Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / West Michigan's Dan Hasty Talks Max Clark, Detroit Tigers Prospects

Transcript

West Michigan's Dan Hasty Talks Max Clark, Detroit Tigers Prospects · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:09
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tiger's podcast.
0:13
Speaker 2: I'm Kieren Steckley.
0:13
Speaker 1: With me as always is Cody Stavenhagen, and joining us
0:17
Speaker 1: is a man who likes his sky's blue and his
0:20
Speaker 1: hats also blue. West Michigan white Caps play by play
0:26
Speaker 1: man Dan Hasey.
0:27
Speaker 2: Dan, thanks for joining us. How's it going?
0:29
Speaker 3: You know? I was told a long time ago, if
0:32
Speaker 3: you want to keep the hair, you have ditch the hat,
0:35
Speaker 3: and I have tried my best to follow that advice
0:39
Speaker 3: for at least the last decade or so. Boys, how
0:41
Speaker 3: you doing? That's and good advice.
0:46
Speaker 4: Dan Hasty not a hat man, did not know that.
0:49
Speaker 2: Advice I definitely don't follow.
0:50
Speaker 3: Used to be the one who was kicked. You know,
0:53
Speaker 3: you essentially had the hat on in school, got told
0:56
Speaker 3: to take it off, and that was a daily occurrence
0:58
Speaker 3: in school. But I had to grow out of that
1:01
Speaker 3: when I wanted to decided to keep growing the hair
1:03
Speaker 3: at least what I have left for sure.
1:06
Speaker 4: Well, Dan, thanks for taking some time and joining us
1:08
Speaker 4: here on Tiger Territory. We know you're a busy man
1:11
Speaker 4: calling Detroit Mercy Basketball games, the Detroit or the Grand
1:15
Speaker 4: Rapids Gold and the Grand Rapids Rise, which I just
1:18
Speaker 4: learned existed. A pro volleyball team out in.
1:21
Speaker 3: Gr Yeah, they started up last year. They're part of
1:25
Speaker 3: the Pro Volleyball Federation. It's the first major league women's
1:31
Speaker 3: volleyball league, so imagine volleyball's answer to the WNBA. They
1:37
Speaker 3: play out of Van Andel Arena, and I mean it's
1:41
Speaker 3: literally the best volleyball players on the planet and it's
1:45
Speaker 3: an eight team league and they come from everywhere, I
1:49
Speaker 3: mean everywhere across the globe to come play. And I'll
1:52
Speaker 3: tell you what, after having done high school and college
1:58
Speaker 3: level volleyball and then to go from that to essentially
2:02
Speaker 3: the major leagues, I was kind of equating it to
2:06
Speaker 3: remember that old video game Pong, Not that we like
2:09
Speaker 3: played it a lot as hid, it's kind of something like, yeah, yeah,
2:14
Speaker 3: so I imagine it would be like what our parents
2:18
Speaker 3: or grandparents felt like it was playing Pong. It was
2:22
Speaker 3: like describing Pong versus describing what happens to a pinball
2:28
Speaker 3: inside a pinball. It is that fast and it is
2:32
Speaker 3: really really fun.
2:34
Speaker 4: That's cool. All right, Grand Rapids Rise be should you
2:37
Speaker 4: go check them out. Just transition into a little baseball
2:41
Speaker 4: talk here, Dan, we wanted to have you one because
2:43
Speaker 4: obviously you're heavy and heavily involved in the prospects world,
2:47
Speaker 4: and you get to see these guys and know these
2:50
Speaker 4: guys at kind of a unique time in their careers.
2:53
Speaker 4: I think that's fitting because we're right on the heels
2:56
Speaker 4: of Scooble winning the Cy Young Award. And I just
2:59
Speaker 4: wrote a story that began with Will Vest remembering Schoogle's
3:02
Speaker 4: first outing at West Michigan. He came in, I believe
3:06
Speaker 4: two on two out, struck dude out. Came out the
3:08
Speaker 4: next inning, struck out the side. Were you there? Do
3:11
Speaker 4: you remember Terrek Scoogle's first outing and what were your
3:14
Speaker 4: impressions of him at such a formative time.
3:17
Speaker 3: I remember it well. There were not many appearances. I
3:21
Speaker 3: think we had Trek scougbel throw more innings as a
3:25
Speaker 3: minor league rehab than we had during his time as
3:29
Speaker 3: an active roster player during the twenty eighteen season. That
3:33
Speaker 3: was when he was part of the white Caps as
3:36
Speaker 3: an active player. So when he was there, he garnered
3:42
Speaker 3: a reaction that only few other players will garner, and
3:48
Speaker 3: typically this is kind of a behind the scenes, behind
3:52
Speaker 3: the curtain moment. So I hope your your listeners will
3:56
Speaker 3: appreciate this. So, as a broadcaster, typically we have the ability,
4:02
Speaker 3: we have the vantage point of seeing the broadcasters in
4:06
Speaker 3: the other booths during the game. We share windows, we
4:11
Speaker 3: have doors, we can pop into each other's booths, we
4:14
Speaker 3: can talk. But during that actual live action, the only
4:18
Speaker 3: way we really can communicate is through looks. And every
4:27
Speaker 3: so often there is a player that draws the look,
4:33
Speaker 3: that draws a stare, that draws a reaction, and you
4:39
Speaker 3: know it when you see it, and it doesn't come
4:41
Speaker 3: along very often, but I've seen it a handful of times.
