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Alex Bregman Market Watch · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory or the
0:09
Speaker 1: Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tigers podcast. I'm Karen Steckley
0:13
Speaker 1: with me as always as a man who always flies
0:16
Speaker 1: his drones responsibly. He is Cody Stavenhagen.
0:19
Speaker 2: How you doing doing good? Not a huge shrone guy,
0:23
Speaker 2: but glad to be home after winter meetings, long week,
0:26
Speaker 2: fun week like usual. Now trying to catch up on
0:29
Speaker 2: some sleep and drinking a lot of water. I will
0:32
Speaker 2: say sometimes there are benefits to not covering a good
0:36
Speaker 2: team or Tiger's are a playoff team, not calling them
0:38
Speaker 2: a bad team, but a team that isn't always all
0:40
Speaker 2: that active. Actually, I stayed extra night in the DFW area.
0:45
Speaker 2: I went to a Turnpike Troubadours concert at Billy Bob's.
0:48
Speaker 2: It was awesome. Shadows with Chandler Rome now part of
0:50
Speaker 2: the Foul Territory Network. Check out his Podcash City, and
0:54
Speaker 2: his day was pretty much ruined. He was working all day.
0:58
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I mean, you know, I've obviously had a
1:01
Speaker 1: chance to hang out with Chandler several times. Really cool guy,
1:04
Speaker 1: and I'm not gonna lie. Like the first thing I
1:07
Speaker 1: thought of when I saw the trade go down. I
1:08
Speaker 1: was like, Eh, Chandler's in for a longer day than
1:12
Speaker 1: he thought. Uh, and so but hey, that's the job.
1:15
Speaker 1: That's a job. That's okay. Uh, it was a it
1:19
Speaker 1: was a fun week for me. Got to like I say,
1:21
Speaker 1: I got to hang out with Cody. We met up
1:23
Speaker 1: with Austin Jackson. We got that you know planned here
1:25
Speaker 1: moving forward, So everybody be sure to subscribe wherever you're
1:28
Speaker 1: listening and on YouTube so you can see our debut
1:31
Speaker 1: episode with Austin Jackson here pretty soon.
1:34
Speaker 3: Uh.
1:34
Speaker 1: Really excited for that. Couldn't couldn't be a cooler dude,
1:37
Speaker 1: could not be a cooler dude when we met up
1:39
Speaker 1: with him this week in Dallas. All right, back to
1:43
Speaker 1: some more present topics. Cody, Obviously, we're recording this Sunday night,
1:49
Speaker 1: a little bit after eight Eastern time. Not anything has
1:53
Speaker 1: happened in regards directly to the Detroit Tigers. I say
1:58
Speaker 1: that maybe something will happen while we're recording this, But
2:02
Speaker 1: there was a question kind of bouncing around my mind
2:04
Speaker 1: a little bit as I assessed some of the moves
2:08
Speaker 1: that have been made, maybe some that haven't mad may yet.
2:11
Speaker 1: The rumors and all that stuff and like for baseball
2:14
Speaker 1: in general. And it got me thinking. I was like,
2:20
Speaker 1: has it been a good off season for the Tigers,
2:23
Speaker 1: Because all right, you sign you sign alts Cobb and
2:29
Speaker 1: we talked about that sign already, but you got yourself
2:32
Speaker 1: a veteran professional major league pitcher with you had to
2:36
Speaker 1: assume like they got a plan for this guy, and
2:39
Speaker 1: he was and he's smart enough to recognize that that's
2:41
Speaker 1: probably why he signed, you know, blah blah blah. Gave
2:42
Speaker 1: him a little money, a little incentives in there, not
2:46
Speaker 1: really anything else of like you know, large note, little
2:52
Speaker 1: nicks and knacks here and there. But then you look
2:54
Speaker 1: at the American League, like, in general, Soto is no
3:01
Speaker 1: longer in the American League, Kyle Tucker, we're just talking
3:05
Speaker 1: about that is no longer in the American League. Garrett Crochet,
3:09
Speaker 1: while still in the American League, is no longer in
3:12
Speaker 1: your division, all right. And the previous defending World Series champions,
3:19
Speaker 1: who you would think are incentivized to like have a
3:22
Speaker 1: much better year than they had in twenty twenty four.
3:24
Speaker 1: You know, they bring back Ebaldi.
3:26
Speaker 4: Cool?
