Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Austin Jackson looks back on the 2025 Tigers

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Austin Jackson looks back on the 2025 Tigers · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: H and Welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of the Foul Terry Toury network a The Trip Tigers Podcast.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: I'm Kem Steckley and I got with me a couple
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of dudes to stay on in the off season. Cody Stavenhagen,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Austin Jackson. What's up, fellas, how we doing?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: What was good? What's good?
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: We're glad to have you back. Austin.
• 0:27
  Speaker 4: It's been a while, a lot of changed since the
• 0:30
  Speaker 4: time we talked to you, so.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: We got a lot to go over to catch up.
• 0:35
  Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, let's get it.
• 0:39
  Speaker 6: Well, yeah, let's let's let's kind of dive into it.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: We We've done a lot of talk about like, you know,
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: being like in the moment with this Tigers team and
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: then you know the playoff run and extra ending, you know,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: lost in Game five and like all this stuff. But
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: as certain awards and accolades have started the trickle, I
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: think this is kind of like a good way to start.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: And you know, for you, Austin and you know Cody, obviously,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: you know look at this from a different perspective too,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: like what is what is the best way to kind
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: of talk about and refer to the twenty twenty five
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Tigers because on one hand, you had the All Stars, you
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: had you were the best team in baseball for a
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: good stretch, and you did advance around in the playoffs
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: at the end.
• 1:24
  Speaker 6: But in the middle it was pretty rough. It was
• 1:27
  Speaker 6: a rough go, like historically rough.
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: But then you look back and you know, you go
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to the Baseball Reference page for the team, and you're
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: gonna have the cy Young Award winner, and you're gonna
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: have two Silver Sluggers and you're gonna have a Gold
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Glove catcher, and so it's like, you know, as bad
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: as it felt in the moment, there were a lot
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of good things that happened, and sometimes it's kind of
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: hard to mesh all that stuff. So I guess, Austin,
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: from your perspective, like, what's kind of like the proper
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: way to look at the twenty twenty five by Tigers.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Who, Man, I think it's it's.
• 2:04
  Speaker 7: All in how you really want to look at it, like,
• 2:06
  Speaker 7: because I think you've got to consider two different things
• 2:08
  Speaker 7: really with this this team is this is this the
• 2:12
  Speaker 7: type of team that you know obviously this is another
• 2:16
  Speaker 7: year of playoff experience, and that that means something that's
• 2:19
  Speaker 7: that doesn't that's not just regular season baseball. That's playoff experience.
• 2:23
  Speaker 7: You getting another notch your playoff experience under your belt,
• 2:27
  Speaker 7: and that that very well and probably is going to
• 2:30
  Speaker 7: help some of the younger guys, which you keep getting
• 2:32
  Speaker 7: that experience, that playoff experience, just being in those moments,
• 2:35
  Speaker 7: that crowd, just that that whole vibe of playoffs. You
• 2:39
  Speaker 7: you you you become kind of addicted to that. So
• 2:43
  Speaker 7: I think that it will definitely help. But then you
• 2:44
  Speaker 7: have to start to ask yourself, well, is this the
• 2:47
  Speaker 7: Is this the right recipe for talent though, to to
• 2:51
  Speaker 7: take them to that next level.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: It's not that they don't have talent.
• 2:56
  Speaker 7: You just mentioned all the accolades, you know, accolades of
• 3:01
  Speaker 7: some players, so we know they have the talent, but
• 3:04
  Speaker 7: is this the makeup of a World Series type team?
• 3:10
  Speaker 7: We saw this World Series and we saw how it's
• 3:12
  Speaker 7: a star studied event. Now it ain't just that I
• 3:17
  Speaker 7: don't know if they have that the stardom like that
• 3:19
  Speaker 7: to compete with those type of teams. And you know what,
• 3:22
  Speaker 7: I gotta I gotta retrack some I said earlier, because
• 3:25
  Speaker 7: I will admit it, I don't really want to but
• 3:28
  Speaker 7: I got to somebody made it a point to say
• 3:31
  Speaker 7: they don't have the stars, and I was like, oh,
• 3:33
  Speaker 7: we don't need stars whatever.
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: But then when I kind of watched the World.
• 3:37
  Speaker 7: Series, I was like, you know what, this is a
• 3:40
  Speaker 7: star studied event and you need the stars. You need
• 3:43
  Speaker 7: the guys to show up that are getting paid a
• 3:45
  Speaker 7: lot of money. And again, so I say all that
• 3:49
  Speaker 7: to come back to how do you sum up this team?
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: And I think it's more on I'm not quite sure
• 3:56
  Speaker 7: that this team has enough talent. They have the talent
• 4:02
  Speaker 7: to definitely get them back to the playoffs. But again,
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: when you look at the World Series and you saw
• 4:07
  Speaker 7: the lineups and you saw the pitching matchups that were
• 4:10
  Speaker 7: rolling out there, does this team have what it takes
• 4:13
  Speaker 7: to compete with teams like that?
