Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / The biggest takeaways from a perfect Tigers homestand

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The biggest takeaways from a perfect Tigers homestand · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:12
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network story Tiger's Podcast. I'm Karen Steckley
0:16
Speaker 1: with me as always as a man who could really
0:19
Speaker 1: use a cold one. Right now, he's Cody Stevenaggan.
0:22
Speaker 2: How you doing?
0:22
Speaker 3: Hey?
0:23
Speaker 4: Doing all right? Hearing it? Indeed was a long week,
0:26
Speaker 4: and Thursday in particular quite a long day at the ballpark.
0:29
Speaker 4: But I don't know at least I wasn't the homeplate umpire.
0:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that is true that that situation was one
0:37
Speaker 1: of the just many strange not getting this everyday elements
0:42
Speaker 1: of the homestand of the series of Thursday. And obviously
0:46
Speaker 1: we'll get to as much as we can, I just
0:47
Speaker 1: guarantee you, because you know we're recording this a couple
0:50
Speaker 1: hours after Colt Keith walks the Tigers off. There's gonna
0:54
Speaker 1: be things that we miss, and we kind of apologize
0:56
Speaker 1: in advance for that because it's hard not to kind
0:59
Speaker 1: of get caught up in what we saw. So I
1:02
Speaker 1: guess maybe that's a perfect place to start, Cody, Like,
1:05
Speaker 1: I mean, I was gonna ask this question to you regardless,
1:09
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, what was kind of the mood
1:10
Speaker 1: of the team and the clubhouse, Like after this game,
1:13
Speaker 1: I mean, after it looked like it was gonna be
1:15
Speaker 1: kind of a simple sweep. Then after salvi Perez kind
1:21
Speaker 1: of rips the heart out a little bit, and then
1:24
Speaker 1: another delay, and I was like, Okay, well, what's the mood.
1:27
Speaker 1: What's the appropriate mood? Lose a game like this? You know,
1:30
Speaker 1: but it's a five and one home stand, and now
1:33
Speaker 1: it's back to you gotta walk off when you have,
1:35
Speaker 1: you know, down to your final strike, down to your
1:37
Speaker 1: final out score three runs there in the ninth and and.
1:40
Speaker 2: Everything's all good. So what what was that clubhouse like today? Yeah?
1:45
Speaker 4: I mean I think it was clearly a fun home
1:48
Speaker 4: stand for the guys. It was also a long day
1:50
Speaker 4: for them, and it's getaway day. They're getting on a
1:53
Speaker 4: plane for Boston, So I'm not gonna act like, you know,
1:55
Speaker 4: it was the most energetic, happy clubhouse of all time.
1:58
Speaker 4: I think the guys were probably a little hired from
2:00
Speaker 4: being at the park all day long, sitting through multiple delays,
2:04
Speaker 4: playing a back and forth emotional game. But you know,
2:08
Speaker 4: I think Riley Green said exactly that after the game, like, no,
2:11
Speaker 4: it was a fun home stand again, six and zero.
2:14
Speaker 4: That is certainly one way to rebound from what was
2:16
Speaker 4: a really bad series in Minnesota. You look up, the
2:20
Speaker 4: Tigers are now back above five hundred and ten and nine.
2:23
Speaker 4: It's kind of like, okay, it's it's almost like a restart,
2:26
Speaker 4: like all right, the season's kind of starting now. You know,
2:29
Speaker 4: you get back above five hundred, you play. Not only
2:32
Speaker 4: do you win those games, but as we've talked about
2:34
Speaker 4: a little bit before, you played kind of your brand
2:36
Speaker 4: of baseball for the majority of these six games. Maybe
2:40
Speaker 4: not so much Thursday, where things got a little weird
2:43
Speaker 4: and you choked the lead away, but again the gritty Tigs,
2:46
Speaker 4: you know, came back won this game three to two
2:50
Speaker 4: to two out double from Riley Green to keep things alive,
2:53
Speaker 4: and then Nicole Keith Rip. It is certainly worth noting
2:58
Speaker 4: Kieran if I can find this graphic here here it is.
3:06
Speaker 4: This was their first perfect homestand since twenty twenty one.
3:12
Speaker 4: I didn't realize that that is a long time ago,
3:14
Speaker 4: first perfect homestand of six plus games since twenty twenty one,
3:19
Speaker 4: eight and one at Camerica Park this season, that's the
3:22
Speaker 4: best home winning percentage of any team in baseball. So
3:25
Speaker 4: far this year, and another shout out to Colt Keith,
3:28
Speaker 4: who is off to a really good start. I'll have
3:31
Speaker 4: an article on Colt up on the Athletic Friday. Maybe
3:34
Speaker 4: you've heard him talking a little bit about this breathing
3:36
Speaker 4: work that he's gotten into, but I went in a
3:38
Speaker 4: little more depth with Colt talking about that and how
3:41
Speaker 4: it's helped them and learned some stuff myself. You actually
3:44
Speaker 4: want to take in more carbon dioxide, which sounds like
3:47
Speaker 4: a bad thing, but breathe them a little CO two
3:49
Speaker 4: through your nose and once you get used to it,
3:52
Speaker 4: you build up tolerance. You'll send some oxygen to your limbs,
3:55
Speaker 4: to your tissues. It's believed to help athletic performance.
4:01
Speaker 1: I mean, whatever it is, you could have told me anything,
4:04
Speaker 1: and given what Cold Keith has done this year, like
4:07
Speaker 1: I would be like, well, I mean there's gotta be something.
4:09
Speaker 5: Yeah, And you know what, and also that like we
4:15
Speaker 5: had like Cold Keith obviously started out on a tear
4:18
Speaker 5: and he got I think the right amount of publicity.
