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All the things the Tigers have wasted in 2026 · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome in to another episode of Tiger Territory, part
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network, the Troy Tigers podcast. I'm
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Kieran Stegler. With me, as always, a man who knows
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: how to make every second count. He is Cody Stavenhagen.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: How are we doing?
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Doing all right. It was a long weekend. I don't
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: know if I made it count or not. Four games
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: in Cleveland, three walk-off losses. Things aren't great these days. Yet,
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: here we are. Happy Labor Day, everyone.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Happy Labor Day. Thank you for, if you're listening to
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: this on Monday, thank you for making this part of
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: your holiday weekend. And look, the thing about like, you know,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: trying to talk about this team is that at a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: certain point, you just feel like it's all so repetitive
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: because what you're seeing is all so repetitive. And I'm
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: not the only one that has said this, but it's
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: like at a certain point, you got to stop kind
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: of like trying to break it down every little way
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: and just kind of take a step back and be like,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: sheesh man at like at a certain point like this
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: is like and we're well past it by the way
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: but a certain point like this is like not an
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: anomaly like this is like who you are and like
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: there was a world like we joked about this on
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: our last episode like there was a world where it's
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: like well shoot man if they you know wouldn't it
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: be crazy if they like won all four games and
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: to their credit, I guess, like they never threw a
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: pitch in which they were trailing, right? Incredible.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: Incredible. They never threw a pitch while trailing and they
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: lost three out of four.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: Games, three out of four games. So obviously those are,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: you know, that's three one run losses and you have
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: the six zero, uh, when on Saturday to, you know,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: what somewhat salvage the weekend, but obviously nothing really feels
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: like salvage right now. But, uh, I mean like what,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: you were there like what what does the team even
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: go through what are they like when it's like this
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: keeps happening because i mean you know it i know
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: i know what the fans reaction is when it keeps
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: happening like this but what is what is even going
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: on the clubhouse when it just feels like over and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: over again you're just getting hit below the belt like
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: constantly especially by you know you know in the case
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: of cleveland like you know freaking cleveland you know so.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: Right Yeah, vibes aren't great, as to be expected, especially with,
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: you know, some of these veteran guys who kind of
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: know the season's over, and most of them haven't had
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: good years, and you're starting to see the body language
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: kind of slump a little bit. I think this is
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: as dejected or frustrated as I've seen A.J. Hinch, like
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: he's pretty good at putting on a face and coming
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: to the park each day, the win today's game thing,
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: but especially after some of these games, man, he just
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: looks drained and it's hard to blame him. I would
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: say the one maybe saving grace is this is now
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: such a young team. You have so many rookies up here,
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: guys who in a sense are kind of just glad
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: to be here, like trying to prove they belong. So
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: maybe that still gives you a little fuel coming to
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: the park. Now some of these guys have probably never
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: really lost like this before, or at least not felt
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: the weight of losing day-to-day in the major leagues, losing
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: in heartbreaking fashion in the major leagues. So in a way,
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: that could be tougher for some of these rookies to
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: handle than the guys who have been through it, who knows,
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: like this is kind of part of the drill sometimes.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: I mean, even Kevin McGonigal, who's been up here for
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: a full year now, Kevin McGonigal is not someone who
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: likes losing. And I think you're starting to see it
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: wear on him a little bit because... Um, I, that's
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: just not, it doesn't strike me as being in his
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: DNA and yet he's kind of having to wear this.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: And now all of a sudden he's something closer to
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: one of the leaders in the clubhouse and he's played.
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: It's on a baseball. I think he's, he's, you know,
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: been taxed physically. Um, he's still like handling himself well,
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: but you can just, you just kind of see it
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: in his eyes, man. Like everyone's, everyone's pretty drained right now.
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: And it's hard to, you know, Hard to blame them.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: Sometimes you realize players feel the same way you do
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: on certain emotions because it is a draining experience. And,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: you know, like, look, you know, your point on the
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: young guys, I think, is fair because, like, if I'm Callahan,
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: if I'm Peck, to a certain extent, Hayuli, who obviously
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: has been up here a little bit, Valencia, you know,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: if I'm, like, one of those guys, it's like, man, like,
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: I don't have time to, like, worry about, like, the
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: constant losing. Obviously, you're trying to win, but it's like,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to, like, figure this ish out.
