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Should The Tigers Be Concerned With Colt Keith? · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, Welcome into another episode of Tiger's Territory, part of
0:08
Speaker 1: the Battle Territory Network. Hey, the Troit Tigers Podcast. I'm
0:11
Speaker 1: Kean Steckley with me as always a man who's a
0:13
Speaker 1: better bet in the stock market. He is God's davidding.
0:16
Speaker 1: How you doing? Hey?
0:17
Speaker 2: Doing all right? Kieren. We are coming off a five
0:20
Speaker 2: and one Tiger's home stand headed toward the road. The
0:22
Speaker 2: Tigers have the Twins in Minnesota, the Brewers in Milwaukee.
0:27
Speaker 2: I think five you're still pretty good. Despite losing a
0:30
Speaker 2: winnable game, probably in the series finale against the Yankees.
0:33
Speaker 2: A couple of mistakes came back to haunt. But you
0:37
Speaker 2: go five and one, you win a series against the Yankees.
0:40
Speaker 2: You're hitting the ball. Well, we've talked about you're doing
0:43
Speaker 2: this in spite of injuries. I think vibes are pretty
0:46
Speaker 2: good right now for the Tigers.
0:49
Speaker 1: Well, you know, one of the kind of quintessential vibe
0:54
Speaker 1: indicators for any baseball team is going to be who
0:58
Speaker 1: you got going to the mound? Uh, you know, every day?
1:01
Speaker 1: And I would say that for if it was a
1:06
Speaker 1: five game series, your top three you're feeling pretty nice
1:10
Speaker 1: because you know, we talked about Casey Mayes, we talked
1:13
Speaker 1: about Trek Skoogle. Jeff Flaherty also had himself a day. Cody.
1:17
Speaker 1: I know it was in an overall losing effort, but
1:21
Speaker 1: he had nine strikeouts like he had, Yeah, Yankee hitters,
1:25
Speaker 1: you know, looking kind of foolish there for a bit
1:27
Speaker 1: like he was. You know, the off speed was working,
1:29
Speaker 1: the fastball was working. You got Dan and Bobby on
1:33
Speaker 1: the radio like kind of trying to determine whether it
1:36
Speaker 1: plays up or it plays off. The stuff like like
1:39
Speaker 1: these deep like pitching Phillis Oscal debates. I loved it. Uh,
1:43
Speaker 1: if that's your three, and obviously in a playoff series
1:47
Speaker 1: like that's not going to be the order. But if
1:49
Speaker 1: that's your three, you're feeling pretty good. And like I
1:53
Speaker 1: keep kind of coming back to this as well, the injuries.
1:56
Speaker 1: The Tigers are seven to five. I want to say
1:58
Speaker 1: the record out there, you know, beginning here, these are
2:04
Speaker 1: the kinds of things that bode well. I have repeated
2:07
Speaker 1: myself a lot early this season, but I'm only reacting
2:11
Speaker 1: to what's on the field. These are the kinds of
2:13
Speaker 1: things that bode well. And the starting pitching was something
2:18
Speaker 1: that we had called out for not being elite last week,
2:21
Speaker 1: and they got elite starting pitching start team pitching by while,
2:26
Speaker 1: by the way, playing the defending World champs, a playoff contender,
2:32
Speaker 1: the White Sox, and then the defending American League champs.
2:35
Speaker 1: So it's not like they've just laid up into, you know,
2:39
Speaker 1: into the season in terms of opposing lineup. So that's
2:42
Speaker 1: probably something that's gonna be the theme of this week.
2:45
Speaker 1: We'll see what the weekend brings. But this week Cody
2:48
Speaker 1: top notch starting pitching against high level competition.
2:53
Speaker 2: Playoff odds are sixty two point six for where's.
2:57
Speaker 3: Were I mean, that's very easy the way too early
3:01
Speaker 3: to obviously seriously talk about odds, but what that means,
3:04
Speaker 3: and you know, they run two thousand simulations or something,
3:07
Speaker 3: and after an encouraging start, Tigers are making the playoffs.
3:10
Speaker 2: Since sixty two point six percent of these simulations helps
3:13
Speaker 2: that the Twins aren't playing that well. No one else
3:16
Speaker 2: in the division is off to a roaring start, and
3:18
Speaker 2: you do have a tough series against the Dodgers out
3:21
Speaker 2: of the way, a tough series against the Yankees out
3:23
Speaker 2: of the way, not necessarily a cake walk of the
3:25
Speaker 2: series against the Mariners out of the way I just
3:29
Speaker 2: keep coming back to, like, until your guys get healthy,
3:32
Speaker 2: the more wins you can stack, the better sixty two
3:37
Speaker 2: better than your point too. That's all I know.
3:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, but does it make for us good a T shirts?
3:43
Speaker 2: No very boring shirt. If it's just like flatline from
3:47
Speaker 2: here on out, it's no fun.
3:49
Speaker 1: Yeah. And and and look like I'll be honest, Like
3:52
Speaker 1: the Wednesday's game, which is the only game that has
3:55
Speaker 1: happened since we last talked, it would have like you
3:59
Speaker 1: ran into and you know, talk about Elite started started pitching.
4:01
Speaker 1: You ran into an elite starting pitcherx Freed was good
4:04
Speaker 1: in that game, and that and that, and that's part
4:06
Speaker 1: of it obviously, but kept coming back to the whole
4:11
Speaker 1: like play all twenty seven outs and and all that stuff,
4:14
Speaker 1: and you know, mckinstrey comes up with a big hit there,
4:16
Speaker 1: Tor gets on base, Like, uh, it was at least
4:20
Speaker 1: a fun atmosphere to close out a series and a
4:23
Speaker 1: and a win that you know, everything you want to
4:26
Speaker 1: accomplish in the series had ever been accomplished, So that
4:28
Speaker 1: would have been like icing on the cake there.
