Detroit Tigers’ Scott Harris is Smarter Than You

Detroit Tigers’ Scott Harris is Smarter Than You

the um Scott Harris AJ Hinch presser. Oh boy. I’m going to ask an honest question of you guys and and I’m I’m I’m going to trust that you’re going to be honest. The the chat and and maybe KG or Maz or JB maybe we can think of an appropriate way to phrase this and put up some kind of poll if that’s okay. H how do you how do you think Scott Harris presented himself or or acquitted himself in that press conference yesterday? Um did he come across good? No. Did he come across I what how would you how would you even phrase that question? The majority of it was a little off-putting and I don’t want to say pompous like you know if I’m just looking for words but it kind of gave that vibe. I agree with you. It gave that vibe. I’m smarter than you. Yeah, a lot of that. That’s what that was. A lot of that. Hey, look. I went into it knowing he’s schwarmmy. But I’ll tell you, I think he acquitted. I love that word. That’s such a good word. He He’s swarmmy. Yeah. But you know what? I think he answered everything. He spun around on on Scooble. What they spun around on a lot of things. Yeah. What’s he going to say? But in reality, he told you the way he sees this team and he spun it the way we looked at them in the beginning of the year when they were great at the end of last year and great at the beginning of this year. He went August to August. He left out completely left out September and he completely kind of left out October. Yeah. I I was amazed at that at at the spin that he put on it where he where and I’m trying to I don’t want to misrepresent. Okay, so I’m paraphrasing here where he said, “Well, what if we did the season the opposite way, what if what if the first couple months were slow and then we came on and we’re like one of the best teams in baseball?” You would have won. And and I I I number one, there’s that. And number two, well, well then maybe we’re not talking about how you blew the division in a historic manner, doing what nobody has ever done before. Maybe we’re not having that conversation, right? Maybe that’s not part of when the story of the 2025 Tigers is written. That’s going to be one of the headlines, Scott. Maybe we’re not talking about that. If you start the season out poorly, this is a race to Oh my gosh, we almost caught Cleveland. Wow. That was really cool. All right. Well, let’s see what the playoffs hold. Hey, we went into Cleveland. We knocked off Cleveland. Wow. How cool is that? Wow. We almost lo knocked off the Mariners who now have a two games to none lead. Right. That I I thought that was bad logic. I don’t know. Totally. Scott, nobody buys that. No. I I’m just shooting straight with you. Nobody buys that. That that that was that was a that was a misplay. It was almost like he was trying to sell us that this was a good season. And technically it I guess you can say it was they got to the same point that they ended last year, but overall there’s a lot of context in there. There’s a lot of nuance in there. And I just the the whole time I just came away not feeling better about this team. I felt like he didn’t do a good job of actually talking about how to fix some of the problems. He did he did elaborate on some things, but overall it just felt like he was covering his ass. No, I I I I got I got the same I got the same I’ll give him this. I heard him say this a couple times because uh I noticed my blood pressure going up when he brought up Morton and Paddock. And I’m not joking. I’m sitting at hand at home and I got I got my I got my hat in hand. I’m ready to fire it. And if you remember the way it kind of came up, he said, “The way that we looked at the relief pitching, we thought that that relief pitching at the dead deadline was better than the starting pitching.” And he was right. There there weren’t a lot of, you know, great arms available. Okay? And let’s let’s let’s be honest, in fairness to Scott, there were not a lot of great arms available. and he said, “We went out and got um a guy who ended up being the number two relief pitcher picked up at the deadline. I didn’t care enough to fact check. I I I’ll go ahead and take his word for it.” He wasn’t. And then and then we picked up uh two starting pitchers and for about 10 seconds, if you remember, he tried to justify it. Yeah. and and he and he said, “Well,” and I think people forget, you know, Charlie went into a difficult place in Philly and uh pitched a hell of a game and and Paddock had that start against the Nationals and it was almost like it was almost like at that moment he was like, “Oh yeah, but yeah, clearly I wish they there were more quality innings from those guys and um you know that’s on me. That’s on me.” And it’s like what what are you talking about? Yeah, man. He had a good start. He had an ERA of over seven. He had a good start. He had an