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What we learned from the Tigers in the Dominican · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:12
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, the Tiger's Podcast. I'm Karen Steckley.
0:16
Speaker 1: With me as always is a man who's aura has
0:20
Speaker 1: no language barrier.
0:21
Speaker 2: He is Cody Stevenaggan.
0:22
Speaker 3: How you doing? It's doing all right? I don't know
0:24
Speaker 3: about that.
0:25
Speaker 4: My Spanish has been put to the test the last
0:27
Speaker 4: couple of days here and sent it to Mingo. I
0:30
Speaker 4: realize if you just say see or no, that'll get
0:33
Speaker 4: you by most of the time.
0:36
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, man, I have a lot of
0:38
Speaker 1: bad puns that are going through my head, but I'm
0:40
Speaker 1: gonna avoid him right now. But I will just say
0:42
Speaker 1: it was very exciting to see Kevin McGonagall launch a
0:46
Speaker 1: home run against Laris Severino, first pitch, ninety eight down
0:51
Speaker 1: the middle, four hundred and sixty one feet Like, look, dude,
0:54
Speaker 1: like I think I said last episode, like look like
0:58
Speaker 1: we're just gonna have to keep leading with him as
1:00
Speaker 1: long as he just keeps doing it, and like it
1:02
Speaker 1: was like the world belongs to Kevin McGonagall. Then he
1:04
Speaker 1: goes international and goes three for three as a walk
1:07
Speaker 1: in there, three ribies. I don't like, I have a
1:10
Speaker 1: lot to say, but I also don't have anything more
1:13
Speaker 1: to say because the conversation keeps being the same. This
1:17
Speaker 1: guy continues to look for real and yes.
1:21
Speaker 2: It's an exhibition.
1:22
Speaker 1: Yes, there are other factors that play here in terms
1:25
Speaker 1: of what these teams are trying to accomplish in these
1:27
Speaker 1: international exhibitions, But at the same time, single, a double,
1:33
Speaker 1: a triple a spring training, you know, international exhibitions against
1:38
Speaker 1: all star teams. The dude just continues to look like
1:41
Speaker 1: the same guy, and the reasons to not get excited,
1:45
Speaker 1: not get overly hyped continue to diminish.
1:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, he slapped his third hit of the
1:52
Speaker 4: night and I was just like I was in the
1:54
Speaker 4: press box.
1:54
Speaker 3: I was like stop, like just.
1:56
Speaker 4: Stop, like you gotta you gotta calm him down, right.
1:59
Speaker 4: This is just me making it tough for everybody. This
2:03
Speaker 4: is what the big spring looks like. This is what
2:05
Speaker 4: knocking down the door looks like. I mean, this is it.
2:09
Speaker 3: Like.
2:10
Speaker 4: The home run itself was impressive. First pitch ambush, probably
2:13
Speaker 4: one of the loudest environments he's ever played in in
2:15
Speaker 4: his life, and he crushes one four hundred and sixty
2:19
Speaker 4: plus feet.
2:19
Speaker 3: I mean, it was a bomb.
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Speaker 4: It had a very rowdy crowd silent for at least
2:26
Speaker 4: a half second it, which is tough to.
2:28
Speaker 3: Do in that environment. Tremendous hit.
2:31
Speaker 4: But it's not just that that's impressing me. We keep
2:34
Speaker 4: talking about it, ajhnsche I feel like he's kind of
2:36
Speaker 4: talked about it, but so many of the little things.
2:38
Speaker 4: I mean, I was just watching his takes, not only
2:41
Speaker 4: in his walk but some of his other bats, and
2:44
Speaker 4: like his feet are just always in a hitting position.
2:47
Speaker 4: You never see him lunging, you never see him looking passive.
2:50
Speaker 4: He takes a pitch while outside of the strike zone
2:52
Speaker 4: and he still looks like he's a half second away
2:55
Speaker 4: from just detonating if he decides to move his hands.
2:59
Speaker 4: Hear you can learn a lot about a hitter through
3:01
Speaker 4: their takes. Well, right now, I think we can learn
3:04
Speaker 4: a lot about Kevin McGonagall through that. I don't know
3:07
Speaker 4: if it'll always be this way. I feel like sometimes
3:09
Speaker 4: takes cert an indicator of a hot streak or a slump.
