Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Mailbag: Are Max Clark, Riley Greene worthy of extensions?
Transcript
- 0:09Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
- 0:12Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm Karen Steckley
- 0:16Speaker 1: with me as always a man who is incapable.
- 0:19Speaker 2: Of being on do not disturb mode. He is Cody Stepnaggan.
- 0:22Speaker 2: How are we doing?
- 0:23Speaker 3: Oh that's a little too true. It's a little too
- 0:26Speaker 3: close to home in this job. What's up everybody?
- 0:31Speaker 1: Obviously no new Tigers actions, so we decided we talked
- 0:35Speaker 1: about a few things. We asked for some questions on
- 0:38Speaker 1: X and you know, some good thought exercises, and again
- 0:40Speaker 1: I like, I like doing these for if nothing else,
- 0:43Speaker 1: because it gives us a sense, Cody of where the
- 0:47Speaker 1: fan base's mind is at, you know what I mean. So,
- 0:50Speaker 1: uh So we'll get into some of that, but I
- 0:52Speaker 1: did want to start out with uh with this.
- 0:56Speaker 2: You know, one of the.
- 0:58Speaker 1: Big losses at the trade line, Cody was Trek Schooble
- 1:02Speaker 1: not beyond the Tigers. And as it comes to us,
- 1:04Speaker 1: Terrek Schooble not beyond the Tigers for us to talk about.
- 1:07Speaker 1: I like talking about Trek Schooble. You guys liked it
- 1:10Speaker 1: when we talked about Trek Schooble, and so we haven't
- 1:12Speaker 1: had a chance to do it in a second, so
- 1:14Speaker 1: I thought, why don't we do a little Trek schoobl update,
- 1:17Speaker 1: you know, like well, just a little little check in
- 1:20Speaker 1: on Tarrek uh. So in case you're curious, he has
- 1:23Speaker 1: made three starts for the Dodgers. He is zero and
- 1:26Speaker 1: two with a three one eight e R. He's pitched
- 1:28Speaker 1: seventeen innings. Come you know, coming off a game in
- 1:32Speaker 1: which he pitched one hundred and nine pitches Cody, I
- 1:35Speaker 1: thought that was a typo at first. UH and and
- 1:39Speaker 1: and you know, kind of getting acclimated to I guess
- 1:42Speaker 1: southern California and the and the and what it means
- 1:45Speaker 1: to be a Dodger. I love those kind of like
- 1:48Speaker 1: little little clips of him just kind of going around
- 1:51Speaker 1: and you know, doing it, taking in everything new. That
- 1:53Speaker 1: is kind of interesting to me as such a routine guy,
- 1:56Speaker 1: just seeing how he's adapting to doing stuff in LA.
- 1:59Speaker 1: But he was also in the news because, you know, allegedly,
- 2:04Speaker 1: reportedly sources say blah blah blah, it seems like he's
- 2:08Speaker 1: motivated to uh to sign before the December one. It's
- 2:14Speaker 1: collective barding agreement expiration, so we don't even get the
- 2:20Speaker 1: I'm not going to miss an opportunity to talk about
- 2:22Speaker 1: a Trek Schooble contract extension or a free agency. We
- 2:26Speaker 1: just got that in the news this week, so I
- 2:27Speaker 1: thought we should talk about it any.
- 2:29Speaker 3: Actually, I can confirm that report the sources my brain.
- 2:33Speaker 3: Of course, Trek Scougel, who is aspiring to be the
- 2:36Speaker 3: highest paid pitcher ever, is going to want to sign
- 2:39Speaker 3: before the lockout, in which there could potentially be a
- 2:42Speaker 3: salary cap or some higher you know, harsher CBT taxes threshold,
- 2:47Speaker 3: something on the other end that could decent advise teams
- 2:50Speaker 3: like the Dodgers from spending. Of course, he's going to
- 2:53Speaker 3: want to sign before the lockout. People. That's the same
- 2:56Speaker 3: thing most Boris clients, Marcus Simeon and Corey Seeker did
- 3:00Speaker 3: before the last lockout. Trek Scoogle is almost certainly going
- 3:04Speaker 3: to sign before December first. Now to get that record deal.
- 3:09Speaker 3: None of people are talking about this. Trek school is
- 3:11Speaker 3: gonna make a lot a lot of money, and he
- 3:13Speaker 3: deserves it. But to get that record deal, we're talking
- 3:15Speaker 3: three hundred and fifty plus million, he might have to
- 3:18Speaker 3: finish this season a little, a little bit stronger. You
- 3:22Speaker 3: don't want to leave any doubt about whether you were
- 3:25Speaker 3: worth fifty million a season, or about whether you were
- 3:28Speaker 3: worth eight or ten years on a contract. Schoobl since
- 3:32Speaker 3: going to LA, he's really he's had one okay outing,
- 3:35Speaker 3: He's had one kind of bad outing. He's had one
- 3:37Speaker 3: pretty good outing. The narrative, even after his last outing
- 3:40Speaker 3: seemed like not great, even though he went what six innings,
- 3:43Speaker 3: one run, he wasn't that pitch efficient which led him
- 3:46Speaker 3: do going one hundred and nine. But wow, it's almost
- 3:49Speaker 3: like having a different manager means it's you're capable of
- 3:52Speaker 3: suddenly pitching more than ninety five pitches. It's almost like
- 3:55Speaker 3: Schooble wasn't demanding out of games once he reached ninety
- 3:58Speaker 3: five pitches or something. So I don't know, there's a
- 4:01Speaker 3: lot going on there. There will continue to be a
- 4:04Speaker 3: lot going on there. We'll see how the schedule lines up.
