Detroit Tigers Thread: Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by Celemo, Apr 9, 2015.

  1. Vinegar Strokes

    Vinegar Strokes Fire Izzo
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    Baez might go down as worst contract in franchise history.
     
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  2. smeegsgreen

    smeegsgreen Big fan of Koalas
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    Leads the league in errors with 21.

    He doesn’t even look like a MLB player at the plate.
     
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  3. smeegsgreen

    smeegsgreen Big fan of Koalas
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    E-Rod great outing today. 4 IP 5 ER hell yeah
     
  4. Vinegar Strokes

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    Rays had to have known of this.

     
  5. Constant

    Constant Meh
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    The Tigers have broken you... why should he have not broken as well?
     
  6. spartanchuck

    spartanchuck Well-Known Member

    I’ve been going to therapy
     
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  7. Vinegar Strokes

    Vinegar Strokes Fire Izzo
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    I cancelled my therapy sessions when Avila was fired.
     
  8. Vinegar Strokes

    Vinegar Strokes Fire Izzo
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    Yeah no thanks. This guy should never have front office job after trading Scherzer for nothing.

     
  9. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    Byrnes hired Hinch twice and has worked for the Dodgers for almost a decade now. Avila put all his chips in on trying to copy anything he could from the Dodgers and then Hinch being able to mask the rest. Considering Ilitch knows nothing about anything, Byrnes has always been the most likely hire unless he didn't want the gig, IMO.

    The scarier part is the other two people Henning mentioned in the article that's pulling from are Sam Menzin (internal analytics guy) and Matt Slater, a no-name front office guy from the Cardinals. That's not an inspiring list.
     
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  10. Vinegar Strokes

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    Makes no sense hiring somebody this month. I would wait it out and see if the Yankees fire Brian Cashman.
     
  11. smeegsgreen

    smeegsgreen Big fan of Koalas
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    Hell yeah e-rod 3 homers in 2 IP.
     
  12. Vinegar Strokes

    Vinegar Strokes Fire Izzo
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    We heard all off-season how Hinch had a big impact in bringing in this free agent class. They all fucking sucks.

    Hinch needs to be fired after the season.
     
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  13. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    We hit 4 HR today, which seems like it doubled our total for the year at the rate we hit them.
     
  14. smeegsgreen

    smeegsgreen Big fan of Koalas
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    Shut out for the 21st time this season
     
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  15. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    Looking at our MLBpipeline top 30 or whatever, it's kind of funny how Avila got fired in a year where a lot of our minor league guys actually performed reasonably well. Some of them actually took some pretty big steps forward or at least got better as the season progressed.

    I'm not saying we've got a system filled with top 100 guys, but it does make me wonder if some of the changes they made last offseason (like Garko as head of development) maybe actually worked to some degree in the minors.
     
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  16. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    For example, as much as people made fun of Parker Meadows at the start of the year after finally getting to AA, he had a 124 wRC+ there with 16 HR, 42 extra base hits, and shattered his previous career marks in BB% and K%.

    I have no clue if he's actually a prospect now of if this is the height of his career, but I would have laughed at anyone who would have predicted that guy would basically slash .275/.350/.475 in AA while chopping his K% by more than 7% over last year.
     
  17. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    Looking at more stat lines from prospects...

    • Christian Santana has a weird stat profile this year, but he's got a 123 wRC+ as an 18-year-old in A ball, which is really good.
    • Colt Keith has a small sample because he got hurt, but he's at least a borderline top 100 guy at this point with a 150 wRC+ at age 20 in A+.
    • Roberto Campos (103 wRC+) and Manuel Sequera (97 wRC+) held their own in A ball as 19 year olds.
    • Izaac Pacheco had a 116 wRC+ with a reasonable K rate at age 19 in A ball before getting called up to A+ ball and scuffling the last 3 weeks.
    • Gage Workman and Trei Cruz were 2020 draftees who were basically dead coming into the year but showed some signs of life in the second half of the year at Erie.
    I'm not really all in on any of those guys, but I'm intrigued by Santana and Keith is interesting if the power increase this year was real or just a small sample fluke.
     
  18. Vinegar Strokes

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  19. DeToxRox

    DeToxRox Uncle T
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    So do we really expect to have a GM by the end of the month? I lean yes, because it’s the dumbest possible thing Illitch could do.
     
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  20. Vinegar Strokes

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    That cocksucker Lynn Henning has been saying that for few weeks now.

    I’m prepared to be underwhelmed by the hire
     
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  21. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    If we've been able to interview all the people now that we would want to interview in October, I don't really see a huge issue with hiring someone soon. I guess that's unless you're one of those people who think Cashman or some other sitting GM who might get fired would come here (I am not).

    If we can't interview good candidates until their seasons are over, and we hire someone before that happens, then it's really stupid. I'm just kind of confused to whether that has been the case.
     