3:12
Speaker 4: That takes can get awkward when you're in a slump.
3:14
Speaker 4: Dude's clearly in a hot streak right now. He's making
3:17
Speaker 4: it look really easy. I think it's probably important to
3:20
Speaker 4: remember probably won't.
3:22
Speaker 3: Always be this easy.
3:23
Speaker 4: He will probably struggle at some point in the next
3:26
Speaker 4: fifteen years. Okay, but this conversation, like can the Tigers
3:30
Speaker 4: really leave this guy off the roster keeps getting harder
3:34
Speaker 4: and harder. I've been on the conservative side of it,
3:37
Speaker 4: and the more I watch, I mean, I'm watching his
3:39
Speaker 4: secondary leads and he's just dialed in, Like his timing
3:45
Speaker 4: seems major league caliber. The homer was off Luis Severino,
3:48
Speaker 4: who had a terrible year last.
3:50
Speaker 3: Year, but as a big league starter. I don't know
3:54
Speaker 3: what to make of it.
3:56
Speaker 4: I don't I'm not comfortable declaring he has to be
3:58
Speaker 4: on the major league roster like a lot of people are,
4:01
Speaker 4: because what if he drives up, what if he doesn't
4:04
Speaker 4: get another hit for the rest of camp? You know,
4:07
Speaker 4: but he looks ready. He looks like one of the
4:10
Speaker 4: best thirteen players. It's just really hard to deny that.
4:13
Speaker 3: At this point.
4:14
Speaker 4: We got to see it a little bit longer, and
4:16
Speaker 4: then the Tigers are gonna have a really hard decision.
4:20
Speaker 3: I don't know what they're gonna do.
4:22
Speaker 4: The fact it's Turk Schoople's contract here, that the fact
4:24
Speaker 4: you're trying to win a World Series. Maybe that's enough
4:27
Speaker 4: to incentivize it incentivize the team to just carry the kid.
4:30
Speaker 4: I don't know if there was, Like I don't have
4:33
Speaker 4: anything new to say. He's just is making this a
4:35
Speaker 4: really tough conversation, and that's because he's been a really
4:38
Speaker 4: good player.
4:41
Speaker 1: Tough conversation, but easy to rationalize. I think is also
4:46
Speaker 1: like a good way to kind of scope this, because like,
4:50
Speaker 1: there there is no man I can't believe, Like, let's
4:54
Speaker 1: just say they call him up initially and there's some struggle,
4:58
Speaker 1: Like eventually there will be some struggle. There's not gonna
5:01
Speaker 1: be anyone that can reasonably say, yeah, it didn't make
5:07
Speaker 1: sense at the time a little bit, they should have
5:09
Speaker 1: kept him in Triple A. I like, I'm getting to
5:11
Speaker 1: the point where, look, if he's gonna be doing this
5:13
Speaker 1: against spring training pitching, then I'm not sure there's a
5:16
Speaker 1: lot of benefit to facing triple A pitching, right that
5:19
Speaker 1: that that's kind of where I've landed in. And you know,
5:21
Speaker 1: shout out to our everyone who watches on YouTube subscribes
5:25
Speaker 1: Apple Spotify as well, but on YouTube, you know, the
5:29
Speaker 1: name ol k Line gets thrown around and and look,
5:32
Speaker 1: it's a completely different era olk line never you know,
5:35
Speaker 1: bonus baby never spent any time in the miners. We
5:38
Speaker 1: all know this, Uh, but like there is something symmetrical
5:43
Speaker 1: about mister Tiger being invoked. We talked about I don't
5:46
Speaker 1: Trammell being invoked with McGonagall. There is something symmetrical about
5:50
Speaker 1: mister Tiger being invoked with Ken McGonagall when the conversation
5:53
Speaker 1: revolves around skipping triple. I guess you know the guy,
6:00
Speaker 1: You've gotten to know him, You've gotten to know his
6:02
Speaker 1: parents a little bit through your reporting. Something like this happens,
6:06
Speaker 1: you know on this stage. Is he still the same kid?
6:10
Speaker 2: Like? Is it like there's like like is it different?
6:12
Speaker 1: Or like, you know the kimbagona a little bit dude, Like,
6:15
Speaker 1: how is he handling all this?
