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Finding The Right Perspective Plus Mailbag · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger's Territory, part of
0:11
Speaker 1: the boul Territory Network, a Troy Tiger's podcast. I'm kicker
0:15
Speaker 1: sclely with me as always a man who is really
0:18
Speaker 1: glad that his last name is not Mandarin. First name Jerry.
0:23
Speaker 1: He is Cody Stavenagan. How you doing?
0:25
Speaker 2: Hey? Doing all right? Karen? How are you feeling? Tiger's
0:29
Speaker 2: Twitter Tigers the Tiger's Fear. I think it's officially reached
0:32
Speaker 2: a meltdown point. How are you? Are you there?
0:36
Speaker 1: Well, I'm quite concerned. I tend to I try to
0:40
Speaker 1: be a level headed guy. I really do, but but
0:44
Speaker 1: I can only respond to kind of what I'm seeing.
0:46
Speaker 1: And for a lot of what we have witnessed over
0:50
Speaker 1: the past we'll call it three weeks, has been some
0:54
Speaker 1: either uninspiring or emotionally degree raiding aspects of baseball.
1:02
Speaker 2: Emotionally ouch, yes, like.
1:05
Speaker 1: That, like that, That's that's how I feel in the moment,
1:08
Speaker 1: because like, look, you're recording this Thursday afternoon, Wednesday's game
1:12
Speaker 1: nine to four. You lose the game, you lose the series,
1:15
Speaker 1: and even nine to four, Cody did that? That felt
1:18
Speaker 1: like that that that's too close? That felt too close,
1:21
Speaker 1: but like watching that game, honestly, I know they had
1:24
Speaker 1: the lead, as.
1:25
Speaker 2: Did the game the night before ended up being a
1:26
Speaker 2: three run game. Never really I mean, the Twins bullpen
1:30
Speaker 2: is on paper so bad. I was like maybe, but
1:33
Speaker 2: it never really felt like they were in that game either.
1:36
Speaker 1: Well, one of the things that I try to do
1:37
Speaker 1: is I tried not to like describe things from what
1:42
Speaker 1: the players are or not are not doing. Like I
1:46
Speaker 1: don't want to say like players quit. I don't like
1:48
Speaker 1: saying that, uh, you know, they're not trying hard, you
1:51
Speaker 1: like those kind of things. I try to do it
1:53
Speaker 1: from like my perspective, and from my perspective, a lot
1:56
Speaker 1: of this is uninspiring ball.
1:59
Speaker 2: Like, I think you can say that pretty objectively, they
2:02
Speaker 2: have one of the worst bullpens in baseball thing back
2:04
Speaker 2: to to June first. They have the worst strikeout rate
2:09
Speaker 2: and the lowest walk rate since the All Star Break. Like,
2:12
Speaker 2: those are pretty objective measures that you haven't been a
2:15
Speaker 2: very good baseball team, and the rotation has been very
2:18
Speaker 2: hit or miss as well. There's not really been one
2:21
Speaker 2: element of this team post All Star Break that you
2:24
Speaker 2: can be feeling good about at this point.
2:27
Speaker 1: Well, okay, so again, like how am I feeling? You
2:30
Speaker 1: asked how am I feeling? So I'm drawing based on that.
2:33
Speaker 1: Like one of the things that I look for is
2:37
Speaker 1: like what can you hang your hat on watching the
2:39
Speaker 1: Tigers and for you know, those things were very obvious
2:42
Speaker 1: for two thirds of what of the season, you know,
2:45
Speaker 1: up to this point. Now it's like, what's an identity
2:49
Speaker 1: of this team right now? Is a question that I
2:53
Speaker 1: ask myself, Well, it's it's certainly not bullpen it certainly
2:56
Speaker 1: it's like pitching chaos the bad way. I've said that
2:59
Speaker 1: a couple of times, kind of tongue in cheek. Now
3:01
Speaker 1: it really is pitching chaos the bad way. Obviously, you
3:04
Speaker 1: have School Bowl, you have you know, various performers who
3:07
Speaker 1: are still overachieving. But like even defensive mistakes that we've
3:13
Speaker 1: seen that are uncharacteristic and and and I don't and
3:16
Speaker 1: like getting outs on the base pass and I'm not
3:18
Speaker 1: even criticizing the act of taking the extra base, so
3:21
Speaker 1: I don't want I'm gonna make that clear, But just
3:23
Speaker 1: like those, the outs are coming at a higher clip
3:26
Speaker 1: than we're used to seeing. You see what I'm saying,
3:28
Speaker 1: And and like I guess the best thing you could
3:30
Speaker 1: say is that the home run power seems to be
3:33
Speaker 1: okay actually, because yeah, at least on Wednesday, that's all
3:37
Speaker 1: you had. Unfortunately you didn't have much else off ed,
3:40
Speaker 1: so like a couple of solo shots here and that's
3:42
Speaker 1: your run here and and boom, that's your four runs. Right,
3:45
Speaker 1: so like it's it's it's it's hard to get a
3:49
Speaker 1: grasp on. Okay, well, the losing's happening, but stick to this.
3:56
Speaker 1: Look at that, and like you know, overall, the process
3:59
Speaker 1: is okay. Everything seems out of chaos right now. And
4:02
Speaker 1: we have the graphic right here on her screen. Low
4:06
Speaker 1: point this has I mean, I guess it's a good thing.
4:09
Speaker 1: On August seventh, we're saying this is a low point
4:11
Speaker 1: of the season, but this feels really low. This feels
4:15
Speaker 1: really low. And then the tone and the mood is
4:18
Speaker 1: not great among the fan base.
4:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, the low point is losing twelve to thirteen,
4:24
Speaker 2: and it was kind of like are the Tigers ever
4:27
Speaker 2: going to win again? Are they capable of winning? And
4:29
Speaker 2: then they reeled off four straight and it was a
4:30
Speaker 2: little bit of a reminder of like, Okay, this is
4:33
Speaker 2: how these things go sometimes. But then like you said,
4:36
Speaker 2: just a flat out uninspiring poor series against the Twins,
4:41
Speaker 2: a team that just traded eleven players, and you lose
4:44
Speaker 2: that series. It's a reminder when you step back and
4:48
Speaker 2: look a little bit at the larger sample since the
4:50
Speaker 2: All Star break, or since June first, or since the
4:54
Speaker 2: last sixty games, there are a lot of things this
4:57
Speaker 2: team has not been doing that well. One thing that
5:00
Speaker 2: the team seemed to bring up a lot around the
5:02
Speaker 2: trade deadline was like trusting the track record, trusting what
5:05
Speaker 2: they did for the past twelve months or were the
5:08
Speaker 2: first ninety plus games of the season. But let's be real, people,
5:14
Speaker 2: it's got mad at me in the first half of
5:17
Speaker 2: being like, I don't know. There's not a lot of
5:18
Speaker 2: evidence to support the fact that haave Bayas will continue
5:21
Speaker 2: to do this. Haave Bayas has been pretty bad since
5:26
Speaker 2: his two homer game against the Red Sox. Zach McKinstry
5:30
Speaker 2: has actually continued to be productive. But man, you were
5:32
Speaker 2: putting a lot of pressure on that. We all know
5:36
Speaker 2: the Riley Green conversation that we've had about a million times.
5:40
Speaker 2: Twerklsen's continued to perform and Dinglers continued to perform, but
5:45
Speaker 2: this lineup man, it was doing some things, and in
5:48
Speaker 2: the first half of the season that seemed to be
5:50
Speaker 2: punching above its weight. And not only have some guys
5:53
Speaker 2: gotten cold, the approaches, the plan, it seems to be
5:57
Speaker 2: totally out of whack. Like I've said at a few
6:00
Speaker 2: different points this year, Tigers do not dominate the strike zone,
6:04
Speaker 2: something that's supposed to be kind of a core ide
6:06
Speaker 2: any of this team. They don't do. The walk rate
6:09
Speaker 2: is four point six percent since the All Star break.
6:12
Speaker 2: That's pathetic. There's not many ways to justify that. That's
6:16
Speaker 2: a sign of poor approaches. Some guys like Green chasing
6:19
Speaker 2: too much, some guys maybe being too aggressive early in counts.
6:23
Speaker 2: If your walk rate is four point six percent, that's
6:25
Speaker 2: a pretty good sign that not only are you not
6:28
Speaker 2: taking walks, you're probably not generally getting good pitches to hit.
6:31
Speaker 2: You're probably not doing as much damage as you could.
6:34
Speaker 2: One thing this team continues to do extremely well. You
6:36
Speaker 2: mentioned the outs on the basis, but they take the
6:38
Speaker 2: extra base at a next level clip, they are like
6:41
Speaker 2: six percentage points above the next best team in baseball.
6:45
Speaker 2: You can't do that as much when you don't have
6:49
Speaker 2: base runners. Guys on the base paths. That has been
6:51
Speaker 2: a huge issue. And that doesn't even bring us to
6:55
Speaker 2: the bullpen, which, like Luke Jackson is still in this team,
6:58
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
6:59
Speaker 1: What I had to get a little Jackson reference in there.
7:08
Speaker 2: Sorry, dude, you've fairly been in town. It kind of
7:11
Speaker 2: sucks that there's a ire coming toward you from the
7:14
Speaker 2: fan base, but that's what happens when you option someone
7:18
Speaker 2: like Brendan Hannafiet. Like, this is where we're at. I
7:22
Speaker 2: don't know that. It's like the sky is falling, it's
7:25
Speaker 2: all over. There's all this talk like the division lead
7:28
Speaker 2: is only six games. Six game is a pretty big
7:31
Speaker 2: division lead, Like, let's be real. But I do think
7:33
Speaker 2: it's very fair to be concerned because this isn't just
7:37
Speaker 2: a tiny sample there. This is a decent sample of
7:41
Speaker 2: some very concerning trends. Some guys are gonna play better,
7:45
Speaker 2: I'm sure, but like it's fair to wonder if this
7:49
Speaker 2: is the low point, are we going to get back
7:51
Speaker 2: to that high point? You know? Of what may early June.
7:54
Speaker 2: Are the Tigers going to play at that six hundred
7:57
Speaker 2: plus winning percentage clip? I don't know it's watching this
8:02
Speaker 2: team recently it's hard to feel like inspired that, like, Okay,
8:06
Speaker 2: they're going to rebound to that level. I'm sure they'll
8:08
Speaker 2: rebound to like a five hundred clip or whatever finish
8:11
Speaker 2: out the season. Fine, but I don't know. We talked
8:15
Speaker 2: about the biggest potential of this team. It's getting harder
8:19
Speaker 2: to see. And the fact you did only marginal things
8:22
Speaker 2: that the trade deadline and didn't do anything to upgrade
8:24
Speaker 2: the offense. I mean, we had those debates, and I
8:28
Speaker 2: understand some of the rationale, but the great version of
8:32
Speaker 2: this team, the team that was one pace to win
8:33
Speaker 2: one hundred plus games, starting to feel like a long
8:35
Speaker 2: time ago. Yeah.
8:38
Speaker 1: So the expression water finds its level, I don't know.
8:42
Speaker 1: I don't know exactly what that level is for this team.
8:44
Speaker 1: I don't believe it's this, yeah, but it's probably not.
