Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / The roster cases for Troy Melton, Kevin McGonigle and more

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The roster cases for Troy Melton, Kevin McGonigle and more · 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 with the Troy Tiger's Podcast.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I am Karen Steckley.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: With me is always a man who has quite a
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: likeness to his name and image.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: He is Cody Stavenhagen. How you doing doing all right?
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: Still waiting for all those nil checks hit my bank account.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: But whatever promises kept, promises not kept, that's the nil game,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: all right.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: We are recording this Monday, uh Monday, early evening, so
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: if anything happens later tonight, we'll, uh we'll address it
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: on our next podcast. But for now, Cody, I did
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: kind of want to. I wanted to go back to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: what we talked about with your roster projection, uh last week,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: and we were talking about the the Troy Melton aspect
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of of you know, predicting the Tiger's pitching staff and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: then where Drew Anderson fits into that.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: And I had said.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: That because you know, they gave Anderson a little, you know,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: a little a little bit of cash here. Speaking of promises,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a contract would constitute of promise a little bit of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: cash here to be to enter spring train as a starter.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: And they also have a team option for next year.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: So based on that information, it's not like I studied
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: you know, the you know, the international tapes or anything
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: like that. But given that information and the fact that
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: you know, Melton is obviously not a finished product and
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: he's still a very young player, I thought, you know,
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: it just kind of feels like maybe the safer move
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: would be, like from the Tiger's perspective, would be to
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: give Anderson a little bit of leeway and then you
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: can bring in Melton, you know, when he's more ready,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: you know, work on things in triple A.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: Blah blah blah.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Now the pushback, which is which, by the way, obviously
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I'm fine with, Like, you know, we're not impeccable here.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: The pushback was essentially that, well, you got to look
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: at what they did last year with Job. They started
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: him when you know, he broke with the team, I
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: should say, and they had Mayata in the pen, Mayda
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: who at that time was making you know, ten million.
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: Dollars or whatever.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: So like that was an example of going with young
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: upside over over like more established expensive player in the
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: start in vitation. That's fair, I I you know, I
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I engaged a little bit and I was just like, look,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think they're higher on Anderson than they
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: were with my Aida at that time.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: But I see your point.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: There's a there is a physical track record of the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: Tigers saying we're gonna go with our best five and
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: we'll kind of figure all the other stuff out.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: So I just kind of wanted to revisit that.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: You know, you know, since you've done the Ross projection,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: since we did our last episode, you know, I'm sure
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: you've had chances to kind of mole over, you know,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the decisions you made.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: So just that notion right there, Cody, was I.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: A little bit to flip it in the regards to
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the Tigers, could like they maybe the fault to giving
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: Anderson like kind of first first try there for starting
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: rotation number five spots.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Well, I don't think your logic is terribly flawed. If
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: we go back to last spring, I think I was
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: with you on saying it was entirely possible Kintamaida could
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: have made the rotation, and if Maida had continued to
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: pitch well throughout the entirety of Spring, he might have.
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: Now also, job looked really good in spring, and I
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: think the Tigers did ultimately settle on Well, they couldn't
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: leave Job's upside in Toledo, especially knowing that with the
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: prospect promotion incentive, that would mean leaving him there for
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: the majority of the season. But I also think you
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: make a strong point here and that the Tiglers surely
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: feel better about Drew Anderson right now than they did
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: my Ada. They don't feel better about him than they
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: did Kintamaita. They should not have signed him, Let's be
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: real clear. So I think it's not in apples to
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Apple's comparison. Because my Ida was coming off a terrible year.
