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Detroit Tigers Start Spring Training Undefeated · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:04
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:07
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm keeren
0:10
Speaker 1: sectly with me as always a man who insists on
0:13
Speaker 1: starting every beer pong game with.
0:15
Speaker 2: Way he is pretty David Hagen, how you doing.
0:18
Speaker 3: I'd be really lame and full disclosure, I haven't played
0:21
Speaker 3: beer pong and way too long. It sounds kind of fun,
0:24
Speaker 3: get that going sometime. Spring training is upon us. Games
0:27
Speaker 3: are upon us. We have actual baseball. They are indeed
0:31
Speaker 3: playing ball. The only beer that I know of is
0:34
Speaker 3: out in the stands. I don't know, Karen, Like, what
0:38
Speaker 3: are your impressions of these first couple of spring games.
0:40
Speaker 3: What's been like for you watching it home?
0:42
Speaker 1: Well, first of all, to hear Dan Diggerson talk Detroy
0:47
Speaker 1: Tigers baseball for the first time this year, for the
0:49
Speaker 1: first time since October, awesome, love that, you know. I'm
0:53
Speaker 1: glad that the first game was on the radio. My
0:57
Speaker 1: first impressions are a confirmation of what I kind of
1:01
Speaker 1: already thought.
1:02
Speaker 2: This is kind of tight. There at the end of.
1:04
Speaker 1: The start in rotation, I feel I feel like there's
1:07
Speaker 1: a lot to like about what we saw. You know
1:11
Speaker 1: yesterday and today regarding some dudes that some people may
1:17
Speaker 1: not like, some people are holding on hope for, and
1:20
Speaker 1: some don't really know what to make of And we're
1:22
Speaker 1: gonna get.
1:23
Speaker 2: To all three of those, Cody and like.
1:28
Speaker 4: It.
1:29
Speaker 1: In the spirit, I'm not overreacting, which we will do
1:32
Speaker 1: for fun here in a little bit. In the spirit,
1:33
Speaker 1: I'm not overreacting. What I'm looking for out of these
1:36
Speaker 1: spring training outings, especially you know, the beginning when it's
1:41
Speaker 1: the first time these guys have had any sort of
1:44
Speaker 1: game adrenaline in a long time.
1:48
Speaker 2: Is I heard.
1:50
Speaker 1: About X and I want to see it somewhat apply
1:56
Speaker 1: in spring when they are actual games happening. And what
1:58
Speaker 1: I'm talking about is Kent. We had talked about it.
2:02
Speaker 1: It had been talked about with regards to him like
2:05
Speaker 1: changing his off season with like some you know you
2:09
Speaker 1: and other media people on the ground talking about, like,
2:12
Speaker 1: hey it there is something different about how he looks
2:15
Speaker 1: compared to last year. And then he goes out and
2:18
Speaker 1: he throws twenty one for thirty. Tell me if I'm
2:21
Speaker 1: wrong with any of these numbers. Strikes, strikes, twenty one strikes,
2:25
Speaker 1: have thirty pitches. He he had six swing and miss
2:29
Speaker 1: is probably perhaps the biggest deal. His fastball fastball velocity
2:35
Speaker 1: was a tick over ninety two miles an hour. So
2:40
Speaker 1: the main concerns and the things that we kind of
2:42
Speaker 1: had to talk about at this time last year where
2:45
Speaker 1: it's like, well, this is kind of what he does.
2:47
Speaker 1: You know, it's not necessarily a big deal. He maybe
2:49
Speaker 1: would like it a little bit better. That's all eradicated,
2:53
Speaker 1: Like that's done. Like we are talking about a different
2:57
Speaker 1: Kenta Maeta approach here. And it made me think, like,
3:02
Speaker 1: like watching that, I was like, that's your fist starter.
3:06
Speaker 1: It kind of seems like you have a decent rotation
3:08
Speaker 1: like watching that specifically. So that's my overreaction. Not bad
3:11
Speaker 1: for a five, not bad for a five.
3:14
Speaker 3: It's a good starting point, right, we got a long
3:17
Speaker 3: way to go. Kin say, he's gonna continue to build
3:20
Speaker 3: up the pitch count. He's gonna have to go multiple
3:22
Speaker 3: times through in order, but he is indeed throwing harder.
3:26
Speaker 3: The fastball hovering around ninety two is exactly what you want.
3:29
Speaker 3: The splitter looked good, the sweeper looked good too, Like
3:34
Speaker 3: he had three effective pitches going. It was only two innings,
3:37
Speaker 3: but I liked the fact he faced some actual major
3:41
Speaker 3: league hitters, Alec Bohm and some of the other I
3:43
Speaker 3: mean all I think when you have three punches or
3:46
Speaker 3: four fourth punchouts, I believe, And they were all against
3:49
Speaker 3: guys with varying levels of major league experience. He wasn't
3:52
Speaker 3: facing high A guys who just happened to get brought
3:56
Speaker 3: over to Lakeland. So he's facing some real hitters. Now
3:59
Speaker 3: we are out a point in the year. Maybe you've
4:01
Speaker 3: heard this one before where pitchers are ahead of hitters,
4:04
Speaker 3: So that's probably important to keep in mind too. But
4:07
Speaker 3: we're judging based on the stuff with it. Does the
4:10
Speaker 3: stuff look better than it did last year? And his
4:13
Speaker 3: first outing of spring training, his stuff probably looked better
4:16
Speaker 3: than it did at any point in the entire season
4:19
Speaker 3: last year. His fastball average I think eighty eight last spring,
4:23
Speaker 3: I mean it was way down, and then then regular
4:25
Speaker 3: season at averaged ninety miles an hour. So he comes
4:28
Speaker 3: out of the gate, he's throwing ninety two, he's mixing
4:31
Speaker 3: in the split, he's in the strike zone.
