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ABS Challenge System ripple effects, Tigers rollercoaster run · Foul Territory

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's Tiger Territory host Cody Stapenhagen joining us right
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: now from The Athletic. But first we're going to talk
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: about an article that hits all teams. Cody, great to
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: have you on, and I wanted to spend some time
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: on the homework that you did and put into a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: great article on what's going on with the strike zone
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: and how the ABS system affects that. So can you
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: lay it out and then we'll also get our guys
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and just turn this into more of a discussion like
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: KP and crats to reply.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: I mean everyone in baseball is obviously talking about the
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: ABS right now, and I feel like a lot of
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: the discussion has just gone to is this good?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Is this bad?
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: How do we feel about the challenges? How are we
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: using the challenges? And almost overlooked is something that was
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: kind of laid out in the impetus of MLB going
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: to the ABS, which is that the strike zone has changed.
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: The rule book strike zone and the ABS strike zone
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: are two different things. Most notably, we now base the
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: strike zone on a percentage of player's height, which has
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: several interesting ripple effects. Number one, how our umpire's supposed
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: to know what the bottom or top of the zone is.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: How do you look at someone and know what twenty
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: seven percent of their height looks like? And to some degree,
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: pictures are dealing with the exact same thing. They no
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: longer have those set easy visual cues just below the
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: shoulders or the hollow of the kneecap to know the
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: top and bottom of the zone. Now a lot of
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: pitchers are basing their cues more off the catcher anyway,
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: but some are doing some homework to know in advance
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: what zones look like on certain guys. Now with this,
• 1:34
  Speaker 3: the top of the zone is smaller, and the walk
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: rate has risen quite significantly. It's nine point nine percent.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: To some degree, MLB expected that they saw a very
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: similar trend in triple A. But nine point nine percent now,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: I know it's early, I know it's April. That'd be
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: the highest walk rate in more than seventy years, guys,
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: And if you exclude the short and twenty twenty season,
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: the walk rate hasn't been nine since the year two thousand,
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: So let's say pretty shit rise and walks. There may
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: be some more ripple effects to come as everyone continues
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: adjusting to the abs and basically, what's a new strike
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: zone In.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: The research, have you seen any numbers that would indicate, well,
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: this is going to be the norm or will there
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: be a regression back to the mean of the amount
• 2:20
  Speaker 4: of walks with that walk rate spiking? Obviously we don't know.
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: You're not not a fortune teller, but is there something
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: that would indicate, Okay, well, everyone will figure it out,
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: including the pictures, including the umpires, and we'll get back
• 2:34
  Speaker 4: to it. Or is this the new norm?
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: I think to some degree it's the new normal. Will
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: it be this extreme? Who knows. But right now, the
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: best evidence we have is what happened in Triple A
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: last year, a full ABS challenge system from start to finish,
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: and the walk rate jumped, you know, more than a
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: percentage point. So there's reason to suggest this is what happens.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Triple A has experimented with different iterations of the ABS
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: over the past few years. Walker right is stabilized a
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: little bit as this has gone on, but it's still
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: much higher than it was pre ABS. Some of the
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: trends we're seeing at the MLB level right now kind
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: of reflect what's happened in Triple A, where the overall
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: percentage of pitches in the zone is lower. As a
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: result of that, the swing rate from hitters is lower.
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: I think as everyone comes to know the zone, whether
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: that's catchers, batters, pitchers, umpires, they might there may be
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: some adjustment, but in at least the short term, it
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: could mean even more walks as hitters increasingly learn to
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: lay off the high pitch, that high fastball that can
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: be unhittable from certain pitchers. And so maybe the question
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: that's still unanswerable is if hitters really learned to lay
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: off that pitch, what does that mean for the art
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: of pitching. Or I think we're already seeing slide up
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: tick and sinkers and change ups, pitchers going a little
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: more east west, and what will that look like for
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: the game. I think these are some of the many
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: questions that kind of come up and that it's going
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: to take some time, probably multiple seasons to fully answer.
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah, these are more comments than I'll ask Kratzy a question.