3:26
Speaker 1: Yeah, cool, And then they signed Jake Berger, a guy
3:29
Speaker 1: that we or to me acquired via trade Jake Berger,
3:32
Speaker 1: a guy that we had talked about on this podcast,
3:35
Speaker 1: who he's got that one stat that one county number
3:38
Speaker 1: that seems cool. But other than that, he's like a
3:40
Speaker 1: pretty flawed player. And they have real problems over there
3:43
Speaker 1: in Texas too, if you look at the trends that
3:45
Speaker 1: went down in twenty twenty four. So I say all that,
3:49
Speaker 1: Obviously there's been some other moves here and there, But
3:51
Speaker 1: I say all that to say, you really can't say
3:57
Speaker 1: that anyone in the American League has made some leaps
4:01
Speaker 1: and mounds efforts so far this offseason. Now the Yankees,
4:04
Speaker 1: to the credit, they're making a bunch of other moves,
4:05
Speaker 1: but I'm not really worried about them, like adding to
4:09
Speaker 1: their pitching staff, Like like I'll take the Tigers brass
4:13
Speaker 1: at that any day of the week, just in general.
4:17
Speaker 1: So they're not being passed by anybody. Perhaps the Astros
4:22
Speaker 1: are going into some sort of small rebuild, like a
4:27
Speaker 1: year rebuild type deal. You know, it kind of seems
4:32
Speaker 1: to me that the Tigers, standing as sure as hell,
4:37
Speaker 1: has not gone down in the American League, but it's
4:41
Speaker 1: probably closer to have gone up, just by the fact
4:44
Speaker 1: of this talent that has left the other contenders in
4:47
Speaker 1: the American League. So all that to say, they probably
4:52
Speaker 1: have advanced a little bit with their inactions just by circumstance.
4:56
Speaker 1: So what, like I say something like that, like what
4:59
Speaker 1: kind of comes to mind for you?
5:00
Speaker 4: Yeah?
5:01
Speaker 2: I think it's important how you kind of phrase that question.
5:04
Speaker 2: Has this been a good off season for the Tigers
5:07
Speaker 2: in terms of what they have done so far? Not
5:10
Speaker 2: really no off season, not over, but in terms of
5:13
Speaker 2: how they're standing as rose through subtractions elsewhere in the
5:16
Speaker 2: American League, Like you said, even Crochet at least he's
5:19
Speaker 2: not in your division anymore. I think that is all
5:23
Speaker 2: good news for the Tigers. And it's funny you brought
5:25
Speaker 2: this up. I think we have a piece on the
5:26
Speaker 2: Athletic Running Monday kind of talking about the power balance
5:30
Speaker 2: really shifting toward the NL. I don't know that I
5:35
Speaker 2: fully agree with that premise because that just kind of
5:37
Speaker 2: acts like the Baltimore Orioles don't exist. Who could easily
5:41
Speaker 2: bounce back and be a force. The Texas Rangers. Yeah,
5:44
Speaker 2: they've got some problems, but man, they could be a
5:47
Speaker 2: force next year if a couple things go right. So
5:51
Speaker 2: I don't think it's like oh, there are no good
5:52
Speaker 2: teams in the AL, but kind of the sexy teams,
5:55
Speaker 2: the superpowers right now, Phillies, Matt's Dodgers all in one division,
5:59
Speaker 2: and then you to have the Braves, you have the Padres,
6:01
Speaker 2: like there is kind of more star power going on
6:05
Speaker 2: right there. So sure, I think it can be helpful
6:08
Speaker 2: for the Tigers. You're coming off competing in your division,
6:11
Speaker 2: winning a wildcard spot to be expected. No one in
6:15
Speaker 2: the ALE Central is really shaking things up, making noise
6:19
Speaker 2: right now this offseason. And one another thought I had, like,
6:24
Speaker 2: if you're Riley Green trying to boost your status your
6:28
Speaker 2: contract incentives, not that he has any right now, but
6:31
Speaker 2: like future whatever, this could be some really good stuff.
6:36
Speaker 2: Think of it. Aaron Judge, Bobby Wick, Gunner, Henderson, probably
6:40
Speaker 2: the three best position players.
6:41
Speaker 4: In the AL.
6:41
Speaker 2: After that, who you got for MVP. There are some
6:44
Speaker 2: guys who could bounce. Julio Rodriguez could be right there,
6:47
Speaker 2: had a little bit down yere of course, Seeger can
6:50
Speaker 2: be a full year that's a dude. And there's some
6:53
Speaker 2: other guys. But like Riley Green could be poised to
6:57
Speaker 2: fully intrace himself as like a top five player in
7:00
Speaker 2: the American League if he takes another step forward last year.
7:03
Speaker 2: That's just another thought I had because of some of
7:06
Speaker 2: the departures in the al.
7:09
Speaker 1: Well. One of the things I was gonna say is
7:11
Speaker 1: that is it? I mean, what what betting nods could
7:14
Speaker 1: you put on Riley to make the All Star team
7:18
Speaker 1: next year? Like two All Star outfielders just went to
7:22
Speaker 1: the National League.
