Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Justin Verlander, pinch-hitting and more Tigers takeaways

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Justin Verlander, pinch-hitting and more Tigers takeaways · 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 Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm Kieren Steckley
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: with me as always as a man who quite literally
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: was waiting old day for Sunday night. He is Cody Stavenhagen.
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: How you doing. I'm doing all right. You're not wrong.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I got up, waited around for a little bit, went
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: to the ballpark, but you are man. I don't know
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: if it's it's probably not so cool to quote Drake right,
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: but back to work. But he still smells like a vacation.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what. I'll be honest with everybody here.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: I think honestly is the best policy. We try to
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: be honest on this podcast. I'm still jet lagged. I'm
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: still not completely in touch. It's a little difficult halfway
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: around the world. Had a great vacation in Italy. It
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: was an anniversary vacation, so I had a great time
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: with my wife, but also kind of hated it at
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the same time because I just didn't like the podcast
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: happening and me not being able to be part of it.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: You and Roger and Austin did a great job and
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: it was fun to see, but happy to be back,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: happy to be back, and still jet lags. They'll tie
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: recording this after Sunday Night Baseball, So we'll do our
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: best to make a coherent podcast here. But let's just
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: start with the game today, and then you know, maybe
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: even the end of Saturday's game, Cody just got some
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: strange just kind of a strange end to like a
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: home opening series. So you have this amazing, amazing home opener,
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: which again we'll get to, and then you have a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: on Saturday. It's a win, but cond a strange game
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and forty five fifty whatever minute rain delay for really
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: no reason. And then today the Tigers back and forth
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: with the Cardinals and being highly questioned, I think is
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: a way to phrase it. So how would you kind
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: of classify the opening weekend in Detroit?
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: First of all, I've been jet lagged for like a
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: month since into the Dominican a month ago. I think
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: the Tigers have played nine games. I feel like probably
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: eight of them have been weird in one way or another,
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: Like we haven't really had probably the home opener maybe
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: it was the only one that was kind of just
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: like that smooth game. Okay, you know this is this
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: is normal. You play one sixty two and about one
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: hundred and twenty of them are kind of this way.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: We've had We've just had some strange ones so far.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: I think that is fair to say good that the
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Tigers took two or three from the Cardinals. What it
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: comes down to, there was a lot of like not
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: sure how to feel after that Diamondback series. They really
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: didn't play well. There were some emotional reactions. They came
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: out and for the most part, did what you should
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: do against the Cardinals team that I think is going
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: to have a long, long year. At the same time,
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: it's fair to think, well, maybe maybe you should sweep
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: a team like that. You certainly had your chances. I
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: do think the Tigers kind of beat themselves more than
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: anything on Sunday night.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: All right, Well, you say like beat themselves the obvious.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: The obvious two things that you know you can point
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: to would be airrors and and even the the heirs
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: that don't go into the uh into the box score
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: because you can't assume a double play like that was.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: You know, that was strange from Glabor there to tonight,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: get get the ball to to Hobby at second base
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: and a timely and an efficient manner to only get
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: the force out. And then obviously Emanuel Dejesu, so I
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: guess has come back down the earth since the last
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: time I was in America because uh, you know that
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: wasn't that wasn't the man I watched whole spring.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: And then also like an air in judgment and I
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: think that's probably fair to say with with Parker Meadows
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: uh on on the hobby line drive and.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: Air Injroy he was waiving him on contact.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so like it like it felt like a couple
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: elements of the Tigers doing things that were not necessarily
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: accustomed to scene from them. Added into added into, I
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: guess a little bit of added ball, bad luck to
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: some long some long flies and and all that stuff. So, uh,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: you're right that two out of three is the most
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: important thing here. But at the same time, probably the
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: most devastating aspect Cody would be justin ver lair didn't
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: start today today being Sunday, and that was like the
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: big to do that would that was the you know
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Sunday night baseball. You know he returns and you know,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: like the the imagery and the videos of him catching
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: the first pitch from Brandon Edge on the home opener
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: was awesome, and then a couple and then like that
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: just like completely deflates everything. Like what less than twenty
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: four hours later, he goes on the IL fifteen day
