Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Detroit Tigers Grind Out Series Win In K.C.

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Detroit Tigers Grind Out Series Win In K.C. · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: Hey, Welcome into another episode of Tiger's Territory, part of
0:06
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, a Tiger's podcast.
0:09
Speaker 2: I'm Karen Stefley.
0:10
Speaker 1: With me as always a man who knows there's nothing
0:12
Speaker 1: wrong with falling off the bone.
0:14
Speaker 2: He is Cody Stapenhagen.
0:15
Speaker 3: How you do, Hey, I'm doing good care. How are you?
0:18
Speaker 2: I am excellent.
0:20
Speaker 1: I just went through a myriad of emotions baseball wise,
0:23
Speaker 1: as I'm sure we both did, watching Oklahoma State in
0:26
Speaker 1: the College Baseball Tournament and then also watching another a
0:31
Speaker 1: second consecutive one nothing game between the Tigers and the Royals.
0:36
Speaker 1: This time, however, the Tigers come out on top, of
0:39
Speaker 1: course in the series over there in Kansas City.
0:42
Speaker 2: They will head for another divisional series. But who I
0:47
Speaker 2: mean like talk.
0:49
Speaker 1: About like rise of emotions, Like the teams were kind
0:53
Speaker 1: of slugging through. Like there's like two versions of the
0:56
Speaker 1: word slugfest. There's one where there's like a lot of
0:59
Speaker 1: hits that kind of the Oklahoma State Georgia game was,
1:02
Speaker 1: and then there's the slug fest where you're just kind
1:04
Speaker 1: of like slugs, where you're just kind of like going through.
1:08
Speaker 1: And that's really what those two games were. That's a
1:10
Speaker 1: little bit disrespectful to the pitching that we saw over
1:13
Speaker 1: the weekend. But still it wasn't like a whole lot
1:16
Speaker 1: of action. The the recap videos would be shorter than normal,
1:20
Speaker 1: I would say, in terms of things that happen on
1:22
Speaker 1: the field. Still Tigers do just enough on Sunday to,
1:26
Speaker 1: like I said, get the series win over the Kansas
1:29
Speaker 1: City Royals. And the bats were cold, like there was
1:35
Speaker 1: there were some elements there where I thought, are we
1:38
Speaker 1: watching a game in late March or are we watching
1:41
Speaker 1: the game in say like mid August, where like there's
1:45
Speaker 1: some some fatigue set in. You know, it just didn't
1:48
Speaker 1: seem like every a lot of things were working there.
1:50
Speaker 1: But you do just enough. Sat McKinstry, no no stranger
1:54
Speaker 1: to having good amounts of energy, goes from second to
1:57
Speaker 1: third and then has the slowest pass ball score of
2:03
Speaker 1: all time, And like I said, it was just enough.
2:06
Speaker 1: Great pitching for the Tigers Montero Lee Holton as well,
2:11
Speaker 1: and the Caneley best combination one of the more fun
2:16
Speaker 1: combinations that we've seen from Tiger Land in a while.
2:18
Speaker 2: So the way I was actually.
2:20
Speaker 1: Going to begin this podcast, Cody was gonna be like
2:23
Speaker 1: the Tigers should feel X about this series win because
2:27
Speaker 1: I think there's I really do think that's kind of
2:30
Speaker 1: just like taking whatever direction you want because there's a
2:33
Speaker 1: lot to kind of peace through emotionally.
2:37
Speaker 4: Well, you won the series, so you should feel good
2:38
Speaker 4: about it. Weekend, you know, you were facing some good pitching.
2:42
Speaker 3: You didn't really hit.
2:43
Speaker 4: It was a little bit sluggish, which John Beeline just
2:46
Speaker 4: ruined the term slug for me forever, Like I can't
2:49
Speaker 4: I just hear that word. I think of John Beelin
2:51
Speaker 4: like saying some dumb stuff and then making a dumb
2:53
Speaker 4: excuse for it.
2:55
Speaker 3: That's neither here nor there. But yeah, like you know,
3:00
Speaker 3: it's hot playing these day games.
3:02
Speaker 4: You're facing some good pitching, the bats just aren't really clicking,
3:06
Speaker 4: and you lose a schoobal start, but you still come
3:10
Speaker 4: away you win the series. Like that's so I think
3:12
Speaker 4: you should feel good, maybe not great about the entire
3:17
Speaker 4: just level of play over the weekend. But again, when
3:20
Speaker 4: you're maybe not at your best and you take two
3:22
Speaker 4: or three and you're the Tigers and so many things
3:25
Speaker 4: continue to go well for you, Yah be glad to
3:28
Speaker 4: get out of there. You get to go face the
3:30
Speaker 4: White Sox. I should probably put a smile on your face.
3:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, Yeah, I mean I kind of feel the same.
3:38
Speaker 1: Like I'm a like over the course of one hundred
3:40
Speaker 1: and sixty two games, I'm a big believer that they're
3:44
Speaker 1: you're gonna have to win, You're gonna have to win
3:47
Speaker 1: games where I want to say, don't deserve to win,
3:49
Speaker 1: but like, you're not playing at your best over the
3:52
Speaker 1: course of a series. And obviously the bats were hot
3:56
Speaker 1: Friday night, Saturday, nothing really going for you Sunday, just enough.
4:01
Speaker 2: Going for you.
4:02
Speaker 1: Like no one's gonna tell their grandkids about this late
4:06
Speaker 1: May early June series in twenty twenty five, Like this
4:10
Speaker 1: was on a pinnacle point, you know, for the Tigers season.