4:30
Speaker 2: But since since we don't have a lot more you know,
4:34
Speaker 2: Newsy to talk about let's talk about Zach McKinstry. Because
4:37
Speaker 2: his OPS is over a thousand. Obviously he is off
4:43
Speaker 2: to a hot start. I was a little surprised when
4:46
Speaker 2: he was in the lineup against Max Freed. Max Freed's
4:48
Speaker 2: a left handed pitcher. He does have reverse splits, so
4:51
Speaker 2: lefties hit him a little bit better than righty's. But
4:54
Speaker 2: I'm always curious, you know what managers weigh in those matchups.
4:58
Speaker 2: Even though he has reverse split, he is still a lefty,
5:01
Speaker 2: and Zach McKinstry historically does not hit lefties very well.
5:05
Speaker 2: Aj Hinch, you know, pointed to the Yankees probably only
5:08
Speaker 2: had one left hander available in their bullpen. That'd be
5:10
Speaker 2: a righty heavy bullpen. Day talked about McKinstry's versatility helps
5:15
Speaker 2: him make other endgame moves, but then he also said,
5:18
Speaker 2: I think Zach against anyone is a pretty good play
5:20
Speaker 2: right now. And you remember last August when McKinstry was
5:26
Speaker 2: like on fire on fire, like had a slight, slight
5:31
Speaker 2: chance to win player the month. He wasn't very good
5:34
Speaker 2: in September, went back to earth real quick, but over
5:36
Speaker 2: his last fifty five games, sag mckintree's hitting three oh
5:40
Speaker 2: one one thirty six WRC, plus he has an eight
5:44
Speaker 2: twenty two ops sig. McKinstry has been playing at an
5:48
Speaker 2: all star level over his last fifty five games in
5:51
Speaker 2: the major leagues, which I certainly would not have saw coming.
5:54
Speaker 2: Most people who tell you they saw that coming are lying.
5:58
Speaker 2: But credit where credit is due. Zach is not only
6:01
Speaker 2: showing why he's effective, why he's a good part of
6:03
Speaker 2: this roster. He's showing has been serious upside and he's
6:07
Speaker 2: been one of the tigers better performers. Stating back for
6:09
Speaker 2: a minute now.
6:11
Speaker 1: So you know, as best we can. We talk a
6:14
Speaker 1: lot in this podcast. Can't remember every single opinion that
6:16
Speaker 1: we have, but I do remember distinctly saying in the
6:19
Speaker 1: off season, I feel like at a certain point you
6:22
Speaker 1: can kind of like evolve past like having to pay
6:26
Speaker 1: for the Zach mckinstreyes of the world, which you know,
6:28
Speaker 1: they they had come to an agreement. We talked about
6:30
Speaker 1: the big brain thing about like if you have the
6:32
Speaker 1: DFVAM yeah, bah blah blah blah. Well that's relatively irrelevant
6:36
Speaker 1: right now, so we don't have to go back and
6:37
Speaker 1: rehash everything. But like I thought, like, look, Zach McKinstry's nice,
6:41
Speaker 1: but we've been down this road. We talked about the
6:43
Speaker 1: roller coaster. If you just go back to the entire
6:46
Speaker 1: Tiger's career, there was a time where is there like
6:51
Speaker 1: it was like cold Keith, who maybe Cold Keith used
6:53
Speaker 1: to go to first base sooner because Zach mckissry' is
6:55
Speaker 1: a second base. You know, like there were times where
6:58
Speaker 1: that's like kind of the thought process that you're allowing
7:01
Speaker 1: your brain to go through and everything. You know, water
7:04
Speaker 1: finds its level, as they say, and this will certainly
7:08
Speaker 1: find a level. But fifty five games is nothing like
7:11
Speaker 1: or is not nothing? Is not nothing there? Yeah, and
7:17
Speaker 1: and and in this situation where the Tigers currently stand
7:21
Speaker 1: with all these injuries, he's become invaluable in so many ways.
7:26
Speaker 1: Like I like, I can imagine A. J. Hinch's stress
7:30
Speaker 1: level being pretty heightened if Matt Zach McKinstry is on
7:35
Speaker 1: this roster given all these injuries that they've had to experience.
7:38
Speaker 1: You know, his right field obviously could play pretty much
7:40
Speaker 1: anywhere in the infield apparently would be the emergency catcher
7:45
Speaker 1: or at least on the short list of emergency catchers.
7:49
Speaker 1: He's your blowout pitcher, Like like he's he's kind of
7:53
Speaker 1: he literally does it all, or at least he can
7:56
Speaker 1: uh do it all. And he's he's a guy that
7:59
Speaker 1: has provided I did this this line of this team
8:02
Speaker 1: with like a physical spark, and then you just kind
8:05
Speaker 1: of watch his play and then like the reactions from
8:09
Speaker 1: his teammates and his reactions to teammates doing well, and
8:12
Speaker 1: it's like an emotional spark too that you can actually feel.
8:15
Speaker 1: We always talk about Matt Vierling being like the elder
8:19
Speaker 1: statesman of this team, and for good reason, because he's
8:22
Speaker 1: approaching thirty and you know, Dan the air plays every
8:25
Speaker 1: day make Zach McKinstry to this point has not necessarily
8:28
Speaker 1: been that. But Zach McKinstry is a thirty year old,
8:31
Speaker 1: he's a he is like the adult in the room too,
8:35
Speaker 1: all right, So I think this is a good opportunity.