8:48
Speaker 1: But it's not nineteen eighty four win percentage, right, Yeah,
8:52
Speaker 1: So what is that level? I like, that's that's like,
8:56
Speaker 1: That's something that I'm looking at right now. And then
8:58
Speaker 1: in terms of fairness, I'm glad that you brought up
9:01
Speaker 1: you know, it's only six games. Was this team, you know,
9:04
Speaker 1: gonna win the division by twenty games? That wasn't really
9:09
Speaker 1: gonna happen, you know, it's tough to do so. Right now,
9:12
Speaker 1: from our friends at DraftKings, the Tigers are minus one
9:15
Speaker 1: thousand to win the division. That's by far the greatest
9:21
Speaker 1: odds to win the division, if you want some perspective.
9:23
Speaker 1: The Dodgers or minus four seventy five, the Blue Jays
9:27
Speaker 1: or minus two to seventy. That's obviously a pretty competitive
9:29
Speaker 1: division in there. So that's for division.
9:32
Speaker 2: It helps a lot that no one else in the
9:34
Speaker 2: division is trying. I mean, the Guardians have been playing
9:37
Speaker 2: very good baseball, but they sold, and the Twins obviously
9:40
Speaker 2: had a fire sale. I guess the Royals are kind
9:42
Speaker 2: of trying, but they're they're further back in the pack
9:45
Speaker 2: that let's be real like that. Bode's great in the
9:50
Speaker 2: Tigers favor.
9:51
Speaker 1: Yes, And so you say, like I want to get
9:55
Speaker 1: ahead of ourselves and say the divisions are rap, but
9:57
Speaker 1: you're obviously in really good position enough that you can
9:59
Speaker 1: look at the next tier, right, I think that's fair
10:01
Speaker 1: to say.
10:02
Speaker 2: Sure.
10:02
Speaker 1: And on DraftKings they actually have odds for the number one,
10:05
Speaker 1: number two, and you know whatever seeds for the playoffs
10:09
Speaker 1: and the number one seed odds for well, I looked
10:13
Speaker 1: at the earlier in the morning this morning, and now
10:14
Speaker 1: they're gone. But the Tigers were like in the plus
10:17
Speaker 1: two hundreds for the one seed and the in the
10:20
Speaker 1: plus like almost plus three hundreds for the two seed,
10:24
Speaker 1: and so like they're in right behind Toronto for the
10:27
Speaker 1: one seed and tops for the two seed. So they
10:30
Speaker 1: are odds on favorites to get that crucial top two
10:34
Speaker 1: spots in the American League playoff picture. Which brings me
10:39
Speaker 1: to something that I think we haven't discussed yet, but
10:41
Speaker 1: I think is worth kind of set setting the record
10:44
Speaker 1: of Cody how crucial, especially given what we've seen, how
10:49
Speaker 1: crucial is it to get one of those top two
10:52
Speaker 1: seeds and to avoid being in a three game playoff situation.
10:58
Speaker 2: So yeah, I'm glad you bring up here. I think
11:01
Speaker 2: this is maybe the best way to talk about the
11:03
Speaker 2: state of the Tigers right now. It's fun to panic
11:07
Speaker 2: or rage bait and let's you know, bring pitchfords outside
11:10
Speaker 2: Scott Harris's office and the Tigers are going to blow
11:13
Speaker 2: this divisionally aid whatever. That's all fun. They have a
11:16
Speaker 2: six game divisionally, they're in good position. They still have
11:19
Speaker 2: Trek Scooball going for you every fifth day. But this
11:23
Speaker 2: team is that danger, in danger of no longer having
11:26
Speaker 2: a buy. If you do not play better baseball than
11:30
Speaker 2: you have been, you're going to be going to the
11:32
Speaker 2: wildcard round. And I think that is other than totally
11:37
Speaker 2: choking things away and not making the playoff, that is
11:39
Speaker 2: the worst case scenario for this team right now. The
11:41
Speaker 2: idea of just going in like a like I've called
11:45
Speaker 2: it a snake pit. I guess you would in theory
11:47
Speaker 2: host this this wildcard series. But imagine facing the Rangers
11:53
Speaker 2: and you got Valdi and de Gram and boom, you're done.
11:56
Speaker 2: Or the Mariners and you have Wu Gilbert and Castillo, Like,
12:00
Speaker 2: how good really do you feel about the tigers chances
12:03
Speaker 2: and the short series like that? Against what could be
12:06
Speaker 2: a wildcard team with a really good rotation, you would
12:09
Speaker 2: have Scoobal going, we don't know who's gonna start Game
12:12
Speaker 2: two or Game three? You feel good about Charlie Morton
12:15
Speaker 2: starting for you? If the other side's rolling out Luis Castillo,
12:20
Speaker 2: I don't love that. I guess you can go pitching chaos.
12:24
Speaker 2: Better have some guys step up in the bullpen. Better
12:27
Speaker 2: have Paul Seawaald become a hero. You know in October.
12:32
Speaker 2: I think that is a very scary situation that is
12:36
Speaker 2: starting to feel like a something that could be a
12:40
Speaker 2: distinct reality for the Tigers.
12:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, and if you look at around the American League,
12:47
Speaker 1: there's a lot of aces out there that like are
12:50
Speaker 1: putting teams on their backs, just like Schoobol has done
12:53
Speaker 1: for a number of Baldis one of course, de Gram
12:56
Speaker 1: Crochet like guys that are good enough. I'll say that
13:01
Speaker 1: in a in a short playoff series, you can kind
13:04
Speaker 1: of wash the schoogl effect, like that's how good some
13:06
Speaker 1: of these guys.
13:07
Speaker 2: These And I would say the flip side of this
13:10
Speaker 2: is like there's still not a dominant power in the
13:12
Speaker 2: American League.
13:13
Speaker 1: True.
