Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Keider Montero, Spencer Torkelson ... & the Tigers' odds of one last playoff push?

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Keider Montero, Spencer Torkelson ... & the Tigers' odds of one last playoff push? · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome in to another episode of Tiger Territory, part
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network, Detroit Tigers podcast. I am
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Kieran Seckley. With me, as always, the man that puts
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: the E in civic duty. He is Cody Stavenhagen. How
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: are we doing?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Doing all right, Kieran. Here we are. Told you the
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Tigers would have one little run left in them, just
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: to make it interesting, just to kind of annoy everybody
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: is what it seems like. Sure enough, six straight wins.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: They get the people talking. They get the streets whispering
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: a little bit. And then they lose. So to really
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: keep this interesting, they're basically going to have to win
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: every game. Again, I'm just not quite ready to go there.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: But it is funny. Somehow, it's still like a 1% chance.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: But it's interesting. Just sweep the White Sox. Never know.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: The scenarios exist. The scenarios are unlikely. And it is
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: kind of fun to live in a little bit of
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: oblivion during these games. And honestly, this was certainly the
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: case against Toronto. We're recording this early evening on Wednesday.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: This was the case against Toronto, and this could be
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: the case against Chicago. Kind of playing a little spoiler,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: kind of sticking it to some teams that really need
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: some wins and you know, their fan bases are probably thinking,
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: all right, the Tigers look at their record, like, you know, whatever.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: And then they come out and they, and they play like,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I would say energized baseball like this,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: this against Toronto. Like this was a team like, I mean, again,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: I know they lost today, but look at how they
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: scored their only run of the, of the game on Wednesday.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Colt Keith hits a little bloop. It may be slightly misplayed,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: but it falls and he gets the second Riley green single.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: And like, That's the Tigers still playing Tigers baseball and
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: potentially taking teams out of it. You know what I mean?
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: They did damage this week or earlier in the week,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: and then they can do that against Chicago. They're still
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: playing their brand of baseball. They're still playing hard. They're
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: still playing in a way that has me interested and
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: excited to watch them every day. What does that mean
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: in the long run? I don't know, dude, but I'll
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: tell you right now, It feels good. It feels good
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: to be given us something to talk about. It feels
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: good to see some young guys maybe at the beginning
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: of what could be productive careers. So I'm still having fun.
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know about you guys, but I'm still having fun.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, like you have Spencer Torkelson at a
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: stolen base. You know what I mean? I'm just looking
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: at some highlights. Kenley Jansen got a double play. You
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: know what I mean? They got no hit through six innings.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: They came back and won the game, Cody. Max Clark
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: getting extra base hits. This is still a fun team
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to watch, I guess is my point.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: They're not fun until Dylan Dingler gets a stolen base.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: This was overlooked when I wrote about steals. Dylan Dingler
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: has zero career stolen bases. He's now well over 1,100
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: plate appearances in his career. That's the second highest among
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: active players. without a stolen base, second to Jonathan Aranda.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: And it's kind of hard to pull up the all-time leaderboard,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: but it's actually getting fairly high up there too. It's
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: hard to play that many games and at least not
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: be the trail runner, but the Tigers never steal third,
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: so he's never had the opportunity to be the trail runner.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: Not necessarily advocating for this guy that I've been worried
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: about being fatigued, getting put in motion a lot, but
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: you're not really a running team until Dylan Dingler gets
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: his first career stolen base.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: How's that? That's actually crazy because part of his profile
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: is that he was like an athlete made into a catcher.
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: That's been his thing since we've been talking about him.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: And so you know that potentially is in there. And again,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: sometimes you just kind of back end your way into
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: a stolen base. So I guess that is something to watch.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: But here's a crazy stat, Cody. The Tigers did not
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: have a stolen base on Thursday. So that broke the streak.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: but coming into third or assuming Wednesday, Wednesday, get my
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: days confused here. Coming into Thursday.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Um, nine straight games with a stolen base that tied
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: a franchise record from 1916. First of all, there was
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: deals all the time back in it. And of course,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Ty Cobb was on that team. I'm sure he had
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: a stolen base and, and a couple of those games.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I probably should have went and looked it up, but
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: I would, I would wager he has stolen base and, uh,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: during that streak. That's wild. So I mean, again, sometimes,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: you know, you have a talking point, you write a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: story and then like something like that happens. And it's like, wow,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: this is like the manifestation of like literally a historical feat,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: like some really small niche, narrow thing that we witnessed
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: over this, you know, winning seven of nine games. The
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Tigers literally did something or match something that only been
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: done one time prior since 1916. It's a long time ago, Cody.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: That's pre-World War I. I'm taking all credit for it, honestly.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: I don't even necessarily think they need to be a
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: top five steals team. I just never thought they should
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: rank 30th. They're not that slow of a team. So
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: all it took was a couple questions, and now they're
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: running all the time.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you just kind of put it in their brains
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: a little bit. It's just like, hey, what about this?
