How the Tigers Roar

BY KEVIN KERNAN

The most interesting team to me in baseball at this moment is the Detroit Tigers – partly because they are managed by the most interesting manager in baseball, A.J. Hinch.

“A.J. is the king,’’ a top talent evaluator told BallNine of Hinch and the power he has in the Tigers organization. “He is making Scott Harris look smart just like he made Jeff Luhnow look smart in Houston. Because Houston was developing their talent too, A.J. knew how important it was to have an assembly line of talent coming through and the Tigers are doing the same thing.’’

All it takes is one smart baseball guy these days to get a team going. Hinch knows how to play the analytical game, too – how to keep the Nerds happy – but at his core he is a baseball man.

“He’s progressive enough that he is not afraid to try some of the gimmicky stuff, but he also knows how good they are right now because he’s got four starters that are going deep into games,’’ the scout said. “That is going to make them even more dangerous in the playoffs this year.

“Hinch knows how important it is in a smaller market to have an assembly line of talent coming,’’ he added. “You got to have guys who are teaching the right things. His pitching coach is doing a good job, too.’’

That pitching coach is Chris Fetter.

Another thing I like about the Tigers is that they are in a market where a team is not going to get sidetracked; that is, the town is desperate for a winner in baseball, so everyone is enjoying the ride, especially after all the Detroit Lions success of just going back to basics under Dan Campbell and playing hard-nosed football.

Hinch and the Tigers are doing the same thing, playing hard-nosed baseball that relies on starting pitchers.

Back to basics.

All kinds of wizards wind their way into professional sports, but at the end of the day, in both the National Football League and in Major League Baseball, it comes down to basics.

The Tigers pitch and the staff is led by Tarik Skubal, who is 10-3 with a 2.23 ERA, even has a shutout and is a bulldog on the mound. His personality fits the city. The Tigers have a deep staff but the bullpen must improve and look for a trade here- they own a 5.18 bullpen ERA since June 1.

All kinds of wizards wind their way into professional sports, but at the end of the day, in both the National Football League and in Major League Baseball, it comes down to basics. Can you run the football, will you hit people? In baseball, can you pitch, can you get timely hits?

That is the secret sauce no matter how many numbers they throw at you. Hinch has a knack for understanding all aspects of the game and gets buy-in from his players.

Basic football. Basic baseball.

Look how Hinch has gotten Javier Baez and Gleyber Torres to buy in and has turned around Spencer Torkelson’s career. Torkelson owns 21 home runs and 59 RBI. His slugging percentage jumped from .374 last season to .489 this year. Last year his OPS was .669. This year it is .826.

Hinch is a big reason for the improvement.

As the evaluator said, Hinch is the Tigers power broker, and is not afraid to challenge players to make them better and challenging them by threatening their playing time.

You know, it used to be called managing.

“Hinch is not afraid to stand up to players,’’ the evaluator said.

After the Tigers signed Torres to a one-year deal, Colt Keith was in line at first base, which meant Torkelson could have been out of a job, sent to the minors or traded.

Torkelson accepted the challenge, made some changes in his setup, widening his stance for better balance, and has had a power surge.

Torkelson bluntly said, “Last year sucked but I fought through it. This is who I am.’’ He believes. Hinch has a way of getting his players to believe.

That is because Hinch does more than kumbaya talk around the campfire and the former top pick of the 2020 draft is a terrific example of real managing, not just being a “player’s manager.’’

Here is how Hinch handled the situation with Torkelson.

“We talked to him this winter when we signed Gleyber, we issued a pretty big challenge, which was to fight his way on this roster and fight his way for at-bats, and if he did that there was a spot for him because he is important to us and we believe in him, and then look what happened,’’ Hinch explained at the end of spring training. “He took it very seriously and he made a ton of subtle adjustments that have turned into a pretty athletic swing with damage.’’

No sugar coating allowed.

That is so refreshing in the excuse making world of MLB 2025. Too many managers look the other way, but Hinch did not do that.

