. Magic number shrunk by one when Cleveland lost.

 

That's good news.

[lordstanley]

Astros lose! Thank you, Yankees. 

[chasfh]

21 hours ago, 4hzglory said:

Completely agree with your first part.

 

Unless something happened this season, the 2nd isn't true as he was out telling others how great his time was here and how he was so glad to come back (at what appeared a team friendly deal).

A lot has happened on the mound this season for Flaherty that didn't last season, so who knows how he's feeling about being a Tiger and whether it's any different from last year. It's only a hypothesis, anyway.

[chasfh]

13 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

IIRC, didn't Hinch take him to task a little in a presser last month? I suppose that might have ticked him off but that seems like quite a stretch. But that's the only thing I can come up with.

And Hinch took Javy to task a little this past week in a presser as well. Looks like he might be calling out the big money vets who are flailing. Another hypothesis: maybe those guys have been showing a little 'tude toward A.J. and the system.

[chasfh]

11 hours ago, Edman85 said:

Astros are losing - bye lead would grow. Magic number shrunk by one when Cleveland lost.

 

That's good news.

More like tragic number for Cleveland, anyway. Magic number over the Royals is still 13.

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, chasfh said:

And Hinch took Javy to task a little this past week in a presser as well. Looks like he might be calling out the big money vets who are flailing. Another hypothesis: maybe those guys have been showing a little 'tude toward A.J. and the system.

 It's great to have a system for young players, but that doesn't always work so well for vets.  I guess if the vet is performing you can let him get away with certain things.  If he's not, then it's a problem.  Torres only wants to play second base.  He's having a good season. so it's fine.  It might be a problem if he wasn't.  

[tiger2022]

I wonder if the vets respect Hinch?  

His lack of integrity and scruples with the cheating scandal and how he denied it and then apologized only because he got caught might paint him in a bad light with the veterans.  That might hurt his authority with vets wondering why they should have to follow rules, etc if their manager didn't and doesn't have to.  

[1984Echoes]

On 9/4/2025 at 9:37 AM, kdog said:

Jeff Passan article indicated that Flaherty is opting out..I found that surprising.

That would be great if true.

We could search for a more effective #2 this offseason.

Or at least I hope that's Harris's #1 priority (aside from Skubal's extension)

[chasfh]

It’s been pretty well-established that A.J. was not behind the scandal and in fact the players went around him and worked directly with the front office on it. So I can see how players who played during that time would remember that and not respect his not going down together with the players on it. The ironic this is, A.J. was the only field guy to be sanctioned for the scandal.

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

It’s been pretty well-established that A.J. was not behind the scandal and in fact the players went around him and worked directly with the front office on it. So I can see how players who played during that time would remember that and not respect his not going down together with the players on it. The ironic this is, A.J. was the only field guy to be sanctioned for the scandal.

IDK, maybe it's different in baseball because the season is so long and the guys have to live with each other in such close proximity for so long, but usually the bottom line is players respect coaches that can get them rings, and AJs done that. This doesn't feel like a team with clubhouse issues, but then again, local sports journalism has fallen to such a low level a lot more could fly under the radar than those of us from who have memories of an old world might expect.

[4hzglory]

8 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

This doesn't feel like a team with clubhouse issues, but then again, local sports journalism has fallen to such a low level a lot more could fly under the radar than those of us from who have memories of an old world might expect.

So we've gone from 1 national writer's speculation that Flaherty is going to opt-out to there are potential clubhouse issues with this team?  I'm sorry, but this is quite the stretch.  Everything we have heard from the players themselves is how tight this clubhouse is.  You hear it from Carpenter, he doesn't want to get pinch hit for, but he understands it and the team is the most important. 

 

There is zero evidence that this team has clubhouse issues.  And in reality, there isn't evidence that Passan did anything more than write what he thinks will happen rather than talking to anyone associated with Flaherty.

[Tiger337]

21 hours ago, tiger2022 said:

I wonder if the vets respect Hinch?  

His lack of integrity and scruples with the cheating scandal and how he denied it and then apologized only because he got caught might paint him in a bad light with the veterans.  That might hurt his authority with vets wondering why they should have to follow rules, etc if their manager didn't and doesn't have to.  

He wasn't behind the scandal.  It came from the front office and the players went around him.  It's still something that happened on his watch though, so it doesn't look good on his record.  One can question why he wasn't able to stop it and I think that's a fair question.  I know people are going to tell me there was nothing he can do because that's the way the heirarchy works in big business, but I will always wonder whether that would have happended under Leyland or Anderson.  That being said, it seems to me like the players respect Hinch and his system.  I haven't read or seen anything to suggest otherwise.    

[gehringer_2]

17 minutes ago, 4hzglory said:

So we've gone from 1 national writer's speculation that Flaherty is going to opt-out to there are potential clubhouse issues with this team?  I'm sorry, but this is quite the stretch.  Everything we have heard from the players themselves is how tight this clubhouse is.  You hear it from Carpenter, he doesn't want to get pinch hit for, but he understands it and the team is the most important. 