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: It's like, hey.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Yep.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: Cody's on to something. Maybe we're younger, we're a little
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: bit more athletic. What if we just kind of ran
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: a little bit more? And lo and behold, they go out.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: And do it.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: I'm obviously kidding.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: They don't listen to me. I feel like they used
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: to at least take some suggestions a little more often.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: That doesn't happen very much anymore.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: Well, we're going to get to Cato Montero here in
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: a second, but one of the things I wanted to
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: make note of If you wanted some evidence of a
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: youth movement, we have not seen Javi Baez since last Friday.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: So that's got to be the record for him and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: his time in Detroit as a healthy player.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I'd be interested in comparing it to last September when
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: he was healthy and they were losing every single day
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: and would not play him. I'm not sure. He was
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: not playing a lot there last year, if you remember
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: suggestions I was making that then they took the final
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: weekend of the season to save their season. Yeah, I've
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: almost forgot Javi's on the team, and I don't know.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: It's one of those things. It's interesting. They've obviously been
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: playing well with these young guys they're rolling out there,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: but Peck's kind of been the interesting one who keeps
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Javi on the bench, who kind of enforces the platoon
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: at first base, has McGonagall playing more third. Obviously, Peck,
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: a couple errors today. He's hitting 220, 584 OPS. So
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: if you wanted to learn about him, I think you're learning.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: probably a guy who ultimately will need a little more
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: seasoning before he's ready to play this big of a
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: role in the major leagues.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, looking at it right now, McGonigal had an error,
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: Peck had two errors, and just kind of, you know,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: one of those things where, you know, they just kind
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: of felt like a little bit of unraveling after kind
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: of riding this emotional high, and like one thing kind
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: of led to another type deal, and all of a
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: sudden you're down. And then, of course... zero, zero outs
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and two runners on in the ninth. I was like,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: is this, is this about to happen? And, and then,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and then of course, like, you know, McGonagall's up at the,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: at the plate and he's got this kind of funny,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: speaking of funny stats, he's got the funny stat thing
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: about walks versus strikeouts this year. It's a three, two count. And, uh,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: he takes the pitch and it's a ball for the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: history of major league baseball. But when the ABS era,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: it just barely touches the corner high and outside and,
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: you know, overturned. You know, and, you know, they technically
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: got the call right, but nobody would have been offended
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: if that was just a ball. You know what I mean?
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: And that's how the game and the series ends. So,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: like I said, these little moments, I'm still having fun
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: watching this team. I don't know about you guys. And
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: then thinking about the future, which is what we're going
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to do a lot of here moving forward through the
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: season and obviously into the offseason. So we're going to
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: take a quick break. And then afterward, let's talk about
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Cater Montero's place on this team. But first, a word
• 8:33
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• 8:36
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• 9:39
  Speaker 1: All right, coming back here. So one of the better
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: stories of the season, Cody, as we reflect on is
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: going to be cater Montero, a guy who's been kind
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: of jerked around role wise minors and all that stuff,
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: even though we all recognize his talent and what really
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: should be his place on the team. He has proven
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a lot this year, and so all of this is
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: in the context of that. But you've got to look
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: at the last three starts, and he's failed to get
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: through five. That's three in a row that he's failed
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: to get through five, and today he was four innings,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Six hits, two runs, two walks. He did have four strikeouts. Now, again, congratulations, Cater,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: on having a baby girl and all these things. I'm
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: sure there's a lot that he was going through mentally
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: over the past, let's just call it two, three weeks
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: a month. So we understand all that. But are we
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: witnessing maybe a reminder that the Montero placement in the
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: rotation was Might still be a pencil thing, or are
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: we kind of overreacting to, if we had that question,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: are we overreacting to a couple starts here late in
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: the season, given the circumstances?