13:14
Speaker 2: I think the Tigers could stack up in a seven
13:16
Speaker 2: game series if they get back to something closer to themselves,
13:20
Speaker 2: could stack up against any of these teams totally fine,
13:23
Speaker 2: could almost feel good. But you don't want to go
13:26
Speaker 2: into that three game series because that's just too volatile,
13:29
Speaker 2: too random. And there are some pitchers around the league
13:32
Speaker 2: that scare me against the lineup that's been striking out
13:35
Speaker 2: at a very high rate and not walking at all.
13:38
Speaker 1: The way I the way I look at it is
13:40
Speaker 1: I want a series that has a place for schoobl
13:45
Speaker 1: to go twice if needed.
13:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, like like that's that's.
13:48
Speaker 1: Really that's how that's how I look at it. So
13:52
Speaker 1: that brings us to we talked about some things that
13:55
Speaker 1: haven't been going right. So who who's gonna be our
13:59
Speaker 1: DraftKings charts the week. Let's see, I have Wentzel Perez,
14:06
Speaker 1: Cody Okay, Wentzel Perez is our DraftKings chart topper player
14:12
Speaker 1: spotlight because I was trying to think of guys that
14:17
Speaker 1: have the capability of being a rocket ship for this team,
14:23
Speaker 1: like production wise and emotionally in the in the I
14:26
Speaker 1: know it's not the second half, but in this playoff
14:29
Speaker 1: push here, because he had a litany of guys that
14:31
Speaker 1: did that in the first half, you know, six all stars.
14:35
Speaker 1: But Perez is quietly putting together like a pretty solid,
14:40
Speaker 1: a pretty solid season. He's already point seven war That's
14:43
Speaker 1: exactly what he was last year. Cody and roughly halfty
14:47
Speaker 1: at bats. He doesn't grade out great defensively still, but
14:52
Speaker 1: he does have a knack for making big and exciting plays.
14:55
Speaker 1: We saw that this past week. The switch hitter piece
14:58
Speaker 1: of it is something I think he's a real I
15:00
Speaker 1: said as a switch hitter, which I didn't necessarily see
15:02
Speaker 1: last year. And then if you just even look at
15:06
Speaker 1: it recently, he's had a hit in seven of eight games.
15:08
Speaker 1: That's a couple home runs, he's stealing bags. He's kind
15:12
Speaker 1: of taken over McKinstry's corner a little bit, as like
15:16
Speaker 1: the most worrisome guy on the bass pass a little bit.
15:19
Speaker 1: I like Wenzel Perez because of what he can bring
15:22
Speaker 1: to this team, all that little stuff. I feel like
15:26
Speaker 1: he can kind of create things. He has a knack
15:28
Speaker 1: for creating things when not a lot else is going
15:31
Speaker 1: right around with the team. So I think he might
15:34
Speaker 1: be one of the more sneaky, kind of valuable guys
15:37
Speaker 1: as we make a playoff push into October.
15:41
Speaker 2: I think he's been incredibly valuable. There were some signs
15:44
Speaker 2: of him really cooling off. I mean he did cool
15:46
Speaker 2: off in July. He hit two hundred. He was not
15:49
Speaker 2: swinging the bat all that well. But then he's picked
15:54
Speaker 2: it back up, like you said, hits in seven of eight.
15:56
Speaker 2: I think that was a needed sign, but really encourages
15:59
Speaker 2: me continue to be pretty good from both sides of
16:02
Speaker 2: the plate. He had cooled off a little bit from
16:05
Speaker 2: the left side, but had a big homer the other night.
16:08
Speaker 2: He's got six home runs from the left side of
16:10
Speaker 2: the plate already seven to sixty five ops from the
16:14
Speaker 2: right side, which was considered his weaker side entering this year.
16:18
Speaker 2: He's got a nine hundred ops right now in fifty
16:20
Speaker 2: two plate appearances. He's been a legit threat, and as
16:24
Speaker 2: AJ Hinch said, feels like you have two players when
16:27
Speaker 2: he's able to swing it from both the left and
16:30
Speaker 2: the right side. I wouldn't have guessed Winsle's production increasing
16:33
Speaker 2: to this level as a right handed hitter entering spring trading.
16:37
Speaker 2: We'll see if it continues for fifty more plate appearances,
16:41
Speaker 2: but it's been really good, said regardless of what the
16:45
Speaker 2: metrics say. Continues to just look way more comfortable to
16:48
Speaker 2: me in the outfield than he did a year ago.
16:50
Speaker 2: Love seeing him run the bases, Love ceing AJ give
16:53
Speaker 2: him that green light and maybe be a little more
16:56
Speaker 2: open to sending guys. Yeah, this is a dude that
17:00
Speaker 2: has been very, very valuable, especially when Parker Meadows is
17:04
Speaker 2: heard again and Matt Vierling has yet to really get
17:07
Speaker 2: it going.
17:08
Speaker 1: He's the only example of a guy that you know
17:11
Speaker 1: had the spring training injury. Technically, I know he did
17:15
Speaker 1: play in spring training, but the spring training injury and
17:17
Speaker 1: then came back and actually produced. And again like like
17:21
Speaker 1: you just gotta go look at the numbers from this
17:22
Speaker 1: year to last year. Keep in mind he's still not
17:24
Speaker 1: twenty five. Is he twenty five or is he should Yeah,
17:28
Speaker 1: he turns twenty five in October, Cody, so like he's
17:31
Speaker 1: still a youngin and if you just look.
17:33
Speaker 2: At you glad they didn't trade him for Auhane.
17:37
Speaker 1: He's already matched last season's home run total. His ops
17:40
Speaker 1: plus is one to eighteen. Last year it was below
17:44
Speaker 1: the one hundred mark. And and he he he does
17:48
Speaker 1: feel like a guy that actually has a real role.