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I'm not sure it is.
• 4:17
  Speaker 7: So I would say this is a talented team, but
• 4:20
  Speaker 7: probably not enough talent to get them past where they've
• 4:23
  Speaker 7: been getting.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: Sorry that was a long wind. I got a long wind.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: It's been alone.
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I hey, Austin, we've covered the last couple of
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: months for us real quick twenty seconds.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: Cough.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: No, I think that's a good answer, Austin, And I
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: think a lot of people feel that way. Obviously, we
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: all went through it, we all watched it, and I
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: still think it's so interesting because September.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Was so bad and the playoffs were so.
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: Just tense, but it kind of felt like you just
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: didn't have enough that it's kind of skewed. A lot
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: of people's perceptions might included of the whole year, Like
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: we've talked so much about like, well, they chase too much,
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: they strike out too much. They do strike out a lot.
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: Their chase rate was sixteenth. It was slightly better than
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: league average. As a lineup the whole year, they did
• 5:13
  Speaker 4: not chase that much. And so when we talk about
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: the offseason, like how are they you know, what are
• 5:19
  Speaker 4: they gonna add? We'll find out Tuesday afternoon, four pm
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: if Glabor Tours accept the qualifying offer or not, which
• 5:26
  Speaker 4: I think is gonna have a lot of trickle down effects.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: But I'm kind of and Kieran and I have been
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: back and forth on this, like kind of still leaning
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: to I don't know what they're gonna do in terms
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: of upgrading the positional talent. I think they're gonna stick
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: to their guns. Look at look at this real quick
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: youngest teams. This is the amount of played appearances from
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: batters twenty five or younger. Tigers are fourth, so they
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: have a lot of young hitters that didn't actually chase
• 5:55
  Speaker 4: that much. That ranked eleventh and young in run scoring.
• 5:59
  Speaker 4: For as much as we would like to see them
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: go make a big splash, we talk about Colet Keith like,
• 6:04
  Speaker 4: I think they might stick to their guns. Now should
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: they be cautious in doing that? Look at this list
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: if you're watching on YouTube, the ten teams with the
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: most at bats from hitters twenty five or younger.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: One thing I noticed not that many good teams.
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: Tigers and Guardians I think are the only playoff teams.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: Look at the oldest teams. Yeah, a lot of good
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: And this is Mariners Cobs.
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and this this is age twenty six or younger
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: because the Phillies and Padres didn't have anyone twenty five
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: are younger. So for as youth and like your homegrown
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: sustainable cores is like all good. Having veteran position players
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: seems to correlate to winning.
• 6:57
  Speaker 6: Oh yeah, I mean that's you know.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: I like that.
• 7:06
  Speaker 6: Well, there's only one way to I mean I like that.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: Ajax brought up the notion of getting playoff experience because
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I would imagine obviously I don't know this personally, but
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: I would imagine it's one of those things that you
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: can only you only know until you experience it, Like
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: you just can't like anticipate what that's like. I mean
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: the Tigers played tent No, they played eight games, right,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: Cody in the playoffs this year, and yeah, yeah, that's
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: that's what I was gonna say, like from us, like,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: you know, just doing this Cody with his writing, it
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: felt like fifty but like for a player, like so
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: I'm curious he's like short playoff series and like, you know,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: the intensity I was at all the games in Cleveland,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: Like the intensity of every pitch, Like what is how
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: exhausting is it emotionally physically? And the adrenaline aspect too
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that you mentioned to like in these playoffs series that
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: are so hotly contested and you know, everything on the line, obviously,
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: what's the difference due.
• 8:07
  Speaker 7: It's it's amazing, but it shaves years off your life,
• 8:11
  Speaker 7: days off your life, Okay, you know what I mean?
• 8:13
  Speaker 7: Like you you the stress level, the the intensity of
• 8:18
  Speaker 7: every everything, every pitch, every play, every swing, every throw,
• 8:24
  Speaker 7: everything is just so magnified. And again it is addicting though,
• 8:29
  Speaker 7: because when you get to that that point, everything just
• 8:32
  Speaker 7: becomes you know, secondary, how you've done during the season,
• 8:36
  Speaker 7: how you how your body feels, you know, just anything
• 8:39
  Speaker 7: that you're going through. It just becomes so much like secondary. So,
• 8:43
  Speaker 7: you know, the the grind that we call it the grind,
• 8:48
  Speaker 7: the journey of a full season and then getting to
• 8:50
  Speaker 7: the playoffs, I mean, it changes you because you're always
• 8:53
  Speaker 7: going to be chasing it.
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: Once you get there, you're always going to be chasing it.
• 8:56
  Speaker 7: And I feel like I chase that every team that
• 9:00
  Speaker 7: I once went to, I wanted to be in the playoffs.