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Like I'm trying, you know, like I got a, like a,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say like bigger stakes, but I
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: got like lifelong stakes here that I got to figure out.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: I can't like be wary about like, you know, certain
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: things that someone like a Torres or a bias, or
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: like you said, now veteran McGonigal is like, you know,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: those kinds of perspectives exist. But, you know, in terms
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: of AJ Hinch, you're right. He is somebody that you
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: can just like tell is, like fully capable of like
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: sending out the message that, you know, like, you know,
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: not everything's okay, but like, you know, we got to
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: focus on this and blah, blah, blah. And to the
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: extent that he is getting criticized, like you see people,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: it's like, why are you throwing out Jansen, you know, in, in,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: in the ninth inning or, you know, extras or whatever.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: what other options like he only has the options on
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: the team right like am i am i confused you
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: don't just get to like randomly pick up a guy
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: off the roster and just like put him out there
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: in a crucial situation like it's like like these are
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: the dudes these are the dudes and and and so
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: like even though we can like focus on all right
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: well you know he got a bad pitch here or
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: you know some bad luck here like i said earlier
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: this is not a situation where it's an anomaly anymore
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: this is the structure of the team. And that's something
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that you wrote about this weekend is that like the
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: structure of the team has kind of, I don't know,
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: can we say 10 out of 10 bad result possible
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: played out? And, and, and that goes on to the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: front office. I mean, it just does like, this is
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: something that they're going to have to wear, you know
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: what I mean? Because the benefit of the doubt that
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: we used to give them when it came to like
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: pitchers or projects or whatever is, was well warranted. If
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: you want to talk about correction, if you want to
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: talk about correction or finding the mean or whatever, that's
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: where we're at now. You see what I'm saying?
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely. The benefit of the doubt with pitching acquisitions
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: is long gone, to be honest. I think we all
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: know it hasn't been great, but when you actually list
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: it out like I did, I think it's even worse
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: than it feels. It's actually a stunning, colossal failure over
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: the past two years of they have paid roughly $ 128. 75
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: million to pitchers. That's actually being generous. That's not counting
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: a $ 20 million deferred signing bonus for Frambois Valdez. That's
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: not including Quinta Maeda, who is 24 and 25. So
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: $ 128. 75 million. Those pitchers have accumulated 4.8 wins above replacement.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: that is terrible, pretty much all of that has come
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: from Jack Flaherty, who has still underperformed his contract, and
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: a little bit from Fromber, who has greatly outperformed his contract,
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: so if you go, Kieran, Alex Cobb, John Brebbia, let's
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: just go down the list, Alex Cobb, obviously he was hurt,
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: it was a risky signing, it didn't work, John Brebbia, look,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: they didn't pay him a lot, but I didn't like it,
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: it didn't work, Tommy Canely, People kind of forget there
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: was a point in the first half of his Tiger
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: senior where he was pretty good. Then he was miserable
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: in the second half. Jack Flaherty, like, look, a lot
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: of people, myself included, liked it when they brought him back.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: He strikes guys out. Some war still kind of likes him,
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: but obviously, you know, he's had four plus ERAs. He
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: hasn't been good. Jose Urquidy, whatever, is one million, but
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: it didn't work out. Drew Anderson, he's been fine. 0.6 war,
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: nothing to brag about, but 7 million, you know, it's
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: not hurting anyone. He's been okay. Fromber, we all know
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: how that's gone. Verlander, same thing. Aging pitcher, hasn't worked out.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: Kimley Jansen, aging pitcher. Terrible metrics last year, hasn't worked out.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Kyle Finnegan, really the one guy you hit on last year,
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: you brought him back, it hasn't worked out. So these guys,
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: let's go back to the trade deadline. Chris Paddock, Charlie Morton,
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: Paul Seawald, Cody Hoyer.
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: That is.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: 14, 15 guys, and you have missed on every single
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: one of them. That is actually terrible. Those are the
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: types of moves that cost people their jobs. I'm not
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: saying Scott Harris is going to get fired because I
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: don't think he is, but you think their pro scouting
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: department or whatever their process is to identify these free
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: agents is not going to go over some major overhaul.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Somebody is probably losing their job as a result of
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: how this has gone. It's been a colossal waste of money,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: and it is a big part of how you end
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: up here. Obviously, the bigger money has gone to starting pitching.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: It hasn't worked out. It's really remarkable the Tigers' staff
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: is as good as it is. It kind of speaks
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: to the way they've developed guys like Montero, like Melton.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: How good Chris Fetter and Robin Lundar to squeeze something
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: when the reinforcements from the outside just have not been
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: there at all. And then obviously the bullpen construction has
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: been a train wreck and the stuff isn't there. And
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: it shows up when you're playing a team like the Guardians.