6:17
Speaker 3: Well?
6:17
Speaker 4: I mean that's been part of it too, The demeanor, right,
6:20
Speaker 4: it's it's so even Keel, so composed. He just everything
6:24
Speaker 4: about him just kind of screams ballplayer, like serious ballplayer.
6:29
Speaker 4: That's that's what he's been. I haven't noticed him acting
6:31
Speaker 4: any differently. He seems pretty well equipped to handle what
6:35
Speaker 4: has to be kind of surreal even for him.
6:37
Speaker 3: Right now.
6:39
Speaker 4: Just another note, if if we were playing competitive games
6:41
Speaker 4: right now, especially after his swing on that fastball. I
6:44
Speaker 4: wouldn't throw that kid a fastball anytime soon. He's going
6:48
Speaker 4: to be seeing a lot of spin. If this where
6:50
Speaker 4: the regular season, I'll be interested if pictures approach him
6:54
Speaker 4: differently in spring training. That's normally not like the goal
6:57
Speaker 4: of of you know, pictures in spring training, depending on
7:00
Speaker 4: what they might be working on. But that's worth keeping
7:02
Speaker 4: in mind too. He gets up in the big leagues
7:04
Speaker 4: where every game, every pitch counts, he's gonna start getting
7:07
Speaker 4: pitched a little differently, I think, because it looks right
7:10
Speaker 4: now pretty tough to get a fastball by this kid.
7:12
Speaker 3: Not say he can't hit.
7:13
Speaker 4: Off speed either, because I think his track record suggests
7:16
Speaker 4: he can. But the competition will adjust even if you
7:21
Speaker 4: were a rookie fenom So something to keep in mind
7:23
Speaker 4: as well.
7:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, a lot of things to keep in mind
7:28
Speaker 1: with Kevin McGonagall. In fact, he's one of the few
7:31
Speaker 1: things on my mind very consistently, is trying to figure
7:34
Speaker 1: out what to do with Kevin mcgonagall's situation. And that's
7:37
Speaker 1: a credit to him.
7:42
Speaker 2: On a little shorter of.
7:44
Speaker 1: A topic, Cody, we you know, the other top prospect
7:47
Speaker 1: for the Tigers.
7:49
Speaker 2: Was in the starting lineup Tuesday night.
7:53
Speaker 1: We're recording this Wednesday morning before the Wednesday exhibition. Max
7:57
Speaker 1: Clark and Max Clark has obviously been a news for
8:01
Speaker 1: you know, the chains and all this stuff.
8:03
Speaker 2: We've hashed it out. But I will say this, the
8:06
Speaker 2: things that.
8:07
Speaker 1: I'm looking for out of Max Clark right now are
8:09
Speaker 1: the little stuff that I know will translate into like
8:12
Speaker 1: his talent taking over and the good things will happen
8:15
Speaker 1: for him. So not too shortly through that game, he
8:19
Speaker 1: gets a flyball to I know, tonight, you know whatever.
8:22
Speaker 1: But he gets flyball to dead center that he tracks,
8:24
Speaker 1: you know, very well. He goes up to gets greg
8:26
Speaker 1: Gregory Soto lefty on lefty, obviously hits a missile just
8:29
Speaker 1: kind of shorttops and hustles down the line to avoid
8:31
Speaker 1: level play and then gets a heads up stolen base there.
8:38
Speaker 2: I am still good with Mex Clark.
8:40
Speaker 1: I just kind of want to put that in the
8:41
Speaker 1: record for everybody because there are so many people giving
8:43
Speaker 1: opinions on Max Clark. I'm still very good with Max Clark.
8:46
Speaker 1: I'm still a believer in Max Clark, and it's because
8:49
Speaker 1: of those little things, those little things that I know
8:52
Speaker 1: he's not gonna let some I would say, kind of
8:56
Speaker 1: bsing around him, kind of get in the way. So
9:00
Speaker 1: I just wanted to make note of that. It's not
9:01
Speaker 1: like he did anything overly special, but it's those little
9:04
Speaker 1: things that I always believe Max Clark is about as
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Speaker 1: a ballplayer that give me confidence that the big things
9:12
Speaker 1: will come, or if the big things don't.