erra of over six and you vanquished him, banished him to the bullpen. And And you you DQA the other dude, man. Like, come on. And you was it you that brought up the Scooble stuff? How can you say we we have no interest in resigning um the best pitcher in baseball without saying we have no interest in resigning the best pitcher in baseball? Yeah, pretty much. I have no confidence as a Tiger fan that he’s staying after that. None. None at all. None. And you shouldn’t. None. That is crazy. You said it from the get-go. He’s going to try to to trade him. He is going to actively try to trade him this off season. Hey, but AJ got resigned. We didn’t really know about that. He got resigned, but they’re not allowed to tell us for how long. What? That’s the dumbest rule I ever heard when I heard that I’m like, since when they start doing that, I’m glad that you brought We’re keeping it a secret. Right. Why would you keep that? You know what I wrote yesterday? He’s the kind of guy that if you tried to cheat off him and you know, he’s your friend and he covers his paper like this. Yeah, he don’t tell you anything. This guy for sure. That That’s what he reminds me. Shout out to my algebra class senior year. Exactly. Sheated my way through that whole damn My whole arm was filled with It didn’t make sense to me. Like my brain couldn’t formulate it, bro. I went to summer school for algebra. Did like I’m not there, you know, there there was like a wall in my head. It didn’t It didn’t make sense to me. I’m sorry. It I I I would go talk to the teacher. It didn’t. So, finally, I just said, “I know that girl. She’s smart and I’ll cheat off her.” Yeah. Openly admit. Yeah. Mr. Lster, you got me. Um Yeah. It that was it. It was weird. it. I want to be like, by the way, AJ, I don’t know if you guys feel the same way. The further away I get from this season, the more reverence I have for AJ Hinch. Oh, of course. I am so serious when I say that. How do you not? And we’re lucky to have him. Like, I’m great to hear the extension news. I don’t know why you wouldn’t put that out in a season in which, you know, the the good news was kind of few and far between. So, what that dude did with what he had at his disposal. Yeah. I total tip of the cap, man. Yeah. I I I don’t What did you guys think? Seriously, I’d love to hear from the chat because, you know, you know how it is the dastardly media. We’re all bad and we’re we’re all negative and we’re not really fans or anything like that. And you know, I I know there are a lot of people that kind of take that tact and and everything. Man, I I I’ll say it. I want the Tigers to win so badly. It’s disgusting. Yep. And I and and I’m so serious when I say this. I’m not trying to play the role of the good guy. I I I want you guys to see it. I want guys like KG and JB and and and people that didn’t experience it. And yes, selfishly, 100% my son who lives and dies for the Tigers. Yes. That’s Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. It’s probably going to be a while. I’m not going to lie to you. But what I took away from that is it’s going to be a while. He did allude to the fact that, you know, the kids may be coming up uh for spring training and MLB camp. So, that’s a good sign, I guess, but I don’t want that to affect the off seasonason, too. So, it’s kind of like a double-edged sword. You know, I’m glad to see the kids up. Let’s see if what they actually have, but at the same time, I don’t really have any expectations for free agency. I mean, why would I at this point? I firmly believe that none of those kids are going to make the Tigers next year. Really? And maybe not even McGonicle. He’s probably the most advanced of them all. No, I don’t I don’t believe it. Okay. I don’t I I really maybe at the end of the year may maybe like a callup or something but I I I just think and I’m doing that based on how they’ve kind of operated the last couple of years. Did I hear you? I don’t think that they want to rush anything or anybody cuz this is this is Scott Harris legacy. Scott Harris this is this is going to be his team. You guys y’all better y’all better set your watch to that. He is going to make this team in his image. And I think some of the guys that we’ve gone back and forth on the last few years, I I I have a very strong feeling he’s going to jettison a lot of those guys out of here. I’m not mad at that. Some got to change. You can’t keep going forward the way you are. That you made no changes in the offseason essentially. Um how So you guys seriously in the chat I we won’t put up a poll. I’m just I’m going to ask you polls up. Oh, you already what what’s the question? How you JB JB frame it JB? Go ahead. So, I uh basically was asking the chat how they felt about the press conference yesterday and give me your grade for Scott Harris and his press conference to the fans and right now it is sitting at 49% D or even worse