4:46
Speaker 3: I've seen it for Jackson Job, I've seen it for
4:51
Speaker 3: Riley Green, I've seen it for Max Clark. I remember
4:58
Speaker 3: the day I saw it for Terrek Scooble. It's when
5:02
Speaker 3: one of those broadcasters steeds the ninety seven, ninety eight
5:08
Speaker 3: mile an hour fastball that runs over that sliver of
5:13
Speaker 3: the outside corner with two on two out space is loaded,
5:20
Speaker 3: and there's nothing that a hitter could possibly do about it,
5:23
Speaker 3: and that broadcaster just leans back in his chair, He
5:27
Speaker 3: takes a deep breath, the cheeks puff out. He just
5:31
Speaker 3: looks at you, knows that he just watched a major
5:37
Speaker 3: league not just a major league player, but a very good,
5:42
Speaker 3: impactful major league player. And there's a big difference between
5:47
Speaker 3: those two.
5:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I would imagine I was gonna I
5:52
Speaker 1: was gonna actually ask, like, who else got the look?
5:55
Speaker 1: But you answer to right there with the names that
5:58
Speaker 1: have validated it. And also, you know, look looking forward,
6:03
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask, maybe that schools the answer to
6:06
Speaker 1: this one. Has there been a guy that you've you know,
6:10
Speaker 1: broadcasted and and seen just you know how he works,
6:14
Speaker 1: and you know, any stuff that maybe doesn't just make
6:16
Speaker 1: it to uh, you know, to the actual game that
6:19
Speaker 1: you would like you put on the call for that
6:21
Speaker 1: You're like telling your buddies, I'm telling you this guy
6:25
Speaker 1: is going to make it. Maybe not become a superstar.
6:27
Speaker 1: It doesn't necessarily have to be to that level, but
6:29
Speaker 1: like this guy, I'm telling you there's something here and
6:32
Speaker 1: and it like it's gonna work. You're gonna see him
6:35
Speaker 1: in the old English t Is there any kind of
6:37
Speaker 1: name or names that come to mind for something like that?
6:40
Speaker 3: There are two. There's a position player and a pitcher,
6:45
Speaker 3: one of whom was a much more challenging one to
6:50
Speaker 3: defend than the other because of how their minor league
6:55
Speaker 3: career went. But again, these these players did not garner
7:01
Speaker 3: that look because they were either struggling at our level
7:05
Speaker 3: or they were more of an unknown. The pitcher was
7:10
Speaker 3: a guy who was taken very late in the draft
7:12
Speaker 3: out of a very small school, who had a big
7:15
Speaker 3: time change up, didn't have a fastball that really ran
7:19
Speaker 3: up into the high nineties, but he had command and
7:23
Speaker 3: he had pitchability, and they thought they could develop more
7:26
Speaker 3: life on that fastball. That was bo Brisky, and they
7:32
Speaker 3: thought that they had something with him, and once they
7:36
Speaker 3: in so many others, when they got him into their
7:40
Speaker 3: pitching lab, they were able to make such a seismic
7:46
Speaker 3: change and improvement with him. And it also bears mentioning
7:51
Speaker 3: that bow Brisky has a tremendous work ethic and the
7:54
Speaker 3: Tigers have done a really good job identifying players that
7:58
Speaker 3: have that trait that quality about them because look, at
8:04
Speaker 3: the end of the day, player development and well, it
8:09
Speaker 3: really comes down to two things. Because aside of your
8:13
Speaker 3: Bryce Harper's, you're Alex Rodriguez is and the guys who
8:18
Speaker 3: are taken at the top of the draft the special players,
8:22
Speaker 3: if you will, most guys taken between say the fifteenth
8:27
Speaker 3: pick in the draft and the end of the draft,
8:31
Speaker 3: they're similarly talented. There's not a whole lot of difference,
8:35
Speaker 3: by and large, because it is a thinking person's game.
8:41
Speaker 3: How do you think out these situations? What it comes
8:43
Speaker 3: down to are two main differences. Number one, the work
8:49
Speaker 3: ethic of that particular player. If you don't have that,
8:53
Speaker 3: none of this matters. Number two, the quality of that
8:59
Speaker 3: major league teams player development system. If you have both,
9:06
Speaker 3: you're great, You're golden. The Tampa Bay Rays, the Los
9:10
Speaker 3: Angeles Dodgers, the Atlanta Braves, to a certain extent, these
9:15
Speaker 3: teams have been taking players late in the draft, early
9:20
Speaker 3: in the draft, it doesn't matter, and have been molding
9:23
Speaker 3: them into contributors no matter where they get taken. And
9:27
Speaker 3: it's not like there's there they're doing anything special. They're
9:32
Speaker 3: not identifying these great talents. They're just saying, this guy
9:35
Speaker 3: has a skill set that we can mold. The Tigers
9:38
Speaker 3: are now fleaning into what their superpower is that's molding pitching.
9:43
Speaker 3: They're doing it with Bolbritsky. So he was for me,
9:46
Speaker 3: the big pitching name that felt that way. The position
9:49
Speaker 3: player was Parker.
9:50
Speaker 5: Meadows, and that was a much tougher sell through a
9:55
Speaker 5: lot of people during three years in West Michigan, where
9:59
Speaker 5: he just could stand the deep dimensions of the ballpark
10:02
Speaker 5: and Parker, if you're listening, the fences are coming in
10:04
Speaker 5: this year. But when it comes to Parker, he was
10:10
Speaker 5: so raw. I mean, it's we're so far removed from
10:14
Speaker 5: the fact that his nickname was baby Giraffe. He is
10:18
Speaker 5: all grown up now he has turned from little Jeffrey
10:21
Speaker 5: into Jeffrey Dollars Now, I mean, he is all grown up,
10:25
Speaker 5: and now he carries such a great ability. And you know,
10:32
Speaker 5: I always think about what value does a player provide
10:36
Speaker 5: on a day in, day out. Basis, when that player
10:39
Speaker 5: goes oh for four at the plate, what tangible value
10:44
Speaker 5: do they bring Because there has been so many iterations
10:47
Speaker 5: of baseball teams, the Tigers included about ten years ago,
10:50
Speaker 5: where if a player went oh for four, they didn't
10:53
Speaker 5: bring a whole lot of value. But this team, especially
10:58
Speaker 5: this year, brought a number of players that brought a
11:03
Speaker 5: whole lot of value on days where they didn't hit.