8:37
Speaker 1: Right now, it's only April tenth, you're a handful of game,
8:41
Speaker 1: you know, a handful of games in the season. But
8:43
Speaker 1: as of right now, he's been an invaluable piece, I
8:47
Speaker 1: certainly on the field, and then just like kind of
8:49
Speaker 1: the intangible stuff is something that I've noticed more and
8:51
Speaker 1: more with him as well.
8:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're not wrong in a way, it almost feels
8:55
Speaker 2: like he's kind of taking that mantle from Vierling while
8:58
Speaker 2: Vierling is on the il. Someone who's just a steady presence,
9:01
Speaker 2: who's playing multiple positions, who has a good demeanor, who's
9:06
Speaker 2: able to stand in front of the cameras and talk
9:08
Speaker 2: after what happens, good and bad. Those are some more
9:11
Speaker 2: intangible things that you Certainly I've obviously not always been
9:15
Speaker 2: the biggest fan of Zach McKinstry as a player, but
9:17
Speaker 2: I have been a fan of him as a person,
9:20
Speaker 2: and so, you know, a big part of me is
9:21
Speaker 2: happy to see him having this success right now. We'll
9:24
Speaker 2: see if it continues. I'm always a little worried when
9:27
Speaker 2: a guy like this starts getting thrown in the lineup
9:29
Speaker 2: every single day, Like, could he get over exposed. I
9:32
Speaker 2: think we saw that maybe a little bit after his
9:35
Speaker 2: hot streak last year. But yeah, I think I said
9:39
Speaker 2: this last episode, like, you want to know why the
9:41
Speaker 2: Tigers are off to a good start. Pitching helps, But
9:44
Speaker 2: this is the second rated offense in baseball here, and
9:47
Speaker 2: they're second ranked because of mcinstry and because of Dylan
9:51
Speaker 2: Dingler and Hobby bay Is contributing. It's not as much
9:55
Speaker 2: about Riley Green and Kerry Carpenter though they have not hurt.
9:58
Speaker 2: But it's about these guys you would not really have guessed.
10:02
Speaker 2: We're twelve games into the season. So does any of
10:05
Speaker 2: this matter? Who knows, But it's certainly better than if
10:08
Speaker 2: all three of those guys were just doing terrible right now.
10:12
Speaker 2: It's it's made a difference.
10:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's hard for me to imagine Zach McKinstry or
10:17
Speaker 1: Matt Virlin, but Zach McKinstry like being in a bad mood,
10:20
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. It just seemed like that
10:23
Speaker 1: kind of guy.
10:23
Speaker 4: Uh.
10:24
Speaker 1: And we'll talk more about like just how good is
10:27
Speaker 1: this team right now? After a word from our sponsors.
10:34
Speaker 4: Me out to my TV A van Duo Sports now work,
10:39
Speaker 4: get blash mas some finger and not be yes. I'm
10:43
Speaker 4: just glad they have the local poets roof room for
10:47
Speaker 4: the Tigers on fan Duel Sports that work the Tigers guys,
10:56
Speaker 4: Tigers gag. I've been.
11:00
Speaker 2: Stream now.
11:03
Speaker 1: So my one of the things I always go back
11:06
Speaker 1: to Cody is pretty much every single year that we've
11:09
Speaker 1: done this podcast, the season has kind of started out
11:12
Speaker 1: with you, justifiably so, but you sort of saying some
11:16
Speaker 1: version of like where is where are the runs coming from?
11:21
Speaker 1: You know, where where are the hits coming from? Uh?
11:25
Speaker 1: And you know it's born out that that's been a
11:28
Speaker 1: concern for this team as long as we've been doing
11:30
Speaker 1: this podcast. So I think this year we all had
11:34
Speaker 1: similar concerns because of the Erling injury, the you know,
11:38
Speaker 1: the Meadows injury, the what are you doing at third
11:43
Speaker 1: base aspect, like all the Ryan Kryler is going to
11:46
Speaker 1: play now? Yeah, like like all these things and here
11:49
Speaker 1: we are twelve games. We all understand that. But I'm
11:53
Speaker 1: just gonna I'm just gonna rattle off some some very
11:55
Speaker 1: basic offensive numbers with the ranks in the American League.
11:58
Speaker 1: All right, So ad average second to the Yankees. Home
12:03
Speaker 1: runs fourth, Yankees are number one. RBI fourth, Yankees are
12:07
Speaker 1: number one. By the way, that makes the starting pitching
12:09
Speaker 1: performance look a lot better. Give then the Yankees or
12:12
Speaker 1: at the top of these list. Runs fourth, Yankees are
12:15
Speaker 1: number one. Slugging percentage Tigers are third. The Angels are
12:18
Speaker 1: up here too, by the way, don't be sleeping on
12:20
Speaker 1: those Angels. On base percentage second to the Yankees. Oh ps,
12:29
Speaker 1: second to the Yankees. Like if if we did have
12:33
Speaker 1: like it like. One of the aspects of like an
12:36
Speaker 1: inherent bias is that, like when things are going against it,
12:39
Speaker 1: you like or take longer to believe it. Sometimes that's
12:41
Speaker 1: a good thing, sometimes it's a bad thing. But the
12:44
Speaker 1: Tigers had a hitting reputation of the of the Yankee squad,
12:47
Speaker 1: we'd be talking about them legitimately being one of the
12:49
Speaker 1: best offenses in baseball. I think we're all kind of
12:52
Speaker 1: we're not We're not really going there. But the numbers
12:57
Speaker 1: are the numbers. They are a playoff cal offense twelve
13:01
Speaker 1: games into the season, up against the best that the
13:03
Speaker 1: American League has to offer.
13:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, I again, I don't know what to make of
13:10
Speaker 2: any of this. I doubt this is going to be
13:12
Speaker 2: the second best offense in baseball. But for the Tigers
13:16
Speaker 2: to make the playoffs, assuming they're able to sustain a
13:20
Speaker 2: top ten, top five pitching staff, you probably need to
13:23
Speaker 2: be league average or above. The Tigers were slightly above
13:28
Speaker 2: league average or around middle of the pack even after
13:31
Speaker 2: their hot streak began last August. So again, you're talking
13:36
Speaker 2: about setting the tone for the remainder of the season,
13:39
Speaker 2: even if there is a dry spell, even if the
13:41
Speaker 2: guys in the bottom of your order don't play as
13:44
Speaker 2: well into May into June. You're kind of giving yourself
13:49
Speaker 2: a little cushion. I feel like, and yeah, I can't
13:52
Speaker 2: stop saying it, like you're gonna get medals back. In theory,
13:55
Speaker 2: you're gonna get Veerlink back somewhat soon. Glaber Torrez is
13:59
Speaker 2: on the team playing Minnesota, you may be coming back
14:01
Speaker 2: in a matter of days. Unfortunately, Wincel Pariz is on
14:06
Speaker 2: the sixty day. He's the other guy was thinking of
14:08
Speaker 2: and so he won't be back for a minute. But
14:10
Speaker 2: you are getting reinforcements. Obviously, you got to keep other
14:13
Speaker 2: guys healthy in the meantime. But I'm encourage you're doing
14:17
Speaker 2: this with a slow start, at least power wise from
14:20
Speaker 2: Cole Keith, with a slow start from a couple other guys.
14:23
Speaker 2: What's up and down from Riley Green. I don't know
14:28
Speaker 2: what to make of it. If I were to analyze
14:29
Speaker 2: it any deeper, I'd go back to what I said
14:31
Speaker 2: about like game planning. I think something's happened where the
14:34
Speaker 2: Tigers are just executing at the plate better. Some of
14:37
Speaker 2: that may be experienced, something may be the coaching staff.
14:41
Speaker 2: But these guys come out and they play you pretty hard.
14:44
Speaker 2: They really have done that every single game so far
14:47
Speaker 2: this season, so more than any number I think, just
14:51
Speaker 2: kind of the vibe and the aesthetic of that constantly
14:54
Speaker 2: challenging the opposing picture has been impressive to me.
14:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, of the reason that I wanted to bring it
15:01
Speaker 1: up is that the whole notion of the hitting coach
15:05
Speaker 1: being the pitting coach and pitching coach, you know, being
15:08
Speaker 1: the easiest things to like second guess, uh, you know,
15:12
Speaker 1: what are they even doing back there? You know, but
15:14
Speaker 1: you don't see the hitting coach come out onto the mouth,
15:16
Speaker 1: So he's like, you know, the staff is less visible
15:19
Speaker 1: than than the pitching staff, and so like those guys
15:22
Speaker 1: are obviously doing their thing, like like they deserve credit
15:25
Speaker 1: for what we're seeing. And I like that you brought
15:26
Speaker 1: up Riley Green because you know, Riley Green Cary Carpenter
15:30
Speaker 1: have like done well. But does that like if if
15:37
Speaker 1: I were to say that they were in a five
15:38
Speaker 1: game win streak, you would have probably thought some like
15:41
Speaker 1: monster moments from them, which again I'm not.
15:44
Speaker 2: Saying Kerry Council's monster moments.
15:48
Speaker 1: Monster moments are like really good moments, you know what
15:50
Speaker 1: I mean, Like, like what more what more do you want?
15:54
Speaker 1: I don't know. I didn't see the circulation like Aaron Judge,
15:57
Speaker 1: you know, like that. That's what I'm talking about, Like
15:59
Speaker 1: like the like the general national attention to those guys,
16:03
Speaker 1: well they're the Tigers.
16:04
Speaker 2: They don't get the same national attension as.
16:06
Speaker 1: They're of it. I believe in them, so like they've
16:11
Speaker 1: done well, But have you would you say that they've
16:13
Speaker 1: like carried this offense?
16:14
Speaker 4: No?
16:16
Speaker 2: Right, right? Riley Greens punching out weigh too much, you know,
16:19
Speaker 2: I mean he's aware of it. There's not anything really
16:21
Speaker 2: to say other than he he does continue to kind
16:26
Speaker 2: of revert back to that space where he's pulling off
16:29
Speaker 2: the ball and he's whipping a lot.
16:30
Speaker 1: I mean, Riley knows.
16:31
Speaker 2: It, talks about it. One of those things like for
16:35
Speaker 2: him to achieve the MVP type level we've talked about
16:38
Speaker 2: more like MBB top five finisher. You know, you want
16:43
Speaker 2: to smooth that out a little bit. The peaks and
16:44
Speaker 2: valleys of Riley Green probably need to be smoothed out
16:47
Speaker 2: a little bit. I think a lot of times that
16:49
Speaker 2: comes with experience for guys. So I was kind of
16:51
Speaker 2: hoping maybe we wouldn't see as much of that from
16:53
Speaker 2: Riley by no means like concern, but just seeing him,
16:58
Speaker 2: seeing him even go through mini rough patch that's containing
17:02
Speaker 2: a lot of strikeouts, like slightly discouraging. I mean, you
17:06
Speaker 2: know a scale of like two to ten, it's like
17:08
Speaker 2: a two, but you know, obviously something that has to
17:11
Speaker 2: be noted a little.