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting you raise that topic. Look, it's a
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: long year. Cater's thrown probably the most innings of his life,
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: 147 innings. He just made, you know, yeah, was worried
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: about his wife having a baby, made a quick trip
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: to Venezuela, see the birth of your child, turn around,
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: pitching a game in Canada. So, everyone's feeling it this
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: time of year. I'm sure he's especially feeling it physically.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: That may be a pretty simple explanation for his performance.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: I know some guys like Dylan Dingler didn't love the
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: suggestion that maybe they're just fatigued, but I think it's
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: a better suggestion than they're not good anymore. I think
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Cater Montaro's proven he's a pretty good pitcher as this
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: inning total rises, and especially after going through the travel
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: he just went through It might be impacting things a
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: little bit. But I almost wonder, Kieran, if your question
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: regarding next year would have been a thing even if
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: he was still totally shoving. And like we've talked about
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: with Cater Montero at length, it's not necessarily fair, but
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I think it might have been a reality. You think
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: about next year's rotation. You're paying Frambois Valdez a lot
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: of money. Troy Melton might be kind of your dude.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Jackson Jobe, they obviously want this guy to be starting
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: a lot. Let's see, who am I forgetting here? Reese
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: plays into that. Reese Olsen will be back. He is
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: going to be a starting pitcher. And then Cater could
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: be your fifth, except they're almost certainly going to sign
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: someone for depth. They need more than five. So if
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: you pay a guy, I don't know that they're going
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: to make a huge signing. Let's say they bring back
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: Casey Mize, just spitballing. Well, he's not going to the bullpen.
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: You know, whoever they sign, you're probably penciling in at
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: least one of those guys as a starter. I bet
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: they sign two starters. Let's say they bring back Drew
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: Anderson and they sign another Drew Anderson type swingman. Cater
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Montero might be entering spring training back to this like, well,
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: you know, we'll see what happens. And He's kind of
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: the victim of his own success in terms of he's
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: proven he can be versatile, adaptable. He's proven he can
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: be really good coming out of the bullpen. What's the Tigers'
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: number one thing to do this offseason? They basically have
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: to revamp your entire bullpen. The bullpen we've seen can
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: be better when you have Montero in it. I'm not
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: necessarily saying he should be in next year's bullpen. I
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: kind of think he's proven he can be an effective
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: and reliable starter there. but I could see how the
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Tigers brass might look at this and say, Hey, let's
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: bring in a couple of guys. Let's go to spring training.
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Let's see who's healthy. And if it ends up, we
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: start Montero in the bullpen, we start them in the bullpen.
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: And then we actually feel a little better about our
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: bullpen as a result of that. I mean, you could
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: kick someone else. You can't, I don't know, Reese Olson,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: but I'm pretty sure you're going to want to see
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: what he can do healthy as a starter. All these
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: other guys to me look like locks for the rotation.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: So I bet next year, I want to say February
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: might be more like March or April or May, or
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: let's just hope there's a spring training at some point,
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: whenever that is, I think we're going to be talking
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: a lot about this very topic.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And you know, Drew Anderson, should they choose will
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: be quote unquote in that mix. I think a fair say,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: but obviously with the bullpen component in there as well.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's that we, given up on Herter as
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: a starter?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: I think probably not given up. It's just more he's
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: more settled into the relief role, but you're right. That's
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: another guy with some length, and now that you have
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Summers as kind of that lefty reliever, you could talk
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: yourself into trying to stretch him back out if you
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: really wanted to. I think coming off the injury-shortened season,
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: that seems unlikely, but I don't think it was ever
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: a give up. I think that's just how he more
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: naturally fell into to his role on the, on the staff.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And then, you know, we'll, you know, Sears might
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: be in that conversation.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Probably in the in between conversation.
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know, just like, there's might be some, some
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: guy you want to keep stretched out starting triple a,
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: maybe we'll see.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So like the outer layer of like the contention,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: I would say, but you're right. Like they're, they're going
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: to have no choice, but to like sign guys to
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: starter ish money. Like that's like, that's the thing. And
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: you know, or they resigned Tarek school, Tarek school. We're
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: rolling that out.
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: Or I am, but I'm sure we'll also all November
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: talking about that.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So, so that's the thing. Like, uh, he's, uh,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: there's also a decision to be made about the Jesus, right?
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: So again, we're just talking about all the guys that
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: could be like in, in the conversation. Uh, so Montero
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: is somebody that I, I think, Like, I think during
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: spring training and kind of leading up into the season,
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: I was down for just he's just too valuable, have
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: him on the major league roster, even if that means
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: he's a bullpen guy. Given what I've watched this year
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: and given what I still believe is untapped potential. I mean,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: we've been talking about him for years. I still believe
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: there's more in there than even what he showed this year,
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: as it has been at times. And if you guys
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: are watching on YouTube, we got a little bit of
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: a new graphic set up with some real-time stats. Pretty
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: cool stuff. Hope you guys can subscribe. But I think
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: I'm now in the camp after watching him have a
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: 3.58 ERA over the course of 25 starts. I think
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: I'm in the camp of.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: I think it's like starter or nothing. And at this point,
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: I would want to sign somebody... that could maybe push
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: him but not somebody that you just like a flarity
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: type that you just you sign to be in the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: starting rotation so therefore he is in the starting rotation
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: uh so maybe that's the next evolution of this uh
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: but he has shown me a lot this year i
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: still am a montero guy obviously as i've been saying
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: but i do think what's going on down the stretch
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: is at least worth noting, especially if they sign somebody
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: to $ 20- something million for a season as a starting pitcher.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: And I'd be like, how do they do this? They
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: have Montero. Maybe there's something in here that would explain it.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: It's kind of why I wanted to broach the subject.