4:14
Speaker 1: But it was a productive one and and it was
4:17
Speaker 1: and there were some small things that we can take
4:20
Speaker 1: from it that, you know, Okay, that's the thing. Let's
4:23
Speaker 1: see if that can expand. One of them was, you know,
4:27
Speaker 1: labor Torres continue to be an on base machine. Cold
4:30
Speaker 1: Keith continuing to quietly we'll talk about him a little
4:34
Speaker 1: bit later, quietly get the back going back on. I'm
4:38
Speaker 1: gonna talk about Keith Batt later, but we could just
4:40
Speaker 1: say it off the top here since it's you know,
4:42
Speaker 1: fresh on our minds.
4:44
Speaker 2: Every day, good defensive day for Cold Keith.
4:46
Speaker 4: On Sunday he was probably the best he's looked, you know,
4:50
Speaker 4: at first base in any like singular game. I thought
4:53
Speaker 4: the double play turn was really smooth. I kind of
4:55
Speaker 4: had to do a double take and be like, oh wait,
4:57
Speaker 4: that was Cold Keith. Like just his movement in general
5:00
Speaker 4: seemed a lot more fluid. Maybe he's finally getting a
5:03
Speaker 4: little bit more comfortable over there.
5:06
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's not.
5:07
Speaker 1: It's not from a any comfortability that he gets there
5:11
Speaker 1: is not from some high amount of game reps, as
5:15
Speaker 1: everybody is aware. And then I guess, like, we could
5:20
Speaker 1: just do this now, because I don't think either one
5:22
Speaker 1: of us feel like that strongly about it.
5:25
Speaker 3: But let's just what the people want to hear.
5:26
Speaker 1: Let's do what they want to hear. You gotta give
5:28
Speaker 1: it out the top here. Trek school wal throws seven
5:33
Speaker 1: scoreless innings on Saturday, Cody, and he gives up only
5:37
Speaker 1: two hits. He has seven strikeouts and a high amount
5:41
Speaker 1: of walks.
5:42
Speaker 2: Now I'm just kidding.
5:43
Speaker 1: He had zero walks as as his tradition with the
5:46
Speaker 1: school ball outing ninety pitches like you're okay, there you're
5:52
Speaker 1: not like you're not bragging about a low pitch count,
5:55
Speaker 1: but you're.
5:55
Speaker 2: Not, you know, over over the hill or anything like that.
6:00
Speaker 1: And bow Brisky comes in promptly gives up some heart
6:04
Speaker 1: contact and they get and the Royals get a run over.
6:09
Speaker 2: There's a certain element of sport that.
6:15
Speaker 1: You don't want to do the thing that your opponent
6:20
Speaker 1: is glad that you did, and obviously in this case,
6:23
Speaker 1: it would be taking schoobl off the mound. However, there
6:27
Speaker 1: are there is realization that it's only late May, and
6:32
Speaker 1: at this point the Tigers ought to be you know,
6:34
Speaker 1: keeping you know, any friends that are getting married, of
6:37
Speaker 1: any Tigers players, ought not to set a wedding day
6:40
Speaker 1: in October right now, So like, you know, you got
6:42
Speaker 1: to plan the longer term here.
6:46
Speaker 2: And I actually.
6:49
Speaker 1: I had no problem taking Schooble out there. I understand
6:52
Speaker 1: the sentiment of keeping him in. He's hot, he's schoolble,
6:57
Speaker 1: But at the same time, you're gonna need you'r briskies
7:00
Speaker 1: to come in and shut the door. You know, you
7:02
Speaker 1: need your Holtens to come in and shut the door.
7:05
Speaker 1: He did everything that he is supposed to do. He
7:08
Speaker 1: went seven, he gave up zero runs like he had
7:11
Speaker 1: the offense you know, full in themselves the entire time.
7:15
Speaker 1: Bottom line is you gotta score runs too. So I
7:18
Speaker 1: thought it was the right move to take Schoogle out,
7:21
Speaker 1: even if it's the what happened to my beautiful game?
7:25
Speaker 1: And why not just you know, ride the best picture
7:28
Speaker 1: in baseball as long as possible. He kind of take
7:31
Speaker 1: going against the advice of Justin Verlander there, I guess,
7:33
Speaker 1: but that that was my take.
7:34
Speaker 2: I thought it was the right move.
7:37
Speaker 1: I get the emotional aspect, but the logical aspect to
7:40
Speaker 1: me was take them out.
7:42
Speaker 2: You got these arms, you gotta use them.
7:44
Speaker 1: They gotta come through for you either way, and you
7:47
Speaker 1: gotta score runs either way.
7:48
Speaker 2: So that was my thing.
7:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, I really struggle to have a strong opinion one
7:54
Speaker 4: way or another on this issue, and that's probably not
7:57
Speaker 4: exciting to listen to. But I think it's because I'm
8:00
Speaker 4: thinking of this from a logical perspective. Is there really
8:03
Speaker 4: a strong right or wrong here? You're bringing in bow Briski,
8:08
Speaker 4: who's been great against left handed batters. AJ was almost
8:12
Speaker 4: he knew the Royals had lefties on the bench. He's like,
8:14
Speaker 4: if they want to put him in, go for it.
8:17
Speaker 4: Maybe then they turned to a lefty in the ninth whatever. Statistically,
8:23
Speaker 4: bow Briski made.
8:24
Speaker 3: Some sense there.
