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Tigers Suffer Multiple Losses In Weekend · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:08
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network. Hey, Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm here
0:11
Speaker 1: in Steckley with me as always, a man who keeps
0:13
Speaker 1: with him at all times, his own homemade panic meter.
0:17
Speaker 2: He is, Gody, Steven Eggan. How you doing.
0:20
Speaker 3: I wonder how that would work? What is the science?
0:22
Speaker 3: Maybe you just said, you know, link it to your
0:24
Speaker 3: heart rate or something, and the heart rates up. Maybe
0:26
Speaker 3: that's a cause for a panic. That's actually kind of
0:30
Speaker 3: my main observation from this weekend. The Tigers dropped two
0:33
Speaker 3: to three to the Texas Rangers. First series they've lost
0:36
Speaker 3: at home all year? Is that right? Wow? And the
0:41
Speaker 3: panic meter was very low just being in the clubhouse,
0:43
Speaker 3: being around aj Hinch post game. It was kind of
0:45
Speaker 3: that the old Paul D. Podesta Oakland A's thing, like, well,
0:49
Speaker 3: we know we're gonna lose at least sixty times this year,
0:53
Speaker 3: and that was two of them. You know, I don't
0:55
Speaker 3: think anyone was sweating it. You got beat by two
0:58
Speaker 3: very good pictures and Jacob in Nathan Yavaldi. You know,
1:03
Speaker 3: I think if you want to search for any cause
1:07
Speaker 3: for concern, is that Jack Flaherty was not very good
1:09
Speaker 3: and Resultsen was not very good. Flerty has not quite
1:13
Speaker 3: been himself for a couple of starts. We're going to
1:14
Speaker 3: get into that here in just a little bit. But hey,
1:19
Speaker 3: you lost. You lost to a talented team. Rangers haven't
1:23
Speaker 3: really hit their stride, but they have talent over there.
1:27
Speaker 3: I don't think anyone's sweating it. But you do have
1:29
Speaker 3: the Red Sox coming into town. This is kind of
1:33
Speaker 3: the test of being in first place. Like it's one
1:35
Speaker 3: thing to get there, Now you got to keep it.
1:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, the thing about this weekend for
1:42
Speaker 1: me was it was it was more emotionally detrimental than like,
1:49
Speaker 1: what the actual status of the team is detrimental, because
1:53
Speaker 1: you you have you have that fun road trip and
1:57
Speaker 1: and and and you're you're coming home. You have school
1:59
Speaker 1: ball in the Friday night. We talked about that and
2:01
Speaker 1: he obviously he was excellent, but he still had to
2:04
Speaker 1: eat that that game out offensively. And then Saturday it's
2:09
Speaker 1: uh Schoobols getting awards and and it's Bubblehead Day and
2:14
Speaker 1: and you know it's the weekend is beautiful, beautiful weekend
2:17
Speaker 1: in downtown Detroit, and you you have that kind of showing, right,
2:22
Speaker 1: like a ten to three loss.
2:24
Speaker 4: Uh like it.
2:25
Speaker 1: We'll talk about flirty in a second. And then Sunday
2:28
Speaker 1: it's like, all right, well he can bounce back. Haven't
2:29
Speaker 1: lost the home series at all this year. And like
2:33
Speaker 1: you said, Reese wasn't very good and and honestly, Evaldi's awesome,
2:38
Speaker 1: but a lot of those didn't really seem like that
2:41
Speaker 1: competitive at bats like his his Uh he was, and
2:45
Speaker 1: honestly that's a credit to him, and I'm not even
2:47
Speaker 1: trying to take away anything from him, but his pitch
2:49
Speaker 1: count wasn't very high. Riley Green put a charge in
2:52
Speaker 1: the one, uh, and that was kind of it from
2:55
Speaker 1: a real damage standpoint.
2:57
Speaker 2: Uh.
2:58
Speaker 1: So it just it felt like a uh, well, let
3:04
Speaker 1: me ask you this. So I think it's actually worth
3:06
Speaker 1: at least asking the question is was there some fatigue?
3:11
Speaker 1: There was there some fatigue this weekend at all, like
3:15
Speaker 1: from from the from the Colorado experience, from still you know,
3:19
Speaker 1: having you know, coming back from the longest road trip
3:22
Speaker 1: of the season. Like, I know, it's baseball and you
3:27
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta play almost every day anyway, but like
3:30
Speaker 1: if this was a I would say, at least a
3:33
Speaker 1: unique set of circumstances to play too on a get
3:36
Speaker 1: out day and then and then come home against like
3:38
Speaker 1: you said, a talented team with Really.
3:40
Speaker 2: So is it. I'm just like I've just thought out
3:42
Speaker 2: It's not an excuse.
3:43
Speaker 1: It's just like if we were to look back on
3:46
Speaker 1: this weekend in three months and be like, yeah, that
3:48
Speaker 1: made sense because of this.