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: Why do you keep losing close games to the Guardians? Well,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: a big reason is their bullpen is nasty. Your guys
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: cannot hit Hunter Gaddis. They cannot hit Kate Smith. And look,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: it wasn't really the bullpens fault. They lost Sunday. The
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: tigers had one hit after the first inning, but eventually
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: you get deeper and deeper into that game and Kyle
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: Finnegan's out there and extras and you, and you lose.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: And that's how it's gone. The tigers blew leads, um,
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: in all three of those games. In the second game
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: of that doubleheader, it was especially at the hands of
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: the bullpen. It's nothing new. When you look at the
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: run differential and like, well, why have the Tigers underperformed
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: so many metrics? It's actually pretty clear. If they're playing
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: a close game, they're likely to lose it because they
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: don't have good options to go to in the late innings.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: And I think it's hard to say that falls, you know,
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: you can blame that on the players themselves and then
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: a ton of the blame falls on the front office.
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: Man, you were cooking there. I just have one thing
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: to add. If your saving grace is Drew Anderson, who,
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: as you said, has overall been fine, whatever, then that's
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: an overall flaw in your player acquisition system. And one
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: of the things I talked about a lot last offseason
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: in regards to the Tigers' offense is that, like, you're
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: going to have to do some self-scouting about what you
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: got wrong in terms of that collapse that we saw
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: at the end of the regular season. This is the 20,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: the 20, 26 South self-scouting is regarding the, like the
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: pitcher acquisition process, because that's where you have to really
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: figure out, all right, what did we, what did we overlook?
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: What did we focus on that, you know, did not
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: net itself the, the results that we were looking to
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and how do we fix it moving forward? Because, uh,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: There's too many other parts that are good for this
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: to keep happening on a year-to-year basis. So that would
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: be the.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: Way that I put it. All right.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: We are going to take a quick break. And then afterward,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: we're going to do a little introspection on the season
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: about what has been wasted in this Tiger season. But first,
• 12:07
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• 13:12
  Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, do some housekeeping transactions the
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: Tigers made this weekend. We have seen the last of
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Matt Vierling this season. He was put on the 60-day IL,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: so that ends his season. Obviously, there are less than
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: 60 days left in the season. Brant Hurter is coming back.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Andrew Sears sent down. And Flaherty made a rehab outing.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Am I missing anything?
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Maybe. Look, that covers the main stuff.
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: Really unfortunate for Matt Vierling. A guy I really like.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: It's almost easy to forget how good he was for
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: the Tigers in 2024. And really a guy who just
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: kind of busted his ass, plays the game hard every day,
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: hasn't worked out for him the past two years, and
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: the health component hasn't been there and Now the unfortunate reality,
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: he does look like a contender to be non-tendered this winter.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: We will see for sure, but you would think his
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: name is certainly on the short list of guys who
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: it's like, well, are they going to let them continue
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: to occupy a roster spot? I don't know. So it's tough.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: Here now, I just think it is worth a little
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: bit of acknowledgement for the good Matt Bierling did, because
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: obviously he's been frustrating the past two years. The other stuff,
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: good to see Brent Herter back, get to finish his
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: season healthy. Another guy, he can be a really good reliever, man,
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: and we've seen it at the Major League level. Kind
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: of tough. Sears gets sent down right after a really
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: strong outing, but it sounds like there are some roster
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: mechanics going on. You have eternity and bereavement, and it
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: sounds like there's going to be an opportunity for Sears
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: to be right back in the big leagues coming up
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: pretty soon. And then.
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: What's the other one? What am I missing here?
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: Flaherty, 19 pitches.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, 19 pitches, one in the third inning, one hit,
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: a walk, two punches. That was intentionally very short. He's
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: basically not going to have the time to build back
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: up to a full workload, but I think it's important
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: to him. He's entering free agency after this year to
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: get back on a major league mound, finish the year healthy.
