Who We Blame Most for the Tigers Collapse | Costa & Jansen with Heather

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:00]Yeah, not much of a comeback.

[00:00:02]Did the Tigers win?

[00:00:08]No and no.

[00:00:10]Two and 14 in their last 16 games. Look, there's a whole bunch of depressing stats.

[00:00:17]John, you're a food guy. Yes. You like pie? I'm a big fan.

[00:00:22]What's the preference? Cherry, apple?

[00:00:25]No, I mean raspberry with a with a crumble topping.

[00:00:31]Yes.

[00:00:32]Um, that would be my my favorite. Yours?

[00:00:34]Would you like an onion pie as well? I love an onion pie, yes. My dad likes onions seasoned, too.

[00:00:41]So, in the spirit of your love of pie, how about blame pie?

[00:00:47]How would you slice out the blame for the Tigers and where they're at today?

[00:00:51]You got Hinch, you got Harris, you got the players. You can divvy it up however you'd like. Oh, go first then.

[00:00:58]Uh, and I would since I like bigger pieces of pie, I when I cut it, I cut it into eight pieces. So, it's one you know, vertical, one horizontal, and then two diagonals, you get your eight pieces. I would give five of those pieces to the players.

[00:01:17]So, that ends up being 63% for all you math nerds out there.

[00:01:22]For Scott Harris, I'll give him two slices of pie. Ends up being 25%. A.J. Hinch gets one piece at 12%. And I go with the players because of the inconsistent play and I'm not going to blame a guy for being hurt, but I'm not going to put that on ownership, I mean on on the front office. I'm not going to put that on the manager for Gleyber Torres being hurt, Parker Meadows being hurt, Kerry Carpenter who is still third in strikeouts, even though he hasn't played in what, 3 weeks? Mhm.

[00:02:01]Um it is to me a much larger slice of that entire pie that goes to the players. And it's Kendry Jiménez not performing as the closer that he was brought in to be. It's you know, and you and you look at Framber Valdez, the fact that he hasn't been that second ace that you're paying him to be.

[00:02:27]To me, it's it's always going to be once you get into the season, for me, it's more about the players, their production. It's the inconsistent play of Spencer Torkelson. We know he can hit home runs. We know he can put bat to ball. We've seen it every other year.

[00:02:44]And maybe Scott Harris should have known that this is an even-numbered year, so so Spencer Torkelson can't hit.

[00:02:53]You give the vast majority to the players.

[00:02:55]>> Yes.

[00:02:56]I think the players are being asked to be people they're not, which is why I give the largest slice of pie to Scott Harris.

[00:03:04]So, as I divvy this up, I give 35% to the players. Players do got to play.

[00:03:09]Errors in the field, stupid stuff on the bases, like be a professional.

[00:03:13]>> Yeah, don't get picked off. Uh guys like Tork and Keith are supposed to be major leaguers. So, there are players that you can direct your ire and frustration, and 35% is a pretty big chunk of pie. Mhm.

[00:03:23]But I give Harris 45%.

[00:03:25]They added no outside bats outside a rookie who's going through a predictable stretch. In year five of Scott Harris, they have three bats.

[00:03:33]He put stock in Vierling and All-Star McKinstry and Pérez and Keith and Tork, and he backed the wrong horses and believed a mirage at the end of 2024.

[00:03:45]I'll give A.J. Hinch the remaining 20% because he's doing himself no favors.

[00:03:50]And we had him on yesterday and we're asking about, "Hey, why is Riley not getting bumped up? He inched him up one spot.

[00:03:55]What's going on Jose Ramirez and extras?

[00:03:57]Like there's some puzzling decision-making from him. 20%. I give 0%. Not even a crumb to Chris Ilitch.

[00:04:05]This payroll is a real payroll. How many hours years did we about the payroll? I'm not giving him a little crumb of the blame pie. He hired people, he gave them money and this is what we have.

[00:04:19]A team that is in the last in the division.

[00:04:21]Only the Angels worse in the American League. They've lost five They've been swept five times this season already and they've lost six of their last seven series.

[00:04:32]That's how I would divvy up the slices.

[00:04:35]What about you? 248-539-9797.

[00:04:39]To your point about the players, I just think Harris is asking them to be what they're not.

[00:04:44]>> Well, I think Harris was asking them to just be what their career numbers say they were.

[00:04:50]Like other than McGonagall cuz we don't know what those numbers are. Other than Green and you could even say I mean Diggler's a little bit lower but at least there's nine home runs to go with it. But every single guy is performing under their career average. Except for you know, Javier but Javier is not available right now. John, you nailed it I think with the players not performing to what they are. And Jim's going to laugh at this because I'm asking the bottom feeders to perform what they've been. And so the four that I've picked and I'm not including Zach Short or Jake Rogers in this who are both pathetic bats. And Rogers by the way is hitting well below his career numbers even though those career numbers are anemic. But the four guys are Jones, Perez who wasn't on the opening day roster by the way. Remember that. So they're counting on a guy they viewed as a minor leaguer opening day.

[00:05:40]McKinstry and Vierling.

