Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Choosing Most Essential Tigs For Postseason

Transcript

Choosing Most Essential Tigs For Postseason · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tigers podcast.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: I'm Karen Stegley with.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Me as always as a man that when he hears
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Hank Williams Junior say, are you ready for some football,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: he says, not until baseball season's over, he is.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Cody Stavean Eggan, how you doing?
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: It's baseball season? Come on, why are we watching football?
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: The games are a lot more important, although if you're
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: a Detroit fan it was a kind of a downer
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: all around.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: For these I watch football anyway. My Cowboys are terrible.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Lions just lost. At least the Tigers are doing great.
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: Oh wait hikes.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so we're recording this Monday afternoon. The Tigers obviously
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: dropped two out of three against the White Sox, and
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: what was like several instances of just bizarre things that like,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: you know, like emotional storylines kind of concerning plays, like
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: you know, the the Smith and Heel collision.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: There was pretty scary.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Parker Meadows comes back, You got the Finnigan injury news,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you got the Alex Cobb injury news, and school is
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: school ball? And then Sunday, it was just kind of
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: a sleepy all right, get some runs ahead, and then
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: you know, it turns out when you give up singles
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: in a couple of walks, and you know it's kind
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: of hard to keep those guys from crossing the dish.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: So where do you want to start out for this week?
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: As here's a guess, Chicago, But like I said, was
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: kind of a downer.
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: I don't know where to start. I mean, I think
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: that big picture is kind of what matters. I mean,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: it was another series we've seen a few of them
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: lately where the Tigers just didn't play all that well,
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: where they didn't really look like the team we've seen
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: for so much of this season. I don't think that
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: means you have to write the Tigers off. I don't
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: think it means they're done. I don't think it means
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: they're guaranteed to get swept in the postseason. But it's
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: pretty clear they got to fix some things in the
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: next eight games because they're not entering October in a
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: great place right now. College Ken Rosenthal wrote it pretty
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: well today that there are a lot of other contending
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: teams that have problems too. Maybe that's the Tigers saving grace.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: You know, think about the Rangers two years ago. I
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: was with that team for the whole postseason run. They
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: limped into the postseason, they blew the division, they had
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: to fly across the country, and then hey, they got
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: hot at the right time. Now, there's a lot of
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: top in talent on that team, but they had a
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: couple of things click with the pitching and they made
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: a run. That's the conversation we've been having about the
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: Tigers fort forever. Can they click at the right time
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: right now? I don't know. They've played below five hundred
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: baseball in the second half since the All Star break.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: We've talked ad nauseum about the pitching, but the offense
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: is sneakly not been very good too. This weekend against
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: the White Sox, you had a great school start and
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: then two games that were kind of weird, kind of sloppy,
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: kind of sleepy. And we've just seen too much much
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: of that exact pattern since the All Star break. At least.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, I wish I could come on here
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: and say, like I have a theory as to why
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: like x as occurred, but sort of how we didn't
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: have theories about how they got off to this start
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and had had you know this, you know hugely, which
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: obviously as of right now, I believe it's eight and
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: a half games, so like you haven't really lost any
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: ground there. You're about four ish games up on Houston
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: for that last buye, so like you're still in like
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: comfort level. Like it's it's hard to kind of explain
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: away because I was at a I was at a
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: watering hole yesterday. I saw a guy there who's also
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a Detroit fan, and so he asked me, it was like,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: what do you think? And I'm like, how do I
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: answer that question? Like, I like, I think, I think
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: they're in a good spot, but I also think they're
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: not in a good spot. And then like there are
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the concerns they're kind of outweigh how they got here
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: right now. So I don't know if that's me being
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: prisoner of the moment, but one of the things that
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: you hope is gonna be kind of a launch point
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: for this team is the fact that we did see
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: Parker Meadows and we did get like an instant. So
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: that's what that looks like that right there, like you
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: could you could see like like flashbacks to last year
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: about like how valuable he truly is and and what
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: he can bring to this team.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: It's a can be. That's it could be. It's not
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: something that we've.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Seen yet, but but at least it might provide some
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: lineup clarity that might be the number one benefit for
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: him right now in hopes that he gets gets going
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: a little bit, you know, as a postseason nears.