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  Speaker 5: But I feel like the strike zone was always defined
• 4:08
  Speaker 5: in the rule book, right, but it was very arbitrary
• 4:10
  Speaker 5: to what the umpire decided to call. So I'm a
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: huge fan, I'm also pro hitter that there is a
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: defined strike zone. Now, even though you know, when you're
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: sitting back there catching crats, you can't really, you know,
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: estimate what's you know, twenty six point seven percent of
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: their body height. But I could also imagine you're probably
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: not back there Kratzy setting up a target right at
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: the hall of the knees. It becomes more of a
• 4:34
  Speaker 5: feeling when you're back there. But I also think this
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: just kind of highlights how good umpires are, you know,
• 4:41
  Speaker 5: and I think for a long time, when we talked
• 4:43
  Speaker 5: about this in our production meeting, I think they're just
• 4:45
  Speaker 5: finally being held accountable. There's a repercussion for them to
• 4:49
  Speaker 5: kind of just call whatever they feel like to strike,
• 4:51
  Speaker 5: but when they have a defined strike zone that they
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: can actually lock into, these guys are pretty good. And
• 4:57
  Speaker 5: I think it's been great for the game. I know
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: it's a little bit more challeng for pitchers and maybe
• 5:01
  Speaker 5: there's an adjustment for pictures, but I love the fact
• 5:04
  Speaker 5: that it's implementing the game. I think it's added a
• 5:07
  Speaker 5: layer of entertainment. I've been at a couple of games
• 5:09
  Speaker 5: covering the Blue Jays, and when that happens instantaneously, you
• 5:13
  Speaker 5: can kind of feel this people holding their breadth in
• 5:16
  Speaker 5: the stadium and anticipation of what the call is going
• 5:18
  Speaker 5: to be, whether it's for the team or against the team.
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: But it's just added this extra layer of entertainment. But Gratzy,
• 5:24
  Speaker 5: maybe you could speak on it when you're back there
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: as a catcher. It's it's more of a feeling you
• 5:28
  Speaker 5: have catching than actually setting your glove at you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 5: like measuring the top of the zone or the bottom
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: of the zone. You're kind of just setting up a target.
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you're setting up a target. But I also want
• 5:38
  Speaker 4: to know, like are some catchers like setting the hitter
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: up like given like a I know that was I
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: know that was in the zone, but I kind of
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: caught it bad to set the hitters up. There's there's
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: a lot of gamesmanship. And I love how Cody you
• 5:54
  Speaker 4: you highlighted the fact that the walk rate is up,
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: but the fact that how are you so supposed to know?
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: How are you supposed to know what that percentage is?
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: And through the different stuff that you looked at, is
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: it still the top of the zone? You talked about
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: the top of the zone. But we've had three or
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: four catchers on the show and they've all said the
• 6:15
  Speaker 4: same thing. I just don't know where the top of
• 6:18
  Speaker 4: the zone is. And did you hear that or have
• 6:21
  Speaker 4: you heard that from umpires too?
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I personally haven't spoken to any umpires based on
• 6:27
  Speaker 3: the sense that's out there Ken Rosenthal what some others
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: have reported, I think umpires certainly share the similar feeling.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: The top of the zone was seemingly altered a little
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: bit more than the bottom of the zone. There have
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: been some mysteries at the bottom of the zone two.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: But if you look at the data of just what
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: pitches are getting challenged the most, it's pretty interesting. The
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: bottom of the zone is where the most challenges are.
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  Speaker 3: So does that tell you no one knows the bottom
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: of the zone, or does that tell you everyone's pretty
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: confident in the bottom of the zone, so they're going
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: to challenge Where the least challenges have occurred is up top,
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: which actually I personally tend to think means batters aren't
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: quite sure what the top is. Catchers aren't quite sure
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  Speaker 3: where the top is. There's still a degree of mystery
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  Speaker 3: up top. I think talking to pitchers for sure, that's
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: what got mentioned the most, just the uncertainty of that
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: how batters are reacting the pitches up top. I think
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: I think that's what everyone is kind of talking about
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: the most. And to be clear, these things weren't necessarily complaints.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: I think the large consensus in the game, as you
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: point out, Kevin, like, people tend to like the ABS.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: But I do think it's important to note it's not
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: just like, all right, the ABS is here, people tend
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: to like it. It's good like there are small little
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: ripple effects that are that are coming out. When you
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: fundamentally change the strike zone, you fundamentally changed the game.