  22. DeToxRox

    DeToxRox Uncle T
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  23. DeToxRox

    DeToxRox Uncle T
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  24. DeToxRox

    DeToxRox Uncle T
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    So Chris did good? Is this bizarre world?
     
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  25. smeegsgreen

    smeegsgreen Big fan of Koalas
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    Thank god it wasn’t Mezein (sp)
     
  26. Vinegar Strokes

    Vinegar Strokes Fire Izzo
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    Hell yeah.

    And eat shit Lynn Henning. This guy wasn’t even on your list. Haha
     
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  27. DeToxRox

    DeToxRox Uncle T
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    tweet at him, Vin
     
  28. Vinegar Strokes

    Vinegar Strokes Fire Izzo
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    Unfortunately I’m blocked, and don’t want to create another burner .
     
  29. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    Lynn G. Henning @Lynn_Henning · Follow Scott Harris a bit of a surprise during these most-secretive Tigers GM talks. But his age, smarts, experience, and track record will be a hit with Detroit's fandom, which wanted a guy of this vintage and with his credentials. 3:29 PM · Sep 19, 2022
     
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  30. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    Sorry, I thought you meant you couldn't read his tweet.
     
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  31. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    I'm confused how we can just hire the Giants' GM before the season ends, but I guess I'll take it :idk:

    Curious if we're also hiring an outside guy as GM, or if we're going to give that role to Menzin or another in-house guy.
     
  32. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    I bet Harris is a fancy-titled GM.
     
  33. Vinegar Strokes

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    We gave him a promotion, so we can hire him.
     
  34. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    I get that it's a promotion, but so is an NFL team hiring a GM or coach. They still have to wait until after the season.

    If this is happening then it's clearly legal. I'm just saying its apparent legality is kind of stupid to me.
     
  35. DeToxRox

    DeToxRox Uncle T
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    I am guessing SF allowed it because they aren’t going to the playoffs and wanted to do right by the guy.
     
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  36. DeToxRox

    DeToxRox Uncle T
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  37. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    I meant Harris isn't going to have a separate GM. He's the GM.
     
  38. ~ taylor ~

    ~ taylor ~ Well-Known Member
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    I don't think baseball even has those promotion rules in the front office. Teams turn down other teams from talking to their execs all the time.
     
  39. DeToxRox

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    Hinch being featured in the release sure is something. To be clear, I don’t dislike Hinch, but it seems crazy for him to be a part of this process (which I strongly assume he has been)
     
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  40. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    He's going to be the main decision maker. Hiring someone as a GM is just a way to poach a highly regarded guy with a lesser title from another org. It's how the Giants hired Harris in 2019.
     
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  41. Vinegar Strokes

    Vinegar Strokes Fire Izzo
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    Fuck Hinch. He wanted Baez and Rodriguez. I hope this Harris kid fires his ass, and DFAs Miggy.
     
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  42. DeToxRox

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  43. Vinegar Strokes

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    I wouldn’t read too much into it. This Harris guy was the Giants GM, and was not involved in any decision making. He was basically like Avila, when he worked with Dumbrowski.

    Harris will be the decision maker. I could see them hiring someone like Menzin as the de facto GM.
     
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  44. Vinegar Strokes

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    Athletic article on Harris


    The news came Monday afternoon, seemingly out of nowhere. The Tigers’ search for a new leader is complete. They have hired Scott Harris — formerly the general manager of the San Francisco Giants — as their president of baseball operations.

    Harris will be formally introduced at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in Detroit.

    We will be talking about Harris for the rest of this season and likely all fall and winter, too. For now, a few scattered thoughts on the hire and where the Tigers go from here.

    Initial reaction
    On paper, this seems like a good hire. Keyword, of course, is “seems.” Harris checks all the boxes for what the Tigers were seeking in a general manager: Creative, ambitious, a history of working in winning front offices, an aptitude for analytics and player development. That said, Harris is 35, still very young in the game. He has worked under executives such as Theo Epstein with the Cubs and Farhan Zaidi with the Giants. Harris has no obvious connection to manager A.J. Hinch, so there can be no accusations of the Tigers simply hiring a friend of the manager. In an ideal world, Harris and Hinch can form a new partnership to help drive the Tigers forward.

    One league source gave a simple review of the hire: “A-plus.”

    His background
    Harris was an intern with the Nationals in 2008 and the Reds in 2010. He then spent two years working for MLB as coordinator of major league operations. Per Harris’ Giants bio, his time with MLB included work doing “transaction support and analysis to all 30 clubs and … the First-Year Player Draft, the Rule 5 Draft, the World Baseball Classic and various industry studies.”