17:12
Speaker 1: Bit sure, and and we'll have time to to get
17:17
Speaker 1: to some of that stuff too, like as a season progressive.
17:20
Speaker 1: But one of the things that feels like really really
17:22
Speaker 1: present Cody talking about struggles talking about concern is Colt Keith.
17:28
Speaker 1: And we've talked about this on previous episodes, but now
17:31
Speaker 1: it's gotten to the point where the discourse I would
17:34
Speaker 1: say among fans has gotten out of hand. And I
17:38
Speaker 1: mean that by like all like the extremes that we
17:42
Speaker 1: that we've seen, like I I don't know, dude, Like
17:46
Speaker 1: I'm I'm a kind of a limb here, and I'm
17:49
Speaker 1: gonna like say, like, no, I don't believe Colt should
17:52
Speaker 1: be worried about going to Toledo. Now. Maybe I look
17:57
Speaker 1: like an a hole with egg on my face in
18:00
Speaker 1: like a week, but as of right now, I just
18:03
Speaker 1: feel like there's there's too much there. He's too important
18:07
Speaker 1: and this is guy who hit two sixty last year
18:09
Speaker 1: despite being hitting wise and probably feeling wise like unplayable,
18:14
Speaker 1: but playing every day for the first two months of
18:17
Speaker 1: his rookie season, and now we're worried. Now we're treating
18:20
Speaker 1: him like Torq last year discourse wise. Discourse wise, it's
18:25
Speaker 1: kind of like it mirrors some of the Torque stuff
18:27
Speaker 1: of previous seasons. And it's not like he's doing nothing
18:30
Speaker 1: at the play, at the on base stuff, the walks.
18:32
Speaker 1: We've talked about that he does have some loud defensive
18:35
Speaker 1: miscues and I understand, but I just can't get there
18:41
Speaker 1: mentally that this is like a thing that will actually
18:45
Speaker 1: happen one in two, Like the Tigers are actually considering,
18:52
Speaker 1: given everything else on this team, they're actually considering that.
18:56
Speaker 2: If you think Cole Keith's gonna get demoted before Brewer Hicklin,
19:01
Speaker 2: I'm I'm curious where I get some of whatever you're on, Like,
19:06
Speaker 2: it just makes no sense that side. You just have
19:07
Speaker 2: way too much invested in col Keith. They're paying cold Keith.
19:11
Speaker 2: He is a young player they want to develop, and
19:13
Speaker 2: as we saw last year, they want him to develop
19:16
Speaker 2: and go through these struggles at the major league level.
19:19
Speaker 2: The defense is probably more concerning than anything. Let's not
19:22
Speaker 2: forget he's playing second base when he's spent all off
19:25
Speaker 2: season learning to play first base. That's a weird quirk.
19:29
Speaker 2: I was never big on his ability at second base.
19:32
Speaker 2: You though he did improve last season. I think getting
19:35
Speaker 2: that feelback has been tough. It has been ugly. It
19:38
Speaker 2: is worth asking what will happen when Glaber Torez comes back.
19:42
Speaker 2: You're gon't play Cold Keith in the field more often?
19:44
Speaker 2: Or are you gonna play Spencer Turklesen in the field
19:46
Speaker 2: more often? Even though Spencer Turkelsen has looked better. I checked,
19:49
Speaker 2: he's at negative one defensive run saved right now. So
19:52
Speaker 2: I don't know that either of those is gonna be
19:54
Speaker 2: a great option. Though its work has seem more steady.
19:58
Speaker 2: I just don't think Cold Keith's going down to the
19:59
Speaker 2: major league.
20:00
Speaker 1: I think A. J.
20:01
Speaker 2: Hinch was kind of trying to palm that notion in
20:06
Speaker 2: his post game when he was like, I still believe
20:08
Speaker 2: in Colt. This doesn't affect his place in our lineup
20:11
Speaker 2: or the batting order, or his spot on our team. Yeah,
20:15
Speaker 2: it is kind of an interesting comparison, given what Colt
20:18
Speaker 2: said after that game, basically said his confidence was at
20:21
Speaker 2: an all time low. I believe I actually wasn't there.
20:24
Speaker 2: I didn't didn't wait him out. He was in the
20:27
Speaker 2: shower for quite a long time. So I went upstairs
20:29
Speaker 2: and wrote my story on Dylan Zingler. That's either here
20:32
Speaker 2: nor there. Obviously, this is tough man. He's made some
20:35
Speaker 2: high profile errors. He's not in a groove at the plate.
20:38
Speaker 2: He has, yeah, the walks whatever. It's not like I'm
20:42
Speaker 2: not I'm not trying to sugarcot Cold Keith's performance. I'm
20:45
Speaker 2: just saying, if you're can we can we stop calling
20:48
Speaker 2: for any player of somewhat proven nature to be demoted
20:53
Speaker 2: before May. I think that's my ultimate take. If we
20:57
Speaker 2: get to May one and it's still this bad, you
21:00
Speaker 2: gotta entertain it. But through twelve games, twelve games, why
21:05
Speaker 2: are we trying to Why are we trying to send
21:06
Speaker 2: cold Keith down to the major to the minor leagues?
21:09
Speaker 2: It's something that makes sense.