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: The Tigers were banking that he could recapture something, but
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: he was a known commodity. Drew Anderson is coming to
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: this team. He's a known commodity to them, but there's
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: a ton of unknown in terms of what he's gonna
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: look like. How the stuff he displayed in the KBO
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: is going to translate to spring training. And Melton good
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: as he is, he's not quite Job, who was an
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: elite level pitching prospect. Now we'll get to this in
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: a minute, but Melton's stuff grades out really well too,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: even if not quite Jackson Joe level good. Like I
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: just don't think it's quite the one to one comparison,
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: though I ultimately, in my roster projection had Melton on
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: the roster, though for probably the reason that Tigers carried
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: job last year. He might just be too good to
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: leave those innings in triple A, regardless of what you're
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: paying another guy, regardless of what roles are promised. Again,
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: I also think, look, chances are someone's gonna tweak a
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: hammy or strain a shoulder or fully not worse, but
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: maybe worse with an arm injury. And none of this
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: debate is gonna matter, but it is interesting right now.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Are you going to give the fifth rotation job to
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: the guy you're paying seven million to a guy who
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: you signed in part because you told him we want
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: you to come to camp as a starter, or are
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: you going to give it to the young stud who
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: pitch really well for you, even if the metrics are flawed.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: Can we went over this last week, but we can
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: go over it again. Troy Melton really good last year
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: two seven six ERA, But the deeper you dive into
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: his metrics, there are some flaws. Didn't generate a ton
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: of w really was not that good against left handed batters,
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: particularly in terms of getting with and strikeouts against left
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: handed batters. But you can look at how his stuff
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: grades out. This is stuff plus, which again is basically
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: a projection. You can plug in spin rate, arm, angle, movement,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: horizontal movement, vertical of individual pitches, and there are systems
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: that project how these pitches will play in a game.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: One hundred would indicate this pitch is going to generate
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: league average results. Troy Melton is above one hundred with
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: his fastball, with his sinker, with his cutter, with his splitter,
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: with his slider, with his changeup overall one oh seven
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: stuff plus in his first taste in the major leagues.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: What that should tell you is that there is reason
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: to believe that his underlying metrics can get even better
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: if he executes his pitches a little better, because the
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: raw profile of the pitch is really nasty. So that's
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: why I'm going to be a believer in Troy Milton.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: Why I think it might be foolish for the Tigers
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: to leave him off the roster in favor of someone
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: like Drew Anderson. But to go back to your original question, like,
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: I don't know, I think there is logic in that
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: it's possible a team could side with the guy they're
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: paying seven million and option the guy who happens to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: have an option available, or could go to the pin
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: or whatever it may be. I think it's fair to
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: disagree a little bit on this one. That's what I'm saying.
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's Robert James. While I give him credit for
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the discourse there, I guess the last kind of piece
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: of this is, do you foresee a world where Melton
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: is not optioned but he is in the bullpen to
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: start the year as opposed to just you know, doing
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the starter thing, whichever level that is.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: Again, that'll be something that'll probably be something that we're
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: asking aj Hintrin Scott Harris on like days one and
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: two of spring training. I would lean no. Based on
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: the Scott Harris comments at the end of the season
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: presser that said he wanted Milton to be a starter.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: If you want Troy Milton to be a starter, and
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: based on how the Tigers have handled pretty much every
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: picture with the exception of Troy Melton last year, for
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: whatever that's worth. They like starters to remain starters because
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: it's you know, you ramp down to a bullpen roll
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: it's hard to then ramp back up again into to
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: a starting a starting pitcher role, especially for talking the
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: long view the rest of Meltain's career or even just
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: the rest of this season. I think you want him
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: if he's going to be a starter, you want him
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: to function as a guy who can go six seven innings,
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: who can go three times in order through an order,
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: stay stretched out. So if he's not starting in the
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: big leagues, I think it would probably be more prudent
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: to have him as a starter in Toledo, Dree Anderson,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: all that same logic applies, but he has maybe built
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: a little bit more for the swingman role. That's probably
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: what he projects as best. If we're just being realistic,
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: and you know, he's older, he's on a one year deal,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: he's not You're not staking your future on him like
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: you are Melton a little bit, so you never know.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: But if I were run in the team, I think
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: I would have Melton only as a starter one way
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: or another from here on out.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, to agree with that. All right, We are going
