Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Takeaways from Justin Verlander's farewell and the Tigers' finale

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Takeaways from Justin Verlander's farewell and the Tigers' finale · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome in to another episode of Tiger Territory, part
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network, Detroit Tigers podcast.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: I'm Kieran Stegley.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: With me, as always, is a man who calls balls
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: and strikes. He doesn't have to deal with that ABS.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: He is Cody Stabenhagen. How are we doing?
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: Doing all right. I don't know exactly what that means.
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: I don't think I would ever want to be an umpire.
• 0:29
  Speaker 3: I don't even think I'd want to umpire, like, a
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: high school game. I mean, that's worse than being a
• 0:33
  Speaker 3: reporter in terms of, like, you can't make anyone happy.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what, did some intramural reffing in college,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and yeah, it's not the most fun job on the planet,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: I will say that. But I will say, we do
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: have a lot of fun doing this podcast, Cody, and
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: despite everything that we saw this season, I did enjoy
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: talking about it with you, sharing our thoughts with everybody, so.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the end of the season.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Obviously, it was a season that went in a different
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: direction than what everybody anticipated and certainly wanted. The Tigers
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: finish the 2026 season with a 76-86 record. If you
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: are into run differential, plus 71 run differential, which was
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: fourth in the American League, but obviously wins-loss is how
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: we do things here. Over the weekend, 8-7 win, 4-3 win,
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: and a 4-2 loss.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Loss on Sunday.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: So, maybe, certainly for the last time this season, Cody,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: but maybe for the last time in a while.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: What's the vibe check, baby?
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: Well, that banner is just going to look phenomenal in
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: Comerica Park. Fourth best run differential in the American League, 2026.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: Fifth third park. Fifth third park. It'll be even better.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Something about it. By the way, the Tigers don't even
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: have banners for any of their World Series titles, do they?
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: Am I completely missing that? That's very strange. A lot
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: of little things like that they should do better. They
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: also should have done a lot of little things better
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: on the field this year. The vibes entering this final game,
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: kind of like they have been all year. Not necessarily bad,
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: but just weird. And I think they were coming off
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: such an emotional day. Justin Verlander's farewell, which we will
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: talk about a little bit more later, really felt like
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: the capstone, like that kind of felt like an ending.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: And then you show up the next day and it's like, oh,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: there's not, we got one more. And kind of the
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: storylines from this finale were all over the place. You
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: had River Ryan making just his second start with the Tigers.
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: You had Jack Flaherty trying to get back on the
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: mound just to remind everyone in the league that he's healthy.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: You had, you know, we talked to Glaber Torres before
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: the game and Glaber was pretty good and realistic and
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: talked about, you know, he Felt he didn't quite meet
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: his standard this year, but he had been unofficially shut
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: down and wasn't playing. And then you still had all
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: these young guys trying to get whatever they could out
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: of that. You had Kevin McGonigal get the first rookie
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: curtain call I think I've ever seen. Kind of well
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: orchestrated by A.J. Hinch, but it's also like, this is
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: strange in a way. Like, well deserved. What a hell
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: of a season by McGonigal. I've cited this stat incorrectly
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: a few times, so I'm going to say it correctly
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: this time. McGonagall, at least entering the finale, 6.9 B-Boar.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: That is, I believe, 10th best among rookies in the
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: history of baseball. It is second only to Mike Trout
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: for a player 21 or younger, and it is the
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: best ever by a player 21 or younger who is
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: in their debut season. So Mike Trout played a little
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: bit the year before, didn't lose his rookie eligibility. So
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: on many different levels, a historic rookie season from Kevin McGonigal.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: It was nice to put a cap on that. And
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: then in the clubhouse after the game, you know, the
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: last game is always interesting. You're kind of saying bye
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: to guys and saying bye to fellow media members and
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: PR staff and whoever else might be around. Saying bye
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: to some of these young guys who have hardly got
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: a chance to know. You're saying goodbye. bye to guys
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: I've covered for a few years and there's kind of
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: this awkwardness because it's like probably a couple guys I
• 4:21
  Speaker 3: said bye to today might not be back next year
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: but there's no way to be like oh yeah might
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: not see you ever and you know so that kind
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: of hung around at the end of the season I
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: do want to shout out fans the listeners who stayed
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: with us through a lot of ups and downs the
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: players themselves for really being cooperative it really is a
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: very good clubhouse to deal with um so you kind
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: of feel this appreciation but then you look back at
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: the season as a whole and you're just like what
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: a strange whirlwind that was and i think this year
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: more than any other year in my career so.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Far yeah i mean i you know we're gonna do
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: episodes about lessons from 26 and you know we'll get
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: into all that stuff more when it's you know maybe
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: not so fresh and kind of look at it through
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: uh through cleaner.