17:50
Speaker 1: So that's why I thought, like, if there's there's not
17:53
Speaker 1: a lot of spark plugy type players on this team,
17:56
Speaker 1: it was McKinstry, but you can't can't be a spark
17:58
Speaker 1: plug again, it's kind of like a you know, in
18:00
Speaker 1: the moment thing, and so Peaz I think has the
18:03
Speaker 1: capability of doing that. So that's why we have him
18:05
Speaker 1: as our Draft Kings Player Spotlight, which brings us to
18:09
Speaker 1: our Pick of the Week presented by Draftings. So our
18:18
Speaker 1: our pick Cody is it's it's kind of like a
18:21
Speaker 1: pick ad necessity like that. We've spent twenty minutes almost
18:25
Speaker 1: talking about like what's going wrong with this team? But
18:28
Speaker 1: at least this is set up for a get right weekend.
18:31
Speaker 1: Now we thought Minnesota would be that too, but present presently,
18:36
Speaker 1: going into this series against the Angels, the Tigers are
18:40
Speaker 1: minus two fifty to win the series. And also, interestingly,
18:45
Speaker 1: schoobl Morton, Mice, those are your starring pitchers for the
18:49
Speaker 1: weekend if you're in if you're in a three game
18:52
Speaker 1: series or in a playoff series period, that kind of
18:56
Speaker 1: seems like you're top three right now, is it.
19:01
Speaker 2: I mean, maybe can't really argue anyway I would like
19:04
Speaker 2: I guess that means Jack Flaherty's got to step up
19:07
Speaker 2: or Chris Paddock's got to step up. I don't know,
19:10
Speaker 2: Charlie Morton being your two. But yeah, it could be
19:13
Speaker 2: hard to make an argument for anyone else with this, right.
19:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm saying it could be just it could be
19:19
Speaker 1: and so so so that's the interesting element. For the record,
19:23
Speaker 1: the Angels are five games blow of five hundred. It's
19:26
Speaker 1: a team that feels like, for you know, several years,
19:28
Speaker 1: has had any direction. This is a potential get right weekend.
19:33
Speaker 1: Like I said, the Tigers just had their family day
19:36
Speaker 1: carnival thing at America Park. Hopefully they're they they're looser,
19:40
Speaker 1: and they you know, can rebound, you know, all these
19:43
Speaker 1: intangible things. But Tigers win the series mice two to fifty.
19:48
Speaker 1: Only the Dodgers hosting the Rockies, I think had a
19:53
Speaker 1: better series odds for the weekend. So that gives you
19:56
Speaker 1: again an idea of how how the books are looking
19:59
Speaker 1: at the Tigers. So uh, obviously you can't make a pick,
20:03
Speaker 1: but this seems like it's it's almost a pick ad necessity.
20:06
Speaker 1: It's like, you kind of gotta win this series. You
20:08
Speaker 1: can't drop. You can't spend a week losing two out
20:10
Speaker 1: of three in Minnesota and two out of three to
20:12
Speaker 1: ANNAHI you.
20:13
Speaker 2: Think ye'ld be bad. That'd be bad. Helps to have
20:17
Speaker 2: Scoogle go in game one maybe set the tone a
20:20
Speaker 2: little bit. Tiller's have last what five of their past
20:24
Speaker 2: six series, six of their past seven series, which is
20:28
Speaker 2: kind of hard to process. Like I wouldn't have guessed
20:30
Speaker 2: that until that that stat came out. It's like, oh yeah, no,
20:34
Speaker 2: they they have been that bad. But in a way
20:37
Speaker 2: they're maybe they're just due to win a series.
20:41
Speaker 1: I mean, man, find the level, find the level, And
20:44
Speaker 1: I just want to correct the record. It's Arizona hosting
20:46
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21:27
Speaker 1: All right, Yeah, we asked for some mailback questions and
21:30
Speaker 1: we got several, So we're going to try to speed
21:32
Speaker 1: through these as usual, Cody and I just get on
21:35
Speaker 1: tangents and then we're like, oh wait, we got to
21:37
Speaker 1: get to this. So first one up. Here's a here,
21:41
Speaker 1: here's one that's actually really topical given what we saw
21:44
Speaker 1: this week. Concern level on Tyler Horton. This comes from
21:47
Speaker 1: Robert James. Concern level for Tyler Horton.
21:50
Speaker 2: Who's Tyler Horton?
21:52
Speaker 1: At uh uh, Taylor Horton?
21:56
Speaker 2: What's his name? Are you talking about? Tyler Holton?
21:58
Speaker 1: Holton Holton. I'm sorry, that's right, all right, I'm sorry,
22:01
Speaker 1: I'm going fast and I read it wrong.
22:03
Speaker 2: Bad worried about you there for a second. Have we
22:06
Speaker 2: created a mix of Tyler Holton and Charlie Morton or something.
22:13
Speaker 2: He's given up a lot more damage is just the
22:15
Speaker 2: first thing that comes to mind. It's given up thirteen
22:18
Speaker 2: homers this season. Here, in his last two seasons combined,
22:23
Speaker 2: he had only given up sixteen. I feel like the
22:26
Speaker 2: stuff it's been a little better than it was earlier
22:30
Speaker 2: in the year. Still not sure it's gotten back to
22:32
Speaker 2: last year's level. And I feel like he's just leaving
22:35
Speaker 2: a lot more stuff middle. The command does not seem
22:39
Speaker 2: to have been as precise the cutter has been hit
22:42
Speaker 2: pretty hard. That's probably been the single biggest difference maker
22:48
Speaker 2: the cutter. Trying to pull up some stats here off
22:50
Speaker 2: the top of my head. Bottom line, it has not
22:53
Speaker 2: been as good a run value of one this season.