9:13
Speaker 2: Come, because now prospects I'm always hit, it's.
9:16
Speaker 1: Not gonna be because of you know, some over valued
9:21
Speaker 1: self of hype and chains and tattoos and EyeBlack and
9:24
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So I just wanted to kind of
9:26
Speaker 1: state that, frankly, because even though we talk about him
9:29
Speaker 1: a lot, sometimes he gets lost a little bit. It's
9:31
Speaker 1: the little things that make me believe in Max Clark.
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Speaker 4: Shot at Max Clark number two listener behind aj Hinch.
9:38
Speaker 4: Maybe yeah, No, Max is carrying himself fine. You know,
9:43
Speaker 4: he addressed the whole thing, and I you know, for
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Speaker 4: young guy under a lot of pressure and a lot
9:49
Speaker 4: of scrutiny, I thought he handled that very well.
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Speaker 3: I don't have a lot new.
9:54
Speaker 4: To say on this one either. Mex Clark is going
9:56
Speaker 4: to be a fine baseball player. We still have a
9:58
Speaker 4: little bit to learn about him. In the field, he
10:01
Speaker 4: looks a little bit more like a prospect breaking in
10:05
Speaker 4: finding his footing in big league camp. Then McGonagall looks
10:08
Speaker 4: like a sensation, and sometimes that happens. He's he's gonna adjust.
10:12
Speaker 2: He's good.
10:13
Speaker 4: I think his timing at the plate has been just
10:15
Speaker 4: a little bit off. Again, that's okay. He's gonna get
10:20
Speaker 4: some time in the minor leagues and probably fine tune
10:22
Speaker 4: some things. We're gonna see him in the big leagues eventually,
10:27
Speaker 4: and he's probably gonna be a pretty good player. Yeah,
10:31
Speaker 4: it's we've mentioned it like, it's kind of gonna be
10:34
Speaker 4: this constant lightning rod and constant conversation point and a
10:37
Speaker 4: lot of that is just kind of vapor just kind
10:39
Speaker 4: of just kind of noise, just kind of bs. Whether
10:42
Speaker 4: you can say he invites it on himself or not,
10:45
Speaker 4: like if like d Austin Jackson's point, if he's handling
10:48
Speaker 4: his business, if he's getting his work in, I don't
10:51
Speaker 4: think any of that should matter, And honestly, I think
10:53
Speaker 4: we should probably all stop obsessing over it quite so much.
10:57
Speaker 1: Did you just come up with Max Clark's know his
10:59
Speaker 1: nickname vapor Isy vapor that I don't know.
11:04
Speaker 4: I interpret vapor is something that's just kind of it
11:06
Speaker 4: just kind of dissolves, It just kind of goes up
11:08
Speaker 4: into the atmosphere. And it's my interpret vapor is like
11:12
Speaker 4: a negative thing almost.
11:13
Speaker 3: So No, I'm not gonna nickname x Cork.
11:16
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, okay, that's fine.
11:18
Speaker 4: Uh like spark or whatever, right, keep that it's pretty cool.
11:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he could.
11:26
Speaker 1: He is definitely a spark, you know, good, good, bad, indifferent,
11:30
Speaker 1: but everybody's opinion, he is definitely a spark.
11:32
Speaker 2: Uh.
11:33
Speaker 1: You mentioned a couple of times, especially with the McGonagall
11:35
Speaker 1: home run, kind of take us their code to the
11:39
Speaker 1: atmosphere and the uniqueness of this, uh, this opportunity to
11:43
Speaker 1: have you know, obviously the Dominican national team going up
11:46
Speaker 1: against you know, a mostly major league team and just like,
11:50
Speaker 1: you know, the uniqueness of it.
11:52
Speaker 2: It's a home game.
11:53
Speaker 1: I think Alex Abilas said they hadn't the national team
11:57
Speaker 1: hadn't played Inminican Republic and over that I don't want
12:00
Speaker 1: mis quote there, but like it just made it feel
12:03
Speaker 1: much more special.
12:04
Speaker 2: So you were there just kind of take us through it.
12:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, really cool atmosphere.
12:08
Speaker 4: I mean you hear a lot about what it's like
12:11
Speaker 4: watching baseball in Latin American countries and how different.