4:33
Speaker 5: In terms.
4:34
Speaker 3: For as much as we can gauge a spring training outing,
4:37
Speaker 3: kind of an a plus for Kintamaeta. So I'm telling
4:39
Speaker 3: you guys, the Tigers probably aren't going to pay him
4:42
Speaker 3: ten million to just go away. At the end of spring,
4:45
Speaker 3: he's going to be on this team, and if he
4:47
Speaker 3: continues to throw like this, he's going to have a
4:49
Speaker 3: very strong case to be in the rotation.
4:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
4:53
Speaker 1: So you watch what he did last year and then
5:00
Speaker 1: you see the explanation and it's like, well, something has
5:04
Speaker 1: to change. The thing is that ballplayers or really people
5:08
Speaker 1: in general, when they've been doing something a long time,
5:10
Speaker 1: they don't necessarily like to change.
5:13
Speaker 2: And man, would would team.
5:16
Speaker 1: Building be a lot smoother if guys could could take
5:19
Speaker 1: the coaching and take the changes that are prescribed to
5:23
Speaker 1: them by the team, And in this case, it seems
5:25
Speaker 1: like he has. And to illustrate that, I guess his
5:29
Speaker 1: normal routine would be like what one bullpen in an offseason,
5:33
Speaker 1: and that he would basically, I mean to put it plainly,
5:37
Speaker 1: he used to treat spring training like everybody treated spring training,
5:40
Speaker 1: probably up until like what twenty years ago, where it's
5:43
Speaker 1: just like this is I'm gonna get my form here.
5:46
Speaker 2: That's not how it works anymore. And he did. I
5:48
Speaker 2: believe he reported eight bullpens.
5:51
Speaker 3: Eat bullpens before he ever even arrived in Lakeland. Then
5:54
Speaker 3: he threw a ninth bullpen, and he threw a live
5:57
Speaker 3: bullpen session, so he'd really throw them ten or eleven
6:01
Speaker 3: bullpens before he even stepped on the mound in game,
6:04
Speaker 3: setting that.
6:06
Speaker 2: It's a lot more than one. You know, that's a
6:08
Speaker 2: big change.
6:09
Speaker 1: And so like, I'm also curious too, like he's done
6:14
Speaker 1: all these things to kind of put himself in a
6:16
Speaker 1: good position, which I think it's not an overreaction to
6:19
Speaker 1: say that his stuff has put him in a good
6:21
Speaker 1: position to be a better player than he was last year. Like,
6:24
Speaker 1: this process up to this point feels like that. I
6:27
Speaker 1: don't think that's an exaggeration. So how is he, Like
6:31
Speaker 1: you guys talking with him and seeing him interact, Like,
6:34
Speaker 1: how how has that gone this year? Maybe compared to
6:37
Speaker 1: last year or like not like last year in spring train,
6:40
Speaker 1: but sort of like at the end of the season
6:42
Speaker 1: when he obviously wasn't performing the way that he expected
6:45
Speaker 1: nor the team expected. Like how is Kenta right now?
6:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean he was visibly disappointed toward the end
6:51
Speaker 3: of last year. I mean, he seemed to handle it well,
6:54
Speaker 3: but he felt like he was letting the team down.
6:57
Speaker 3: He felt bad for not really being able to contribute.
7:00
Speaker 3: He didn't love getting moved to the bullpen, but I
7:03
Speaker 3: think he clearly understood why he was moved to the bullpen.
7:06
Speaker 3: He's certainly been in better spirits. The first couple of
7:09
Speaker 3: times talking to him this spring, like the motivation really
7:12
Speaker 3: stood out. He gave some pretty direct quotes like I
7:14
Speaker 3: knew something needed to change, and something needed to change drastically,
7:19
Speaker 3: so he was well aware of the situation. And after
7:22
Speaker 3: his first outing, man he was like going clouds. He
7:25
Speaker 3: seems so happy, he seemed. I'm sure for him that
7:28
Speaker 3: must have been a validation of his work, right. I
7:32
Speaker 3: messed with my mechanics. I threw way more. I focused
7:35
Speaker 3: on getting my velocity up. I finally get out there
7:38
Speaker 3: in a game, saying he said he was nervous. This
7:40
Speaker 3: is a guy who's thirty six years old. He's an
7:43
Speaker 3: eight year Major league veteran, He's been in the World Series.
7:46
Speaker 3: He was nervous to throw game one of spring training.
7:49
Speaker 3: That kind of tells you how much is at stake
7:51
Speaker 3: for KINTONI aida.
7:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, and also and here I am being a prisoner
7:57
Speaker 1: of the moment. But this also has the opportunity because
8:00
Speaker 1: if he becomes some level of serviceable as a starter.