- 4:06Speaker 3: Might even get to see him at Comerica Park sooner
- 4:09Speaker 3: than later. Like I've said a million times, you know what,
- 4:12Speaker 3: I'm really not worried about Trek Scouble. For all the
- 4:14Speaker 3: noise around him, this guy's a really good pitcher. The
- 4:17Speaker 3: Dodgers mostly got him to pitch in October, although they
- 4:20Speaker 3: need to start winning some games themselves. But Trek School
- 4:24Speaker 3: is going to be just fine. The Dodgers are going
- 4:26Speaker 3: to be just fine. And free agency, he's gonna make
- 4:30Speaker 3: a lot of money. Yes there, yes, yes, I predict
- 4:33Speaker 3: they will be just fine.
- 4:36Speaker 2: Okay, I don't know.
- 4:38Speaker 1: I have some doubts on that one. You can only
- 4:41Speaker 1: you can only kick the can down the road so much, Cody.
- 4:44Speaker 2: That's uh, that's.
- 4:45Speaker 3: All talking about their financial situation. I don't know if
- 4:48Speaker 3: they'll Yeah, I don't know. I have to do a
- 4:51Speaker 3: lot more reading about that. In terms of their play
- 4:53Speaker 3: on the field in twenty six, I predict they will
- 4:56Speaker 3: be just fine.
- 4:58Speaker 2: They get it together about that, all that other stuff.
- 5:02Speaker 1: Uh, you know, bills come do. That's what the bills
- 5:05Speaker 1: tend to do. They tend to they tend to come do. Anyway,
- 5:08Speaker 1: all right, let's uh, let's get to some mailback questions here, Cody.
- 5:12Speaker 1: I like I said, when you when you when you
- 5:16Speaker 1: when you ask for questions, it gives you an idea
- 5:18Speaker 1: of what the fan base is thinking about. And and
- 5:20Speaker 1: on our last episode, we talked about Max Clark and
- 5:25Speaker 1: the Good things that that we have seen from him,
- 5:28Speaker 1: and given what this front office likes to do, it
- 5:33Speaker 1: stands to reason like, is there a motivation to this
- 5:37Speaker 1: comes from Sparky's ghosts? Will the Tigers extend Max Clark
- 5:41Speaker 1: or any of the other rookies before the CBA expires,
- 5:44Speaker 1: which again that's December first. Also, he asks who are
- 5:47Speaker 1: the swing and mis relievers the Tigers should target in
- 5:50Speaker 1: twenty twenty seven. I will say we will get to
- 5:52Speaker 1: that in the off season. We will have plenty of
- 5:54Speaker 1: time to uh to to talk about that.
- 5:57Speaker 3: Content answer for that right now is all of them
- 5:59Speaker 3: should target all of the swing and mis relievers, and
- 6:02Speaker 3: we'll hone in on a couple once we get to
- 6:05Speaker 3: the off season.
- 6:06Speaker 1: Yes so, but Max Clark extension. Does that idea do
- 6:12Speaker 1: anything for you?
- 6:14Speaker 3: It certainly does. It seems like the Tigers like to
- 6:17Speaker 3: at least try this with most of their young players.
- 6:20Speaker 3: They've extended Colt Keith and Kevin McGonagall. I'm of the
- 6:23Speaker 3: belief they have at least floated some extensions to others
- 6:26Speaker 3: that they also tend to like to start with extreme
- 6:29Speaker 3: low ball offers, like starting Trek Schoogle with four years
- 6:33Speaker 3: and seventy five million. So yeah, I think this would
- 6:40Speaker 3: make a lot of sense. Max Clark is not a
- 6:42Speaker 3: Bors client, He's a Wasserman or now called the team client,
- 6:47Speaker 3: So in theory, maybe this should be on the table.
- 6:50Speaker 3: What I'm most interested in is like, how do you
- 6:53Speaker 3: value Max Clark? Because the Tigers gave Hi McGonagle eight years,
- 6:57Speaker 3: one hundred and fifty million. That deal is going to
- 7:00Speaker 3: top out at twenty three million per season with incentives
- 7:04Speaker 3: from twenty thirty two to twenty thirty four. I think
- 7:08Speaker 3: we've talked about this son. There's probably enough uncertainty in
- 7:12Speaker 3: terms of Max Clark's floor that I don't think he's
- 7:17Speaker 3: going to get the McGonagall extension. So what would you
- 7:20Speaker 3: give him? What would you be comfortable giving him? Knowing
- 7:22Speaker 3: he certainly has the upside of a Corbin Carroll esque player,
- 7:28Speaker 3: and maybe that's where you begin drying out a comp.
- 7:32Speaker 3: Let's pull up the Corbyn Carroll contract real quick. Corbin
- 7:35Speaker 3: Carroll got eight years, one hundred and eleven million. That's
- 7:40Speaker 3: really all things considered, that sounds like a lot, But
- 7:43Speaker 3: when you're extending that over eight years, that's not a ton.
- 7:47Speaker 3: Twenty million is basically a two and a half war player.
- 7:51Speaker 3: I don't know exactly what Max Clark's gonna be, but
- 7:54Speaker 3: i'd like to think this guy's going to be a
- 7:56Speaker 3: two and a half war player as long as he
- 7:58Speaker 3: can play good d fins and center field. That's it's
- 8:01Speaker 3: not that hard to get there. So I don't know.
- 8:05Speaker 3: I'd be very curious kind of what the team's number
- 8:07Speaker 3: would be and what Max Clark's number would be, but
- 8:12Speaker 3: for something in the one hundred plus million range, I
- 8:16Speaker 3: think they should certainly be open to it.
- 8:19Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree with that.