than that from their thoughts. I gave it a B. 36% say C. They think it’s average. It was It just wasn’t a lot to take out of it. C minus. C minus is what I’d do. C minus. Even though it was a lot of why are you fans kind of upset at me? That’s what I got from it. Like why y’all mad? Like we we got to the ALDS. Why y’all mad? Do you know what it it comes back? It comes back to the privilege comment of a couple months ago. Absolutely. That that’s like like he he do you I hate this term, but I’m going to use it anyway. It’s almost like tonedeaf. Yeah, very much. It’s almost like there’s a disconnect. And maybe it’s just because he hasn’t been around here that long. He doesn’t understand the anguish that Tigers fans have been through. You always say we haven’t won a title in 40 years and we’ve been teased twice and hadn’t had to show for it. Some our best players of this franchise’s history were traded for peanuts. Like I don’t think he really realizes the gravity of why we feel the way we feel. At least mo a good percentage of us. You just hit the nail on top of the head. And I’m sorry. I’m going to call out a vast majority of our fan base and certainly the media when I say this, okay? Not only did we trade some of our best players for peanuts, but you know what? We had to deal with the indignity of people telling us what a great move it was for a few years. We lived through that. Some of you guys are guilty of it. Okay? Some of you guys are guilty of it. I swear when I was doing the show with Joy, there was people got so mad at me because I I said there’s nothing there with Ala. There’s nothing there. It’s always No, no, no. Just wait. Just wait till you see this. Wait till you see that. Look at the deals. Look, look at the candyman. Right. Jake Rodgers. Jake Rogers was the coveted piece of the Justin Verlander trade and people would argue that and it drove me out of my mind. So, so KG, if I’m going to be fair, a lot of this isn’t Scott Harris. Okay, he has to deal with the trauma that came before Scott Harris. However, Scott, welcome to the club. There’s your seat in the hot tub. You’re part of it now, man. Yeah. with what transpired down the stretch, a a horrendous historic collapse and going out and making your team worse at the deadline, you are now in the club. Congratulations. And you kind of backed yourself into a corner here. Like I I definitely get that and I know you’re doing this with a lot of Alva pieces on this team. We got to be real about it. But shout out to one of my favorite rappers, Freddy Gibbs. you knew the job was crooked before you took it and now you had the scoo situation to which you’ve kind of mishandled that at least to me you’ve mishandled that at this point. Um I don’t know what the state of the team is. Like you said there’s no great arms in the in the farm system. These bats that we keep hearing about may still be a little ways away. What are you doing in the right now to make this team better now that they are a AL divisional series team? But that’s the ceiling. There’s no there’s nothing beyond that. I was having this conversation. I think I mentioned this a couple weeks ago. You I I you guys may or may not. There are a ton of I don’t want to use the word apologists, but gosh damn it, for lack of a better term, there are a ton of Scott Harris apologists out there. There are I mean a ton that you know he’s got it right. These prospects will work. And and you know, so when you find yourself in these conversations with that KG, I’m glad you brought that up. You say, “Okay, so so who’s the next great arm? Who who’s going to be the guy? Who’s going to be the guy that’s the one for this franchise?” Cuz we know you ain’t spending money for real. Like Justin Burlander. So like Terrick Schubble. Who’s the 1A? Because the 1A isn’t on the roster right now. Would you agree with me? Yeah, maybe not. I I do I do not see a 1A. I I I want to see more out of Melton. I want to see more out of Ree. I’m not saying I don’t like them. I’m talking about your one A. Okay. It could be Melton. Casey M isn’t that guy. It’s not gonna be Mountain. But we all we all know Casey isn’t that guy. They going to make him a starter, but I don’t think he has the stuff to be a 1A. Like he he’ll be a good rotational pitcher. And and and so especially to the guys that that are forget knee deep that are up to their waist in that prospect lather. Okay, take a look at the prospect list right now. that all the they aren’t arms. They aren’t arms. Now, that doesn’t mean that maybe another school kind of rises up. That that doesn’t mean that that I’m I’m willing to concede maybe he’s there and we just don’t see him yet. Okay. But I can’t talk about the invisible. I have to talk about the now. All right. I I can’t do that. So, who who’s the guy? Who’s the guy? KG. I I feel you. And shout out to uh one of our fame members, Weezy D313. That’s my dog, though. Shout