8:04
Speaker 1: You have to imagine that's gonna be a little feather
8:08
Speaker 1: in the cap of the front office and the coaching
8:12
Speaker 1: staff that they were able to kind of get it
8:14
Speaker 1: out of this guy after how bad it looked last year.
8:17
Speaker 1: Another example of you know, maximizing players, you know, when
8:21
Speaker 1: they when they come to Detroit. So it could be
8:23
Speaker 1: at what it looked like might have been the biggest
8:25
Speaker 1: blot on Scott Harrison's resume.
8:27
Speaker 2: Might actually have to turn out.
8:29
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll see, we'll see a little a little early there.
8:34
Speaker 2: We'll stick with the same game.
8:37
Speaker 1: And that's a that's a double entendre there, Cody, because
8:40
Speaker 1: it's the same game because it was the same game.
8:42
Speaker 1: It's the same game because the same game that we've
8:44
Speaker 1: been playing for the past couple of years. Here, what
8:46
Speaker 1: do we make of Matt Manning? As good as strike
8:52
Speaker 1: throwing day, he was twenty five or forty seven on strikes,
8:55
Speaker 1: he did have you know, this becomes like a theme.
8:58
Speaker 1: I almost feel like bad saying it. He did have
9:00
Speaker 1: ire velocity on his fastball. Then you know previous spring
9:03
Speaker 1: ninety five point five top out or average. I can't
9:06
Speaker 1: remember what I wrote down he had four walks in
9:08
Speaker 1: two k's. He had to do that thing where you
9:12
Speaker 1: come out of the game and then and then you
9:14
Speaker 1: go back. But he seems like a very confident guy
9:18
Speaker 1: reading some of the stuff that that he was saying afterwards.
9:20
Speaker 1: So here we go, first time at twenty twenty five, Cody,
9:23
Speaker 1: what do we make of Matt ball?
9:25
Speaker 3: It wasn't a good outing, that's pretty clear. Four walks,
9:29
Speaker 3: several hits. Couldn't finish this firston, Like, not what you
9:33
Speaker 3: want to see, surely not what Matt Manning wanted to see.
9:37
Speaker 3: The stuff was good, I'm sure. I mean the curve
9:40
Speaker 3: ball had some life too at the fastball head life,
9:42
Speaker 3: so I guess that's better than the alternative. But I
9:46
Speaker 3: was I was kind of prepared to come on here
9:48
Speaker 3: and be like just Matt Manning, like interested in winning
9:52
Speaker 3: a spot, because I haven't necessarily seen that fire out
9:56
Speaker 3: of him this spring. But then talking to Matt Sunday morning,
10:00
Speaker 3: he came away with a very different perspective of like,
10:04
Speaker 3: this is a guy who's been humbled by the game
10:06
Speaker 3: a little bit, and he gets it. He said, I'm
10:08
Speaker 3: not naive to the fact I have to pitch well
10:11
Speaker 3: to make this team. He admitted to being kind of
10:14
Speaker 3: narrow minded. He used that word narrow minded in the
10:17
Speaker 3: past in terms of just like feeling like.
10:20
Speaker 5: He had to fulfill his own timeline for when.
10:22
Speaker 3: He got to the big leagues and when he was
10:24
Speaker 3: going to check these things off, and he talked about
10:26
Speaker 3: like now he's just trying to focus on enjoying the game.
10:32
Speaker 3: He made an interesting reference to like, you know, they're
10:35
Speaker 3: thirty teams with five starters, and he kind of thinks
10:38
Speaker 3: he's good enough to be in that tier. But he
10:40
Speaker 3: said he wants to be in Detroit. But he almost
10:42
Speaker 3: made reference to, like maybe he's at the point where
10:45
Speaker 3: he's kind of having to audition for other teams now
10:48
Speaker 3: as well. He didn't say that directly, but that was
10:50
Speaker 3: kind of an allusion to that, which told me, like,
10:54
Speaker 3: this is a guy who is not in denial anymore.
10:57
Speaker 3: This is a guy who very much gets it. Probably
10:59
Speaker 3: no he's on the outs, probably knows a good or
11:02
Speaker 3: a bad first spring outing is not going to help
11:05
Speaker 3: his standing here. Now you can see that, you know,
11:09
Speaker 3: if the breaking stuff keeps going, if he throws the
11:12
Speaker 3: hard slider, like it's another guy, it's just kind of
11:15
Speaker 3: a little bit hard to give up on, So I
11:19
Speaker 3: don't know, like those are those are in a way
11:22
Speaker 3: still the dueling perception of Matt Manning because the outing
11:25
Speaker 3: was bad, it's kind of similar. I mean, it was
11:29
Speaker 3: actually the worst command I've probably ever seen from Matt Manning.
11:31
Speaker 3: That's normally not his problem. But then the mentality seems
11:35
Speaker 3: to be evolving, maybe finally clicking in his head a
11:39
Speaker 3: little bit more. Some of the stubbornness that I think
11:41
Speaker 3: is plugged him in the past might be going away.
11:45
Speaker 3: So we'll check back next time's see what happens.
11:50
Speaker 1: I think there's a world where he has an amazing spring.