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: So I was amazed at some of my replies. I
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: think I had tweeted something like bad news kle Finnigan's
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: on the il good news, Hey, at least Parker Meadows
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: is back, and I got a bunch of people being like,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: are you sure that's good news? Come on, man, this winner.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: You guys were telling me he was going to be
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: like an MVP candidate, which is not the most rational take.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: And now it's like, oh, we don't even want Parker Meadows,
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: also not a rational take. Let's live in reality, let's
• 5:13
  Speaker 3: embrace the gray areas a little bit. That's where the
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: truth is usually going to lie. Parker Meadows can be
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: a very good player. He could be a huge X
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: factor for the Tigers down the stretch. You just got
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: back a guy who is most likely a top end
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: defensive center fielder who is the fastest player on your
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: team and who at his best can hit, can hit
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: for some power, could occupy your lead up spot, could
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: completely change the complexion of your team. I don't know
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: if all that's going to come to fruition. Parker has
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: not played much this year. It's been injuries on and
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: off the il obviously a broken season. It's tough to
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: expect him to just heat right up right away. But
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: I will take Parker Meadows on this team versus not
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: having him on this team, for sure. He's a guy
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: who's presence alone can make a difference.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure.
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: And you know it's it's I understand it's difficult to
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: kind of hang on to potential when it's September and
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: then going into October. But the high end for Parker,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: like as of right now, as of me saying this,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: you know, Monday, September eighth, early evening, I think it's
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: worth exploring that as much as you can as you
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: get into the postseason. Then once postseason play starts, So
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: that would be my take on that. But you mentioned
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the Finnegan piece, Uh, this one, we I mean, we
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: saw the last act that he that he is that
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: you will have for a while and warming up and
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: then abduct your strain and and going on the il.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: But it did seem we've been a little down right now.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: He seemed optimistic about about like his like ability to
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: make an impact on the team when the games matter most.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: So you know, still still waiting on that player to
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: come out and say, you know what, guys, I'm just
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: not very optimistic. I just don't think I'm going to
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: be able to make it back. I haven't really encountered
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: much of that. Of course, he's optimistic. According to AJ
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: Hinch is a mild strain, so I think that's good.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: The hope right now is he can be back for
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: some regular season games and the postseason. I'm well worried, though,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: because I always am with injuries. It's an adductor. It's
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: basically muscles on the inner part of your thigh. This
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: is on his push off leg on the mound. Is
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: that going to affect him? That's kind of got to
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: be one hundred percent where it could alter his mechanics,
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: could alter his effectiveness. He's got to be able to
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: run and cover first base and field his position. Although
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: it's a mild strain growins. I feel I can be
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: tricky with pictures, so you've got to hope that it's
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: truly mild and that recovery goes well. This bullpen, I
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: think it goes without saying needs Kyle Finnegan and needs
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: the version of Kyle Finnegan. It's seems so in Detroit
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: if you want to feel good about where it's at
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: headed into the playoffs. So we'll see if Finnigan makes
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: it back. We'll see if he's the same guy. Obviously
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: this is bad news.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I don't know if this is bad news
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: or just news. It's definitely closure. But Alex Cobb officially
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: will will not, you know.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Pitch this year.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: You know he I mean, you guys can go read
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the explanation you got, you know, you beat reporters like
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: talk to him and he kind of laid it out
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: all out there, and you know, I'll take him at