8:25
Speaker 4: Even if bo has not been at his best this year,
8:27
Speaker 4: it made sense the matchups weren't bad. Schooble, as great
8:31
Speaker 4: as he is, you're seeing these hitters for the fourth
8:34
Speaker 4: time in the game. He's only thrown. You know, ninety
8:38
Speaker 4: pitches seems to be about kind of the governor for
8:41
Speaker 4: AJ Hinch, And it's hard to know how much science.
8:45
Speaker 3: That's what this comes down to.
8:45
Speaker 4: You was one hundred and four pitches actually that much
8:49
Speaker 4: much worse than ninety pitches?
8:51
Speaker 3: Do we know? Does anyone have any idea? I personally
8:54
Speaker 3: do not.
8:55
Speaker 4: Aj and his answer he talked about it Sunday morning,
8:58
Speaker 4: kind of said, you know, when you're in thet you
9:00
Speaker 4: do have a lot more data or information about fatigue
9:03
Speaker 4: levels or whatever. And I'm like, well, what is that information?
9:06
Speaker 4: I would love to know that information a little more
9:08
Speaker 4: in death, because then maybe I could give a more
9:11
Speaker 4: informed take.
9:13
Speaker 3: I think there has been a little bit. I think
9:16
Speaker 3: justin Verlander did a J.
9:18
Speaker 4: Hinch no favors because people there is a complete game
9:20
Speaker 4: on ninety four pitches and Verlander's like, oh, Yeah, he's
9:23
Speaker 4: the horse. You just ride him, and kind of everyone
9:27
Speaker 4: just started assuming like, oh, Scoogles never coming out of
9:30
Speaker 4: the game ever.
9:31
Speaker 3: Again. Now, historically, this was a very.
9:34
Speaker 4: Normal point for aj Hinch to remove Derek Scoogle or
9:37
Speaker 4: really any starting pitcher. Go look at his game logs
9:41
Speaker 4: this year. He has thrown let's just look at last
9:44
Speaker 4: six starts seventy three, ninety six, ninety five, ninety four,
9:49
Speaker 4: ninety four, ninety so, like, this is the point in
9:52
Speaker 4: the game in which he gets pulled. He has not
9:54
Speaker 4: thrown one hundred pitches once this season. So just because
9:57
Speaker 4: he threw a complete game and ninety four pitches his
9:59
Speaker 4: last so outing, now we're expecting him to go one
10:01
Speaker 4: hundred plus. That doesn't fully make sense. At the same time,
10:06
Speaker 4: I get I get those who were mad because it's
10:08
Speaker 4: a one zero game or it's a it's a scoreless
10:10
Speaker 4: game at that point, and you want to you want
10:15
Speaker 4: to send those guys down. Who would you rather have
10:17
Speaker 4: on the mound than Tarrek Scooble Is one more inning
10:20
Speaker 4: going to affect what happens to him in October? I
10:24
Speaker 4: have a hard time believing that. But if you're operating
10:27
Speaker 4: with that theory every single game, then one inning turns
10:30
Speaker 4: into fifteen extra innings and however many extra pitches, and
10:33
Speaker 4: maybe that does make it different. So I guess like that,
10:37
Speaker 4: I don't think there's a clear right or wrong answer
10:40
Speaker 4: here because it didn't go their way. Uh, Pasquentino, I
10:44
Speaker 4: think maybe he was cheating outside part of the plate
10:46
Speaker 4: a little bit, but he.
10:47
Speaker 3: Punches one and a run scores.
10:48
Speaker 4: Brisky had previously given up a double, like because the
10:51
Speaker 4: run scores and the Tigers lose. You know, its views
10:55
Speaker 4: as like, oh, that was the wrong decision and I'm
10:58
Speaker 4: just not sure it's that cut and try.
11:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, and we'll talk about the element that made it
11:05
Speaker 1: look like the wrong decision.
11:07
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12:13
Speaker 1: All right, So we talked about the you know, the
12:15
Speaker 1: brisky element there, and I had this thought Cody that
12:21
Speaker 1: for as much as we spent just making a lot
12:26
Speaker 1: of assumptions about the pitching, the starting pitching, which we'll
12:31
Speaker 1: talk about a little bit, and the bullpen about just
12:35
Speaker 1: like more or less like it'd be okay, like I'm
12:37
Speaker 1: talking about like in the off season, and you know, yeah,
12:39
Speaker 1: another arm, Yeah, another arm, And it's like, man, do
12:41
Speaker 1: you you know, do you have too many?
12:43
Speaker 2: And now.
12:46
Speaker 1: You kind of look at it and you think, you know,
12:50
Speaker 1: how much what difference would a healthy fully make. I
12:54
Speaker 1: haven't thought that a whole lot like that. I haven't
12:58
Speaker 1: had to think that. I guess, you know the benefits
13:00
Speaker 1: of having nearly forty wins at this point. Like I
13:02
Speaker 1: haven't had to think about that, But I had that
13:04
Speaker 1: thought yesterday and today about you know, a healthy folly
13:09
Speaker 1: would be a nice asset to have in this bullpen.
13:14
Speaker 1: And then like, if it seems like there's a lot
13:18
Speaker 1: of canelee vest or vest canelee tandems at the end
13:24
Speaker 1: of games, it's because there are there is a lot,
13:29
Speaker 1: and you need riskies of the world to kind of
13:34
Speaker 1: be what Brisky was the second half of last season.