3:50
Speaker 2: You know what I mean.
3:51
Speaker 3: I don't know, in theory, that shouldn't really affect your
3:53
Speaker 3: pictures at all. Right, They're well rested, They've had plenty
3:56
Speaker 3: of rest. I don't think it explains why Flirty struggled
4:00
Speaker 3: with their whiles and struggled position players. Maybe it was
4:02
Speaker 3: a long road trip. You're coming back from out West,
4:05
Speaker 3: you're coming back from Colorado, and just the even going
4:08
Speaker 3: back from a normal to a normal elevation, I feel
4:12
Speaker 3: like you still feel it a little bit, Tigers, Like
4:15
Speaker 3: even the times the guys were getting to the ballpark
4:18
Speaker 3: over the weekend were pushed back a few days. I
4:20
Speaker 3: think AJ being cognizant of, you know, what the travel
4:23
Speaker 3: schedule was like. So if you want to make some
4:25
Speaker 3: sort of connection there, I mean, you know, maybe, but
4:29
Speaker 3: like I don't know, Riley Green had himself a hom
4:31
Speaker 3: or Spencer Torgelsen had a couple knocks like, I don't
4:37
Speaker 3: read that much into it. I think they got beat
4:39
Speaker 3: by Jacob de Gram and I think they got beat
4:41
Speaker 3: by Nathan Yavaldi. Yet, bats maybe weren't great, but they
4:45
Speaker 3: weren't terrible either. It's not like guys were swinging out
4:47
Speaker 3: of their shoes or just chasing left and right. That's
4:52
Speaker 3: from a couple of weird calls at home plate. Maybe
4:54
Speaker 3: if Jase Young doesn't get wrung up and he hits
4:56
Speaker 3: a single instead, maybe you know, maybe the game is different.
5:00
Speaker 3: Not reading in too much into any of that. One
5:03
Speaker 3: thing I did look at like, Okay, we know the
5:06
Speaker 3: Tigers are good, right, we know they staged better at bats?
5:09
Speaker 3: Can they? You know, to win in the playoffs you
5:12
Speaker 3: got to be able to beat elite pitching. So I
5:14
Speaker 3: was like, have they actually done that yet? And it's like, well,
5:18
Speaker 3: Cole Reagan's I think is the best evidence of that. Today.
5:21
Speaker 3: They put seven runs on the Royals on the Reagans
5:23
Speaker 3: start day. They battled really hard against Seth Lugo, who
5:26
Speaker 3: had a nice start, but they beat him. Logan Gilbert
5:31
Speaker 3: they beat in Seattle, So there are a few pretty
5:34
Speaker 3: top notch pitchers they have this season. If you're looking
5:38
Speaker 3: for some evidence.
5:38
Speaker 1: Of that struggle against Max, my dad was also a
5:43
Speaker 1: you know, a third game that could be part of it.
5:46
Speaker 3: You know.
5:47
Speaker 1: Again, I'm not even trying to like make excuses as
5:49
Speaker 1: much as just like when you look at the schedule,
5:51
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, that's the kind of weekend that you
5:53
Speaker 1: like lose two out of three at home.
5:55
Speaker 2: You see what I'm saying.
5:56
Speaker 1: Sort Of like in the NBA with the back to backs,
5:58
Speaker 1: it's like you always like take the team that's not
6:00
Speaker 1: coming on the back to back. You know, it's like
6:01
Speaker 1: in they actually measure this in some sports, it's like
6:04
Speaker 1: in schedule losses. Uh So, anyway, that does the bigger
6:10
Speaker 1: point Cody that that you that you laid out there
6:13
Speaker 1: is that it shouldn't affect the starting pitchers and Jack
6:19
Speaker 1: Flaherty for a for a bit now has has I.
6:27
Speaker 2: Say not as much?
6:28
Speaker 3: Zip?
6:28
Speaker 2: Is that how we want to phrase it? So there's
6:31
Speaker 2: a million just just like I try not to like.
6:34
Speaker 1: Boggle down with numbers or whatever, but I do try
6:38
Speaker 1: to like look at just like a few things that
6:40
Speaker 1: I find interesting that might help explain what we're seeing.
6:43
Speaker 1: So everybody understands what a fastball is and what miles
6:47
Speaker 1: an hour is fast, So so we'll keep it simple there.
6:50
Speaker 1: Last season, Cody ninety three point three average on the
6:55
Speaker 1: on the four seamer for Jack Flaherty. That had a
6:57
Speaker 1: twenty three point nine percent with Raight all right. This
7:03
Speaker 1: year ninety two point eight average miles prour on the
7:07
Speaker 1: four steamer, and that is a eleven I think about eleven.
