Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Dillon Dingler, Framber Valdez and another series win

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Dillon Dingler, Framber Valdez and another series win · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:08
Speaker 1: And welcome into an episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:11
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Nowork Detroit Tiger's podcast. I am ker
0:15
Speaker 1: secretly with me as always a man who pays for
0:17
Speaker 1: his burritos in more ways than one. He's cally saving
0:20
Speaker 1: and how are we doing?
0:21
Speaker 2: It's doing all right, Kieren? What a what a weird season?
0:24
Speaker 2: This is, man, the Tigers area, they're like the greatest
0:27
Speaker 2: team ever now they're making baseball look easy.
0:31
Speaker 1: Well, here here's the thing, Cody, it's not like the
0:34
Speaker 1: whole don't let the Tigers get hot thing. The Tigers
0:38
Speaker 1: are hot like they they're like, there's just no way
0:40
Speaker 1: around it. You can't talk your way out of any
0:43
Speaker 1: other statement. And I'm much we're recording this, uh you
0:48
Speaker 1: know in the evening on Thursday. I don't have the
0:51
Speaker 1: score of the White Sox Red Sox game in front
0:53
Speaker 1: of me right now, But if it's not for the
0:55
Speaker 1: Red Sox, I do kind of believe the Tigers might
0:58
Speaker 1: be sort of like the the talk of baseball a
1:01
Speaker 1: little bit more, especially given the trades and how the
1:05
Speaker 1: trade deadline went down.
1:07
Speaker 3: But look, eleven to nothing.
1:09
Speaker 1: That's after an eight nothing win to begin and then
1:11
Speaker 1: obviously you lose the game in the middle there, but
1:15
Speaker 1: you win another series that you put it out on.
1:17
Speaker 1: X six straight road series wins for the Tigers for
1:21
Speaker 1: most since nineteen eighty eight. There's another stat where it's
1:24
Speaker 1: like most runs in this span or whatever since nineteen
1:28
Speaker 1: forty six. Like, we're far reaching. We talked about the
1:31
Speaker 1: nineteen twenty seven stuff last time. We're far reaching to
1:34
Speaker 1: kind of make comparisons and ways to kind of like
1:36
Speaker 1: talk about this team, Cody. Maybe the bottom line is this,
1:41
Speaker 1: Maybe this is just a good offensive team. I'm just
1:45
Speaker 1: gonna like read off some stats here for the Tigers.
1:50
Speaker 1: This is in American League rankings.
1:52
Speaker 3: What do you want? You want?
1:53
Speaker 1: Ops? The Tigers are second in the American League in ops?
1:56
Speaker 3: What do you want you want?
1:58
Speaker 1: The walks they are What about home runs they are fourth?
2:03
Speaker 1: You know, what about run scoring in general? They are fourth.
2:07
Speaker 1: Like there's there's a lot of avenues you can go
2:11
Speaker 1: and a lot of them. Had the Tigers near the
2:14
Speaker 1: top of the American League when it comes to just
2:16
Speaker 1: raw offensive output. So like as tentative as we have
2:21
Speaker 1: have been, maybe to like embrace it and then as
2:24
Speaker 1: bad as it was, like because we always use the.
2:27
Speaker 3: June one sort of like timestamp.
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Speaker 1: As bad as it was, maybe it's just time to
2:32
Speaker 1: accept Cody, this is.
2:34
Speaker 3: A good offense.
2:36
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I think they've jumped from like eighteenth
2:39
Speaker 2: to tenth in ops in like five days, and that
2:42
Speaker 2: was before an eleven zero wins, So that really speaks
2:45
Speaker 2: to how good it has been in the past week. Yeah,
2:49
Speaker 2: even just a few days ago they were still rinked
2:51
Speaker 2: below average. Now they're a top ten offense in the league.
2:54
Speaker 2: That really speaks to how good they have been since
2:57
Speaker 2: that magical June first date. They have been consistently hitting
3:02
Speaker 2: the ball really, really well. They've done it against some
3:04
Speaker 2: good pitching. They did it today against Bryce Miller, a
3:07
Speaker 2: pitcher who had historically shut them down, and there are
3:11
Speaker 2: signs that this offense could be getting better adding a
3:14
Speaker 2: player like Max Clerk. Even though Javier Bays is not
3:17
Speaker 2: really an offensive force anymore, he is arguably better than
3:20
Speaker 2: some of the guys they were forced to roll out
3:23
Speaker 2: at other points in the season, the balls leaving some
3:28
Speaker 2: the yard. You have some guys, you know, Riley Green's
3:30
Speaker 2: probably not even really playing his best right now, although
3:33
Speaker 2: he did hit another one out of the Park in
3:35
Speaker 2: this series. So yeah, I don't know. Sometimes it still
3:39
Speaker 2: doesn't on paper, doesn't feel like that good of an offense.