13:38
Speaker 1: And I look at his Baseball Savant page right now,
13:41
Speaker 1: you know, like his fastball run value is only the
13:44
Speaker 1: twenty one percent tile, you know, like pitching run value
13:49
Speaker 1: period thirty one percent tile. Like I will say that
13:53
Speaker 1: there's a saving grace to the risky thing. There should
13:56
Speaker 1: be some regression to the mean, and that like his
13:59
Speaker 1: era would sits right now at four point ninety five
14:02
Speaker 1: is expected.
14:03
Speaker 2: Era is three point four two.
14:05
Speaker 1: So like there there's there's an element of regression that
14:08
Speaker 1: probably will go in his favor. But in the that
14:11
Speaker 1: doesn't take away from the fact that if Chase Lee
14:16
Speaker 1: doesn't just have like nerves of steel to come in
14:19
Speaker 1: and be a valuable asset to this bullpen right now,
14:23
Speaker 1: like there are guys stepping up, that's cool, but you
14:26
Speaker 1: still kind of need your ironclad dudes from last year
14:30
Speaker 1: to be a part of this. And right now Brisky
14:33
Speaker 1: is just kind of feeling it, and so like like
14:35
Speaker 1: he becomes the story after the story with the polling
14:40
Speaker 1: of school. Well you see what I'm saying. If you
14:42
Speaker 1: just if he would have done what his purpose was,
14:45
Speaker 1: we wouldn't be talking about it.
14:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, what it comes down to is we just haven't
14:50
Speaker 4: seen the best version of Bowbrisky for any prolonged period
14:53
Speaker 4: of time this year. I'm not sure that's reason to
14:56
Speaker 4: sell the alarm. I think he's been good enough. The
14:58
Speaker 4: stuff is general. He's still there. Like I think maybe
15:02
Speaker 4: it's coming. You certainly have to hope. I think that
15:04
Speaker 4: it's coming. Diving into the numbers though it's a little
15:07
Speaker 4: bit weird Kieren. You mentioned the expected era a lot
15:10
Speaker 4: lower than his actual era of four nine to five.
15:13
Speaker 4: But if you want to see something weird, go look
15:15
Speaker 4: at his FIP and his x FIP because that's higher
15:19
Speaker 4: than his expected era. I think because probably he's been
15:23
Speaker 4: a little susceptible to the home run ball. That probably
15:26
Speaker 4: raises the FIP a little bit. And then it's like, well,
15:30
Speaker 4: you know, the XCRA is down, so is he having
15:32
Speaker 4: bad luck on balls and play? No, he's not. The
15:35
Speaker 4: opposing Babbob is two fifty four. That's below league average.
15:40
Speaker 4: If there's one thing he needs to be doing better,
15:42
Speaker 4: I mean, I think he's gotten burned on, you know,
15:45
Speaker 4: some bad location. But overall he's not giving up a
15:49
Speaker 4: lot of heart contact. But he's not striking guys out.
15:53
Speaker 4: He's not getting chase at all. A lot of blue
15:55
Speaker 4: on that stat cast page. His whiff rate overall is
16:00
Speaker 4: down pretty substantially from last year twenty three point nine,
16:04
Speaker 4: last season twenty point six. Right now, but the change
16:08
Speaker 4: up in theory is going to be Boberski's best pitch.
16:11
Speaker 4: It has not been for him so far this year.
16:14
Speaker 4: He's still getting decent results. Guys are only hitting two
16:17
Speaker 4: hundred against it, but they're not swinging and missing. It
16:21
Speaker 4: doesn't have the same vertical movement, it doesn't have the
16:23
Speaker 4: same horizontal movement. And the whift rate for his change
16:28
Speaker 4: up last year was thirty one point nine percent. That's
16:31
Speaker 4: pretty good. This year it's only twenty three percent. If
16:35
Speaker 4: he's not getting chased, he's not getting missed on the
16:38
Speaker 4: change up. I think that's forcing him probably to pitch
16:40
Speaker 4: more in the zone, and he's been burned in the
16:43
Speaker 4: zone leaving some stuff over the middle a few times.
16:45
Speaker 4: I think it's key for him to find ways to
16:49
Speaker 4: get more swing and miss. He's never going to be
16:51
Speaker 4: a guy who probably does that a ton. It's ton
16:53
Speaker 4: with the fastball, but he gets healthy enough rate there.
16:57
Speaker 4: The slider is just you know, the slider took pretty
17:01
Speaker 4: big steps forward for him in the postseason. He hasn't
17:04
Speaker 4: used it as much this year. So is he ever
17:07
Speaker 4: going to figure out the slider or what's up with
17:10
Speaker 4: the change up that's supposed to be his bread and
17:12
Speaker 4: butter and it just hasn't quite been the same pitch
17:16
Speaker 4: for him this year.
17:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, And like if there's an element of the reason
17:22
Speaker 1: to keep school in there, one of them would probably
17:26
Speaker 1: be fresh, you know, keep your bullpen as fresh as possible,
17:30
Speaker 1: because the amount of guys that you're you know that
17:33
Speaker 1: that you're really relying on and leverage situations is again
17:36
Speaker 1: lower than I think we would have anticipated given this
17:39
Speaker 1: record and then coming into the season. And that's all
17:42
Speaker 1: well and good. But the starting, you know, the starting
17:45
Speaker 1: piece of this Cody is is also interesting because we
17:49
Speaker 1: did have an.
17:51
Speaker 2: Alex Cobb update.