- 8:21Speaker 1: My concern is given this, like when I know the
- 8:26Speaker 1: Colt Key thing is different because he had not played
- 8:28Speaker 1: in major leagues yet, but with mcgonagall's extension, like we
- 8:34Speaker 1: had a pretty solid major league sample size and you know,
- 8:38Speaker 1: throwing all the minor stuff and spring training even it
- 8:42Speaker 1: was like okay, like this, like we got we got
- 8:44Speaker 1: a pretty good idea here, and then we can structure
- 8:47Speaker 1: it this way. The whole point of Max Clark is
- 8:52Speaker 1: that there's a world where he would be quote more
- 8:55Speaker 1: valuable than even Kevin McGonagall. That's why he went third old.
- 9:00Speaker 1: I'm not saying that's how it will play out, but
- 9:03Speaker 1: like that's the idea behind a Max Clark right, especially
- 9:06Speaker 1: the center field piece. You know, we'll see where McGonagall
- 9:09Speaker 1: ends up defensively long term, and then we'll see where
- 9:12Speaker 1: Clark's bat lines up. But that complicates what a number
- 9:19Speaker 1: would be for either side to be able to be
- 9:21Speaker 1: comfortable with. So while I would certainly be comfortable with
- 9:25Speaker 1: the carrol S contract, I just don't know if there's
- 9:29Speaker 1: really any motivation on Clark's side to settle on a
- 9:33Speaker 1: number without even even he knowing exactly what he is
- 9:38Speaker 1: in the Major League. So that that would be my opinion,
- 9:42Speaker 1: And that's.
- 9:42Speaker 3: One reason I'm always kind of skeptical these things are
- 9:44Speaker 3: going to get done. The credit to From the way
- 9:48Speaker 3: I understand it, there was quite a bit of back
- 9:49Speaker 3: and forth on getting the McGonagall thing done, and the
- 9:53Speaker 3: way he played in spring and early in the season
- 9:55Speaker 3: might have incentivized getting it done and the Tigers paying
- 9:58Speaker 3: up a little bit more. Clark is interesting because there's
- 10:03Speaker 3: it feels to me a little riskier. But if I'm
- 10:06Speaker 3: Max Clerk, if I'm Max Clerk's agent, as you just said,
- 10:09Speaker 3: I don't know, man, he could be worth more than that,
- 10:12Speaker 3: especially if if he's ends up playing a gold glove defense,
- 10:16Speaker 3: which I don't know if he will, but he's already
- 10:18Speaker 3: showing he's that that outcome exists, right, So be fascinating
- 10:24Speaker 3: to see how those negotiations go down. I wouldn't be
- 10:26Speaker 3: shocked if the two sides at least chat about it.
- 10:31Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I'll lastly on that, I'll say that
- 10:35Speaker 1: if you look at like you say, like, it feels
- 10:38Speaker 1: more risky, Like that's kind of the Max Clerk experience
- 10:41Speaker 1: to this point, because it's a higher varity of variety
- 10:45Speaker 1: of outcomes, right, the higher variants. But at the same time,
- 10:49Speaker 1: if you just kind of look at everything he's done
- 10:51Speaker 1: this season just to get to the bigs and then
- 10:54Speaker 1: the big the big league experience he's had thus far,
- 10:58Speaker 1: he's done everything that's asked of him. He's come in
- 11:00Speaker 1: with a good attitude. If I'm him, I'm thinking I
- 11:04Speaker 1: have shown a lot of growth this year. There's no
- 11:07Speaker 1: reason for this to be a short curve, so I'm
- 11:10Speaker 1: not going to short curve my potential salary in the future.
- 11:16Speaker 3: So yeah, that while we're on this real quick and
- 11:18Speaker 3: that's like I've seen people like, oh, I can't believe
- 11:20Speaker 3: the Tigers didn't offer Casey Mice, like, what was the
- 11:25Speaker 3: market for Casey miz I don't know that we know
- 11:27Speaker 3: what the market for Casey Mice is right now. At
- 11:30Speaker 3: what point in his career would you have felt comfortable
- 11:33Speaker 3: offering him a sizeable amount of money? I mean, I
- 11:36Speaker 3: don't know. Could at the before the trade deadline? Could
- 11:39Speaker 3: you have offered him three forty five like I guess
- 11:43Speaker 3: if he wanted to. He was also hurt again right
- 11:46Speaker 3: around that time, So that's probably one reason that that
- 11:49Speaker 3: they never offered Casey anything. And again, if you're Casey
- 11:53Speaker 3: who was made an All Star team last year pitching
- 11:55Speaker 3: really well this year, Casey Mice has increased his value
- 11:58Speaker 3: a lot from let's even just say opening day, and
- 12:03Speaker 3: how he ultimately affairs in the free agent market will
- 12:05Speaker 3: probably depend a lot on what he does in the
- 12:07Speaker 3: final six weeks of this season with the Padres. So
- 12:12Speaker 3: sometimes it's hard to define what guys are actually worth.
- 12:16Speaker 2: Exactly.
- 12:17Speaker 1: We are going to get to a quick break and then,
- 12:19Speaker 1: speaking of defining what a guy is actually worth, we
- 12:23Speaker 1: have another extension question with a three time All Star
- 12:25Speaker 1: on this Tigers team.
- 12:26Speaker 2: But first a word from our sponsors.
- 12:29Speaker 4: What if you can actually have it all. And I'm
- 12:31Speaker 4: talking about mint Mobile taking the premium wireless bouginess crats,
- 12:37Speaker 4: but then bringing it to the transparency in pricing and
- 12:40Speaker 4: the affordability in pricing.
- 12:43Speaker 5: They're going to lay everything out there with a cheap
- 12:45Speaker 5: bill that you know what everybody can handle. Right now.
- 12:49Speaker 4: You can even bring your current phone and your number.