3:41
Speaker 2: But when you have Kevin McGonagall, when you have Dylan Dingler,
3:44
Speaker 2: you still have Riley Green. The power of this team,
3:49
Speaker 2: the ability to change the scoreboard has really reached a
3:51
Speaker 2: different level than we've seen in many years here in Detroit,
3:55
Speaker 2: and the fact they've been able to sustain that for
3:58
Speaker 2: an elongated period of time is really encouraging.
4:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I would even say, like a day like
4:06
Speaker 1: today when you you get out to the early lead
4:09
Speaker 1: and and and you have like what was a ten
4:12
Speaker 1: eleven straight at bats, and you know, recorded outs or whatever,
4:17
Speaker 1: so you know, it's not really pretty in the middle,
4:19
Speaker 1: but then you still kind of apply the pressure. You
4:22
Speaker 1: still you know, you don't kind of abandon your approach,
4:26
Speaker 1: and and you and you blow the game wide open,
4:28
Speaker 1: and then even kind of tack on some stuff with
4:30
Speaker 1: the position player pitching, So like overall, like it's it.
4:34
Speaker 1: That's what a good that's what a good offense does.
4:37
Speaker 1: You You take advantage of a pitcher who's maybe not
4:39
Speaker 1: as sharp as he normally is, you're aggressive, you get
4:42
Speaker 1: runs on the board, yeah, he settles in, Yeah, you're
4:45
Speaker 1: not you know, you know, not performing like you were
4:47
Speaker 1: early in the game, and then you still kind of
4:50
Speaker 1: keep the pressure on and go ahead and get insurance
4:53
Speaker 1: runs this and Lord knows, this is something that's something
4:56
Speaker 1: that this team is gonna need a lot more often
4:58
Speaker 1: than not, given where weaknesses are, which we all know
5:01
Speaker 1: what those are. Speaking of, where are the weaknesses? Dylan Dingler, Cody,
5:09
Speaker 1: Dylan Dingler?
5:10
Speaker 3: Does it exist?
5:12
Speaker 1: If someone would like to point something out, I'd love
5:14
Speaker 1: to see it the midst of a historic season.
5:18
Speaker 3: We've talked about it before.
5:19
Speaker 1: I loved this quote from AJ to you guys in
5:22
Speaker 1: the post game scrum where he's just like it's hard
5:25
Speaker 1: to continue saying the same things about him.
5:29
Speaker 3: It was like us AJ lockstep baby.
5:33
Speaker 1: Because I feel the exact same way home runs in
5:36
Speaker 1: every game of this series. He's approaching the thirty home
5:39
Speaker 1: run mark. Like I was trying to figure out, like,
5:43
Speaker 1: what's the most impressive thing about Dylan Dingler, and I
5:47
Speaker 1: think I just came across the simple fact is this
5:51
Speaker 1: guy is a no days off guy because he's so
5:54
Speaker 1: good and if you would not know it based on
5:58
Speaker 1: how he is when he's behind the play how he plays,
6:00
Speaker 1: and then when he's in the in the box, like
6:02
Speaker 1: how he hits, you would never guess that. Like, this
6:05
Speaker 1: is a guy that the Tigers just cannot afford to
6:08
Speaker 1: not put in the lineup because he just delivers over
6:10
Speaker 1: and over again.
6:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's been pretty remarkable. It's like when we were
6:15
Speaker 2: talking about Troy Melton in our last episode, how sometimes
6:19
Speaker 2: these guys don't get credit until all of a sudden
6:21
Speaker 2: they do. I remember I was here in Seattle in
6:23
Speaker 2: this ballpark last year for the postseason, and the day
6:26
Speaker 2: before the ds I wrote a story about Dylan Dingler
6:28
Speaker 2: kind of being like, hey, cal Raley's not the only
6:31
Speaker 2: good catcher in this series. I remember that, and and
6:35
Speaker 2: yeah you should have heard that. I think there was
6:36
Speaker 2: Netter Who's like, a, do we really need to write this?
6:38
Speaker 2: Like is anyone going to read about this guy? Was like,
6:40
Speaker 2: I don't know if they're going to read it, but
6:42
Speaker 2: I think it should be said. You know, I think
6:44
Speaker 2: it should be out there. I think it should be known.
6:46
Speaker 2: And so here we are now, right, and I still
6:50
Speaker 2: think Dingler's people probably know who he is. Now he
6:53
Speaker 2: has the gold glove? Is he getting the level of
6:55
Speaker 2: attention he should be for having a terrific season from
6:58
Speaker 2: a catcher for a Flaherty tweeted after the game, belonging
7:02
Speaker 2: in a certain conversation. I mean, I think even locally,
7:06
Speaker 2: even those of us who watch every day, it's kind
7:08
Speaker 2: of crazy to, you know, pull up the war tab
7:10
Speaker 2: and see, oh, Dylan Dingler's second among all American League players.
