https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/2023/02/21/watercooler-wednesday-73/
WATERCOOLER WEDNESDAY.
Totally Tigers
Today, another opportunity for readers to discuss the hottest topics in a forum where thoughtful dialog and a variety of opinions are welcomed.
Let?s create some running conversational threads. And for those of you back in actual offices, here?s a question to take with you ? or use via Zoom ? as you talk to your co-workers.
Here is today?s topic??..
This week, Scott Harris talked to reporters about the Tigers? off-season moves ? most notably the lack of signing recognizable free agents. Here?s how he explained the organization?s rationale:
?Coming off 96 losses, there are no shortcuts back to contention. It starts with putting together a team and an environment that can play competitive baseball every day.
?When we entered the off-season, we were looking for controllable young players who embody the offensive identity we?re working towards. Players who control the strike zone and could help us control the strike zone better as an organization.
?And on the position-player side, it?s really tough to find controllable players at manageable acquisition costs. I didn?t think it made sense for us to invest significant at-bats in veteran players who will not be a part of the team beyond 2023.
?Those at-bats are too valuable for us. We have to invest those current and future at-bats with some of our young players; players like Kerry Carpenter, Ryan Kreidler, Andre Lipcius, Wenceel Perez, Parker Meadows and a lot of the young players already in camp fighting for jobs.
?An area of focus for us is helping players get better. We?re introducing a lot of new things to the players that they?ve never seen before. And with that comes huge opportunity to help them get better, to find those small gains up and down the roster that can net huge returns for the team. That?s going to be our path back to contention and I feel we are off to a good start.?
In summary, Harris is saying that this team has so many needs in order to become respectable that adding a free agent or two will have little to no impact. And that it could actually be detrimental to rebuilding the team. This team is essentially starting from scratch but it is now being assembled with a certain identity and goal.
He hints that this roster will continue to change significantly after this year but the goal is to re-assess younger players who did not get a solid chance to show their potential in previous seasons. That the hope is that many of them will perform better now that the team has better tools and coaches.
And Harris summarized that by adding free agent veterans would only be a temporary band-aid and not a solution. That by actually adding them would set the team back from properly evaluating and developing the young talent currently in the system.
Do you agree with Harris? statements? Is this the best way for the Tigers to move forward? Is re-assessing, developing and testing younger players a better solution than bringing in veterans who may offer a temporary but not lasting fix?
Do you agree with Scott Harris? strategy that the best way for this team to move forward is to focus on developing their young talent?
1. Yes
2. No
VOTE