12:14
Speaker 3: It is, and it really is.
12:15
Speaker 4: I set in the stands for the first three innings
12:18
Speaker 4: during that first exhibition game, and you know, sometimes I
12:22
Speaker 4: talk about this in the playoffs when people are like,
12:24
Speaker 4: what is the atmosphere at America Park? And my measure
12:26
Speaker 4: of a good crowd is when a crowd really hinges
12:29
Speaker 4: on every pitch. That tells me not only they're emotionally invested,
12:33
Speaker 4: but two, it kind of tells me they know ball,
12:35
Speaker 4: like they understand the magnitude.
12:37
Speaker 3: Of each pitch.
12:39
Speaker 4: These people are cheering or reacting after every single pitch.
12:43
Speaker 4: They are chanting the name of every Dominican batter who
12:45
Speaker 4: comes up. They are kind of ready to explode every second,
12:49
Speaker 4: waiting for a big moment to happen. They got to
12:51
Speaker 4: do that when poor Brent Herder gave up three bombs
12:55
Speaker 4: to want Sodo many Machado in junior game in Arrow.
13:00
Speaker 4: So this is really loaded lineup is a really cool environment.
13:02
Speaker 4: Important to remember the game was played to benefit victims
13:06
Speaker 4: of the Jet Set nightclub tragedy, which killed more than
13:09
Speaker 4: I think two hundred and seventy people, one of the
13:12
Speaker 4: worst non natural disasters in the country's history. I write
13:17
Speaker 4: writing a little bit about that and what that meant
13:18
Speaker 4: to Nelson Cruz and Albert Poohols. Nelson Cruz's sister was
13:22
Speaker 4: killed in that tragedy. Octavio Dotel, a very close friend
13:25
Speaker 4: of Albert Poohols, was killed in that tragedy. It really
13:28
Speaker 4: rocked Santo Domingo and the Dominican Republic as a whole,
13:32
Speaker 4: just because it was such a horrific event. The whole
13:35
Speaker 4: country was kind of mourning. So I do think that
13:38
Speaker 4: the first game was also a little bit of a
13:40
Speaker 4: like a celebration, like an exhale.
13:44
Speaker 3: Baseball means a lots of.
13:45
Speaker 4: People in the Dominican and it's important to remember they
13:47
Speaker 4: don't get to see these guys hardly ever. Once they
13:50
Speaker 4: go to the US and blossom into big stars, they
13:54
Speaker 4: don't really come back and play on their home soil.
13:56
Speaker 4: It's just not a feasible thing. So it's a very
13:58
Speaker 4: special night for a lot of people, a really cool environment.
14:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, and it also brings to mind the power of
14:07
Speaker 1: the game and the power of what we're going to
14:09
Speaker 1: be seeing here over the next couple of weeks and
14:11
Speaker 1: that is the World Baseball Classic. And I want to
14:15
Speaker 1: say all of our World Baseball Classic coverage is brought
14:18
Speaker 1: to you by our friends at Fox one, which is
14:20
Speaker 1: live stream your Fox favorites together in one place, including
14:23
Speaker 1: old WBC games over the next few weeks, and after
14:26
Speaker 1: that the best MLB action all season long. So I
14:30
Speaker 1: wanted to, you know, kind of get a scout from you.
14:33
Speaker 2: Cody, because.
14:36
Speaker 1: The Dominican Republic team is thirds and most odds lists,
14:41
Speaker 1: I'll just give you an odds list for you know,
14:43
Speaker 1: who will win the World Baseball Classic. United States at
14:46
Speaker 1: minus won ten, Japan at plus three thirty, Dominican Republic
14:50
Speaker 1: at plus four fifty, Venezuela plus nine hundred, Puerto Rico
14:54
Speaker 1: plus eighteen hundred.
14:55
Speaker 2: So that's a top five to.
14:57
Speaker 1: Go through the whole list, considering that obviously the Maican
15:01
Speaker 1: Republic is right there in terms of, you know, an
15:04
Speaker 1: expected team that could win this thing. I just wanted
15:07
Speaker 1: to see, like what what do you make of this
15:10
Speaker 1: stacked lineup and even the pitching, and like, you know, what,
15:13
Speaker 1: what's your impression of team d R two third?