7:12
Speaker 1: I can't read my handscratch sometimes about eleven percent with
7:15
Speaker 1: Ray on the fastball six home runs. Jack flaherty has
7:21
Speaker 1: given up on the four seamer this year. This year,
7:24
Speaker 1: he gave up ten all of last season. So the
7:28
Speaker 1: fastball is not working for years. If you listen to
7:30
Speaker 1: the Tigers broadcast, you hear about the tigers inability to
7:33
Speaker 1: hit the fastball. Well, now we have the reverse is
7:36
Speaker 1: that if you can't get guys out on the fastball
7:39
Speaker 1: then or you can't get guys to swing and miss
7:41
Speaker 1: on the fastball, then you are at a severe disadvantage
7:46
Speaker 1: as a pitcher. Right there's this general philosophy and stuff
7:49
Speaker 1: right there. So that to me seems like a pretty
7:51
Speaker 1: easily identifiable problem. The cause, the solution I want, I
7:58
Speaker 1: don't know, but I can identify a problem, and that's
8:01
Speaker 1: a problem.
8:03
Speaker 3: It's not necessarily a new problem. Flarity has dealt with
8:05
Speaker 3: this throughout his career, and if you recall, you know,
8:08
Speaker 3: looking a little closer at the fastball splits. This was
8:11
Speaker 3: a big deal in the World Series last season. If
8:14
Speaker 3: Flarity's fastball, if he threw it at ninety three miles
8:18
Speaker 3: an hour or more, twenty eight percent with rate. If
8:21
Speaker 3: he threw it at ninety three point four or less,
8:24
Speaker 3: that whiff rate tumbled to seventeen percent. So this season
8:29
Speaker 3: as a whole, he averages well below that ninety three
8:32
Speaker 3: point five mark. That was like an important cutoff for him.
8:35
Speaker 3: Sure enough, the wiff rate is only eleven percent. He's
8:39
Speaker 3: not missing bats, he's not consistently throwing it for as
8:43
Speaker 3: much velocity, especially compared to the first half of last season.
8:47
Speaker 3: You know, with him, they're always concerns like how's his
8:49
Speaker 3: body moving down the slope is kind of what you'll
8:52
Speaker 3: hear Jack talk about. So is it mechanical? We know
8:55
Speaker 3: his injury history, we know the back, you know, is
8:57
Speaker 3: that something to worry about? We don't have any team
9:00
Speaker 3: evidence of that, But be honest, when I'm looking at
9:03
Speaker 3: Jack Flarity and I see v low down. I think, oh,
9:05
Speaker 3: this guy's had some back injections. Is that is that
9:07
Speaker 3: cause for concern? And then just location too, Some of
9:12
Speaker 3: these just were poorly located, so of course they are
9:14
Speaker 3: going to get hammered a little bit. That's all to say.
9:19
Speaker 3: This is like kind of what you signed up for
9:21
Speaker 3: when you brought Jack Flerity back. I mean, he's still
9:23
Speaker 3: a very good pitcher, if you know, even if Jack
9:26
Speaker 3: Flarerity ends up being only your fourth best starter, I
9:29
Speaker 3: think I think, you know, it was probably a good
9:32
Speaker 3: move to bring him back. But this, this was kind
9:34
Speaker 3: of the concern. A lot of the questions that Scott Harris,
9:38
Speaker 3: you know, kind of dismissed the day they signed him,
9:41
Speaker 3: were centered around the fastball. So far this year, when
9:44
Speaker 3: Jack hasn't been good, it's because the fastball hasn't been good.
9:49
Speaker 1: All right, We're gonna give do some more Jack Fliry
9:51
Speaker 1: numbers that are kind of concerning. After a break and
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Speaker 1: So the fastball run Valve you is only in the
11:02
Speaker 1: seven percentile. Cody, I'm looking at his baseball Savanna negative five.
11:07
Speaker 3: This early in the season, it's kind of hard to
11:09
Speaker 3: be negative five.
11:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, and and so two.
11:16
Speaker 1: To me, like, he is a guy that when he
11:20
Speaker 1: like every time this is so, this is very anecdotal.
11:22
Speaker 1: So I just gave some like actual numbers and then
11:24
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do the anecdotal thing to kind of balance
11:26
Speaker 1: my brain out a little bit. Like when he misses location,
11:31
Speaker 1: he misses location, and when he hangs and rees had
11:36
Speaker 1: one today in all fairness, when he hangs, he hangs,
11:39
Speaker 1: you know, it just feels like everything's kind of like
11:42
Speaker 1: more anecdotally.
11:44
Speaker 2: Would you say, hanging bank.
11:46
Speaker 3: When he hangs yeah, yeah.
11:48
Speaker 1: So like it again, that's just anecdotal, but it's like
11:51
Speaker 1: it's like, yep, it's not doesn't take a pitching scientist
11:55
Speaker 1: to figure out how that became a home run, you know.
11:58
Speaker 2: So the the thing you mentioned Scott.