- 12:51Speaker 4: If you're thinking about it and you're like, I'm worried
- 12:53Speaker 4: about that, No worries. They have you covered because they're
- 12:56Speaker 4: able to convert people all the time to the mint
- 12:59Speaker 4: Mobile way. Go to mintmobile dot com slash territory. That's
- 13:02Speaker 4: mintmobile dot com slash territory. Cut your wireless bill of
- 13:05Speaker 4: fifteen bucks a month at mintmobile dot com slash territory.
- 13:08Speaker 5: That's it.
- 13:08Speaker 4: There's no catch upfront payment of forty five dollars for
- 13:11Speaker 4: three months, ninety dollars for six months, or one hundred
- 13:14Speaker 4: and eighty dollars for twelve month. Plan required fifteen dollars
- 13:16Speaker 4: per month equivalent taxes and fees extra initial plan term
- 13:20Speaker 4: only greater than fifty gigabytes may slow when network is busy.
- 13:23Speaker 4: Includes up to twenty gigabyte hotspot capable device required availability, speed,
- 13:28Speaker 4: and coverage varies see mintmobile dot com.
- 13:33Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, So if you want to
- 13:35Speaker 1: talk about risk, let's go with a Riley Green extension question.
- 13:39Speaker 1: This is from Spankster the Gangster. What are the odds
- 13:44Speaker 1: of Riley parentheses ever getting extended? And if the Tigers
- 13:49Speaker 1: do make an offer, do you think it would the
- 13:51Speaker 1: total money would be more than Kevin mcgonagall's one hundred
- 13:54Speaker 1: and fifty million. So, just to recap Riley Green, obviously
- 13:57Speaker 1: he's currently hurt, but he is a three time All
- 14:00Speaker 1: Star if people care about that, He's a five point
- 14:02Speaker 1: three war player in twenty four, two point two war
- 14:04Speaker 1: player in twenty five, and as of right now, he
- 14:08Speaker 1: is a two point zero war player. So and we
- 14:12Speaker 1: and you know, seeking a variance. We've seen a different
- 14:14Speaker 1: type of Riley Green just in this last three years
- 14:17Speaker 1: really in terms of what his profile actually is. So
- 14:20Speaker 1: what are your thoughts on a Riley Green extension?
- 14:23Speaker 3: Sure? What's he have two more years of team control?
- 14:26Speaker 3: Is that right?
- 14:27Speaker 2: Yes? So free agent in twenty twenty nine.
- 14:30Speaker 3: Three time All Star, another player fascinating to do. I've
- 14:34Speaker 3: already heard from a couple agents like kind of saying
- 14:37Speaker 3: that they don't think Riley Green is going to do
- 14:38Speaker 3: that well on the free agent market in two more
- 14:41Speaker 3: years because he's a corner outfielder and he's no longer
- 14:46Speaker 3: grading out as a good defender. He's now grading out
- 14:48Speaker 3: as a below average defender. And if you're a below
- 14:51Speaker 3: average defender, you better be hitting. You better be an
- 14:55Speaker 3: elite hitter, not just a very good hitter. Right now,
- 14:57Speaker 3: Riley good as he is. I think he's very talented,
- 15:00Speaker 3: terrific player, probably profiles a little more on the very
- 15:03Speaker 3: good range. Not necessarily the type of guy who's gonna get,
- 15:08Speaker 3: certainly not one hundred and fifty million dollar deal. I
- 15:11Speaker 3: feel pretty confidencing I'd be stunned if Riley Green were
- 15:14Speaker 3: to get that much in an extension or even when
- 15:16Speaker 3: he eventually becomes a free agent. Now, what he is
- 15:19Speaker 3: is a pretty dang good player, though it is worth remindering,
- 15:22Speaker 3: like if you go on fangrafts two and a half
- 15:24Speaker 3: war that's twenty million last year, two point nine or
- 15:28Speaker 3: twenty three million, So you know, I think if I'm
- 15:32Speaker 3: Riley's camp, I would be wanting to see nine figures,
- 15:36Speaker 3: so five one hundred six, one twenty five if you consider, yeah,
- 15:42Speaker 3: if you consider his actual production. That's not that's not crazy,
- 15:48Speaker 3: but the injury risk looms large. The fact he's already
- 15:51Speaker 3: slowed down, already declined as a fielder would make me
- 15:54Speaker 3: very hesitant as a franchise to extend him. I think
- 16:00Speaker 3: the Tigers would be more comfortable seeing where he's at
- 16:03Speaker 3: in a couple of years, right, seeing how his body
- 16:06Speaker 3: is doing, how he's aging. So there could be dh
- 16:08Speaker 3: risk with Riley Green. There could be things that inhibit
- 16:11Speaker 3: his earnings. It's one of the reasons him getting hurt
- 16:14Speaker 3: this year, even though it seems relatively minor, is unfortunate.
- 16:17Speaker 3: He was playing his butt off, even though speeding defense
- 16:20Speaker 3: weren't there. He was staying healthy right, he was on
- 16:22Speaker 3: the field producing well at the plate. That's about all
- 16:27Speaker 3: I got to say. I've we've kind of been talking
- 16:28Speaker 3: about this for a couple of years already because it's
- 16:31Speaker 3: just hard to know. But I also think if you're
- 16:35Speaker 3: the Tigers, like it's kind of hard to pull the
- 16:38Speaker 3: trigger on the extension. As you said, Kieren, there's a
- 16:40Speaker 3: little too much risk there, I think.
- 16:43Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 16:44Speaker 1: And for the record, he turns twenty six in late September.
- 16:48Speaker 3: She's still really young.
- 16:50Speaker 2: He is still very young.
