LOOK: Detroit Tigers send letter to season ticket holders admitting they suck

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Let’s face it. The 2017 Detroit Tigers season has been, to put it nicely, a train wreck. Heading into the season, not many were picking them to beat out the Cleveland Indians for the American League Central Division crown, but even fewer picked them to be one of the worst teams in the worst teams in baseball.

But that’s exactly what they are with just 30 games remaining in the season. At 58-74 (.439 winning %), the Tigers currently have the 5th worst winning percentage in Major League Baseball, despite having a HUGE payroll.

This week, the Tigers sent their season ticket holders a letter admitting it’s been a “frustrating” and “difficult” season. But that “apology” was over before the end of the first paragraph of the letter. The rest of the letter sounded more like a car salesman doing their best to stop a potential buyer from walking out the door.

The rest of the letter, which was signed by Tigers Al Avila (Executive VP of Baseball Operations and GM) and Duane McLean (Executive VP of Business Operations), sounded more like a car salesman doing their best to stop a potential buyer from walking out the door.

“As you know, the franchise is transitioning into a new era, and that transition is well under way. For starters, the construction of our Major League roster is taking on a more “home-grown” approach. We have committed to spending and investing significant resources in player development – including the addition of domestic and international scouts, minor league instructors, support programs for players, world-class facilities in Lakeland and renovations to our Dominican Academy. Further investment has been made in the aggressive build-out of our analytics department, and the introduction of Caesar, a decision-support program that houses reports from our talent evaluators, as well as baseball analytics.”

What do you think, Nation? If you are a season ticket holder for the Tigers, is this letter enough to get you to renew for the 2018 season?

H/T to Detroit Free Press for photo of letter

5 COMMENTS

  1. Al Avila talks out of both sides of his mouth. Says it isn’t a salary dump, and then says they have to try and trade Verlander and Miggy the two faces of the franchise who both will go into the Hall of Fame as Tigers. ‘Cut off your nose to spite your face’ is all this amounts to. The Tigers will lose many season ticket holders, get a lousy tv revenue package, and turn many fans off by trading the two great players.
    Who really has any confidence that Avila would get anything of value in terms of prospects for Justin or Miggy?? Look at the terrible prospect packages he got for JD and Wilson and his son.
    If that was their plan Avila should have keot his big mouth shut, like Dombrowski used to, and not told the immediate world in early 2017 that the Tigers players were all tradeable.
    No other GM in his right mind would give anything of value knowing Avila and the Tigers plan.
    Another big problem is the front office and the incompetent group that runs the scouting, drafting and player development. Dave Chadd, Dave Littlefield, Dave Owens, and Scott Pleis have been collecting paychecks for years and hardly any players come to Detroit prepared in all phases of baseball. If Chris Ilitch had a pair and wants to get the Tigers back into contention, he would get rid of the clown show running the team, and put smart baseball men in charge of scouting, drafting and player development. What all this amounts to is the Tigers will be a bad baseball team for the foreseeable future years. Many fans have also voiced their concerns of these alleged baseball minds, getting good players; major league or minor league/major league ready from any trades or in future drafts.

    • They look just as bad as Wings and unfortunately it may go higher than Al Avila . City of Detroit under current management of all it’s sport teams aren’t in a good place , gonna look lean for years to come .

  2. The Tigers have nearly completed their salary dump. Verlander and Upton gone. Miggy will prolly be dumped with his bad back to save further cash to pay for the new LCA. This may be the last straw for some. Piss poor record, marketing hyped stars traded away where a season ticket holder could not feel anything except being ripped off to support that top dollar payroll. Will there be refunds coming? Hell no!

    That hat in hand letter was nothing but disgusting. Golly gee…can we suck out more cash from you as season ticket holders next year? We will offer new “reach-around” optional packages next year to suck you in again.

    More things to come: Reduced TV revenue due to less desire to watch a losing team. Ad revenue down due to lower ratings. Average attendance numbers will drop as Aliva has decided to develop a new team that may have slightly more talent than a little league team. Remember the bleak years between 1973 and 1984? They will be back.

  3. What? It took you 6 months to figure out how bad the kittys were? What rose colored glasses were you watching the team with? Be thankful the team got some decent prospects.

  4. All of the used car salesmanship and a
    20% increase on 2018 season tickets compared to 2017, based on the
    invoices just sent out. Additionally, season ticket payment deadlines
    are about 3 months earlier (11/16/17) than 2017. This must be part of
    the “decision support system” to help dump season ticket holders….

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