11:06
Speaker 5: They were in a lot of ways the polar opposites
11:08
Speaker 5: of some of those early twenty tens Tigers teams that
11:12
Speaker 5: were very talented hitters but also flawed in other areas.
11:16
Speaker 5: This team was so well rounded that it would mean
11:20
Speaker 5: I really do believe that this year's Detroit Tigers team
11:24
Speaker 5: would have also given that twenty thirteen team absolute fits
11:30
Speaker 5: because of just how pesky and difficult they were.
11:34
Speaker 4: That is really great stuff, Dan. It kind of leads
11:38
Speaker 4: me to something I wanted to ask you, because I
11:40
Speaker 4: get asked a lot. You know, what are the Tigers
11:42
Speaker 4: doing differently? Why have they become better in player development?
11:46
Speaker 4: And that's so often the difficult question to answer. So
11:49
Speaker 4: much of it is behind the scenes, So much of
11:51
Speaker 4: it the team wants to be a little bit secretive
11:53
Speaker 4: about for good reason. So much of it is just
11:56
Speaker 4: kind of vague a lot of the times. But from
11:59
Speaker 4: your is there anything specifically you have seen or felt
12:04
Speaker 4: that you think has begun to make a difference in
12:06
Speaker 4: this system.
12:10
Speaker 3: I don't want this to be taken the wrong way,
12:14
Speaker 3: but you remember about five years ago when we started
12:21
Speaker 3: hearing about the Tiger Way, where we heard about how
12:27
Speaker 3: everything needs to be uniform and signs need to be
12:31
Speaker 3: the same at all the different levels. Okay, well, that's fine,
12:35
Speaker 3: that's good. But over the last two years, once Scott
12:41
Speaker 3: Harris took over, the Tiger Way got redefined and exceptionally specialized.
12:53
Speaker 3: And what I mean by that is the Tiger Way
12:58
Speaker 3: as it was did a lot of universal treatment of
13:09
Speaker 3: players throughout the system. A lot of cases were handled
13:13
Speaker 3: in a similar way, a lot of development was handled
13:17
Speaker 3: in a similar fashion. Now, what it feels like is
13:23
Speaker 3: that things are tailored to each individual player with a
13:29
Speaker 3: lot more thought and a lot more consideration for each
13:35
Speaker 3: individual players needs to optimize every single skill set. It
13:43
Speaker 3: doesn't feel anymore like this should work for everyone, as
13:50
Speaker 3: opposed to, let's make a specific plan for players one
13:56
Speaker 3: through thirty on every roster and look at the guy
14:01
Speaker 3: who was taken in round one and every other player
14:06
Speaker 3: all the way through the guy who was taken in
14:07
Speaker 3: round twenty. And that goes from sports science. Georgia Giblin
14:14
Speaker 3: does a great job. That goes to dietary. There are
14:21
Speaker 3: so so many people focused on what they're putting in
14:25
Speaker 3: their bodies right now. I've never seen so much focus
14:29
Speaker 3: putting on what they eat, and I used to only
14:33
Speaker 3: see that with some of the great organizations. And I
14:36
Speaker 3: think if Tigers fans wonder where they are putting a
14:41
Speaker 3: lot of their resources, trust mean when I tell you,
14:45
Speaker 3: infrastructure is where a lot of these resources are allocated,
14:51
Speaker 3: because we have seen seismic differences that put them on
14:56
Speaker 3: par with some of the great developmental systems in hourly
15:01
Speaker 3: ones that we thought were fairly superfluous. We thought that
15:05
Speaker 3: they were unnecessary. But if you want to compete and
15:08
Speaker 3: you want to develop players like the Dodgers, like the Rays,
15:12
Speaker 3: you got to do the same things that they're doing. Well,
15:14
Speaker 3: guess what Tigers have entered the chat.
15:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, I almost like Cody called a lot of that
15:21
Speaker 1: stuff vague. I almost kind of look at it as
15:23
Speaker 1: like we very term of like kind of boring, like
15:26
Speaker 1: like it's not necessarily the most exciting thing. I don't
15:28
Speaker 1: know if his stories would get a lot of clicks,
15:30
Speaker 1: like talking about, you know, the nutrition of the team,
15:33
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, It's important, but it's also
15:36
Speaker 1: not like the most riveting stuff. But baseball is a
15:39
Speaker 1: game made up of some of the most riveting stuff
15:42
Speaker 1: being some of the most important things. You mentioned this
15:46
Speaker 1: this postseason run for the twenty twenty four team. I'm
15:50
Speaker 1: curious somebody in your position who has seen a lot
15:54
Speaker 1: of these guys, obviously not every player, but seeing a
15:56
Speaker 1: lot of them, and that you know, the theme of
15:58
Speaker 1: the year was the young team, right, seeing a lot
16:00
Speaker 1: of them kind of come through your gates, if you would.
16:03
Speaker 1: What kind of connection do you feel to the like
16:07
Speaker 1: the major league team, like, I guess specifically the players
16:11
Speaker 1: on it, especially when you see them undergo some level
16:14
Speaker 1: of success that the franchise, you know, obviously a franchise
16:17
Speaker 1: you grew up loving and rooting for like experience success
16:22
Speaker 1: not seen in a relatively large amount of time, you know,
16:25
Speaker 1: give them the scope.