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: So when he comes back to Detroit, He's not going
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: to be doing full starts. It'll either be as a
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: reliever or maybe some sort of piggyback starts, whatever. We
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: might see some more flavors of pitching chaos with guys
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: like Flaherty and Sears and also River Ryan, who I
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: get asked about all the time. He is still making progress.
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: It sounds like maybe we're going to see him. River
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: actually was on paternity recently. He and his wife had
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: their third child. Not many guys still on the prospect
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: list with three children. So that's how it goes. But A.J.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Hinch said they're hopeful he can get into a rehab
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: game soon and said we would love for him to
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: pitch in the big leagues. And they do think he
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: can be a starter. What exactly that means, we'll see.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: Sounds like probably the middle to latter part of this
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: month is what I would currently guess. So maybe we
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: can see a couple big league River Ryan outings. All right.
• 16:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: And if that day does come for, uh, for Matt, we'll,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: we'll talk about it then because it is one of the, uh,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: you know, one of those guys that's kind of been
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: here through a lot of the change in the organization,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: obviously being, uh, an acquisition, one of Scott Harris's first. So, uh,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: when that times with, if, and when that time comes,
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: we will, uh, definitely give it it's due because it
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: is worth mentioning.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: Um, you know, what else is worth mentioning Cody? Uh, like,
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: one of the disappointing aspects of this year is that
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: there's actually a decently long list of good things or
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: noteworthy things that have occurred or been around this team that,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, for lack of a better term, like it's
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: just has been wasted. I'm not saying so-and-so wasted this,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: but like it, like certain things you're going to look
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: back and be like, Hey, remember 2026 Kevin McGonigal, that
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: rookie of the year season. What was the Tigers record
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: that year? You know what I mean? Like that, like that,
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: that's what I'm looking at it from a, you know,
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: 50,000 foot view is like, what's been wasted this year.
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: And I think that's actually number one, like Kevin McGonigal special.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: And my money is, will continue to be special. And
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: we're going to talk about how remarkable he was as
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: a rookie. And maybe the fact that the team has like,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: in some ways kind of collapsed around him. will make
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: it look more remarkable, but man, Kevin McGonigal winning rookie
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: of the year before the season, you would have thought, man,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the Tigers might be humming now. And, and he still
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: might slash should win the award, but it's not going
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: to come with, with, with team success. And so that's one,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: I think that's the number one thing wasted with the
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: 2026 Tigers. And, And sort of along the same scope,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: I would put Scooble's, like, last run with the Tigers. Like,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: and again, this is not me saying, like, so-and-so's fault,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: they should have done this, they should have done that.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: It's just, matter-of-factly, you had Scooble, you know, you had
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: what really we all anticipated as, like, one last run
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: with Tarek Scooble. I think we all kind of were, like,
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: privy to that notion, I would say.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: And.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: You mentioned River Ryan earlier, and Zaire Hope, obviously, shows promising.
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: So this might not be, quote-unquote, totally wasted, but as
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: of now, you just can't call it anything else. It
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: was a wasted last season in Detroit for Tarek Skubal,
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: and again, part of it's his health, part of it's
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: all this other stuff around the team and sort of
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the drama of it, but it is a wasted opportunity.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: Unpopular one, and one that I hope sort of doesn't net...
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: like the anxiety that the statement comes with. But a
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: pretty healthy year for Riley Green in his prime. You know,
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: he had the two home runs on Saturday. And again,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: you got like nothing to show for it.
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: You know what I mean?
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Riley Green's going to miss three weeks with a hamstring injury.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Kevin mcgonigal is gonna win rookie of the year how
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: the tiger's doing yeah you know what.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: I mean largely overcame his extreme strikeout issues kevin mcgonigal
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: won rookie of the year dylan dingler spent most of
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: the season playing like the best catcher in baseball those
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: are three things that if we would have told you
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: in february you would have said wow the tigers are
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: going to the world series in a year where we
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: always say like oh murphy's law like everything that can
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: go wrong has it's not actually true They've had some
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: stuff really go right, which speaks to how deep the
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: things that have gone wrong have gone wrong. I use that,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: it's like stunning failures. There have just been some stunning
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: failures this year that have completely overshadowed actually a lot
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: of really encouraging things.
