Why wise words of Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell has me encouraged about Detroit Tigers

All Activity MLB
1

I think a few here have mentioned this as well.

Albeit baseball roster is much tougher to transform than football.

Why wise words of Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell has me encouraged about Detroit Tigers

So today, let me try to show how the Lions success — more specifically, what the Lions coaches said during OTA’s last week — can be a reassuring blueprint for the Tigers.

Rule No. 1: Try to win, even when you are building, even when the seas are rough

Rule No. 2: Embrace the struggle

Rule No. 3: Hold onto key assistant coaches

  Keeping Fetter from accepting the UM job is main example here.

Rule No. 4: Acquire talent through the draft and develop it

       The Lions have done this without a doubt.
        Have the Tigers under Harris? It’s way too early to tell.

Rule No. 5: Pay the core players

       Paid Keith, Skubal is next one up.
1 Like
2

Conclusion:

Easier in NFL

Obviously, this comparison is apples and oranges. You can flip an entire NFL roster in three years. But MLB moves at a glacier pace.

The Tigers still have talent at Triple-A Toledo that I’m dying to see. I can’t wait to see Justyn-Henry Malloy. But he’s being blocked, in part, by Mark Canha and Matt Vierling (although Canha and Vierling have more versatility being able to play the infield, and Vierling is, well, raking).

I would love to see Jace Jung get a shot. But he is still learning third base and Colt Keith has settled into second base.

I would love to see Dillon Dingler get a chance at catcher. He just keeps getting better and better at a time when Tigers catchers have struggled.

Detroit Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler talks to pitchers during spring training at Tigertown in Lakeland, Fla. on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024.

Detroit Tigers catcher Dillon Dingler talks to pitchers during spring training at Tigertown in Lakeland, Fla. on Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2024. Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press

And I would love to see Eddys Leonard and Ryan Kreidler get a shot this season in Detroit. But they’ve both been hurt.

After that, for the most part, the next big wave of Tigers’ positional prospects are super young. Max Clark, Kevin McGonigle and Max Anderson are nowhere near Detroit.

Many are aching for the Tigers to get rid of Javier Báez — perhaps just cutting a check to make him go away. Or hoping he improves enough just trade him for, well, anything.

If this were the NFL, where things move at warp speed — from the draft to getting into games — you would cut Báez and slot McGonigle into short. Right now.

But that doesn’t happen in baseball because of the contracts, 40-man rosters and pace of development — McGonigle is years away.

Still, the Tigers can follow the same script.

In the end, the Lions have built a Super Bowl contender because Holmes and Campbell made a plan, stuck to it while surviving the Arctic, and have done a fantastic job of acquiring and developing talent.

It’s too early to know for certain if Harris has the same ability with the Tigers. To find gem after gem.

But the blueprint is right there, waiting to be copied. I hear it every time Campbell talks.