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: Okay, and just looking at this, I mean, as much as, like,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: what am I going to be talking about a lot
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: this season? They need swing and miss relievers. Well, Cater Montero,
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: because he is, doesn't get a lot of swing and miss.
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: He's had a few games where he's brought out swing
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: and miss stuff. doesn't really, I think he can, the
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: stuff can tick up, maybe he could get more whiffs
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: out of the pin, but that's never totally been his profile,
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: and so then even your rotation is, well, Melton needs
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: to miss more bats, and Job needs to miss more bats,
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: and Montero needs to miss more bats, Valdez doesn't really
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: miss a ton of bats as a profile, Reese Olsen
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: might be, like, I don't know, they have to unlock
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: a little more whiff in all of these guys, kind
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: of regardless of what their role is, and that may
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: be kind of the one thing that gives you a
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: little bit of pause with Montero. It is interesting, though.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: His ERA does align with his expected ERA and a
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: lot of other things like that. Generally keeps the ball
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: on the ground pretty well. And commands. Doesn't walk a
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: lot of guys. I don't know exactly what that means.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: That's just something to keep in mind before you bang
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: the drum too loudly of just put him in the bullpen.
• 18:42
  Speaker 2: Doesn't necessarily improve your mission to strike people out coming
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: out of the bullpen.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a really good point. It literally does not.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: You also don't want a rotation full of guys who
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: don't strike anybody out. You need more pitchers who strike
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: people out in general. That's what the Tigers need. Yeah.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like for years when the Pistons needed three-point shooting.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: It's like everyone could identify it, and it's like, never
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: really got it. It's like, get more people to try
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: to strike people out. All right, cool. We'll see you
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: again next year.
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, it's been a– we're going to have to do, like,
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: top five, like, things we learned or whatever in the offseason.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: And Montero is going to be on that list. I'm
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: just going to tell you guys that right now because
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: I think given everything that the team has asked of him,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: it's very impressive the season that he has put together.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: But he's also not immune to, you know, having some
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: stretches that make you kind of scratch your head for
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: a second. So that would be my main point there.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: We are going to get to a quick... break and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: then afterward, Spencer Torkelson trade bait. But first a word
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• 21:05
  Speaker 1: All right, coming back here. So Spencer Torkelson has just become, like,
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: that favorite topic, man. Like, it's just, like, it's going to,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: whatever length there is, I can promise you guys, we're
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: getting the length out of the Spencer Torkelson conversation. And,
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: you know, like, as, of course, he was bound to do,
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: he has gotten on a little bit of a hot
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: streak in September, Cody. He's nearly... He's batting nearly 300.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: He's 295 for the month. But here's the funny thing.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: You think, okay, Spencer Torkelson's hot. He's batting, you know, whatever. And,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: you know, he's got a 295 batting average. He's... He's...
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: He's still, like, striking out. He's still doing the things.
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: And the power... It's only... Let's see. How many... He's
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: only four home runs. So then it becomes... the what
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: have you done for me lately is that the right
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: approach because i see i see the uh i see
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the future cody i see what's gonna happen is if
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: he is traded if if if he is traded the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: headlines are gonna be for the other team they got
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: the get the tigers they got the tigers number two
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: home run hitter and this many rbi guy and like
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: all this stuff and it's gonna make it's good. The
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: headline is going to be like, what are the tigers doing?
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Getting rid of this guy who is a 30 home
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: run power and this, that, the other thing. And then
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the people that have like watched him on a daily
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: basis are going to be like, yeah, but you know,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: here's all this stuff. And then, so that's one prediction.
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: If they do indeed try to trade him in the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: off season. Another like more serious talking point is that you,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: you see this put on Twitter right now. That's like,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: this like hot streak for torque, like will contribute to him. Like,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: increasing his trade profile to which I say other major
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: league teams have access to the same plus a lot
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: more information about every player including someone who's been the
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: bigs you know a handful of years Spencer Torkelson and
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: so therefore it's not like the Tigers have some sort
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: of like hidden concern about the game of Spencer Torkelson
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and it's like oh I hope they don't know that
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: he tends to strike out a lot or whatever. Like
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: they all have the numbers. Like every single team has
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: the numbers. So this notion that he's going to, we've
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: lost my audio.