16:28
Speaker 3: Well, I think it changes as time goes on. I
16:32
Speaker 3: think as you get older and you get to know
16:35
Speaker 3: these guys better and better, especially the ones who had
16:38
Speaker 3: been grinding it out at your level for multiple years,
16:44
Speaker 3: you find yourself rooting just as much, if not more so,
16:48
Speaker 3: for the individuals to find success because some of them
16:54
Speaker 3: are now having moved on to other organizations. So, you know,
17:00
Speaker 3: the Philadelphia Phillies I think had five or six different
17:03
Speaker 3: players who used to play in West Michigan, so got
17:07
Speaker 3: a chance to see a bunch of those guys. I
17:10
Speaker 3: mean Nick Castillanos was playing, I mean it was Gregor
17:13
Speaker 3: Rissoto who was playing. Cody Clemens was there. There was
17:16
Speaker 3: a ton of guys who were out there. Spencer Turnbull
17:18
Speaker 3: was on that team, so there's a lot of those guys.
17:21
Speaker 3: But as it pertains to the Tigers, literally every single
17:29
Speaker 3: player on that playoff roster had played with one another
17:35
Speaker 3: in the minor leagues at some point, every single one
17:39
Speaker 3: of them. And it really felt like that was a
17:44
Speaker 3: low key superpower for the Tigers. So throw out the payroll.
17:51
Speaker 3: On top of that, they had something going for them
17:56
Speaker 3: that I think people didn't give them enough credit for,
18:00
Speaker 3: and that was aj Hinch having cracked a fairly significant
18:06
Speaker 3: code that had not been cracked by many people before
18:11
Speaker 3: him in baseball. Now, it's easier when you have a
18:14
Speaker 3: Cy Young Award winner as kind of the lynchpin of
18:16
Speaker 3: your rotation. But he he hacked the system. He hacked
18:23
Speaker 3: the system to get the Tigers into the playoffs. The
18:28
Speaker 3: fact that he wasn't the Al Manager of the Year
18:31
Speaker 3: is preposterous. I mean, he literally found a cheap code
18:37
Speaker 3: to the game and he got them in. There's no
18:41
Speaker 3: inexplicable reason why the Tigers should have made the playoffs
18:45
Speaker 3: this year. They shouldn't have, but they did, and aj
18:50
Speaker 3: Hinch has so much to be proud of. And I
18:53
Speaker 3: will tell you this, based on how they played down
18:56
Speaker 3: the stretch, I thought they were going to win the
19:00
Speaker 3: World Series. I truly felt that they had discovered a
19:05
Speaker 3: flaw in the system and they were going to ride
19:09
Speaker 3: it all the way to a title. And even despite
19:12
Speaker 3: them not carrying that through given the payroll and given
19:17
Speaker 3: the fact that we are in this league of haves
19:20
Speaker 3: and have nots. And I know I'm straying from the point,
19:21
Speaker 3: so I'll get back to it in a second, is
19:24
Speaker 3: that I do think that this is going to be
19:27
Speaker 3: a model. That is, if it's not already happening, going
19:32
Speaker 3: to get studied by teams around the game for the
19:37
Speaker 3: next handful of years, and we will see copycats on this.
19:42
Speaker 3: When a team starts to fade towards the end of
19:44
Speaker 3: a year, you can bet your house that this is
19:49
Speaker 3: going to be their chess move and their desperation play
19:53
Speaker 3: to try and get themselves back in. But back to
19:55
Speaker 3: your point about how it feels to see these guys
19:58
Speaker 3: make it in. Look, there's nothing better than seeing guys
20:02
Speaker 3: have that success at the major league level. It's it's
20:05
Speaker 3: such a reward, especially for the guys who struggled and
20:10
Speaker 3: grinded it out and failed expectations at some point along
20:14
Speaker 3: the way, because those are the guys who you have
20:16
Speaker 3: conversations with in the dugout and whose families you have
20:21
Speaker 3: conversations with. And we live in this age of social media.
20:25
Speaker 3: I can't tell you how many times I saw social
20:29
Speaker 3: media posts dragging guys like Parker Meadows and he was
20:35
Speaker 3: a minor leaguer for crying out loud. He was an
20:38
Speaker 3: even major leaguer. I don't, personally, I don't believe that
20:41
Speaker 3: a minor leaguer should have to deal with that sort
20:45
Speaker 3: of thing. I don't think that's warranted. I think if
20:47
Speaker 3: you're a major league player, okay, fine, like you're a professional,
20:50
Speaker 3: you're at the highest level, okay whatever, people are gonna talk.
20:53
Speaker 3: But the minor league level, what are we doing here? So?
20:59
Speaker 3: I mean, and he's not the only one, he's not
21:00
Speaker 3: immune to that, but I will say this, he's you know,
21:04
Speaker 3: he and so many others like him have learned a
21:07
Speaker 3: lot about how to tune things out and how to
21:11
Speaker 3: thrive amidst this world we live in and become better
21:17
Speaker 3: and find ways to have success because of it. And
21:23
Speaker 3: that's another thing that you get really proud of when
21:25
Speaker 3: you watch these guys.
21:27
Speaker 4: That's well said Dan as Kieren put it, like a
21:31
Speaker 4: lot of great players have kind of come through your
21:33
Speaker 4: gates there in West Michigan. There were several of them
21:36
Speaker 4: this year. I want to make sure we say the
21:38
Speaker 4: name of Jaden Ham at some point in this podcast,
21:40
Speaker 4: because I don't know if we're going to get even
21:41
Speaker 4: get into a full breakdown of him. The big tickets
21:44
Speaker 4: were probably Max Clark and Kevin McGonagall. What kind of
21:48
Speaker 4: stood out to you in your time watching each of those.
21:50
Speaker 3: Guys, Well, the thing that stood out to me most
21:53
Speaker 3: about Jayden was the fact that we had on the
21:57
Speaker 3: entire season. I think that was probably the biggest thing.
22:01
Speaker 3: I think it's also a reason to give Eerie some
22:05
Speaker 3: credit because they had depth to a point in their rotation.
22:09
Speaker 3: They also stayed healthy enough in their rotation, as did Toledos,
22:13
Speaker 3: so they didn't have too many moving parts that we
22:16
Speaker 3: were able to keep a guy like Ham the entire year.