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: IL with left hip inflammation. What can you kind of
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: share with us about about this process? It seemed like
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: an overly cautious move. And I don't mean that critically,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: just seemed like we're not hundred percent sure he's one
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: hundred percent, we're just gonna we're just gonna pass this
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: for a second. Is that kind of like a fair.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely how aj Hinch and Verlander both described it.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Verlander said, to be quite honest, if we wanted to
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: push it, we probably could, but given the point we're
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: at in the calendar, that just doesn't make sense. I
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: think that's right. You know, he wasn't one hundred percent,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: and at this point it's April. You have a forty
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: three year old pitcher. There's probably no use in trying
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: to force it, trying to force a start if he's
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: not one hundred percent, especially given he hasn't really looked
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: that good so far dating back even to spring training.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: I think the good news here, it seems to be minor.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: I guess, knock on wood, that's how it goes with
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: all of these things. I just think it's a reminder
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: that Verlander's forty three. You know, looking back, it's kind
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: of amazing. He did not go on the injured list
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: at all until twenty fifteen. He went almost eleven seasons
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: with no il stint, and then he has since been
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: on the IL twenty every season at least once since
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: twenty that's father time. That's what happens. Suddenly you're not
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: so durable, even for a picture like Justin Verlander, who
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: has won a cy Young in that time and still
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: been in some ways a work course at various points.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know, like does it make me concerned? I
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: guess is probably the question, you know we're getting at,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: and I'm not sure how to answer that. I almost
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: think in a way, maybe I'm not as concerned. Maybe
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: that answer is why he was so He was good
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: to use his words like bad in his first start,
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: because he wasn't one hundred percent. His body wasn't moving right,
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: he wasn't getting he wasn't commanding his pitches, wasn't great
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: action on his breaking stuff, maybe there's an explanation now.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: I asked Verlander that, and he kind of said, doesn't matter.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: I don't want to make any excuses, which I think
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: is a pretty classic Justin Verlander answer. I think we
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: gotta let this play out. You gotta hope it's as
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: advertised right now and he comes back in fifteen days
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: and he's good to go, and maybe his stuff and
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: looks a little bit better. At the same time, is
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: obviously fair to say, what's supposed to be this great,
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: uh cathartic emotional reunion, supposed to have this great Sunday
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: night baseball game. It's very early, but it is not
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: going according to script right now.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, and the the other side of
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: that is, like the thing that is going according to script,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: and it always does, is that pitchers get hurt, just
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: in general, and and and then we stress about like
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: the uh the management of starting pitchers that are major
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: league caliber but maybe not like in your top five,
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: and you know, all throughout spring training and should you
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: do this? And should you? And you know, this is
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: what we do. And you know, by April fifth, you know,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Montero's back up in Detroit and starting and starting a
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: baseball game. And for his efforts, he went to the
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: fifth ning four point one uh n A and c
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: able but three runs, two of them are in three k's,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and he had a walk in there. What'd you think
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: from Montero today?
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: You know, I thought he was really good. He seemed
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: to be in a rhythm, he was seeing his spots.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: It wasn't until after the fact I went back and
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: looked and he actually didn't miss any bats at all.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: I think he had four whiffs. The whole night. Actually
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: wasn't great in terms of swing and miss stuff, but
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: he was for the most part in the zone. Got
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: through those four innings really easily, and it unraveled in
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: him pretty quickly through the fifth. I mean, this is
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: a guy who's thrown like a complete game, Maddox, But
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: that is probably still one of the questions, and you know,
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: cater Montero's attempt to become a full time major league starters,
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: like can he go three times through the order? It
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: didn't quite happen. But obviously there's a double play that
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: wasn't turned. There was no two pitch that really wasn't
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: a terrible pitch. It was a slider on the outer
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: third Montero said they wanted that down below the zone,
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: but he left it up kind of middle out and
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I got pulled into left fields. It was a good swing,
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: probably a little bit of a lucky swing to pull
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: an outside slider. A couple of things went wrong, and
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: next thing you knew, he was out of the game
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: and the Tigers were on the ropes. It was kind
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: of strange, but actually I thought a pretty solid performance
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: from cater Montero, although you would like to see him
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: miss more bats next time out.