- 16:52Speaker 1: There is an extension number that I'm comfortable with there,
- 16:54Speaker 1: or I would say length, There is an extension length
- 16:57Speaker 1: that I am comfortable with basically before you get too
- 17:02Speaker 1: far in the backs, like in the early thirties, Like
- 17:04Speaker 1: any number there like I can work with. And then
- 17:08Speaker 1: again a lot of this is CBA dependent, but numbers.
- 17:11Speaker 1: If you're just like kind of in line and you
- 17:13Speaker 1: do a little bit of projection with what his war
- 17:16Speaker 1: is worth, you know, according to all these metrics that
- 17:18Speaker 1: people use, it's not outrageous to me, but it does
- 17:22Speaker 1: put you in a position to have to pay for
- 17:25Speaker 1: something that you don't have to, which.
- 17:27Speaker 2: Is always a risk with extensions.
- 17:28Speaker 1: But Riley Green Optics and his history like tells you
- 17:34Speaker 1: like that's something that has to be taken into account.
- 17:36Speaker 1: And then from his perspective, it's like, hey, I'm worth
- 17:38Speaker 1: a minimum of this, Why would I accept anything less
- 17:42Speaker 1: when I have prime years left to prove myself being
- 17:47Speaker 1: being worth maybe double what they would be offering. So
- 17:50Speaker 1: it seems unlikely on both sides, but I think it
- 17:52Speaker 1: could get done if people were if people were motivated
- 17:55Speaker 1: for it.
- 17:56Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd be surprised if the Tigers are motivated for
- 18:00Speaker 3: but you never know. I have not, I have not
- 18:02Speaker 3: heard that directly, so we'll see what happens.
- 18:06Speaker 2: Well.
- 18:07Speaker 1: Speaking of projecting, now, we have a question from Carson Parker.
- 18:11Speaker 1: What do you guys, what do you do with guys
- 18:14Speaker 1: like Torque and carry this winner with Brasigo and Hope
- 18:18Speaker 1: not far away? This is a question that I've bounced
- 18:22Speaker 1: around in my head, Cody, especially every time you get
- 18:25Speaker 1: a highlight a host way and you know, Hope just
- 18:28Speaker 1: had like a double and a home run the other night, so, like,
- 18:32Speaker 1: you know, nice to see him get out of that slump.
- 18:36Speaker 1: I don't think any move is going to come this
- 18:39Speaker 1: offseason with either one of them. I think the Tigers
- 18:42Speaker 1: will do the thing where they hang on, maybe try
- 18:45Speaker 1: to add some competition, maybe organically create some competition for
- 18:48Speaker 1: these guys. But I don't see them cutting bait or
- 18:53Speaker 1: being subject to a roster crunch yet.
- 18:57Speaker 2: That's my blos.
- 18:59Speaker 3: I think think you're probably right. It's just really interesting
- 19:04Speaker 3: to try to project this out. I would say you
- 19:06Speaker 3: can't just bank on everything going smoothly for these guys
- 19:10Speaker 3: who are not yet in the major leagues. Yeah, or
- 19:13Speaker 3: one more injury if Persiennio gets hit in the hand
- 19:16Speaker 3: and has to have another surgery, then you're like, oh, well,
- 19:19Speaker 3: we probably shouldn't have cut Torque. So I don't think
- 19:21Speaker 3: it's gonna happen. Yeah, that smoothly, that decisively is letting
- 19:25Speaker 3: it happen organically the best way, maybe, But you can
- 19:29Speaker 3: also kind of see all these roadblocks coming. I wish
- 19:34Speaker 3: the Tigers could find some way to make a trade
- 19:37Speaker 3: or two that kind of cleans things up for them
- 19:39Speaker 3: at the major league level. I don't know what that
- 19:41Speaker 3: looks like, but I wonder if that's possible this offseason.
- 19:45Speaker 3: I almost think it's necessary this offseason in some form
- 19:48Speaker 3: or fashion. Think about it. Even you have the infield's
- 19:53Speaker 3: getting crowded, you have how yu Lee, Max Anderson a
- 19:56Speaker 3: year from now here, and Bryce Rayner might be knocking
- 19:59Speaker 3: on your door real loudly, and so it's like, okay, well,
- 20:01Speaker 3: one natural pivot is putting cold Keith to first base,
- 20:06Speaker 3: where granted, this guy's got work to do defensively, but
- 20:08Speaker 3: that could clean some things up if you decide you're
- 20:11Speaker 3: over the Torque experience. At the same time, Kieran, I
- 20:15Speaker 3: don't think the Tigers are in the business of just
- 20:17Speaker 3: moving on from guys who can hit twenty five to
- 20:19Speaker 3: thirty homers a year, even if they're not maybe the
- 20:22Speaker 3: well rounded players we would like them to be. We've
- 20:25Speaker 3: talked about Tour looking more like a well rounded hitter
- 20:28Speaker 3: in recent days. That matters, Actually, like what he does matters,
- 20:33Speaker 3: Carrie too. I think it's almost less pressing with Carry.
- 20:37Speaker 3: You would love to have the good version of Carry
- 20:39Speaker 3: Carpenter back, but you can always fall back on him
- 20:42Speaker 3: just being a lefty platoon killer, and you'll probably always
- 20:46Speaker 3: have room on your roster for that type of guy.
- 20:49Speaker 3: The idea of him playing a ton in the field,
- 20:52Speaker 3: him playing more every day is probably fading as he
- 20:55Speaker 3: misses more time with injury, unfortunately, but that still exists
- 20:59Speaker 3: for him to works. The one that it's just a
- 21:01Speaker 3: little more uncertain because every time you're like, oh, well,
- 21:05Speaker 3: maybe it's just time to move on, either he starts
- 21:07Speaker 3: playing better or then solsis like, I don't know, Like,
- 21:10Speaker 3: is this a guy you want to let go? And
- 21:12Speaker 3: then he goes and he has a career year for
- 21:14Speaker 3: the Milwaukee Brewers. You know, I don't think you make
- 21:17Speaker 3: that move until you have to, So yeah, yeah.
