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More Tarik Skubal Talk + Remaining Questions After GM Meetings · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:10
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:13
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tiger's podcast.
0:17
Speaker 2: I am Kieren Steckley, and.
0:18
Speaker 1: With me as always as a man who recently had
0:21
Speaker 1: to take up pick Latin in order to sufficiently do
0:24
Speaker 1: his job, he is Cody Stavedaggan.
0:26
Speaker 2: How you doing?
0:27
Speaker 3: I don't even know what that's in reference to. Maybe
0:29
Speaker 3: maybe I didn't check the news enough this week other
0:32
Speaker 3: than the whole government shutdown thing. All right, anyway, on
0:34
Speaker 3: to some baseball. What do we got? We had the GMB.
0:41
Speaker 1: School wel so we recorded an instant reaction and this
0:45
Speaker 1: was before Schoolble did his availability talking to the media
0:50
Speaker 1: post winning the award or excuse me being announced the
0:53
Speaker 1: winner of the award. Nice little family moment you could
0:57
Speaker 1: see on MLB Network and some of the coverage after word.
1:00
Speaker 1: But since we last talked Cody, you had a chance
1:02
Speaker 1: to hear from Tek Schooble, So I thought this might
1:05
Speaker 1: be a good place to start. How was mister Daniel
1:09
Speaker 1: school Bull after, you know, joining the historic list of
1:12
Speaker 1: guys who have been able to accomplish that two times
1:15
Speaker 1: in a row.
1:16
Speaker 3: He was good. You know, school ball has done this
1:19
Speaker 3: enough now he knows what to say, he knows the drill.
1:22
Speaker 3: We should probably just go right into the good stuff, right.
1:25
Speaker 3: He did address his future a little bit, and it
1:29
Speaker 3: was I don't know, on a scale one to ten,
1:31
Speaker 3: like a I don't know, I don't know how interesting.
1:34
Speaker 3: It was a four or five, maybe better than like
1:36
Speaker 3: a one or two, you know. I think kind of
1:40
Speaker 3: the big quotes were watching on YouTube. We have these
1:43
Speaker 3: up here. He talked about loving the city of Detroit.
1:48
Speaker 3: Hopefully I'm here. I think that's where I'm at with that,
1:51
Speaker 3: he said, I think a lot of that is out
1:52
Speaker 3: of my control, especially the trade stuff. Obviously contract extension
1:56
Speaker 3: stuff is a little bit different, but the trade stuff
1:59
Speaker 3: is out of my control. I've given everything I have
2:01
Speaker 3: to this organization, and I want to be a Tiger
2:04
Speaker 3: for a very long time. But those things, the business
2:06
Speaker 3: part of the game, they're just different, right. I don't
2:09
Speaker 3: get to write my own contracts in that sense. I'm
2:11
Speaker 3: just gonna do what I got to do and not
2:13
Speaker 3: really focus on that stuff. I don't know that there's
2:16
Speaker 3: anything groundbreaking in there, but there is a little more
2:19
Speaker 3: talk about wanting to stay in Detroit, about the mere
2:23
Speaker 3: possibility of an extension than we had heard before. We'll
2:27
Speaker 3: get what Scott Boris said here in a minute. So
2:30
Speaker 3: I don't know, Karin to you, does that move the
2:32
Speaker 3: needle at all?
2:35
Speaker 1: Well, it doesn't move the needle, but I actually but
2:37
Speaker 1: I look at that in a positive sense. So what
2:41
Speaker 1: I mean by that is there have been times where
2:43
Speaker 1: school has been a little bit more guarded about, like
2:47
Speaker 1: you know, you know, this is the organization that drafted me.
2:49
Speaker 1: Like he like, it's still PC, but it's a little
2:53
Speaker 1: less giving. And this was a pretty giving PC answer,
2:56
Speaker 1: So like, do I think it ultimately like does it
3:00
Speaker 1: ultimately change anything? No, But at the same time, it
3:04
Speaker 1: was a it was something better than I mean, we'll
3:06
Speaker 1: see what happens.
3:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like his line had be I'm just gonna let
3:10
Speaker 3: my agent handle that. This was a little bit more
3:13
Speaker 3: interjecting himself and some thoughts.