11:54
Speaker 1: I know it's not off to a great start, but
11:55
Speaker 1: he had like if he could approach it as like
11:57
Speaker 1: a more relaxed, like a relaxed intensity where it's like, yeah,
12:02
Speaker 1: ain't no dummy, but the numbers let me just kind
12:04
Speaker 1: of go out here and do my thing. Like it's
12:06
Speaker 1: very possible that happens. I'm sure getting surpassed for the
12:12
Speaker 1: call ups. Was you talked about humbling? That was probably
12:16
Speaker 1: the big humbling thing, especially when he was more or
12:19
Speaker 1: less the sixth starter to begin last season. So, like
12:23
Speaker 1: you know, talking about like Kyder and Montero and like
12:26
Speaker 1: all that stuff, you know, So.
12:29
Speaker 2: We'll see.
12:29
Speaker 1: We'll check back in next time he pitches, but it
12:32
Speaker 1: won't be the last time we talked about Matt Manning.
12:36
Speaker 1: We'll get to here in a second casey mizes outing today.
12:41
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Speaker 1: the sports card collector community was heavily invested in at
13:56
Speaker 1: one point, being a former number one overall big.
13:58
Speaker 2: Casey, myis.
14:01
Speaker 1: Kyle looked like a number one overall pick a former
14:03
Speaker 1: number one overall pick out there today, Cody.
14:07
Speaker 5: I thought myz was good. I'm not necessarily sure.
14:11
Speaker 3: I thought he was great, and like, that's just kind
14:13
Speaker 3: of being nitpicky, I guess, given we're in a rotation spot.
14:18
Speaker 3: He had a couple of strikeouts, but he struggled to
14:21
Speaker 3: still put guys away with two strikes a little bit.
14:24
Speaker 3: He didn't miss any bats with any of the versions
14:27
Speaker 3: of the slider. He threw a nice more traditional slider
14:31
Speaker 3: that Paul gold Schmidt took for strike three. He missed
14:34
Speaker 3: some bats with the fastball. The splitter did. I was
14:37
Speaker 3: probably most impressed with the splitter. He's throwing it harder
14:40
Speaker 3: than ever at average ninety miles an hour, and that's
14:43
Speaker 3: been a little bit of a focus for Casey. I
14:45
Speaker 3: think it's helping him getting the action on the pitch
14:48
Speaker 3: that he wants, maybe disguises it to the hitter a
14:51
Speaker 3: little bit more so that was encouraging. The sliders, I
14:56
Speaker 3: think are still in the experimental stage. The only one
14:58
Speaker 3: that really popped me was the one he was throwing
15:01
Speaker 3: last year, not the more of the sweeper that he's
15:04
Speaker 3: been working on. And there's another one that I believe
15:06
Speaker 3: is a little more north south that I'm not sure
15:09
Speaker 3: if we even truly saw. He had talked about wanting
15:13
Speaker 3: to spot the fastball on the bottom rail to strike zone,
15:16
Speaker 3: to tunnel it with the splitter. He didn't actually really
15:19
Speaker 3: do that, So the things I was judging Casey on
15:22
Speaker 3: were probably a little finer than like the line score
15:27
Speaker 3: or the results. The stuff was good, the splitter was
15:31
Speaker 3: highly encouraging. He did miss some bats, but I want
15:34
Speaker 3: to see him be able to miss bats with the slider,
15:36
Speaker 3: and he didn't quite do that. And even some of
15:40
Speaker 3: the things he had talked about with the sliders with
15:41
Speaker 3: the bottom rail fastballs weren't totally there. So I think
15:45
Speaker 3: it's an encouraging a good start to spring training. But
15:49
Speaker 3: still more, we're gonna have to see for Casey Mice
15:52
Speaker 3: if he wants to make this team. I've got another
15:54
Speaker 3: note for you, Kiaran got another note that is interesting.
15:59
Speaker 3: Casey may has four years and one hundred and eleven
16:03
Speaker 3: days of major league service.
16:06
Speaker 5: Wow.
16:06
Speaker 3: Four year of service is one hundred and seventy two,
16:09
Speaker 3: so sixty one more days on the active roster, and
16:12
Speaker 3: Casey Mayes would be able to decline an option, which
16:16
Speaker 3: means he could elect free agency if the team then
16:21
Speaker 3: shows I wonder if this will factor in in a
16:25
Speaker 3: way that could harm Casey Miyes's chances of making the roster,
16:29
Speaker 3: because they're not going to want to run him out
16:30
Speaker 3: there for a couple months, and then what if he
16:32
Speaker 3: struggles and they want to option him but they can't anymore.
16:35
Speaker 3: That could be a little bit of a problem. So
16:39
Speaker 3: I kind of hate that stuff in the way it
16:41
Speaker 3: can affect players. But the front office, I'm sure as
16:44
Speaker 3: well aware of this. There's another factor to consider in
16:47
Speaker 3: the rotation battle. The Tigers might prefer to bring up
16:51
Speaker 3: Casey mid season, and maybe you don't have to worry
16:54
Speaker 3: about that.
16:56
Speaker 1: Got to read the fine print on that collective bargain agreement, Cody,
17:00
Speaker 1: which you know, like it was designed to protect players
17:04
Speaker 1: that obviously have you know, some standing in Major League Baseball.