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: Eyes, if you would.
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: But the bottom line is this team, if you want
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: to say there's a silver lining, it felt a little
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: easier at the end given that we had kind of been, we,
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: like the fans and even those just kind of trying
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: to figure out what the hell is going on with
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: this team, had kind of been doing the uphill climb
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: for the majority of the season. And you had to
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: kind of talk yourself into what was possible for the
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: majority of it. And now, for the better part of
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: two to three weeks, you had just kind of gotten
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: to the acceptance stage. And you were able to just
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: kind of appreciate these little things, like the Kevin McGonigal
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: piece of it, all these young players having their moments,
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and even just some of the other things that should
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: bode well for the franchise in the future. But for
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: this season, I do feel a little bit more positively,
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: in general, than what really the results, the win-loss, the
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: fact there's no playoffs, the fact that, you know, Tarek
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Skubal's not on this team because of a trade, and, like,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: all these things that are, like, very real, and we
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: obviously will have to assess moving forward. Like, all that stuff,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: I was able to kind of, like, shift my focus
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: and be like, okay, this seems good, this should bode well,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: this should be something that you can take pride in
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: or at least be interested in watching and analyzing moving forward.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: And that's a lot because of what happened on Saturday, too,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: which we will get to in a second. But first, Cody,
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: just because the Tigers aren't in the playoff doesn't mean
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: that the playoffs aren't going to be must-watch.
• 7:01
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• 7:03
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• 8:01
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• 8:05
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• 8:06
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• 8:11
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• 8:13
  Speaker 2: But if you would have paid 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: more than face value....
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: To see Saturday's game, you would have gotten your money's
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: worth as well. I guess maybe before we get to Saturday,
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: we can maybe talk about Friday because that was the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: ceremonial aspect of it.
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: And I will say this.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I thought the Tigers did exceptionally with the presentation to Verlander.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I thought with the people coming. It was great to
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: see Keating. uh, you know, be the, the master of ceremonies, uh,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: great to see Brandon Inge, Alex Avila, uh, the, the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: video montage, you know, faces of old.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: That was really cool. Obviously Justin and his family.
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: Uh, one of the more wholesome things that you could experience, uh,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the first pitch with Genevieve on Friday, uh, Justin.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Allowing himself to take it all in. Like I thought
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: that was all great.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And then, uh, and then Saturday we'll, we'll get to,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: but the, uh, This was a Verlander weekend, so it's
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: not just his start day. So what were your thoughts
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: watching and seeing everything on Friday when they did the
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: ceremonial aspect of things?