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: Not sure what happened here, but I would just say, yeah, I,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: it's always interesting, right? Spencer Torkelson has been in the
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: big league since 2022. He's at 3.5 career worn. That's
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: just what it is. There is a 2,600 plate appearance sample.
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: This year he's at 0.64. He can hit the ball
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: out of the park, which is valuable. I'm not saying
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: it's not. I'll take a first baseman with power over
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: a first baseman who doesn't have power unless it's a
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: dude hitting. 300 with gold glove defense. But yeah, he's
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: a right-handed hitting first baseman. That's a profile that generally
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: doesn't do great in free agency, that teams generally aren't
• 24:20
  Speaker 2: trying to extend themselves enough for in the trade market
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: so I don't know could you trade him could the
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Arizona Diamondbacks use him maybe but I don't see there
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: being a huge market for him the same goes like
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: for Colt Keith who maybe is a little more interesting
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: because he's on what I still consider a team friendly
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: contract can play multiple positions but all these other guys
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: see the same flaws like The players there are trade
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: markets for are the players you don't want to get
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: rid of. You know who would have a pretty good
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: trade market? Probably Riley Green. I don't think you're going
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: to want to trade Riley Green. So that's just where
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: we're at. I think it's an interesting thing that fans
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: always point to a player they're mad at. And they're like, well,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: you got to trade him. You want to trade him
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: because you're not pleased with the performance. And I would
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: say I did see on Twitter, like someone's like Spencer Torkelson.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: when he's fighting for his job as the best player
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: ever or whatever. Of course he has a 1,000 OPS
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: in September. Of course he does. It's Tork, man. And
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I say it every time. I hate
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: these discussions. I think Tork's a great guy. I think
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: he's a classy professional. I think he's tired of probably
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: people talking about him in this manner. But this is
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: where it's at. The numbers are what they are. And
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: The Tigers have to find a way, I think, to
• 25:41
  Speaker 2: look a little bit different next year. And Tork is
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: certainly at the front of that conversation in terms of
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: what exactly does that mean.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Am I back? Can you hear me?
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: You are back.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: Okay. So yeah, you summed it up well. I don't
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: know where I was cut off. But basically, there's no
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: fooling the other teams about who Spencer Torgelson is. And
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: like you laid it out there. And then, I mean, hell,
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: I would argue a different look would be this platoon.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Love it, hate it, indifferent. That would be certainly a
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: different look. And so, yeah. I said last time, I
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: hope a decision is roughly made because already about what
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: you think you should do because what we're seeing right
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: now is not a surprise. We know that's in there.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: What's in there is not the problem for Spencer Torkelson.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: The overall consistency is the thing that gets talked about,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: the thing that makes him, in the fans' eyes, not
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: a steady presence now and into the future. Obviously, he's
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: smart enough. He knows that. What he's gone through, the
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: fact that he will finish near 30 home runs again
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: despite some really, really bad streaks, this season is also
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: a testament to him in general. So I don't want
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: that to be like lost as well. And then you
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: throw in the platoon thing, that's literally at bats and
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: opportunities lost. So, so yeah, that's, that's, that's all I
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: have to say about that right now. We're going to
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: have more time.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Is that why the September numbers are good? He's mostly
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: just seeing left-handed pitching. Something to that.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: Is there, is that a coincidence?
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah. All right.
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: Anything else, Cody, before we get out of here? Obviously,
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: we have a whole lot more we can discuss, but
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: we got time for it.
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Here we are, September. Kind of a big series this weekend, right?
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: Will this be the final nail in the coffin, or
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: will the Tigers enter their last homestand with a little
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: bit of intrigue? That's kind of the big question right now. So, yeah,
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: just when you think there's no reason to watch, I
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: think we got a few reasons to watch these last
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: few games here.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Oh, there's going to be intrigue. Oh, there's going to
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: be intrigue. And I can't wait to talk with you
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: about it. And I can't wait to talk to you
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: guys about it. You guys can follow us on ex-formally
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: known as Twitter at Cody Stabenhagen. I am at Kieran
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: underscore Stekley. Pod page at Tiger Territory underscore. YouTube, Apple, Spotify.
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: You guys know what to do. We appreciate all of you.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: So for Cody Stabenhagen, I'm Kieran Stekley. Everybody have a
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: great day.