12:01
Speaker 1: Harris and and how he's like this, you know, just
12:05
Speaker 1: to depressed at least I'm sure they have their own
12:07
Speaker 1: internal discussions, but kind of dismisses some of the concerns
12:10
Speaker 1: that you know, you guys have, fans have whatever. The
12:14
Speaker 1: thing that he always brings up is the athleticism, and
12:17
Speaker 1: it's true of one Jack Flaherty. So you have to
12:21
Speaker 1: think that if you have a top level athlete for
12:24
Speaker 1: his position and then all this infrastructure and coaching and data,
12:28
Speaker 1: that this is something that will be rectified. But to
12:34
Speaker 1: your point, I just think this is who Jack Flaherty
12:37
Speaker 1: is in terms of the kind of roller coaster of
12:39
Speaker 1: the effectiveness of his stuff to a certain extent. And
12:42
Speaker 1: you know, Major League Baseball probably doesn't object to that sentence.
12:48
Speaker 1: I just said, because nobody wanted to offer him the
12:50
Speaker 1: contract length and total value that he thought he deserved.
12:55
Speaker 1: And you know, more power to you for thinking you
12:58
Speaker 1: deserve that, But the market didn't bear that out. So
13:00
Speaker 1: I think talk about rydeing the roller coaster, are probably
13:03
Speaker 1: going to be riding a Flairty roller coaster a little
13:05
Speaker 1: bit this year.
13:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's entirely possible. One thing that's strange to me,
13:09
Speaker 3: like the slider's still been really effective. I would have
13:12
Speaker 3: guessed that if he can't get the fastball, bye, guys,
13:16
Speaker 3: he's not going to have success with the slider either.
13:18
Speaker 3: Hitters are going to either eliminate the slider more or
13:22
Speaker 3: just not going to be effective because it's not like
13:24
Speaker 3: tunneling with the fastball. Opponents are hitting only one ninety
13:28
Speaker 3: against his slider. The whiff rate on the slider's thirty
13:31
Speaker 3: eight percent. That's higher than it was last season. In
13:33
Speaker 3: a way, I think that is a good sign because
13:38
Speaker 3: you look deeper at the metrics, like he's just given
13:41
Speaker 3: up a lot of loud contact. He's going to have
13:43
Speaker 3: to get guys off the barrel a little bit more.
13:47
Speaker 3: There's always kind of a point of equilibrium, like if
13:51
Speaker 3: you start throwing the slider more often, does it become
13:53
Speaker 3: less effective? But I don't know, maybe that's the solution here.
13:57
Speaker 3: Maybe if the fastball just you don't feel good about it,
14:00
Speaker 3: maybe don't use it as much. Resulsen did have a
14:03
Speaker 3: bad start. Not a super fastball heavy guy. He has
14:06
Speaker 3: a bunch of other pitches that are very good. I mean,
14:09
Speaker 3: Jack's a really big change up guy. He needs to
14:12
Speaker 3: be basically fastball slider makes them some curveball. But could
14:16
Speaker 3: a usage tweak be in order if his fastball is
14:19
Speaker 3: just not going to be an effective pitch, or is
14:22
Speaker 3: there something he can do mechanically to get that velocity
14:25
Speaker 3: back up. I think that's going to be a pretty
14:26
Speaker 3: central question for Jack Flairty going forward.
14:30
Speaker 1: I mean, in my opinion, it has to be mechanical,
14:33
Speaker 1: like I don't know, I don't know if I don't
14:35
Speaker 1: know with his arsenal and what he's going to be
14:37
Speaker 1: comfortable with midseason, if you're really like looking to change
14:41
Speaker 1: like the ratios, like I just think, like you gotta
14:44
Speaker 1: you got to get in that bio lab and figure
14:46
Speaker 1: out what's going on there, in my opinion, because I
14:49
Speaker 1: just think otherwise, I think you're asking for like too
14:52
Speaker 1: much on the fly change. That's just one man's opinion.
14:58
Speaker 1: All right, Let's go to the other big pitching.
15:01
Speaker 2: News of the week.
15:02
Speaker 1: Casey Mize is unfortunately on the I L it is.
15:08
Speaker 1: You know, anytime talk about injuries, it's always kind of
15:11
Speaker 1: weird because like AJ is never gonna over sell something,
15:15
Speaker 1: but he's certainly never gonna undersell something. So it's it's
15:19
Speaker 1: a fifteen day il stint. It's the same hand stringth
15:22
Speaker 1: that ham string from last season that bothered him. Fifteen
15:27
Speaker 1: day I L like I said, left ham string, so
15:30
Speaker 1: right handed pitcher of the plant leg.
15:32
Speaker 2: So things were going to good, Cody. We had to
15:36
Speaker 2: have something to go on with Casey.
15:39
Speaker 1: The reclamation project, all the all the great hooplah and
15:43
Speaker 1: e Lams himself at least is on an arm injury,
15:45
Speaker 1: but ham strings are hamstrings. Uh So, is there anything
15:49
Speaker 1: that you can kind of tell us about about this situation?
15:53
Speaker 1: You know, the panic media in your pocket, Like, what
15:55
Speaker 1: is it reading?