22:59
Speaker 2: It was seven last year. He's actually having success with
23:02
Speaker 2: his sinker, but opponents hit one ninety four off that
23:06
Speaker 2: cutter last year. They're hitting three to zero four this year.
23:09
Speaker 2: The slug is more than double what it was last season.
23:14
Speaker 2: He needs that to kind of be his bread and
23:16
Speaker 2: butter to set up some of the other things he
23:19
Speaker 2: likes to do. And if that pitch is leaking over
23:22
Speaker 2: the middle of the plate or if it's getting whacked,
23:25
Speaker 2: I think that kind of alters his entire arsenal, the
23:28
Speaker 2: entire way he can approach hitters. I'm not gonna say
23:32
Speaker 2: concerning that he's unusable, but I'm not super confident and
23:36
Speaker 2: he's going to get back to being a complete lockdown guy,
23:40
Speaker 2: which he was last season. All right.
23:43
Speaker 1: Similar for Tommy Kinley, Happy birthday by the way, Tommy Kinley,
23:47
Speaker 1: you know, should should he be throwing the fastball more?
23:50
Speaker 1: I mean that broadcast wise, I gets suggested, but like it,
23:55
Speaker 1: like something's got to give because he's you talk about usable.
24:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not being bad, and he will continue to
24:05
Speaker 2: be bad if he doesn't rediscover the feel for his
24:07
Speaker 2: change up. Not saying he's going to continue to be bad,
24:11
Speaker 2: but if he keeps doing what he is doing now,
24:13
Speaker 2: I don't think his results are going to improve. You
24:16
Speaker 2: can look at the splits on his change up. From
24:19
Speaker 2: late June or early July. Hitters were hitting sub two
24:23
Speaker 2: hundred against the pitch. I think they're hitting above four
24:26
Speaker 2: hundred against that change up since July one. It's not
24:30
Speaker 2: getting as much horizontal movement, it's not getting as much
24:33
Speaker 2: vertical movement. It really has not been quite the same pitch.
24:37
Speaker 2: And when you lean on that eighty four percent of
24:40
Speaker 2: the time, that's going to get you in trouble throwing
24:44
Speaker 2: the four seam more. Maybe that's like a band aid
24:46
Speaker 2: he could use, but reality is he's got to get
24:49
Speaker 2: that good version of his change up right or it
24:54
Speaker 2: could be very problematic.
24:56
Speaker 1: All right, Next question is from Stan. It's a Riley
24:59
Speaker 1: greenw one uh, which we've talked about, but this is
25:02
Speaker 1: specifically with his launch angle swing and not being able
25:06
Speaker 1: to catch up to high rail fastballs. Is that what
25:11
Speaker 1: is the adjustment for that? Is it you just gotta
25:13
Speaker 1: let it go knowing you can't get to it, or
25:15
Speaker 1: do you have to alter your path a little bit?
25:18
Speaker 1: Can you alter your path?
25:20
Speaker 2: Yeah? I wish we had ajax for this one, to
25:22
Speaker 2: really break it down from the perspective of a major
25:25
Speaker 2: league hitter.
25:29
Speaker 1: I feel like that's the simplest thing that's might to go.
25:32
Speaker 2: Maybe. I mean, what if it's a strike though, you're
25:35
Speaker 2: gonna lay off it. I mean, the pictures are just
25:39
Speaker 2: going to continue to attack you. There is my first thought. Sure,
25:44
Speaker 2: he doesn't get an incredible you look at pitch percentage,
25:47
Speaker 2: he doesn't get an incredible amount of top rail. The
25:51
Speaker 2: whiff is is pretty significant up there though, I mean
25:55
Speaker 2: forty eight percent one outer third top rail fastballs is
25:59
Speaker 2: super canncern. But then he gets attacked with spin low
26:03
Speaker 2: a lot too, So then it's like a tunneling effect.
26:07
Speaker 2: That's where he can really get in trouble and kind
26:09
Speaker 2: of being caught in between those two things. I don't
26:13
Speaker 2: know what the answer is. That's that's my honest assessment.
26:16
Speaker 2: This guy's your best power hitter. I don't think you
26:18
Speaker 2: want to tell them, Hey, level your swing like a
26:21
Speaker 2: little league coach or something, right, But obviously it's extreme.
26:24
Speaker 2: Obviously you can't get beat the way he is getting
26:28
Speaker 2: beaten right now. It's like he feels more like an
26:32
Speaker 2: off season thing. To me. I don't know what you
26:34
Speaker 2: do right now. It's it's kind of tough.
26:36
Speaker 1: Well, the reason I say that you just don't swing
26:39
Speaker 1: at him is that, like you, I think you got
26:41
Speaker 1: to train. You gotta hope you get some calls there,
26:43
Speaker 1: because it's not like all these are strikes that he's
26:45
Speaker 1: swinging that up, and most of these aren't. You're not
26:48
Speaker 1: going to get to anyway. You're not going to get
26:49
Speaker 1: do damage on anyway. I would almost just like take
26:52
Speaker 1: a couple of games, dude, and just like lay those
26:55
Speaker 1: off and we'll live with the results. You're striking out anyway,
26:58
Speaker 1: so it's not like we're going with the increase in
27:01
Speaker 1: in the percentage there. You're just not hitting them. So
27:04
Speaker 1: maybe you get you maybe get lucky with with with
27:06
Speaker 1: the umpire. I mean, I'm not saying that's a great suggestion,
27:09
Speaker 1: but that's the only thing I could think of.
27:11
Speaker 2: Maybe it's dangerous to take fastballs in this league because
27:14
Speaker 2: then you're just gonna see more of this and in
27:16
Speaker 2: general that's hard to hit. Riley's actually slugged better against
27:19
Speaker 2: breaking balls in fastballs this season though, fair point.