15:18
Speaker 3: Are we sure that lineup?
15:20
Speaker 4: Fernando Tatis Junior Cattel Marte, Juan Soto, Vladimir Guerrero, Junior
15:25
Speaker 4: Manny Machado, Junior Caman Arrow, Julio Rogers, Julio Rodriguez. Is
15:29
Speaker 4: your seven hitter, eight h yes, seven hitter, Austin Wells,
15:33
Speaker 4: Eraldo Perdomo. I mean that is better than all star
15:39
Speaker 4: teams that that d NL or AL have fielded, because
15:43
Speaker 4: all the stars are actually playing.
15:44
Speaker 3: I mean, that is a list that is as good as.
15:47
Speaker 4: A lineup gets. And the pitching is not bad too. Severino,
15:50
Speaker 4: Christopher Sanchez, some other real dudes are on that pitching staff.
15:56
Speaker 4: Japan has won this thing before. They have the Otani factor.
15:59
Speaker 4: They have a really good team. US we'll see, like
16:04
Speaker 4: you have Aaron Judge, you have some big names playing,
16:06
Speaker 4: but Turk Scoble is only pitching, you know, one game
16:10
Speaker 4: against Great Britain. Paul Skins isn't going to be It's
16:13
Speaker 4: not gonna time out where he could pitch the final game.
16:16
Speaker 4: None of the US pitchers are It's not like they're
16:19
Speaker 4: gonna be, you know, going seven eight, nine innings at
16:22
Speaker 4: this time in the year. So I'm not sure, you know,
16:26
Speaker 4: I'm not sure that advantage is as real as it
16:29
Speaker 4: feels emotionally for people here in the United States. After
16:33
Speaker 4: watching Team dr after just seeing the names. I I
16:36
Speaker 4: don't know, man, I think they should. It would be
16:39
Speaker 4: disappointing if they don't at least reach the championship game.
16:44
Speaker 1: There you go, and then you're gonna be You're doing
16:46
Speaker 1: some WBC coverage, Cody. So what are you looking forward
16:49
Speaker 1: to to watching and seeing from this tournament.
16:54
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll be in Miami for the pool play round.
16:58
Speaker 4: I think the environment again stands out. You know, watching
17:01
Speaker 4: Team Venezuela and Miami will probably be pretty similar to
17:05
Speaker 4: the environment here in Santo Domingo. And just seeing some
17:08
Speaker 4: of these other countries, the Netherlands, even Israel. You know,
17:12
Speaker 4: good stories always emerge from this thing. It'll be kind
17:16
Speaker 4: of a new experience to me and I'm just looking
17:19
Speaker 4: forward to kind of taking it all in, seeing what
17:22
Speaker 4: it's like.
17:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's captivating to watch in person. It's also captivating
17:28
Speaker 1: to watch on television, from the WBC through the World
17:32
Speaker 1: Series to the World Cup, to NASCAR and IndyCar. With
17:34
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17:43
Speaker 1: March sixth through fourteenth. Go to foxone dot com for
17:47
Speaker 1: complete terms and conditions. Fox one Streaming. Now, all right, Cody,
17:57
Speaker 1: So much cool stuff happening going on around here. And
18:02
Speaker 1: I will say that I'm mcgonagal kind of robbed us
18:08
Speaker 1: of what would be a lead and kind of any
18:10
Speaker 1: other podcast, and that is you and and some other
18:13
Speaker 1: journalists got to hear from Tiger's owner Chris Illich, and
18:18
Speaker 1: you know, answered some questions. So if you want a
18:22
Speaker 1: near complete transcript of that interview, you can go to
18:25
Speaker 1: the Athletic and and and read it.
18:27
Speaker 2: All in his words. But the lead to me.
18:33
Speaker 1: Made it seem like Chris is down for whatever. Like
18:36
Speaker 1: it's like if you were like texting, if you like
18:38
Speaker 1: texting Chris, like he was only your buddies. You want
18:41
Speaker 1: to go you want to go out tonight? Yeah, I'm
18:42
Speaker 1: down for whatever whatever you want to do. That seems
18:44
Speaker 1: like what Chris's message was in regards to any you know,
18:47
Speaker 1: baseball decisions by by Scott Harris. So so take it
18:52
Speaker 1: in any direction you want to just seven like Chris
18:54
Speaker 1: is like, yeah, I'm cool whatever you want to do.