15:58
Speaker 3: I don't know. We've had this discussion before. I don't know.
16:01
Speaker 3: I don't think it's super high right now, even though
16:04
Speaker 3: I never believe what anyone says about injuries. And that's
16:07
Speaker 3: not even like trying to say like AJ's lying or
16:09
Speaker 3: Casey's lying. It's just like, I don't know. Last year,
16:14
Speaker 3: Casey Mayes heard his hamstring and sat there in Minnesota
16:17
Speaker 3: and told us he didn't think he was gonna have
16:19
Speaker 3: to go on the injured list, and he ended up
16:20
Speaker 3: missing like two months and he was put on the
16:23
Speaker 3: sixty maybe four reasons that were more about opening a
16:26
Speaker 3: roster spot. But still, you know, he said it was fine,
16:29
Speaker 3: then he said then he missed a long time. I
16:32
Speaker 3: think what actually gives me, like some some optimism here
16:36
Speaker 3: is that Maza saying, well, I know what that feels like,
16:38
Speaker 3: and this does not feel near as bad as last year.
16:41
Speaker 3: He's moving around. He isn't like he didn't like throw
16:44
Speaker 3: a full bullpen, but he's not like shutting down throwing
16:47
Speaker 3: as a result of this. It was basically more like,
16:50
Speaker 3: all right, you're probably not gonna make one start. Do
16:53
Speaker 3: we want to roll shorthanded or do we need to
16:55
Speaker 3: just put you on the eel? They put him on
16:57
Speaker 3: the al. That's that's basically how AJ can have both
17:01
Speaker 3: explained it. I think given that Casey is like actively
17:05
Speaker 3: comparing it to how it felt last year and saying
17:08
Speaker 3: this feels way better, that does give me level of
17:11
Speaker 3: optimism that maybe it can be fifteen days and he's good,
17:14
Speaker 3: and if he doesn't have to fully stop throwing, maybe
17:16
Speaker 3: he doesn't even need a rehab assignment. That's clearly the
17:19
Speaker 3: best case scenario. And then it's like my reporter mind
17:23
Speaker 3: kicks in and it's like, well, any hamstring. When I
17:26
Speaker 3: hear hamstring or oblique or back, I just think like
17:30
Speaker 3: an injury that always tends to linger a little bit.
17:33
Speaker 3: So you know, we'll see.
17:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know the injuries to areas of the
17:40
Speaker 1: body that are quite important to the torquing of a
17:43
Speaker 1: baseball player. You know, not a coincidence there, Yeah, you
17:47
Speaker 1: know this pop up of an injury, and I'll call
17:53
Speaker 1: it that because obviously I don't think any of us
17:55
Speaker 1: like saw anything on that start in Colorado. This pop
17:59
Speaker 1: up of an injury kind of made me do a
18:02
Speaker 1: little bit of an an evaluation of the roster, and
18:05
Speaker 1: I was like, you know, there's a lot of time
18:09
Speaker 1: this spring kind of being like all right, well you're
18:13
Speaker 1: you got like a lot started pitching like a lot,
18:16
Speaker 1: maybe too much, you know, like what's this mise my
18:18
Speaker 1: ADUs situation? What's going on with Alex cob which technically
18:22
Speaker 1: that question still lingers, uh, you know, the the ever
18:27
Speaker 1: so fun Matt Manning conversation. Uh, but now you know
18:32
Speaker 1: Montero obviously a piece of that. Now you're a kind
18:39
Speaker 1: of fluky fluky thing, you know, blister away depending on
18:45
Speaker 1: when and where, like cracked finger and you're a crack
18:48
Speaker 1: fingernail away in some ways. Cody from like, shoot, are
18:52
Speaker 1: we gonna have to do like pitching chaos now?
18:54
Speaker 2: Because what are your who's who's up next? After? After Montero?
19:00
Speaker 2: Who's up next?
19:01
Speaker 6: Yeah?
19:01
Speaker 1: It's it's not like it if you have like there
19:07
Speaker 1: is you couldn't make it without a roster move.
19:08
Speaker 2: There is nobody up next, is what I'm saying. Like
19:11
Speaker 2: a roster mood of some sports.
19:13
Speaker 3: That is an interesting question, Like, if someone else cracks
19:18
Speaker 3: a fingernail tomorrow, you might be in some trouble. Now,
19:22
Speaker 3: if they do it two weeks, three weeks, a month
19:24
Speaker 3: from now, you might be fine. Because although Olex cobs
19:28
Speaker 3: uh status is somewhat mysterious and it doesn't sound like
19:31
Speaker 3: he's it sounds like he's throwing okay, but like not
19:33
Speaker 3: just not moving well at all. In theory, you're eventually
19:38
Speaker 3: getting him back. Sawyer Gibson Long might be leap frogging.