4:21
Speaker 1: But then between losing and then just some other storylines,
4:25
Speaker 1: the Cold Key stuff had kind of gone into the
4:27
Speaker 1: wash like a little bit, you know, And and and
4:30
Speaker 1: now this felt like one of my other thoughts was,
4:34
Speaker 1: I feel like this is good for cold Keith to
4:35
Speaker 1: have like a real moment.
4:37
Speaker 2: You know, like with the walk off he just.
4:42
Speaker 1: And I think only and I'm sorry if I'm off
4:44
Speaker 1: here a little bit only like his There's not many
4:48
Speaker 1: ribbies for him this year, but even though he's hitting
4:50
Speaker 1: the cover off the ball, so like it's just one.
4:53
Speaker 1: I was happy Cold Keith had one of those moments
4:55
Speaker 1: that's that could be an end year montage, you know
4:59
Speaker 1: what I mean, and so like and so like that's that.
5:02
Speaker 1: I was really happy for him there. And then you
5:05
Speaker 1: brought up the excellent point there Cody playing their brand
5:08
Speaker 1: of baseball. This is going to be I don't think
5:11
Speaker 1: this is an overreaction. This is gonna be the remember
5:16
Speaker 1: when game for the Tigers this year, and you don't
5:19
Speaker 1: always get it in April, but I just kind of
5:21
Speaker 1: feel like this has all the elements. I mean, you
5:23
Speaker 1: got We're not gonna be able to there's gonna be
5:25
Speaker 1: too much to other stuff that's just gonna grab our attention.
5:28
Speaker 1: Montero was excellent today until it got a little shaky
5:31
Speaker 1: there at the end, but he was excellent today and
5:33
Speaker 1: so you got top notch starting pitching, You showcase your power.
5:37
Speaker 1: You know, you did the whole literally the entire twenty
5:40
Speaker 1: seven outs thing. That's this game, right, and eight guys
5:45
Speaker 1: had Ribby's today, Cody eight and then five had multi
5:48
Speaker 1: hit games, So you had a balance approach offensively, and
5:51
Speaker 1: you also did the small ball thing and you exercise
5:55
Speaker 1: the matchups element. Shout out Jamia Jones for finally kind
5:58
Speaker 1: of getting on the board and facets there as well.
6:01
Speaker 1: And also you had some really you know again kind
6:05
Speaker 1: of in the wash here, some really good defensive plays too,
6:08
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So like, like everything, this
6:10
Speaker 1: was like a cards on the table, Like the only
6:13
Speaker 1: thing that was missing was throwing out one of your
6:15
Speaker 1: excellent closer options. But other than that, this was a
6:18
Speaker 1: cards on the table game for the Tigers. And then
6:21
Speaker 1: you throw in the element of a perfect homestand and
6:23
Speaker 1: sweeping a divisional opponent like this we're gonna be talking
6:26
Speaker 1: about April sixteenth, twenty twenty six. If this team does
6:30
Speaker 1: anything of note, it's like, yeah, this is they got
6:32
Speaker 1: back above five hundred. They played their brand of baseball,
6:36
Speaker 1: and it was and they started to take off after that.
6:41
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, I got sidetracked when you said small ball,
6:43
Speaker 4: and it reminded me of the Royals bunting with Kyle
6:46
Speaker 4: Isbel against Drew Anderson fresh off a long a delay,
6:51
Speaker 4: Like what like if he had walked a guy on
6:53
Speaker 4: four pitches and you had runners on first and second
6:56
Speaker 4: and they just handed the Tigers are free out. We
6:58
Speaker 4: might not be sitting here having this disc right now
7:00
Speaker 4: if not for that rather extreme use of small ball.
7:04
Speaker 4: So so beyond that, what was the question here?
7:08
Speaker 1: Well, I mean, it just felt like like absent of
7:11
Speaker 1: a Terek Schooble sighting, an absent of doing a vest
7:16
Speaker 1: or ken lee or even you know, fin again, we'll
7:18
Speaker 1: throw him in there as a three headed monster. Outside
7:20
Speaker 1: of those two things, this was a quintessential twenty twenty
7:25
Speaker 1: six Detroit Tigers. Like everything that they got, they just
7:29
Speaker 1: kind of threw at the Royals to win this game.
7:31
Speaker 1: And I'll and you know, we gotta mention McGonagall too,
7:34
Speaker 1: and well we'll get to the press conference and other
7:36
Speaker 1: reactions you know a little bit later, but you know
7:38
Speaker 1: McGonagall working a walk, getting pitched extra careful, extra careful,
7:43
Speaker 1: and also how about a triple? You know, right after
7:46
Speaker 1: you give up the lead. You know, like McGonagall is
7:49
Speaker 1: a leader in multiple facts. It's like he does everything
7:52
Speaker 1: the right way. I have a nickname suggestion for him
7:55
Speaker 1: a little bit later. But yeah, the point is, Cody,
7:59
Speaker 1: this felt like the all in elements to get in
8:05
Speaker 1: a Tigers win. I think that's the thing that I'll
8:07
Speaker 1: remember most when this is cited as a quote, remember when.
8:10
Speaker 4: Game Yeah, I think that's a good point. And you know,
8:13
Speaker 4: cater Montero is probably not going to get a lot
8:15
Speaker 4: of credit for this game. You look at the final
8:16
Speaker 4: line four runs allowed, but that's because he went into
8:19
Speaker 4: the seventh, came out a ball, hits the bag and
8:22
Speaker 4: gets in the outfield and run scores. The seventh kind
8:24
Speaker 4: of unravels on cater Monterro was really good for six innings.
8:28
Speaker 4: This guy has answered the bell in place of Justin Verlander,
8:32
Speaker 4: which we'll talk about a little more later on, and
8:35
Speaker 4: has really looked good as ever. He's commanding his stuff,
8:37
Speaker 4: he's pitching efficiently as well as ever we've seen it
8:40
Speaker 4: multiple outings in a row. Now, really impressed with with
8:43
Speaker 4: cater Montero.