7:22
Speaker 2: I think like lam Dunk, Like, if he's bad, dude's healthy,
7:25
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna make the All Star Team.
7:27
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then I like that you bring up the
7:29
Speaker 1: m VP thing because now we're we're we're on a
7:32
Speaker 1: and not to say that we're calling that he that's
7:35
Speaker 1: like a thing that is an expectation in twenty twenty five.
7:38
Speaker 1: But if you're like me and you're a savant of
7:41
Speaker 1: all these year to year records, like we're looking at
7:44
Speaker 1: an MVP dash, you know, make up a number seven, eight,
7:48
Speaker 1: you know whatever like that, that's that's a real thing
7:50
Speaker 1: in this future now with with with the moves that
7:53
Speaker 1: have been made. I guess, Cody in general, do you
7:58
Speaker 1: like we'll throw that.
7:59
Speaker 2: I didn't mention Jose ramire Is in that conversation. I'm
8:02
Speaker 2: the people I hate now who don't mention should absolutely
8:05
Speaker 2: be in that conversation.
8:06
Speaker 1: Absolutely no, no, no arguments here, uh like any any
8:11
Speaker 1: any thoughts on because we talked about the Crochet trade
8:14
Speaker 1: like immediately after it happened, and and I was just
8:17
Speaker 1: kind of like it seemed pretty chalky to me, Like
8:20
Speaker 1: I liked it for both teams, Like I didn't think
8:22
Speaker 1: I didn't think the Red Sox gave up too much.
8:24
Speaker 1: I don't. I didn't think the White Sox like sell
8:29
Speaker 1: sell low on that. I thought it was one of
8:32
Speaker 1: those trays. I was like, yeap, makes a lot of
8:34
Speaker 1: sense to me. The Burger trade their number seventeen prospect
8:41
Speaker 1: goes to Miami. Guess who the number seventeen prospect is
8:44
Speaker 1: for the Tigers as of right now, Max Anderson. So
8:46
Speaker 1: everybody that was throwing Max Anderson and Burger trades that
8:49
Speaker 1: sense of us kudos you had the you had the
8:52
Speaker 1: right idea.
8:53
Speaker 2: Tigers have a much better system than than Miami top
8:56
Speaker 2: to bottom, I would think. But but yeah, that's interesting.
9:00
Speaker 1: So and and then not even to miss out on this,
9:07
Speaker 1: the trade that involves old friend of the program easak
9:11
Speaker 1: peredes like it almost looks like it takes out one suitor.
9:17
Speaker 1: So this goes back to the good thing. It almost
9:19
Speaker 1: takes out one suitor at least in theory, for Bregmann's services.
9:23
Speaker 1: And if you're the Tigers and you're doing can we
9:28
Speaker 1: call it nicely cost controlled moves? The less suitors, the better,
9:35
Speaker 1: you know, like in theory. So like it seems to
9:38
Speaker 1: me that this past you know week is Whinever meetings week.
9:43
Speaker 1: They ended up looking better than they did before. And
9:47
Speaker 1: of course this like plays right into Scott Harris's hands
9:50
Speaker 1: with lowering the incentive to spend when everybody around you
9:57
Speaker 1: is either losing players or like retooling or or whatever.
10:00
Speaker 1: It's like, if we just maintain stas quote right now,
10:03
Speaker 1: we might be okay, But the Bregman market still looms
10:09
Speaker 1: over major League Baseball in general, and until there's a
10:12
Speaker 1: move in one way the Tigers.
10:14
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's almost oddly quiet, I think regarding Bregman
10:20
Speaker 2: right now. Maybe that's because there's still some dominance to fall.
10:23
Speaker 2: Sounds like the Houston Astros, according to Chandler Rooms Report,
10:26
Speaker 2: have expressed a lot of interest in trading fort Nolan Arenado.
10:30
Speaker 2: I've already talked about Ronado not being interested in Detroit
10:34
Speaker 2: he's got a full note trade clause. We'll see if
10:37
Speaker 2: he's interested in Houston. Sounds like that's a major question mark,
10:40
Speaker 2: but that's also another signal that the Astros appear quite
10:44
Speaker 2: willing to move on from Alex Bregman. Either that or
10:47
Speaker 2: it's like a genius negotiating ploy. I'm not sure which,
10:50
Speaker 2: but I kind of get the sense there are a
10:52
Speaker 2: lot of teams standing around the table and just like
10:55
Speaker 2: waiting for each other to fold. And you know, as
11:00
Speaker 2: I kind of wrote for Monday about the Tigers, like
11:03
Speaker 2: this winter meetings, the questions that were answered, and probably
11:05
Speaker 2: more importantly, the ones that weren't seem to really hint
11:08
Speaker 2: toward they're fully in on this new identity as a
11:11
Speaker 2: big brain team that's not that invested in free agency,
11:16
Speaker 2: that is very invested in development and finding other underutilized assets.