• 9:03
  Speaker 7: So being in that situation, which started really with the Tigers,
• 9:08
  Speaker 7: you know, everywhere I went, that's kind of what what
• 9:11
  Speaker 7: I expected. I expect that of myself and you know,
• 9:14
  Speaker 7: obviously the organization.
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: But this, this.
• 9:18
  Speaker 7: This experience for the for the youth is gonna be Obviously,
• 9:22
  Speaker 7: it's gonna it's gonna help. It's gonna help because you
• 9:26
  Speaker 7: don't you don't get to mimic those at bats in
• 9:29
  Speaker 7: the playoffs. You you you've been through the you know,
• 9:32
  Speaker 7: the grind of a season and realized where y'all struggled
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: where y'all were up and then where y'all you know,
• 9:37
  Speaker 7: hit your peek and started going down.
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: And those are things individually that you assess, you know,
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: after the season.
• 9:43
  Speaker 7: And say, hey, what can I do as as a
• 9:46
  Speaker 7: player of my performance?
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: What can I do?
• 9:48
  Speaker 7: And also what do I need to get better at
• 9:51
  Speaker 7: physically my body? You know, is there any limitations and
• 9:54
  Speaker 7: is my mobility off all of those things, you know,
• 9:57
  Speaker 7: coming come in to play after this season, things that
• 10:01
  Speaker 7: you that you want to get better at, and things
• 10:03
  Speaker 7: that you just that you hope that you can correct
• 10:07
  Speaker 7: that you didn't do so well the previous season.
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's one thing we've talked about is how going
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: from good to great as a team might be the
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: hardest step there is in sports, Harder than going from
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: bad to good. Maybe it's good to great. You were
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: you got traded to the twenty fifteen Coups, right, and
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: then they went on to win it in sixteen. I
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: know you weren't part of that team, but when you
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: were there in fifteen, could you tell that they were
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: close to taking it to the next level?
• 10:38
  Speaker 7: Not really though, not really, because you know, I think
• 10:43
  Speaker 7: that the clubhouse in Detroit was was so unique, and
• 10:48
  Speaker 7: I think honestly, all the clubhouses are unique, you know.
• 10:51
  Speaker 7: I think that every every clubhouse has their own little
• 10:55
  Speaker 7: niche everything that they do as as a team.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: But going over there, it was so laid.
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: Back that I was like, nah, man, like this is
• 11:04
  Speaker 7: too chill, like they were so it was too chill.
• 11:07
  Speaker 7: It was like, there's no way this is not gonna happen,
• 11:10
  Speaker 7: Like it's gonna explode at some point because it's just
• 11:13
  Speaker 7: everybody's attitude. And listen, I'm not I'm not saying it
• 11:17
  Speaker 7: was bad by any means. It was just different. I
• 11:21
  Speaker 7: feel like that what I've experienced in in a clubhouse
• 11:25
  Speaker 7: Madden was very very chill, you know what I mean,
• 11:29
  Speaker 7: very laid back. You know, you gotta understand I have
• 11:31
  Speaker 7: mister Leey, so you know that's a different personality personalities
• 11:38
  Speaker 7: right there. But I didn't I didn't honestly think that
• 11:42
  Speaker 7: they were the next year would win it. I was like, nah,
• 11:44
  Speaker 7: this is just not enough structure. Even though there was structure,
• 11:47
  Speaker 7: just not the structure. Obviously again that I felt that
• 11:50
  Speaker 7: I was used to but I was obviously all the
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: way wrong, and that formula works, just chilling, just showing
• 11:56
  Speaker 7: up in a jersey and going out on the field
• 11:58
  Speaker 7: and hitting BP that that works.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: You know, the guys they feed off of that.
• 12:04
  Speaker 7: So yeah, I mean I didn't see it coming, but man,
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: it'd have been nice to be a part of it.
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Though.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: Well that's interesting. I think maybe the lesson there is
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: like who knows?
• 12:14
  Speaker 7: You never know, you don't, You don't know in this sport, man,
• 12:19
  Speaker 7: you just don't like anybody. You think that you have
• 12:23
  Speaker 7: the right formula, Like like we were just talking about,
• 12:25
  Speaker 7: you don't need stars, but you kind of do, right,
• 12:28
  Speaker 7: Like you kind of.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Need those big, big time guys in those big.
• 12:32
  Speaker 7: Moments, right like you you nobody's old tiny you know,
• 12:37
  Speaker 7: that's that's just crazy. That's a cheat code that nobody
• 12:40
  Speaker 7: else has to be able to utilize that at any
• 12:42
  Speaker 7: given point in a playoff game. You got a guy
• 12:46
  Speaker 7: that can go one oh one on the bump and
• 12:49
  Speaker 7: then go out three times. That's different, man, And actually
• 12:52
  Speaker 7: do it in big time situations is what I'm talking about.