7:13
Speaker 2: Know he is firmly in the MVP conversation. Even if
7:16
Speaker 2: Jordon Alvarez is leading all three Triple Crown categories right now,
7:20
Speaker 2: Like if Jordon falls off at all, guess who was
7:23
Speaker 2: right there knocking on the door, and guess who is
7:25
Speaker 2: probably is. It's going to be soon. I get that
7:27
Speaker 2: message from like an editor, Hey, we were written about
7:30
Speaker 2: this dilly guy. And that's just how these things work
7:34
Speaker 2: when you work for a bigger national outlet, right. I
7:37
Speaker 2: think a bigger level of acclaim and attention is coming
7:40
Speaker 2: soon and is well deserved because he has been so good,
7:44
Speaker 2: so consistent. The ability to consistently hit for power has
7:47
Speaker 2: just been kind of baffling, again, especially for a guy
7:50
Speaker 2: who was, even though he was always a well liked prospect,
7:53
Speaker 2: was never really build to be vi. You know, there
7:56
Speaker 2: was a lot of work, a lot of improvement on
7:58
Speaker 2: his own that went into it. It's hard to even
8:00
Speaker 2: get him to talk about it. We were asking about
8:03
Speaker 2: after the game and he just kind of shrugged and
8:06
Speaker 2: said like two words. Then off camera he basically said, yeah,
8:09
Speaker 2: I like that. I don't I don't know. I don't
8:11
Speaker 2: know how to talk about myself. And that's one of
8:13
Speaker 2: the endearing things about Dylan Tingler.
8:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, one of the many endearing things about Dylan Tingler.
8:19
Speaker 1: So look forward to continuing to see him climb up
8:23
Speaker 1: the ranks. In that certain conversation, and I will say
8:29
Speaker 1: the fact that he did not start the All Star Game.
8:32
Speaker 1: I know we're backtracking a little bit, but the fact
8:34
Speaker 1: that he did not start the All Star Game to
8:35
Speaker 1: me tells me, yeah, like more people need to recognize.
8:38
Speaker 1: So I'll just leave it at that, all right, Cody,
8:42
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Speaker 3: Thank you, See Geek. All right, let's go to Wednesday's
10:06
Speaker 3: game Cody, because.
10:08
Speaker 1: Like, you know, this great series, we got to talk
10:10
Speaker 1: a little bit, I guess about the things that didn't
10:12
Speaker 1: go right, and that one was a pitcher's duel there
10:16
Speaker 1: at the beginning, Drew Anderson makes his first start of
10:19
Speaker 1: the season as a member of the rotation. He goes,
10:22
Speaker 1: what three point two three hits, has a walk in
10:26
Speaker 1: there as they try to stretch him out. And really
10:29
Speaker 1: this game will be known for as like a continuation
10:32
Speaker 1: of Tigers Mariners.
10:36
Speaker 3: Shnanigans. I think it would be a it would be
10:39
Speaker 3: a way to put it.
10:40
Speaker 1: We obviously remember the Naylor play earlier in the year
10:43
Speaker 1: and then even last year in the playoffs again involving
10:45
Speaker 1: Naylor with the fake signals and just everything that went
10:49
Speaker 1: into that five game series. I get, you know, there's
10:52
Speaker 1: a whirl where this becomes somewhat of a rivalry here
10:54
Speaker 1: for the next several years. That's getting ahead of ourselves,
10:57
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't mind it.
10:58
Speaker 3: And so.
11:00
Speaker 1: Torres gets thrown at, there's a suspension or a couple
11:03
Speaker 1: of suspensions and ejections, anything there that's lingering or is
11:09
Speaker 1: that just kind of like that specific Aainstus was just
11:12
Speaker 1: kind of like baseball heated at the moment, we just
11:15
Speaker 1: got to move on.
11:17
Speaker 2: Hard to say, I mean, it seemed over and done Thursday,
11:22
Speaker 2: But then again, Josh Naylor wasn't in the lineup, neither
11:25
Speaker 2: was Cal Raley. If these two teams were, by some
11:27
Speaker 2: twist of fate to meet again in the postseason, I'm
11:30
Speaker 2: not sure. Or could this even carry over to next year,
11:32
Speaker 2: I don't know. It might Tigers Mariners has certainly become
11:36
Speaker 2: a little bit chippy. You guys probably saw the video.
11:39
Speaker 2: I don't know if Glaber actually told Cal at least
11:41
Speaker 2: I have hits, or if that's just what the amateur
11:45
Speaker 2: lip readers.
11:46
Speaker 3: It's funny.