11:21
Speaker 2: These things aren't necessarily new in the Scott Harris era,
11:23
Speaker 2: but it seems like, especially now that they are coming
11:26
Speaker 2: off a playoff team and seem to still be behaving
11:28
Speaker 2: very much in the same way, this may be the
11:31
Speaker 2: new world order of the Tigers. All that said, I
11:36
Speaker 2: still believe they're interested in Bregmann. Interested that's this is
11:40
Speaker 2: becoming a really overused word in baseball. But yeah, if
11:43
Speaker 2: you're standing around that poker table and the Astros are
11:46
Speaker 2: gonna fold, and then maybe we'll see what happens with
11:48
Speaker 2: the Yankees, and you know, there's a world in which
11:50
Speaker 2: a couple teams fold. And that's why you keep yourself
11:53
Speaker 2: in on that conversation, assuming you're not willing to pay
11:56
Speaker 2: the two hundred plus million dollars. Not a ton of
11:59
Speaker 2: tangible news on Bregman's market right now, I think everyone
12:03
Speaker 2: in baseball is super interested to see kind of what
12:05
Speaker 2: the next step is going to be here.
12:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the timeline of it all I will be uh,
12:11
Speaker 1: I'll be forever fascinated with. And you know, let's let's
12:16
Speaker 1: kind of transition to another free agent that I would
12:20
Speaker 1: say Twitter scuttle but not really anything like real reporting.
12:23
Speaker 1: But it's okay because I find it fascinating when people
12:26
Speaker 1: are talking about it. And that's a guy that we
12:28
Speaker 1: haven't really given that much time. That's called Paul Goldschmidt,
12:32
Speaker 1: who's the other coroner over there in Saint Louis. And
12:35
Speaker 1: now it's not a trade thing. He is a free agent,
12:38
Speaker 1: so that's obviously the big difference. But he's thirty seven, right,
12:42
Speaker 1: He's thirty seven years old and he's a name, but
12:46
Speaker 1: he plays first base. There's discussions about whether the Tigers
12:52
Speaker 1: are better off with gold Schmian as their regular first
12:54
Speaker 1: baseman or Torque. My answer to that would be they
13:00
Speaker 1: are the same. Because I just went and looked at
13:03
Speaker 1: a couple numbers. You know, I'm not trying to say
13:06
Speaker 1: these are the end all be all, but Goldsmith last
13:09
Speaker 1: year offensively was worth one point three war. All right,
13:13
Speaker 1: he was negative point eight war. Defensively, Tork, obviously much
13:18
Speaker 1: less time than Major leagues, was worth point one offensive
13:21
Speaker 1: war and negative point three defensive war. So one could
13:28
Speaker 1: reason that had Torque played the entire year in the
13:35
Speaker 1: major leagues last year, he would have basically the same
13:39
Speaker 1: numbers as Goldschmid did last season. Tork is what he's
13:43
Speaker 1: gonna be in his age twenty five season. Goldschmidt is
13:46
Speaker 1: more than a dozen years older than that, and I
13:50
Speaker 1: would believe to be a more diminishing player given the age.
13:53
Speaker 1: Not really breaking any news on that one. So how
13:57
Speaker 1: would you address this gold Schmidt possibility, Cody, Because to me,
14:01
Speaker 1: I don't like I'm in on the Christian Walker stuff
14:04
Speaker 1: like I'm in on some of these other first base ideas,
14:06
Speaker 1: like as ideas and explore to me, there's not really
14:10
Speaker 1: much to explore the gold Schmith. But maybe I'm wrong.
14:13
Speaker 1: Tell me if I'm wrong.
14:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do think, you know, when kind of the
14:17
Speaker 2: report surface is like that is interesting. That's just one
14:20
Speaker 2: guy we haven't talked a lot about. Now. I want
14:23
Speaker 2: to be clear, I've not heard the Tigers having quote
14:26
Speaker 2: unquote interest in gold Schmith. Not saying it's true or false,
14:29
Speaker 2: just saying I haven't really had anyone actually tell me that.