22:19
Speaker 3: So that was a nice bonus. We did not expect
22:22
Speaker 3: to keep that guy as well as we did. As
22:24
Speaker 3: long as we did, because typically when a guy becomes
22:27
Speaker 3: a top one hundred prospect on your watch and under
22:31
Speaker 3: the previous regime, we would never have him long enough
22:34
Speaker 3: to establish that kind of value, and we always sort
22:38
Speaker 3: of wondered, why not keep him there longer? If you
22:41
Speaker 3: establish yourself as a top one hundred prospect, why the
22:46
Speaker 3: world would you move him? What an organizational asset Jade
22:51
Speaker 3: and Ham becomes by just letting him cook, just let him,
22:56
Speaker 3: just let him marinate for a little bit, and let
23:00
Speaker 3: him become something of tremendous value to the rest of
23:04
Speaker 3: Major League Baseball. I promise you he is worth more
23:09
Speaker 3: as a top one under prospect dominating in West Michigan
23:13
Speaker 3: than he is getting overmatched in Double A with an
23:16
Speaker 3: ERA of four and a half in June and learning
23:20
Speaker 3: on the fly. He has plenty of time for that.
23:23
Speaker 3: So this idea of being aggressive and moving a guy,
23:28
Speaker 3: we're noticing now that guys get moved a lot less
23:32
Speaker 3: on their typical mom and pop statistics and a lot
23:37
Speaker 3: more on their advanced numbers and analytics. So we look
23:40
Speaker 3: a lot less to see what a guy's era is
23:43
Speaker 3: and what a guy's whip is. And now we're looking
23:46
Speaker 3: at a lot more things that we don't often get
23:49
Speaker 3: privy to, so you know, we learn a little bit
23:51
Speaker 3: more about that. But jayden Ham phenomenal. I would be
23:56
Speaker 3: stunned if we ever saw him in West Michigan again.
23:58
Speaker 3: But Max Clark McGonagall, I mean, those guys were just
24:04
Speaker 3: so tremendous. And Max Clark starting with him, Max Clark
24:09
Speaker 3: is such a fascinating human being for starters, and I
24:14
Speaker 3: don't want to put too much on a kid who's,
24:17
Speaker 3: you know, nineteen twenty years old, but when you spend
24:22
Speaker 3: time with Max, you don't feel like you're with the
24:27
Speaker 3: average nineteen or twenty year old. You feel like you
24:32
Speaker 3: are spending time with the face of not only the
24:37
Speaker 3: Detroit Tigers in two to three years, but one of
24:41
Speaker 3: the faces of Major League Baseball in two to three years.
24:47
Speaker 3: That's what it feels like just spending time with him.
24:53
Speaker 3: He has a way about him that you know. When
24:58
Speaker 3: you ask guys that come out of high school about
25:01
Speaker 3: their goals, and I've had a handful of them to
25:05
Speaker 3: this point, sometimes the answers revolve around statistics. I want
25:11
Speaker 3: to steal sixty bases, I want to hit three hundred,
25:14
Speaker 3: I want to hit fifteen home runs. Sometimes they revolve
25:19
Speaker 3: around cliches. You know, I want to leave it all
25:22
Speaker 3: out there on the field. I want to be a
25:23
Speaker 3: good teammate, blah blah blah blah blah. But you ask
25:28
Speaker 3: Max and he starts talking about setting up an LLC
25:34
Speaker 3: so he can get wheels in motion for a charity
25:37
Speaker 3: that his wife is going to run to support and
25:40
Speaker 3: combat mental health. And you're just like, who is this?
25:46
Speaker 3: And we've never seen anything like it. I mean, he's
25:51
Speaker 3: the first person that has just had just the wrongs
25:55
Speaker 3: of people waiting outside the ballpark for him and he
25:59
Speaker 3: gets that's it. It's just he's so beyond his years
26:03
Speaker 3: and he's just been a joy to have around. So
26:07
Speaker 3: I'm just so excited for the people of Detroit to
26:11
Speaker 3: get to see him when he's fully ready, because he
26:15
Speaker 3: is going to change the game in Detroit. As for McGonagall, McGonagall,
26:25
Speaker 3: we didn't get to see a whole lot of Kevin McGonagall.
26:28
Speaker 3: He was with us, he got hurt. Everything about his
26:35
Speaker 3: analytics say that this is a really really interesting offensive
26:41
Speaker 3: player to watch. I know that he and Max are
26:46
Speaker 3: super tight, so I know that Max has all the
26:50
Speaker 3: respect for him in the World. I think he's a
26:54
Speaker 3: really good yin to Max Clark's Yang. I think I
26:58
Speaker 3: think they very much compliment one another. So I'll be
27:03
Speaker 3: really interested to see how that evolves, to see if
27:06
Speaker 3: it kind of looks like the old Riley and Torque
27:09
Speaker 3: dynamic from back in the day, and to see kind
27:12
Speaker 3: of how that evolves. But I mean, you can't argue
27:15
Speaker 3: with the numbers that he put up. I mean, Florida
27:17
Speaker 3: State League MVP. I mean, that's a hard league to
27:20
Speaker 3: hit in, and Kevin McGonagall just hit the tar out
27:22
Speaker 3: of the baseball. So between those guys, and then you've
27:25
Speaker 3: got Tyrone Loronzo, who literally hits the ball so hard
27:29
Speaker 3: that you just kind of do that like DeAndre Jordan's
27:32
Speaker 3: slam dunk over Brandon Knight face, You're like, ooh, gross,
27:36
Speaker 3: Like it's like scary Violand so there's that and post
27:40
Speaker 3: Way Brasanio. I mean, there's just so many guys, and
27:43
Speaker 3: all bizarrely, all of those guys feel like they're kind
27:46
Speaker 3: of lined up towards West Michigan. Loronzo could go to
27:50
Speaker 3: double A, but all those guys hypothetically could be in
27:54
Speaker 3: wes Mish and all those guys are gonna absolutely love
27:58
Speaker 3: what we're doing to the dimensions out there.