17:54
Speaker 1: And uh, it's I was gonna say it's funny. I
17:58
Speaker 1: don't actually think it's like layer, you know, humorous. But
18:01
Speaker 1: if you google Alex Cobb, which I did to barify
18:05
Speaker 1: all the all the stats, it's like the Google like
18:08
Speaker 1: headline that kind of categorizes all the news articles says,
18:12
Speaker 1: Alex Cobb injured and you know, rehabsed it. And I
18:17
Speaker 1: was like, I don't really not accurate.
18:20
Speaker 4: Yet.
18:22
Speaker 2: It's that's not true.
18:23
Speaker 1: But the reason they're there, you know, it says that
18:26
Speaker 1: is because everybody's talking about like how uncomfortable he looked,
18:31
Speaker 1: and how labored he was and and like all that stuff.
18:34
Speaker 1: Because I mean, in case you guys missed it, two
18:36
Speaker 1: innings that's over in West Michigan. Uh zero runs three
18:40
Speaker 1: k's he threw twenty four pitches, sixteen of them were
18:43
Speaker 1: for strikes.
18:43
Speaker 2: His fastball was in the ninety two ninety three range.
18:48
Speaker 1: All that is kind of to a backseat to the
18:51
Speaker 1: fact that nobody actually thought this guy looked like a
18:55
Speaker 1: a comfortable man on the mound motion wise with his
18:59
Speaker 1: hip and uh, if he's laboring in his first rehab
19:05
Speaker 1: stent probably stands the reason there was some laboring and
19:08
Speaker 1: bullpen sessions and live VP.
19:10
Speaker 2: Uh, just a guess.
19:12
Speaker 1: And I don't like, there's nothing to me that says
19:15
Speaker 1: like here's something that will progress to get better. Uh,
19:20
Speaker 1: given his age, given everything, Like, I don't I don't
19:25
Speaker 1: know what the play is there, Cody. I would just say,
19:30
Speaker 1: don't get your hopes out that Alex Cobb is gonna
19:32
Speaker 1: be able to kind of save you for a spot start.
19:34
Speaker 2: That would be my advice.
19:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, the quote from aj Hinch coming off that rehab outing,
19:38
Speaker 4: I don't think he's feeling great physically other than his
19:41
Speaker 4: delivery and being able to execute pitches. His stuff was
19:44
Speaker 4: really good, but it looked like he was under a
19:46
Speaker 4: lot of stress. I don't you know, I know, I
19:49
Speaker 4: just talked about kind of metrics a lot we're not
19:51
Speaker 4: We're not gonna talk about nubers here. We're gonna talk
19:52
Speaker 4: about eye test. If you're not sure, go watch that.
19:55
Speaker 4: There's a video of it online. I want to ask
19:57
Speaker 4: you can find it. I thought it look bad. I thought, yes,
20:00
Speaker 4: he looked uncomfortable, he was grimacing. I didn't think his
20:04
Speaker 4: delivery looked good. It looked uncomfortable. I didn't think his
20:07
Speaker 4: stuff looked good. He threw a few nice pitches, he
20:09
Speaker 4: threw several uncompetitive pitches as well. One thing we've been
20:13
Speaker 4: hearing for weeks is like, well, you know, he's not
20:15
Speaker 4: moving well physically, he can't really feel his position, but
20:18
Speaker 4: he moves down the slope.
20:19
Speaker 2: Good.
20:19
Speaker 4: The stuff is good, just pure eye test. I didn't
20:23
Speaker 4: think the stuff was good. I didn't think the delivery
20:25
Speaker 4: looked good. It does make me wonder how much of
20:27
Speaker 4: the Tiger's just kind of been pushing that to maybe
20:30
Speaker 4: stem off the wave of negative you know, pr that
20:35
Speaker 4: could be coming if Alex Cobb doesn't throw a pitch
20:37
Speaker 4: in the big leagues this year, or if Alex Cobb
20:39
Speaker 4: just you know, isn't able to get to a competitive place.
20:43
Speaker 4: And I know I wasn't anti Alex Cobb this winter.
20:47
Speaker 4: Thought it made sense. Obviously, the injuries was a little
20:49
Speaker 4: bit of a gamble. Right now, it looks like you're
20:51
Speaker 4: losing that gamble.
20:53
Speaker 3: You know.
20:53
Speaker 4: We'll see what the next rehab start looks like for
20:56
Speaker 4: Alex Cobb. But clearly he has a way to go.
21:00
Speaker 4: He is still feeling pain. Clearly he's not one hundred
21:02
Speaker 4: percent right physically. I think it's fair to be concerned,
21:06
Speaker 4: and I think just go watch that video, you know,
21:08
Speaker 4: if you don't agree, and see if that changes your mind.
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21:45
Speaker 1: You know, one of the things that I was like
21:47
Speaker 1: looking for. I was like, all right, if he's just
21:52
Speaker 1: not gonna be able to start. Could he be some
21:56
Speaker 1: sort of.
21:56
Speaker 2: Guy out of the pen.
21:58
Speaker 3: Ye still and still entirely possible.
22:02
Speaker 1: Been in the big leagues a long time, surely there's
22:05
Speaker 1: like some sprinkles of some relief appearances. No, not really,
22:08
Speaker 1: it's happened once. It is like he's he is like
22:14
Speaker 1: ninety nine point nine nine percent of the time as
22:16
Speaker 1: a major leaguer, been a starter. So hopefully if there's
22:22
Speaker 1: like if you're like looking for things that if there's
22:24
Speaker 1: some sort of savageable like aspect to the contract and
22:27
Speaker 1: bring them in and forty man rousters by blah blah blah,
22:30
Speaker 1: maybe that's the thing. But there's zero there's not a
22:33
Speaker 1: track record of him doing that. Doesn't mean he can't
22:36
Speaker 1: do it, but there's not a track record of him
22:39
Speaker 1: doing that in his extensive time as a big leaguer.