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: You talked about the areas. Is there a pitch that
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: has been challenged more often?
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  Speaker 2: Like?
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: Is there are more sliders challenged or more fastballs challenged splitters?
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  Speaker 4: Is there one pitch that sticks out as an outlier
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  Speaker 4: that's challenged more ya right.
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  Speaker 3: Now in terms of just the sheer volume, it's forcing fastballs,
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: But that makes sense. Forcing fastball are still the most
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: commonly thrown pitch. So I'm not a good enough mathematician
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  Speaker 3: to break down each percentage of pitches they're game challenge,
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: but I think it's probably telling. The second and third
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: most commonly challenged pitch are the sinker and the slider
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: pitches kind of with later horizontal movement that maybe that
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: are going, you know.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Out of the zone.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's selling sinkers for sure. I mean, again,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: a commonly thrown pitch, but some of these sinkers these
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: days that are moving the width of the plate and
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: have hard late movement. Combine that with pitchers, they're using
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: sinkers a little bit more often. I think maybe that's
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: been kind of the toughest pitch to pick up for batters, umpires, pitchers,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: catchers alike.
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  Speaker 5: What have you seen with the Tigers in terms of
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: how successful they have been. Are they using it more
• 8:51
  Speaker 5: offensively defensively? And have you had conversations with players or
• 8:56
  Speaker 5: even aj about kind of the strategy that they've actively
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: come up with how to use their challenges.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. I mean the Tigers, I think, like
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: most teams but maybe not quite every team, are pretty
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: focused on using it in leverage situations. Right if there's
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: a chance to flip account big time, to go from
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: a strikeout to a walk, or if they're runners on base,
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: that's a good time to use it. Is an oo
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: pitch in the first inning with no one on base
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: really the best time to deploy your challenge. Look, you
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: better be sure, and that's probably the overwhelming point, like
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: you better be sure or if you're not quite sure,
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: you better be using it in a situation where there
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: is something at stake. The Tigers have been pretty good
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: at challenges, I think most notably Dylan Dingler has been phenomenal.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: He was entering yesterday I think nine for eleven, so
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: he's been really accurate behind the plate. He's flipped a
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: big count this past week at the plate, going from
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: a walk to extend an inning. So Dylan Dingler has
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: actually been one of the stars of the challenge system
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  Speaker 3: so far.
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Must be the American League Central because I think Ryan
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: Jeffers at one point had ten successful I think out
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: of twelve or something like that, but eight of them
• 10:05
  Speaker 4: were for strikeouts. So just to your point, they want
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: to do it in leverage counts. Do you see obviously,
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: April seventeenth, we are very new into ABS, but based
• 10:18
  Speaker 4: on the success of it, or based on the how
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: it's been taking, do you see a tweak that or
• 10:24
  Speaker 4: what your what's your nostradamus tweak that you think might
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: happen with ABS. We had a guest on the other
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: day that was like, they're going to go to full
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: robo umpires at one point, and I'm forgetting who it was,
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: and I was like, what, No, I don't want that.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it is interesting that, given there's been a positive
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: response so far, does that make like full robo bumps
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: more likely.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think maybe, But I also think it's
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: worth noting that right now, fans seem to like the
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: Challenge system. Players seem to like the Challenge system. Even
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: umpires don't totally hate the Challenge system. So if you
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: have something that's working pretty well and adds that little
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: extra element of strategy and suspense even to the game,
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure they should touch it. And I say
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: that as someone who's kind of been like, well, if
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: you have the technology to get calls right, why wouldn't
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: you use it all the time. But right now, the
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Challenge system has been kind of fun, kind of interesting,
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: Like the strategy behind it that we were just talking about.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: I almost wonder if they should leave it there now.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: I don't think they're going to change anything mid season,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: but some of the strike zone stuff we were talking about,
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: I wonder if that will eventually change previously or in
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: the rule book, the strike zone is still defined as
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: a three dimensional object and the ABS zone is like
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: a pane of glass, two dimensional, hung in the middle
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: of the plate. So can they perfect this technology where
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: they can implement the three D strike zone and it's
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: a little different, Or if the walk rate really becomes
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: a problem, is it as simple as to say, all right,
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: let's raise the top of the zone a little bit,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: get it back a little bit more like it used
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: to be. That might be the most obvious solution if
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: they were to tweak things down the line.