8:46
Speaker 1: I have another bold statement, sort of reactionary over over reactionary.
8:52
Speaker 1: I would say regarding the Tigers place in the division.
8:55
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10:00
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10:04
Speaker 1: All right coming back here, Cody. Sometime in the offseason
10:07
Speaker 1: or even spring training, I can't remember exactly when we
10:09
Speaker 1: did a mail bag and we got asked, like who
10:11
Speaker 1: we thought the Tigers, like kind of big contention was
10:16
Speaker 1: in the division, and I said the Royals because I
10:19
Speaker 1: just kind of keep waiting on them. You know, they
10:21
Speaker 1: were a recent playoff team and I just kind of
10:23
Speaker 1: kept waiting on them to take a leak, you know,
10:26
Speaker 1: and they certainly have the young talent that keeps you
10:29
Speaker 1: on edge. And look, you won the series, but you
10:32
Speaker 1: only want it by three runs, right, so you know
10:33
Speaker 1: things were on edge.
10:37
Speaker 2: I think they might be done for the year, dude,
10:39
Speaker 2: them being the Royals.
10:40
Speaker 1: Like like like cause you know they're seven to twelve. Now,
10:43
Speaker 1: that's obviously not nothing like it's not like the biggest
10:46
Speaker 1: deal in the world, obviously, but look, man, you're struggling
10:50
Speaker 1: to hit the ball. You lost a series the divisional opponent.
10:55
Speaker 1: You've looked, things look dire, and then you get the
10:57
Speaker 1: lead and you get the little things that kind of
10:59
Speaker 1: go your way, like Bobby Wood Junior just kind of
11:02
Speaker 1: like you know, the bat makes contact with the ball
11:05
Speaker 1: and just really goes in the only place in the
11:06
Speaker 1: infield where like that's gonna be a non contested infield hit,
11:10
Speaker 1: and you get the Tigers overly aggressive on the base
11:16
Speaker 1: pass and you get another out at home right shout
11:18
Speaker 1: out Jack Man.
11:19
Speaker 2: I do love watching him.
11:21
Speaker 1: I hope I hope he gets the back going, because
11:22
Speaker 1: he could be a fun player that's gonna keep me
11:24
Speaker 1: up at night for years to come. Uh and and
11:27
Speaker 1: you and you get the Tigers down to their last
11:30
Speaker 1: strike with a multi multi run lead in the ninth
11:33
Speaker 1: inning after getting insurance, and instead you lose it. And
11:37
Speaker 1: it's like, if we were doing a Royals podcast, I
11:39
Speaker 1: would be on here being like, I just don't know
11:42
Speaker 1: what more can go your way in order to snatch
11:44
Speaker 1: a win and maybe feel good about yourself go after
11:47
Speaker 1: what was a tough beginning of the week. This feels
11:51
Speaker 1: like it's if it's a remember game for the Tigers,
11:53
Speaker 1: this could be a remember game for the Royals.
11:55
Speaker 2: Man. I like, it just feels like a pretty defeatst
11:59
Speaker 2: way to.
11:59
Speaker 1: Go out and it's only April sixteenth, But that's how
12:01
Speaker 1: I feel right now.
12:03
Speaker 4: I will just say there was a time in about
12:07
Speaker 4: July of last year where people thought the Cleveland Guardians
12:10
Speaker 4: were done. So let's never say never here. And also,
12:14
Speaker 4: as long as the Royals have Bobby wit Cole Reagan,
12:18
Speaker 4: Seth Lugo, Chris Bobich, I'm not gonna say they're done
12:21
Speaker 4: by any means.
12:24
Speaker 2: No, you're right.
12:24
Speaker 1: It's just a tough way to lose a series lose,
12:27
Speaker 1: you know, it gets swept, lose by three runs.
12:29
Speaker 2: Like, it's just it's tough. And and if you have
12:31
Speaker 2: all these things.
12:32
Speaker 4: They're still looking okay in terms of run differential.
12:37
Speaker 2: There you go, they're good old run differential.
12:39
Speaker 1: All right, Let's let's get to some other news elements here, Cody.
12:44
Speaker 1: Probably the most kind of like is, you know, the
12:50
Speaker 1: backside of the coin with how good Montero has looked
12:52
Speaker 1: is that he's pitching right now because Justin Verlander is hurt.
12:58
Speaker 1: And I don't know what we would call the update today.
13:03
Speaker 2: It just kind of.
13:04
Speaker 1: Felt like, uh news, Like I can't say it was
13:08
Speaker 1: good news. I guess it technically wasn't bad news, but
13:13
Speaker 1: I there was nothing really to latch onto.
13:17
Speaker 2: Uh.
13:18
Speaker 1: In terms of how AJ was talking about it, you
13:20
Speaker 1: could tell he was using his words carefully. So I
13:22
Speaker 1: don't know, it just seems like we're in we're just
13:25
Speaker 1: like treading water with Justin Berlander right now. Is that
13:27
Speaker 1: kind of like a good way to put it?