• 12:56
  Speaker 7: We got good players, like you said, to take them
• 12:58
  Speaker 7: to great, that's a whole different level. Do we have
• 13:01
  Speaker 7: what it takes to take it to great? I don't know,
• 13:04
  Speaker 7: you know, I just don't know if it's if it's that,
• 13:06
  Speaker 7: you know, it might be some pieces need to be
• 13:09
  Speaker 7: added to get to.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: That great but where and how do you do that? Right?
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's the If we knew the answer to that,
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: we wouldn't be doing a podcast, we'd be running a
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: baseball team. So that's that is that is the that's
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the magic question. I would imagine that the front office
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: and the Tigers would say that because of the youth
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: that Cody displayed earlier, like we are getting to that
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: point with this core blah blah blah. I believe that
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: would probably be their answer. It's not very satisfactory, like,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: you know, in terms of like a sexy thing to say,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: as opposed to like, you know, trading for you know
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: so and so or whatever.
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: Signing in Otani. Basically that's obviously the sexier thing to
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: do than.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Be like, oh yeah, just wait a couple of years
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: and when you know, Riley Green is twenty seven years old,
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: he's gonna be doing this.
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: It's like one things here in now Man.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: Two times in the playoffs digital but yeah, that's actually
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: a good accomplishment. Two times in the mid round to
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Game five. I don't want to take anything away from that,
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: but now that you've got to taste.
• 14:10
  Speaker 6: That, the key is that, like Cody Saicho for good
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: too great.
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: H we are going to take a quick break and
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: then we're gonna find out from Austin unique perspective on
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: the game, being a former player, being a father, what's
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the state of the game today?
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  Speaker 1: All right, coming back here we we.
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• 15:52
  Speaker 1: So one of the things that I observed this fall,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: especially once the Tigers were out out of the playoffs
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: and I could just kind of watch the CS and
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the World Series as just a general fan of the game,
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: was it did feel like baseball was part of the
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: national conversation. The playoffs, the World Series was part of
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: the national conversation in ways that I didn't feel like
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: it was the previous you know whatever, five six years,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: take whatever time period you want. So I feel pretty
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: good about where the game is where major League Baseball
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: is right now? It feels like it's in a healthy place.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: But I'm curious, Austin your perspective is someone obviously veteran
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: of the game doing this podcast, did the Cleveland Guardians TV?
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: You you got a sun who's playing and you know,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: so I'm just curious, like your perspective on the health
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: of baseball and major League Baseball and its place kind
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: of our in our country and our discourse and all
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: that stuff.
• 16:53
  Speaker 2: I used to be a dinosaur. I'm still a dinosaur
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: a little bit.
• 16:57
  Speaker 7: So i still like old school stuff, you know, Like
• 17:00
  Speaker 7: I've just always.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Been a fan of the old school.
• 17:04
  Speaker 7: But you know, watching watching the World Series, that does
• 17:10
  Speaker 7: a lot for forgetting me to come over to the
• 17:12
  Speaker 7: to the the New Side, I guess uh. I won't
• 17:15
  Speaker 7: call it the Dark Stile, say the New Side, but
• 17:18
  Speaker 7: I love that, you know.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: And we did have a bund in the last thing
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: in the world, so we did, I.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: Know, I know, there wasn't and it was great. I
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: love it though, man, like you still it's still there.
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: You gotta do those things. But to see like the big.
• 17:32
  Speaker 7: Time like home runs, the big time pitching performances, Man
• 17:37
  Speaker 7: and not like and not so much of a small
• 17:40
  Speaker 7: ball way really excites me. You know, I don't know
• 17:43
  Speaker 7: how much of you know, that is the reason I
• 17:49
  Speaker 7: guess for the excitement in the game. Is it more
• 17:51
  Speaker 7: of the home runs, because I mean, we've seen that
• 17:54
  Speaker 7: over the over the years that the home run is
• 17:56
  Speaker 7: obviously more valued or it it's you has has went
• 18:01
  Speaker 7: up since I feel like that I played like ut
• 18:03
  Speaker 7: the value of a home run is like, you know,
• 18:06
  Speaker 7: two three times more than what it used to be.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: So, you know, I think.
• 18:10
  Speaker 7: That that us seeing more of that is the reason
• 18:14
  Speaker 7: why it's being more you know, national televised, and you
• 18:20
  Speaker 7: got guys like o tiny guys from you know, other
• 18:22
  Speaker 7: countries coming over and showing out on the biggest stage.
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: I think it just does something for the for the
• 18:29
  Speaker 7: world to see, and it does something for so many
• 18:32
  Speaker 7: youth athletes that might might have never seen a player
• 18:37
  Speaker 7: that looked like them playing the game in the World Series,
• 18:40
  Speaker 7: and they're making it fun and they're making it exciting.