17:07
Speaker 1: I understand that, I will. I would wager that Scott
17:11
Speaker 1: Harrison company well aware and know that it is within
17:16
Speaker 1: their right to take that into consideration. So that's a
17:20
Speaker 1: very good note there, Cody. I I did love that.
17:25
Speaker 1: I don't know if Dylan Dingler and Casey Mees are
17:27
Speaker 1: like boys or anything, but at least on one of
17:31
Speaker 1: the three strikeouts that Casey Mice had, there was like
17:33
Speaker 1: dirt in Dingler's gloves, so like the cloud of dirt ish,
17:39
Speaker 1: you know, right right afterward, looks really cool. So if
17:41
Speaker 1: he was trying to help Casey Mice out by like man, well,
17:44
Speaker 1: I think it was when he had the ninety seven
17:47
Speaker 1: mile an hour sink. I could be wrong, but one
17:49
Speaker 1: of those strikeouts it was like bam and then it's
17:52
Speaker 1: like clouded dirt, So it made it look really cool.
17:54
Speaker 1: It made me think, hey, that guy should be on
17:55
Speaker 1: the roster. He he's throwing so hard that dirt's flying everywhere,
17:59
Speaker 1: you know. But the thing that stood out to me,
18:03
Speaker 1: Cody with Casey was like it did seem like he
18:09
Speaker 1: believed in every pitch that he was throwing, like like,
18:13
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Like it because because I
18:16
Speaker 1: think with with Casey specifically, and that's a weird thing,
18:19
Speaker 1: like do you believe in your pitches? Like well, like
18:21
Speaker 1: Casey specifically, I think we would be able to tell.
18:23
Speaker 1: One he's a pretty genuine person. Two we've seen him
18:28
Speaker 1: close to five years now, Uh, like we could tell
18:31
Speaker 1: when he isn't feeling what he's throwing, you know what
18:34
Speaker 1: I mean.
18:35
Speaker 2: And and that.
18:36
Speaker 1: Absolute And that's one of the things that stood out
18:38
Speaker 1: to me again, like with with spring training, I'm looking
18:41
Speaker 1: I'm really looking at as many like small things as
18:44
Speaker 1: I can to see if they could eventually be like
18:47
Speaker 1: big deals, if that makes sense.
18:49
Speaker 2: And that was and that was something that stood out
18:50
Speaker 2: to me with Casey.
18:52
Speaker 3: So I'm talking to him afterward. He seemed pretty pleased
18:56
Speaker 3: with with everything he did. I think he walked away,
18:59
Speaker 3: you know, feeling really encourage and even the slider thing
19:02
Speaker 3: I mentioned. I think he's treating this, like I've said,
19:05
Speaker 3: the experimental stage. He's not necessarily expecting to come out
19:09
Speaker 3: of the gates and throw this new sweeper and no
19:11
Speaker 3: one can touch it.
19:12
Speaker 2: You know.
19:12
Speaker 5: He realizes there's going to be some fine tuning going on.
19:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm looking forward to see how that plays out.
19:20
Speaker 5: For him too.
19:22
Speaker 1: Speaking of fine tuning, let's go here for a second, Cody,
19:27
Speaker 1: this was our first time scene with major league players,
19:31
Speaker 1: the Automated Balls and Strikes ABS, not just for your
19:35
Speaker 1: car Challenge system, with major league players, and there's a
19:40
Speaker 1: variant of opinions on it. Only saw it like, I
19:44
Speaker 1: don't know how many times two three obviously didn't happen
19:48
Speaker 1: all that often. I don't have a strong opinion on
19:51
Speaker 1: it either way, but I did think it was important
19:53
Speaker 1: for us. Hey, I want to see how it was
19:55
Speaker 1: like at the ballpark for you when it happened and
19:57
Speaker 1: be kind of set the record straight if you were
20:00
Speaker 1: listening to the game. Dan Diggerson and Carlos Panya doing
20:04
Speaker 1: the game, they talked about how the ABS has a
20:07
Speaker 1: fixed zone no matter who's in the batter's box, that
20:12
Speaker 1: they were mistaken on that the zone. They have a
20:16
Speaker 1: third Major League Baseball has a third party, maybe two
20:18
Speaker 1: third parties that come out and they laser measure each player,
20:22
Speaker 1: so there's no like manipulation that can be had. And
20:25
Speaker 1: the strike zone is I wrote it down from the
20:30
Speaker 1: it's twenty seven percent of the player's height at the
20:32
Speaker 1: bottom of the strike zone, and it's fifty three point
20:35
Speaker 1: five percent of the player's height at the top. And
20:38
Speaker 1: then obviously you have the plate for with and depth,
20:42
Speaker 1: so everybody understands that. So basically, a little bit more
20:45
Speaker 1: than a fourth of your height and then a little
20:47
Speaker 1: bit more of half your height more or less, and
20:50
Speaker 1: so like it's not the Aaron Judge and jose Al two,
20:54
Speaker 1: they don't have the same strike zone is basically the
20:56
Speaker 1: point of that. So I just wanted to set the
20:58
Speaker 1: record straight on that. But seeing it, experience in it,
21:01
Speaker 1: you know, what did you kind of think of it?
21:03
Speaker 1: Process wise, all that stuff.
21:05
Speaker 5: Yeah, I like it.