22:42
Speaker 1: So I mean that that kind of goes into again,
22:45
Speaker 1: one of the things that I talked about before is
22:47
Speaker 1: that like it's gonna sneak up on you if you're
22:51
Speaker 1: not thinking about it. But starting pitching death is I
22:55
Speaker 1: want to say lacking, but it's lacking in terms of
22:57
Speaker 1: how we thought it was going to be in like
23:00
Speaker 1: February and March Cobbs a part of that rhese Olsen
23:05
Speaker 1: looks like he's still got to get all feel for
23:07
Speaker 1: his pitches before before he comes back. You know, Mayeta,
23:11
Speaker 1: you thought was gonna be some guy that you could
23:13
Speaker 1: bring in for a spot start.
23:15
Speaker 2: Maybe obviously that sid of thing. Uh So, like now.
23:20
Speaker 1: Job is on the i L like like all of
23:22
Speaker 1: a sudden your depth in which we didn't talk about
23:24
Speaker 1: last time because it happened right after we were done recording.
23:26
Speaker 2: So how's that for timing?
23:28
Speaker 1: But Job is on the i L now, So all
23:30
Speaker 1: of a sudden, like this depth, like there's it's not
23:33
Speaker 1: like chaos level, but it's juggling level. It's juggling level
23:37
Speaker 1: what the Tiger is gonna have to do, and and
23:40
Speaker 1: there's like a positive element. It looks like Sawyer Gibson
23:42
Speaker 1: Long presumably don't want to be for a fact, looks
23:47
Speaker 1: like he's probably gonna get one of these starts here
23:49
Speaker 1: against Chicago, which is a fun story guy coming off
23:52
Speaker 1: Tommy john A. You know, nice story, nice family. I
23:54
Speaker 1: remember when he made his debut and all that stuff.
23:57
Speaker 1: Uh but still, you know, you could argue there's a
24:02
Speaker 1: lot of assumptions that feel all that good about just
24:04
Speaker 1: kind of placing them in the rotation at this point
24:07
Speaker 1: in the season, Could you.
24:08
Speaker 4: Not like, Yeah, I think it's gonna be interesting to
24:12
Speaker 4: see how this plays out. Jackson Job if you missed it,
24:15
Speaker 4: elbow flexer strain. It's grade one, which means that's the
24:19
Speaker 4: least severe. But going on some other examples around the league,
24:22
Speaker 4: Logan Gilbert seeming like this could be close to a
24:26
Speaker 4: two month thing. And anytime you hear flexor tendon or
24:31
Speaker 4: strain or anything with the arm of the young.
24:33
Speaker 3: Pitcher, it's pretty scary. Right.
24:36
Speaker 4: What this really means is the Tigers, especially with Alex
24:39
Speaker 4: Cobb not seeming like he's coming back you know, right away,
24:43
Speaker 4: could be leaning pretty heavily on Sawyer Gibson Long. It's
24:46
Speaker 4: almost the opposite of the spectrum, is Cob Cobbs taking
24:50
Speaker 4: forever to come back and sgl's like fresh off TJ.
24:53
Speaker 3: All right, let's get you going. Another guy.
24:55
Speaker 4: The Tigers have really been talking up. They seem to
24:58
Speaker 4: really like his stuff. I like his stuff too. When
25:00
Speaker 4: you look at his latest rehab outing in Toledo, he
25:02
Speaker 4: had four different pitches that had a stuff plus grade
25:06
Speaker 4: above one hundred, so He's got a well rounded arsenal.
25:08
Speaker 4: He can do a lot of things. But rarely do
25:11
Speaker 4: you see guys come straight from Tommy John and just thrive.
25:15
Speaker 4: They're still getting feel for their stuff, for their secondary stuff.
25:18
Speaker 4: He's now going to make a start coming off what's
25:20
Speaker 4: probably going to.
25:21
Speaker 3: Be a bullpen day.
25:22
Speaker 4: I think Tuesday, so SGL sounds like he may start Wednesday.
25:27
Speaker 3: He's only made I believe, four rehab starts.
25:30
Speaker 4: He hasn't exceeded fifty three or fifty six pitches. The
25:35
Speaker 4: Tigers are kind of asking a lot out of him.
25:38
Speaker 4: I'll be interested see if they're able to get another
25:42
Speaker 4: arm in the system somehow. They're kind of at a
25:43
Speaker 4: place where they need one. Old friend Tyler Alexander is
25:46
Speaker 4: going to be on the waiver wire like that.
25:51
Speaker 3: I think it makes sense. And look, I like Sawyer
25:54
Speaker 3: Gibson long. I think the stuff is there.
25:58
Speaker 4: He could come in and have successful you but you're
26:00
Speaker 4: asking him to be a full on starter. Maybe not
26:03
Speaker 4: ease him into this at all. I think at one
26:06
Speaker 4: point the hope was you could kind of give him
26:08
Speaker 4: some spot starts with the roster as it's constructed now,
26:12
Speaker 4: he could The Tigers may may be asking more from him,
26:16
Speaker 4: and that just scares me a little bit because he's
26:19
Speaker 4: a young guy, barely has big league experience to begin with.