11:47
Speaker 2: I think he said it is funny. Talking to Glaber
11:50
Speaker 2: after the game, he played the nice guy role. He
11:53
Speaker 2: said he went up to Cal before they get bad
11:55
Speaker 2: and asked him how he was doing, so he knows
11:57
Speaker 2: how much it sucks to get hit. And then when
11:59
Speaker 2: Glaber got hit, he said, all I told Cal was, hey,
12:02
Speaker 2: there were two strikes. When Dajesus hit you, it wasn't
12:04
Speaker 2: on purpose. For as much as the benches, I was
12:07
Speaker 2: surprised the benches cleared because it never really looked to
12:10
Speaker 2: me like Glaber and Cal were gonna come to blows
12:13
Speaker 2: and even though you know, then everyone pours out of
12:16
Speaker 2: the dog out and poor Kinley Jansen has to jog
12:18
Speaker 2: all the way in from the bulpit, and AJ's kind
12:21
Speaker 2: of there in the middle of it, but nothing was
12:23
Speaker 2: really happening, so it just kind of seemed silly. I mean,
12:28
Speaker 2: Spire definitely took two shots at Glaber Torres, which is
12:31
Speaker 2: a great way to get a suspension. I think maybe
12:34
Speaker 2: if you didn't hit him the first time, you just said,
12:36
Speaker 2: okay and move, I'll walk back in on the bat here.
12:39
Speaker 2: Is that really worth three games? I know he's appealing it,
12:41
Speaker 2: but come on, so yeah, I mean, schippy chippy for sure.
12:45
Speaker 2: And that's just how the game goes sometimes.
12:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, and well, hell how the game goes sometimes. That's
12:52
Speaker 1: how you probably describe what was kind of the I mean,
12:55
Speaker 1: it was the go ahead play of the game. Hulo Rodriez,
13:00
Speaker 1: Homer's up, Brennan Hannifee there comes in to replace Tyler Holton,
13:06
Speaker 1: and it's for everything, clicking on all cylinders and AJ
13:10
Speaker 1: and the Tigers and you know, just finding the right
13:13
Speaker 1: uh right buttons to push. That one was kind of
13:17
Speaker 1: a reminder of a lot that happened early in the
13:19
Speaker 1: season Cody, where it just seems like nothing was really
13:23
Speaker 1: working out, you know, and and Attilio. So I'm not like,
13:26
Speaker 1: you know Antulio Rodriguez, but it was kind of demoralizing
13:30
Speaker 1: and ultimately a deficit that the Tigers could not overcome
13:33
Speaker 1: in that situation.
13:34
Speaker 3: But did you did you understand the Hannafee moved there? Yeah?
13:37
Speaker 2: I did. In the moment, I was like, really, like,
13:40
Speaker 2: you're gonna walk King Zone to face Julio, Like, I
13:43
Speaker 2: don't care, like you're gonna You're gonna walk the guy
13:45
Speaker 2: to face Julio Rodriguez. That's pretty tough to justify. And
13:48
Speaker 2: then I don't know, I went and looked at the numbers.
13:50
Speaker 2: Julio was just not being good against righty's this year,
13:53
Speaker 2: six ninety four ops. Uh, whereas dominic kin Zone has
13:57
Speaker 2: been a terrific hitter. An eighty eight ops against right
14:02
Speaker 2: handed batters. Is the second time this has happened. I
14:05
Speaker 2: don't remember who the opponent was, but someone else walked
14:08
Speaker 2: can Zone and faced cal Raley and what did cal
14:11
Speaker 2: Raley do? Cal Rawley has not had a good year,
14:13
Speaker 2: went Yard, so dom Canzone emerging as a real legit
14:17
Speaker 2: hitter has altered the complexion of the Mariners lineup, and
14:20
Speaker 2: it's it's clearly giving other teams some difficult decisions, you know,
14:25
Speaker 2: scrolling on X it seems like it. Well, even as
14:28
Speaker 2: I just unpack it, I think AJ's only real other
14:30
Speaker 2: option there would be to roll with Tyler Houlton. Tyler
14:34
Speaker 2: Holton has not been good against righty's this year, so
14:36
Speaker 2: Holton against a Rose arena is not a very good matchup.
14:39
Speaker 2: I guess you could walk a ros arena and have
14:43
Speaker 2: Holton pitch to can zone, but you're giving the Mariners
14:46
Speaker 2: a free base runner. When AJ brought in Hanify, he
14:49
Speaker 2: was trying to end that inning with nobody on base.
14:53
Speaker 2: And this is really how AJ has managed game since
14:55
Speaker 2: his first year here. He likes to have a pocket
14:58
Speaker 2: of three hitters and he likes to have the advantage
15:00
Speaker 2: against two of them, So that's what he was doing.