21:06
Speaker 3: I'd seen it at a few minor league games I've
21:09
Speaker 3: been to before. It tends to be a very quick
21:12
Speaker 3: review process. It is kind of cool just looking on
21:15
Speaker 3: the board and there's like a split second of anticipation
21:18
Speaker 3: where's the pitch going to be. I like how it
21:20
Speaker 3: shows exactly how many inches or fractions of an inch
21:23
Speaker 3: it was off the plate. That's kind of cool and precise.
21:27
Speaker 3: I'm quickly going to get tired of seeing it like
21:29
Speaker 3: eight times a game in spring training games they don't count.
21:33
Speaker 5: But I get it.
21:34
Speaker 3: You know, MLB's collecting its data. This is why they're
21:36
Speaker 3: doing it in spring training and not yet the regular season.
21:40
Speaker 5: I think this will.
21:41
Speaker 3: I would expect this to be implemented in the major
21:43
Speaker 3: leagues in twenty twenty six it does, or maybe after
21:47
Speaker 3: the new CB.
21:47
Speaker 2: I don't know.
21:48
Speaker 5: We'll see on that one, but this is coming.
21:51
Speaker 3: It bags the question like, Okay, if we can use
21:53
Speaker 3: this for some of the calls, why would we not
21:55
Speaker 3: just use it for all the calls, so all the
21:57
Speaker 3: calls would be right, Like, maybe that's not as fun,
21:59
Speaker 3: maybe take some human element out of the game. If
22:02
Speaker 3: you listen to it to my good friend Dan on
22:04
Speaker 3: the radio, he will complain that that the strike zone
22:07
Speaker 3: has not yet calibrated properly, and it's not yet precise,
22:10
Speaker 3: and the walk rate is spiked in triple A, and
22:13
Speaker 3: all those things might be true. Most of the players
22:17
Speaker 3: I've talked to seem to love the challenge system and
22:20
Speaker 3: don't necessarily want full on roboomps. If I had just said,
22:26
Speaker 3: like if if this, if that, that's my take if
22:29
Speaker 3: this technology is good enough that we use it some
22:31
Speaker 3: of the time, why not just use it all the time?
22:33
Speaker 5: That's my take.
22:35
Speaker 1: Well, to answer your question is nobody wants that. Players
22:40
Speaker 1: don't want to right, like MLB like did like surveys
22:45
Speaker 1: on this, and like players don't want it, umpires don't
22:47
Speaker 1: want it, fans don't want it. Like, nobody wants it
22:49
Speaker 1: that way, So that's a that's a collective you're fine against.
22:53
Speaker 1: Your reasoning is fine, but like that's so anyone thinks,
22:56
Speaker 1: like why not do it? That's they've they literally found
22:59
Speaker 1: out that was the least popular option to implement this.
23:03
Speaker 3: Uh.
23:05
Speaker 1: I think it's actually gonna make umpire some umpires look better.
23:08
Speaker 1: If people are worried about the integrity of the home
23:11
Speaker 1: plate umpire any time, it's gonna be like a fraction
23:14
Speaker 1: of events, you'd be like, all right, well if you
23:15
Speaker 1: miss that call, like you know, could be can't be
23:18
Speaker 1: that bad of a guy behind the plate, you know
23:19
Speaker 1: what I mean? Like a lot of these are gonna
23:21
Speaker 1: be close. And also, like the concern just in general
23:24
Speaker 1: about you know, walk great spiking, I'm not sure Major
23:29
Speaker 1: League Baseball is gonna look at that as a bad thing.
23:31
Speaker 1: Because yes, walks are esthetically not that pleasing, but you're
23:36
Speaker 1: gonna get more guys on base you know, in theory,
23:39
Speaker 1: could be more action, you know that way, possibly more runs.
23:42
Speaker 3: I think walks weren't boring and what makes game time increase,
23:45
Speaker 3: That would that would make sense.
23:46
Speaker 1: But you're still gonna get but still guys on base.
23:50
Speaker 1: It's still it's still you know, it's still like adds
23:53
Speaker 1: to the run probability, right, So I don't think they're
23:55
Speaker 1: gonna hate it that. I think that actually could be
23:58
Speaker 1: a net positive in Major League baseball. Just just throwing
24:01
Speaker 1: that out there, just a short little theory. Uh, sticking
24:07
Speaker 1: with the pitching thing. You know, pictures are ahead of hitters.
24:09
Speaker 1: As you said earlier, Well we're really only talking about
24:12
Speaker 1: pictures right now. And we got kind of like our
24:14
Speaker 1: first like kind of real glimpse. And you wrote about
24:18
Speaker 1: about one of these guys earlier in the week, Cody
24:20
Speaker 1: but Tyler Owens Chase Lee to uh, two Texas guys
24:25
Speaker 1: gone gone Motown. Uh, you know, got to you got
24:29
Speaker 1: to see and kind of hear like I guess their uniqueness.
24:34
Speaker 2: They both are kind of unique in the in their
24:36
Speaker 2: own way. And and and.
24:38
Speaker 1: It's actually pretty easy to see why Scott Harrison Company
24:43
Speaker 1: would have targeted these guys at the trade deadline for
24:46
Speaker 1: the Shape and and and Kelly deals. But uh, they
24:50
Speaker 1: both bring a pretty unique skill set that I think
24:52
Speaker 1: will play out.