- 21:22Speaker 1: And again like my my, My opinion on Torque has
- 21:25Speaker 1: always been show me, show me the replacement that is
- 21:29Speaker 1: realistic and and and gives you at least some measure
- 21:33Speaker 1: of upside that Torque does. And the Prasinia thing is real.
- 21:36Speaker 1: It's not me knocking him as a prospect. But he's
- 21:39Speaker 1: also still in double A right now, right, So like.
- 21:42Speaker 3: Preceno is really good, you know, was a really good
- 21:48Speaker 3: prospect who could hit Spencer.
- 21:53Speaker 1: Spencer, Yeah, exactly, so until I get proof of concept.
- 21:58Speaker 3: Has played six games and Bullet by the way, okay.
- 22:01Speaker 1: Six games, so yeah, sorry about that. So so yeah,
- 22:04Speaker 1: that's that's a factor. And I think eventually a decision
- 22:07Speaker 1: will have to be made. I just don't think it's
- 22:10Speaker 1: going to be in the winter of twenty six going
- 22:11Speaker 1: into twenty seventh.
- 22:12Speaker 2: That would be my answer to that.
- 22:14Speaker 1: All right, speaking of crowded what's this comes from Moman's
- 22:19Speaker 1: play what's the reality when it comes to Jace Young
- 22:21Speaker 1: in his future as a Tiger.
- 22:24Speaker 3: We just went through that whole discussion without mentioning Jace Young,
- 22:27Speaker 3: which is telling, uh, this is a guy you know
- 22:32Speaker 3: that I wonder if the Tigers will move on from
- 22:35Speaker 3: this winner. I'm not sure that I just think it's
- 22:37Speaker 3: unfortunate Young has never gotten a longer run in the
- 22:40Speaker 3: major leagues. He only has one hundred and fifty seven
- 22:43Speaker 3: played appearances, Kieren. I feel like there are times they
- 22:46Speaker 3: could have brought him up this year, and you know,
- 22:49Speaker 3: just to have a lefty infield bat. It seems pretty
- 22:52Speaker 3: clear they've soured on him, and yet they've kept him around,
- 22:55Speaker 3: kept him on the forty man roster to the point
- 22:57Speaker 3: I'm like, why is he occupying a forty man spot
- 23:00Speaker 3: if it's pretty clear you're not going to bring him up.
- 23:03Speaker 3: He's hit two thirty two in Toledo this year, which
- 23:05Speaker 3: isn't great. He does have nineteen homers seven to eighty ops.
- 23:10Speaker 3: Like again, it's not like he's really stated the case
- 23:12Speaker 3: for himself. It's also not like he's been terrible. I
- 23:16Speaker 3: remember a scout told me this year they just bring
- 23:18Speaker 3: up yet Trace Young. He can at least give you
- 23:20Speaker 3: a quality at bat. Fielding's not great, but I think
- 23:23Speaker 3: there's I think he is a major league hitdterer, and
- 23:26Speaker 3: I think another team would pick him up and he
- 23:29Speaker 3: could be on a major league roster somewhere. Seems like
- 23:33Speaker 3: that's got to be coming to a head. This winner.
- 23:36Speaker 1: Feels like a guy that could go to like Tampa
- 23:40Speaker 1: or the Baltimore or to the A's and do you
- 23:44Speaker 1: like look up and you're just like, does he really
- 23:47Speaker 1: have seventeen home runs?
- 23:49Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
- 23:50Speaker 1: Like it it feels like that could that could be
- 23:53Speaker 1: the play for him, and hopefully like it seems like
- 23:55Speaker 1: he's definitely had a challenging road to this point in
- 23:59Speaker 1: his professional career. So if if that's what happens for him,
- 24:02Speaker 1: I'd be happy for him, but I would always I
- 24:05Speaker 1: will always be disappointed that I never felt like he
- 24:08Speaker 1: got any sort of run, because I did feel like
- 24:11Speaker 1: the profiled marriage.
- 24:13Speaker 3: Well, and we are now clearly at the point where
- 24:15Speaker 3: other players are getting chances before him, probably because the
- 24:19Speaker 3: Tigers like their overall profiles more right, which is which
- 24:22Speaker 3: is fine, but doesn't mean that Jase Young, Jace Young,
- 24:26Speaker 3: I would imagine, has probably gone from the point of
- 24:28Speaker 3: like why am I not getting a chance to like
- 24:31Speaker 3: just send me somewhere else, man, you know.
- 24:34Speaker 1: Yeah, we'll see, Yeah, well we shall see. All right, We're
- 24:37Speaker 1: going to take a quick break and then afterward we
- 24:39Speaker 1: have a question about what to do about the rest
- 24:41Speaker 1: of the season. The first we're from our sponsors.
- 24:48Speaker 4: If you're watching us, you already know we're wearing mack
- 24:50Speaker 4: Weldon right now as we talk about a great brand
- 24:53Speaker 4: that makes things so comfortable and easy to wear. But
- 24:56Speaker 4: if you're listening to the show, let me tell you
- 24:58Speaker 4: a little bit more about mack Weldon with my friend
- 25:00Speaker 4: Aer Kratz.