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: to take a quick break and then afterward we are
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: going to deep dive on the Tigers international assignings. The
• 9:11
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• 10:17
  Speaker 3: One other quick note on Melting here because there's been
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: some more debate on the internet about him this week.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: We know there's some concerns in the metrics from his
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: small sample. I pointed out the stuff plus though, also
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: at winter meetings I talked to a couple of different
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: scouts who said they view him as a sixty caliber pitcher,
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: so sixty on the zero to eighty scouting scale, which
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: is basically, you know, almost a frontline guy, probably a
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: number two type. And that's what I've struggled with for
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: a long time is what is his ultimate ceiling? At first,
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: I thought, look, this is guy's really good, but maybe
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: he's not more than a number four. And then after
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: watching him pitchers like, eh, maybe he could be a
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: number two. And then this offseason in as people dive
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: deeper into the numbers, there's been like a regression like, well,
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: maybe he's not that good. A couple of scouts who
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: are pretty good, I think he can be a maybe
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: not an ace, but you know, a top end of
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: the rotation type of guy for sure.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Again, if you believe.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: In that opposing teams forever. Yeah.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Yes, So if you believe that, if you like, if
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: you're in the Tigers organization, front office, coaching staff, whatever,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: then I think it is apparent is important for this
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: year and beyond to give him that role.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Uh So that's just that's just.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: My opinion on the matter. I do realize I came
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: across like really serious going into that break. We are
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: not going to deep time the international signings because because
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: that's that like, there are people that do that, and
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: kudos to him and our friends at Tiger Tigers MI
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: League Report do a great job.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: There's there's plenty of sources there.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: That's a commitment that if you if you're gonna like
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: really kind of know and scout these guys and speaking
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: of you know, you know, scouting scales or whatever, that
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: that lingo is certainly thrown out for a lot of
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: these guys. But you know, just like every year there,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: you know, it is an example of the organization telling
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: you kind of who obviously specifically to the player, and
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: then what what kind of player they value in this
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: international free agency class with the money that they give
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: out there. So a couple couple of guys getting some
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: pretty nice checks there, Cody, what can you tell us about,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: you know, the newest members of the Tigers organization. Yeah.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: First of all, the reason this isn't a full deep
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: dive is I cannot imagine a job in baseball harder
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: than being an international scout. In addition to just all
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: the restrictions you have to navigate, and you know, like
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: like they're worried about getting scouts in and out of
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Venezuela and players in and out of Venezuela to go
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: to tournaments, and the Dominican and stuff like that. Constant turmoil. Also,
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: you were looking yet kids when they are fourteen, fifteen,
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: sixteen years old and trying to decide what is this
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: kid going to be. It's better than it used to be.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: I remember talking to Alavila about his days as an
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: international scout and he was in like Nicaragua and Panamon.
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: He would say, there are times no one even knew
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: where I was. They didn't have cell phones, you know,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: you would have to like find a payphone, and there
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: was some weird like long international code you could type
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: in and that could connect you with someone. So it's
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: not quite that bad, but still tough life. A lot
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: of travel a lot of time on the road going
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: to backfields and watching skinny fifteen year old and hoping
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: you can hit on one of them. So it's a tough job.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: We don't know what ton about. I mean, we need
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: to have a lot of information about these players, but
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: the players they are in four or five six years
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: could be totally different. Think about if you guys played
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: high school baseball, you know who was the best kid
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: as a freshman and was that kid still the best
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: as a senior? You know, a lot of times like
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Trek Scoobel, no one knw who Trek Scoopler was when
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: he was fifteen or sixteen years old. Now he is
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: the winner of back to by Site Young Awards. But
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: that's all to say. The Tigers did welcome a new
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: international class. I think the main guys to know Manuel Boulevar,
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: he's a catcher, Oscar Tineo shortstop, switch hitter. And Randy
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: Santana he is an outfielder. We can get into them
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: each a little bit. Randy Santana was the only one
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: ranked in the top fifty from MLB pipeline. Kind of
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: a toolsy outfield type, right handed swing, maybe some pretty
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: good power. He's best known for his arm though his arm,
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: as MLB dot Com wrote, a true howitzer for a
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: throwing arm, triple digit throws.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: From the grass.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: He can really run, so we'll see if he's ultimately
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: center field or right field. Right now, the Tigers think
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: he can play center so he's pretty fun. He's pretty
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: tooled out. Manuel Bolivar just missed the pipeline top fifty.