19:41
Speaker 3: Everyone is like the next guy in line by the
19:45
Speaker 3: end of the summer, like Troy Melton. There's some other
19:48
Speaker 3: guys who could be ready to help you. But you're right,
19:51
Speaker 3: if someone else goes down tomorrow, yeah, you're kind of
19:55
Speaker 3: in some trouble. Maybe that's where it's good. You have
19:57
Speaker 3: two open forty man spots either going pitching chaos or
20:01
Speaker 3: it's like, okay, you kind of got to go get someone,
20:05
Speaker 3: or like, I don't know, Brent Herder's still kind of
20:07
Speaker 3: stretched out. The Tigers don't really big fans of like
20:10
Speaker 3: throwing guys back into the rotation mid season, but Brent
20:14
Speaker 3: Herder to the rotation, get another Bailey Horn you know,
20:17
Speaker 3: in the bullpen. Maybe that could be a somewhat of
20:21
Speaker 3: a patch, certainly something to consider, not something I don't know.
20:26
Speaker 3: I was trying to think, like, is starting pitching injuries
20:30
Speaker 3: the only thing that could really derail the Tigers right now?
20:34
Speaker 3: And I was like, maybe not, because we know they
20:37
Speaker 3: can win with pitching chaos. Maybe it's if your bats
20:42
Speaker 3: just come totally dry up, you know, if you go
20:44
Speaker 3: back to having the twenty fifth best offense, and I
20:47
Speaker 3: think their floor is higher than that right now. I
20:49
Speaker 3: guess I almost think it's to answer that question, I
20:52
Speaker 3: think it's more offensive injuries. If you lose multiple key hitters.
20:56
Speaker 3: I actually think that would hurt you because even though
20:58
Speaker 3: the depth is not what we quite thought it was, like,
21:01
Speaker 3: there's just a certain built in trust level with Tiger's pitchers,
21:05
Speaker 3: and they have a few different ways to get creative.
21:07
Speaker 3: They can add reinforcements if they need to. So that's
21:11
Speaker 3: kind of how I feel about it right now.
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22:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I would say to answer that that
22:18
Speaker 1: question you pose, Yeah, it's definitely it's speaking of hamstrings.
22:23
Speaker 1: I mean, how many times did we talk about that
22:24
Speaker 1: with the with with the outfielders last year, you know,
22:27
Speaker 1: and backs and obliques and everything else. Uh, because again there,
22:34
Speaker 1: I know they played their forty first game today, but
22:37
Speaker 1: the Tigers forty and twenty or assuming not forty and
22:40
Speaker 1: twenty six, that would be remarkable, uh for through forty games.
22:44
Speaker 2: Kind of mathematical impossibility.
22:45
Speaker 1: There twenty six and fourteen through your first forty games,
22:49
Speaker 1: and that's always the mark that everybody brings up. And
22:51
Speaker 1: so I wanted to make note of that despite how
22:54
Speaker 1: kind of like emotionally draining, like I said at the
22:56
Speaker 1: beginning of this podcast this weekend, was.
22:59
Speaker 2: You're still you're still averaging.
23:02
Speaker 1: You know it's gone down a little bit, but five
23:04
Speaker 1: point three runs per game, You're still getting on base.
23:07
Speaker 1: You know, almost a third of the time. Your ops
23:11
Speaker 1: plus as a team is one sixteen. Like you're essentially
23:14
Speaker 1: top four, three sometimes two and in a lot of
23:18
Speaker 1: these offensive categories.
23:19
Speaker 2: That mean something.
23:21
Speaker 1: And then again deals with you to say it after
23:23
Speaker 1: what we talked, just talked about and saw Saturday and Sunday,
23:27
Speaker 1: But like the starting pitching is something that all the
23:29
Speaker 1: numbers tell you like is pretty dang good. So so
23:33
Speaker 1: like all these to bring it back to the panic thing,
23:37
Speaker 1: like the overarching picture for this team is still really
23:42
Speaker 1: high even if I'm down here in Texas, and I
23:46
Speaker 1: got to hear it from Astros fans and Rangers fans that, yeah,
23:51
Speaker 1: I guess they're not that good. Well two has three,
23:54
Speaker 1: can't really say much about that so well, speaking of reinforce,
24:02
Speaker 1: could be having a Matt Vierling sighting sooner than later.
24:10
Speaker 2: He played right field.
24:11
Speaker 1: Today with his right field right and I didn't I
24:14
Speaker 1: don't know if he had any like real fielding opportunities.
24:17
Speaker 1: I did a really quick glance of the game, so
24:21
Speaker 1: I might have missed one.
24:22
Speaker 2: But he.
24:24
Speaker 1: I love triple A stats. He is three of thirteen
24:28
Speaker 1: and his you know, rehab stint, he.
24:31
Speaker 2: Has five walks and his three hits are two home
24:34
Speaker 2: runs and a double.