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, a couple of moments there that didn't
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: go his way, and you know, and and and the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: game changes a little bit, so that's part of it.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: We'll see him again, obviously, But overall, I felt like.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: The way it was actually a little better than like
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: the line is going to suggest. He had a kind of,
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: you know, I don't know if he's seeing eye single,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: but had a single. It's not like it was scorched.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: His worst mistake was the throwing error that that led
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: to runs. But after that he actually settled down, and
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: you don't leave that game with a good feeling. And
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: he hadn't been sharp a couple other times we had
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: seen him, but you know, after those couple of batters
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: and the error he was he was, all right, yeah.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: He did settle in there. That's a that is worth
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: noting and something that like if he does kind of
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to say, right the ship but
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: kinda get back on the plane a little bit, we
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: will will point to Sunday night and be like, yeah,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: so that was that was him kind of getting you know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: regain form a little bit, and he built off that
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: and et cetera, et cetera. All right, kind of to
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: pay some bills. And I gotta tell you, guys, I
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: am so excited to see Justin Erlander eventually pitch in
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: Detroit for the Detroit Tigers. And that is why I
• 10:37
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  Speaker 1: Seek Geek. So coming back here, Cody, I was prepared
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: to do a a Spencer Torkalsen conversation and we're still
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: gonna do that. But I do want to also give
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: them credit for seeing the ball well today. Make sure
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I have the stats correct. He had three walks today.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: Last season he only had two games with more than
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: two walks. Right, there was a three walk in there,
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: and then there's a there's actually a four walk game
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: in there for him or a bit really early in
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: the season. So, and plus he had a he had
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: a hit as well, So I don't know, a pretty
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: putrid start, obviously, I think it is fair to say
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: you don't. I don't think the best version of this
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: team has Torklsen batting eighth. I think that's fair to say.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Uh We talked a lot in spring training about like,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: what's the safety net for a specier Torklsen bad offensive season?
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: And I think the correct answer is there isn't really one.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: Uh So it is something to monitor. I am confident
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: that he'll be able to get back to being the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: special Tokalsen that we've seen the better part, you know,
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: two of the last three seasons. But at the same time,
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: it is something that very very very very very early
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: in the season is not on the list of encouraging
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: signs for this team.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I still know how to talk about this. I
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: think it's too early for me to have any real thoughts.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, two days ago, Carry Carpenter looked lost out
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: of his mind. I would have told you I was
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: more worried about Carry Carpenter than I will Spencer Torkleson.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Kerry Carpenter has since homeward and back to back games
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: he looks great, So I think I'm just gonna leave
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: it there, like it's a little too early to know.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: You'd like to see him get going. It is strange
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: seeing him hit eighth, but he's had some better at bats,
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: some better swings, even if he doesn't necessarily have the
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: scoreboard results or the big swing you want to see yet.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: So let's give this a little more time. The one
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: thing I will say, like I've talked about the lineup
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: and the infield puzzle a lot, because I think it
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: is quietly kind of the thing bubbling under the surface
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: that's most interesting about this team. Just how is playing
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: time going to shake out for everybody?
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: You know?
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: Shortstop? How much you're gonna play hobby versus mcgona was
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: the big one, And how are you gonna get cold
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: Keith in the lineup? And I would just say, I'm
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: not sure Torklesen is immune from this discussion, because if
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: he continues to struggle, one easy solution to some of
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: these problems you're facing is to go have Cold Keith
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: play a little more first base. And maybe that means
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Torklesen is riding the pine more than any of us
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: would have imagined it might not get to that point,
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: but you know, A J. Hinchley's not sending a message
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: by hitting him eighth, but you get dropped to the
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: eighth spot. The move that happens after that is spending
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: some time on the bench. Torklesen may come out in
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Minnesota and have a great series and this is irrelevant.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: So I, you know, some things to watch, but let's
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: give it a little longer before we get emotional about it.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought up Cold Keith because we're about
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: fifteen minutes into this episode and you know, my first
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: time talking since the regular season has started, and Cold
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Keith is, I don't know, the number one story on
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: this team. If you just kind of look at the
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: team stats, it's you know, hitting stats, it's really just
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: him at the top of almost everything. And and so like,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: having not been able to watch closely like I normally would,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and obviously you have like what are we? What are we?