15:03
Speaker 2: It's really not out of line with anything he has
15:05
Speaker 2: ever done. What is out of line with things he's
15:08
Speaker 2: normally done is his bullpen is terrible and he really
15:10
Speaker 2: has very right handed options. So if you ask me
15:15
Speaker 2: what I think, I don't know. Man Brendan Hanify has
15:17
Speaker 2: just not been very good lately. He's a sinkerballer who
15:20
Speaker 2: suddenly has been watching sinkers leave the yard. He got
15:25
Speaker 2: a Rose Raine in a two strike count. He threw
15:28
Speaker 2: an OK pitch inside sinker but just wasn't enough or
15:31
Speaker 2: Rose Raino was on it. You make the decision to
15:33
Speaker 2: walk can zone, like, I know the optics aren't great,
15:36
Speaker 2: but you can't be afraid of a guy like Julio
15:39
Speaker 2: just because he's a big name on paper. Right now,
15:42
Speaker 2: Julio Rodriguez is not that great against Righty's so I
15:45
Speaker 2: don't blame aj for that. It's a reflection of what
15:49
Speaker 2: has been a problem and what I unfortunately predicted would
15:51
Speaker 2: be a problem starting Drew Anderson when he's not all
15:54
Speaker 2: the way stretched out, like you have to cover more
15:56
Speaker 2: innings with this bullpen, and that came back to by
16:00
Speaker 2: the Tigers. It's not really a problem. They have a
16:02
Speaker 2: great solution to going forward. We saw handaf he pitch
16:07
Speaker 2: again Thursday, which seems to me like he's probably heading
16:09
Speaker 2: out when they activate Jackson jobs. So maybe we'll be
16:12
Speaker 2: seeing more of Yilbar Diaz, who to his credit at
16:15
Speaker 2: least throws pretty hard. I don't know if he can
16:17
Speaker 2: throw strikes at all. He really never has even in
16:20
Speaker 2: the minor leagues. But we may be seeing some more
16:23
Speaker 2: yielbar Diaz, if he can get in the zone at
16:26
Speaker 2: least see some intriguing traits.
16:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the traits of this team are I would say.
16:34
Speaker 1: We talked about the offense earlier, like top level offense
16:38
Speaker 1: and a lot of categories. I would say exciting, starting
16:42
Speaker 1: pitching options for the most part, and those are the
16:46
Speaker 1: two things that you have to kind of hope enough
16:48
Speaker 1: working unison to curb the weakness that is your bullpen
16:53
Speaker 1: and the options that AJ has to go to the pen.
16:56
Speaker 1: One of the ways that you do that is do
16:58
Speaker 1: what Fromber did today. So I would put myself in
17:00
Speaker 1: the category of of somebody who's been hard on Fromber
17:04
Speaker 1: because I hold him to the standard of which he
17:07
Speaker 1: came to this team, right. And he had the start
17:11
Speaker 1: in Sacramento where he, you know, one of his best
17:14
Speaker 1: his best ball, scattered nine hits, gave up two runs,
17:16
Speaker 1: but he went seven innings all right, six k's two
17:18
Speaker 1: walks today. He was awesome, and I I really liked
17:23
Speaker 1: that they stuck with the curveball. I agree with Dan
17:26
Speaker 1: Dickerson that that is a weapon that you can use,
17:30
Speaker 1: particularly against Rioty's to back door. Like I do think
17:34
Speaker 1: that unlocks a whole other version of Fromber. And like
17:37
Speaker 1: it was, he might have gone like six or seven
17:41
Speaker 1: six seven, He might have gone six or seven straight
17:44
Speaker 1: without throwing that first strike, but they stuck with it
17:46
Speaker 1: and it came up huge, and it's and and and
17:49
Speaker 1: uh in a couple of situations, including against Julio Rodriguez
17:52
Speaker 1: speaking uh speaking of him, so like I we got
17:55
Speaker 1: to give Fromber a lot of credit because he stepped
17:57
Speaker 1: up in ways these past two starts that we have
18:01
Speaker 1: been looking for him to do.
18:03
Speaker 3: Given and now you're like the number one guy.
18:06
Speaker 1: So his first start, as quote the number one guy,
18:08
Speaker 1: he goes seven scoreless and rather efficient too. I would say, uh,
18:14
Speaker 1: you know for Fromber there, and you know, I would
18:16
Speaker 1: say even with that, Julio, he was down three to
18:19
Speaker 1: zero in that count. I want to make mention of that,
18:21
Speaker 1: and got him to ground out to end the ending.
18:23
Speaker 1: That was after getting the cal zone looking strike on
18:26
Speaker 1: a sinker that froze him. That was after a Federal
18:28
Speaker 1: Mountain visit. So like when things could have still been
18:31
Speaker 1: dicey Fromber locked in and and that version of Fromber
18:35
Speaker 1: is gonna be a huge asset for this team moving forward.
18:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, credit credit to him for a really nice outing.
18:41
Speaker 2: He wouldn't quite admit it after the game, but I
18:43
Speaker 2: think he knows that he kind of has to answer
18:46
Speaker 2: the call with Casey May's gone and with Terrek Scugle gone.