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: I believe Baseball America is a lot higher on him,
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: and he kind of fits the Tigers profile lately. Think
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: of guys they've drafted shortstops, guys they've traded for catchers. Well,
• 15:19
  Speaker 3: he's a catcher. He happens to be a for now,
• 15:21
  Speaker 3: a big catcher. He's already six foot three. And I
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: asked Miguel Garcia, the Tigers director of International operations, like
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: is it any harder evaluating catcher at this age than
• 15:32
  Speaker 3: other positions? Because if this kid really fills out, you know,
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: can he stay at catcher? What does he look like?
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: How does he move in a few years time. We
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: don't know. But the Tigers they like his arm. They
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: think he's got some good pop in the bat. There
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: are concerns about swing and miss. The Tigers. Talking to them,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Rob Metzler didn't seem too worried about that. But right
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: now there's some whiff in the in the swing. And
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: then also Oscar to Naos, switch hitting shortstop, really known
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: for his glove work and has a lot of room
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: to fill out. He's he's really lanky right now. One
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: of those guys will probably have a better feel for
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: in a few years. So those are kind of the
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: main three guys all got seven figure plus bonuses. Check
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: back in five six years. Let's see if these guys
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: are any good.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And you know, we've talked over the years about
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: the Tigers with the different regimes, and they're kind of
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: approach to the international signing and and I don't I
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: guess there is a right way to do it, but
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: to me, it just kind of feels like, you know,
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: it's kind it's kind of a lottery either way. And
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: and I but I do think the Tigers currently are
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: pretty consistent about about attacking the athletic profile that they like,
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: their metrics, their information believes yields the highest uh the
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: highest return on investment, whether that's a draft pick and
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: the money associated with that or with with the international
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: signing period. So it does seem like, especially up the
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: middle athletes, which I mean, oh you got oh you
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: talked about right, there was potential up the middle athletes.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: It seems like that is a premium because if you
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: if you fail at shortstop, you could probably go to
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: second base, you fail at center, you could probably go
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: to right or left. And you know, if you fail
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: at catcher, you could probably you know, assuming like you know,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: other skills are there too, obviously, you could probably you know,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: go to first base out. You might even become a pitcher.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: We've seen obviously at examples to that.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: So uh so, yeah, I mean, so.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: Not a whole lot of analysis other than like you
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: do see a pattern with what what they like and
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: what they like to attack and and the kind of
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: like athletes they want to bring into the organization. And then,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: like I said, it's a gamble. See how these kids do,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, drafted international class, how they do
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: doing the minor league thing, how they handle like being
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: a professional ballplayer and develop and work and all that stuff.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: We'll see, but we can probably wager that next year
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: we're going to be saying similar things about the guys
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: that they sign and then come in the draft, we'll
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: probably be talking about shortstop, catcher, center field.
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: So I'm probably gonna get a shortstopper, a catcher who
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: can hit from the left side. They like left handed
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: hitting shortstops, catchers who can hit for power, and tools
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: the outfielders. That is very much the profile under this
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: new regime, and all those things make sense. I don't,
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: in fact hate how aggressively they are targeting those profiles
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: because if you just hit on one of those things,
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: you could have an all Star caliber catcher or an
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: all Star caliber shortstop and great platoon advantages. And they
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: are clearly trying to make their system more athletic as well.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: Hence players like Randy Santana and the outfield.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and also like you know, even before they become
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: major leaguers, just like high end assets to have in
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: your organization, you know, trades and flexibility and all the
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: things that come with that. All right, let's let's get
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: to our unsponsored but contractually obligated Terrek's Schooble update. It's
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: a deep dive for me on this one, but Tarrek
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Schooble recently via Instagram, participated in twenty twenty six is
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the new twenty sixteen or I'm probably butchering that a
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: little bit participated in that. And I guess the Tigers
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: have put some stuff out there, you know, participating in
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: the trend. In twenty sixteen, Cody Arrek Schouble was not
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: a member of the Tigers organization.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: He was still at Seattle.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: You is this him sending a message that in twenty
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: twenty six he will not be a member of the
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: Tigers organization. That is me with my conspiracy glasses on?