26:21
Speaker 4: Now he's fresh off Tommy John gonna get thrown to
26:24
Speaker 4: the Wolves. I don't know if the White Sox comes
26:26
Speaker 4: the Wolves. You know, maybe if he can go four
26:28
Speaker 4: or five innings and fifty pitches against the White Sox,
26:30
Speaker 4: everything will be great. But point stands Tigers suddenly, you know,
26:36
Speaker 4: the pitching went from just looking awesome to a little
26:39
Speaker 4: bit dicey, and there's real concern about the depth.
26:43
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what.
26:44
Speaker 1: Man Like, when I saw that Alexander was DFA and
26:47
Speaker 1: I thought, if there was an element of poetic nature
26:52
Speaker 1: of the Tigers going through you know, some serious injury,
26:56
Speaker 1: some just kind of naggy type stuff. Uh need a
27:01
Speaker 1: guy that can do you start?
27:03
Speaker 2: Do you bullpen? He just Manning's guys like him, knows
27:07
Speaker 2: the coaching staff.
27:09
Speaker 1: Hey, Tyle, Alexander's available. That seems like a perfect timing
27:12
Speaker 1: to me. Uh So, kind of kind of a fan
27:16
Speaker 1: of that, kind of kind of a fan of that
27:17
Speaker 1: Cody because I mean he was we joked when he
27:21
Speaker 1: when he got claimed by the Rays, it was like well,
27:24
Speaker 1: you don't really feel good about letting a picture go
27:26
Speaker 1: and then the Rays claim him. But now now the
27:29
Speaker 1: Tigers could be the race to the to the Brewers,
27:32
Speaker 1: so like it would it would be all all well
27:34
Speaker 1: and good. So I'd be interested to see what happens there.
27:37
Speaker 1: But I'm in favor. I feel like he could be
27:39
Speaker 1: just what the doctor ordered. Tyler, Alexander uh Innans, eater lefty,
27:44
Speaker 1: all that stuff would be, would be good for the team.
27:49
Speaker 1: All right, let's uh, let's move to a couple more
27:53
Speaker 1: fun topics, Cody Man, we're so serious. A couple more
27:56
Speaker 1: funk topics. Zabric history has that triple today, obviously, you know,
28:02
Speaker 1: a bunch of leads to the only run of the game.
28:06
Speaker 1: Zach McKinstry co ops against lefties coming into today, nine five,
28:15
Speaker 1: nine fifty five for Zach McKinstry against lefties, which ranks,
28:21
Speaker 1: that's right, twenty first in the American League, twenty first
28:27
Speaker 1: in the American League. Labor Torres, by the way, is fifth,
28:30
Speaker 1: Spencer Torkelsen is ninth.
28:33
Speaker 2: So got some got some guys, you know, at the
28:35
Speaker 2: top of.
28:35
Speaker 1: The leaderboard in the American League. There, uh, in terms
28:39
Speaker 1: of ops against leftis. But mcinstry being on that list
28:41
Speaker 1: is just shocking.
28:42
Speaker 3: I don't.
28:43
Speaker 2: I don't.
28:44
Speaker 1: But Dayella asked him after the game, like, you know,
28:47
Speaker 1: what's his mindset? And he obviously didn't give an interesting
28:50
Speaker 1: answer because you know, he's just approach and you know
28:53
Speaker 1: all that.
28:53
Speaker 2: Stuff is boring. Maybe it's because it's unexplainable.
28:56
Speaker 1: Maybe there is no answer about how he how he's
28:58
Speaker 1: doing this to Zach mckstory. That's probably one of my
29:01
Speaker 1: more fun stats of the season so far, is Zach
29:04
Speaker 1: McKinstry being a dog against lefties.
29:08
Speaker 3: It certainly doesn't make a ton of sense.
29:10
Speaker 4: I mean, he faced lefties so little last season, I
29:13
Speaker 4: think thirty something at bats. It's like, does he even
29:16
Speaker 4: spend that much time in the offseason working against lefties?
29:19
Speaker 4: I mean he said he does, he looks at some angles,
29:21
Speaker 4: but I'm not sure it was a huge priority for him.
29:24
Speaker 4: Now an interesting thing maybe a secret to Zach McKinstry's
29:28
Speaker 4: success against lefties and maybe related to the fact he's
29:31
Speaker 4: hitting three sixty seven at Kamerica Park.
29:35
Speaker 3: He's a big fan of the.
29:36
Speaker 4: Traject Machine, the traject arc that if you guys haven't
29:40
Speaker 4: seen this, google it tr a j e kt is
29:44
Speaker 4: that right. This machine like replicates what actual pictures are doing.
29:50
Speaker 4: It's amazing if you haven't seen it. Almost every MLB
29:52
Speaker 4: team has it. I don't think the Rockies have it,
29:55
Speaker 4: but pretty much everyone else does. Basically displays a video
29:59
Speaker 4: of a picture's mode, uses some high end technology to
30:02
Speaker 4: replicate the exact traits of pitches, spin rate, arm angle, movement,
30:07
Speaker 4: all that stuff. So let's say you're going in for
30:11
Speaker 4: a pinch hit and you think you might face Josh
30:16
Speaker 4: Hater's just the first lefty that came to mind, you
30:18
Speaker 4: might face Josh Hater. You go in there, you type
30:19
Speaker 4: in Josh Hater, and you're basically getting reps against Josh
30:22
Speaker 4: Hater in the cage. So guys do this before the game,
30:26
Speaker 4: they do it during the game. Mckinsrey is one of
30:28
Speaker 4: the biggest users of the traject machine, and it's something
30:32
Speaker 4: he credited a little bit to his success against left
30:34
Speaker 4: handed pitchers. I'm gonna have a story probably Friday on
30:38
Speaker 4: The Athletic with a lot more on the traject and
30:41
Speaker 4: how the Tigers use it. Something they have in their
30:43
Speaker 4: new smart cage that is only at k America Park
30:46
Speaker 4: and Zach.