3:16
Speaker 1: Bringing himself into the community aspect of it. And it's like,
3:19
Speaker 1: I've given everything for this organization. So he's like telling
3:22
Speaker 1: the fans like this is purposeful. He knows the drill,
3:24
Speaker 1: like this is purposeful, Like I have done everything in
3:27
Speaker 1: my power for this organization. I hope to continue to
3:30
Speaker 1: do that. This obviously doesn't tie him to anything, so
3:33
Speaker 1: that's okay. But like he he did lean into it
3:38
Speaker 1: while obviously being noncommittal and being and being frank, but
3:42
Speaker 1: still lean into it in a way that I do
3:44
Speaker 1: believe is a positive. It's not like a positive development,
3:48
Speaker 1: but it's a positive stance as opposed to the purely
3:53
Speaker 1: neutral thing is like I don't know, I mean, yeah,
3:54
Speaker 1: let me angle that that I can't control anything, so
3:58
Speaker 1: you know, you know what I mean. It's it's about
4:00
Speaker 1: the same as wearing the workout d and posting that
4:02
Speaker 1: on Instagram and going to the Arizona Fall League, you know,
4:06
Speaker 1: and seeing kep and you know, buffed up with Kevin
4:08
Speaker 1: McGonagall and all that stuff.
4:10
Speaker 4: Like it doesn't actually.
4:11
Speaker 1: Mean anything, but it is more of a positive outlook
4:16
Speaker 1: from the Tigers fan perspective than what it.
4:19
Speaker 2: Really could be.
4:20
Speaker 3: Yeah. Some of the other whispers to come out of
4:23
Speaker 3: GM meetings was Ken Rosenthal reported a Tiger's person who said,
4:27
Speaker 3: we want to win with him, which kind of obvious,
4:31
Speaker 3: I think, but I guess it's better than no, we
4:34
Speaker 3: want to trade him. And then you had Jeff Greenberg,
4:36
Speaker 3: who was filling in for Scott Harris, had to attend
4:39
Speaker 3: to a family matter. I believe so John Berg did. Yes, absolutely,
4:44
Speaker 3: Greenberg did the talking and like his kind of part.
4:48
Speaker 3: Scott Harris did not comment on Scoople. Sounds like that's
4:51
Speaker 3: going to be their policy, which again don't necessarily blame them,
4:56
Speaker 3: but if you didn't want to trade him, you can
4:58
Speaker 3: come out and say we're not going to trade him.
5:00
Speaker 3: So I don't think anything really changes. Clearly they are
5:03
Speaker 3: going to listen to offers. If someone blows them away,
5:07
Speaker 3: they have to consider it. But as we talked about,
5:09
Speaker 3: they're not in a position where they have to trade
5:11
Speaker 3: or move Scoble, I guess since Terrek, you know, some
5:15
Speaker 3: people got mad. He said that that's out of my control.
5:18
Speaker 3: He was talking more about the trade. He did say,
5:20
Speaker 3: as we just read off contract extension a little a
5:23
Speaker 3: little bit more. Uh so maybe we can get to
5:26
Speaker 3: what the man who's maybe really pulling some of these
5:29
Speaker 3: strings had to say. Here is Scott Boris. This video
5:32
Speaker 3: courtesy of s n Y.
5:36
Speaker 5: You anticipated they'll keeping them, you know, all we know
5:45
Speaker 5: is that the look the.
5:48
Speaker 6: Fans in Detroit want the Tigers to build a Trek Barrick.
5:51
Speaker 6: You know, they you know, little Caesars running around town
5:59
Speaker 6: saying syside. So it's, uh, it's it's a kind of
6:02
Speaker 6: thing where he's he's built a base. Obviously, everywhere they go,
6:08
Speaker 6: they know it's schooball day. They understand that that, uh,
6:15
Speaker 6: that organization is substantially different if he's not there. And
6:24
Speaker 6: you know, we we uh when when you're in these
6:26
Speaker 6: situations and you go through it, all we know is
6:28
Speaker 6: that we hear mostly from the fans, and the player
6:31
Speaker 6: hears from the fans, and and and it's kind of
6:36
Speaker 6: like it should be Scooby done right and uh and
6:42
Speaker 6: if not, I think the fans would certainly think it's
6:46
Speaker 6: a Detroit doink if they don't.