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: his word. But if this was something like you watched
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: any of those clips when he was doing rehab, It's
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: just like you could not imagine this man was going
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: to be able to get up to pitch with any
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: substance at the major league level. Certainly wouldn't be able
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: to feel this position. Uh, you know, there there's.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: A human element to this. I feel bad for him.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: I'm sure.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: I'm sure he feels like, you know, some sort of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: like guilt or whatever that he wasn't able to help
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the team.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: But it's just i'd say time.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: It is kind of one of those things where it's like, well,
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: you can't miss what you never had.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: So yeah, I mean again, let's be able to separate
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: kind of the two sides of this, the two factors here.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: Alex Cobb and my very little experience around him, was
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: a great dude, a very genuine guy. I do believe
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: he deeply wanted to make it back to help this team,
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: and his body just would not allow him to. He said,
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: he's not gonna utter the word retirement right now, but
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: he acknowledges that that was a big that that is
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: a big possibility, and logically he's probably done pitching as
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: a major League baseball player. And that's sad man, that's unfortunate,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: But let's be happy for him that he's going to
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: get this hip taken care of, that he's going to
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: be able to live happy and healthy the rest of
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: his life. It's a really tough yeared human story in
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: the middle of a pennant race, So then you you know,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: just the sheer baseball side of it. This wasn't a
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: very good signing by the Tigers. It was at the
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: time risky, I think is a fair word to characterize it,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: and it did not go in their favor. And given
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: what's happened with the staff since, Man, it'd be nice
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: to have somebody available to pitch. Maybe you wouldn't have
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: had to make a move for a Chris Paddock or
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: a Charlie Morton, and instead you've just got nothing out
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: of this fifteen million. You've made some other subsequent pitching
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: moves that have not helped. This is kind of I think,
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: you know where that snowball started, and it's kind of
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: gotten bigger and it's become a problem in the Tigers season.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: At the same time, man, I feel bad for Alex
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Cobb as human being.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it's a reminder that a lot of
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: times you don't get to write your ending if he
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: does end up retiring. You know, a lot of these
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: endings don't come in the fairy tale version. Yeah, sometimes
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: sometimes it happens, So we will have to wait to
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: see if another person with the last name cob Ever
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: plays a game for the Detroit Tigers. We are going
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: to get to a little bit of offensive talk and in
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: regards to what we're seeing and what we're kind of
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: projecting as we get, you know, towards the end of
• 11:12
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• 12:18
  Speaker 2: All right, coming back here.
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: You know I just said that anecdote about you know,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: guy at the bar being like, you know, what do
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: you think of the tigers right now? And being like,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: what I really should have done is just had him
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: wait for your article to publish, and then this would
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: this would kind of explain it a little bit, because
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: it's set up exactly how my mind is going, where
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: it's like, well, you got this going for you, but
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: you also got this element here that's not not not
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: as great. So you did it in an obstacle and uh,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you get the correct word in here. Reason an obstacle
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: for the Tigers in various fashions, and one of them was,
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: yes they manufacture runs. Yes they are aggressive on the
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: base past, but they're also not hidden as much. And
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: as you put in your previous article, yeah, I'll be
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: able to get on base in order to excel at
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: running the bases. So so when you when you say Tiger,
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: when I say Tiger's offensive regression, like what what does
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: that mean?
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: Right now?