14:32
Speaker 2: But seeing it out there in the void that is
14:35
Speaker 2: Twitter got me interested. And it's a little bit of
14:38
Speaker 2: a tough case because obviously, yeah, thirty seven not coming
14:42
Speaker 2: off a good year, but the X of velocity is
14:44
Speaker 2: still strong. The barrel rate declined a little bit, but
14:47
Speaker 2: not a lot. There's still some things to like in
14:50
Speaker 2: the underlying metric. I think the big mystery with Goldschmith's
14:53
Speaker 2: declined last year was his walk rate plummeted from twelve
14:56
Speaker 2: point seven percent in twenty three to only seven point
15:00
Speaker 2: two percent last year. His strikeout rate ticked up a
15:03
Speaker 2: little bit, his chase rate ticked up a little bit,
15:07
Speaker 2: a little bit hard to know what to make of that.
15:10
Speaker 2: Then you got to go back to the fact, like,
15:12
Speaker 2: well he is thirty seven going on thirty eight. These
15:15
Speaker 2: things happen when players get older, so that gives me, uh,
15:20
Speaker 2: definitely some pause. He hasn't hit fastballs very good the
15:23
Speaker 2: past two years. There are still some good things gold
15:26
Speaker 2: Schmid can bring to your team, obviously.
15:29
Speaker 4: Well.
15:30
Speaker 2: I think one of the immediately immediate thoughts that pops
15:32
Speaker 2: up is like, if you're gonna sign an older first baseman,
15:37
Speaker 2: do you not rather have one Carlos Santana. Santana is
15:40
Speaker 2: thirty eight going on thirty nine, so he's a year older,
15:44
Speaker 2: has never posted the same exit velocities or barrel rates,
15:48
Speaker 2: but still walks at a really high clip, still plays
15:52
Speaker 2: really good first base defense. I think in a way,
15:55
Speaker 2: gold schmanth's the bigger name, but at this stage in
15:58
Speaker 2: their careers, they seem like pretty comparable players. I would
16:01
Speaker 2: guess a one year deal for both of them, That's
16:04
Speaker 2: a guess. And if I had to pick one, I
16:07
Speaker 2: think I would pick Santana, and I'm not sure it
16:09
Speaker 2: would be close similar without the glaring evidence of decline
16:14
Speaker 2: so far, Now, when you get a player that age,
16:16
Speaker 2: you're risking decline with either one of them. If I
16:18
Speaker 2: had choose one, I'm going Carlostan.
16:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, and any real interest in either one of them
16:24
Speaker 1: would immediately bring to mind the uh, you know the
16:28
Speaker 1: comments that Scott Harris made during winter meetings about Torque,
16:33
Speaker 1: and we talked about it on our last episode about
16:35
Speaker 1: how it just kind of seems like, you know, you're
16:38
Speaker 1: not really treating him as a valuable asset, which look
16:44
Speaker 1: at the numbers, there's not really anything there that dictates
16:48
Speaker 1: that he that he should be treated as a valuable asset. Now,
16:51
Speaker 1: obviously I'm hoping that it becomes that, but you know,
16:56
Speaker 1: certain point, the ballplayers, the ballplayer is, as you have
16:59
Speaker 1: said probably a million times, Cody, it's like he's had
17:01
Speaker 1: over it was it a thousand at bats? Is that
17:03
Speaker 1: what you say? Is over thousand, fourteen fourteen hundred at bats?
17:07
Speaker 1: It's like play plate appearances. Sorry, So when when when
17:13
Speaker 1: it comes to that kind of stuff, at a certain point,
17:17
Speaker 1: you're holding on to something that may not be there.
17:21
Speaker 2: All right, another quick thought with Scott Harris, it's important
17:25
Speaker 2: to look at splits. Paul Goldchman is still pretty good
17:27
Speaker 2: against left handed pitching. Ops against lefties was eight thirty
17:32
Speaker 2: nine last year. You know it was really good against
17:34
Speaker 2: left handed pitching. Still Carlos Santana ops nine to thirty
17:39
Speaker 2: four against lefties last year. Another check in the Carlos
17:43
Speaker 2: Santana department. That'll just pay for Christian Walker.
17:49
Speaker 1: That'll play as they say, all right, we're gonna do
17:52
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19:21
Speaker 1: about the Tigers now to think about the Tigers now
19:24
Speaker 1: while going back to how the Tigers were thought of
19:27
Speaker 1: a couple months ago. What do I mean by that?
19:29
Speaker 1: So another thing that was popping into my head over
19:33
Speaker 1: the past week or so, especially when it comes to spending,
19:36
Speaker 1: is I wanted to go back to Scott Harris's comment
19:40
Speaker 1: on MLB Network. He's being interviewed by Brian Kenny about
19:45
Speaker 1: Now this is in late May, like May twenty eighth
19:48
Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, and of course got to talk
19:51
Speaker 1: about spending. I think it's Scott Harris. It's probably favorite
19:55
Speaker 1: thing to talk about, especially on like national networks or whatever,
19:57
Speaker 1: like live TV. So he goes into a spew about
20:02
Speaker 1: like you know, Chris Iilich has promised the resources will
20:05
Speaker 1: be there, blah blah, blah blah. We've heard it all before.