6:48
Speaker 3: Have they approached you about an extension again at this
6:50
Speaker 3: point or is that something that you're.
6:53
Speaker 6: We we talk a lot, and through the concourse of
6:56
Speaker 6: the off season, will uh will continue to us. Our
7:00
Speaker 6: point of view is we always listen. We're prepared to
7:03
Speaker 6: listen to about anything that you know, Chris are really
7:10
Speaker 6: Scott has to say. So we'll, you know, we'll just
7:13
Speaker 6: see how it goes.
7:15
Speaker 3: All right. I'll ask you again quick.
7:18
Speaker 1: I know it's not exactly pig Latin, but that's what
7:20
Speaker 1: I was referencing.
7:22
Speaker 3: So I don't think that's pig Latin, but it is
7:24
Speaker 3: kind of ridiculous and almost indecipherable ship.
7:30
Speaker 2: So that's what I was referencing.
7:31
Speaker 1: I know it's literally speaking, it's not pig Latin, but
7:34
Speaker 1: that's what I was representing, because when you just read
7:35
Speaker 1: that for the first time, you just live it out
7:37
Speaker 1: here in the quotes, and even like the middle part
7:39
Speaker 1: where he's actually answering the question.
7:41
Speaker 4: A little bit, you're just you're just like, what is
7:44
Speaker 4: going on here?
7:45
Speaker 3: To anyone unaware? Boris does these potens every year at
7:49
Speaker 3: GM meetings and winter meetings. It's it's part of the shtick.
7:52
Speaker 3: It's in a way fun, but they do seem to
7:55
Speaker 3: get progressively worse every year. I think the only part
7:59
Speaker 3: that halfway matters is maybe the end where he says,
8:02
Speaker 3: you know, we will always listen to anything Chris and
8:05
Speaker 3: Scott have to say. Of course, listening and doing are
8:10
Speaker 3: very different things. But like the Tigers didn't come out
8:13
Speaker 3: and say we're not going to trade Schooble, Scott, Boris
8:16
Speaker 3: has yet to come out and say, oh, there's no
8:18
Speaker 3: way in the world you would sign there. Obviously he's
8:20
Speaker 3: not gonna say that that kind of leads to a
8:23
Speaker 3: point we haven't talked about in a long time, which
8:26
Speaker 3: is if the Tigers could extend Trek Scoogle, should they
8:31
Speaker 3: There was definitely a point in this whole timeline where
8:35
Speaker 3: I almost leaned, no, just a picture ten years, blah
8:38
Speaker 3: blah blah. But the more we've seen Schooble, the more
8:42
Speaker 3: we've seen him be the best picture in the game,
8:44
Speaker 3: certainly the best left hander in the game. He might
8:47
Speaker 3: be just good enough that you can't replace him, that
8:50
Speaker 3: he's worth whatever that price tag is. So any sort
8:54
Speaker 3: of deal would come with risks. Again, I still think
8:57
Speaker 3: it's pretty unlikely, but if you're theer, I do think
9:00
Speaker 3: you have to float your best possible offer before we
9:03
Speaker 3: move any further with this whole saga.
9:06
Speaker 2: I have some thoughts on that.
9:08
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Speaker 5: All.
10:20
Speaker 1: Right, so there's actually something in that Boris clip that
10:24
Speaker 1: obviously we know talking about his client and the value
10:28
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, but we all get that, but
10:31
Speaker 1: the whole like everywhere they go, it's a schoolbull day thing.
10:35
Speaker 1: Actually kind of like obviously it's obvious, but actually did
10:38
Speaker 1: kind of get me thinking, like no one really talked
10:42
Speaker 1: about the value of Tarrek's Schooble as having Tarrek schoobl
10:47
Speaker 1: on your team. We talk about the value of him,
10:50
Speaker 1: like what he does on the mound, but I mean
10:52
Speaker 1: we see a lot of Schoogle jerseys.
10:54
Speaker 2: Heee his days.
10:55
Speaker 1: Obviously do do well at the park, you know, beer sales,
10:58
Speaker 1: hot dogs, you know, you know, other merchandise things like that.