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: What is this Cold Keith that like, you know, someone
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: just woke up from a coma or a ten day
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: Italy vacation. They look at the stats of Cold Keith
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: and it's like, what is this? Is he a different guy?
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: Or or like what is possible explanation do we have
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: for cold Keith? You know, ten ish days or whatever
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: into the season, batting a cool four oh seven with
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: a one thousand and four ops, what what is this?
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: I'd say you shouldn't really be surprised. How many times
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: do we talk about with this offseason. This is a
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: guy who increased his fly ball rate, increased his pull rate,
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: increased his ax and velocities, a lot of smaller signs
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: you would like to see last year he did. This
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: is a guy who's a highly touted hitting prospect, who
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: was a big, strong guy, just kind of trying to
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: get a little more comfortable, trying to get a little
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: more loose. Made some very subtle changes. He's a little
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: more upright in his stance, he's a little more loose
• 16:16
  Speaker 2: with his hands set up. He's talked about breathing, exercise
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: and trying to be in a flow state, which sounds nice.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: And he's coming out hot. You know, that was a
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: big goal for him. He's doing that so far, like
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: this is pretty close to the best case scenario. But honestly,
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: I'm just not that surprised. And now the question is like, Okay,
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: how are you getting this guy in the lineup every day,
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: and how many at bats are you going to give
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: him against left handed pitching? That is still a question.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: Everyone's mad when he doesn't face a lefty, But his
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: ops against lefties last year was in the four hundreds,
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: so you could argue that's just the smart thing to
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: do is to not have him face a lot of lefties.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: But you know, when from Ravaldez is pitching and Glaber
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Tours is dh and Cold Keith isn't in the lineup,
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: that just looks weird, and that's something Ad Hinch and
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: the Tigers have to swort through. At this point. I
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: didn't give Cold Keith keeps hitting four hundred. They're gonna
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: find a way to get them in the lineup.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Well, you mentioned the pitch hitting aspect, and obviously that
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: was part of part part of the story. Today, Jamia
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Jones pinch hits for him in the get this right
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: in the sixth inning, And I think longtime listeners know
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: my overall feelings that are again not necessarily numbers based,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: but I just believe in putting your best hitters out there,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: you know, as many at beast as possible, especially when
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: it's a situation where you know you're in a game
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: and you're probably gonna have a guy come up again.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: And we did see that with with Jamia Jones out.
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: Jami Jones is a little bit of exception for my
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: general rule on this because he was so great against
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: left these last year. But you just laid out all
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: these well all this flow about cold Keith and you
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: know what we're talking about. In a day that he
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: was taken you know, two at bats were taken away
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: from him. Uh So it's.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Hear you say you want your best hitters on the field.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: You have a left handed pitcher on the mound. You
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: have one guy with a nine to seventy ops against
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: lefties and another guy at the four hundred ops against lefties.