18:55
Speaker 2: Scott.
18:56
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was interesting. Look credits.
18:59
Speaker 4: Chris I had called for him to actually talk and
19:02
Speaker 4: answer some questions for him independent reporters. It became known
19:07
Speaker 4: he was interested in talking when the Tigers visited a
19:10
Speaker 4: school in the Dominican on Tuesday morning, and I kind
19:14
Speaker 4: of said, Okay, if he's going to talk in any capacity,
19:17
Speaker 4: I feel obligated as a journalist to ask him, like
19:20
Speaker 4: about baseball and about labor. And Chris agreed to that,
19:25
Speaker 4: so you know, he did it. We talked about the school,
19:27
Speaker 4: we talked about some of the good things going on
19:29
Speaker 4: with the Tigers and the payroll bomp, and he repeated
19:32
Speaker 4: some of the fun anecdotes he had said on the
19:35
Speaker 4: radio the other day. And then he answered some of
19:38
Speaker 4: the tougher questions, right Trek scooble, the collective bargaining tax,
19:43
Speaker 4: the lockout, a salary cap. I don't know that his
19:46
Speaker 4: words were anything crazy. I don't know that he broke
19:49
Speaker 4: any real ground, but it was interesting. You know, when
19:52
Speaker 4: you guys can go read the answers on Trek scoobl
19:55
Speaker 4: he basically said, you know, I trust Scott Harris to
19:59
Speaker 4: make really good baseball decisions, and I hope it's clear
20:01
Speaker 4: I'm willing to support whatever to help this become a
20:04
Speaker 4: championship type organization on whether the team will exceed the
20:09
Speaker 4: first collective bargaining text threshold. Pretty similar answer, he said,
20:12
Speaker 4: Scott and I talked about that. We'll see what he
20:14
Speaker 4: thinks is best if he needs to add to this team.
20:17
Speaker 4: I hope it's clear I'm willing to support whatever it
20:19
Speaker 4: takes to make this a championship club. So I read
20:21
Speaker 4: that certainly as if the Tigers were to make a
20:25
Speaker 4: major addition at the trade deadline, that would probably push
20:27
Speaker 4: them over the collective bargaining text.
20:29
Speaker 3: Sounds to me like Chris Zillhich is down to do that.
20:32
Speaker 4: We can talk more about that and its implications probably
20:35
Speaker 4: later in the summer. The school bol thing was I
20:38
Speaker 4: don't know how much to read into that, a little
20:41
Speaker 4: bit of a non answer, also a little bit of like, hey, Scott,
20:44
Speaker 4: don't mess this up right. There's also a part of
20:46
Speaker 4: my pressure. Dang, no pressure, Scott. This is all on you, Bud.
20:51
Speaker 4: And he didn't really say much about the state of labor,
20:54
Speaker 4: basically saying he's going to defer to MLB, which is interesting.
21:00
Speaker 4: MLB typically based it's negotiating positions off like the opinions.
21:04
Speaker 3: Of the owners.
21:05
Speaker 4: So I'm sure Chris does have actual opinions on this,
21:09
Speaker 4: but just didn't want to make it public. I still
21:11
Speaker 4: think it's good he sat there and talked in a
21:16
Speaker 4: way I think kind of the best I've seen Chris
21:19
Speaker 4: handle himself in a more expansive interview with independent journalists,
21:23
Speaker 4: and that he answered all the questions. He seemed to
21:26
Speaker 4: have some good talking points. He came away, you know,
21:29
Speaker 4: clear he's willing to, like you said, down for whatever,
21:32
Speaker 4: and he didn't say anything dumb either, so I you know,
21:36
Speaker 4: I thought he handled it pretty well per chrysilicious standards. Again,
21:40
Speaker 4: probably not a ton of news, probably not a ton
21:42
Speaker 4: of real meaning, but this idea of kind of this
21:46
Speaker 4: new Chrisilic who's willing to spend, willing to be supportive.
21:49
Speaker 4: We already knew he had a reputation as more of
21:51
Speaker 4: a hands off owner and maybe that's why people like
21:54
Speaker 4: working for him.