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I give our friends at Illich Sports and Entertainment
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: a hard time for some of the things they don't do,
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: like hiring a GM for the hockey team or some
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: of the things they do do that are silly, like
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: having a mini ice sculpture for Fifth Third Park. Um,
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: they're pretty good at these ceremonies and like the cash
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: grab elements. They're pretty good at it. And they, they
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: make it to be fair. They make it pretty well
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: worth that money. I thought it was two very well
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: done days at, at Comerica park, the ceremony itself, uh,
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: just as AJ Hinch said, seeing Verlander with his guard
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: down a little bit. And that was, before we even
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: knew what was to come was kind of cool. You know,
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: the little touch putting the, uh, the brought it license
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: plate on the golf cart they gave him. Cause he
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: used to roll up with the license plate that said,
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: bringing it when he was a young player in both
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: college and the major leagues. And, um, the first pitch
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: man Genevieve Verlander's got an arm um there were a
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: lot of small things to yeah going from the rubber
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of small things about that to appreciate
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: so I thought that was well done yeah and then
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: you know I went a few people pointed this out
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: it was kind of weird there weren't more former uh
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: more former teammates there I wasn't sure exactly what to
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: to make of that um You know, we did see
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: Brendan Ange, Alex Avila. Would have been nice to at
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: least get Miggy on video or something. I mean, knowing Miggy,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: it's entirely possible he just, like, never responded to anyone's
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: text message. But there were a couple little things that
• 10:53
  Speaker 3: were a little bit strange, and that was one of
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: them that I definitely did clock in real time.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's fair.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: The reason I didn't kind of bring it up initially
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: is because that's, like, obviously like a real complete unknown,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: like can't, you know, it's like, you know, people scheduled this, that,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: the other thing, we don't know what efforts were made,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: what efforts weren't made. So, uh, so yeah, I mean,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: if you ask me, would I like to see more
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: former players or less, I would say more, uh, but,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: but like, I, I like overall, I thought they encapsulate everything.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: And then I guess we would be remiss if we
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: didn't mention, uh, Verlander's speech itself, uh, in which he
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: ended with, I will forever be, I'm paraphrasing, forever be
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: a Detroit Tiger, may be an indication of what the
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: plaque will look like in Cooperstown.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: We obviously shall see. We won't have to wait that long, Cody.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: A handful of years, and we'll be able to see
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: what that is like.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Saturday.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: We had talked about it in anticipation of what could happen.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: I think, and I don't mean this to be critical
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: of you Cody but I think you were more on
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: the like the pessimistic what could happen voice of just
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: like this could get really bad and obviously you weren't
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: wrong to bring those things up hell Verlander brought it
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: up himself and then even before the game said like
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: I skipped some steps in order to do this you
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: know but what we saw in a way was like
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: a classic Verlander-esque game and obviously the velo and the
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: stuff wasn't classic burlander but he was holding 94 the
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: whole time so if you want to say that's like
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: classic burlander where it's like the velo holds up the
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: entire start back in the day when it was 98
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: to like 100 you know holding 94 giving everything with
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: his body i give him a lot of credit for
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: that he was able to strike guys out he was
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: using all of his pitches yeah he you know he
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: didn't execute a couple gave up a you know, uh,
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: that didn't obviously bother me one bit. And then, you know,
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: there in the, in the fifth inning, you're like, just
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: get out of this damn ending because we know what the,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: what the ideal thing to do is McKinstry gets a guy, uh,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: throws a guy out at, uh.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: It was Henry Davis, right at third base and, uh,
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: you know, call upheld.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: So finally, AJ Hintz gets a call upheld that he likes. And, uh,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: And then he gets the out to begin the sixth.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: And the bottom line, 5.1, five hits, two earned runs
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: on those home runs, six strikeouts. I couldn't imagine a
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: better scenario. And then, of course, Genevieve running out, the
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: whole family being there, Verlander in tears. If that doesn't
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: strike you, I don't have anything for you. I thought
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: it couldn't have worked out any better. uh, and, and
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: kudos to AJ and the tigers and honestly, Justin for
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: being able to make it work because that, you know,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: that he deserves all the credit for that too.
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: Uh, so it was beautiful.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: I have, I have, I have no notes other than just, I,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: I had a great time doing that, watching that.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Um, it was, man, it was, it was pretty amazing.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: It was one of the cooler things I've got to
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: witness in my career. Um, as one Kate Upton told
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: myself and Jeff Seidel from the Free Press after the game,
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: that was the most Justin Verlander thing ever. And I
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: think that's the most succinct way to put it. I did.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: I was like, can he do this? And he was
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: expressing his own reservations about that. And I think it,
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: in a way, I think this was even better than
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: Miguel Cabrera's final game, simply kind of because of that uncertainty.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: This guy had to really will himself to, A, get
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: on the mound, and B, have any form of viable effort.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: And not only was he viable, he threw 91 pitches.