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Is there anything to this this deep dive?
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: Cody, hold on, I gotta get this on the screen
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: for you guys. This is the important stuff. I'm doing
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: this on the fly. Here we go. Here is Terrek
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: Scruble sharing the trendle on Instagram. Get a load of
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: that hair man that was That was Terrek Scuble in
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: twenty sixteen. So again, anyone who knew he was going
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: to be a cy young winner, I don't know developed
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: quite well, you could say, And I do think he's
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: doing better without the long hair. I would otherwise read
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: zero into this. It means nothing. But we had to
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: have a Terrek Scuoble update. So there you go.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so there you go.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: It's the updates are scant, but but you know, it's
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: could be true. There might be a zero zero zero
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: zero zero zero zero point one percent chance it's true.
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: We got to address it either way. All right, Let's
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: let's get to another sort of like roster construction aspect
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: as we kind of project forward here about you know,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: a little less than a month before for everybody reported
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: down the Lakeland, I wanted to revisit something. So at
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: Winter Meetings Scott Harris talked about Kevin McGonagall and he
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: had a quote in there that to me didn't really
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: inspire a lot of confidence. And I said so at
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: the time. This is we have this on the screen
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: if you guys are watching on YouTube, the Scott Harris
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: referring to Kevin McGonagall at Winter Meetings quote. We haven't
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: figured it out yet in terms of like his roster
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: spot or lack they're up. Part of it depends on
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the makeup of the team. Part of it depends on
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Kevin's preparedness to be on the opening day roster. There
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: are a lot of factors that go into it. My
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: initial read on that quote was, well, like if you
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: anticipate McGonagall, like either being on your opening day roster
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: or having like a real like shot at it, then
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: that kind of should affect your decision making other places
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: around the roster. And so I was like, all right, well,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: maybe something will happen, you know, like a Bregman signing
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: or like a Baschet signing or you know whatever that
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: will like, you know, change the makeup of the team,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: and then we can kind of assess from there. All right, Well,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: there hasn't really been any of that, Cody. The makeup
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: of the team is the same now as it was then,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: as it was really ever since labor Tor has accepted
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the qualifying offer, So we've had a lot of time
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: to like kind of stare at the makeup of the team.
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: So I guess the thought that I had was perhaps
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: this is the better there's a better chance now that
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: McGonagall breaks with the team out of Lakeland then there
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: was then, because no additions to the roster have been made.
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: So therefore the path is I don't know if it's
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: sally clearer, but there have been no roadblocks in the
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: pack to path to Kevin McGonagall. You know, Skip and
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Triple A and started the season with the Tigers.
• 23:10
  Speaker 3: Kim Bo. Thank god the Tigers didn't sign our guy
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: Hassung Kim on some ice in Korea and he's out
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: four to five months or something. That is a terrible break.