20:07
Speaker 1: He said, We're not quite there yet as far as
20:10
Speaker 1: spending at that level because we need to build the
20:12
Speaker 1: foundation of this team to put us in position to
20:15
Speaker 1: supplement it with some free agent signings and the upcoming winters.
20:19
Speaker 1: Keep in mind again this was May twenty eighth. I
20:23
Speaker 1: have the confidence the resources will be there. Blah blah blah.
20:25
Speaker 1: They've always supported us. You know, we got to work
20:28
Speaker 1: in the Little Caesars corporate headquarters. That's really cool. We
20:32
Speaker 1: will have to develop the core once again, now I'm
20:35
Speaker 1: back to the direct quoting. We will. We just have
20:37
Speaker 1: to develop the core that we're going to spend around,
20:41
Speaker 1: and we also have the target players and upcoming winters
20:44
Speaker 1: that can really help us. So you go back and
20:46
Speaker 1: look at that quote coding technically, nothing that has happened
20:50
Speaker 1: this offseason is contrary to that. However, the way it
20:58
Speaker 1: was perceived was all right, when the Tigers get good,
21:02
Speaker 1: then there'll be some more spending. Now you go around
21:06
Speaker 1: deep into the playoffs, you go six outs away from
21:09
Speaker 1: six to five whatever is out away from reaching the
21:12
Speaker 1: alcs now qualify and a lot of people's minds is
21:15
Speaker 1: quote being good and a lot of the core being
21:19
Speaker 1: in place enough to spend around. So when you look
21:24
Speaker 1: at the Tigers now and then you think back to
21:28
Speaker 1: when that was said, is Scott technically in line with
21:34
Speaker 1: what this either the message specifically or the spirit of
21:39
Speaker 1: that message.
21:42
Speaker 2: I'm glad you brought this up. It's really interesting, I
21:44
Speaker 2: think because May ninth whatever feels like a lifetime ago
21:48
Speaker 2: in Tigers world, So you know, can you even compare
21:52
Speaker 2: the spirit of the message. I know at the time
21:54
Speaker 2: I thought this kind of seems like Scott like soft
21:59
Speaker 2: launching the fact that he doesn't think this is the core.
22:02
Speaker 2: And a lot has changed since then, and pretty tough
22:07
Speaker 2: to you just made the playoffs and you do have
22:10
Speaker 2: some pretty clear very strong pieces. The farm system had
22:14
Speaker 2: another great year. There are some very good things happening
22:17
Speaker 2: in the Tigers organization. So I think if you go
22:20
Speaker 2: back to the spirit of that message, or even the
22:23
Speaker 2: literal message, wouldn't that mean that, no, now's the time
22:27
Speaker 2: to spend around the core Like am I Am I wrong? There?
22:31
Speaker 1: No, And I'm I've said this before. I'm a big
22:36
Speaker 1: believer in like opportunistic spending. And again I'm repeating myself,
22:43
Speaker 1: but I have no choice about to repeat myself until
22:45
Speaker 1: something happens I no longer have to repeat myself. That's
22:48
Speaker 1: the Bregman deal. That's the Bregman deal. Is a guy
22:53
Speaker 1: that has hit free agency at a time when you
22:55
Speaker 1: are quote good, You are quote good, and phill A
23:01
Speaker 1: fills a position that you want to get more production
23:06
Speaker 1: out of and brings like the you know what it's
23:09
Speaker 1: got to talk about this week, veteran leadership in the clubhouse, Like.
23:12
Speaker 2: I heard a lot about veteran leadership. So get veteran leadership,
23:16
Speaker 2: you have to you gotta sign some more veterans, which
23:18
Speaker 2: is interesting.
23:19
Speaker 1: So in theory that kind of plays, you know what
23:23
Speaker 1: I mean? So mm hmm, it's I I do keep
23:29
Speaker 1: back to remind myself, like there, it's not like the
23:33
Speaker 1: off season has passed the Tigers by. There's still a
23:35
Speaker 1: lot of teams that are also either waiting to do
23:40
Speaker 1: like another trade or a signing or whatever. There's still
23:42
Speaker 1: a lot to be had in this off season in general.
23:45
Speaker 2: There is special especially but the other big bats man
23:50
Speaker 2: are are and Tucker is gone now, but like the
23:52
Speaker 2: other there's some big bats that still got to move.
23:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and like there's going and then with each deal
24:00
Speaker 1: there's gonna be some sort of ripple effect, whether it's
24:02
Speaker 1: like I talked about, like one suit or less for Bregman,
24:05
Speaker 1: or all of a sudden, like you know, just for
24:09
Speaker 1: like pulling an example out of my butt here, like
24:12
Speaker 1: the Tigers signed Bregman, all of a sudden, Jace Young
24:15
Speaker 1: becomes somewhat like available to other teams. So like that
24:18
Speaker 1: thing could happen with other franchises, you see what I'm saying,
24:21
Speaker 1: like other opportunities to acquire talent. So to me, like
24:28
Speaker 1: I wanted to go in when I revisited that quote, thinking, yeah,
24:31
Speaker 1: he's not doing what he said he was gonna do.
24:33
Speaker 1: In fairness, when I read it, it's like it kind
24:36
Speaker 1: of plays like it kind of plays exactly how he
24:39
Speaker 1: like portrayed it. However, I still think obviously the team
24:42
Speaker 1: is in a different spot than what he what it
24:45
Speaker 1: was at that time. So, uh, you want to talk
24:48
Speaker 1: about spending, spend.
24:51
Speaker 2: It's it's it's such a tough conversation. We've gone over
24:54
Speaker 2: for the whole spin verse, not spin thing, and spending
24:56
Speaker 2: is not everything, and free agency is not everything. And
24:59
Speaker 2: I've never had eivocated that they need to have some
25:01
Speaker 2: like ridiculous sign Corbyn Burns and Monsto and Kristian Walker
25:06
Speaker 2: and Alex Bregman. But I think this team is very
25:08
Speaker 2: clearly in a spot where like one real legit all
25:12
Speaker 2: start bat and then maybe another very strong guy like
25:15
Speaker 2: at Carlos Santana can make your team a lot better,
25:18
Speaker 2: makes me one. And then again like, although there's a
25:21
Speaker 2: lot of off season left, the messaging from winter meetings
25:24
Speaker 2: this past week just didn't do much to change the
25:28
Speaker 2: sense or really what it did is it reinforced the
25:31
Speaker 2: sense that like Tigers don't have much interest in maybe
25:35
Speaker 2: doing even that there is a lot of off season
25:38
Speaker 2: left to play out. But one thing that makes me
25:40
Speaker 2: wonder is like, what are these internal discussions. Actually, like
25:43
Speaker 2: if you're like, just how possible is it to overcomplicate everything?
25:47
Speaker 2: If your goal is to win the World Series and
25:49
Speaker 2: you have a million, I would imagine if you add
25:52
Speaker 2: Alex Bregman to your internal models, the teams win total
25:55
Speaker 2: would go up, or even if you added Hassan Kim
25:58
Speaker 2: and Christian Walker, Like I would imagine maybe I'm wrong
26:02
Speaker 2: that the team's like internal modeling and be like, no,
26:04
Speaker 2: you will have a better team. There's always a cost
26:07
Speaker 2: benefit analysis. I refuse to believe that the Tigers like
26:12
Speaker 2: don't have the money to do moves of this caliber.
26:14
Speaker 2: They have a low pay roll. The bregmant is the
26:18
Speaker 2: longer term deal that maybe comes with risks of downside
26:22
Speaker 2: in the future. Maybe this means a little less playing
26:26
Speaker 2: time for Jase Young, or maybe it means how you
26:28
Speaker 2: lease debut is moved back a couple of years. But
26:31
Speaker 2: I feel like if this is your lane when spending,
26:35
Speaker 2: like I just don't see the whole like, oh, well,
26:38
Speaker 2: it's going to block young talent. I just don't really
26:40
Speaker 2: think it is. So I hope that's an accurate assessment
26:43
Speaker 2: of like how I feel and what when I talk
26:47
Speaker 2: about spending, like kind of what I mean by that.
26:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, well said, all right, let's wrap up here with
26:56
Speaker 1: a fun little little nugget. So sometimes Cody and I
27:01
Speaker 1: will be talking. In this case, it was in person
27:05
Speaker 1: over a couple of soda pops, and I was like,
27:08
Speaker 1: you know, like, you know Alex Cobb, obviously Ty Cobb.
27:12
Speaker 1: I was like, and they had like another Cob on
27:16
Speaker 1: like on their roster. I was like, surely they've been
27:18
Speaker 1: around a long time, could have been one before. Tye, Like,
27:22
Speaker 1: this is like curious. I was like, I'm gonna look
27:24
Speaker 1: this up later. I'm gonna look this up. So I did,
27:27
Speaker 1: and I found that there was another Cob that played
27:31
Speaker 1: for the Tigers, and he's got himself a long Wikipedia page,
27:36
Speaker 1: I say long Wikipedia page. He played in one major
27:39
Speaker 1: League game, it was, and it was with the Tigers.
