https://totallytigers.wordpress.com/2022/08/22/it-happened-again/
IT HAPPENED AGAIN.
Totally Tigers
Well, it happened again.
Another Tiger moved to a different team and improved quickly. This time, Robbie Grossman. He follows in the footsteps of Justin Verlander, Nick Castellanos, Isaac Paredes, Eugenio Suarez and others.
Grossman was traded to the Atlanta Braves at the deadline. The analytics team immediately sat down with him and hitting coach Kevin Seitzer, presenting video of his hitting over the past 3 years and how it had changed this year. The team was able to break down every measurement and movement of each part of his body during the loading and swinging part of his at-bats.
The result? Grossman reclaimed his previous skills in less than 2 weeks with the Braves. He?s now able to hit right-handers again. Through Thursday?s games, he was hitting .286 with 2 HRs and a .965 OPS. Compare that with what he did in Detroit: .205 BA and .595 OPS. His HR total in 2 weeks with Atlanta matches his HRs for the entire year in Detroit. He has now returned to being a switch hitter.
Grossman said ?What I?d been searching for all year, to re-create what I?ve done the last couple of years ? I?ve been able to do in these last (two weeks). So, I?m excited. I just feel lucky that I?m over here and they?re giving an opportunity and showed me some things that are helping me out?. Things I?ve been trying to search for all year, and it?s kind of clicked for me. A light bulb went on in my head, and I feel lucky that I got the help that I did here.?
It never makes a team look good when they?ve been searching for a solution for months and yet a new team finds the answer in just days.
And because of the high-profile media coverage, A.J. Hinch was forced to have to address Grossman?s comments that the Braves fixed him.
He said that the Tigers have a system in place but it could get ?a lot better.? He said that the Tigers have a similar style to that of the Braves, yet they cannot see what other teams do. And that brings into question the quality of Detroit?s analytics system.
Just because you have an analytics department, doesn?t mean that it?s good or effective. And the evidence of it failing is only increasing ever since the national story on Grossman hit. Just look at how the majority of the roster is struggling at the plate this year.
Hinch acknowledged that this concern had been an issue with the team ever since he arrived. What he didn?t explicitly mention is that Al Avila did nothing to solve it. Even after Justin Verlander made those damning comments about how much better the Astros were in resources and teaching.
That was back in 2017. Over 5 years ago.
And if this system is a legitimate one, why do we never hear of the players discussing biomechanics and adjustments like other teams? rosters do?
It?s because they aren?t getting the information or they simply are not understanding what is being presented to them.
It?s not solely up to the manager or coaches to fix issues with the players. It?s a job that involves multiple departments. For example, to solve Grossman?s inability to hit RHPs, the analytics department should have generated reports and videos. Then, sat down with the manager/coach and player to review it all in order to find solutions.
It appears, from a number of articles, that those reports were not coming out of the analytics department.
Baseball experts often point to the Tigers as still being behind in analytics compared with most other teams.
But there?s also a systemic failure that is to blame. The flow of information is not being channeled correctly. It?s not regularly getting down to the manager, coaches or players. Maybe it?s not even being identified in the analytics department or that the information generated is not helpful.
There needs to be a organized process to analyze, develop and support players. But you see the Tigers don?t have it because players are going to other teams and acknowledging that they never got help like this in Detroit.
Just because you create an analytics department and hire people to run it doesn?t mean that it will be effective or that you will succeed. You need to have an organizational process, too.
Something that the Tigers don?t have ? and haven?t for awhile.
But Hinch comes from an organization that does this better than anyone else. One reason why Chris Ilitch is including him in the search process for a new GM. Hinch knows what this should look like.
It won?t matter how many new personnel are hired or how much money is invested in new technology if the operational system is flawed. Which is why this will be a top priority for the incoming GM.
If we take this a step further, the same thing that happened to Grossman could be happening to Spencer Torkelson. It is urgent that the Tigers put a new system in place so they don?t lose him, too.
With Avila now gone, Hinch took it upon himself to send video to Tork. He refused to give any details but one can assume he is trying to fill in those operational gaps on his own.
And if this doesn?t get resolved soon, expect other teams to be doing their homework on Tigers so they, too, can score a profitable trade and rehabilitate the players.
The new GM will have his hands full with priorities. While solving the operational gaps in analytics, he should also be taking a good hard look at the head of it ? Jay Sartori.
Sartori was one of Al Avila?s first hires when he became GM. And Al promoted him to VP last year.
Quite frankly, I?m very skeptical of anyone Avila would hire. (For the record, the hiring of Hinch did not emanate from Avila.) Has he ever made a great one? Even his signings of free agents have been poor.
Based upon what we?ve learned from the latest success story of a Tiger moving to another team, Sartori?s job (and even his Director, Jim Logue) shouldn?t be safe.
Is it too much to ask that there be one story in which the Tigers are lauded for their work with a player? That?s going to be the true measure of an analytics system that really works.