21:13
Speaker 1: The reminder he is making three point eight million dollars
21:16
Speaker 1: this year, and he is If you're worried about the contracts,
21:21
Speaker 1: I'll just kind of lay it out for anybody that's
21:23
Speaker 1: concerned about that he is only contractually like guaranteed up
21:28
Speaker 1: through the twenty twenty nine season. And he tops out
21:31
Speaker 1: at five point three millions, then it's a bunch of
21:33
Speaker 1: club options and that's when the money skyrockets, but that
21:36
Speaker 1: it's all club options after that. So, like everybody, we
21:40
Speaker 1: don't even have to go there. I just kind of
21:43
Speaker 1: wanted to go there. Here's the thing. Unless there is
21:49
Speaker 1: some sort of swing defect that like he has to
21:54
Speaker 1: work on in lower pressure, lower stake settings, I don't
22:00
Speaker 1: see the merit of putting in Toledo because how many
22:03
Speaker 1: times are we gonna have to do this for a
22:05
Speaker 1: guy to go down Mash Triple A pitching and then
22:08
Speaker 1: every single like I mean, to his credit, like Jase
22:12
Speaker 1: Young is doing this right now, and we saw what
22:13
Speaker 1: he looks like against more major league pitching in spring
22:16
Speaker 1: training and last season, you know what I mean, So like,
22:20
Speaker 1: like how many times we have to go through this?
22:22
Speaker 1: They didn't do this last year with Colt Keith, right
22:26
Speaker 1: and this year like like he has the way you
22:30
Speaker 1: put it was perfect, like somewhat of a track record,
22:34
Speaker 1: Like there is a track record that exists for Colt Keith. Yes,
22:38
Speaker 1: the body language doesn't look great, but he's a stoic guy. Anyway,
22:41
Speaker 1: my body language wouldn't look great if I was going
22:44
Speaker 1: through what he went through. That's not even a criticism,
22:46
Speaker 1: But to me, these are things that have to be
22:49
Speaker 1: figured out at the major league level because I don't
22:52
Speaker 1: know if there, if there's even something that can be
22:55
Speaker 1: accomplished in triple A for a guy colt Keith's caliber like.
22:59
Speaker 2: That with you agree that cases like we continue to
23:04
Speaker 2: learn triple A is just not a very good like
23:07
Speaker 2: measuring stick, even like did that help tork last season?
23:11
Speaker 2: Like maybe kind of he was a little better when
23:13
Speaker 2: he got back, but what helped Tork was on the
23:17
Speaker 2: off season of complete revamps and cool Keith some more
23:19
Speaker 2: adjustable hitter than Spencer toorkles in any way.
23:24
Speaker 1: Let me interrupt you for a second there, Cody, because
23:26
Speaker 1: because because the torque thing and then the metals thing,
23:29
Speaker 1: I think people would bring up from last season, But
23:33
Speaker 1: those were extended stays. Those were not. Those were not
23:37
Speaker 1: just like hey man, take a get your mind right
23:40
Speaker 1: for like a week or two. Those were like months,
23:43
Speaker 1: all right, So like if it so, if we're trying
23:46
Speaker 1: to judge what the Tigers like, what their precedent is
23:49
Speaker 1: for something like this. It's not like go have yourself
23:52
Speaker 1: a nice little Ohio weekend. It's like like we're sending
23:55
Speaker 1: you down there to work, like over some version of
23:59
Speaker 1: the expression long haul. You see what I'm saying, So
24:02
Speaker 1: like that's that's why. That's another thing I keep coming
24:04
Speaker 1: back to. They don't have a history of just sending
24:06
Speaker 1: guys down to do like a quick mental reset.
24:09
Speaker 2: I know we're probably even the way we're talking about
24:12
Speaker 2: this is like influenced by a vocal minority on social media,
24:16
Speaker 2: but it's still like, why does everything always have to
24:18
Speaker 2: be at one end of the spectrum or the other?
24:21
Speaker 2: Like when Cold Keith signed his contract extension, was like,
24:23
Speaker 2: this guy is the next big star and he's gonna
24:26
Speaker 2: he's Jeff Kent. I couldn't I like? I like this guy,
24:31
Speaker 2: but I wasn't really able to get there. And now
24:33
Speaker 2: Cole Keith is playing poorly through twelve games, It's like
24:36
Speaker 2: he has to go to the minor leagues and I'm
24:38
Speaker 2: I can't even get remotely close to there. Like what
24:40
Speaker 2: if Cold Keith is a talented yet flawed player and
24:45
Speaker 2: maybe the value of the contract is gonna end up
24:48
Speaker 2: being I don't know about rights like it. Just as
24:53
Speaker 2: a society we seem unable to find like middle ground
24:57
Speaker 2: almost ever on anything. And in a way, I I
25:00
Speaker 2: think this is an example. Let's check back on May
25:02
Speaker 2: one and if Cole Keith is doing terrible, then maybe
25:06
Speaker 2: we need to start talking about different types of solutions.
25:09
Speaker 1: It's also a guy with a lot of upside that again,
25:12
Speaker 1: they want to be able to develop guys in the
25:14
Speaker 1: major leagues, and so it just wouldn't make a whole
25:16
Speaker 1: lot of sense to me. And of course, yeah, we'll
25:18
Speaker 1: check in May one. We're going to talk about another
25:21
Speaker 1: key position here in a second that is affected by injury.
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Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, Cody, we talked about the
26:32
Speaker 1: Jake Rogers injury when we didn't get like any sort
26:38
Speaker 1: of context. Since then, AJ Hinch has said, you know,
26:41
Speaker 1: it's the ten day il technically speaking, but it is
26:46
Speaker 1: not going to be a ten day injury, which is
26:49
Speaker 1: something we probably al right new. But now we have
26:50
Speaker 1: some sort of you know, record keeping on it. Month
26:54
Speaker 1: plus for Jake Rogers, you know, hopefully he comes, you know,
26:59
Speaker 1: he gets himself healthy, because he's obviously very important to
27:01
Speaker 1: this team. But in the short term, uh, it means
27:05
Speaker 1: that you're down when like talented pitch caller, talent, you know, upside,
27:11
Speaker 1: I would say, upside for the position batting and then
27:15
Speaker 1: just like kind of the leaders of your team, like
27:18
Speaker 1: leader of your team on the field and all that stuff.