28:02
Speaker 4: You had actually seen Loronzo when he was in the
28:04
Speaker 4: Dodgers system a little bit, right, so you watched him
28:06
Speaker 4: for longer than most.
28:09
Speaker 3: And surprisingly he was nowhere near the player that we saw.
28:16
Speaker 3: Once the Tigers got a hold of him. He was
28:21
Speaker 3: I think he was like five or sixty against us,
28:25
Speaker 3: and we remember looking around going like, really, like, this
28:29
Speaker 3: is the guy like and we knew he was a
28:31
Speaker 3: highly ranked Dodgers prospect, but you know, I think he
28:35
Speaker 3: had hit a home run against West Michigan on the
28:38
Speaker 3: fourth of July, and there was a couple of times
28:39
Speaker 3: where it barreled up balls, but he just had that
28:42
Speaker 3: way about him where you're just like, okay, it's the Dodgers,
28:45
Speaker 3: Like they'll optimize him. He's just not ready yet. So
28:51
Speaker 3: when they made you know, the deal and we saw
28:56
Speaker 3: it was Loronzo, they're like, well, all right, so yeah,
29:01
Speaker 3: I guess. And then he comes over and he turns
29:04
Speaker 3: into Barry Bonds. I mean, he was literally the best
29:09
Speaker 3: player in the league from the moment he got there.
29:12
Speaker 3: Towards the end of the season, he was just a
29:15
Speaker 3: destroyer of worlds. He was the last thing any of
29:20
Speaker 3: us thought we would see. It was from the left
29:23
Speaker 3: side and the right side, and I mean just so
29:27
Speaker 3: much fun, just tons of walks and catcher slash, first
29:31
Speaker 3: base profile, switch hit. Essentially, it's like they cloned Brisannio
29:37
Speaker 3: and then so now they have sort of an embarrassment
29:42
Speaker 3: of riches in that way, and so it sort of
29:45
Speaker 3: leads into the Brisannio conversation. So they send both of
29:48
Speaker 3: them to the Arizona Fall League, right, And I think
29:52
Speaker 3: it's because, especially with Brisannio, he ends up missing a
29:57
Speaker 3: lot of the season. He has the knee injury, right,
30:00
Speaker 3: So they want to give them more abs. And I
30:04
Speaker 3: think at some level they might look around and say,
30:08
Speaker 3: we might have more than what we need, and if
30:12
Speaker 3: we're going to make an impact move, we might have
30:16
Speaker 3: a better chance adding that via trade than we do
30:20
Speaker 3: going out and spending a lot of money. Right, So,
30:24
Speaker 3: where do we have organizational strength? Maybe one of those
30:27
Speaker 3: two guys, And look, this is just me talking, So
30:32
Speaker 3: they might want to see how those two guys look
30:36
Speaker 3: against advanced pitching. Some of the best prospects in Major
30:41
Speaker 3: League Baseball are in the Arizona Fall League based on
30:44
Speaker 3: how they played I don't think they're going to move
30:46
Speaker 3: either of them, so they want all of them now. So,
30:50
Speaker 3: if anything, that may have made the decision even more difficult,
30:53
Speaker 3: But look, it's a good problem to have if nothing else,
30:57
Speaker 3: I think both of those guys improve their status tremendously,
31:00
Speaker 3: especially Brusay and you.
31:04
Speaker 1: So you've mentioned the renovations a couple of times at
31:08
Speaker 1: LMCU Ballpark, and I just I love things that coincide.
31:13
Speaker 1: And so you have all these prospects that we just
31:14
Speaker 1: talked about it and it's gonna come with them being
31:17
Speaker 1: showcased in a new look for the ballpark over there.
31:21
Speaker 1: Why don't you tell us a little bit about what's
31:22
Speaker 1: going on and kind of what's going to be so
31:25
Speaker 1: special about, you know, what the fans will see next year.
31:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, So this is Phase two of the West Michigan
31:32
Speaker 3: white Caps renovation. They just completed most of Phase one
31:36
Speaker 3: over the course of the last couple of years. They
31:40
Speaker 3: debuted the brand new locker room this past year, so
31:43
Speaker 3: the players ended up getting a new space, state of
31:47
Speaker 3: the art locker room, a new training room. When they
31:50
Speaker 3: come back this season, they will have a new workout space,
31:53
Speaker 3: new batting tunnels that'll be part of this phase, the
31:56
Speaker 3: second phase of the renovation, so they'll be coming back
31:59
Speaker 3: to whole new area for themselves to train in over
32:03
Speaker 3: the course of this year. And on top of that,
32:08
Speaker 3: just today the new field installed, so they got rid
32:12
Speaker 3: of all the old sod. They installed all the new
32:15
Speaker 3: sod so it'll drain better, so shorter rain delays, which
32:21
Speaker 3: is good. And on top of that, they took the
32:27
Speaker 3: bullpens off the field. And that's something that actually is
32:31
Speaker 3: happening throughout all of minor league baseball. Bullpens, you know,
32:34
Speaker 3: we grew up with I grew up with Old Tiger
32:38
Speaker 3: Stadium and the bullpens being in the field of play.
32:42
Speaker 3: Well those days are gone in minor league baseball. They're
32:45
Speaker 3: moving them was off the field, so they're moving them
32:49
Speaker 3: to right center field. And the way that the architectural
32:54
Speaker 3: footprint is laid out, the only way to do that
33:00
Speaker 3: is my favorite part is that they have to move
33:03
Speaker 3: the fences in and make work in juice of the
33:06
Speaker 3: home runs to the bullpens, thank you Major League Baseball.