13:30
Speaker 4: Probably, I'll I'll start this little segment by by taking
13:34
Speaker 4: taking the listeners behind the scenes a little bit. This
13:37
Speaker 4: is how the sausage of baseball reporting has made it's
13:40
Speaker 4: very cool, amorous lifestyle. I'm in the Tigers clubhouse today
13:43
Speaker 4: and Zach mckinstree walks across the room and no one
13:48
Speaker 4: one else really seems to notice. A couple other reporters
13:50
Speaker 4: weren't weren't weren't there this morning. So I was like, well,
13:53
Speaker 4: I'm just I wasn't really planning into, like, you know,
13:56
Speaker 4: ask him a bunch of questions. I just be like, hey,
13:59
Speaker 4: you know what happened last night? You good? And so
14:01
Speaker 4: I go over to McKinstry and McKinstry's like, honestly, he's
14:05
Speaker 4: like the most normal dude on the team, like very friendly,
14:08
Speaker 4: and he's kind of changing into his hoodie and seems
14:11
Speaker 4: to just kind of like pretend I'm not there, and
14:15
Speaker 4: his locker is like right by the exit, so he
14:17
Speaker 4: just kind of starts heading for the exit. I'm like, Zach,
14:20
Speaker 4: you're all right, and he just goes, yeah, I'm all right,
14:21
Speaker 4: and I was like, all right, that was a little weird.
14:25
Speaker 4: And then Verlander was high on the list of people
14:29
Speaker 4: I wanted to talk to because I knew he had
14:31
Speaker 4: thrown a bullpen the day before, So it was Evan
14:34
Speaker 4: Putzel and I. When Verlander appeared, walked over to the
14:38
Speaker 4: locker and jv Uh kind of pulled the pretending we're
14:43
Speaker 4: not there type thing and just started walking toward the
14:46
Speaker 4: training room. And I was like, ouch, okay, really getting
14:49
Speaker 4: big leagues here. I was like, justin, you have a
14:52
Speaker 4: second to check in, and he kind of looks back
14:54
Speaker 4: and he says, no, I have some work to do.
14:56
Speaker 4: So I'm a firm oh for two there, And I'm
15:00
Speaker 4: kind of like all right, I mean, I don't you know,
15:02
Speaker 4: just now getting to know Verlander, but most of these
15:04
Speaker 4: guys I've covered for a while. You know, some players
15:07
Speaker 4: you have better rapports with than others. But I think,
15:10
Speaker 4: you know, the Tigers are a pretty good group to
15:11
Speaker 4: deal with. So I'm like, wait, it's not me right, Like,
15:15
Speaker 4: did I just are they met? Like yeah, yeah, yeah,
15:19
Speaker 4: And I was like, either either I did something that
15:22
Speaker 4: I'm not aware of, or both of these guys are
15:25
Speaker 4: not doing so well. So AJ Hinch's press conferences is there.
15:30
Speaker 4: I ask him about Justin Verlander and the answer, I'll
15:36
Speaker 4: try to characterize it accurately. Aj Hinch said, I think
15:39
Speaker 4: he's doing okay. I don't think he's necessarily taking a
15:43
Speaker 4: step forward, and he hasn't taken a step back. He
15:46
Speaker 4: had a bullpen yesterday that went okay. It wasn't quite
15:50
Speaker 4: to the level that I think he wanted or that
15:52
Speaker 4: we wanted, but it wasn't a setback of some sort
15:55
Speaker 4: or making things worse. That quote kind of goes on
16:00
Speaker 4: to say more of the same. We've got to make
16:01
Speaker 4: sure we get this right. He's not quite two hundred
16:03
Speaker 4: percent yet where we can advance to game activity. Aj said, again,
16:09
Speaker 4: hard to know exactly what to make. We don't want
16:11
Speaker 4: to speculate too much. I would say, you know, talking
16:13
Speaker 4: about track records, my track record of being right about
16:16
Speaker 4: what Scott Harris will do, like I think a J.
16:19
Speaker 4: Hindes track record of saying it's not a setback when
16:22
Speaker 4: it actually is a setback is like, I don't want
16:25
Speaker 4: to know the percentage there we'll see, but let's be reminded.
16:29
Speaker 4: We started with kind of like, hey, this is no
16:31
Speaker 4: big deal. Verlander had said if this were a different
16:34
Speaker 4: time of year, I could pitch through it, and now
16:36
Speaker 4: we're here. Actually, I believe April sixteenth this was the
16:40
Speaker 4: day he was first eligible to be activated, and his
16:43
Speaker 4: bullpen didn't seem to go as well as he or
16:47
Speaker 4: the team wanted. So I don't know what that means,
16:49
Speaker 4: but I certainly would not take that as good news.
16:52
Speaker 4: I'm taking it as a little bit of bad news.
16:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, the only good news element is that
17:00
Speaker 1: at least you feel comfortable with what his spot in
17:02
Speaker 1: the rotation is doing right now.
17:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, arguably better maybe, But I obviously people still want
17:10
Speaker 4: to see Verlander, and I think it's important he gets
17:12
Speaker 4: back on the mound and hopefully hopefully pitches well.
17:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, there's several things that have happened this season
17:20
Speaker 1: or trends that have gone this season that I've had
17:24
Speaker 1: to just constantly kind of beat in my head. It's like,
17:27
Speaker 1: it's April this, It's April this. So like Verlander as
17:32
Speaker 1: kind of weird as it is right now and disappointing,
17:35
Speaker 1: you know, in his one outing it is something where
17:37
Speaker 1: it's like it's able sixteenth, it's April sixteenth, its table sixteenth.
17:40
Speaker 1: You know, like it's just like if this is gonna
17:43
Speaker 1: be a long season, I don't mind them in theory
17:46
Speaker 1: just taking the real slow, long approach, especially when you
17:49
Speaker 1: have Montero and what he's doing. I am not panicked,
17:54
Speaker 1: but I still would like, I don't know, some sort
17:57
Speaker 1: of little like good indication. Maybe maybe if he like
18:00
Speaker 1: smiled at you or something, I would feel.
18:02
Speaker 3: A little bit better.
18:04
Speaker 1: But but you know, they didn't get that. All we
18:07
Speaker 1: could do is react with what we got. And then
18:09
Speaker 1: mckinstree was weird, Yeah, because like like the like I
18:12
Speaker 1: think we would all say, but Kinstrey is a dog
18:16
Speaker 1: and a guy that like, like, I'll be honest, like,
18:18
Speaker 1: I was kind of a little surprised that he went
18:21
Speaker 1: immediately into the clubhouse, like after having contact at their base.