• 18:43
  Speaker 7: I love I love where it's at right now. I
• 18:45
  Speaker 7: was a little skeptical, but I do. I love where
• 18:48
  Speaker 7: it's at now. It's a different style of baseball, It's
• 18:52
  Speaker 7: more exciting to see the home runs. The you know,
• 18:56
  Speaker 7: I'm I'm starting to not be as mad as all
• 19:00
  Speaker 7: the strikeouts, you know. You know, I'm just kind of like,
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: you know, all right, you know, if you're going up there,
• 19:06
  Speaker 7: you're trying to slug one out, all right, go ahead,
• 19:08
  Speaker 7: you know, like at least you're trying to. I do
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: miss the small ball, but I do love that. Like
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: we're seeing a lot more power in the game. You know,
• 19:18
  Speaker 7: who who doesn't want to see power in the game.
• 19:20
  Speaker 7: You know, I love to see when this power I
• 19:22
  Speaker 7: don't like to see. I don't like to see my
• 19:25
  Speaker 7: my youth kids try to hit for power. But I
• 19:28
  Speaker 7: like watching it, you know, I like watching it. So
• 19:30
  Speaker 7: I think the game has evolved and it's hited in
• 19:33
  Speaker 7: a good place. Obviously, there's some things that you know,
• 19:36
  Speaker 7: we can we can talk about to you know, get
• 19:39
  Speaker 7: more diverse in the game. But I like from you know,
• 19:44
  Speaker 7: from my vantage point where I'm at, and I get
• 19:46
  Speaker 7: to see the different diversity in the youth baseball.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: It's pretty cool. There's there's a lot coming so uh
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: and I and I like where the game is.
• 19:54
  Speaker 7: They're making it, They're making it cool again, you know,
• 19:57
  Speaker 7: they're making it fun.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: They're making it something that you can watch and and enjoy.
• 20:00
  Speaker 2: So I like where it's at.
• 20:02
  Speaker 3: But then contact's becoming cool again. Awesome.
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: Toronto Blue Jays led the regular season in batting average,
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: they led the postseason in batting average. They were pretty
• 20:11
  Speaker 4: contact wording the team and help them take the star
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: started Dodgers, who can also hit for average, help them
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: take them to the brink.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's kind of like, uh, you know, in basketball,
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the analogy to be like the three pointer. You know,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: they had like that surge of three pointers, but like
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: you know, it's like like the Golden State Warriors didn't
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: win all those championships because they hit only because they
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: hit a lot of threes.
• 20:34
  Speaker 6: They were also like the best defensive teams.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: A lot of times we like kind of label like
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: eras or teams or trends and think it's kind of
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: like exclusively that, when actually it's it's they're just like
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: great at this, but they do everything else really well too,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: and right, and sometimes sometimes we forget about that. I'm curious, Ajax,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: what's uh, does your son have a favorite MLB player?
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: To you?
• 20:56
  Speaker 7: Of course, well, he's he kind of goes back and forth,
• 20:59
  Speaker 7: who who's ever? Who's ever hot? But he's been he's
• 21:02
  Speaker 7: been on Aaron Judge kick. He's been on Aaron Judge
• 21:05
  Speaker 7: for a while. I was like, dude, that's not a
• 21:07
  Speaker 7: bad one at all.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: That's not a bad one at all.
• 21:09
  Speaker 7: I approve of that one. Matter of fact, now, don't
• 21:12
  Speaker 7: try to do that. But I approve of that. That's
• 21:16
  Speaker 7: a good one.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: So he's probably not. He a Yeah.
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: I hear this all day every day. I hear it
• 21:28
  Speaker 7: all day. If they get on the basis is this,
• 21:30
  Speaker 7: I'm like, here we go. But he's he loves He
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: just loves the game, which that's what I really liked
• 21:39
  Speaker 7: that he follows players. But we talk more about the game,
• 21:42
  Speaker 7: which is which is pretty cool, like situations more than
• 21:46
  Speaker 7: we talk.
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: Well, he asked about home runs a lot. Uh, and
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: that's how.
• 21:51
  Speaker 7: He's starting to value if a player is good or
• 21:55
  Speaker 7: not how many home runs he hit. I'm like, bro,
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: it don't work. It don't work like that.
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: Man, you can't do that. Well he ain't that good
• 22:05
  Speaker 5: because you only got eight home runs. I was like, bro,
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: stop it doesn't that work like that? Well, look at
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: aar I'm like, bro, Aaron Judge is Air Judge.
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: He's one of one. Bro.
• 22:14
  Speaker 7: They're like, yeah, he's on another level. That doesn't mean
• 22:17
  Speaker 7: everybody else isn't good though.