11:01
Speaker 1: Those bobbleheads are still probably going really high on eBay.
11:05
Speaker 1: It was kind of forbidden from buying one because they
11:08
Speaker 1: were so expensive. So there is more value to Schoogle
11:13
Speaker 1: than just obviously having him, you know, take the rubber
11:17
Speaker 1: every fifth or sixth day. So I am of the
11:22
Speaker 1: opinion that this is a good deal. Like you could
11:25
Speaker 1: pay the most ever for a starting pitcher and still
11:29
Speaker 1: have a good deal for Trek Schoogle in the grand
11:33
Speaker 1: scheme of things. In addition to what he at this point,
11:36
Speaker 1: he's also a guy who legitimizes your franchise, like currently,
11:40
Speaker 1: he also legitimizes your franchise process moving forward. And so
11:45
Speaker 1: like those are things that don't get talked about as
11:47
Speaker 1: much because they're a little bit less tangible and it's
11:51
Speaker 1: not really like there's no history of it, you know,
11:54
Speaker 1: like with pictures and thirty years old and blah blah blah.
11:57
Speaker 1: But I think that stuff should be taken into consideration.
11:59
Speaker 1: If you or the owner right like, that should be
12:03
Speaker 1: that should be part of it. If you, if you're
12:04
Speaker 1: Chris so like, I'm of the opinion Schooble's not going
12:09
Speaker 1: to get cheaper as the days go on. So if
12:12
Speaker 1: you are really interested giving him a serious offer, having
12:17
Speaker 1: serious discourse, if you're doing the whole protect yourself and
12:21
Speaker 1: negotiation thing, you know, kind of put the onus on
12:25
Speaker 1: boris Coe to tell you no, I think that actually
12:29
Speaker 1: could be.
12:30
Speaker 2: Like good business from the tiger's perspective.
12:32
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think that's the one Scott boris trap.
12:37
Speaker 3: I don't know that you can really avoid it. But
12:38
Speaker 3: the second you offer X amount, you just set the
12:43
Speaker 3: absolute floor for him. But I don't know.
12:48
Speaker 4: That he's already offered like one hundred million.
12:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, if if, if you don't make a real serious
12:54
Speaker 3: offer before moving on, then then that would be just
13:00
Speaker 3: But all right, all we have the rest of the
13:02
Speaker 3: winter and maybe all next year and maybe all next
13:05
Speaker 3: offseason to talk about Trek Scugle. We can get to
13:08
Speaker 3: some other matters from the GM meetings. Jeff Greenberg again
13:14
Speaker 3: he was the guy doing the talking here and shocker
13:17
Speaker 3: the Tigers they want to add some pitching. I did
13:22
Speaker 3: find it interesting. He seemed to note that as the
13:24
Speaker 3: main priority. Talked about the return to Jack Flaherty, also
13:27
Speaker 3: said that does not preclude them from getting another starter.
13:30
Speaker 3: He said, ultimately they need to upgrade the bullpen. He
13:33
Speaker 3: didn't tie himself to any roles. He said there are
13:35
Speaker 3: a few, you know, multiple ways to go about doing that.
13:39
Speaker 3: So again, nothing groundbreaking here, but sounds like they're gonna
13:44
Speaker 3: go after multiple relievers, which they have to. Sounds like
13:48
Speaker 3: they're gonna go after another starter. Greenberg didn't really hint
13:52
Speaker 3: which part of the market, but I'm personally of the
13:55
Speaker 3: belief it needs to be the higher end. Maybe not
13:59
Speaker 3: the highest, but again, Michael king name, I like a
14:02
Speaker 3: lot someone of that ilk. He talked about the need
14:05
Speaker 3: for swinging miss There didn't seem to be much mentioned
14:09
Speaker 3: of position players, which is probably the most interesting crux
14:12
Speaker 3: and all this at least not outside Glaber Torres. So
14:15
Speaker 3: how did you walk away from that one feeling?