18:49
Speaker 2: That's very much what he did Thursday, not just the
18:51
Speaker 2: good outing, but like you kind of point out being
18:53
Speaker 2: pitch efficient and going seven innings again with the state
18:56
Speaker 2: of the bullpen, like that is important for a guy
18:58
Speaker 2: like from er Valdez to go takedown innings from now
19:01
Speaker 2: to the rest of the season. Maybe even if he
19:03
Speaker 2: doesn't have his best stuff, they need this guy going
19:05
Speaker 2: six or seven innings every time, you know, there were
19:11
Speaker 2: he only had four swings and misses all day. Zero
19:14
Speaker 2: won his sinker, So I actually don't love that. I mean,
19:16
Speaker 2: he's not a strikeout guy by nature, but you got
19:19
Speaker 2: to have a little more whift than that. However, his
19:21
Speaker 2: command just seemed a lot more precise than it has.
19:24
Speaker 2: He was able to spot the sinker pretty well for
19:26
Speaker 2: the most part, really spotted the curveball well at the
19:28
Speaker 2: bottom of the zone and below, so that that was impressive.
19:33
Speaker 2: I think that is as crisp as we have seen
19:35
Speaker 2: him in a long time. He looked confident in what
19:37
Speaker 2: he was doing with his pitches. Dylan Dingler called a
19:39
Speaker 2: really good game. Being in a little better command of
19:43
Speaker 2: the sinker. I think opened up a lot of other
19:45
Speaker 2: options for him, almost allowed him to go to that
19:48
Speaker 2: curveball more often. That is a lot closer to the
19:51
Speaker 2: version of from Rivaldez that we would like to see.
19:58
Speaker 1: Well, speaking of versions, let's uh, let's let's look forward
20:01
Speaker 1: to Saturday a little bit, Cody.
20:03
Speaker 2: Uh.
20:04
Speaker 1: You know the Tigers we mentioned like are they are
20:07
Speaker 1: people recognizing it as much as they should? Well, Saturday
20:11
Speaker 1: is kind of a big day because the Tigers are
20:13
Speaker 1: going to be on Fox, the national broadcast game, and
20:18
Speaker 1: we're gonna see the season debut of one Jackson Joe,
20:22
Speaker 1: so talk about must see TV right and and so
20:25
Speaker 1: like you mentioned jer Anderson there, you know, going going
20:28
Speaker 1: into the fourth inning, not being able to get out
20:30
Speaker 1: of the fourth inning, uh from Berg, but the seven ning.
20:33
Speaker 3: Start, what do we what's an expectation for for Jackson?
20:37
Speaker 3: Job here?
20:38
Speaker 2: Uh?
20:39
Speaker 3: As he as he makes his season debut on the road.
20:42
Speaker 2: Who I think It's hard to set expectations for a
20:46
Speaker 2: twenty four year old who still has not pitched that
20:48
Speaker 2: much in the big leagues but has some of the
20:51
Speaker 2: objectively the most electric stuff out of any pitcher alive.
20:56
Speaker 2: Uh and yet is fresh off Tommy John surgery. I
20:59
Speaker 2: don't know. It sounds like they're going to be, you know,
21:02
Speaker 2: take it easy on him. He's I don't know what
21:04
Speaker 2: his pitch limit is or what they might have in mind,
21:06
Speaker 2: but I you know, if he could go four innings
21:09
Speaker 2: and look nasty and punch everyone out, that'd be pretty good.
21:12
Speaker 2: That might be a little bit unfair given the circumstance.
21:17
Speaker 2: What I want to see out of jackson job is
21:19
Speaker 2: to get swing and miss for hitters, not scrush his fastball.
21:23
Speaker 2: It's hard to ask for like progress when he just
21:25
Speaker 2: hasn't pitched in so long, but some of the things
21:27
Speaker 2: that were holding him back previously, you know, I want
21:30
Speaker 2: to see signs of progress in that area. But then
21:34
Speaker 2: he realize his fresh off surgery man, So I don't know.
21:36
Speaker 2: If he can command the ball land his secondary pitches,
21:39
Speaker 2: that's better than a lot of guys do this soon
21:41
Speaker 2: out of TJ. He's only about fourteen months removed from
21:44
Speaker 2: the procedure. I think it's hard to set expectations. I
21:48
Speaker 2: just know that when he's on, he's a really fun
21:49
Speaker 2: pitcher to watch who was only scratching the surface of
21:53
Speaker 2: what he can be.
21:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, like depending on how he looks and
22:00
Speaker 1: how he does like that further shapes sort of like
22:04
Speaker 1: the expectations that you can kind of put on this
22:06
Speaker 1: team and what kind of asset he will be just you.
22:08
Speaker 3: Know, for this year.
22:10
Speaker 1: So yeah, So I want to remind you guys that
22:12
Speaker 1: we are sponsored by Fox one and you can download
22:16
Speaker 1: the Fox one app to stream Major League Baseball. And
22:21
Speaker 1: got me thinking, Cody, the Tigers have some fun guys
22:26
Speaker 1: to watch. We obviously do it on a daily basis.
22:28
Speaker 1: Now everybody can watch every team. I understand that. So
22:30
Speaker 1: I figured, why don't we take this opportunity to kind
22:32
Speaker 1: of like make like a top three, top five list
22:35
Speaker 1: about who are the the must watch Tigs and again
22:40
Speaker 1: must watch It's not.