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: Like? What is it you're watching on YouTube? We got
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: a graphic up here. This is Tiger's performers in the
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: second half of the season. Think of who they really
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: relied on the first half. Zach McKinstry. He has an
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: eighty eight WRC plus glabor tour as eighty eight, Colt
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Keith eighty three, our dear friend Javier biased thirty five,
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Terry Sweeney has not been good for you. Even Spencer Tourklsen,
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: who's been such a steady contributor ninety seven. So his
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: offense overall has been below league average. Since the All
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: Star break, We've had some guys help pick up the slack.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Wintil Perez has been phenomenal. John Dinglers continued to play
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: very well. Riley Green right there with Spencer Tokelesen slightly
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: below league average sneak. I feel like this has been
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: less pronounced than the pitching because I don't know, there's
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: just been some ugly pitching blow ups. I guess it's
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: been easier to focus on. But the Tigers rank eighteenth
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: in ops since the All Star break, They're twenty first
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: and starting pitching era, they are I believe eleventh, twelfth
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: in relief pitcher era. None of those really give you
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: the makings of an elite team. But the offense has
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: been just as big of a reason as the pitching
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: why the Tigers haven't been playing all that well. I
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: don't know if there was a perfect solution here, but
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: around the trade deadline, remember the Tigers didn't add a
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: single hitter to this lineup. I don't know who I
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: would have wanted. Dad, I swore, as I guess he
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: hasn't been that great in Seattle, at least he wasn't.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: Right away we talked about should they add another right
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: handed platoon bat to replace Jami Jones. Well, you know
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: who's been really good? Jami Jones good thing. He kept
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: him in his role. But ultimately the Tigers seem to
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: have a lot of faith in the guys who were
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: on this team, including mckinstrey, including by As, players who
• 15:06
  Speaker 3: would always seemed were playing a little bit out of
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: their minds. And McKinstry still does a little a lot
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: of little things. Has had some nice moments. But man,
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: you look up and down and it resembles, eh, kind
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: of the middle of the pack offense that if you
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: would have asked me in spring training, I would have
• 15:23
  Speaker 3: told you the Tigers were. They were third in the
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: first half and run scored in the American League. They
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: are eight in the second half. They're just not producing
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: runs at the same rate. And it's just as big
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: of a problem as the pitching.
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just looked it up.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: Swore As in thirty four games for Seattle has a.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: One oh nine ops plus, So.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: Like, be better than a lot of a lot of
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: the names on.
• 15:52
  Speaker 2: This list with if you're in the back.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Ually I wouldn't have given up prospects for him.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: But if you want to look at the six batting average,
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: if you're into that, into that, into that sort of thing.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean a lot of a lot of
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: this is.
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: Again examples of ways that you can kind of manipulate
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: your thoughts and or let the data manipulate you. Because
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: you look at that graphic if again, if you're on YouTube.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, remember when I didn't want more data points. I
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: don't want that points. I don't care what the numbers say.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: Especially my eyes haven't been telling me good things lately.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Was that like a three six wr Yeah?
• 16:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah maybe.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: So so yeah, I mean, uh, this kind of brings
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: me to like what I really wanted to to talk
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: to you about, Cody, is that like they believe in
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: the pieces, as you said, like that's they that's been
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: a parent. So who are the pieces that you've got
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to have most like like like not at their best
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: because that's unrealistic, but like the most ideal form of
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: the player profile is like is going to be the
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: most advantageous. It's so I hope I'm explaining that well
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: because it's not just like who's better type deal, it's
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: like who is going to make a bigger difference per se. Uh,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: so we'll do well, you mentioned him a little bit
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: of topp. We'll stick with offense right now. Labor Torres
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: Colt Keith, who was also cooled down a little bit.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: Torres has been substantially below average since the All Star break,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: and he is a guy that, to me, you kind
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: of rely on for the professional at bad and and
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: to get on base and in all those things. Colt
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Keith is same thing. You're still kind of looking. That's
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: like a little bit more of an upside play. But
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: those are two top of the order guys. So so
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: that's kind of why I put them together, Labor Torres
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: Colt Keith, Like, who do you got to have in
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: order to get to a World Series?
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: I mean, if I had to choose one and go,
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: go Labor Torres. He was such a big part of
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: everything the Tigers did early on this year. And you know,
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: he's probably the Tiger's biggest right handed offensive threat. You
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: have some other lefty hitters who are really good the
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: right handed bat, along with Spencer Torkelsen, but his right
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: handed presence really alters the lineup. It's important to be
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: able to have some left handed hitters a Riley and
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: a carp in there and have Glabor in between them
• 18:27
  Speaker 3: put your put pressure on the opponents. That way, it's
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: the top of the ordered guy still has a three
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: to sixty plus one base percentage. You want that guy
• 18:36
  Speaker 3: on base, maybe so Riley, so Tork, so carp can
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: drive in some runs. I think he's so central offensively
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: to everything the Tigers do. He's been a big part
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: of their success this year. Maybe no surprise there. His
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: slump has coincided with the team's downturn a little bit.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: So well, hey, it'd be great to have him going too,
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: But you make me pick one, him going.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Glabor, Yeah, I I tend to agree with that. Let's
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: go Parker Meadows. We talked about or Carry Carpenter, who
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: depending on which list you're loot, what data points you're
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: looking at, Like as we talked about trying to grapple
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: with all year, trying to grapple with the Carry Carpenter season.