18:26
Speaker 1: I thought, like, like it was like no question, not
18:28
Speaker 1: even like being coerced in there.
18:30
Speaker 2: He just went immediately into the clubhouse after the ending.
18:33
Speaker 2: Uh So I was like a little surprised by that.
18:34
Speaker 1: And then he couldn't come out like and only because
18:37
Speaker 1: again I just think of him as this like dog.
18:39
Speaker 2: I just thought like it, you know, might be a
18:41
Speaker 2: little bit.
18:41
Speaker 1: But then I didn't know that he was dealing with
18:43
Speaker 1: a couple of other things too. Uh So it kind
18:45
Speaker 1: of seems like he's beat up a little bit. Is
18:49
Speaker 1: that like a good way to put it? And if
18:51
Speaker 1: he and again if he's treating you that way, I
18:53
Speaker 1: don't know. Man, He's a valuable piece and like a
18:57
Speaker 1: roster spot that AJ likes to use. You gotta start
19:00
Speaker 1: thinking like is il possible? And then what would that
19:06
Speaker 1: move be?
19:07
Speaker 2: Yeah? Right, right?
19:08
Speaker 4: So yeah, after asking AJ about Verlander, I asked him
19:12
Speaker 4: about McKinstry. He just said, Hey, have you checked in?
19:14
Speaker 4: He said, yeah, he's he's pretty banged up. He's not
19:16
Speaker 4: moving around well this morning. I thinks there's like three
19:19
Speaker 4: different things. If you watched that that Wednesday game, Jack
19:23
Speaker 4: Kagleon kind of slid into him and I don't know
19:25
Speaker 4: if it got his wrists or like jammed his shoulder.
19:28
Speaker 4: Something happened on that play. He slid into home and
19:31
Speaker 4: according to AJ, like really scraped up his chest, which
19:34
Speaker 4: is like a new one I haven't really heard before.
19:37
Speaker 4: But okay, and then late in the game, Caglione runs
19:41
Speaker 4: into him and he falls and you know, bruised hip
19:44
Speaker 4: is what they had said after after that game, they
19:47
Speaker 4: expected him to be day to day. AJ just said
19:52
Speaker 4: this time around, he seemed more concerned. He said, we're
19:54
Speaker 4: gonna have to get him checked out further, I guess,
19:57
Speaker 4: to figure out what's going on. So I don't even
20:01
Speaker 4: know exactly what the actual injury that potentially could send
20:05
Speaker 4: him to the EEL would be, but it sounds like
20:08
Speaker 4: that is at least a concern as they're they're gonna
20:11
Speaker 4: go get him a further evaluation.
20:16
Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't know.
20:17
Speaker 4: I'll be really interested to see what we learn from this.
20:20
Speaker 4: If we just want to talk hypothetically, if McKinstry does
20:23
Speaker 4: go in the IL, it is interesting to think who
20:26
Speaker 4: would replace him. I'm gonna go out on a limb
20:30
Speaker 4: and upset some listeners and say it's probably not gonna
20:32
Speaker 4: be Max Clik. So if we're gonna eliminate Max Clark
20:35
Speaker 4: from this discussion, it's probably who's on the forty men.
20:37
Speaker 4: You got Trey Cruz, you got Jace Young, you got
20:40
Speaker 4: how You Lee. I think they would probably lean toward
20:43
Speaker 4: winning another left handed hitter, So Jace hits left handed
20:46
Speaker 4: Trey Cruise's switch hitter. Interestingly, none of those guys are
20:53
Speaker 4: off to a racing start in Toledo. Trey Cruise hitting
20:56
Speaker 4: one ninety three, Jace Young is hitting two ten. How
20:59
Speaker 4: you leave hit I think one point fifty four. So
21:02
Speaker 4: who's performing well actually Gauge Workman, who's not on the
21:06
Speaker 4: forty man roster but can play multiple infield spots and
21:10
Speaker 4: is hitting three twenty seven and with three home runs
21:13
Speaker 4: right now. You would have to make a forty man move,
21:15
Speaker 4: but I think you could do that if you really
21:17
Speaker 4: wanted to. But I don't know what they would do
21:22
Speaker 4: to give you an answer. Trey Cruise could replace McKinstry's versatility,
21:27
Speaker 4: being able to play infield and outfield. Young would be
21:30
Speaker 4: a left handed bat who has tasted the major leagues before,
21:34
Speaker 4: and honestly maybe someone who if you just wanted to
21:37
Speaker 4: bring him up and maybe not play him that much,
21:39
Speaker 4: you would feel okay about or I don't think you
21:41
Speaker 4: would do that with like a Lee. I'm not sure
21:44
Speaker 4: if you would do it with Cruise or not. I
21:46
Speaker 4: guess the good news is you have multiple options here,
21:49
Speaker 4: but I would almost lean Jase's the favorite for the reasons.
21:53
Speaker 4: I just laid out, but cruse could make some sense too,
21:57
Speaker 4: or maybe you just go with someone who's swinging a
21:59
Speaker 4: better bat and make a forty move. I'm not sure
22:01
Speaker 4: what it would be. So maybe the actual answer there
22:04
Speaker 4: is you just hope he avoids the il.
22:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like looking at it, like, uh, I
22:12
Speaker 1: don't know if this really goes into consideration, but like
22:16
Speaker 1: I put it in consideration, and like I would, I
22:20
Speaker 1: like the idea of a calling up someone that's not
22:23
Speaker 1: their major league debut. You're going to Boston, you know
22:26
Speaker 1: your you know your you know, Fenway Park. That's storybook,
22:30
Speaker 1: but it's also a lot, you know, like it's also
22:32
Speaker 1: it's also a lot, and I I and so like
22:36
Speaker 1: the Jace Young thing makes sense because it's like, look,
22:38
Speaker 1: we just gotta maybe we just gotta try to see
22:41
Speaker 1: if we can just give as many opportunities as we
22:43
Speaker 1: can to him that don't really kind of up that
22:46
Speaker 1: we don't necessarily have to rely on him whenever he
22:48
Speaker 1: does get up here. And the forty man piece of
22:50
Speaker 1: this too, like if you have him on the forty man,
22:52
Speaker 1: you don't want to waste the spot.
22:54
Speaker 2: Call it Jase Young. That makes a lot of sense
22:55
Speaker 2: to me.
22:56
Speaker 1: But the gauge workman thing does intrigue me because again,
23:00
Speaker 1: this is a guy that has been in the system
23:03
Speaker 1: for a while, you know, with a notable absence there
23:06
Speaker 1: where you don't have to do the major league debut thing,
23:08
Speaker 1: and he is hitting the I want to say, hitting
23:10
Speaker 1: the cover off the ball. But three twenty seven with
23:12
Speaker 1: a four hundred on base, like, I don't know, seems
23:16
Speaker 1: like seems like something like suitable given a shot. And
23:19
Speaker 1: of course the versatility he is a left handed bat
23:22
Speaker 1: as well, that would make a lot of sense to me.
23:24
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna advocate advocate for someone to get you know,
23:27
Speaker 1: dfaid or anything like that, but like that's that's why
23:30
Speaker 1: you have these end of roster spots that you just
23:32
Speaker 1: kind of churn out. It's like, if you feel like
23:34
Speaker 1: this is the best opportunity and this is the you know,
23:37
Speaker 1: the better way moving forward, gauge workmen at least right
23:41
Speaker 1: now makes a lot of sense, and you don't have
23:44
Speaker 1: and you don't have like some of the other elements
23:47
Speaker 1: with these other guys. But Trey Cruz, I would obviously
23:49
Speaker 1: be happy for him if he got called up, you know,
23:52
Speaker 1: you know, similar with workmen, it's like guy's been in
23:54
Speaker 1: the system a long time trying to break through the
23:56
Speaker 1: glass ceiling there, and in theory, Tray shouldn't be overwhelmed
24:00
Speaker 1: with the moment given obviously he's a you know, comes
24:02
Speaker 1: from a baseball family. But uh, the bottom line is, though,
24:06
Speaker 1: if mckissory can't play this series, which indications seemed like
24:11
Speaker 1: that could be difficult. If he could, then like, you know,
24:16
Speaker 1: if you're an all twenty six team like the Tigers are,
24:20
Speaker 1: you can't just go with twenty five.
24:22
Speaker 2: Or I mean you can, but you shouldn't, you know
24:24
Speaker 2: what I mean.
24:24
Speaker 1: So so, I mean that's probably something we'll wake up
24:28
Speaker 1: tomorrow or or or Saturday morning, afternoon morning or whatever
24:33
Speaker 1: and just kind of be like, all right, they just
24:34
Speaker 1: they tried it. They gave it as the best shot
24:37
Speaker 1: that they could, but it's just better for him.
24:39
Speaker 2: Again, it's April sixteen.
24:41
Speaker 1: Do you need to play Zach McKinstry, who is a
24:44
Speaker 1: movement player when he can't move around all that well,
24:48
Speaker 1: I would say it might be it might be the
24:50
Speaker 1: wise decision too to you know, you know, shelf him
24:54
Speaker 1: for a second if if it is that bad.
24:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, again, I don't think we know qu enough yet
25:01
Speaker 4: to really opine, but we will certainly find out soon.
25:06
Speaker 1: All right, let's uh, let's go to the topic of
25:09
Speaker 1: the week in in Tiger Land, in in Major League
25:12
Speaker 1: Baseball to a certain extent, it's Kevin McGonagall. We did
25:15
Speaker 1: an instant reaction episode regarding his contract extension.
25:19
Speaker 2: Uh.
25:20
Speaker 1: Since then, Cody, it's eight years, one fifty up to
25:22
Speaker 1: one sixty with with escalators in case you guys missed it.
25:27
Speaker 1: Since then, there has been a press conference, Kevin in
25:30
Speaker 1: a suit with family and getting you know, getting questions
25:33
Speaker 1: from the Media's got Harris there, Greenberg there. Uh, and
25:37
Speaker 1: then also a little funny moment with Trek scoobl at
25:39
Speaker 1: the end there.
25:40
Speaker 2: So just gotta take us.
25:41
Speaker 1: So what was your You know, you've attended press conferences
25:44
Speaker 1: like this before, but it was a little bit different
25:45
Speaker 1: because McGonagall has like the world at his fingertips right now.
25:50
Speaker 2: Uh, what was what was.
25:52
Speaker 1: That moment like for you and seeing him and his
25:54
Speaker 1: family who you know you've talked to with your report
25:56
Speaker 1: and all that stuff.
25:57
Speaker 2: How was the presser?
25:58
Speaker 3: Yeah?
25:59
Speaker 4: It was it was good.
26:00
Speaker 3: Good.
26:01
Speaker 4: That was kind of what stood out the whole time
26:03
Speaker 4: is just like, man, this talk about being on top
26:06
Speaker 4: of the world. Kevin McGonagall had a car dealership give
26:09
Speaker 4: him give him the keys to a Mercedes, and then
26:12
Speaker 4: he signed one hundred and fifty million dollar contract. He
26:16
Speaker 4: made the major league roster, made his major league debut,
26:18
Speaker 4: hit his first major league home run. Is killing it
26:22
Speaker 4: like the last two to three weeks of his life
26:25
Speaker 4: are It got to be about as good as it gets, right,
26:29
Speaker 4: and he is twenty one and has handled it so well.