27:20
Speaker 1: So like it's gonna be he's gonna be missed. He's
27:23
Speaker 1: gonna gonna's be a pretty good test for what we
27:26
Speaker 1: talk about the makeup of this team.
27:29
Speaker 2: I think, yeah, I mean, I think it comes down
27:31
Speaker 2: to being a big test for Dylan Dingler, who's I've
27:34
Speaker 2: been off to an encouraging start. I know, he dropped
27:36
Speaker 2: the basically back to back pop ups there in the
27:39
Speaker 2: ninth on Wednesday. That wasn't that was That was a
27:42
Speaker 2: bad look, right, But whatever, Like we'll move on from it,
27:46
Speaker 2: because in a way I'm hasn't been to say, like,
27:49
Speaker 2: I don't know that I'm not concerned about this because
27:53
Speaker 2: Singler seems like a pretty capable replacement, probably maybe a
27:57
Speaker 2: little better at the plate than Jake. Certainly still has
28:01
Speaker 2: the power. I think there's a world where he's a
28:04
Speaker 2: little more of a steady hitter. I don't know if
28:06
Speaker 2: he's going to be quite quite as good defensively, but
28:10
Speaker 2: he can control the running game. He's athletic behind the plate.
28:14
Speaker 2: Everything we hear about him, he's incredibly well prepared. I
28:17
Speaker 2: wrote a story about him that talks about how he
28:20
Speaker 2: prepares for games and how he writes down everything in
28:23
Speaker 2: a notebook, and Dickerson mentioned he watches games back and
28:27
Speaker 2: writes down his observations. Seems like he's a good game caller,
28:32
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, that's probably Jake's biggest strength. I
28:34
Speaker 2: think is that intangible. And Jake was a goal glove finalist.
28:38
Speaker 2: But I don't know that the drop off is going
28:40
Speaker 2: to be huge to Dylan Dingler, and then we're gonna
28:43
Speaker 2: see some Tomas Needo as well. Tomasnito has played in
28:46
Speaker 2: the big leagues. His bat is probably about what you
28:50
Speaker 2: expect from a catcher, his glove is capable the two
28:55
Speaker 2: of them, But versus Jake Dingler, I'm just not sure
28:58
Speaker 2: it's a big drop off we're going to learn. I
29:01
Speaker 2: do think we were we were going to learn about
29:03
Speaker 2: a lot about Joan Ingler here in this next month,
29:06
Speaker 2: and it could be pretty enlightening. But he continues to
29:08
Speaker 2: play anything close to the way he's been playing, the
29:11
Speaker 2: tires might be just fun.
29:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would be the hope. The one thing I'll
29:16
Speaker 1: be curious about is, you know, like Dingler being head
29:21
Speaker 1: of the room basically, and like I know, I know
29:24
Speaker 1: NIO's been around, but this is still sort of like
29:30
Speaker 1: it's like team rookiest catcher catching room. I don't know
29:33
Speaker 1: if that makes sense, but it's like, obviously that makes sense.
29:37
Speaker 1: Dingler call up last season, right and then.
29:41
Speaker 2: Inglis caught a lot of these guys in the miners though,
29:44
Speaker 2: so it's not like he's new to many of them.
29:47
Speaker 1: Sure, but Nido new to the team less experience in
29:52
Speaker 1: that catching room right now than you've had in a
29:55
Speaker 1: couple of years, because like last year, Carson Kelly had
29:57
Speaker 1: come on the year prior, right, so then there was
30:01
Speaker 1: a whole off season of you know, preparing that went
30:05
Speaker 1: on there. So like the all those like little things,
30:08
Speaker 1: I try to look for them, like I'm not sure
30:10
Speaker 1: like what they mean? How big a deal to make them?
30:13
Speaker 1: Those are? That's the stuff that I'm be like keen
30:16
Speaker 1: in on. And like if you're if you're concerned about
30:20
Speaker 1: you know, you don't really know much about Tomas Nito.
30:23
Speaker 1: It's like you have to imagine that Scott Harrison AJ
30:27
Speaker 1: Hinch didn't didn't take the short road to figuring out
30:31
Speaker 1: what catcher they wanted to bring on to bring into
30:34
Speaker 1: the organization for a situation like this, you know, and
30:38
Speaker 1: the Carson Kelly thing is a good example of being
30:40
Speaker 1: to identify somebody that they can bring in and and
30:44
Speaker 1: and be a useful part of their system. So, uh,
30:50
Speaker 1: I hope you're right that it's not gonna be like
30:53
Speaker 1: that huge of a drop off, but it is, from
30:57
Speaker 1: like an observational standpoint, kind of a pretty big unknown
31:01
Speaker 1: and it's a lot for Dingler to be kind of
31:03
Speaker 1: thrown into this, you know, this early into his like
31:06
Speaker 1: major league career. So we'll see. I mean, I've like,
31:09
Speaker 1: I've liked him as a prospect since they drafted him.
31:11
Speaker 1: He obviously took a while because you know, his flash
31:13
Speaker 1: catch is hard. Uh but but you know, does his
31:17
Speaker 1: bat dip a little bit? Like does he change it all, like,
31:20
Speaker 1: you know, the demeanor and all that stuff. We'll see,
31:23
Speaker 1: We'll see. Yeah, these are things I'm curious about.