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: So he gets to keep doing the one year deal
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: game a little bit longer. And the Braves man, they
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: were feeling good about their shortsteps. Situation not so good today.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: You're right here and the Tigers haven't done anything to
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: change their roster. You would think that makes the path
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: more clear, that perhaps the path is more likely that
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: Kevin McGonagall makes the opening day roster. But just here
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: in my office here in Ferndale, I've been thinking about
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: it more and I think it's less likely just because
• 23:55
  Speaker 3: Kevin McGonagall has played forty six games above hy A.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: And then we've said this before. The internet would make
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: you think he hit three point thirty. He hit two
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: fifty four batting average and everything he's got really really
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: good bad ball. Dad is tripic. But he hit two
• 24:12
  Speaker 3: fifty four in forty six games above double A. It
• 24:15
  Speaker 3: would be an incredibly Untigers like to then put him
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: on the opening day Roster's that's just what I think.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: I think there's a room for him, but we've also
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: gone over their position players. They're bringing back everyone. Now,
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: there could be an injury or two in spring that
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: changes things, But even then, might a roster spot go
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: to someone who has played in Triple A? Like how
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: you Lee or even Max Anderson has had a taste
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: of Triple A? Are other people on line ahead of
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: Kevin McGonagall. Even if McGonagall everyone knows he's the best player,
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: I tend to think so, And I don't know if
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: that's right, because you talk to people around the league,
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: you talk to scouts. Everyone thinks McGonagall is the truth
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: and that his skill set can translate pretty quickly. But
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: forty six games not even touching Triple A, that'd be
• 25:07
  Speaker 3: that would be a new one for the Tigers to
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: put him in the big leagues.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, like, look there, we started this podcast
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: talking about the Melton thing and what's you know, you're
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: balancing like immediate and future like aspects of the team,
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: and uh, and the same is definitely applies to the
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: m Kevin McGonagall situation. And I guess at the time
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: we didn't know if Glaber like when we first started
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: talking about it before. Uh, you know, technically free agency
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: and all this stuff started, like we didn't know if
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Glaber was gonna, you know, be back, and you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: maybe second base is open and and all that stuff.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: And since then, obviously a lot of avenues have closed there.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: They have to do what's right for Kevin McGonagall long term,
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: because what's right for Ken McGonagall long term is what's
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: right for the Tigers long term as well. If it's
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: better for to just get him majorly, like if he's like,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: he's special, special, special, and it's just like, you know what,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: ain't I ain't gonna learn anything in trible a like, like, go,
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: let's get him against major league pitching, then do that.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: If it's better for him to kind of go through
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: the normal progression of getting to the big leagues when
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you're he's obviously still very young, like there's no need
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: to rush him per se when you don't have an
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: immediate roster spot for him. Uh, I see the merits
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: in that too. So all that all that to say,
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: maybe the plan all along was, look, we're not we're
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: not gonna like force ourselves into having a Ken McGonagall
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: on the open eight roster. We're not gonna concern ourselves
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: with the draft pick incentive, because again, that is a
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: very high threshold in order to get that. So we're
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: just gonna, we're we're we're gonna ride this out through
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: its natural course. And maybe that was the plan the
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: whole time, but you know, I guess it wouldn't make
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: any sense to announce that. But but maybe that was
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that was the plan the whole time. And but either way,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: whether that's the plan or the plan is for him
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: to be on the roster, I feel like that's solidified now,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: outside of crazy trade or outside of him, just like
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: you know, killing it in spring training.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, another way to look at it under is under
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: the unlikely guys that everyone is healthy, which is how
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: we talked about the Melton and Anderson thing. Who are
• 27:28
  Speaker 3: you kicking off the roster to carry Kevin McGonagall. Are
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: you kicking off Jamai Jones who had a nine hundred
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: plus ops against lefties? I don't think so. Calling off
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: Winsel Perez who was very valuable, I don't know. Matt
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: Vierling or the Tigers are very optimistic can have a
• 27:46
  Speaker 3: very productive bounce back season. I doubt it. You can't
• 27:50
  Speaker 3: do anything with Hovey Baiez, who goes for this prized rookie. There,
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: there's not an obvious candidate.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: To me, No, I think you're I think you're right
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: on that.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: You're obviously you're not doing anything with cold Keith, You're
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: not doing anything with McKinstry. It's obviously Jamai is the
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: one that stands out. But then it would almost then
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: it then, like the the makeup of the roster makes
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: less sense because these.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: Guys will operate. Get ready to hear all spring about
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: how valuable Jami Jones is and then they might be
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: right and they might not. It's banking a lot on
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: him to repeat, you know, the season he had, which
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: was still a pretty small sample.
• 28:35
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: But these guys love their platoons and they love the
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: surprise and the strategy and and all of that good stuff. Right,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: aj Hinch is all about it. They love them some
• 28:46
  Speaker 3: Jamai Jones.