out. Um, he says, um, because, so because the prospects didn’t work for Sean in 03, I can’t be happy about my prospects. You can be happy about your prospects. Now, can I flip that question around? Can Let me flip that question around. All right. We heard it in the late 90s with Randy Smith. It went into the as like you said. We heard it with Aloa. Right. Mhm. Do you want I can I I can waste five minutes of your life talking about all the camp miss guys, the Candyman, Daz Cameron. Uh where do you want me to go? Where how do you want me to do this? Okay. So, the flip side to that, let me flip around what you just said. Do you know what the flip side to that is? Can you blame me for being skeptical? Not at all. Casey M1. Casey M is a guy. He’s a guy. I’m not I’m not even saying I don’t want him. He’s He’s He’s an arm. He’s a guy. He’s a three. Casey M, right? Casey Casey M is a three. No, I’m thinking about Whezzy D’s famous uh famous term is Jag. Just a guy. So, yeah. Yeah, that that fits. He might be a Jag. So, you are 100% right. Maybe, just maybe, this latest batch of can’t miss prospects is right. Maybe you’re right. then we’re still another what two to three years from actually contending if that’s the case. However, however, can’t you understand that there are a lot of people like me that have heard this for two decades? Can’t you understand that for everyone that you can say made it, I got 10 that didn’t? And if you want to play that game, test me. Test me. I dare you. Listen, man. when he chose Max Clark as a high schooler, you kind of knew what this guy does. This guy goes out and he gets the youngest talent. He goes out and says, “Wow, this guy is going to be this guy is it.” Well, he better turn into PCA. He better turn into Pete Crow Armstrong because he let Wyatt Langford go on the very next pick from Florida. And that kid’s been playing for three years now, starting hitting over 20 home runs a game. We didn’t need that, right? We didn’t need that right away into our lineup. I don’t know. Like, it hurt. I I mean, no one really really delves into the baseball draft like we do in the NFL draft. Yeah. No, but Langford was a guy that was out there and you knew this guy was going to be pretty damn good and he was good right away. He not he might not be MVP worthy down to Max Clark. We’re putting all our our faith in a high school kid. How do you go look at a high school kid and say that kid’s going to be the next Mickey Manel? How? I don’t know how you do it. And he took a high school kid this year with the number one pick. Bryce Rener. So wheezy D. Whezzy D, like your point is taken. I’m not I’m not even saying that these guys are going to fail. I want you to hear me out. I’m not even saying that these guys are going to fail. I don’t know. You don’t know. So, let’s deal with what we know. And if we deal with what we know, surely you can understand the skepticism that a lot of people have. Yeah. And what we know now is this team is I don’t want to say ahead of schedule, but they are in a in a position to where they can maybe win in a very very bad division quicker than you thought. So you got to do something in the interim because ultimately he’ll be judged by how these young kids look because if Scoo goes, that’s already an indictment on you. Like fair or unfair, he’s the best pitcher in baseball, two probably two times Sai Young winner and you might let him walk out the door for nothing. So that’s already an indictment. If these kids come up and they don’t make a not an immediate impact, but if they don’t show signs that they are the ones very quickly, it’s going to get bad for Scott. So let me ask you a question and and and we’ll get to all the sound in a second, but I I’m glad we’re actually having these conversations. There’s a big three, right? Yeah. Prescio, McConnagal, and Clark, right? Those are the big three. Yeah. And they all might be in MLB camp. So what what are the chances that all three of them hit? Law of averages. What what are the chances? 10%. Right. Right. Yeah. That’s that’s okay. It’s baseball. Now all three one I would say one out of three. Okay. All right. So if we’re name if we’re talking three Yeah. One actually turns out to be a stud, right? One actually turns out to be a stud. The other two are just guys. Okay. Is that That sounds fair. How does that I would like all three to hit. I would like one of them. The odds are against I Okay, seriously. Out of all the prospects that we’ve heard about in the last 10 years, who turned into a bonafide star. One. That’s it. One. Riley Green. Teroo. And Yeah. Teroo. Riley. He was Sorry, I don’t call Riley Green. I He’s only three homers and 111 RBI. He’s a good player. 