26:33
Speaker 4: I continue to be impressed also to the point I'm
26:36
Speaker 4: like a little worried, like you can just I've seen
26:40
Speaker 4: athletes go through this before like that. There's a cost,
26:43
Speaker 4: unfortunately to this, whether it's as simple as as more
26:47
Speaker 4: fame and the drawbacks that come with that or all
26:51
Speaker 4: these things. Like I hope he continues to handle it well.
26:54
Speaker 4: I hope he continues to handle the pressure and the attention,
26:57
Speaker 4: because it's been a lot on him. But he's been
27:01
Speaker 4: pretty unflappable, and this press conference was the first time
27:05
Speaker 4: he maybe wasn't completely unflappable. He could barely get through
27:09
Speaker 4: his opening answer as he kind of looked down at
27:12
Speaker 4: mom and dad in the front row and you know,
27:14
Speaker 4: said I love you and thanked him for the time
27:16
Speaker 4: they invested, the money they spent to get him to
27:18
Speaker 4: that point. So that was obviously a touching moment. His
27:22
Speaker 4: parents were very proud. His mom was kind of fighting
27:24
Speaker 4: back tears the whole time. His dad, my man Kevin George,
27:28
Speaker 4: was talked about the contract negotiations. He said, talking about
27:33
Speaker 4: Kevin's mom, he said she was the good cop. I
27:35
Speaker 4: was the bad cop. So Kevin Kevin George stays Kevin George,
27:39
Speaker 4: which I appreciate. Yeah, Ter Scugele rasing him about taking
27:45
Speaker 4: the boys out for dinner. And I also thought Scott Harris,
27:49
Speaker 4: Scott Harris just kind of hyped up Kevin mcgonagal the
27:52
Speaker 4: whole time. You know, he's like, I haven't seen the
27:54
Speaker 4: debut this impressive, Like he's so polished, he's all these things,
27:59
Speaker 4: which kind of the oppos sort of how A. J.
28:00
Speaker 4: Hinch has talked like AJ obviously loves Kevin, but AJ
28:04
Speaker 4: is very much like you know, he is still young.
28:06
Speaker 4: He is still learning the nuances of the game, trying
28:09
Speaker 4: to you know, he's been through this with many young
28:11
Speaker 4: players before. Uh, And I feel like we've heard Scott
28:15
Speaker 4: talk that way about young players that he obviously loves
28:18
Speaker 4: but still be like, you know, they are going to
28:19
Speaker 4: go through struggles and they are still learning, and there
28:22
Speaker 4: was just none of that. Scott Harris was it was
28:24
Speaker 4: like all in, this is this is obviously his guy.
28:27
Speaker 4: And as Scott highlighted, the first player the Harris regime
28:31
Speaker 4: has drafted to then develop and sign to a long
28:34
Speaker 4: term extension part of part of the plan. So good,
28:38
Speaker 4: A great day for Kevin McGonagall and a great day
28:40
Speaker 4: for the Tigers too. You can't deny it's a it's
28:43
Speaker 4: a win for Harrison the organization.
28:48
Speaker 2: All right, how do you feel about?
28:50
Speaker 1: I have a nickname submission for McGonagall, and you know,
28:53
Speaker 1: there's there's a there's a lot out there, and a
28:56
Speaker 1: lot of them are good, Like there is an easy
28:58
Speaker 1: guy to kind of just like put a little nickname
29:00
Speaker 1: four because like his game is so fun, right, but
29:03
Speaker 1: in light of the contract, and it's not just the contract,
29:07
Speaker 1: but but it plays into it, Like when I watch
29:11
Speaker 1: Kevin McGonagall play, whether it's you know, hitting at the
29:14
Speaker 1: play obviously it was approach and obviously like you know,
29:16
Speaker 1: the raw tools there, whether it's running the basis yet
29:19
Speaker 1: you know, you know, tagged up in a situation you know,
29:22
Speaker 1: key situation today as well does the little things. And
29:25
Speaker 1: then in the field too, he had a all.
29:27
Speaker 2: These things happened today. He had a great play down the.
29:32
Speaker 4: Ory.
29:33
Speaker 2: Uh you know, you know throwout? Was it Garcia? Was
29:35
Speaker 2: Garcia running there?
29:37
Speaker 4: Uh? I don't remember the runner off the top of
29:40
Speaker 4: my head. It was a good throw, It was a
29:42
Speaker 4: strong throw. It was only like seventy eight miles an
29:44
Speaker 4: hour on the clock, but one point three second exchange.
29:48
Speaker 4: So we talked about that arm playing up a little
29:50
Speaker 4: bit because of how quick he gets rid of it
29:52
Speaker 4: and how accurate he is with the arm. That was
29:55
Speaker 4: a great example.
29:58
Speaker 1: Everything he does is money, money, McGonagall.
30:01
Speaker 4: And the dog. Yeah, now he has the money to
30:05
Speaker 4: back it up. It might almost seem distasteful a little bit,
30:08
Speaker 4: but I like it. You're right, it's an easy guy
30:11
Speaker 4: to make. The nicknames for some of them are already
30:13
Speaker 4: out there on on Twitter. Magoo is easily the worst
30:16
Speaker 4: one of them all. We gotta get rid of magoo.
30:18
Speaker 2: What is that?
30:19
Speaker 4: But like the McGonagall g O N E like in
30:22
Speaker 4: all caps is great. They're just the professor. If you're
30:25
Speaker 4: into the Harry Harry Potter reference. I love some of that,
30:29
Speaker 4: so like, there's some good possibilities out there. MGOO is
30:33
Speaker 4: the weakest one. We gotta we gotta part ways with Mgoo.