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: You laid out your research and you you talked about
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: the top of the zone, and obviously the research shows that.
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: But have you had conversations with pictures within the organization
• 12:08
  Speaker 5: kind of expressing their frustration with not really knowing where
• 12:11
  Speaker 5: the top of the strike zone is? Or is this
• 12:13
  Speaker 5: all based off.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Of research, Yeah, based on conversations with Tiger's pictures, some
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: other pictures around the league. My colleague Zach Miselle spoke
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: to a a couple of pictures with the Guardians, with
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: the Royals, and I wouldn't frame it so much as frustration,
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: but it's more just like kind of talking out the uncertainty. Yeah,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: players definitely said like the top of the zone is
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: the one that everyone is still figuring out.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: What about the fear of time of game pace of games?
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: Have you heard that? Because I think we had the
• 12:45
  Speaker 4: number from the minor leagues and I think it's still
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: on par with that. But is their fear of pace
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: of game?
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no one told me that on the record, but
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: just conversation ends I've had since the start of spring training,
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: that thought has definitely come up. Walks are up, which
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: again MLB kind of new walks we're going to raise
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: a little bit. Is that going to impact the pace
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: of play? Which improving the pace of play has been
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: such a good thing for the game over the past
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: few seasons. I do think that's a real question. If
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: the pace of play right now is pretty stable, or
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: at least close to where it was before, then maybe
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: it's not an issue. But if the walker rate continues
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: to be a concern, if hitters start laying off more
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: pitches and the walker rate keeps going up, at what
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: point does that become an issue. I certainly think that's
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: a really important thing to keep an eye on.
• 13:31
  Speaker 5: So over the last couple of years, the Tigers have
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: kind of been the alpha of that division, and we've
• 13:37
  Speaker 5: come to expect a certain thing from the Detroit Tigers.
• 13:40
  Speaker 5: Is there a reason to panic or is this just
• 13:42
  Speaker 5: kind of some early season not playing their best baseball
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: right now?
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's fine to say alpha of the division. They
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: haven't won the divisions in ten years. They've been a
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: playoff team in the past two years. But you know,
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: fumbled away of the division lead last year, and then
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: in terms of their start to the season, it's kind
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: of have been all over the place. They had a
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: really rough road trip in Minnesota. They lost four in
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: a row. They started four and nine. They weren't really
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: playing a clean or good brand of baseball. They weren't
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: pitching that well. And then they got back home and
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: they won six in a row. They beat the Royals
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: in three consecutive one run games, terrific comeback. A long
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: day at the park yesterday that had multiple delays. They
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: won that on a col Keith walkoff single. So a
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: really good home stand. Now they're ten to nine. Now
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: everyone is feeling a little bit better, I think most
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: notably to pitching. The starting pitching in particular starting to
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: come along strung together really six consecutive really strong starts.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: I think pitching and a clean brand to play is
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: huge for the Tigers. They have enough offense, but it's
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: gonna take elite pitching, I think for them to win
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: this division, And at least over the past week we
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: started to see more signs of that.
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: Who do you think makes the next step for the
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: rest of the season. Do you think it's Flairty or
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: do you think it's Kaider Mantaro who I thought was
• 15:00
  Speaker 4: going to take the next step and then he kind
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: of you know, they got Framburgh, so it kind of
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: not that he took a back seat. He's still in
• 15:05
  Speaker 4: the rotation, but you saw what he did in the WBC,
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: you know, and then you're like, oh no, Like obviously
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: it's all small sample size, but one of those two
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: guys really needs to step up for this team if
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: they want to make the run that they're planning on making,
• 15:21
  Speaker 4: and that's why they're keeping Trek Scrugle to win the
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: World Series. They need a third guy to step up.
• 15:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. You know this in spring when people
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: are saying, well that the Tigers have the best rotation
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: in the American League, that conversation was less dependent on
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: Trek Scougle and from Rivaldez, who are really good, you
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: have a pretty good idea what you're gonna get, and
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: more dependent on Jack Flaherty, Casey Mize, even justin Verlander.