24:53
Speaker 2: This year or you know, be a part of the
24:56
Speaker 2: the arsenal in Toledo.
24:59
Speaker 5: Scott Hears good at trades.
25:02
Speaker 2: He seems there.
25:05
Speaker 3: Was until very recently a thing that like, oh, he
25:08
Speaker 3: can't trade for anybody.
25:10
Speaker 5: That first trade with the Phillies. Two of the.
25:13
Speaker 3: Guys didn't work out, but Matt Vierling has worked out
25:15
Speaker 3: pretty well. How you Lee is the talk of spring training.
25:20
Speaker 3: Two more guys who have raised some eyebrows this spring.
25:23
Speaker 3: Tyler Owens was acquired for Carson Kelly. Chase Lee was
25:26
Speaker 3: acquired for Andrew Chaffin. There was another pitcher, Joseph Montalvo,
25:31
Speaker 3: who's in those deals with the Rangers, who at the
25:34
Speaker 3: time was viewed as more highly touted than any of them.
25:36
Speaker 3: He's younger, could be a starter, But it looks like
25:39
Speaker 3: the Tigers gut at the very least two interesting relief
25:43
Speaker 3: arms for a couple months of these guys who ended
25:47
Speaker 3: up not helping the Rangers get to the playoffs.
25:50
Speaker 5: So Owens. You know, I think he's like five foot ten.
25:54
Speaker 3: We've talked about him a little bit, big, heavo delivery
25:57
Speaker 3: throws ninety eight ninety nine from a super low armslot,
26:00
Speaker 3: very deceptive for hitters.
26:02
Speaker 5: He has a little splitter man.
26:05
Speaker 3: I've heard people being like he He could be kind
26:08
Speaker 3: of the pick to click this camp. Maybe a guy
26:10
Speaker 3: who makes it to the big leagues this year and
26:12
Speaker 3: becomes pretty good if a spot opens up. So keep
26:16
Speaker 3: an eye on him, watching him a little more. I
26:19
Speaker 3: worry the mechanics aren't super repeatable. You know, how well
26:23
Speaker 3: is he going to be able to command the ball
26:26
Speaker 3: with just kind of the little heave ho he has
26:28
Speaker 3: to give to get to that max velocity. But I
26:31
Speaker 3: like Tyler owns a lot, and yes, he looks like Jesus.
26:34
Speaker 5: Hobby By has actually said hey Sus, so for a
26:37
Speaker 5: second it was like, Hey Sus, Lazar, no Jesus and
26:42
Speaker 5: Chase Lee.
26:43
Speaker 3: I actually have a story on Chase Lee coming out
26:45
Speaker 3: in the next day or two. Really good story. This
26:48
Speaker 3: guy was playing club baseball at Alabama. He was playing
26:53
Speaker 3: basically glorified inner murals.
26:55
Speaker 5: He was a.
26:56
Speaker 3: Mediocre high school shortstop who tried to walk on and
26:59
Speaker 3: they were like, you know, if you want any chance
27:01
Speaker 3: at this, you should start throwing sidearm.
27:04
Speaker 5: Try to be a sidearm pitcher. This guy wasn't even
27:07
Speaker 5: a pitcher. So he played.
27:08
Speaker 3: Club baseball for a year and took pitching lessons, not
27:12
Speaker 3: just ain't pitching lessons, sidearm pitching lessons, looked up side
27:16
Speaker 3: armors on YouTube, ended up dominating at Alabama and now
27:21
Speaker 3: here he is knocking on the door of the big leagues.
27:25
Speaker 3: There will be some more fun details, including he shares
27:29
Speaker 3: camper life in common with Andrew chaffin coming out in
27:34
Speaker 3: a story Soon sidewind You're really interesting. Throws a sweeper
27:38
Speaker 3: that can touch three thousand rpm. He did give up
27:42
Speaker 3: a homer in his first spring outing kind of left.
27:45
Speaker 3: I think it was a fastball, just middle, bad location,
27:48
Speaker 3: but also showed some pretty good stuff different looks. The
27:51
Speaker 3: Tigers have talked about wanting to just collect kind of
27:54
Speaker 3: different looks in their bullpen. So he's probably a little
27:57
Speaker 3: bit behind Owens in terms of simity to the majors
28:01
Speaker 3: this year, but both guys who in a way you
28:03
Speaker 3: hope both of them don't tabute because I probably mean
28:05
Speaker 3: a lot of guys in your bullpen or hurt we're underperform.
28:09
Speaker 3: But both guys who seem to be on the track
28:11
Speaker 3: to eventually spend some time in the Tiger's bullpen look
28:15
Speaker 3: like pretty good. Gets to me at the least. They're
28:17
Speaker 3: both fun to watch.
28:19
Speaker 1: They are fun to watch. They like I said, there's
28:21
Speaker 1: there's something intriguing about both of them. And nice teas
28:25
Speaker 1: there for your story code, you're looking forward looking forward
28:27
Speaker 1: to reading that, Scott Harris. He knows what he likes,
28:32
Speaker 1: he knows what he likes, and he knows what he
28:34
Speaker 1: can what he can do with.