21:55
Speaker 3: But here he is out in public.
21:57
Speaker 4: He's handing out pizza kids in the dominion, which is
22:00
Speaker 4: not something I thought I would be, you know, see
22:02
Speaker 4: with my own eyes. So yeah, I don't know. I
22:05
Speaker 4: think I think it's good he spoke and people can
22:08
Speaker 4: take what they will from from his words.
22:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a good thing, like it's not something it's
22:15
Speaker 1: it's a good but also non binding thing like like
22:19
Speaker 1: he didn't like you know, and and by the way,
22:21
Speaker 1: that's okay for it to be, you know, March third
22:24
Speaker 1: or you know, whatever day that that he spoke, especially
22:26
Speaker 1: about something as complicated as you know, a collective bargain agreement,
22:31
Speaker 1: even though he obviously has more power than than than
22:35
Speaker 1: what that statement, you know, is dictated that you know,
22:37
Speaker 1: they work for the owners is how that works. But
22:39
Speaker 1: but but anyway, uh in the school bl answer like,
22:43
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you, that was a I took
22:45
Speaker 1: a positive impression away from that in the fact of
22:49
Speaker 1: that most people, when a player of his caliber leaves
22:54
Speaker 1: or is traded before the contract expires, blah blah blah,
22:58
Speaker 1: it usually comes down to ownership not wanting to spend
23:02
Speaker 1: that kind of money. So in this instance, this quote,
23:05
Speaker 1: which will if forever, he is making the impression that
23:10
Speaker 1: if that were to happen, it is not a ownership
23:13
Speaker 1: does not want to spend the money. That is the
23:16
Speaker 1: impression that he made with that statement. Now, how real
23:20
Speaker 1: will that be down the line? Who knows? But as
23:22
Speaker 1: of March third March fourth, twenty twenty six, the impression
23:27
Speaker 1: that the Tigers at the head of the Snake wanted
23:30
Speaker 1: to make is that money is not an issue in
23:33
Speaker 1: regards to the services of Tek Skoogle. So's that's all
23:38
Speaker 1: we can take away from it for now. I'm glad
23:44
Speaker 1: he talked to you guys, and I'm sure that was,
23:47
Speaker 1: you know, again, just the philanthropic philo trophic, you know
23:51
Speaker 1: what I'm trying to say. Philanthropic efforts by the Tigers
23:56
Speaker 1: obviously a part of this trip or whatever. So I'm
23:57
Speaker 1: glad you got to got to see that, and you know,
24:01
Speaker 1: it's good to see like Wentzel and all that stuff.
24:03
Speaker 1: You know, there's so many cool things about this that
24:05
Speaker 1: we didn't get to but that's okay, we.
24:07
Speaker 3: Should touch on that real quick.
24:09
Speaker 4: Like it means a lot to Tyrol and Lorenzo winso
24:11
Speaker 4: Perez from Bravaldez, just just to be here, Like I
24:15
Speaker 4: talked to all those guys about it a little bit,
24:17
Speaker 4: and you know, it's a reminder. It's it's like if
24:20
Speaker 4: you move away from home and you could go back
24:22
Speaker 4: to your hometown and have everyone stand up and cheer.
24:25
Speaker 3: For you, you know.
24:28
Speaker 4: Like like I think they carry a lot of pride
24:30
Speaker 4: and being able to return to their home country wearing
24:33
Speaker 4: a major league uniform and for their family and friends
24:36
Speaker 4: to see that and understand what it means and understand
24:39
Speaker 4: how hard that journey is coming from another country and
24:45
Speaker 4: to actually make it like a really emotional really means
24:48
Speaker 4: a lot to all those guys.
24:50
Speaker 1: Absolutely and couldn't think of a higher note to end
24:54
Speaker 1: this podcast. You guys can follow us at Cody David Hagen,
24:57
Speaker 1: I'm at here an Underscores dec lead pod page at
24:59
Speaker 1: time your territory Underscore, YouTube, Instagram, Apple, Spotify.
25:04
Speaker 2: You guys know what to do.
25:05
Speaker 1: We appreciate all of you, so for Cody Stapenhagen, I'm
25:08
Speaker 1: Karen Steckley. Everybody, have a great day,