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: He was pretty dang good through five and one-thirds inning.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: He struck out six guys. I mean, after he got
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: the punch to end the third, I was like, all right,
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: maybe just pull him now. Everyone would be happy if
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: you pulled him now. But they kept letting him go,
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: and I'm glad they did it that way because it
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: did feel kind of like a normal start. He went
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: out there. No, he wasn't perfect. It wasn't quite Billy Chappell,
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: but it was– It was raw and it was real,
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: and he had to summon every last ounce of effort
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: and willpower to get that done. In a way, I
• 15:28
  Speaker 3: think that made it better. I think the uncertainty around, man,
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: could this be a train wreck, made coming to the
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: park and seeing Justin Verlander give one last pretty dang
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: good start, it made the whole thing even better. And then, yeah,
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: of course, the moment with his daughter, man, that's about
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: as iconic as it gets. Really well done. I can't
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: believe you were surprised. You didn't know A.J. Hinch was
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: going to orchestrate your family to come out on the field?
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: Come on, man. Maybe he didn't know Genevieve was going
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: to go racing out there like that. She obviously stole
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: the show. this weekend as well.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: She's a star.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: She rose the occasion every single time. I don't know
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: what her interests are or what she's going to want
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: to do with her life, but it will be in
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: a leading role in some way. I guess it makes sense.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Both of her parents are leading role type people. She
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: did not shy away from the moment.
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: It was great.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: If the game would have ended right there, I would
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: still have like these warm feelings in my heart, but
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: it didn't. And there was still like, you know, there's
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: still baseball to be played, which I mean, Jesus, like
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: how do you kind of lock in after that?
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: I have no idea.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: But the Tigers, obviously everybody knows by now, came back
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: and had a walk-off win on Verlander Day. Again, just
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: one of those things that just feels so perfect. And
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: I wanted to mention this. So again, Justin Verlander, future
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: Hall of Famer, you know, oldest guy on the team.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: making his last start. Tigers, his future in baseball is
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: now done, but the Tigers are looking toward the future.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: And here's what happened in the bottom of the ninth, Cody.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: So after, I believe, Javi struck out, you have a
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: Clark single. Lee doubles him to third. McGonigal grounds out
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: to score Clark, and then Valencia hits the walk-off home run.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: So I don't know if you guys are keeping count,
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: but rookie... Rookie of the year and rookie went in
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: consecutive order or whatever, went and delivered a win for
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the Tigers, for the city of Detroit, for Justin Verlander.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: That's going to be, it's not the biggest part of
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the memory, but that's going to be one of the
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: things I think that when we look back on Saturday,
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: we'll also make it a special day.
• 17:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that was weird being there working and writing.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Was it 4-3? What was the final score?
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: I didn't see a lot of that, to be honest.
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: And I looked up and was like, oh, my God.
• 18:05
  Speaker 3: Valencia just crushed it. They won. Wow. That's even better.
• 18:09
  Speaker 3: Eduardo Valencia, by the way, has an OPS above 1,000
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: in his first two-plus months of big league action.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Not bad.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: I'm not real sure what to make of that. That's
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: almost scary how good that is. It's like, are we–
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: not talking about this guy enough or I don't know, man,
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: the guy can hit the baseball.
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: And, uh, and you know, one of the things that
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: I think we've like, again, just to kind of focus
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: on them for a second, like Clark Lee, McGonigal, Valencia,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: like every single one of those guys we have talked
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: about in various lengths of like, not being afraid of
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: the moment rising to the occasion. I mean, Valencia, like
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: literally from his first game, you know, McGonigal from his
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: first at bat Clark, you know, just consistently, you know,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: you know, you know, getting, you know, hits off school
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: and like all that stuff. Like Clark knows a deal.
