Scott Harris on if the Tigers should have added a bat at the deadline: ” … I think the more pressing and fundamental question is how does a top 8 offense for 5 months become a bottom 8 offense in September. That’s the question that keeps me up at night … “

Scott Harris on if the Tigers should have added a bat at the deadline: " … I think the more pressing and fundamental question is how does a top 8 offense for 5 months become a bottom 8 offense in September. That's the question that keeps me up at night … "
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31 comments

  1. I mean.. you were banking on players like McKinstry and Baez to continue playing above their talent level.

    Now the middle of the order? That’s on those players, they got to be better

  2. Do….. do you need us to tell you how that happened, Scott? The team went from disciplined at bats to chasing non competitive pitches. That’s the issue.

  3. I dunno man. Making McKinstry and Meadows load bearing parts of the offense probably has something to do with it. Letting Torres continue to play when he needs surgery instead of bringing up one of the dozens of 2B prospects seems like not a great choice either.

  4. Bats massively over-perform front of season, then regress in the back of season.

    GM can’t sleep over it.

    JFC man

  5. It’s a rationale thought but a lot of successful teams press home an advantage when they have one. I doubt a displaced bat will feel too bad if they get a World Series win out of it.

  6. In the main press conference thread, people are complaining about this answer.

    At the end of the day, the players have to perform.  No trade deadline is going to save you if your core just poops the bed.

    Padres remade most of their roster but their core of Tatis, Bogarets, Machado, and Arraez came up short much like Greene, Tork, Carp, and Torres.

  8. I have the answer.

    4 guys were hitting way above their career averages.
    Water will find its level it did it ever.

  13. There’s a reason Seattle threw 98% breaking balls. Next time tell Jobu to fuck off..  

  15. Because they were frauds the first half. We were stupid to think Javy could keep up the near .800 OPS and Mckinstry too. 

  16. It’s a fair point, although I think it was obvious we were way over performing.

    That’s said, I wish we would have gone for the trade the Padres made with the Orioles. We’d have gotten an outfielder an DH for very cheap.

  18. I don’t hate Scott Harris like many others do, but I do not like this answer. The offense had been trending downwards since the ASB so I think it is irrelevant if they were 8th on August 31. I’d rather he be honest and say they were hoping for a turnaround or not willing to deal prospects.

  19. It’s called regression to mean, Scott. I’m sure you’re familiar with the concept and you could’ve made a move—just one move—to shore up the offense against this regression and for whatever reason you looked at 3 or 4 players playing wildly above their historic norms and thought, “yeah, this’ll work forever.”

    I don’t know how a seemingly intelligent man can be so obtuse. It’s insulting to everyone who watched the Mariners get 3x better because their front office said “good enough is not good enough.”

  20. A discussion about the hitting staff: they did get guys to overperform for quite a while. However, when they slump, they are unable to fix it

    I do believe the Tigers are trying to build something similar to the Lions. Culture first. Development of practice/spring training facilities. Money into home facilities. Updating the resources and trying to build a team culture of players, not just one or two main players. People that don’t mind getting sat for another.

  22. Say what you will about Harris but I found this presser so enlightening. It also confirmed much of what has raised on this subreddit this season. He gets it and has a plan to continue to make the team better. Now the big question is can he successfully execute on that plan.

    As frustrated as I am with outcome of this season, I believe this team should continue to improve and be competitive for the foreseeable future.

  23. A lot of people are saying they need to fire the batting coaches which I don’t disagree with. But this is like the 2nd or 3rd coaches under Hinch. If it really is the hitting coaches, who keeps fumbling the hires? Or is this a Hinch issue? I also know that relying on a number of AAAA players is hurting this team as well.

  27. Scott’s answer says a lot. When given the opportunity to take some accountability for the team’s lack of quality bats, he shifted the blame to the players. Keeps him up at night? These are not the words of a humble or reflective leader.

  31. The question that “keeps him up at night” is just demonstrated negligence. Most of the batters that made the line-up so strong in the opening part of the season were playing well out of their ass and all reasonable expectations were for them to regress in the second half. People don’t usually just add 200 OPS to their stat lines from the previous year without some explanation. Maybe some of it is that they had a brutal previous year (Tork) or they were a rookie the prior year (Keith) but other guys were just having career years (McKinstry, Baez under the Tigers contract, etc.)

    Effectively. Scott Harris is saying he was relying on dumb fucking luck instead of any sort of input, insight, or analytics. Why is he in charge of this franchise again?

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