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: You don't have to get too deep into it because
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: it would probably take four hours. But you mentioned the
• 22:26
  Speaker 4: diversity aspect, and I think that's fascinating. You lived it
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: as a player, living it now as a father. Making
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: the game more accessible I think is definitely a problem,
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: whether we're talking race, whether we're talking just class income
• 22:39
  Speaker 4: at this point because of how expensive and time consuming
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: it it is to do the travel circuit and the
• 22:45
  Speaker 4: perfect game. And I think that's even leading to a
• 22:48
  Speaker 4: generation of major league players that are kind of all
• 22:52
  Speaker 4: products of the perfect game circuit and maybe they you know,
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: how many Josh Naylor's are there out there that are
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: real grinders that maybe learned the game a different way
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: or learn to play the game a different way. So anyway,
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: that's a very big question. But just as someone who's
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: lived it, like, are we coming back from this? Is
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: there ever going to be away again? To make this
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: more accessible to everybody?
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: You know what, that's a great question.
• 23:19
  Speaker 7: I think that there there's things in place, you know,
• 23:24
  Speaker 7: to to try to better that to try to to
• 23:27
  Speaker 7: make the game more accessible. But you know, those things
• 23:31
  Speaker 7: are just in place. There has to be people, There
• 23:33
  Speaker 7: has to be out there on the line like it
• 23:36
  Speaker 7: just does. And they need to see it, not just
• 23:40
  Speaker 7: from they need to see a player, you know. Unfortunately,
• 23:44
  Speaker 7: that's that's what it is. You know, players they see
• 23:47
  Speaker 7: these these guys as role models. You know, they look
• 23:50
  Speaker 7: up to you as they should because you know, you're
• 23:52
  Speaker 7: doing something that they're that's their dream, that's their goal.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: It's to be where you're at. So I think you.
• 23:58
  Speaker 7: Know, players, current players, even former players, you know, staying
• 24:03
  Speaker 7: staying involved and make sure that the youth is seeing
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: your face because I think that's that's the biggest thing
• 24:09
  Speaker 7: that I noticed when I was younger, uh you know,
• 24:12
  Speaker 7: getting to see uh you know Manny Ramire is getting
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: to see Jim Tomay, getting to see Rusty Greer like
• 24:19
  Speaker 7: and and them give us like just little tidbits on
• 24:22
  Speaker 7: on throwing or hitting that that I think that type
• 24:26
  Speaker 7: of stuff goes a long way.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: And like I said, it's I know it's in place.
• 24:29
  Speaker 7: I see it all the time on social media, guys
• 24:31
  Speaker 7: out doing camps, just volunteering, and that's I think those
• 24:36
  Speaker 7: are just things that that have to continue to happen.
• 24:39
  Speaker 7: Whether it ever gets back to where it's accessible to
• 24:43
  Speaker 7: every kid, I don't know, because it's just expensive, man,
• 24:46
  Speaker 7: the sport, and as I'm finding out, youth baseball is expensive,
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: you know, so you got to take those things into
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: consideration too. And everything's expensive right now, everything.
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: A cheap.
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: Again. It's a big business.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: And I actually, I mean, I want to move on
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: to another topic because I do want I think we
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: should talk about that. No, no, I'm serious. I think we
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: should talk about this for like a whole episode and
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: and just kind of really dive in. So we'll have
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: plenty of time to do that, because it is a
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: fascinating discussion that I do feel pretty passionate about. Uh ajax,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: what's a player exit meeting? Like I'm really curious, Like
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: what especially you know from that time and in your
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: career when you were in Detroit. I'm sure I'm sure
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: you know Jim Leland probably had some funny quotes or
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: whatever about like how the season went, we gotta work
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: on or whatever, But like, uh, what is from a
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: from your perspective, from a player's perspective.
• 25:45
  Speaker 6: How does that go?
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: And like do you value did you value it then
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: or now looking back?
• 25:54
  Speaker 7: I mean from an individual standpoint, obviously, you're you're gonna
• 25:57
  Speaker 7: look at your you're gonna exist, uh, you know, review
• 26:03
  Speaker 7: basically your season and how it went from a performance standpoint,
• 26:07
  Speaker 7: and you know, that's that's pretty natural. Everybody does that,
• 26:09
  Speaker 7: whether you did something, whether you had a great season
• 26:12
  Speaker 7: or career season, or you had you know, your worst
• 26:15
  Speaker 7: season ever.
• 26:15
  Speaker 2: You you know, you.
• 26:16
  Speaker 7: Look at your your body of work and what you
• 26:18
  Speaker 7: could basically improve on, and then you look at you know,
• 26:23
  Speaker 7: the how your body feels, you know, going through therapy
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: or doing whatever it is to get your body back.