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: And then we probably the most unafraid baseball player I've
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: ever seen in my life. Like that, that part did,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: did make it all that special. I guess, I guess
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: maybe the, the way to wrap this part of it up, Cody,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: is talking to Verlander once it was all done. Like
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: he didn't have to worry about, he didn't have to anticipate,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: he didn't have any anxiety over what could happen. He
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: went and did the damn thing. Like how was JV
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: after the final outing of his Hall of Fame career?
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he was in a great mood, obviously. you know
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: I think he was feeling good cracked a couple jokes
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: also you know teared up when asked about his family
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: one last time so you kind of saw so many
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: different emotions in like a whatever it was like 15
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: minute press conference which was interesting yes like we mentioned
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: earlier seeing him with his guard down seeing this raw
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: and real version of this all-time competitor. Pretty interesting. Pretty
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: neat juxtaposition. And Verlander has shown that side of himself before,
• 20:21
  Speaker 3: and especially this year when he has talked, but to
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: really just see it. Like, here's this guy, and we
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: talk about the ego that's there, and he wasn't always
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: the best teammate, and he wasn't always the most approachable,
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: but that drive made him great. We say all these things,
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: and then here he is at the end, and he
• 20:38
  Speaker 3: is he's as vulnerable as it gets. Like, there's something
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: to be said for that. I think there were some
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: life lessons in the words of Justin Verlander throughout this weekend.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: The quote he mentioned, like, what's the point of living
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: if you can't let life change you? Like, think about
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: that for a second. It's pretty profound. I'm going to
• 21:00
  Speaker 3: be thinking about that for a while. We're all learning
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: and growing and evolving, and Justin Verlander on the highest state,
• 21:07
  Speaker 3: on the very highest, most public stage, like, a pretty
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: damn good example of that.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I give him a lot of credit for allowing
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: himself to be vulnerable throughout this process because I cannot...
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: They didn't have to. Yeah, he didn't have to.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: He didn't have to. And he, like....
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: And most of his life, he probably would not. but
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: like knowing that seeing the bigger picture, trying to like
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: wreck it, you know, appreciate everything around him, uh, and
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: let people appreciate you, which, you know, sounds weird, but
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: that also can be hard sometimes.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Uh, but I give him a lot of credit for that.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Uh, let's, let's spend a couple of minutes here, Cody, while,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: while the season's raw. Uh, I was trying to think
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: of like a good way to sum up the, the
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: 2026 tigers, uh, not the easiest exercise and one that, uh,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: throughout the off season and however long the off season is, uh,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: will certainly be something that, uh, we, we will attempt.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And then of course, if you're a decision maker, it's like, yeah,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: trying to identify all that stuff, uh, difficult with, uh,
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: with jobs on the line and big time decisions to
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: be made. But the, the way that I have summarized
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: this season is, uh, It was a payoff season, and
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: I mean that in two potential ways. It was a
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: payoff season because the Tigers finally kind of went into
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: the purse a little bit and spent some real cash,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: had this highest payroll and however long and this ranked
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: payroll and blah, blah, blah, not only to finish... 10
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: games below. 500 and third in your division and be
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: eliminated from the playoffs with a week left into the season.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: So the pay was off.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: But there is an element here that does exist that
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: the Tigers, especially down the stretch post-trade deadline, just throwing
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: out almost every rookie they could fit into a batting order.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: There is an element that this season could pay off
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: moving forward. So you have the disappointment with the pay
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: being off, but you could also have a payoff in
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: 2027 and beyond if these young players continue to develop.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: We look at 2026 as sort of like a pivot
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: more than the huge disappointment that it was and certainly
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: feels in the moment.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: Well, you already used the word that That comes to
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: my mind. It's disappointing. That's the overall story of 2026,
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: I think. And it is kind of strange, given almost
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: the entire second half, it kind of became, especially post-trade deadline,
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: became this transition year. And, like, it's not that that
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: doesn't matter or that it's not important or that there
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: weren't a lot of positives that came from that. I