28:35
Speaker 2: What he likes.
28:36
Speaker 1: So credit credit credit to mister Harris.
28:38
Speaker 5: There.
28:39
Speaker 1: All right, let's uh, let's wrap up here with a
28:42
Speaker 1: couple I just kind of listed some things that, you know,
28:45
Speaker 1: we that we could overreact to if we wanted to.
28:48
Speaker 1: All right, like we're not going to, but like if
28:50
Speaker 1: we wanted to, we could. So we talked about my
28:53
Speaker 1: a you know, Tigers are undefeated, had a walk off
28:57
Speaker 1: when like it's just a sign that they're carrying over
29:00
Speaker 1: momentum from less.
29:01
Speaker 2: I can't even get through it.
29:03
Speaker 1: More over last season, uh, Dylan Dingler Rocket today Cody
29:09
Speaker 1: interrupting Aaron Boone's availability.
29:12
Speaker 2: You know, in game interview, that was awesome.
29:15
Speaker 1: We saw Colt Keith get a dig at first base
29:19
Speaker 1: justin Henry molloy place of first base looked kind of comfortable.
29:23
Speaker 3: I don't know, Alex, I'm starting to talk up Jay
29:26
Speaker 3: in at first a little bit.
29:30
Speaker 1: Alex Bregman hit a home run for the Red Sox,
29:32
Speaker 1: so yeah, things are not great there. No Riley Green
29:37
Speaker 1: or Carry Carpenter. Something wrong, you know, can't even get
29:40
Speaker 1: him out there for the first couple of games. But
29:43
Speaker 1: in seriousness, it was nice to see Jace Young hit
29:48
Speaker 1: a couple lace doubles there.
29:50
Speaker 2: That was that was that was That was fun.
29:52
Speaker 3: Who Jace Young hitting doubles in spring training and not
29:57
Speaker 3: exactly putting on a clinic on the base pads.
29:59
Speaker 5: But if we liked out the hustle double.
30:03
Speaker 7: He runs hard, you could you could say that a
30:07
Speaker 7: couple a couple a couple of ways. It doesn't look
30:10
Speaker 7: easy when he runs and he is trying hard. So
30:13
Speaker 7: he is a hard runner.
30:15
Speaker 1: Uh, and he I respect the hustle literally and figuratively.
30:23
Speaker 1: You know, first, you know, spring training out and he's
30:26
Speaker 1: going out there, so do you have a favorite moment
30:28
Speaker 1: that if that you would like to bring up or
30:32
Speaker 1: over or say like if we did it, we would
30:34
Speaker 1: overreact to this. Do you have a favorite moment from
30:36
Speaker 1: the weekend?
30:37
Speaker 5: Well, I think it'd be that first Chase Young double bes.
30:40
Speaker 3: I kind of asked AJ about it afterward and turns
30:43
Speaker 3: out the classic Jase Young story.
30:45
Speaker 5: Before the game, he has AJ, do I have the
30:47
Speaker 5: green light?
30:50
Speaker 3: He was claiming he got faster over the off season.
30:53
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he just.
30:54
Speaker 3: Said, no, you're not getting the green light today. Ended
30:57
Speaker 3: up getting to show off the wheels a little bit regard. So,
31:00
Speaker 3: uh can't not love Jase Young and how hard he
31:04
Speaker 3: plays the game. He's seriously you talk about leave it
31:06
Speaker 3: all in the field. This is a dude who's always
31:08
Speaker 3: going to leave it all in the field, maybe for
31:10
Speaker 3: better or for worse. Let's see Spencer Torgelson dropped an
31:16
Speaker 3: easy pop fly in foul territory. He was sort of close.
31:19
Speaker 5: To the net and it was wendy, but like major
31:23
Speaker 5: leaguer man, that's not what you want to see.
31:25
Speaker 3: But then he stung the ball hard, so you know,
31:27
Speaker 3: we could we could overreact to either of those either way.
31:31
Speaker 3: One other questions is you Pose, Riley, Carrie, the other
31:35
Speaker 3: guys who haven't played, I believe are all on track
31:38
Speaker 3: to play Monday. So nothing to be concerned about there
31:41
Speaker 3: that I'm aware of. We're going to see Jackson job
31:45
Speaker 3: Tuesday against the Orioles. That should be fun. That's kind
31:49
Speaker 3: of what I got.
31:49
Speaker 1: For now, all right, Yeah, Jase young baseball player, through
31:54
Speaker 1: and through, not lacking in not lacking in confidence.
31:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, you love to see it. You love to see Cody,
32:02
Speaker 2: all right.
32:02
Speaker 1: Well, you guys can follow us on x form, on Twitter.
32:07
Speaker 2: He is at Cody Stavenhagen.
32:08
Speaker 1: I'm at Kieran Underscore, Steckley pot page at Tiger Territory Underscore,
32:12
Speaker 1: follow us YouTube, Instagram, you know the deal. Like and
32:15
Speaker 1: subscribe Apple, Spotify. We appreciate everything you guys do for us,
32:20
Speaker 1: and we try to put out the best product we can.
32:22
Speaker 1: Here talking about games, Cody talking about games. So for
32:25
Speaker 1: Cody Stavenhagen, I'm Kieran Steckley. Everybody, have a great day,