- 25:02Speaker 5: Yeah, it's comfortable, it's light. It's summertime right now. For
- 25:06Speaker 5: me though, they cater to what I need tall clothes. Normally,
- 25:11Speaker 5: when I buy tall clothes it's like something that's cumbersome
- 25:15Speaker 5: and boxy. It still fits incredibly well, super light, perfect
- 25:20Speaker 5: for the summertime. They got me all covered.
- 25:23Speaker 4: Comfortable performance material can be yours. Mack Weldon is the spot.
- 25:30Speaker 4: Don't sweat the heat this summer. Feel as effortlessly cool
- 25:33Speaker 4: as you look with Mack Weldon. Go to Mackweldon dot
- 25:36Speaker 4: com and get twenty percent off your first order of
- 25:37Speaker 4: one hundred and twenty five bucks or more with promo
- 25:39Speaker 4: code foul. That's m ackw e l d o N
- 25:42Speaker 4: dot com code f o U L.
- 25:48Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, this comes from g money
- 25:52Speaker 1: and obviously kind of feeling after this Pirate series loss.
- 25:56Speaker 1: So the Tigers continue this postseason push. The bullpen isn't
- 25:59Speaker 1: going to get them out of the wildcart and at
- 26:01Speaker 1: what point do you just try to keep everyone healthy
- 26:04Speaker 1: for next year? Speaking of which, can we get a
- 26:08Speaker 1: Meadows and Wentze update? We said our last episode Wentzel
- 26:12Speaker 1: might be getting a rehab start soon. Feels like Meadows
- 26:16Speaker 1: far away with that broken broken arm and you know,
- 26:19Speaker 1: having the heel in multiple places. But but yeah, so
- 26:23Speaker 1: is there like, is there still incentive to push for
- 26:25Speaker 1: the postseason?
- 26:27Speaker 3: Essentially this question, Yeah, I don't really know what this
- 26:29Speaker 3: question means. I mean, you have to you have to
- 26:32Speaker 3: play the rest of the schedule, all right. I don't
- 26:33Speaker 3: think the Tigers will be forfeiting the rest of the season.
- 26:36Speaker 2: Get much younger, that's the other thing.
- 26:39Speaker 3: I guess it means, like stop giving opportunities to veterans,
- 26:43Speaker 3: shut down the Riley Greens of the world so they
- 26:45Speaker 3: stay healthy or whatever. I mean, that seems a little
- 26:49Speaker 3: extreme to me. You already do have a young roster.
- 26:51Speaker 3: There's only so much further you can go with with
- 26:54Speaker 3: playing the kids. You kept Kenley Jansen, you kept Glaberts.
- 26:58Speaker 3: Whereas at the trade deadline and like you're you have
- 27:02Speaker 3: to play those guys to some extent. So yeah, yes,
- 27:07Speaker 3: and also yes they should continue the postseason push. As
- 27:10Speaker 3: bad as it's been, as much as I do not
- 27:12Speaker 3: like this bullpen, they are in it, and in the
- 27:14Speaker 3: week stayed with the American League. They're probably gonna stay
- 27:17Speaker 3: somewhat in it until the until the final days of
- 27:21Speaker 3: the season. I will they do it, like, I don't
- 27:23Speaker 3: know if they can, if they get hot, or the
- 27:25Speaker 3: bullpen can continue to crush them. I'm not gonna predict
- 27:28Speaker 3: what's gonna happen. I think the unfortunate, somewhat unfortunate reality
- 27:32Speaker 3: is this American League wildcard race is so bad, so chaotic,
- 27:37Speaker 3: that they're probably going to stay in this thing. They're
- 27:39Speaker 3: one good series away from being right back there, probably
- 27:42Speaker 3: even occupying a playoff spot. So yeah, yeah.
- 27:47Speaker 1: The way I look at it, Cody, is like, I
- 27:50Speaker 1: still believe there is value in merit for the guys
- 27:53Speaker 1: that are going to be on this team long term
- 27:55Speaker 1: to be in a high pressured postseason push.
- 28:00Speaker 2: You know, maybe make it, maybe not, you know whatever.
- 28:03Speaker 1: Like the guys like keV McGonagall, the guys like Max Clark,
- 28:06Speaker 1: like playing meaningful games I think is meaningful you know,
- 28:10Speaker 1: I mean like and like and and obviously you got
- 28:13Speaker 1: to deal with this point of the season as a whole.
- 28:15Speaker 1: But if you're just kind of being really narrowly focused
- 28:17Speaker 1: here horse blinders on like every day, there's something there.
- 28:21Speaker 1: There's an opportunity for these guys to make, you know,
- 28:25Speaker 1: to make the play that kind of pushes his team forward.
- 28:28Speaker 1: Whereas as bad as the season has been, not every
- 28:30Speaker 1: team gets to say that. And so I do think
- 28:32Speaker 1: there's value long term for these guys to be in
- 28:35Speaker 1: in this situation. So that's it, I'd be how I answer.
- 28:37Speaker 3: That, Yeah, I don't think there's any pulling the plug
- 28:40Speaker 3: until you're mathematically eliminated, which again is not gonna happen
- 28:44Speaker 3: anytime soon.
- 28:46Speaker 1: All right, let's wrap up with this one. How high
- 28:50Speaker 1: this is from Matt Broadhead? How high is the ceiling
- 28:55Speaker 1: for one Drew Summers?
- 28:58Speaker 2: Well? Is it? Does the ceiling exist? Is my follow
- 29:02Speaker 2: up question there?
- 29:03Speaker 3: Cody. You look at this Drue Summer stat cast page.
- 29:06Speaker 3: We showed a couple episodes ago. It's only gotten better
- 29:09Speaker 3: since then. He is ninety ninth or one hundred percent
- 29:13Speaker 3: style in a lot of categories, thirty six point three
- 29:18Speaker 3: percent strikeout rate, thirty seven point six percent, chase rate,
- 29:22Speaker 3: elite extension, elite ground ball rate, elite hard hit rate.