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And again I think we, like you said earlier,
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: we talk a lot about you know, about McGonagall. But
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: it's I think it is worth mentioning like Max Anderson,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: who just got named, you know, one of the top
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: ten by MLB pipeline second basement options, and you know,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: and Hyu Lee like a guy that the Tigers have
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: been like high on, you know, since he came to
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the organization, that like it might be like those guys's
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: time first, if that makes sense, and like overall.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: That would be okay. So but we'll see.
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: I do I do believe that like McGonagall is capable
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: of playing his way onto this roster and making you
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: make those tough decisions. But I don't think that Tigers
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: will ever want to be in a in a place
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: where they're forced to do something with a young player.
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: And and and right now they're set up to where
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: they're not forced to do anything with Kevin McGonigal, or
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: they're not and you know, they're not forced to do
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: anything with Troy Melton either, like they're they both There
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: is some level of cushion there give then variants and
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: injuries and all this stuff that happens over course of
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: a baseball sea.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: Kevin mcgonagill hits five hundred with eight home runs in
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: spring training and just really forces their hands. Wouldn't that
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: be fun?
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: I would enjoy it.
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: I would enjoy it, and uh and I would It
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: would be great. Contact would be great for him, and
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: it would probably be I mean, it would be a
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: better sign than sucking.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: So you know, like.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so and you know could probably use. Ken McGonagall
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: is gonna be one of those guys that's gonna get
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of like you know, like he's gonna be
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: all over your social media feed from like MLB and
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: all that stuff the minute he does anything. You know,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: he's gonna be one of the good faces of the Tigers,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: which I would say, obviously Schoobol is a bad face
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: for the Tigers. Obviously a great face for the Tigers,
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: but the school Bol situation is not ringing with great headlines.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: At this point, there're gonna be a lot more people
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: pissed at the Tigers than there they already are in
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: spring training. If there's no fun resolution the Schoogle situation,
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: if the Tigers make clear they're not gonna carry Kevin
• 31:04
  Speaker 3: McGonagall or Max Clark or Max Anderson on the opening
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: day roster, people are just gonna be mad and they're
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: just gonna complain. But if you want to know if
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: we get if if we get to the point where
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: mcgonagall's not gonna be on the opening day roster and
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: you don't understand why we just told you why. You
• 31:21
  Speaker 3: don't have to agree with it. You don't have to
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: agree with it. But this is how the team thinks
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: about things, and right now I view that as as
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: probably their likely course of action.
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I tend to agree, all right, Cody, anything else
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: before we get out of here.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: No, that's all I got. And and well, we'll see
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: what we got wrong. We can, we can, you know,
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: put some tallies on the board, because last spring we
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: were wrong about kintom Aida and even the team's thinking
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: on kens Maida we got we were wrong in that one,
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: and he was terrible. So we make a misstakes.
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, yeah, we'll well, and we'll do more
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: roster projections as we get more data and even get
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: like maybe a more clear understanding. Once once the microphones
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: are in front of AJ and in front of Scott
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: and and you know, and then we and you know,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: assuming there's no major moves like we'll we'll be able
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: to assess from there. But it's right now, it's all
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: in theory, it's all thought, and it's still a lot
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: of fun. But it's going to be more fun when
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: there's something a little bit more tangible to uh to
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: talk that.
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: All right, signed, Sir Anthony Domingez. Let's get some swing
• 32:27
  Speaker 3: and miss in this bullpen. I'll start a tangent here
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: at the end of the episode, but I think they
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: should sign.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: And that is a tease at the end of the episode.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: You can follow us on x FO, me know on
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: Twitter at Cody Stavenhagen, I'm at Cairo Underscore, Steckley pot
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: Page at Tiger Territory Underscore. Please subscribe to our YouTube
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: channel if you have not already see all those podcasts
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: going the Netflix. We're not going to Netflix. We're staying
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: right here on YouTube. You could subscribe. It would help
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: us out tremendously, so for Cody Stavenhagen, I'm Kieren Steckley.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Everybody. Have great there,