Scott Harris wants the Detroit Tigers to dominate the strike zone

The Detroit Tigers are going to start owning the strike zone.

The Detroit Tigers have hired their new front office leader. Scott Harris was named the team’s new president of baseball operations, which was a big move and a big step in a new direction for the Tigers organization.

As the Detroit Tigers introduced him during his press conference, Harris spoke about the three pillars and concepts he wants to employ with the Tigers organization. One of the things that stuck out to me was his comments about the strike zone.

He spoke about controlling and dominating the strike zone on both sides of the baseball. It’s a concept that sounds so simple and trivial when in reality, it can dictate a plethora of things that significantly affect the organization.

Harris said he wants pitchers who can dominate the zone, throwing strikes, missing barrels, and doing the things that will help the team “own the strike zone,” as he phrased it. On the other side, he wants hitters who can attack the fastball, jump on pitchers’ mistakes, and “own the strike zone.”

The common phrase here revolves around owning and dominating the strike zone. It’s something Harris wants to see out of this team moving forward. It will end up being important in the grand scheme of things.

Detroit Tigers’ Scott Harris’s strike zone comments have a deeper meaning.

As Harris mentioned, there’s more to it than pitchers throwing strikes and hitters getting on base. The levels to it make this such a big deal for an organization to succeed at owning the strike zone. What I mean is; Harris does not mean he wants Eduardo Rodríguez to go out there and throw strikes and live in the strike zone.

He’s trying to say that pitchers who go out there and are not efficient require a higher pitch count, which in turn requires more relievers to throw more pitches, decreasing the pitching staff’s durability.

A pitcher who lives in the zone, commands the ball, and can work through an outing owning the strike zone keeps the relievers relaxed and being used only when the team needs to close things out.

On the flip side, not taking strikes and being able to hunt fastballs, adjust to breaking balls, and be a big league hitter with awareness of the zone helps the team manufacture runs. Harris’ simple concept has a much deeper value to an organization.

Owning the zone on both sides of the baseball ultimately adds more wins to the team’s total by the end of the year. Harris wants to instill this as a core concept throughout the organization.

This is important because it allows players to develop these abilities and traits before arriving in the big leagues, so they are truly prepared. Harris’ visions seem like they will get to a point where the strike zone is positively influencing what the Tigers are doing.

The press conference itself left a lot of excitement around it; it was time for Harris to get to work and start instilling his concepts in his new organization.