- 29:26Speaker 3: Like he's pitching like a guy who has a very,
- 29:30Speaker 3: very high ceiling. How do you describe that ceiling for
- 29:33Speaker 3: like a lefty reliever. I don't I don't know. I'm
- 29:37Speaker 3: not really prepared to say, like, oh, he's he's a
- 29:40Speaker 3: future closer, because like, does he have a Josh had fastball?
- 29:44Speaker 2: No?
- 29:45Speaker 3: Does he even have a Josh Hater? I mean that
- 29:47Speaker 3: some of the numbers on slide are pretty nasty, But
- 29:49Speaker 3: is he going to be a guy who uses that
- 29:52Speaker 3: sixty percent of the time or something? I'm not sure.
- 29:55Speaker 3: I think maybe you can settle for elite lefty reliever
- 29:58Speaker 3: and you could feel pretty good about that. Obviously, he's
- 30:01Speaker 3: still kind of polishing. Maybe some of the rough edges
- 30:05Speaker 3: the command can get away from him at points, even
- 30:07Speaker 3: just mentally, like being a dog who comes down and
- 30:12Speaker 3: locks down a big situation, that's something you have to
- 30:14Speaker 3: grow into a little bit. It is there, and he
- 30:17Speaker 3: is really close to becoming a full on force. For now,
- 30:22Speaker 3: I'm gonna leave that as just like one of the
- 30:23Speaker 3: better lefty relievers in the game. I don't know, you know,
- 30:26Speaker 3: I don't know if I ever see Drew Summers saving
- 30:29Speaker 3: forty games in the big leagues or anything like that.
- 30:34Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I see the vision for a long time.
- 30:37Speaker 1: Admittedly I didn't because it just seemed too wild to me.
- 30:40Speaker 1: But now I get it, and now I'm kind of
- 30:43Speaker 1: like carrying water for him where I'm like, he's just
- 30:45Speaker 1: getting beat by these bs ground balls, like you know,
- 30:49Speaker 1: to the right of the shortstop and the left of
- 30:51Speaker 1: the third basement, you know what I mean. And so
- 30:54Speaker 1: give him credit and give the Tigers credit for being
- 30:56Speaker 1: patient with him and him taking the instructions and all
- 30:59Speaker 1: that stuff. He might end up being like the left
- 31:02Speaker 1: handed side. If AJ could ever like truly platoon his
- 31:06Speaker 1: safe situations quote unquote, he might be the lefty part.
- 31:09Speaker 3: Definitely going back to that next year, you know. Yeah, Oh,
- 31:13Speaker 3: we're definitely going back to there's no closer next year. Yeah.
- 31:17Speaker 1: If if like will Vest or a will Vest equivalent,
- 31:21Speaker 1: Uh is in on the team in twenty twenty seven,
- 31:24Speaker 1: the lefty part of it is AJ and he's just
- 31:26Speaker 1: gonna play around, you know what I mean.
- 31:28Speaker 2: Or the lefty part of it is Drew and AJ
- 31:31Speaker 2: is just going to play around.
- 31:32Speaker 3: Drew Summer is gonna like eleven saves next year. It's
- 31:36Speaker 3: gonna be talking like should he be the closer?
- 31:38Speaker 1: Yeah, and then AJ is gonna be like, you know
- 31:40Speaker 1: I had I had multiple guys with ten plus saves.
- 31:43Speaker 1: You know, he's you know, he's gonna go on and
- 31:45Speaker 1: on about that. So so yeah, I mean, like I said,
- 31:49Speaker 1: credit to him, Credit to the staff for like being
- 31:52Speaker 1: able to get him to focus and hone in on
- 31:54Speaker 1: what can make him really really really effective. Uh and
- 31:59Speaker 1: if you're gonna go and the feeld ratings of the
- 32:02Speaker 1: guys that they have really relied on these past couple
- 32:04Speaker 1: of weeks, between him and Finnigan and ken Lee, I mean,
- 32:08Speaker 1: he might be number one now, which maybe that's a
- 32:12Speaker 1: little bit reactionary, but the numbers kind of bear that out.
- 32:16Speaker 3: Metrically, he has been the best pitcher in the bullpen.
- 32:19Speaker 3: It's not really close. And even some of the other,
- 32:21Speaker 3: like we talked about Kenley's metrics a little better than
- 32:23Speaker 3: you would think that, Like, Summers has been the dude
- 32:26Speaker 3: and his results are just now kind of matching up
- 32:29Speaker 3: to his process to like the way he is pitching.
- 32:33Speaker 3: So there's a lot to be encouraged about for sure.
- 32:37Speaker 1: All right, and we will see what happens in Kansas
- 32:39Speaker 1: City this weekend. Of course, we will talk about it
- 32:42Speaker 1: on Monday for you guys, and then moving forward the
- 32:45Speaker 1: rest of the year as we figure out what to
- 32:48Speaker 1: do with this Tiger's team. It might take a whole
- 32:49Speaker 1: one hundred and sixty two to figure out what to
- 32:51Speaker 1: do with this Tiger's team, but we'll be there every
- 32:53Speaker 1: step of the way.
- 32:54Speaker 2: You can follow us at Cody Stavenhagen.
- 32:55Speaker 1: I'm at Kieran on a sports decicly pot page, at
- 32:58Speaker 1: Tiger Territory, Underscore, at YouTube, Spotify.
- 33:00Speaker 2: You guys know what to do.
- 33:01Speaker 1: We appreciate all of you, so for Cody Stavenhagen, I'm
- 33:04Speaker 1: Kieren Steckley. Everybody have great there,