27:42
Speaker 1: He was a catcher. His name is Joe Cobb, but
27:44
Speaker 1: is that his name? No name? He was born Joseph
27:50
Speaker 1: Stanley Saraphin, but he is officially in their registry like
27:56
Speaker 1: baseball wise as Joseph Stanley Cobb. He played one game
28:00
Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen for the Tigers. So he was teammates
28:05
Speaker 1: with with Tyris and he's actually most known for hitting
28:11
Speaker 1: three hundred for the Baltimore Orioles then in the nineteen
28:14
Speaker 1: twenty three in nineteen twenty four, then a minor league
28:17
Speaker 1: team considered one of the best minor league teams ever assembled.
28:21
Speaker 1: So there's your funny little Tiger's history nugget right there.
28:25
Speaker 1: They have had another Cop besides Tie. It was at
28:29
Speaker 1: that time. If you go to his Wikipedia page, it's
28:31
Speaker 1: a picture of him with Ty Cobb, like just all
28:36
Speaker 1: kinds of like just weirdness deep dive. I encourage everybody
28:40
Speaker 1: to go read about it, because this guy was holding
28:43
Speaker 1: out as a minor league player. His name's Cop. He
28:45
Speaker 1: played one game from the Tigers, and there's a lot
28:48
Speaker 1: of information you can find about him except for when
28:50
Speaker 1: he started going by Cop.
28:52
Speaker 2: Shout out to the loyal listeners who followed us way
28:54
Speaker 2: back in the day, the lockout days of Kieran's Cob connections.
28:58
Speaker 2: You guys remember that shout out. That's anyone who remembers
29:01
Speaker 2: that here's an ultimate Cop connection. It is crazy. Thoughigers
29:04
Speaker 2: have gotten more than one hundred years about having a
29:07
Speaker 2: player with the last name Cob. Now they got one
29:10
Speaker 2: in Alex. Another interesting ten bit, Dylan Dingler has changed
29:14
Speaker 2: his number from thirty eight to thirteen. I'm gonna guess
29:18
Speaker 2: that's clearing the way for one Alex Cobb, who's worn
29:20
Speaker 2: thirty eight at a couple of different career stops. So
29:22
Speaker 2: Dylan Singler going with the the unlucky thirteen, will be
29:25
Speaker 2: interested to hear his reasoning for that one.
29:29
Speaker 1: Oh man, I love the smell of a nice spring
29:31
Speaker 1: training notebook in mid December. Is that of those stories
29:36
Speaker 1: will be had there?
29:38
Speaker 2: And so yes obviously the also the thing like Alex
29:41
Speaker 2: will be the first Cob to have a number on
29:44
Speaker 2: his Detroit Tigers uniform.
29:47
Speaker 1: Good call, good call there, one and only Cob with
29:50
Speaker 1: a number. How about that? Anything else, Cody before we
29:54
Speaker 1: jet out of here?
29:55
Speaker 2: No, No, I think that's I think that's it. Looking
29:57
Speaker 2: forward to some more content coming up. I believe next
30:00
Speaker 2: this week should be the Austin Jackson debut, and at
30:04
Speaker 2: one point maybe the Tigers will do something cool. We'll
30:07
Speaker 2: throw in an emergency pod waiting for that day.
30:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, so far has not happened. Maybe since Scott your
30:15
Speaker 1: your concert schedule here and just make sure he doesn't
30:18
Speaker 1: do it on that day.
30:20
Speaker 2: But then again, we'll probably not do an emergency pod
30:23
Speaker 2: for like a middle relieverer. Just start being honest there.
30:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's fine, all right. I want to thank everybody
30:30
Speaker 1: for listening on Apple, Spotify, wherever you get your podcasts.
30:33
Speaker 1: Want to thank you for watching on YouTube subscribing there
30:37
Speaker 1: as we try to grow it as the season, you know,
30:39
Speaker 1: kind of quickly approaches, so appreciate everybody sticking with us
30:44
Speaker 1: through this offseason. Again, we will have an episode with
30:47
Speaker 1: Austin Jackson out here pretty soon, and that includes the
30:50
Speaker 1: week of Christmas. We will still be doing podcasts, So
30:53
Speaker 1: if you're traveling trying to avoid the in laws, we
30:58
Speaker 1: got your back. We got your back. I'm sorry, I
31:01
Speaker 1: got I gotta here with Karen, Cody got.
31:04
Speaker 2: All right.
31:04
Speaker 1: So thank you everybody for listening for Cody David Hagen,
31:07
Speaker 1: I am Karen Steckley. Everybody have a great day.