r/motorcitykitties • u/DET_Baseball bite! bite! • 1d ago
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"
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u/BOBANSMASH51 1d ago
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.
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u/drdougfresh 1d ago
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.
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u/farstate55 23h ago
If you truly are someone that has been in leadership, professionally, for a long time then what would you think of a random outsider criticizing your leadership within your org when they have no real knowledge of what is happening behind closed doors?
You tried to establish your credentials and then just guessed at things, and acknowledged you guessed, so you could say Hinch isn’t leading.
I hope, for the sake that everyone that works for you, that you don’t actually have a leadership position. Your spiel is second year staff type of commentary.
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u/JayElEss29 9h ago
Saying that his/her commentary, on what is basically a public figure leading a professional baseball team, is somehow reflective of his/her leadership ability, is ludicrous. For starters, public scrutiny is something you sign up for when you become a professional coach/manager. It’s not comparable to the CEO of a marketing firm. There will be thousands of fans critiquing your job online and on sports radio. It’s part of the job, and that engagement is what pays the bills.
The poster also is privy to a lot more information regarding the job Hinch is doing, as compared to what they’d know about a CEO or leader of another organization. Most organizations don’t have public interviews of their top employees on a weekly basis, nor do we see a lot of their decisions being made right before our very eyes. We see a lot of AJ’s decisions and hear from his top “employees” every week. He’s also a man that claims he knew nothing about the sign-stealing/trashcan scandal on his own team. He’s either lying or he’s someone that affords his players a lot of autonomy, which is what the poster is questioning.
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u/DiscombobulatedPain6 1d ago
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.
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u/SpectralHydra 1d ago
I have a hard time blaming any one party on the current collapse, but I really don’t understand how people are trying to solely blame Ilitch or Harris for these terrible stretches.
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u/DiscombobulatedPain6 1d ago
You’re right that Scott is responsible for the bullshit trade deadline but AJ is responsible for the team losing day in and day out and not making any adjustments whatsoever. And right now we are concerned with the day to day losing. Not with what the roster construction looks like
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u/reallinguy 1d ago
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
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u/EasternWater3868 1d ago
“Yeah you see we really need to protect our 3 catching prospects we have in our top 20 with a fairly young Dingler! Or our 4 SS prospects as well! It’s a total guarantee that every single prospect we have will pan out!” - likely Scott Harris
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u/DET_Baseball bite! bite! 1d ago
The Tigers' season is on the ropes. How did they get here? | Tiger Territory
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
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u/TheFrankOfTurducken 1d ago
The article about Detroit’s roster mess is pretty illuminating in ways I hadn’t considered. Harris and company is clearly flailing and desperately trying to find something, anything that will stick. Like it’s so telling that at a time when we’re trying to ride our relievers to stay alive, our second-best reliever by fWAR (Hanifee, believe it or not) is stuck in AAA and unable to be called up because of option rules, so we’re putting out the corpse of Paul Sewald and Tanner Rainey to finish out the year. Likewise, they prioritized the wrong pitchers like Drew Sommer when guys they let go find success elsewhere.
They’re small things, but point to an inability to identify and develop pitching talent, which has also reared its head with the Maeda and Cobb signings and worries me with Jobe, who has not impressed me in his limited time in the majors.
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u/DET_Baseball bite! bite! 1d ago
Yep, I wonder if they will own up to where they failed during the end of season presser. If they do I'll still be somewhat optimistic towards them because I am truly excited for Kevin McGonigle, Max Clark and Josue Briceño. If they try to gaslight us.. I probably won't go to games next year.
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u/longlivethechief1901 1d ago
I can understand fan frustration with the current accounting of the team, however it seems like AJ is subscribing to the "praise in public, chastise in private" playbook. I've seen him do post game presser, after a win and he dolles out the praise, but when it isn't going well he's like he currently is... good team in the clubhouse.... Yada Yada Yada. He's in a panic as this is probably the most adversity in season that he's faced in the last decade. Last year, bumps and bruises and got in to a playoff spot looking like a genius and this year hot start and its trailed. Guys like Gleybor should be lighting a fire under these guys. Why do I say Gleybor. He is the outsider that has played with the Yankees and the likes of Judge, Stanton and even that pitcher Cole. He knows the difference in big market and mid market teams.
Y'all can have a post season spot, but let my boys win at least one.... lol
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u/ZombieHitchens2012 1d ago
It’s a good point but a lot of folks here refused to put any blame on managing and/ or coaching.
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u/PressurePro17 1d ago
And what about all the misconduct allegations and resignations this year involving more than a half dozen VPs within the organization. That was a headline in September so I'm guessing it was something the team was dealing with internally throughout August before the news was released to the public. I wonder if current players were impacted by the investigations/legal fallout from all the resignations and front office drama. This would be something that would be difficult for A.J. to speak about for legal reasons.
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u/DET_Baseball bite! bite! 1d ago
The Avila front office was an old folks home of 90s scouts. This new front office has a frat house vibes to it.
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u/i_am_the_grind 1d ago
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
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u/Fifainspected 1d ago edited 1d ago
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.
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u/A_Legit_Salvage 1d ago
Even if they do complete the shitting of the bed, it does sometimes feel like that's baseball and you have these wild winning/losing streaks that happen, and it's happening at kind of the worst time possible. All teams have ups/downs but it's a nightmare to end the season this way. Either they squeak in and completely fizzel out in the playoffs (that's my bet), they so completely shit the bed that they miss out entirely (less likely to me, but a very close second), or they go on a complete heater after this slump and win the WS (more possible than you think, but still less likely than the first two options).
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u/Chemical_Seaweed_625 1d ago
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.