[00:05:42]Take a guess. I'm going to give you guys a guess. Take a guess at their total numbers in terms of being below batting average collectively. So, each of them is hitting below their career average. Guess what that total is between the four? Oh, between the four, I would say if we're adding them up >> Four guys. 200? Say 125 points. 218 points below their average. That's incredible. Yeah. I mean, and then none of them has Verling has a 643 OPS, which is below average by far and Mize The other three are 514 or worse. These are guys that are playing relatively every day or almost. Jones is kind of a spot guy. Yeah, platoon.

[00:06:23]But what made me look this up was AJ said yesterday historically not performing to what they are. Now, these guys are just mediocre ball players for the most part.

[00:06:35]Maybe Verling's close to average for a baseball player for his career. Right, but for this lineup, you're only asking them to be mediocre.

[00:06:41]>> asking them to be what they've been and they've been significantly worse.

[00:06:45]Wouldn't you say? 218 points below what they typically are. Now, where the blame goes to AJ here is he needs to get away from it.

[00:06:54]>> Yes. He needs to They need to bring somebody up. They need to make a move.

[00:06:58]Who's the guy?

[00:06:59]It's Harris.

[00:07:00]>> So, all I'm saying is I'm not trying to defend Hinch or Harris. They haven't adjusted to what's happening. They're still trusting history over what they are this year. No one's defending anybody. Everybody's getting a slice.

[00:07:11]>> Yeah.

[00:07:12]Right? I mean, the the players, Hinch, and Harris are all getting a slice. It's just who you blame most.

[00:07:16]>> it's the mistakes, too, that they make the players. I would go 40 players, 35 Hinch, and 25 Harris.

[00:07:22]>> You have Harris at the bottom. Right now. This will change if they don't do something about it very, very soon.

[00:07:28]Well, it won't matter if they don't do something.

[00:07:31]>> understand what I'm saying though? Like Like you can you can rip them for ever believing these guys to begin with, Yes. but if they were what they typically are, how many more wins is that?

[00:07:42]>> They're all negative war players this year. They've all been positive career war players. Yeah. I just think when we have to hear that Zach McKinstry's an All-Star even though he was a reserve of a reserve, and you make decisions based on the idea that he's going to be a key cog, and then he turns into the guy that's bounced around and is a uh a journeyman. But he's performing pretty far below what he even averages. Like they were just trusting these guys to be average collectively. They're not.

[00:08:07]They're horribly worse.

[00:08:08]>> Tom.

[00:08:09]Let's say the bottom feeders perform like normal bottom feeders. Is this team winning a division?

[00:08:15]Probably right not right now.

[00:08:16]>> that that's still a Harris thing. Do you agree?

[00:08:18]>> Injuries Injuries then come in. I don't know how you argue the point.

[00:08:22]>> to their their median, >> [snorts] >> then they I mean, how many more wins do they have? Are they at least I'm What are they? Four back of the of of the Guardians right now?

[00:08:35]>> If they could cut the deficit in half, I I I I I I I do.

[00:08:38]>> Vierling and If they're just simply performing to what their average is throughout the course of their career, they're so far below that. And And when we bring it up in terms of the bottom part of this lineup, who's hitting five, six, seven, eight, as long as five is not Riley Greene, then you I mean, it's basically you have a chance to get a hit and get some runs one through four.

[00:09:04]Everyone else >> a is just trying to wait till you get back to the top of the lineup, and then maybe you have a chance, but it's because five through nine are performing so far below what they typically would do. But they wouldn't be asking them to do very much at all if this team had added something offensively. I That's why That's why I know I know John Harris does have a part of the blame. But Tom gave him the least amount of blame, and I don't know how you refute five years, three bats.

[00:09:37]Five years, three bats.

[00:09:41]Did it My defense is is that they were playoff team the last two years. Like >> A mirage.

[00:09:46]Jim, it happened. Right. They made it to the playoffs the last two years. They made it to the playoffs the last two years. They should have added a right-handed bat. You guys know in the off season I I was on board with that.

[00:09:56]What I'm saying is they're they're not They trusted these guys to at least be what they normally are.

[00:10:00]>> was a poor decision. Yes, it is. And but again, I I think you love to blame GMs and coaches before players in this town. I think you're one of these people that I call out all the time that sometimes the freaking players just suck. Yeah, and and and And sometimes you assemble a sucky roster.

[00:10:17]You could call it that now. Certainly.

[00:10:20]>> Can you see what I'm saying in terms of they thought they would at least be Yeah, but the difference is they have to be the smart people, not not not think they're the smartest guy in the room, but actually be the people who cut through the BS and say, "No, Zack McKinstry's not really an All-Star. No, Matt Vierling shouldn't be on a major league roster playing this way."

[00:10:39]Like you can say injuries Carrie Carpenter's a negative war player this season. Yeah, I didn't include him. He's performing below what he normally is.

[00:10:46]>> Right, but but my my point would be they have three bats.

[00:10:51]And it's time to bring somebody up. I heard Mike and Jeff say both yesterday within 24 hours when they hit the field today, they wanted the roster to look different. They didn't care how, they just wanted to change. They wanted something to shake up this thing a little bit. I think it's Max Anderson and I know why they're not bringing him up. He doesn't have enough at bats yet cuz he started the year injured. He's got 60 some at bats. They want him to get to 100 plus probably. And you know what? Sometimes you got to do something just to do something. Right.

[00:11:18]Phone calls, blame pie, want to know who you are directing the most frustration towards. It's 97.1.