24:39
Speaker 1: So you know, uh take take for that what you
24:42
Speaker 1: would or whatever. But but he could be coming. He
24:46
Speaker 1: could be coming, uh within a couple of weeks. Maybe
24:49
Speaker 1: he's got to get some defensive opportunities, but he's I
24:52
Speaker 1: would say the progression has been like pretty steady in
24:57
Speaker 1: terms of how they're raking him up, like steady, not
25:00
Speaker 1: over ambitious, but studying.
25:02
Speaker 3: So no, I think they've they've clearly been conservative with him.
25:05
Speaker 3: Just the throwing program took a while and then he
25:07
Speaker 3: started the rehabit signment and he's hitting, but he's just
25:10
Speaker 3: now playing outfield. So Monday is going to be an
25:15
Speaker 3: off day, and then Tuesday Wednesday they want him playing
25:18
Speaker 3: back to back and probably in the outfield, and then
25:20
Speaker 3: they want him going from right field to third base
25:24
Speaker 3: in the same game. So there are kind of a
25:26
Speaker 3: few hurdles he's still going to have to clear. A
25:31
Speaker 3: j Hinch wasn't super you know, committal to how long
25:34
Speaker 3: this might take, but I would guess he could rejoin
25:38
Speaker 3: the team as soon as next week in I guess
25:41
Speaker 3: like the yeah, as soon as Saint Louis or when
25:44
Speaker 3: they get back home against Cleveland. That would be my guest.
25:47
Speaker 3: I don't know that for a fact, but that that
25:49
Speaker 3: seems like a good target. And so hey, Matt, you
25:55
Speaker 3: only can be a welcome edition. Obviously, who's going down
25:59
Speaker 3: as a big question? Jase Young one of the great
26:02
Speaker 3: stories of the weekend playing with his brother Josh. But
26:07
Speaker 3: he's been going through it man. And the interesting caveat
26:11
Speaker 3: is that the Tigers are lined up to face a
26:14
Speaker 3: run of right handed starting pitching their next three series.
26:17
Speaker 3: Sold they want to get rid of a lefty bat
26:21
Speaker 3: or could Jahn be the guy that's sent down. But
26:24
Speaker 3: then it's like, how are you getting Jase Young in
26:26
Speaker 3: the lineup If Vierling's playing outfield or Vielings playing third,
26:31
Speaker 3: or Virlings in the outfield and McKinstry's at third. There
26:34
Speaker 3: are still some pretty key questions going on there, and
26:37
Speaker 3: I don't know what's going to happen. Whether Jase Young
26:41
Speaker 3: is owner off this roster, He's under some pressure to
26:44
Speaker 3: pick it up. Like if he gets the extended runway
26:47
Speaker 3: against right handed pitching, the Tigers are going to need
26:49
Speaker 3: him to produce. On the flip side. Vierling was I believe,
26:53
Speaker 3: was actually slightly better against righty's than he was lefties
26:57
Speaker 3: last year. I think the Tigers will be glad you
27:00
Speaker 3: have Matt Erling back whenever that exact day comes.
27:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, when it comes to Jace, I'm in
27:10
Speaker 1: the like, dude, you guys show me something like, show
27:12
Speaker 1: me something like and like, cause I've been a pretty
27:16
Speaker 1: like I don't know, I feel like I've been a
27:18
Speaker 1: pretty like positive guy about Jase's outlook throughout his time
27:22
Speaker 1: in the organization. But you've got you got called up
27:26
Speaker 1: when you first played for the major league team on
27:29
Speaker 1: April twenty. First, it's not alike a lot, but like
27:32
Speaker 1: you only have four hits, bro like like you got it,
27:35
Speaker 1: like you gotta you gotta get and if you're and
27:37
Speaker 1: this is this little run of right handed starters, like
27:40
Speaker 1: if you don't kind of like get it going, you're
27:43
Speaker 1: not gonna give like the front office and the coaching
27:47
Speaker 1: staff of reason to keep you there. And then you're
27:49
Speaker 1: gonna do this like you know, Triple A and and
27:53
Speaker 1: Major League linga limbo for you know, until something changes
27:58
Speaker 1: good or bad.
28:00
Speaker 3: It's interesting, Keran because jas Frieng grades out pretty well
28:04
Speaker 3: in batt speed. He's in the seventy fourth percent style
28:07
Speaker 3: I think of MLB players, But he is getting beat
28:11
Speaker 3: on fastballs a lot. He's getting killed on velocity. You
28:17
Speaker 3: can see a little hitch. It's not just his funky
28:20
Speaker 3: hands set up. There's a little weird hand motion there.
28:23
Speaker 3: That was the rep on Jase coming out of the
28:25
Speaker 3: draft was like he gets beat at ninety five plus.