22:41
Speaker 3: Necessarily who's the best, all right, Like.
22:43
Speaker 1: It's a little bit different. So I wrote down some names. Uh,
22:49
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna stick with I'll just read a list
22:51
Speaker 1: off real quick. This is kind of off the top
22:53
Speaker 1: of the noggings. I want it to be a little
22:54
Speaker 1: bit instinctual. I'm gonna go with Hovey one, Gonegle.
23:00
Speaker 3: Two, Dingler three.
23:05
Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw a curveball in here for you, Drew
23:08
Speaker 1: Summers four and Max Clark five.
23:12
Speaker 2: It wasn't expecting Drew Summers on the yeah must watch
23:15
Speaker 2: Tigers list that is interesting.
23:18
Speaker 3: Must watch because it's entertaining.
23:19
Speaker 1: You gotta you got a guys, you know, let's be honest,
23:22
Speaker 1: gotta gotta a funky looking delivery, and you just it's
23:26
Speaker 1: either gonna be like really in the zone or it's
23:28
Speaker 1: gonna be ugly. I can't look away whenever he's on
23:31
Speaker 1: the mound, you know what I'm saying. And then Max
23:34
Speaker 1: Clark kind of you know, he is most see because
23:36
Speaker 1: he's one of the best prospects in baseball. I wanted
23:38
Speaker 1: to put him on there. Plus you know, he's uh,
23:41
Speaker 1: he's got the flare and the style and the tats
23:43
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. And and Hobby being one man,
23:45
Speaker 1: Hobby still must must see because you just never know,
23:48
Speaker 1: something could always happen with Hobby on a daily basis.
23:52
Speaker 3: And then you sandwich those in with.
23:53
Speaker 1: Two top you know, five plus or whatever War players
23:57
Speaker 1: in Dingler McGonagall. So that's that's my instinctual top five
24:00
Speaker 1: musty tigs list.
24:02
Speaker 2: What do you think I like that? Well, I'd go
24:04
Speaker 2: Max Quark one because he's the shiny new toy literally
24:07
Speaker 2: shiny with the chains and everything, a big persona, and
24:10
Speaker 2: also just a really interesting fun player. He's fast, he's
24:14
Speaker 2: just really impressed me in center fields so far, been
24:17
Speaker 2: a lot better than the last time I had laid
24:19
Speaker 2: eyes on him, and even the scouts I had talked
24:21
Speaker 2: to throughout the year, seems like he's made big strides
24:24
Speaker 2: in a minimal amount of time. So he's been fun
24:28
Speaker 2: to watch so far. We'll see he's had some really
24:30
Speaker 2: good moments at the place and really patient at bats.
24:33
Speaker 2: Also had a few ugly strikeouts, so you know, how
24:36
Speaker 2: will he handle his third major league series. Kevin McGonagall
24:40
Speaker 2: one of the best young players in the league. He's
24:45
Speaker 2: you know, his game just isn't loud. It's just it's
24:47
Speaker 2: almost kind of it's not quiet either, because he's always
24:51
Speaker 2: doing something. It's just kind of consistently doing small, productive things.
24:55
Speaker 2: Then you look up and he's a five war player
24:57
Speaker 2: at age twenty one. It's amazing. Dylan Dingler, We've talked
25:01
Speaker 2: about it, put himself in the MVP conversation Jackson job
25:05
Speaker 2: Electric gotta watch this kid. Hobby Bayez is still Hobby
25:09
Speaker 2: bay As And then it's pretty interesting to have a
25:14
Speaker 2: list of much was much must watch tigs in a
25:17
Speaker 2: three time All Star isn't on there, So I'm gonna
25:19
Speaker 2: put Riley Green on this list in some form or fashion.
25:22
Speaker 2: It is interesting because he's not really dynamic. I mean,
25:25
Speaker 2: he's not fast, he runs goofy. Sometimes he can even
25:29
Speaker 2: be frustrating. But this guy is a professional hitter to
25:32
Speaker 2: the point that he's almost getting taken for granted, like
25:35
Speaker 2: he's become kind of boring. And I almost mean that
25:38
Speaker 2: as a compliment, because whatever's going on, Riley Green's probably
25:42
Speaker 2: you're gonna look up and Riley Green is gonna be
25:44
Speaker 2: posting some numbers. It's still a massive force in this lineup,
25:49
Speaker 2: and nothing about his game right now is necessarily sexy.
25:52
Speaker 2: But I don't know, dude, he still hits the ball
25:54
Speaker 2: out of the ballpark a lot. I almost think it's
25:57
Speaker 2: a good thing about this team now that they're cultivating
26:00
Speaker 2: kind of these exciting and interesting players and also just
26:03
Speaker 2: have some solid, reliable, legit dudes like like a Riley
26:08
Speaker 2: Green to go along with the Max Clerks, the Kevin mcgonagles,
26:11
Speaker 2: even the hobby buyers of the world.
