A.J. Hinch has made it his mission this season to instill a winning mindset in the Tigers. Easier said than done when the team has spent the last four seasons losing.
But that's the truth, and Hinch wants his players to confront it. He wants them to digest it and use it as fuel. And he wants the newcomers to know that what happened in the past has nothing to do with the standard moving forward. The Tigers are a big-league team with big-league expectations.
"That's why I start talking about winning, about a winning mindset and winning attributes, about what winning teams do," Hinch said Thursday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "We finished 30 out of 30 last season in a few too many categories in pitching, hitting, running the bases. You have to show that to the players and get them to take that personally, that their peers are beating them. That's what I've hoped to do this spring and the players have been very responsive."
It's not hard to find a couple examples of what Hinch is talking about. On the hitting side, the Tigers drew the fewest walks in the majors last season. On the pitching side, they had the highest ERA. The players responsible for those numbers have to acknowledge their flaws and vow to improve. And the younger players behind them have to arrive with the same attitude.
"When you get here, there's an expectation level," Hinch said. "Yes, there's a learning curve, yes, there's some growth and you're not going to be perfect when you first come to the big leagues. But when you come to the big leagues, we're ready to win today. That mindset is necessary at this level. You can't give them too much leeway in terms of the expectations here."
One of those players may or may not be Akil Baddoo. Detroit's Rule-5 draft pick, the 22-year-old has never played beyond High-A. But he's 5-14 (.357) with two doubles this spring and he's reached base in 11 of 20 plate appearances. He's also a terrific outfielder. Either the Tigers have to keep Baddoo on their roster for the duration of this season or return him to his former team.
"Personnel wise, we have to make some tough decisions," said Hinch. "Akil Baddoo is making quite a push to make this roster."
If the Tigers do keep Baddoo, that would give them five outfielders -- assuming Victor Reyes and Nomar Mazara are locks to make the team, alongside Robbie Grossman and JaCoby Jones. And it would make for some tricky math configuring the rest of the roster, which doesn't exactly work in Baddoo's favor. But Hinch doesn't want him thinking about that in the last few weeks of camp.
"Go play -- let us sort out what the roster looks like and where he fits in. You start putting that baggage on your brain and it's going to be a distraction," Hinch said Monday. "I've said this all along, you don't have to be perfect in the spring. We're looking at a longer view on a lot of these guys but also a short-term view on what they bring to the table. For him, it's just continuing to build his case to me, the coaching staff and the organization that he can be part of a Major League club."
23-year-old Willi Castro built his case last summer, at least with the bat. He's picked up this spring where he left off: 7-17 (.412) with two homers and three doubles. His defense at short remains a work in progress, but Hinch already has Castro penciled into a key spot in the Tigers' lineup.
"He's going to hit somewhere in the top half of the order," said Hinch. "Coming off of the success he had last season I can see why the organization was pretty high on him. Now our patience is really on the defensive side as he learns the pace of the game. Can he can stick at shortstop? I think so, he has to prove it, but I know we want him in the batter's box as often as possible."