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: just think we have the offseason. We're going to have
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: all spring training and all the rest of the future
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: to talk about that it never should have gotten to
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: that point in my opinion I think someone's got to
• 24:27
  Speaker 3: maintain some standards around here and we can't just be
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: like oh well you know maybe there will be some
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: payoff from playing six rookies every day in September like
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: this team was too good had too much talent had
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: too much money invested to have ever gotten to a
• 24:40
  Speaker 3: point where they were playing six rookies every day in
• 24:42
  Speaker 3: September we don't need to rehash every little thing they
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: had some structural failures like the bullpen they had Some
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: players who simply underperformed. They had some weird things go
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: against them, like injuries. They had some games that in
• 24:58
  Speaker 3: themselves were just kind of inexplicable. Like, oh my gosh,
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: how did they lose that? But you look up, and
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: the team that had the ninth biggest payroll in the game,
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: the biggest payroll in their division, that had the best
• 25:08
  Speaker 3: pitcher in baseball on their team to start the year,
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: brought back a couple guys who were going to the
• 25:12
  Speaker 3: Hall of Fame. They had the rookie of the year
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: on their team, a seven-war player, basically. They went 76-86.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: The Chicago White Sox are going to the playoffs, and
• 25:26
  Speaker 3: they're not in that all-time weak American League. This team's
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: sitting at home with 76 wins. That, to me, is
• 25:32
  Speaker 3: really the only narrative from this season that matters. It's
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: strange how they got there, the run differential. It's weird,
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: but at the end of the day, they didn't get
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: the job done.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: And....
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: That's going to have some carryover too. I don't know,
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: like A.J. Hinch and Scott Harris are going to be
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: very much under the microscope going into next season. We've
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: already talked about some, there's some players who probably aren't
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: going to be back, and there's going to be some
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: reshaping to do, and it might all work out for
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: the better. The Tigers are going to roll up to spring,
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: there are going to be some pretty positive vibes, and
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: they're going to have some really good talent, and they're
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: going to have especially if they make a couple of
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: the right moves, every chance to have a phenomenal 2027.
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: But man, they let a pretty good opportunity slip through
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: their hands in 2026.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there's no other way to describe a
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: missed opportunity, the Scooble piece of it that will forever
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: kind of be the thing that kind of sticks in
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: everybody's craw, the second-guessing element of it.
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I would say....
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: Over the course of 162 games, what your record is
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: is earned.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: For better or for worse.
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: And we can point to all these things that worked
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: in their favor this year that should have netted a
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: better end result or at least a more satisfying result,
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: and it didn't.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: But I don't believe things are an accident. Things might
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: be flukes. Things might be relatively unexplainable.
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: But not necessarily an accident. I, I think there's, there's
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: an element of a pivot here that needs to be
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: made for this team. And that's something that we'll, we'll
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: obviously talk about, you know, throughout the off season, but
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: this was the hard lesson that you never really wanted
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to learn that hard that way. And, and, and, and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: they got it in spades in 2026. And, it's not
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: doom and gloom for the future of the franchise, but
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: 2026 will forever be a year that you're just damn,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: you know, and, and that, and that might be the
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: best way to put it for now. Uh, we will
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: be back reacting to speaking of Scott Harris and AJ
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Hanchville react to exit interviews with the two heads of
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: Tigers baseball, as well as any other news that trickles out. And,
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: throughout the off season. So if you guys, uh, we're
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: not going anywhere. So if, uh, you haven't subscribed yet
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: to YouTube, you haven't subscribed to Apple, Spotify, or wherever
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: you listen to the podcast, please do the content keeps
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: rolling on. And, uh, and there's going to be a
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: lot of fun things to talk about with this team,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: about where, where they should go and what they should
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: do and what direction they will take. So, uh, hope
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: you guys, thank you everybody for following along throughout the season.
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: I hope you guys continue into the off season as we, uh,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: enjoy doing this greatly. So, For Cody Stavenhagen, I'm Kieran Steckley.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Everybody have a great day.