28:28
Speaker 3: That was a reason he didn't get called up until
28:31
Speaker 3: he did last year. He was struggling against ninety four
28:34
Speaker 3: and above. Now we're here in the big leagues. We've
28:36
Speaker 3: yet to see jayse Young make an adjustments where he's
28:38
Speaker 3: hitting velocity. He's whiffing at a twenty seven percent clip
28:44
Speaker 3: on fastballs. That's pretty high for the big leagues. Just
28:48
Speaker 3: one hit off of fastball so far. And it's not
28:50
Speaker 3: like he's been much better against breaking or off speed,
28:53
Speaker 3: although he does swing and miss less against those pitches.
28:56
Speaker 3: But that's why I'm looking for. We know he has
28:59
Speaker 3: the speed, but for some reason, the timing is off.
29:02
Speaker 3: He's not getting the barrel to the ball or any
29:05
Speaker 3: part of the battle on the ball against fastballs. That's
29:08
Speaker 3: gonna have to change or because that to me, that's
29:11
Speaker 3: pretty concerning to look at and to know that that
29:13
Speaker 3: has been a pattern throughout his career.
29:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, dude, like I mean, I feel for you.
29:19
Speaker 1: That was obviously ball four. Like no, like no if
29:23
Speaker 1: and or butts about it. But you gotta start buying
29:26
Speaker 1: yourself some brakes, bro like like it like this is
29:31
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be in the lineup because of your glove.
29:33
Speaker 1: Even though yeah, he had the air today, But even
29:35
Speaker 1: though overall I have I actually have been like pleasantly
29:38
Speaker 1: like surprised with his defense. He did have the air today,
29:41
Speaker 1: but like you gotta there's only one way. There's only
29:45
Speaker 1: one path for you, man. And this is the same
29:46
Speaker 1: thing that happened in spring training where we were just
29:48
Speaker 1: like kept waiting for it, waiting for it, and then
29:50
Speaker 1: you talk about pressing, and it's like like, I don't know, dude,
29:53
Speaker 1: at a certain point, you just gotta like make it
29:55
Speaker 1: happen or like cause you're you're not gonna press less
29:58
Speaker 1: now than you did and freaking spring training. So I
30:02
Speaker 1: don't know, but I want it. I will like show
30:05
Speaker 1: me something because I'm looking for it, but you're just
30:08
Speaker 1: not giving me a whole lot.
30:10
Speaker 3: So yeah, I've been the same camp. I almost still like,
30:13
Speaker 3: wouldn't hate seeing him get just a little more runway.
30:15
Speaker 3: You get some right handed pitching, like you feel like
30:17
Speaker 3: it's in there, but then it's like if you can't
30:20
Speaker 3: hit the fastball, it's not in there. And that's kind
30:24
Speaker 3: of like the Spencer Turklesen thing last year. I don't
30:27
Speaker 3: know that going to Toledo is going to help you
30:28
Speaker 3: hit major league fastballs, so it sounds you got to
30:31
Speaker 3: make the adjustment. But with Jason, might be a mechanical
30:35
Speaker 3: tweak and maybe he does have to go to Toledo and
30:38
Speaker 3: Rework some things. If those numbers against velosity don't change soon,
30:42
Speaker 3: he's he's going to have to take a deep look
30:44
Speaker 3: in the mirror. I fear.
30:47
Speaker 1: One hundred and twenty whatever career at bats for Jayce
30:52
Speaker 1: has yet to have a home run, and you know,
30:56
Speaker 1: like I feel for him.
30:57
Speaker 2: I want him to have that moment.
30:58
Speaker 1: But it's like you got you would think with the
31:01
Speaker 1: guy that's a hitting tool, that he would run into one.
31:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, it almost is odd that he hasn't ran into one.
31:08
Speaker 3: I know, last year, like the rist thing was an issue,
31:10
Speaker 3: and you know, this season he is still working with
31:14
Speaker 3: you know what, forty seven played appearances, that's not a
31:17
Speaker 3: huge sample, but in these next fifty plate appearances, like
31:23
Speaker 3: you better make something happen.
31:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's the nature of the beast.
31:26
Speaker 1: Uh. All right, Well, we'll be back to talk about
31:30
Speaker 1: the Red Sox series and any other storylines throughout the week.
31:34
Speaker 1: Get back into a little bit more normal schedule, and
31:37
Speaker 1: hopefully now the Tigers are on a more normal schedule.
31:41
Speaker 1: Those West Coast trips trip me out, man, anything else
31:45
Speaker 1: going before we get out of here?
31:47
Speaker 3: No, that's all I got for now.
31:49
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you can follow us on X worldly
31:51
Speaker 1: known as Twitter at Cody Stapenhagen, I am at Kieran
31:53
Speaker 1: on his course, decly pod pages at Tiger Territory, Underscore, YouTube, Instagram, Apple, Spotify,
31:59
Speaker 1: wherever gets your podcast like rate, subscribe, review, five stars.
32:02
Speaker 2: You guys know the drill. We appreciate all.
32:05
Speaker 1: Of you joining us on this long season journey for
32:09
Speaker 1: Cody Saviniggan, I am Karen Seckley.
32:11
Speaker 4: Here we have a great day.