33:12
Speaker 3: So they end up moving the fences in and I mean, look,
33:15
Speaker 3: West Michigan, one of my favorite place is one of
33:18
Speaker 3: my favorite ballparks in the world, one of the worst
33:22
Speaker 3: ballparks to hit home runs in it. Any hitter will
33:25
Speaker 3: tell you that it has been studied. I think Baseball
33:28
Speaker 3: America put out an article talking about just how hard
33:31
Speaker 3: and how rare it is to hit home runs there.
33:34
Speaker 3: I have as a broadcaster, I have called more walk
33:39
Speaker 3: off box than I have called walk off home runs
33:45
Speaker 3: in my time as the white Caps broadcaster. So just
33:49
Speaker 3: to give you an idea of how rare it is
33:50
Speaker 3: to hit those. So, now, what was a power ally
33:56
Speaker 3: that registered a tick over three hundred and ninety feet
34:00
Speaker 3: to left and right center field. Now we'll probably come
34:03
Speaker 3: in somewhere closer to about three hundred and sixty five feet,
34:07
Speaker 3: which is a huge difference.
34:12
Speaker 4: That's amazing, And we're already at one time here. But
34:15
Speaker 4: I wanted to be sure we get this story in
34:17
Speaker 4: here because a few years ago I went to West Michigan.
34:21
Speaker 4: I think it was my first time there, and I
34:23
Speaker 4: think I told you, you know, I wanted to talk
34:25
Speaker 4: to Lance Parrish at the time about the last night
34:27
Speaker 4: at Tiger Stadium, which went on to be a story
34:31
Speaker 4: that you know, every now and then, if someone stops
34:33
Speaker 4: me and it's like hey, I remember this story.
34:35
Speaker 3: Thank you.
34:37
Speaker 4: They're talking about that story. I was a meaningful night
34:39
Speaker 4: to a lot of people, and I think you would say, hey,
34:42
Speaker 4: you know, I happened to be there, and you went
34:44
Speaker 4: on to tell me a really good story. So let's
34:47
Speaker 4: recap that through the viewers. What was it like for
34:49
Speaker 4: you the last night at Tiger Stadium?
34:51
Speaker 3: Oh gosh, well, I didn't find out I was going
34:55
Speaker 3: until the night before. I don't know how, but my
34:58
Speaker 3: dad was able to get tickets and we were supposed
35:01
Speaker 3: to be in one of those obstructive view seats right
35:03
Speaker 3: behind one of those huge pulls, right and so naturally
35:08
Speaker 3: we did not sit there. We sat somewhere else. I
35:11
Speaker 3: don't know how, because if anybody remembers that game, it
35:14
Speaker 3: was like the only game that entire decade that the
35:18
Speaker 3: ballpark was literally full. I mean, I'm talking every single seat,
35:23
Speaker 3: but we found two open seats that were I mean,
35:26
Speaker 3: am I gonna get in trouble for this? It was
35:27
Speaker 3: literally en rows back from the Tigers on deck circle,
35:32
Speaker 3: third bay side, and I remember just me, nobody, nobody
35:38
Speaker 3: came and kicked us out. So that's where we were,
35:40
Speaker 3: and so, you know, got a chance to be there
35:43
Speaker 3: for that game, and look, I mean that that was
35:49
Speaker 3: that was just so formative. I mean, I mean I
35:53
Speaker 3: got to skip school for every opening day as a kid,
35:56
Speaker 3: and to be there for that and to watch a
36:01
Speaker 3: full ballpark for the first time, I mean, I didn't
36:04
Speaker 3: get eighty four. I mean, I'm I'm part of the
36:08
Speaker 3: you know, Taylor Swift tortured Tigers department, like I was
36:12
Speaker 3: born in nineteen eighty five. Okay, I missed it, And
36:18
Speaker 3: so to have not been a part of what so
36:22
Speaker 3: many people just slightly older than myself got to experience,
36:27
Speaker 3: that was the biggest moment of Tiger's history as far
36:32
Speaker 3: as I was concerned. So to be there for that
36:36
Speaker 3: was really special and to see it and to have
36:40
Speaker 3: felt it, but to have seen the players walk out
36:43
Speaker 3: from center field, I mean, and then to be working
36:47
Speaker 3: with some of these guys later on, and Lance Parrish
36:50
Speaker 3: and Alan Trammel, it's just I mean, that's one of
36:54
Speaker 3: the surreal parts of all of this, is to actually
36:57
Speaker 3: go back to them and get their recount of the
37:01
Speaker 3: whole situation. You know, whether it's Land, Sir tram or Gibbie.
37:05
Speaker 3: When we get a chance to see him, everybody's got
37:08
Speaker 3: different accounts of that day, and every single one of
37:13
Speaker 3: them are as surreal as they are special.
37:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, Dan, you'll get you'll get a kick out of this.
37:21
Speaker 1: I still have an autograph Robert Fick baseball from when
37:26
Speaker 1: they came I think it was two thousand and two.
37:30
Speaker 2: It was an infamous Mother's.
37:32
Speaker 1: Day where my littlest brother got lost and when we
37:35
Speaker 1: were at the ballpark, so we don't have to recap that.
37:37
Speaker 1: Maybe a different time, but yeah, Robert Fike autographed from that.
37:41
Speaker 1: And then as a youth in T ball, somehow my
37:44
Speaker 1: dad found a cecil fielder would bat you size, So
37:48
Speaker 1: I swung that in T ball that perfect.
37:52
Speaker 3: So I kind of jogged my memory and Cody, maybe
37:55
Speaker 3: this is the story that I told you about Robert Fick.
37:58
Speaker 3: So Fick his has come back a number of times.