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: Who is the better hitter? Yeah, you're right, Jamie Jones.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Like it's just Jemi Jones. Cold Keith is great. I
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: hope he has a great year. I hope he hits
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: lefties well and gets more at bats. Jamie Jones was
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: the better hitter against left handed pitching.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Well, we know what the twitter fodder was. But did
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: aj the I don't want to say defend, he doesn't
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: have to defend anything, but like, did he like discuss it.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: You guys ask about it.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: A literally, I don't think we even talked about that
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: decision specifically, because it's so we've seen so many times
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: this is how the Tigers play. I'm surprised at the
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Twitter blowback to aj Hinch, like, have you guys not
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: watched the Tigers for the last like five years? And
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: more importantly, see see how often this works. This is
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: what they do. It worked the day before when Matt
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: Vierling pinch hit for Keith big sac fly. Keith is
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: on the top step of the dugout, greets Matt ev
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: and she said, I'll do it again. Also worth noting
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: like we got to get out of this thinking that
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: the most important bat at bats are in the ninth inning.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: It's just not true. Every at bat, every out counts
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: the same or the most important at best of that
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: game where with runners on base and the what was
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: it the fifth or the sixth when Jami pinchhit, So
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: why Jami Jones got that at bad? It was a
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: leverage at bat, There was something at stake, and so
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: aj Hinch was willing to do that even if that
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: meant Jami the lineup might roll back around to Jami
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: faces a righty in the ninth. I actually asked AJ
• 20:04
  Speaker 2: why he didn't use Zach McKinstry in the ninth. It's
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: worth noting, probably that this is not what AJ said,
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: but Zach mckintree hasn't actually been that good against right
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: handed pitching. I'd argue probably still better than Jami Jones
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: against righty's. That was actually the only thing that struck
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: me as curious in this game was that Jami and
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Vierling both hit in the ninth, and Zach McKinstry didn't.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: The pitcher on the mound O'Brien pretty good against both
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: sided hitters, so we could argue ourselves in circles about
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: that one. The Jami Jones at bat made complete sense
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: to me. That's what we've seen the Tigers do and
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: have great success with Veerling hit for Carpenter to lead
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: off an inning when the Tigers were trailing. They're just
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: trying to get something started, try to get a runnerud
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: base and spark a run scoring inning. So I didn't
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: really have an issue with that one. I don't know,
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: I'm just surprised this is such a topic, Like I
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: feel like everyone should be used to this and if
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: it never worked. That would be a different conversation, but
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: this has worked and helped the Zeigers win a lot
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: of games over the past few seasons, especially last year.
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: That was one of their biggest strengths was the ability
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: to use their bench.
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: No, you're right, you're right, and and and and if
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: I'm like being completely fair to myself and maybe even
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: like a little bit contradictory, but then again, it's almost
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: one eastern time. Like, I do kind of like the
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: fact that JAMAI, if he's gonna come in that early,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: and you're right, like the that was the most important
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: point of the game to that point. There was no
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: guarantee you were going to have a situation later that
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: was going to be as advantageous as that situation. So
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: all that is that is one hundred percent correct point
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: by you there. I do also like the fact that,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: like JAMAI should get some work against righties occasionally, because
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: there could be a situation in a more crucial game
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: later in the season where again he comes in in
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: the sixth inning or whatever, and then you know, bats
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: around and he's got up again. It's not necessarily going
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: to be a lefty. In fact, it probably won't so
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: like I'd like to see I like giving him work
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: there too. So uh, maybe that makes me a little
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: bit of a hypocrite, but like, as I reflect on it,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I do think that is probably also a good thing.
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: All right, let's uh, let's do some Kevin McGonagall talk Cody, because.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: I mean, why not.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: The guy's awesome. I was thank God for Western time
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: zones and I was able to watch Opening Day in
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: Rome at a decent time started like eight forty Rome times.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I was able to watch the entire game, and I
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: was in awe. I was in off of keemcgona. We
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: don't have to, you know, rehash all that stuff that
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: you guys have already talked about, but I continue to
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: be in awe of him. He had two walks today,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: including against against a lefty that you could clearly see
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: they were not trying to give him anything to hit.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Uh. It's like unbelievable how this kid is getting pitched
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: right now. I'm pitching him like he's not Barry Bonds,
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: so they would just walk Barry Bonds, but they are
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: very afraid to throw him strikes.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: No, I mean it's remarkable, and like and and and
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: and that's kind of like the word that I keep
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: coming back to with Kevin McGonagall is that, like everything
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: that he does, it's kind of remarkable and and and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: it's like the expected stuff and it's not necessarily expected stuff, Like, uh,
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I I think I underrated the the foot speed and
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: the speed speed element of his game, uh, you know
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: before before the season started, and and you know, and
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: and like his feel I knew remarkable, his hit tool
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: I knew remarkable. Uh, he's more comfortable in the field
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: than I thought he would be at this point. And
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and again like it like batting second the lineup today,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: like it's it's amazing, he's currently batting three h three
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: If you're if you're into that sort of stuff this
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: early in the season, and then you know, there's some
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: fodder out there out like I guess, I don't know
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: what you call like speculation, some new stuff about whether
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: like there's extension talks. Bob Nightingale today said that their
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: you know, engagements have happened. I hope I'm not misquoting,
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: but it's something along those lines. I'll just say this,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: I would think it would be awesome if the Tigers
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: could luck Kevin McGonagall up for a long time. I
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: can't say I necessarily expect a deal to come to
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: fruition because for the reasons that we talk about these
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: extensions all the time, I just feel like whatever number
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: even would be reasonable right now is still leaving money
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: on the table for Kevin McGonagall. That's how freaking good
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I think he is.