 

There is zero evidence that this team has clubhouse issues.  And in reality, there isn't evidence that Passan did anything more than write what he thinks will happen rather than talking to anyone associated with Flaherty.

To speculate a little about the obvious: There is always the possibility that an individual player, in particular one who is struggling to perform at the level he believes he should, is frustrated enough that the combination of his struggles and the human need for ego protection have driven him to transfer responsibility for his performance to factors outside himself. That's always something that can happen. You do the best you can for a guy in that situation but in the end he has to straighten himself out. Obviously some managers are better at managing people than others, but to think any manager has a set of psychological magic beans to meet every single situation is unrealistic.

I wouldn't take that kind of situation as a reflection that there is a broader clubhouse issue though or that there is some other guy out there that could have fixed said player's problem.

Edited September 6 by gehringer_2

[4hzglory]

25 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

 

I wouldn't take that kind of situation as a reflection that there is a broader clubhouse issue though or that there is some other guy out there that could have fixed said player's problem.

Exactly.  There is a major difference between "Clubhouse issues" and a frustrated player.  Obviously there will be frustrated players throughout, but to even talk about clubhouse issues with this club, all leading from Passans speculation on Flaherty opting out, is comical IMO.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

IDK, maybe it's different in baseball because the season is so long and the guys have to live with each other in such close proximity for so long, but usually the bottom line is players respect coaches that can get them rings, and AJs done that. This doesn't feel like a team with clubhouse issues, but then again, local sports journalism has fallen to such a low level a lot more could fly under the radar than those of us from who have memories of an old world might expect.

Responding only to your very narrow point here, Flaherty not Javy Baez have gotten any rings from A.J.

I'm just speculating baselessly, building on my admittedly thin hypothesis from up the page.

[chasfh]

2 hours ago, 4hzglory said:

So we've gone from 1 national writer's speculation that Flaherty is going to opt-out to there are potential clubhouse issues with this team?  I'm sorry, but this is quite the stretch.  Everything we have heard from the players themselves is how tight this clubhouse is.  You hear it from Carpenter, he doesn't want to get pinch hit for, but he understands it and the team is the most important. 

 

There is zero evidence that this team has clubhouse issues.  And in reality, there isn't evidence that Passan did anything more than write what he thinks will happen rather than talking to anyone associated with Flaherty.

You're right on all this. Carpenter is definitely on board. So are all the other young controlled guys. That said, A.J. did, in his uniquely diplomatic A.J. way, throw the two highest paid players on the team under the bus some. That's what led to my thin hypothesis, based solely on my experience living in the world, nothing more.

[4hzglory]

11 minutes ago, chasfh said:

You're right on all this. Carpenter is definitely on board. So are all the other young controlled guys. That said, A.J. did, in his uniquely diplomatic A.J. way, throw the two highest paid players on the team under the bus some. That's what led to my thin hypothesis, based solely on my experience living in the world, nothing more.

Again if anything it’s a player or 2, not clubhouse issues.  And Baez at least (of the 2) has been willing to do whatever the team asks positions wise.

[RandyMarsh]

Not sure if it was mentioned elsewhere but just saw that Cobb is officially out for the year to have hip surgery. Considering his age he may not pitch in the majors again. 

[chasfh]

37 minutes ago, RandyMarsh said:

Not sure if it was mentioned elsewhere but just saw that Cobb is officially out for the year to have hip surgery. Considering his age he may not pitch in the majors again. 

Well, at least he got good and paid on the way out.

[tiger2022]

7 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

He wasn't behind the scandal.  It came from the front office and the players went around him.  It's still something that happened on his watch though, so it doesn't look good on his record.  One can question why he wasn't able to stop it and I think that's a fair question.  I know people are going to tell me there was nothing he can do because that's the way the heirarchy works in big business, but I will always wonder whether that would have happended under Leyland or Anderson.  That being said, it seems to me like the players respect Hinch and his system.  I haven't read or seen anything to suggest otherwise.    

It's a bad look.  He lied about it and was really only sorry because he got caught.  And if he wasn't behind it, it says the players didn't really consider him important enough to matter.  I think managers really can only lose games and not win them, and are more or less interchangeable.  

Most do the same move in most situations.  I think Hinch is a pretentious d-bag, but he is really no better or worse than most of the managers of the last 15 years.  But, I thought Ausmus was basically a cookie cutter manager too.  A manager's primary responsibility is to manage the bullpen and give guys a day off when they need them.  His bullpen sucks, so most of the time it is just a roll of the dice.  My biggest complaint is the way he manages the lefty vs lefty match up.  

The thing that irked me about Gardenhire was the lineup was different everyday and players were always in different defensive positions.