38:02
Speaker 3: He's a white Cap before he was a Tiger, and
38:04
Speaker 3: he was great. I mean, he dominated the Midwest League
38:07
Speaker 3: and he that night autographed a baseball. He came back
38:12
Speaker 3: out of the dugout in his Hawaiian shirt, and I
38:15
Speaker 3: remember I got him to sign a ball for me
38:18
Speaker 3: and he made it out, he signed it, he dated it,
38:21
Speaker 3: and then he came back. I saved it. He came
38:24
Speaker 3: back all those years later to West Michigan and I
38:27
Speaker 3: had at the press box and on the air, I
38:29
Speaker 3: got to bring it out and show it on the
38:32
Speaker 3: air and how and he was just like, this is
38:34
Speaker 3: really really cool. And it was fun just to be
38:36
Speaker 3: able to not only relive a moment, but to be
38:38
Speaker 3: able to show him like a little moment in time.
38:41
Speaker 3: And that was, you know, a chance to just say,
38:44
Speaker 3: you know, hey, like not only was this you, but
38:47
Speaker 3: like this was you and I in this moment, and
38:52
Speaker 3: like just to have that little snapshot, because look, there
38:56
Speaker 3: are so many moments for kids that endear themselves to baseball.
39:00
Speaker 3: And Robert Fick became a you know, I became a
39:05
Speaker 3: fan of his for life because of that moment. I
39:09
Speaker 3: mean there's nothing he could have ever done that would
39:12
Speaker 3: have made me think any less of him because I
39:14
Speaker 3: was able to share a moment like that with Robert fix.
39:16
Speaker 3: So you know, that's why we love baseball. That's because
39:20
Speaker 3: we get those connections with players and we get those
39:23
Speaker 3: moments with them, and that's something that I hope stays
39:25
Speaker 3: in the game forever.
39:26
Speaker 4: Didn't you also play catch with one of the pitchers,
39:29
Speaker 4: like over the dugout.
39:31
Speaker 3: Wow, you have a great memory. So yes, I actually did.
39:36
Speaker 3: I was thinking about that too. That was Doug Brokekale, okay,
39:41
Speaker 3: And so that was a situation where he looked up
39:47
Speaker 3: and I saw me in the stands, and I had
39:51
Speaker 3: a ball and a pen and I just kind of
39:55
Speaker 3: held it up and he had a glove on and
39:58
Speaker 3: I threw it to him, and then my plan was
40:01
Speaker 3: to throw the pen as well for him to sign it.
40:04
Speaker 3: But he thought we were playing catch. The next thing
40:08
Speaker 3: I know, the ball was coming back towards me and
40:11
Speaker 3: looking around there's some people from every side. So he's
40:14
Speaker 3: a major league pitcher. He's not gonna be inaccurate, so
40:17
Speaker 3: thankfully coming right to me. So yes, I got a
40:21
Speaker 3: chance to play catch over the Tigers dugout. I think
40:24
Speaker 3: it was about you know, it wasn't even more than
40:27
Speaker 3: twenty minutes before first pitch. I was like dangerous, Now
40:33
Speaker 3: this is a liability in two thousand and four, but
40:36
Speaker 3: now Doug Doug Brokeale. But eventually I did get a
40:38
Speaker 3: chance to throw him the pin.
40:42
Speaker 4: That's really good. No wonder you're working in baseball now, right?
40:46
Speaker 2: Yeah?
40:46
Speaker 3: No kidding? Yeah, the uh it's an apple not falling
40:50
Speaker 3: too far from the tree, and again like that's how
40:52
Speaker 3: these things happen. I mean, I can promise you this.
40:55
Speaker 3: There are so many other people that are in similar
40:58
Speaker 3: positions to what I do that had these sorts of
41:01
Speaker 3: things happened to them along the way and that's what
41:04
Speaker 3: endeared them to the game. So to be able to
41:07
Speaker 3: share these kinds of stories, I promise you every one
41:09
Speaker 3: of us has these types of moments, and I'm sure
41:12
Speaker 3: you guys have them too, So to be able to
41:15
Speaker 3: reflect on that, it's it's so much fun. And it's
41:19
Speaker 3: one of those things I always love asking people, you know,
41:23
Speaker 3: what was the first moment that you had that you
41:27
Speaker 3: realized that you loved baseball? And look, the Tigers were
41:32
Speaker 3: a rough watch for a long time, but Old Tiger
41:36
Speaker 3: Stadium provided some really cool opportunities. I mean, whether it
41:40
Speaker 3: was just being able to be on the on the
41:43
Speaker 3: rail and get to talk to players to get autographs.
41:47
Speaker 3: I mean, Bobby Higginson was like my favorite player as
41:49
Speaker 3: a kid, and I used to go and like I
41:52
Speaker 3: was on like a like a I wouldn't say a
41:54
Speaker 3: first name basis, but like a face basis with him,
41:58
Speaker 3: like and like that was the coolest thing to me
42:00
Speaker 3: as like an eight year old, nine year old get so,
42:03
Speaker 3: you know, it was just those were the kinds of
42:05
Speaker 3: things that got me hooked. And I know that everybody
42:09
Speaker 3: has a different way that they got hooked in whether
42:11
Speaker 3: it was a parent or a best friend or being
42:15
Speaker 3: at the field, but I think it's probably a combination
42:18
Speaker 3: of all of those things. But there's so many different
42:20
Speaker 3: things that hook us into this game, and we're lucky
42:23
Speaker 3: we get a chance to do it. We do.
42:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, very well said, nothing's going to top that. So
42:28
Speaker 1: that's that's as good a time as any to wrap
42:31
Speaker 1: up here. Dan want to thank you for your time.
42:34
Speaker 1: You guys can listen to this wherever you get your podcasts.
42:37
Speaker 1: Most importantly, you can see us on YouTube, so go
42:42
Speaker 1: to Tiger Territory on YouTube. Be able to watch this
42:44
Speaker 1: full podcast if you are listening to us wherever you
42:47
Speaker 1: get your podcasts. So for Cody Stavenhagen and Dan Hasty,
42:51
Speaker 1: I'm Keeran Seckley, thank you for listening, and have a
42:53
Speaker 1: great day.