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Jeff Passon had reported that there had
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: been some engagement with McGonagall, and he mentioned another young
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: player in the league. And the second part of that
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: sentence that no one seemed to pay much attention to
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: was that those deals are less likely to get across
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: the finish line. It's kind of about less likely than
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: the Colt Emerson deal, which did get across the finish line.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: I think that's the most important part in that sentence.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: That's kind of I would be surprised if anything happens soon.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: I'll just I'll probably just leave.
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: It at that. Yeah, And again, like if I were
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: his representation, I'm not sure i'd be like overly eager
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to make.
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: Any Yeah, I'll say that too. If I were his agent,
• 25:29
  Speaker 2: I think I would say no, like unless it's just
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: an incredible, incredible offer. Like, I don't know. I guess
• 25:38
  Speaker 2: it's very easy to say, oh, yeah, I turned down
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: one hundred million dollars, but like, you might just be
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: leaving a lot of money on the table. If Kevin
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: mcgonagall's as good as he as everyone seems to think
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: he is, it's gonna be tough to find a deal
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: that captures your true market value of your prime years.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: So you know, it's ultimately an individual choice. And if
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: someone must choose financial security for their family, I wouldn't
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: blame them, but better be a hell of a competitive offer.
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: And that's another thing, is this Tiger's front off is
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: going to offer the moon and beyond when they don't
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: when they don't have to, Like, there are a lot
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: of advantages for teams, you know, locking up players for
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: longer than they would be able to control them otherwise.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: But there's also something to be said for paying the
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: guy's league minimum for three years and knowing their salary
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: is not going to get out of whack for six years.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: So I don't necessarily fault anyone who takes a deal,
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: especially if it's a deal with like substantially larger ceiling
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: than like the cool Keith contract. But uh, Yeah, I
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: think that's got to be a factor here, Like it's
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: just tough for those to work, to actually work for
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: all parties.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, and they have another element of this.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure he's not involved in this process at all.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: He's just letting his team do it. But like there's
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: gonna be some times where Ken mcgonagall's gonna slide a
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: little bit because that's how the game works. And it's like,
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: just just go play ball, dude, Just go play ball,
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: and and everything will kind of work itself out. Uh,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: all right for my brain gets any more, Fry Cody,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: is there anything else we got to touchdown before before
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: we jet out of here?
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: Are we? Are? We good on everything? We got Verlander.
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: We've talked a little bit about the puzzle, we got,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: we got the aj Hinge criticism, we got mcgonagal talk. Man,
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: I think that covers the big stuff for right now.
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and and and we'll have, uh, we'll have more
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: more contexts and more statistics to back up any concerns
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: and and uh and any like enlightenments that that this
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: team has to offer very early in the year. And uh,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: and yeah, I'm I'm I'm happy to be doing this again.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: If you if you're watching on YouTube, which please subscribe
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: on YouTube. I think you can see the bags underneath
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: my eyes. But I'm so happy to be doing this
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: again with you, Cody. I missed it so much and
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: thanks for all the kind words from from our listeners
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: on on x fom me know on Twitter at Cody Stavenhagen.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: I'm Att Kieran Underscore Declee at Tiger Territory. Underscore is
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: the main page. I want to give a shout out
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: to the Stricklands and the Meos, a couple of families
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: that were on the trip that had connections to Colt
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Keith and Kevin McGonagall in fact, like watch them play
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: or from the same area and you know, you know,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: know the family a little bit. So the world, the
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: world is big, but in Tiger's community it can be
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: quite small. And so uh and so yeah, that was
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: that was a fun little tidbit from the trip as well.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: So I want to thank everybody for listening. We'll be
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: back later this week talk more Tigers for Cody Stapenhagen.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: I'm Kieran Steckley. Everybody, have great day.