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, what I wrote down was Dingler's star is born,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: is how I put it. And then, you know, another
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: one like, you know, Troy Melton blossoming. Montero to an
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: external extent, I would say Montero establishing himself. I think
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: that's a, like after sort of like years of like,
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: what is this, how to use it, whatever Montero establishing
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: himself and Troy Melton blossoming. Again, those are two things
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: that you would have thought would have been such good
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: fortune for this team. And it turns out to be
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: like a nothing burger or worse just for the, you know, 2026. Now,
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: some of these things will apply moving forward, obviously, but
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: in 2026, it is a downer.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: And you know what?
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: This is one that I have to eat a little
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: bit because I was just like, I don't know, for
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: a long time. But I've come around. Like Drew Summers.
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: There's a world where Drew Summers is like, you talk
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: about weapons out of the pen that Cleveland has. There's
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: a world where Drew Summers is this like, oh man,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I really want to see that guy in the 7th
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: or 8th inning. But because of all the other failures,
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: he's kind of been thrust into a higher tier of
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: role that I feel like if AJ had his way
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: would be slower played for a guy as young and as,
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: you know, lack of experience as he has. So like,
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: you know, obviously he gives up the walk off or whatever,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: but like what I'm saying is like, he could have
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: been such a good tier two bullpen weapon. If all
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: these things that we talked about earlier netted themselves out
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: in some positive way, instead he has to kind of
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: go higher. That doesn't mean that like, he hasn't like
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: kind of shown something this year. And again, wasted that
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: you know everything else kind of collapsed around him.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: You know yeah you know summers has a 398 era
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: he's actually pitched a lot better than that his xera
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: is 2.18 you guys can go look at his stat
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: cast it's still all full of red we're talking 99th
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: percentile and and uh whiff and things like that he's
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: really good he is pitching at least one tier above
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: where he should be in terms of really just experience
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: level in the major leagues Now he's pitching leverage. Now
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: he's being asked to go up and down, pitch the eighth,
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: pitch the ninth. Maybe it's good for him long-term to
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: be exposed to those situations, but right now it's a
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: little too much. Why has he started giving up some
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: runs recently? Same thing. I think it's just a little
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: too much, a little overextended, but it's out of necessity.
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: And another thing that's been wasted this year is Justin
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Verlander's homecoming, which leads me to say, Cody... that I
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: am excited to look for tickets for Justin Verlander Week
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: in Detroit at the end of this month. Which is
• 23:18
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• 24:17
  Speaker 3: Thank you, SeatGeek.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: All right, so, yeah, speaking of Verlander, obviously, you know,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: 10 out of 10 worst scenario. He hasn't pitched at
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Comerica Park this year. Uh, but they, they, you know,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: he's going to have his, his due on the 25th
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: and the 26th. The Tigers, uh, have put that out there. And, uh,
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: so then the bigger question becomes what will it entail?
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Will it entail? It will entail him being in uniform.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: I can guarantee you that he's in uniform every day
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: these days, but is it going to entail him being
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: out there and, and we'll, we'll Tigers fans get to
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: see him pitch one more time. What's the latest on,
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: on that?
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: Well, I asked Justin Verlander that very question, Karen, and,
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: His answer ended up being pretty much a long-winded way
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: of saying, I'm not sure. Clearly, Justin wants to make
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: it back to the mound. I think it's very important
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: to him. Clearly, he still has some reservations about how
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: feasible that is going to be. It sounds like he's
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: been a little more encouraged by the progress he's made.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: He's been throwing off a mound. I guess not quite
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: full bullpen sessions, but he's at least coming down the
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: slope and throwing and would like to get into games.
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: Is that going to be as a starter? Is that
• 25:34
  Speaker 3: he going to go five innings? Like, I don't know.