30:36
Speaker 2: We can do we can do better than that. We
30:38
Speaker 2: can do better than that.
30:38
Speaker 1: But like, but in seriousness, like, next time he makes
30:41
Speaker 1: a play or does something like spectacular, you just say, like, man,
30:46
Speaker 1: that guy's money and it works and it works, it works,
30:50
Speaker 1: so that that's that's all I'll say about that, all right,
30:56
Speaker 1: going with Oh, let's le know what, we've talked about
30:58
Speaker 1: this guy. We gotta give him a couple minutes here,
31:00
Speaker 1: Cody as we wrap up. We've talked about his struggles
31:02
Speaker 1: and like giving him some space. But Jamai Jones has
31:07
Speaker 1: had like outside of you know, being an everyday player
31:11
Speaker 1: who can't do squat like at the play, like, he's
31:14
Speaker 1: had a pretty as rough a go as like his
31:16
Speaker 1: start to a season could be number one, he's just
31:18
Speaker 1: not playing that much, uh, you know, with the with
31:20
Speaker 1: the right handed Leyden starters at the Tigers face to
31:25
Speaker 1: begin the year, and then number two, he just hadn't
31:27
Speaker 1: gotten a hit until today he had an RBI. Uh,
31:30
Speaker 1: he was sick as well. Earlier this week we talked
31:33
Speaker 1: about that so it seemed like the team was really
31:37
Speaker 1: exciting when he got that in base, not not just
31:39
Speaker 1: for the run, but just like, you know, their guy
31:42
Speaker 1: finally experienced you know, some success or whatever. So I
31:45
Speaker 1: just wanted to say like, hey, good, good for JAMAI
31:47
Speaker 1: that was awesome to see, and then kind of ask you, like,
31:49
Speaker 1: how is Jami? He's one of these guys it just
31:51
Speaker 1: feels like the world is you know, the world is great,
31:54
Speaker 1: everything's awesome, you know, like just like he just seems
31:57
Speaker 1: like a nice guy. Uh So this had to be
32:00
Speaker 1: tough for him given all those factors. I said, So
32:02
Speaker 1: hopefully you know, he was able to kind of show
32:04
Speaker 1: that too.
32:04
Speaker 2: But how how is how is Jamie?
32:06
Speaker 4: Yeah? I think he's I mean, all I've seen from
32:09
Speaker 4: Jemi is like feeling good. You're right, he's a he's
32:11
Speaker 4: a pretty happy, upbeat guy. High on the list of
32:15
Speaker 4: players who just still feel like normal guys. I'm sure
32:19
Speaker 4: inside he's you know, it's eating them up, not getting
32:23
Speaker 4: to play much being what for his first eleven, like
32:26
Speaker 4: hearing fans criticize him online. I'm sure that hasn't been easy,
32:29
Speaker 4: but he certainly hasn't shown it. He's at least publicly
32:33
Speaker 4: been really positive and yet teammates certainly seem to love
32:37
Speaker 4: them so much. Some Jami Jones, you were right. So yeah,
32:41
Speaker 4: another another guy. We need to do a quick shout out.
32:43
Speaker 4: How about Jack Flaherty having a nice outing, really hitting
32:48
Speaker 4: his spots well, working the lower rail, vlo up a
32:52
Speaker 4: tick on his fastball. Like we talked a lot about Jack,
32:56
Speaker 4: like the back and the forth, like not always great,
32:59
Speaker 4: but as I said this offseason, you could do a
33:02
Speaker 4: lot worse than Jack Flaherty, and especially now that yeah
33:05
Speaker 4: from Ravaldez here, Jack is not You're not needing him
33:09
Speaker 4: to be the number two. You need him to be
33:12
Speaker 4: solid more often than not. It's frustrating when he has
33:16
Speaker 4: the really bad outings, his body language gets bad or
33:18
Speaker 4: whatever it may be. But Jack Flaergy can still be
33:22
Speaker 4: pretty good and it was nice for him to kind
33:25
Speaker 4: of remind every one of that.
33:28
Speaker 2: No, yeah, it was a lot of fun.
33:30
Speaker 1: And you know, like those first two games, like every
33:35
Speaker 1: punch out, every you know, situation that the Tigers like
33:39
Speaker 1: we're able to execute.
33:40
Speaker 2: You know, you went to the one back to back.
33:42
Speaker 1: You gotta be on your p's and q's right, and
33:44
Speaker 1: so like you know, Jack was a big part of that,
33:46
Speaker 1: and there was a lot of highlights from this home stand.
33:48
Speaker 1: We certainly didn't get to all of them, but I
33:52
Speaker 1: think today was one of those days that will be
33:54
Speaker 1: like like I said at the beginning, you remember that,
33:57
Speaker 1: remember you know, you know, close out the sweep with
33:59
Speaker 1: the rain delays and the umpire changes and like all
34:03
Speaker 1: these things, and the Tigers just kind of did Tiger's things.
34:06
Speaker 1: So as as Jason Benanti said, well worth the weight.
34:11
Speaker 1: All right, you guys can follow us on X one
34:14
Speaker 1: me on Twitter at Cody Stavenhagen, I'm at Kieran Underscore
34:16
Speaker 1: dectly at Tiger Territory Underscore. Be sure to subscribe on
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Speaker 1: YouTube so we can help grow that channel. We're approaching
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Speaker 1: three thousand subscribers. Like to get there by a Memorial Day.
34:25
Speaker 1: That's just a deadline I made up, but it wouldn't mean.
34:27
Speaker 1: It would be nice if we did right and then
34:29
Speaker 1: Apple Spotify five star review if you feel so inclined.
34:31
Speaker 1: We appreciate all you guys, So for Cody Staveenhagen, I'm
34:35
Speaker 1: Kieran Seckley.
34:35
Speaker 2: Everybody have great deck