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: He's obviously the better hitter, but the assets and the upside,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: defensive asset and upside could still be Parker.
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: What do you think?
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: I don't care about data points? Carts play every day, right,
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: it's lucky. Yeah, that's not actually how I feel. Man,
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: that's a harder one. Like you look at the postseason,
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: you want Carp's home run power that can change the
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: scoreboard that one year game last postseason. But Parker Medos
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: has some home run power too. He does have a
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: more well rounded skill set. I still think that Parker
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: is like the Tom an X factor because he could
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: be a hole in your lineup. He could hit ninth
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: and be an automatic out, where he could hit lead
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: off and be a dynamic table setter like there is
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: just I think more variety in his game where Carp's
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: gonna hit up there and he's going to be a
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: power threat against right handed pitching whether he's really rolling
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: or not. Teams are going to manage against him and
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: his presence is going to loom. You need Parker, I think,
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: to be a difference maker to factor in when the
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: opposing managers looking that lineup guys he doesn't want to
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: face guys he might want to bring in a lefty
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: to neutralize because he's a little bit scared of him.
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: You want that version of Parker Meto's you're a whole
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: lot better team when you got that version. Obviously, we
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: haven't seen that version really since last season. That's a
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: version you want come playoff time.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, but we also know, yeah, the Carpenter
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: is gonna be the guy that does make the manager
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: make those versess. So so yeah, that's a that's tough
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: one base running in defense, Like I could see that
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: coming into play. I can see that coming into play too,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: So uh, stick with offense. Mentioned a couple of them
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: just a second ago, Spencer Torklesen or Zach McKinstry, who,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: by the way, still is just a hair under a
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: three war player, both of them. Yeah, but McKinstry, like
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: for all this, you know stuff we talked about, like
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: the floor is still high for him overall.
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: Well, I think i'd take McKinstry again because of the floor,
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Like there's just more variation. I feel like when what
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: McKinstry can be, he can be a huge producer, a
• 21:38
  Speaker 3: guy who wreaks havoc on the bases, or he can
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: be a guy that isn't hitting that well and isn't
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: really a threat to work. I mean, I guess we
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: know there can be kind of different and excuse me
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: into the Torkleson spectrum too, right, but this year he's
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: been pretty steady. He's gonna hit probably clean up, and
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: he's gonna be a threat to change the scoreboard. Mckinsrey, man,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: you want him on base. You want him the version,
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: the best version of the Tigers does all these little
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: things well, and that mckinsrey takes extra bases more than
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: anyone in the league. He's got to get on the
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: base to take the extra base. I want the mckensrey
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: who can be a difference maker and kind of trust
• 22:21
  Speaker 3: that Toork's going to hit forth and be a threat
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: to go yard at any time no matter what.
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, well, let's go back to pitching and
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: sort of the contenders really the only contenders for starting
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: games field of the series Casey Mies or Jack Flairy
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: and we're you know, take out the chaos element, I guess.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: But Casey Jack Flaherty, who do you gotta have?
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: Who do you gotta have?