14:18
Speaker 1: Kieran Well, I walked away with a similar question that
14:26
Speaker 1: we ponder a lot, which is like if you believe
14:31
Speaker 1: in your Like, if you believe in your process, are
14:34
Speaker 1: you able to adjust said process? Because they went into
14:37
Speaker 1: the last year trying to, you know, fill a couple
14:39
Speaker 1: of starring pitcher roles. The Flairty one. We looked, we looked,
14:42
Speaker 1: we loved it at the time. In the middle, it
14:45
Speaker 1: was a little dicey, and at the end it's like, Okay, yeah,
14:48
Speaker 1: this is a good thing, you know. Blah blah blah
14:50
Speaker 1: blahh he's going to return for twenty twenty six. But
14:53
Speaker 1: the Alex Cobb aspect, there's going to be a million
14:56
Speaker 1: Alex Cobbs out there, Cody guys that are a little older,
14:59
Speaker 1: maybe have some in history. It's not like he was cheap.
15:02
Speaker 1: It wasn't like, you know, minimum wage starting pitching that
15:06
Speaker 1: that they you know, that they signed him for. So
15:09
Speaker 1: my thought is, have you learned your lesson? Are you
15:11
Speaker 1: willing to give a I don't know, dude, like three
15:15
Speaker 1: for sixty, you know, two for forty five, you know,
15:19
Speaker 1: caliber pitcher on the market, not just try to do
15:23
Speaker 1: the rental thing.
15:24
Speaker 2: Not just try to be able to.
15:27
Speaker 1: Brag about your innings per million dollar ratio, which is
15:31
Speaker 1: really out of the whack. I don't know if you
15:33
Speaker 1: noticed that with the Alex Cobbs signing. Uh, that's my question.
15:40
Speaker 1: I've thought that beforehand, and then saying like, oh, we
15:42
Speaker 1: gotta get a starting pitcher, It's like okay, But then
15:44
Speaker 1: it's also like in terms of the tier, like where
15:48
Speaker 1: are you comfortable too with the guys that you got
15:50
Speaker 1: because you know Resulson, they gave an injury update, looks
15:54
Speaker 1: like you know Resulson. You know obviously the anticipation is
15:57
Speaker 1: he'll be fine going into next season. You have the
16:00
Speaker 1: Troy Melton situation, which I think we all agree he
16:03
Speaker 1: is best suited as a starter, and then you have
16:06
Speaker 1: a bunch of other guys that, all things being equaled,
16:10
Speaker 1: you would like to see have some sort of opportunity.
16:13
Speaker 4: To fill a role.
16:15
Speaker 1: If you start trying to plug away with too many
16:17
Speaker 1: guys to fill a limited amount of opportunity, I actually
16:20
Speaker 1: feel like that's a that's a negative. And even though
16:22
Speaker 1: it's quote unquote like competition, so like I was, I
16:26
Speaker 1: would almost like it a little bit higher end and
16:28
Speaker 1: a little bit more purposely slotted.
16:32
Speaker 3: I'm glad you brought that up here, and I think
16:34
Speaker 3: that's a pretty good point. And I don't think you're
16:37
Speaker 3: in the timeline where going after the Alex Cobbs of
16:40
Speaker 3: the world is correct. And given the fact that you
16:43
Speaker 3: stand to lose Terrek Scugel, Casey Miz and Jack Flaherty
16:47
Speaker 3: after twenty twenty six, they're almost doing some advance work
16:51
Speaker 3: for next off season. You can't just be filling craters
16:55
Speaker 3: in your rotation. So I think you need to get
16:57
Speaker 3: a pretty good guy on a multi year deal. Michael King.
17:01
Speaker 3: The Athletics picking him to get three years seventy five,
17:04
Speaker 3: showed up Emanaga and name I like a lot. I
17:07
Speaker 3: think the Athletics picking him to take the qualifying offer
17:10
Speaker 3: Zach Gallon two years forty two. So these aren't deals
17:14
Speaker 3: that are totally breaking the bank. But you're getting someone
17:18
Speaker 3: better than the Alex Cobbs of the world. You're getting
17:21
Speaker 3: someone who's had varying levels of success. I think that's
17:26
Speaker 3: what they need to be going after. I guess it's
17:30
Speaker 3: always fun to throw around Verlander or Schurezer, which you
17:35
Speaker 3: could argue make a little more sense than they did
17:37
Speaker 3: even this time last year. But again, it's not like
17:40
Speaker 3: you need a bundle of starters. Even though you can
17:43
Speaker 3: never have enough pitching I think you got to get
17:45
Speaker 3: someone on a multi year deal without any doubt.
17:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree with that.
17:54
Speaker 1: All right, let's move on as we'll have plenty of
17:56
Speaker 1: time to talk about that stuff as well throughout the offseason.
17:59
Speaker 1: To another award winner that that is from the Tigers
18:04
Speaker 1: and that's Zach mc history. But anet Chase talked about
18:06
Speaker 1: this was named a Silver Slug Award winner for the
18:10
Speaker 1: utility role. So congratulations to uh to Zach McKinstry. Obviously
18:15
Speaker 1: seems like a good guy. You've interacted with him on
18:17
Speaker 1: a daily basis. Uh, you know, love his story, the
18:20
Speaker 1: central Michigan aspect of it. You know, all star blah
18:24
Speaker 1: blah blah, like all that's all that stuff is great.
18:25
Speaker 1: So I want to say congratulations to him on that
18:28
Speaker 1: a career year for one Zach mcintree. He was a
18:31
Speaker 1: three point one offensive war player last year. Cody made
18:34
Speaker 1: one hundred and twenty eight starts. He's gonna be thirty
18:37
Speaker 1: one next year. So this is you know, you know, congratulations,
18:41
Speaker 1: but also got a pivot here we're look forward podcast
18:44
Speaker 1: right now, like he's gonna be thirty one next year.
18:51
Speaker 1: We talk about a lot about Cold Keith. We talked
18:53
Speaker 1: a lot about hobby. We talk a lot of but
18:55
Speaker 1: you know the Torres thing, which you know, Greenberg said, like,
18:58
Speaker 1: you know, we valued him, blah blah blah, he's the
19:00
Speaker 1: bigger decision.
19:01
Speaker 2: Uh Torque even.
19:05
Speaker 1: We don't really talk about where McKinstry slots in this
19:08
Speaker 1: And he made one hundred and twenty eight starts last year.
19:10
Speaker 1: It's not that saw a small number. And obviously he
19:13
Speaker 1: was you know, he was an All Star and Silver Slugger.
19:15
Speaker 1: Like I said, am I right to be like a
19:19
Speaker 1: little bit nervous about what is statistically like an outlier
19:24
Speaker 1: of outlier seasons he has? I mean, he has had
19:29
Speaker 1: seasons with bad teams where he had that amount of
19:32
Speaker 1: that bats, but he also was not nearly as good
19:35
Speaker 1: as he was last year.
19:37
Speaker 2: So that's a tough one.
19:39
Speaker 1: That's that's just the havel in the back of your mind, everybody,
19:41
Speaker 1: It's just like in the back of your mind.
19:43
Speaker 3: Yeah.
19:44
Speaker 5: Yeah.
19:44
Speaker 3: The The reality is McKinstry's had three ish good months
19:49
Speaker 3: in his entire Tigers tenure. Maybe the floor was a
19:55
Speaker 3: little bit higher for him than it had been throughout
19:57
Speaker 3: last season, but the second half was not great. I
20:01
Speaker 3: think that's my fear, and I think when we talk
20:03
Speaker 3: about position players, would they get another infielder in addition
20:06
Speaker 3: to Glaber Torres if he takes the qualifying offer. For
20:11
Speaker 3: as much as you have some young hitters you can
20:13
Speaker 3: expect to continue to get better, you also have I
20:16
Speaker 3: think a lot of regression candidates on this team, zag
20:19
Speaker 3: mckinstrey being a big one. I mean, just go around
20:21
Speaker 3: the diamond. I don't know that Dingler. I don't know.
20:24
Speaker 3: Maybe Dingler is is going to hit two seventy eight,
20:26
Speaker 3: like think Keith. There's more power in there, but I'm
20:30
Speaker 3: not sure. Torkl Sin still weares you a little bit.