30:48
Speaker 3: McKinstry seems to like it.
30:49
Speaker 4: He also happens to be hitting three sixty plus at
30:53
Speaker 4: k America Park.
30:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, seems like there's something to that.
30:58
Speaker 1: And then in apology for the barking dog everybody, but
31:01
Speaker 1: we'll wrap up speaking of dogs.
31:03
Speaker 2: You know, we had a dog month. I mean this
31:06
Speaker 2: in a good way. Cold Keith Man.
31:08
Speaker 1: He's currently first of all, the only two hits on Saturday.
31:11
Speaker 1: We're cold Keith We mentioned his his good defense on Sunday.
31:18
Speaker 1: He's got an eight game hit streak. He's he's a
31:21
Speaker 1: middle of the order bat. I thought it was kind
31:23
Speaker 1: of yeah, he had like a I actually thought, like
31:26
Speaker 1: a pretty refreshing, like good quote coming into the weekend
31:29
Speaker 1: or late last week whatever about just like, you know,
31:32
Speaker 1: obviously the counting numbers aren't like that great or whatever.
31:36
Speaker 1: But he's like, hey, man, I like I get trusted
31:38
Speaker 1: to bat third and the you know, for the best
31:41
Speaker 1: team in baseball or whatever like that, I feel I
31:44
Speaker 1: feel comfortable. I feel like I'm doing something right or whatever.
31:48
Speaker 1: And and he's quietly, he's quietly.
31:53
Speaker 3: Quiet. We had a great month, Kiah.
31:55
Speaker 2: He's getting onto something here, I think.
31:57
Speaker 4: I mean, I mean, sometimes splits can be I guess
32:00
Speaker 4: deceiving because you can just pick any stretch of games
32:05
Speaker 4: and use it to kind of fit your narrative.
32:06
Speaker 3: Right.
32:07
Speaker 4: But here there have been two months so far in
32:10
Speaker 4: this season. In one of them, Cold Keith was pretty bad,
32:14
Speaker 4: and in another he was really good. Cold Keith in
32:17
Speaker 4: the month of May hit to eighty eight. He had
32:20
Speaker 4: an eight thirty eight ops. He was a legit in
32:23
Speaker 4: the middle of the order hitter all the way through May,
32:27
Speaker 4: and maybe it didn't quite feel like it, but now
32:30
Speaker 4: he's got the eight game hitting streak. Yeah, you'd like
32:32
Speaker 4: to see the power. If last year is any example,
32:36
Speaker 4: that'll probably come in the summer for Colt a little bit.
32:41
Speaker 4: So I don't have much say about it other than
32:43
Speaker 4: col Keith is doing better than maybe you think, and
32:47
Speaker 4: if you go look at the numbers, it confirms that,
32:49
Speaker 4: and he may be just beginning to heat up.
32:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's not that I'm going to monitor pretty heavily,
32:55
Speaker 1: and I want I'm gonna want to talk about a
32:56
Speaker 1: lot more because I think an exam nation of his
33:01
Speaker 1: usage would be like, once we reach at, you know,
33:04
Speaker 1: a certain level of benchmark in the season, I'm not
33:08
Speaker 1: saying what that veteran's not.
33:09
Speaker 3: Seen lefties as much.
33:11
Speaker 4: It's only hitting one seventy nine against lefties. But I
33:15
Speaker 4: think maybe he's getting in more favorable positions to succeed,
33:18
Speaker 4: and the Tigers are deep enough it he doesn't have
33:21
Speaker 4: to play against lefties every day.
33:24
Speaker 1: And again, the positional element of it, you know, the
33:27
Speaker 1: dhing element of it. Like credit to him for being
33:32
Speaker 1: comfortable in a lack of positional routine to be able
33:37
Speaker 1: to put together a nice a nice month. So I
33:39
Speaker 1: didn't want that to go and mentioned and we'll talk
33:42
Speaker 1: more about some of the other guys that were hot
33:44
Speaker 1: in May, and yeah, and stuff throughout the course of
33:48
Speaker 1: the next week, including a new series at the T's
33:51
Speaker 1: right there, a new series that we're gonna do during
33:54
Speaker 1: the month of June.
33:55
Speaker 2: So hope you guys stay tuned for that. Anything else, Cody, No,
33:58
Speaker 2: that's it all right, A lot of fun as always.
34:01
Speaker 1: Want to thank you guys for fulling along at Cody Savanhagen,
34:04
Speaker 1: I'm at Kieran Underscore Stecley pop page at Tiger Territory Underscore, YouTube, Instagram, Apple, Spotify,
34:10
Speaker 1: wherever get your podcasts like rate, subscribe, review all that stuff,
34:13
Speaker 1: you guys, know what to do and we appreciate all
34:16
Speaker 1: of you. So for Cody, Save and Haagen, I'm Kieran Steckley.
34:18
Speaker 1: Everybody have great tech