31:25
Speaker 2: Well, so let's wrap it up full FanDuel player spotlight.
31:28
Speaker 2: Even though this whole episode has kind of been a
31:30
Speaker 2: combination of different player spotlights. Are are we going with
31:34
Speaker 2: Hobby bias for this one is that is that what
31:36
Speaker 2: we're doing.
31:37
Speaker 1: I think we need to go with Hobby Bayo because
31:39
Speaker 1: because look, the Hobby Baya is, by the way, is
31:42
Speaker 1: a positive war player right now point two point two
31:46
Speaker 1: for those keeping track at home. Uh, he's patting three
31:49
Speaker 1: twenty one. He's been involved in some you know, some
31:53
Speaker 1: fine defensive plays. The glove flip probably the one that
31:56
Speaker 1: sticks out sticks out the most. And he seems to
31:59
Speaker 1: be again like the little thing stuff. He seems to
32:04
Speaker 1: be like enjoying the game, and the guys still seem
32:08
Speaker 1: to be responding to him. Like the team put out
32:12
Speaker 1: one of those silly social media videos who would be
32:14
Speaker 1: the best dollgeball player? Hobby's name was mentioned a couple
32:16
Speaker 1: of times of his arm and might.
32:18
Speaker 2: Pick with the Hobby things with both hands. He's at
32:22
Speaker 2: flat achey, Yeah, he might take.
32:24
Speaker 1: And and like he has been a positive contributor to
32:28
Speaker 1: a team that as of right now looks like one
32:31
Speaker 1: of the one of the better like options in the
32:35
Speaker 1: American League that has a sixty two and a half
32:37
Speaker 1: percent chance of making the playoffs. So he and he's
32:41
Speaker 1: taken the the role change position change ish, you know,
32:46
Speaker 1: playing some third base, enthusiastic about getting like center field.
32:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's that's been the biggest difference. Like
32:53
Speaker 2: they're Hobby Bayas entered this season obviously at a bad
32:59
Speaker 2: point in his career, and I think he could have
33:01
Speaker 2: gone one or two, one of two ways most guys
33:03
Speaker 2: in such a situation do. He could have gone, screw this,
33:07
Speaker 2: I'm gonna sit in the corner. I'm gonna pout, I'm
33:09
Speaker 2: gonna not very not be very receptive to playing other positions.
33:14
Speaker 2: I'm going to let the frustrations of the past few
33:17
Speaker 2: years build up and continue to be bad, if not worse.
33:20
Speaker 2: Or it was like, well, you kind of accept that
33:23
Speaker 2: you're not superstar anymore. You accept you're not gonna play
33:26
Speaker 2: quite every day, but you look for some ways to
33:30
Speaker 2: be productive. You embrace the challenge of doing something different,
33:34
Speaker 2: playing third base again, playing center field for the first
33:37
Speaker 2: time in the big leagues. You it feels to me
33:42
Speaker 2: like a weight is off Hobby's shoulders. Maybe that's uh,
33:45
Speaker 2: some weird metaphor for the fact he literally like had
33:47
Speaker 2: his back and his hips fixed, but he's been looser,
33:51
Speaker 2: he's been Hobby has never gotten enough credit for being
33:55
Speaker 2: like friendly, for being accessible to the media for not
33:58
Speaker 2: making excuses. But you seem in a headspace right now
34:01
Speaker 2: that's just really good, and I think it stems from
34:05
Speaker 2: some level of acceptance about where he's at in his career.
34:08
Speaker 1: Yeah and yeah, and he's still fun to watch. The
34:10
Speaker 1: moments are still there that exists for hobby er buys.
34:14
Speaker 1: And you can watch him and all the rest of
34:16
Speaker 1: the Tigers if you go to FanDuel Sportsnetwork dot Com
34:19
Speaker 1: slash packages use Code Baseball thirty for a thirty day
34:23
Speaker 1: extended free trial. That is FanDuel Sportsnetwork dot Com Slash
34:28
Speaker 1: Packages Code Baseball thirty. All right, we'll see what happens
34:34
Speaker 1: this weekend, Cody, some bad news for the Twins, Lopez
34:38
Speaker 1: going on the IL. I haven't read too much about it,
34:41
Speaker 1: just saw the headline. But that's obviously not good for them,
34:44
Speaker 1: and I'm sure they're looking at this series as a
34:47
Speaker 1: little bit of a match marks they've gotten off to
34:49
Speaker 1: a so so start, a little bit of like, all right,
34:52
Speaker 1: can we can we kind of get get right against
34:55
Speaker 1: a team that made the playoffs in our division that
34:58
Speaker 1: and we didn't. So I'm very curious. It should be
35:01
Speaker 1: decent weather over there in the Twin Cities. So uh
35:05
Speaker 1: be very very curious to see how this goes, whether
35:07
Speaker 1: Colt Keith gets it right, Hobby by his player spotlight
35:11
Speaker 1: what he does. Zach McKinstry continues to be a Hall
35:13
Speaker 1: of Famer. It's gonna be gonna be a lot to
35:16
Speaker 1: watch him on. Thank everybody for fun along listening at
35:18
Speaker 1: Cody Stapenhagen, I'm at hero on Thescore s Declee pot
35:21
Speaker 1: page is at Tiger Territory Underscore. You can like and
35:24
Speaker 1: subscribe Instagram, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, five star review if it
35:29
Speaker 1: feels so inclined helps us out a lot and we
35:31
Speaker 1: appreciate you so For Cody Stapenhagen, I'm Keiri Steckley. Everybody
35:34
Speaker 1: have great day.