27:24
Speaker 1: I mean, this is something we talked on a little bit,
27:26
Speaker 1: but you can expand for a little bit. And this
27:28
Speaker 1: is from Flair any behind the scenes info on your kid,
27:32
Speaker 1: and I think basically like, what's the level of enthusiasm
27:35
Speaker 1: that you can share with us regarding like this guy.
27:39
Speaker 2: It seems pretty high. Like he's been a very real
27:43
Speaker 2: part of the Tigers plan this entire time. I think
27:45
Speaker 2: we still he's throwing what one rehab outing, I don't
27:48
Speaker 2: think we and it was short. I don't think that
27:51
Speaker 2: was enough to judge like how his stuff has actually looked.
27:55
Speaker 2: I haven't really heard even a lot on on how
27:58
Speaker 2: the team has felt about that, but they've always seemed
28:01
Speaker 2: very enthusiastic about him returning and him pitching for this
28:05
Speaker 2: team in September. That factored into their trade deadline calculus
28:10
Speaker 2: as well. I'll be interested to see what the stuff
28:13
Speaker 2: is looking like coming out of his hand as he
28:15
Speaker 2: gets up to triple A. Makes some longer rehab outings,
28:18
Speaker 2: because this is a guy fresh off Tommy John, which
28:20
Speaker 2: I've been saying for a while. Just scares me a
28:23
Speaker 2: little bit. But the Tigers seemed a pretty good, pretty good,
28:26
Speaker 2: pretty good level of about optimism for him.
28:29
Speaker 1: All Right, we're gonna get to some more of your
28:31
Speaker 1: mail back questions, but first a word from our sponsors.
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Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, Cody, this question is from
29:42
Speaker 1: ron Chemistry. Now with all the changes, we talked about
29:46
Speaker 1: this a little bit, but you know, like like I said,
29:49
Speaker 1: lowest point chemistry now with all the changes, any differences
29:52
Speaker 1: clubhousewise with.
29:53
Speaker 2: The guys, Yeah, this is nothing that I've noticed. Like
29:57
Speaker 2: I said, I think it's really only a few new editions.
30:00
Speaker 2: This is a couple of guys who are more veterans,
30:02
Speaker 2: so you do wonder how that could alter the calculus
30:05
Speaker 2: of this room. Also still new, right, Charlie Morton, Chris Paddock,
30:09
Speaker 2: Rafael Montero, like Kyle fin again, still getting to know
30:13
Speaker 2: everyone's name, still learning how they will fit in. From
30:18
Speaker 2: what I can tell, there's not been a huge alteration there,
30:21
Speaker 2: at least not yet. I do think that the guys
30:24
Speaker 2: are getting sick of losing though, right, and that's understandable.
30:28
Speaker 2: But I think I don't know, at least after the
30:30
Speaker 2: last loss to the Twins, like I just wasn't great.
30:34
Speaker 2: I'm not saying it should be great after a loss
30:37
Speaker 2: like that, but I think I think these guys would
30:40
Speaker 2: like to get back to winning. I think that would
30:42
Speaker 2: fix obviously would fix a lot.
30:45
Speaker 1: Sure. Next is from Nick, and this is actually something
30:48
Speaker 1: that you and I talked about off air after our
30:51
Speaker 1: last episode. Jamai Jones and Andy A Bonnez being on
30:55
Speaker 1: the roster at the same time. That's obviously not something
30:57
Speaker 1: we anticipated coming into the season, had I mean all
31:00
Speaker 1: that much. But what's the future of Jamai Jones when
31:05
Speaker 1: when Parker is healthy? Is basically what Nick is saying.
31:07
Speaker 1: And do you have is there any option possibility for
31:12
Speaker 1: like a Parker or even a vier Lin or whatever.
31:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would assume one of Andy or Jemia would
31:21
Speaker 2: be gone when Parker is activated. It is interesting and
31:25
Speaker 2: worth following what Matt Vierling will do over the past
31:28
Speaker 2: next few days. That could maybe be an option. Man.
31:31
Speaker 2: I mean, he does have hits, three hits in his
31:33
Speaker 2: last two games. That's a mark in his favor. And
31:39
Speaker 2: I do think just from a roster construction standpoint, it
31:41
Speaker 2: probably makes more sense to demote one of your quote
31:45
Speaker 2: unquote platoon bats. No, Jones doesn't have an option. He
31:48
Speaker 2: would have to be DFA, So then it's do you
31:50
Speaker 2: want to option Andy or dfa Jemi. That can be
31:55
Speaker 2: a little bit of a tricky question. I don't quite
31:58
Speaker 2: know which way the team would lean. And he does
32:00
Speaker 2: present more offensive or excuse me, defensive value, can be
32:05
Speaker 2: a little more versatile. AJ can use him in some
32:07
Speaker 2: different ways. I think if the Tigers feel like his
32:10
Speaker 2: bat is right, I would at least lean toward keeping Andy.
32:15
Speaker 2: That kind of sucks for Jami, who's quietly been pretty
32:18
Speaker 2: solid and pretty productive for the Tigers. He's certainly earned,
32:23
Speaker 2: you know, his right to continue to be on this
32:25
Speaker 2: team as long as he has. It'll end up being
32:28
Speaker 2: a tough decision. Let's what's Let's see what happens in
32:30
Speaker 2: the next few days, all right?
32:33
Speaker 1: This next one is from casey uh barring a Hiyu
32:37
Speaker 1: Lee trade or except accept how you excuse me? The
32:41
Speaker 1: Tigers are really lacking higher end prospects in Triple A.
32:43
Speaker 1: Do you think this had any impact on their trade deadline?
32:47
Speaker 1: As it seems a lot of selling teams or leaning
32:49
Speaker 1: towards prospects they think can help them sooner rather than later.