26:15
Speaker 1: I'll give honorable mentions to Colt Keith, who might be
26:20
Speaker 1: key killing the ball lately, but low key might be
26:23
Speaker 1: the most fun guy to watch from the bases when
26:26
Speaker 1: he's you know, going an extra base now like it's
26:29
Speaker 1: it's a lot of fun to see see a guy
26:31
Speaker 1: his size move that quickly. And then honorable mentioned cater
26:34
Speaker 1: Montero when he's got that curveball working. You know what
26:37
Speaker 1: I mean, He's he's and he's feeling himself a little bit.
26:40
Speaker 1: He's he can't take your eyes off him either. So
26:44
Speaker 1: MLB on Fox is streaming on Fox. Won the Race
26:46
Speaker 1: of October starts. Now we have your front row seat
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26:53
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26:56
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26:59
Speaker 1: twenty six Worldsies live on Fox one at home or
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27:03
Speaker 3: Never miss a moment.
27:04
Speaker 1: Stream Now start your Fox one three day free trial
27:08
Speaker 1: today at foxone dot Com. All right, coming back here, Cody,
27:16
Speaker 1: I wanted to include like a little bit of an update.
27:19
Speaker 3: We might.
27:21
Speaker 1: Not soon but not far away be seeing Wentzel Perez
27:24
Speaker 1: maybe potentially. I mean, the fact that he's like gonna
27:27
Speaker 1: be playing baseball, I feel like is encouraging, and uh,
27:31
Speaker 1: you know, just in general for the fact that they
27:33
Speaker 1: had this freaky accident and that like if he could
27:35
Speaker 1: come back this season, I think that's great in general,
27:37
Speaker 1: but uh, you know, somebody who's versatility and switch hitting
27:40
Speaker 1: probably could be an asset to this team, you know
27:43
Speaker 1: as they go down the stretch. Any any any uh
27:48
Speaker 1: and more information about Wentzel and regarding like what what
27:52
Speaker 1: his process is as he nears the end of a
27:54
Speaker 1: sixty daystin.
27:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, not a ton on other than you're right, it's
27:59
Speaker 2: great to see him play baseball after such a scary
28:01
Speaker 2: eye injury. You know'll be refractured or orbal the bone.
28:04
Speaker 2: I wasn't sure we would see Winsle again this season,
28:07
Speaker 2: but sounds like he's made great progress. He was supposed
28:09
Speaker 2: to play in Lakeland, a game got ringed out. He
28:11
Speaker 2: had to go up to Detroit for a scheduled follow
28:15
Speaker 2: up with the the eye doctors. Then they send him Toledo,
28:18
Speaker 2: and I believe that game got rained out, so I
28:20
Speaker 2: just got to get this guy on the field. He
28:22
Speaker 2: does have ten days and nine as of when this
28:26
Speaker 2: episode runs that he has to stay on the sixty
28:29
Speaker 2: day IL before he's eligible to be activated. So he's
28:32
Speaker 2: gonna get plenty of playing time down there in the
28:34
Speaker 2: minor leagues, and we'll see how it goes. Certainly, it
28:37
Speaker 2: seems like there could be a roster spot waiting for
28:40
Speaker 2: him and as soon as nine days if the Tigers
28:42
Speaker 2: team he is ready. Obviously, James Outman still is on
28:46
Speaker 2: this roster, and I don't know, speculate too much because
28:49
Speaker 2: who knows what could happen between now and then. But
28:50
Speaker 2: right now, Outman's pretty much just a defensive replacement. So
28:55
Speaker 2: what it wouldn't shock me if if Winsle were to
28:58
Speaker 2: get in there sooner rather than later.
29:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, well maybe that's that's the other expression, Cody. The
29:06
Speaker 1: comeback Tigs is they are coming back. They've been coming
29:08
Speaker 1: back this whole season ever since that that dip there,
29:12
Speaker 1: I would say dive actually in May, and then you know,
29:15
Speaker 1: slowly getting some guys back from injury and and just
29:19
Speaker 1: kind of seeing what happens, seeing what they can do,
29:21
Speaker 1: and we will recap this all. We will have our
29:23
Speaker 1: first episode next week on Tuesday mornings, a little bit
29:27
Speaker 1: of a programming th that's obviously the beginning of a
29:29
Speaker 1: pivotal Cleveland series. So we will recapped the San Francisco series,
29:33
Speaker 1: the West Coast road trip overall, and then dive into
29:36
Speaker 1: a pretty important stretch for the Tigers.
29:38
Speaker 3: So hope you guys can follow along at Cody Stavenhagen.
29:40
Speaker 1: I am at Kieran Underscore Stecley pod page, at Tiger Territory, Unscore, YouTube, Apple, Spotify,
29:45
Speaker 1: you guys know what to do. We appreciate all of you,
29:47
Speaker 1: So for Cody Stavenhagen, I'm Kieran Steckley. Everybody, have great day.