825 ops. He’s a good player. Yeah, he’s better than good. I I I will not do that. He’s He’s above good, I would say, but he’s not I think he’s a good player. I He’s not a superstar, but he’s above good at this. I’m talking about a star. Yeah, look how frustrated we were with Riley Green. He is a star. I like Riley Green a lot. Star around. Look at the way he plays the outfield. Sean, we Well, if if you hit it within his range, for sure. Right. I I mean, and I listen, I like him in the outfield. I think he’s a good player. I’m I’m not again I’m not like I’m talking about but I don’t think that Riley Green is a star. No, I mean to be fair he’s probably top five best outfielder in the American League. Um one of the best ones in the MLB but I’ve often said this, you know, shout out to Flannel when he was here. We would have these talks because that was his guy, but I would always say I like this guy a lot. I don’t know if he should be your your A1 or your 1A your your star player, the one that you tout that can win you games. I don’t know if he’s that like he’s he’s close to that. I don’t know if he’s that. I I you know what, tell me if this sounds familiar. I will take Riley Green. I will certainly take Riley Green over Jamai Jones. No, for Yeah. Not even close. Um I I’ll I’ll tell you what, the Yankees would love to have Riley Green. I can tell you that. I think part they would love him. I think part of the problem in our town for a long time, whether people want to admit it or not, is we put guys on pedestals they don’t belong. I I think a majority of us were absolutely frustrated at at Riley’s approach at the plate. I I think yes, the strike the Yes, the strikeouts do matter. Yes, contact matters. It does. Sorry. It does. And and again, for all the just wait, just wait, just wait. Well, what if these three guys, one of them makes it and he’s just Riley Green, right? And what if the other two What if What if the one What if one of them’s Torque? How many people, let’s be honest, how many people want Torque here next year? I I do. I do. He did have Did you hear the hesitation? Yeah. I mean, in some respects, I can I can live in a world where he’s not on the team, and I can also live in a world where he is still on the team because of the season that he had. He had an improved year. I give him that short. So I hope that people get the point that All right. So one one turns into Riley Green, one turns into Torque. The other one doesn’t make it, right? How about Dingler? Dingler’s a pretty good player. No, Dingler is good. Dingler is a pretty good I think he’s good. He is terrific behind the plate. We f We finally got a catcher of the future, right? We do. How many times did we hear that over the last decade? There’s our catcher of the future. Might actually have it, though. He got some pop too in his Loronzo is a guy that that could catch and play first. The kid they got for Jack Flareity, one of the guys. I I think that’s the exit of of Torque personally. That just might be that’s it might be Parker Meadows. Parker Meadows is Daz Cameron. He can’t hit. He’s our future He’s a He’s our future center fielder. Can he play the He’ll be the center fielder for the next 15 years, right? Or can he play defense? He can’t hit a can’t hit. Can’t hit. We’ll see. Uh we’ll get to Gosh, we we went crazy with this. Yeah. Um, we haven’t heard any sounds yet. Sorry, JB. We haven’t heard any sounds, but that’s how you know it’s good. So, uh, listen, we’ll get your thoughts. We’ll we’ll get some of the the the clips from yesterday as well. Um, hey, you know what, Brian Branch or Dion Branch as it were. Uh, we we got to get into that as well. The the what were you hoping to accomplish and how do you feel about it today? Uh, where are we going JB? Uh, we got to hear from Planet Fitness and Arton Jake. But first, let me clear up these super chats. Shout out to Burns sending in $5. He said, “So, Green Bay, about your quality wins because Sunday night you told us the Lions suck. But if the Lions suck, who have you beaten besides the Lions?” Oo, I like that. Good logic. That’s some wordsmithing there. Shout out. Good logic. Shout out. Shout out to Burn for that one. And another $2 from Matthew Krueger. He sends in this is Max Sherzer all over again. Resign him now. Not gonna happen. Yeah. I I I didn’t think so before yesterday and yesterday to me just solidified. If you had any interest in signing TKO, okay, you don’t give some line of, well, it’s company policy. No, you say he’s the best pitcher in the world. He’s probably going to win another Sai Young. We are doing everything we can to resign, right? Or we hope to sign him like something. Yep. be committal in some in some aspect. Yep. He was committ. Yeah, he was. Yeah, he was committ about spinning it. You’re right, man. Jesus. Jesus. [Music]

Sean Baligian and the morning crew react to one of the most bizarre press conferences from Detroit Tigers President of baseball operations, Scott Harris. As well as the current state of the Detroit Tigers franchise.
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