    Harris joined the Cubs front office at only 25 years old as director of baseball operations. He was elevated to assistant GM in 2018. In Chicago, Harris worked “assisting in all potential player acquisitions, contract and trade negotiations, and player evaluations while overseeing several departments including research and development and high performance.”

    That work in R&D and high performance (basically biomechanics and sports science) likely made Harris highly attractive to the Tigers.

    The education of Scott Harris
    The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma wrote a great profile of Harris in 2018. One telling anecdote: Harris — who has an economics degree from UCLA — spent one spring training taking a red-eye flight every Saturday from Phoenix to Chicago. He was taking weekend business school classes at Northwestern, and he would return to Arizona on Sunday red-eyes to resume his work with the Cubs.

    “He’s really bright and a really hard worker,” Epstein said at the time. “He has a strong, well-rounded executive background. But you wouldn’t know by hanging around him. He’s not one of these guys telling you where he got his degree, that he went to business school, that he worked in the commissioner’s office, that he knows the rules better than you.

    “He’s really easy to get along with, people like being around him and he just makes the group better by being a great team player. That’s super important. And it goes a long way. Especially if you’re going to move fast at a young age. People can be jealous of that and look for ways for you to piss them off. But it’s hard to find a way for Scott Harris to piss anyone off.”

    Read the rest of Sharma’s profile here.

    Here’s another in-depth (and hilarious) interview with Harris from The Athletic’s Jon Greenberg in 2017. In addition to being a savvy baseball mind, Harris is the guy Epstein had eating cake in the executive box, hoping to help spark a Cubs’ rally during their 2016 run.

    [​IMG]
    (John Richards / Pitch Talks)
    What has he done?
    It’s always hard to know exactly what you’re getting in a first-time PBO. Giving the up-and-comer a chance is the way superstars such as Jon Daniels and Epstein made their marks in the game. Everyone has to start somewhere. So far, it has worked well for the likes of Zaidi, who previously worked under Andrew Friedman in Los Angeles.

    Harris has pretty much everything you could want on paper — experience building a World Series winner in Chicago, a grasp of analytics and player development, and experience in another forward-thinking front office. But what moves did he actually have his fingerprints on? Hard to say from the outside. Whereas another rumored candidate in Josh Byrnes of the Dodgers would have been on his third GM job after two previous tenures that ended in his firing, Harris gets a blank slate and a chance to prove what he’s all about. He has the proper qualifications for this opportunity.

    The search process
    The Tigers ran an unusually quiet GM search, with plenty of whispers circulating but practically no firm reports of other candidates who might have been interviewed for the job. Byrnes, Dana Brown of the Braves, Matt Slater of the Cardinals and Diamondbacks special assistant Jason McLeod are among the names that came up in talks throughout the league. But Tigers CEO and chairman Chris Ilitch keeps a notoriously small circle, and the announcement of Harris on Monday was largely a surprise.

    Will there be a GM hire, too?
    This is probably the biggest unanswered question so far. It remains unclear whether the Tigers will hire someone with the title of general manager to work under Harris. In the Tigers press release, Harris was introduced as “president of baseball operations.” Note Al Avila previously had the title of “executive vice president of baseball operations and general manager.”

    As of Monday evening, it was unclear whether there is another announcement coming, but the lack of a GM title seems conspicuous. Current assistant GM Sam Menzin could be a natural fit for a promotion, or Harris could also seek to bring in his own general manager if the Tigers wish for a 1-2 setup. Such structures are increasingly prevalent in the game; Harris was the GM under Zaidi, Brandon Gomes works under Friedman in Los Angeles and Matt Arnold works under David Stearns in Milwaukee, just to name a few. But it’s just as probable that the Tigers operate without a traditional GM in title.

    Regardless of how the front office is restructured going forward (with changes in the amateur scouting department being one area to watch closely), it’s clear Harris is going to be the guy with final say in the direction of the franchise.

    (Top photo: Eric Risberg / Associated Press)
     
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  45. Thrillhouse77

    Thrillhouse77 Well-Known Member
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    Who knows buts it’s hard to see how this isn’t at least a solid hire on the surface
     
  46. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    I would like to hear some details about the search from someone in the media soon so I can convince myself this was a good process that led to this hire.

    My fear is that Ilitch is clueless and went to MLB asking for advice, and Theo told him to hire Harris. That might end up working, but that's also not good process.
     
  47. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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  48. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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  49. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    I'm a fan of the quotes Harris is giving at this presser. Seems like the beat writers I follow are liking it. We'll see what the follow through is. Does sound like he's someone who is going to be far more active on the margins in terms of player moves than Avila was, both based on his background and the quotes.
     
  50. MG2

    MG2 I like to give away joy for free
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    At the very least, if Ilitch decided going in that he wanted to hire the anti-Avila, the quotes Harris is giving is painting him in that light. All of it is basically the opposite of everything Avila did.