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: One point he made was like, he doesn't actually have
• 25:39
  Speaker 3: to do the traditional buildup because there, there is no tomorrow, right? Oh,
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: he's going to hurt his arm. Well, that's okay. He's
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: the one who said that he said, you can go
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: out there and try to break it. And I think
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: that will to push things to that extent still exists
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: within Justin Verlander, but you know, he, he, Also wants
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: this to be competitive. I don't think he wants to
• 26:03
  Speaker 3: come out there and it be kind of a pity party.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: I certainly don't think he wants to come out there
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: and get rocked. That would really arguably be worse than
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: not pitching at all. So that's what's at stake right now.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: It's going to be a little bit depending on how
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: his body responds, as JV said, depending on where the
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: team's at. I think we can all agree the team's
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: not going to be in contention. So you're going to
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: have those meaningless games that you can throw him out there.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Will it be before his weekend at Comerica Park? No
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: one really knows. I appreciate Justin for talking about this,
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: being candid, being thoughtful about it this weekend. But it's still, man,
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: it's just kind of an awkward, sad situation. I think
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: everyone is holding out hope for a nice, fun weekend
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: where Verlander can pitch at Comerica Park and get a
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: proper send-off. I think there's still a lot of uncertainty
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: as to whether that is actually going to happen.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I will say this. I do appreciate seeing
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: him in the dugout every day enthusiastically in the game. Obviously,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: he doesn't have to do that.
• 27:09
  Speaker 3: He doesn't have to be on these trips. A lot
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: of guys probably would just stay at home. He's, I
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: think he's really trying to take in every last little
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: scene and detail and everything from, you know, his, his
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: final days in the major leagues.
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: So I will say that at worst, like I, I
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: do appreciate that. And that has netted like positive feelings,
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: I would say, because it shows that he's, you know,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: about all the right things. And then lastly, like a
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: couple other things I said, you know, be like wasted
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: for this year is, you know, from Burr from Burr's,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: you know, I think come on well of late and
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: obviously seven strong innings, maybe his best start. We've said
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: that a couple of times now recently on Saturday.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: 3.25 ERA since August 1st. He's actually been more like
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: himself for, for a prolonged run of starts now. Yeah.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: And you only have two guaranteed years with him, obviously
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: because he has a player option after next season. So
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: that's like a, you know, a wasted opportunity to, you know,
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: have him under club control and, In a season that
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: has gone nowhere.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: And then Sneaky.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: Sneaky, last wasted opportunity. Wasted aspect of this team.
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: Gleyber Torres.
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: Baseball reference coming into today at Gleyber Torres at 2.5 war.
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Given all the time he's missed. And what we know
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: his value is beyond the box score and all this stuff.
• 28:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: Now that's, that's low key going to be somebody that's
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: going to be missed. Although I almost joked last time
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: we were talking about free agents and like how free
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: agency isn't that a great, this class coming up. I
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: was like, well, you know, labor might be one of
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: the better guys that could fit on this team.
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: There's like, oddly, I don't know that I'm going to
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: make the case for that given, you know, the injury proneness, the,
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: the defense just isn't very good. The he's 29 and
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: kind of feels like he's 39 sometimes, but, You're right,
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: that's going to be a hard piece for them to replace.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: If you say, hey, we want a patient, consistent, right-handed
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: hitter who can play the infield, Glaber's going to be
• 29:13
  Speaker 3: about as good as it gets out there. Again, are
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: you going to give a big deal to someone off
• 29:17
  Speaker 3: a career year like Brandon Lau? I don't know. I
• 29:22
  Speaker 3: think it probably ultimately makes sense for the Tigers to
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: move on, except... Except where are you getting that type
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: of production from? I don't know.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: It's going to be missed. It's going to be missed
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: for sure if it ends up happening that way. So, again, just,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: you know, something to just kind of think about. It's like, man,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you kind of want to. kind of want a decent
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: right-handed bat that could play second base right that gives
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: you it gives you a good at bat every time
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: top of the order all this stuff and and you
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: had him and you had him you know one year
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: more than maybe you thought you would uh and he
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: has been good despite the injury so just you know
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: just a little little something right there uh right so
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: hope you guys uh or enjoying your Labor Day safely.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Did Labor Day contribute to the fact that I called
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: this the wasted segment of the podcast?
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: Maybe, maybe not.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: But if you are getting wasted, I hope you are
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: safe and responsible. And I, as always, want to thank
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: you guys for watching and following along. You can follow
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: us on ex-Friendly Nones Twitter, at Cody Stabenhagen. I am
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: at Kieran underscore Steckley. Pod page at Tiger Territory underscore. YouTube, Apple, Spotify.
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: You guys know what to do.
• 30:25
  Speaker 3: We appreciate all of you.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: So for Cody Stabenhagen, I'm Kieran Steckley. Everybody have a
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: great day.