Maybe that was the ultimate lesson Hinch learned from the electronic sign-stealing saga in Houston that caused him to be suspended for a year. Hinch’s Astros won the 2017 World Series, a tainted victory. He was dismissed by the Astros after the 2019 season.

Tigers former GM Al Avila hired Hinch as manager right after the Dodgers won the 2020 World Series. Kudos to Avila.

Hinch is a former catcher, drafted in 1996 by the Moneyball A’s and spent seven seasons in the majors. In his three years with Billy Beane in Oakland, Hinch learned to speak the language of analytics but that Moneyball version of analytics is nothing like the over-the-top analytics of today.

When you watch Hinch manage a game, you can see he has a feel for the game and the action on the field in front of him will dictate his moves, it’s not just a pre-game plan of attack set up by Nerds, there is real managing done by Hinch.

And by managing what is in front of him, Hinch catches other teams by surprise. It sure worked leading up to the All-Star break with the Tigers posting the most wins in baseball at 59. They did lose their final four games before the break so Friday in Texas is an important game.

Last year, Hinch’s Tigers came from nowhere to make the playoffs and then stunned the Astros before losing to the Guardians in five games.

This year the Tigers own a huge lead in the AL Central – 11.5 games – and barring a complete collapse they should be perfectly set up for postseason play where last year it was chaos. Hinch will have time to get his team lined up for October and that should be a big advantage.

And like our evaluator said, in Detroit, with a second baseball chance, Hinch is the king and can run the show the way he wants to run it. In that way Hinch and the Lions’ Dan Campbell have much in common.

Despite what you often hear, players want to be challenged, they will accept the criticism if they can see it is best for their careers.

“I’m very proud of Tork because I feel like there have been portions of our time here together where he had the weight of the world on his shoulders,’’ Hinch said. “It’s a great hat tip to Tork.’’

I also like the way the Tigers allow their minor league teams to learn to win together. Their minor league teams are doing well, and the Erie SeaWolves clinched the first half championship of the Eastern League.

“The Tigers let their AA team win the first half,’’ the evaluator said. “They’ve been winning in the minor leagues. They are teaching their players the right things. They lead the league in hitting and they’ve struck out the fewest times in the league.’’

Sounds like they are playing baseball throughout the organization, not velocity, spin-rate ball like so many other minor league teams.

That day Hinch was hired back in 2020, he showed he had a feel for the city. He played for the 2003 Tigers, a team that lost 120 games, he also spent a good portion of the year playing for the Toledo Mud Hens, so it was no golden path. Hinch made this statement, “We’ve got a lot of work to do, but the good times are coming. We’ve got to go put in the work to make sure that happens because this fan base, this ownership group, the front office, and these players deserve it.’’

The Tigers were my father’s favorite team, and we saw them play the Yankees often growing up. They have always been a team I cared about, because of their name, the classy D on their caps and the cool uniforms. There is something unique about the Tigers – they are not just another team – and maybe that goes back to the days of Rocky Colavito and Al Kaline, days of my youth and then the 1968, 103-win World Champion Tigers with such stars as Willie Horton, Dick McAuliffe, Denny McLain and Mickey Lolich. Kaline was 33 years old that season and got 327 at-bats, hitting .287 with 10 home runs and 52 RBI.

Then there was the fun year of 1976 when Mark Fidrych burst onto the scene with a 19-9 record and a 2.34 ERA. Bird was the word.

Eight years later the Bless You Boys Tigers of Sparky Anderson won the World Series, and that is the last Tigers team to win the Fall Classic. That team featured Kirk Gibson, Alan Trammell, Lou Whitaker and Jack Morris.

Again, class, character and grit. Perhaps Hinch can be like Sparky, who managed the Big Red Machine to two World Series titles and then took the Tigers all the way. Hinch has his World Series win with the Astros, and if his Tigers go on to win the World Series, A.J. Hinch will truly be the King of Detroit.