• 26:30
  Speaker 7: But I think that if I'm if I'm not mistaken
• 26:32
  Speaker 7: what you're trying to say, Like as a team, what's
• 26:35
  Speaker 7: the team exit? I think that it's I mean everything
• 26:38
  Speaker 7: is positive. Obviously after a long season like that where
• 26:41
  Speaker 7: you've made it further than the majority of the teams,
• 26:44
  Speaker 7: and you know, whether you go out get swept or
• 26:47
  Speaker 7: you take it to Game seven or you know, whatever
• 26:50
  Speaker 7: it is, it's always positive. But there's so much like
• 26:54
  Speaker 7: eagerness to want to like get to the offseason and
• 26:57
  Speaker 7: and like get to work, you know what I mean,
• 26:59
  Speaker 7: it's like you do don't want that feeling to go away.
• 27:02
  Speaker 7: You don't want to take too much time off, like
• 27:04
  Speaker 7: you're the at least the clubhouse that I've been in
• 27:09
  Speaker 7: where we you know, where we had an exit from
• 27:11
  Speaker 7: the playoffs, it was always like, hey, hey, let's let's
• 27:14
  Speaker 7: let's stay hungry, you know, let's stay hungry for the
• 27:16
  Speaker 7: off season.
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: Like let's kind of lean on each other to be
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: able to do that. Hey hit me up, I hit
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: you up.
• 27:22
  Speaker 7: Let's kind of hold each other accountable and and that
• 27:26
  Speaker 7: regards and so it was positive, but it was always
• 27:29
  Speaker 7: to like stay hungry because everybody, nobody likes that tape
• 27:33
  Speaker 7: that was left in their mouth from losing. So everybody
• 27:37
  Speaker 7: would go into the playoffs super hungry. Guys, would you know,
• 27:40
  Speaker 7: keep keeping touching, just kind of hold each other accountable,
• 27:43
  Speaker 7: check in on guys. But yeah, it was it was like,
• 27:46
  Speaker 7: I'm ready to get back to work because I want
• 27:48
  Speaker 7: to you know, I want to remember how I feel
• 27:50
  Speaker 7: right now and I don't want to do this again.
• 27:53
  Speaker 7: You know, I'm tired of you know, getting beat at
• 27:55
  Speaker 7: this point in the season, so you know, I'm ready
• 27:58
  Speaker 7: to get it going.
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: So that you even have like the formal exit meeting
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: with you know, the manager or the front office to
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: talk about where you stand or goals or anything like that.
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: The Tigers are pretty big on it, from what I understand,
• 28:11
  Speaker 4: is doing that with guys.
• 28:13
  Speaker 7: I'm trying to think, well, I know, like I said,
• 28:15
  Speaker 7: the meeting with you know, the manager in there obviously
• 28:19
  Speaker 7: talking about what I just talked about, but then we
• 28:20
  Speaker 7: would have a meeting with the like the strength and conditioning.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Guy. I think the meeting that you're talking about.
• 28:27
  Speaker 7: That kind of happens like in the off season when
• 28:31
  Speaker 7: you kind of get a call and just kind of
• 28:32
  Speaker 7: you know, go over that that you know what what
• 28:36
  Speaker 7: I think the team sees from you. But like right
• 28:40
  Speaker 7: after the season, I remember talking to Leland, and a
• 28:44
  Speaker 7: lot of times it was just you know, really quick,
• 28:46
  Speaker 7: you know, just like on the way out, but it
• 28:48
  Speaker 7: was like I was telling you just about hey, like.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: Stay hungry, like you know, keep improving.
• 28:53
  Speaker 7: A lot of it was talking about like getting back,
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: you know, getting strength back, getting helped because I would
• 28:59
  Speaker 7: lose much weight. So a lot of the conversations that
• 29:02
  Speaker 7: my exit meetings were about physically coming back and you know,
• 29:06
  Speaker 7: being stronger, putting on, putting on muscle. Those are things
• 29:10
  Speaker 7: that I think as a team, uh, a team and
• 29:13
  Speaker 7: myself we agreed on that that that's what I wanted
• 29:15
  Speaker 7: to work on in the off season, and they were
• 29:17
  Speaker 7: on board with that.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Well that's uh, that's fascinating that that you know, it's
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: like all right, yeah, you just went through a grueling year.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: It's like all right, now go put on some weight.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: That's like it's like, oh cool things. I just let
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: my body recover first.
• 29:42
  Speaker 7: But also too though Kimrian though, but if with like, well,
• 29:46
  Speaker 7: I know with hitting coach, we got a few times
• 29:49
  Speaker 7: where like we would kind of sit down earlier in
• 29:52
  Speaker 7: the off season and just you know, talk about what
• 29:55
  Speaker 7: we want to work on in the off season swing wise,
• 29:58
  Speaker 7: you know, we want to start working on a things
• 30:00
  Speaker 7: and implementing those things and trying to come up with
• 30:02
  Speaker 7: a schedule to where you know, we can get down
• 30:04
  Speaker 7: to Tampa and you know, are up to Detroit for
• 30:07
  Speaker 7: for a week or whatever and do some extra hitting.