20:35
Speaker 3: I don't know that there's another level in there, and
20:38
Speaker 3: there could be some regression glabor. I wouldn't pick him
20:43
Speaker 3: as a regression candidate, but you never know. Hobby for sure,
20:47
Speaker 3: you know already regress. But is he even going to
20:50
Speaker 3: be capable of doing anything like the may Or June
20:53
Speaker 3: he had Cole Keith maybe maybe could get better, but
20:57
Speaker 3: even Riley Green, as much as you'd like to see
21:00
Speaker 3: and cut down on the strikeouts, another Silver Slugger winner,
21:03
Speaker 3: is he gonna hit thirty six home runs? Again? I
21:05
Speaker 3: don't think that's a guarantee Winsel Perez. Can he do
21:08
Speaker 3: what he did from both sides of the plate. One
21:09
Speaker 3: thing we haven't talked about with McKinstry. The way he
21:12
Speaker 3: hit left handers was kind of out of nowhere and
21:15
Speaker 3: it was impressive and it was huge. But can he
21:18
Speaker 3: do it again? I think it's a fair question. Maybe
21:21
Speaker 3: you can bank on some bounce back from Meadows or
21:25
Speaker 3: from Matt Vierling, but there are also too many guys
21:30
Speaker 3: who I'm just not comfortable riding with and expecting them
21:35
Speaker 3: to do what they did or exceed the way they
21:38
Speaker 3: performed at the plate last season.
21:42
Speaker 1: This is where that internal survey, internal study that's Gott
21:47
Speaker 1: Harris referenced at the end of season news conference really
21:51
Speaker 1: comes into play, because, like, you've gotten good enough that
21:58
Speaker 1: pretty much any move you've made that takes away playing
22:01
Speaker 1: time or replaces somebody that you that you're using is
22:05
Speaker 1: gonna kind of come with some hurt feelings, like like
22:08
Speaker 1: you know, from the player or even from like you know,
22:11
Speaker 1: someone who is kind of like a fan favorite, you know,
22:13
Speaker 1: type deal or whatever. So, uh So that's gonna be
22:16
Speaker 1: tough because I think we would agree that the team
22:22
Speaker 1: is not good enough to win a World Series right now.
22:25
Speaker 1: But I think we would also agree that in order
22:28
Speaker 1: to get good enough to win a World Series, tough
22:30
Speaker 1: calls are gonna have to be made. It's sort of
22:32
Speaker 1: like a like, oh yeah, government should be more efficient,
22:35
Speaker 1: we should spend less. And it's like, all right, you
22:37
Speaker 1: want to cut this, this, this, this this, And then
22:39
Speaker 1: you're like, I don't know if I really want to
22:40
Speaker 1: cut all that. You know, It's like, well it has
22:42
Speaker 1: to be somehow, like you have to get better somehow,
22:45
Speaker 1: you know what I mean.
22:46
Speaker 3: So like that and talked a little bit last episode,
22:48
Speaker 3: should we be talking less about third base and more
22:50
Speaker 3: about center field? But then you look, the best center
22:54
Speaker 3: fielder available is probably Trent Grisham's coming off a career
22:58
Speaker 3: year in a contract year. He does walk a lot,
23:02
Speaker 3: but he historically does not hit for a high average.
23:05
Speaker 3: He didn't even have a good defensive year last year.
23:07
Speaker 3: He's a little more proven than Parker Meadows, even though
23:10
Speaker 3: some of the same in their profiles are actually very similar.
23:13
Speaker 3: I think, so like, would you want to pay Trent
23:16
Speaker 3: Grisham over a Parker Meadows? And I would kind of
23:20
Speaker 3: say no, like you might have a very similar player.
23:24
Speaker 3: But to your point, like, those are the type of
23:27
Speaker 3: judgments that might determine whether the Tigers can take a
23:31
Speaker 3: step forward. Can you replace an existing player that you
23:34
Speaker 3: hope will be good for a player who maybe is
23:36
Speaker 3: already at that level. I'm not saying they should go
23:39
Speaker 3: sign Trent Grisham, but those are kind of the hard
23:42
Speaker 3: judgments that they have to make at this point in
23:44
Speaker 3: their competitive cycle. Speaking of fan favorites, they just got
23:51
Speaker 3: rid of Alex Lang, Like that's kind of a similar judgment.