• 15:45
  Speaker 3: Verlander's on the il right now. Montero's been really impressive
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: in his place. If and when Verlander gets back healthy,
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: what does that even mean for Montero? Like, I don't
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: know if these things tend to figure themselves out. All
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: it takes is someone else tweaking a muscle and maybe
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Montero's in the rotation for another month. He's been really good.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: He's been really impressive. He's commanding his stuff better than ever.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Flaherty's coming off a really good start after a couple
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: of rough ones. But I would throw Casey Myes in
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: that conversation too. Myes has looked pretty good so far
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: at this season. He's had one start where his splitter
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: was terrific and good as ever. He had a little
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: bit of a rough start in Minnesota, and then this
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: past homestand had had one where he was pretty good.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: His fastball command was good, he made some big pitches
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: and big spots even with runners on base. He pitches
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: tonight against the Red Sox. I actually like what I'm
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: seeing from Casey Mice and I would throw him at
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: the top of that list.
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: Hey, quick question, Cole Keith.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: So I saw the tweet about you know, sitting in
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: front of his locker, talked about breathing.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Can you elaborate on that?
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Cole Keith's soft to be a really good starts
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: the year his third MLB season. We've seen flashes of
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: good play from Cole in his first couple of years,
• 17:00
  Speaker 3: but also some pretty long, prolonged droughts, most notably really
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: bad starts to the season in both twenty twenty four.
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: In twenty twenty five, he's hat a goal to correct that,
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: to come out the gate hot, and he's done that.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: He's hitting above three hundred, had the walk off single yesterday.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: Talking to Colt about it, he kind of attributes the
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: mental work more than the physical. He got big into
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: breathing exercises, kind of inhaling through the nose, doing some
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: things that you think can send more oxygen to his tissues.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: And so he's actually crediting that breathing exercises for why
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: his swing speed is up and his average exit velocity
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: is up. You guys can read a little bit more
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: about that on the athletic But it's been kind of interesting.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: You see these guys, you know, their physical profile starts
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: to change or their stat cast page starts to change,
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: and sometimes you go talk to him and it's as
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: simple as oh, yeah, like I started doing breathing exercises.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Quick reply before we drop KP or kay. Any thoughts
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: on that.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean it just reminds me of Loriano. Just
• 18:00
  Speaker 5: loosen the grip in his fingers a little bit and
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: he starts hitting the ball harder. So yeah, I mean
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: from an educational standpoint, like grats he touched on, sometimes
• 18:08
  Speaker 5: less is more and it sounds exactly what he's trying
• 18:10
  Speaker 5: to do. When you breathe, you're a little bit more relaxed,
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: the tensions off the bat starts to go through the
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: zone a little bit more. So Yeah, I love when
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: guys are open and honest about talking about that, because
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: we spent a lot of time talking about these physical
• 18:23
  Speaker 5: changes that need to be done in the cage and
• 18:25
  Speaker 5: hitting your way out of it. Sometimes you need to
• 18:27
  Speaker 5: step away from the physical aspect take some time mentally
• 18:31
  Speaker 5: to work on things like that and you're seeing, you know,
• 18:33
  Speaker 5: him reaping the benefits of it.
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: I was definite I was breathing when I played, but
• 18:39
  Speaker 4: it sounded more like this, Oh man, they're gonna send
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: me down. Cole Keith doesn't have to worry about that,
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: so good for him. He's he's he's locked up now.
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: He possibly could have been going if they had changed
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: in positions again, but fortunately they have. They haven't done that,
• 18:58
  Speaker 4: so maybe those breathing actually sizes will continue to help him.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Look for more on Cody's Twitter and and I think
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: it would be a cool topic to bring up on
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Tiger Territory coming up on the next one too, So Cody,
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: appreciate the time and great article and the athletic on
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the the abs.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: I love the combo. Just now and we'll catch you soon,
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: Bud sounds good.
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, Gus.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you, Cody s David Hagen, and Kieren Stackley part
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: of Tiger Territory, part of the FT Network all over
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Tiger's coverage all year long.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Go check it out.