• 30:09
  Speaker 7: So you get on the same page. So that that's
• 30:11
  Speaker 7: something that you know, guys do too, with the pitching coach,
• 30:15
  Speaker 7: with the hitting coach, and you know with everybody.
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: So would you like pay attention or be like really
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: up to date on things like what the Tigers are
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: going through with like Labor Torres right now where he's
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: got a couple of day or tomorrow today by the
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: time you guys are listening to this episode to decide
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: to whether to take the qualifying off or not, like
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: where you just kind of like I'll figure it out
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: when I figure it out, or you would you be
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: like eagerly anticipating some of these things happening or not
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: happening with like your teammates or or potential new teammates
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: and free agency and all that stuff.
• 30:50
  Speaker 6: Like what was your head out.
• 30:52
  Speaker 7: Or that, Oh yeah, I was, I would I mean
• 30:55
  Speaker 7: I was definitely invested in it because you know, there's
• 30:59
  Speaker 7: guys that you play with maybe for a couple of years,
• 31:01
  Speaker 7: and you realize that they're not coming back, so you
• 31:03
  Speaker 7: want to check up on them, see you know, see
• 31:05
  Speaker 7: where they're where they're going. But you also know that
• 31:08
  Speaker 7: they need to replace him, so you know, you're very
• 31:11
  Speaker 7: you're very into like you know what moves are being made,
• 31:14
  Speaker 7: especially coming off a playoff abound season where you're like, hey,
• 31:19
  Speaker 7: we've got there, so what are what moves are going
• 31:22
  Speaker 7: to be made if you're not bringing my man back,
• 31:24
  Speaker 7: Like who are you bringing in to replace him?
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: And it's going to give us?
• 31:27
  Speaker 7: That is so Yeah, I was definitely involved in in
• 31:31
  Speaker 7: all the transactions and just I just wanted to know.
• 31:34
  Speaker 7: I wanted to see that we, you know, if we
• 31:35
  Speaker 7: were serious about getting you know, to that next level.
• 31:38
  Speaker 4: So how often did you did you find out about
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: a big move before you know, fans in the public
• 31:46
  Speaker 4: or was it normally at the same time as everyone
• 31:48
  Speaker 4: else or did you ever?
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: I didn't. I think one time.
• 31:53
  Speaker 7: I think with I'm trying to think with Prince uh
• 31:58
  Speaker 7: that I feel like for some reason I knew before.
• 32:01
  Speaker 7: I don't remember how I knew, but I remember I
• 32:04
  Speaker 7: was just I was pumped up because I.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: Was like, no way, we just like for real, like
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: how did that? How did we do that?
• 32:10
  Speaker 7: And but I forgot I knew, I knew I found
• 32:13
  Speaker 7: out before.
• 32:14
  Speaker 2: I forgot how I found out. But I just remember
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: I was, I was. I was pumped. Man, when they
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: got pe I love that move.
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: Ajax already a journalist not revealing his sources.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: I can't tell you, man, I can't tell you. Cody
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: over here, you might you know every man.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: A strange game out there.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'll find it out. I'm getting it.
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: All right at a lot of good discussions today and
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that we can kind of build
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: on this offseason, uh as it plays out.
• 32:50
  Speaker 6: But it was a lot of fun to kind of
• 32:51
  Speaker 6: look back again.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: You're you're so forward thinking when you do this, and
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: you're like, all right, well again, what moves are you
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: gonna make? Blah blah blah every now and then it's
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: fun to look back and just like kind of remember, like, okay,
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: let that kind of shape your mindset right now. It's
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: like the team, right, it was bad in September, but
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: they weren't.
• 33:07
  Speaker 6: They're actually pretty good. So let's like remeber they were.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Pretty good and then and then kind of build on
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: that and so uh enjoyed all of it.
• 33:14
  Speaker 6: Anything else fellas before we get out of here.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: I mean, it's fun. Is great as always, man, long time.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: Absolutely glad to have you back on.
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: Hope to get you back on with this again soon
• 33:26
  Speaker 4: and throughout this offseason for some more inside.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: I know the people love it coming from you.
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, man, I'm here for it. Let's get it all right.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Well, you can follow us on X foro me on
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: on Twitter at Tiger Territory Underscore. Be sure to go
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: to Tiger Territory Shop dot com for all your Tiger
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Territory needs like this hat that I got on right now,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: and and follow us on YouTube as we try to
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: grow there so you can watch, you know, watch follow
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: along with the graphics that Cody pulls up.
• 33:53
  Speaker 6: Does a really good.
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Job kind of you know, given given something some imagery
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to to the talking points that we have here. So
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: appreciate everybody who has subscribed all along, and hope if
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: you're new, please subscribe, rate and review so we can
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: continue to grow the show. So for Cochy, David and Hagen,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Austin Jackson, I'm Karen Steckley. Everybody have right there,