Cody Stavenhagen questions where the Tigers leadership is at this moment with Kieren Steckley adding a good rebuttal to AJ Hinch’s mantra of focusing on the next game ahead, “If you *shit* the bed this week you don’t get to play tomorrow, metaphorically. You have to sit on that till February”

9 comments

1. [The Tigers’ season is on the ropes. How did they get here? | Tiger Territory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzfIbdQ98eM)

   Cody also released an article for The Athletic. I don’t have a subscription so haven’t read it yet, but Twitter is saying it’s a good read.

   [At the most important time of the year, the Tigers roster has become a mess | The Athletic ](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6649890/2025/09/22/tigers-roster-loss-braves/?source=emp_shared_article)

2. I don’t know if emotion and such is quantifiable on a spreadsheet, so my thought is this concept would fall on deaf ears. Plus I would think today in preparation for the week ahead, AJ may be busy devising ways to get Trey Sweeney pinch hitting opportunities and maybe even an Iong overdue Jake Rogers pinch hit opportunity

3. remember how Harris said he didn’t want to be haunted for many years by trading away certain prospects this deadline?

   he might be haunted THIS YEAR if the team collapses

4. I feel like I consistently hear from players in interviews about how they’re not hard pressed about stats or like maybe specific areas that they’re struggling with (ex Vest saying he hasn’t looked at specific pitches that are giving up hits). And I get it, I think they’re trying to avoid hyper focusing and taking an overall improvement approach, but it all kind of feels like they’re avoiding self reflection.

   Like I’m yet to hear anyone, even AJ say something about looking inwards and trying to figure out what’s wrong. It’s always ‘bad game today, doesn’t reflect who we are as a team, we just gotta go back out there tomorrow’ and at this point, its like yeah it does reflect who you are bc nothing is changing.

   I’m not an MLB manager, I’m just spitting out shit I see/hear from watching nearly every game this year, but it’s just old and tiring. Someone’s gotta take accountability for the short comings.

5. And he’d be absolutely right. This stretch and the late July stretch are attributed directly to AJ. GM/ownership isn’t the reason a team is having 1-12 stretches

   There’s a reason the Lions haven’t lost back to back games since October 2022. It’s not because of the GM.

6. As someone who has been in leadership professionally for a long time, these are the signs and symptoms of someone who lets the team drive the boat (absentee leadership). I think AJ has done great things for this team, but I get the sense that he’s the type of manager that sits back and lets the kids play for fear of clipping their wings. It works really well when they get on a roll (like last year), but when shit gets tough and you have a young nucleus, that approach shows its ugly side. They look rudderless when something goes wrong—several times this year, they give up a big hit or strike out with runners in scoring position, and it feels like the world is crumbling.

   We don’t know what goes on behind closed doors, but this latest run reeks of AJ just letting them deal with it and providing zero intervention. Greene and Vest’s comments stand out as young players receiving minimal coaching (if they were, they’d at least parrot back the dialogue in interviews, IMO).

   Cody hits on it too—huge whiff for Harris to not try and get a veteran at some point last offseason to lead this group emotionally (someone like Bregman). Absent that coming from the Manager’s seat, with a vocal vet, you at least have a stopgap for moments like this. It’s incredibly frustrating to watch, and it might cost us the season.

7. It’s a good point but a lot of folks here refused to put any blame on managing and/ or coaching.

8. They haven’t shit the bed

   They’ve diarrhead all over the nice down comforter and cotton sheets and it’s leaked into the mattress and onto the carpet under the bed. 

9. The Tigers are on the verge of missing the playoffs just as spectacularly and unikely as they made the playoffs last season. I wonder if the organization will release another documentary of the season.