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: Remember like two or three weeks ago, and we thought
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: Charlie Morton could start game too, Probably not Charlie Morton
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: also a great guy, also not having good time. These
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: two are pretty interchangeable, Like you just got to have
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: one of them. I think I think you just got
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: to have one of them. I would lean Flarity because
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: Jack Flaherty can be a dominant pitcher, Like he can
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: be really good and he strikes out guys at a
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: very high clip. He has that miss missing bat's ability
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: that can prove crucial in these smaller postseason samples. Even
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: the very best version of case he mis We've never
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: seen him consistently really be a strikeout pitcher. Where's flairity.
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: We've seen him go over one hundred pitches, We've seen
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: him go seven innings, We've seen him get eleven twelve
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: plus strikeouts in the game. Give me that too in
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: the postseason. I'll take flarity.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean again, it's a what can they do
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: versus what have they largely done? Discussion is basically everything
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: we're doing here. And I think your scope is correct
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: because I mean, postseason, you've written about it.
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: This isn't a secret.
• 24:00
  Speaker 3: Uh.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: Home runs and getting people to swing and miss got
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: a crucial.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: God a crucial.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: All right, Well we'll do another one. Pitching wise, Rafael
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: Montero or Brennan hannafy.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: Hmm. Rafael Montero, oh good, even pitched to both sided
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: hitters a little better. Hannafee's generally speaking only good against righty's.
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: Montero has a splitter that can play against anybody. We've
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: already seen him hints of getting more leverage looks and
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: if he's probably gonna be kind of that mid relief
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: maybe if you're trailing by a couple of runs, Montero,
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: depending on if Finnigan gets healthy, depending on if Seawald
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: gets healthy, could be right there in the mix for
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: some really important innings. A lot of pitching moves have
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: not worked out, but Scott Harris should get a little
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: tip of the cap for Rafael Montero looked pretty nice lately.
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: He hasn't allowed a hit in the last nine and
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: two thirds innings. He has watched six guys. But the
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: walks are a little more palatable when you're not giving
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: up hits. I think that would scare me with Montero
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: in the playoffs, that he's gonna walk a guy and
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: then give up like a ball into the gap. But man,
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: he's looked a lot better. He's commanding the ball a
• 25:17
  Speaker 3: lot better. He doesn't leave a lot of balls over
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: the heart of the plate when he's wild. He's just
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: truly spraying it everywhere accept the strike zone. But if
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: you keep getting a Montero who's just putting up zeros
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: and no one can hit him, can change the dynamic
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: of your bullpen a little bit.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: I like that opening move of the trade deadline might
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: be the best.
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: Who knows, right, probably the one that had the worst
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: optics kind of working out. Some of these others have
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: been disasters. But the things that Tigers liked about Montero,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: at least here in this you know, eight game stretch,
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: they've shown up very true.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: All right, we are going to take a quick break,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: and then after that, I'm just gonna throw some numbers
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: out there to contextualize what we might be seeing this
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: this week in New York.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: The first aword from our sponsors.
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  Speaker 3: Dig in.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: All right, coming back here.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: I think we had so many other topics so and
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: it's kind of it's kind of chalky, so we didn't
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: want to spend a whole lot of time on it.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: But I think we can probably call Tarrek Schooble winning
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: the cy Young.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: I went and.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Looked at the odds this afternoon, Cody from our friends
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: at DraftKings and to win the cy Young, Tarrek Schooble
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: is a minus five thousand favorites minus five thousand, uh
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: and and it's and obviously like you'res throwing names out
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: there for second, third, fourth place, et cetera.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: He was brilliant again.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: They kind of you know, it's not very interesting to say,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: but on September eighth, I feel I feel pretty confident
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Tarror schoobl will be a back to back Cy Young winner.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: What do you think?
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I have al Cy Young vote, so I cannot
• 28:02
  Speaker 3: disclose who I might be voting for thanks to gambling
• 28:06
  Speaker 3: lines from our friends at DraftKings. But Scoogle has consumed
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: to pitching dominant fashion two one oh eer a leads
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: to the American League. You just look at f War.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: It was kind of close for a while. It's not
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: that close right now. Garrett Crochet second in the ale
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: at five point zero. Trek Scougle six point five, so
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: a full one and a half wins above Garrett Crochet.