32:54
Speaker 2: I think it's worth noting Chase Young and Justin Henry
32:57
Speaker 2: Malloy aren't prospect status. They're not going to appear on
33:00
Speaker 2: prospect list, but they are very young players who could
33:04
Speaker 2: probably play for a lot of major league teams out there.
33:08
Speaker 2: So I think you got to consider those guys in
33:10
Speaker 2: the mix. Now, how much do other teams value those
33:13
Speaker 2: two players, that's a different question because they both have
33:16
Speaker 2: defensive limitations that could probably hurt their value on the
33:20
Speaker 2: trade market. Probably Maloy, especially Tigers haven't even trusted him
33:25
Speaker 2: with a lot of outfield reps, so why would another
33:27
Speaker 2: team suddenly, you know, be excited. And then Jase I
33:32
Speaker 2: wonder if there was interest. I haven't really heard much,
33:35
Speaker 2: if any about that seems to me like a guy
33:39
Speaker 2: other teams could still be interested in, especially a team
33:42
Speaker 2: that maybe preferred to play him at second rather than third.
33:46
Speaker 2: But it is worth when we talk about, like, all right,
33:49
Speaker 2: they're not going to trade in their top five guys,
33:51
Speaker 2: and then you start looking from five to fifteen, and
33:55
Speaker 2: one of them's how you leave. The Tigers kind of
33:57
Speaker 2: want in the big leagues maybe by the end of
33:59
Speaker 2: this year. One of them is Chris Rodriguez, who they're
34:02
Speaker 2: probably not touching either, and then Jade and Hamm, who's
34:05
Speaker 2: had like a down year. Does he still have any value?
34:08
Speaker 2: And then you look further down, like maybe this farm
34:11
Speaker 2: is a little more top heavy than we We have
34:14
Speaker 2: kind of talked about it in terms of, oh, they
34:16
Speaker 2: have the best farm in baseball. They have a really
34:19
Speaker 2: good farm, they have more depth than they used to.
34:22
Speaker 2: But I do think it's a little bit top heavy
34:24
Speaker 2: and that might have impacted some trade discussions.
34:28
Speaker 1: And lastly, I think this is a nice way to
34:30
Speaker 1: kind of wrap it up. But got several variations of
34:32
Speaker 1: this from people. But the McGonagall piece is there, is
34:37
Speaker 1: there any Is there any sense in holding out hope
34:41
Speaker 1: that he gets a gets a gets a tryout in
34:45
Speaker 1: the major leagues this season?
34:48
Speaker 2: I would say, no, Am I right? Is there? I mean,
34:53
Speaker 2: I think it feels I think it's highly unlikely, but
34:58
Speaker 2: it feels more likely than I would have thought even
35:01
Speaker 2: a month ago. I think if the team is playing
35:04
Speaker 2: poorly and maybe gets a little desperate, like would that
35:08
Speaker 2: be an influencing factor. I don't know, it would still
35:10
Speaker 2: be against pretty much everything Scott harris has done in
35:13
Speaker 2: his tenure other than promote Jackson Joe at the end
35:16
Speaker 2: of last year. So I'd give it like a five
35:20
Speaker 2: percent chance, but I don't know that. I'd say zero
35:23
Speaker 2: like I would have for most of this year. Yeah.
35:26
Speaker 1: The way I would phrase it is McGonagall has done
35:29
Speaker 1: enough to make it an interesting thought, but it does
35:33
Speaker 1: it Like you said, it would seem pretty addic character
35:36
Speaker 1: for the tire.
35:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, that brings us back like who you'd taken off
35:39
Speaker 2: this roster. Yeah, yeah, it would be both Andy and
35:44
Speaker 2: JAMAI are probably gone. Are you really going to get
35:46
Speaker 2: more from like a rookie hitter? He's a left handed hitter,
35:49
Speaker 2: so that complicates the roster discussion even more. It'd probably
35:56
Speaker 2: take an injury really to even make it feasible now
35:59
Speaker 2: that I think about it from a lefty righty standpoint.
36:02
Speaker 1: Not to get old Scott Harrissey and plan zy, but uh,
36:06
Speaker 1: I would just do everything possible for McGonagall to be
36:08
Speaker 1: a starting infielder in twenty twenty six.
36:10
Speaker 2: That would be That would be like my point thought, certainly.
36:15
Speaker 1: All right, Well, thank you everybody for sending me questions
36:17
Speaker 1: thanks for listening, Thanks for downloading us on Apple and
36:20
Speaker 1: Spotify and were ready to get your podcast. Thanks for
36:22
Speaker 1: following us on x formerly on his Twitter at Cody Danhagen,
36:25
Speaker 1: I'm at Krono score Sectly pod page at Tiger Territory Underscore.
36:28
Speaker 1: Reminder everywhere there's a link to our shop, Tiger Territory
36:32
Speaker 1: shop dot com to get your Tiger Territory merch. We
36:36
Speaker 1: appreciate all of you and thank you for following along
36:39
Speaker 1: the lowest point of the season. We'll see where water
36:41
Speaker 1: finds this level. For Cody Stavemenhagen, I'm here Sekley. Everybody
36:46
Speaker 1: have a great day real quick.
36:48
Speaker 2: So I didn't mention this obviously, the Tigers get a
36:50
Speaker 2: twenty seventh man and there are two call ups in
36:53
Speaker 2: September twenty seventh and twenty eighth, so mcgonacle dude could
36:56
Speaker 2: be that without having to send someone else down. I
37:00
Speaker 2: would currently guess how you Lee would get that look
37:02
Speaker 2: before Kevin mcgonald.
37:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a key thing too. You gonna jump Lee.
37:08
Speaker 1: We'll see Nake then likely, so we will see. So
37:10
Speaker 1: thank you everybody for listening here in Stecnely. Cody Stapenhagen
37:13
Speaker 1: have a great day,