23:55
Speaker 3: They defat him for kind of another waiver wire pickup
24:00
Speaker 3: El Dauga and Michigan native Hope. I pronounced that right.
24:02
Speaker 3: Could be Dugan, I don't know went to Adrian College,
24:06
Speaker 3: but you know, for one of these other project guys,
24:10
Speaker 3: they got rid of Lang. I think some people didn't
24:13
Speaker 3: love that, but honestly, I understand it. Lang was at
24:17
Speaker 3: a point where he was making more than the league minimum.
24:20
Speaker 3: He's going up for arbitration. He just hadn't quite prove
24:23
Speaker 3: been that he could throw consistent strikes. It'd be great
24:27
Speaker 3: if you could somehow get them back in your org,
24:29
Speaker 3: but at this point, a forty man spot a little
24:31
Speaker 3: extra payday coming off injury. It sucks because it's easy
24:36
Speaker 3: to fall in love with that good version of Alex
24:38
Speaker 3: Lang that we saw very briefly. But in terms of
24:41
Speaker 3: making the hard decisions, I get why they were willing
24:43
Speaker 3: to part with alex Lang.
24:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, like that's somewhat of an example of
24:52
Speaker 1: stakes being raised because like two years ago, you're not
24:57
Speaker 1: parting with someone of that talent upside in the back
25:01
Speaker 1: end of your bullpen, uh, because you just want to
25:04
Speaker 1: get as many kind of lottery tickets as possible. Now
25:08
Speaker 1: you're not in this now, you you need guys that
25:10
Speaker 1: are more reliable. I know it's a pitcher, but it's like, uh,
25:13
Speaker 1: you got to hit, you hit some doubles. You're not
25:14
Speaker 1: necessarily trying, you do know't have to hit home runs
25:16
Speaker 1: every time with some of these guys in terms of
25:18
Speaker 1: you know, their role and their usage and and and
25:21
Speaker 1: all that stuff.
25:22
Speaker 3: So yeah, and I wouldn't look at, for one like
25:26
Speaker 3: laying for Dugan, like it's more like clearing a forty
25:29
Speaker 3: man spot that they can do some other stuff with.
25:31
Speaker 1: Only forty It's only forty, you know what I mean.
25:34
Speaker 1: Like they call it the forty man for a reason.
25:35
Speaker 1: It's only forty. And most organizations have more than forty
25:39
Speaker 1: guys that they would like to be able to keep
25:41
Speaker 1: and just like hold on to importuity.
25:44
Speaker 2: Uh it's not how it works.
25:46
Speaker 1: So uh so hopefully he lands on his feet and
25:49
Speaker 1: you know he's young, family man. Now looks like, you know,
25:51
Speaker 1: everything's going well with him personally, Hopefully professionally he's able
25:55
Speaker 1: to uh to find successfully.
25:56
Speaker 3: Will also big apologies Doug and Darnell, not Darnell Doug.
26:01
Speaker 3: We are that's bad. That's a bad look.
26:03
Speaker 4: I feel dune er on us, air on us, e us.
26:07
Speaker 3: Maybe the real lesson is you shouldn't have two first
26:10
Speaker 3: names or two names that look like they could be
26:12
Speaker 3: first names, like it dug In, Like come on, your
26:16
Speaker 3: your first name is a last name. Actually, I don't
26:19
Speaker 3: feel that bad. I don't feel that bad.
26:21
Speaker 4: Let's end on that parenting advice, Cody.
26:24
Speaker 1: You guys can follow us on expromally known as Twitter
26:28
Speaker 1: at Cody staven Hagen, I mat here, underscore Stecley pod
26:30
Speaker 1: page at Tiger Territory Underscore. Be sure to subscribe on
26:33
Speaker 1: YouTube so you can see the graphics, see the quotes.
26:35
Speaker 1: As we're talking about, we got this new presentation a
26:37
Speaker 1: little facelift. We enjoy We enjoy doing this, and we
26:41
Speaker 1: appreciate everybody who is following along and what is sure
26:44
Speaker 1: to be and continue to be an interesting offseason. So
26:47
Speaker 1: for Cody staven Hagen, I am Ker Sckley.
26:50
Speaker 2: Here we have there