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: Hunter Brown's been stellar, but he's down at four point
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: five wins above replacement. Schoogle's got to strikeout right the
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: walk rate. I think Crochet is a really good candidate.
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: Hunter Brown's had a good season, but I think most
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: of the numbers that people would base these decisions on,
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: not only point in Schooble's favor, but they point more
• 28:49
  Speaker 3: in his favor than they did even a couple of
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: weeks ago.
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: All right, and my dog Merle agrees. If you guys
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: can hear him barking in the background, Uh, Yankee series
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: potential playoff previews?
• 29:04
  Speaker 3: Well, playoff preview. I like that.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: So here's something interesting from our friends at DraftKings again.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: To win the World Series, the Yankees actually had better odds.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: The Yankees are at plus seven hundred, that's the tops
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: in the American League. The Tigers at plus seven fifty.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: So close, but Yankees advantage. But to win the American League,
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: the Tigers plus two eighty five favorites and the Yankees
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: plus three thirty.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of fascinating. More think about it. You
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: told me that before we started recording. I've kind of
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: been thinking about it. It almost makes some sense. It's like,
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: you know, the who you got thing with these players,
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: and you're just kind of comparing floors and ceilings. Maybe
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: is that just biased towards like star power? I don't know,
• 29:55
  Speaker 3: but the Yankees they got some star power. Man. They
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: got some dudes who where if they are right, can
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: be scary. The Yankees at their very best, are they
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: better than the Tigers at their very best? I'm not
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: even sure that's a clear yes, but I could see
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: why people would would feel that way. Where do you
• 30:14
  Speaker 3: look at the Tiger Like the Yankees at their worst,
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: I think are worse than the Tigers at their worst.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: The Anges can be sloppy, man, So I think that's
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: kind of probably what's factoring in here. And the Tigers
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: have schoogle, and it's like, if a couple of things
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: go in their favor, they can win the AL But
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: then you really trust them to knock off one of
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: these big National League powers, where it's like the Yankees, well,
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: to get to the World Series, they got to be
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: playing pretty good, and if they're playing pretty good, they
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: can hang with anybody. I'm not sure you can't actually
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: say the same thing about the Tigers. But the more
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: I think about it, I kind of see why the
• 30:49
  Speaker 3: odds are the way they are.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I mean part of it is, you know,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: the longer you play, you know, in these kind of
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: controlled short environment, it's the more you would lean on
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: the stars typically, and so you get all the way
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: to that next round being the World Series. It's like
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: how much? How long can the Tigers really do it?
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: But we think they could do it to win, to
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: win seven games in the playoffs, but we don't know
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: if they can win eleven, you know what I mean.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: So so fascinating stuff, fascinating stuff. I'm really looking forward
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: to this series. We will recap it Thursday, right before
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: the Miami Series. And thanks to the Yankees, Dan Dickerson,
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: I know he's going to say this on the radio,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: thanks to the Yankees for not letting it get out,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: get away games. Yeah, three prime time. They like their
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: night games in the Bronx. But we'll react to that
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: series and and we'll have more data points to to
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: try to assess where this team is at.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: I think it's gonna be interesting listmus tests. Like I said,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a preview, probably.
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: Gonna be a fired up crowd, you know, a little
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: bit of a little bit of an atmosphere preview for
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: I don't.
• 31:59
  Speaker 3: Care about that of points. Pitch the contact, catch the ball.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: That's all there is to it, right.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, hit the cut off man, all right?
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: Follow us on x formally known as Twitter at Cody Stavehagen.
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: I might care onund score steckte pot page at Tiger
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Territory Underscore Tiger Territory shot dot com to get your
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Tiger Territory merch YouTube, Instagram, Apple, Spotify. You guys know
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: what to do. We appreciate all of you so for
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: Cody Stavenhagen, I am Karen Steckley. Everybody, have a great day.