Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Tigers mailbag: Gleyber Torres, Spencer Torkelson, pitching and more

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Tigers mailbag: Gleyber Torres, Spencer Torkelson, pitching and more · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: And welcome in to another episode of Tiger Territory or
0:13
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, Detroit Tiger's podcast.
0:15
Speaker 2: I'm Karen Seckley.
0:15
Speaker 1: With me, as always is somebody who just experience what
0:19
Speaker 1: the kids call Brewers maxing.
0:22
Speaker 2: He is Cody Stavenhagen. How you doing.
0:24
Speaker 3: Oh that's pretty good. There's probably an even more clever
0:27
Speaker 3: term for it, get based on how they play, like
0:30
Speaker 3: chaos maxing something like that. I think the Brewers are
0:34
Speaker 3: fun to watch, man, I've liked them a lot the
0:36
Speaker 3: past three years. They put it on the Tigers here
0:40
Speaker 3: Tuesday Night. It's a reminder of a team that, you know,
0:43
Speaker 3: the type of team the Tigers aspire to be at
0:45
Speaker 3: their best, where it's just constant pressure the Tigers. We
0:48
Speaker 3: hear a J. Hinch talk about pressure. I'm not sure
0:51
Speaker 3: anyone puts pressure on their opponent quite like the Milwaukee Brewers.
0:54
Speaker 3: And Tuesday Night, at least the Tigers kind of succumbed
0:57
Speaker 3: to a lot of that pressure.
1:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, like I was thinking about it, and
1:02
Speaker 1: obviously we're not gonna like break down this game at
1:05
Speaker 1: by a bad and pitch decision by pitch decision, but
1:09
Speaker 1: like from ah, you know, we are just coming off
1:12
Speaker 1: a couple hours after this game, and so a lot
1:14
Speaker 1: of this stuff is fresh. But it, you know, like
1:17
Speaker 1: the the expression like you create your own luck, you know,
1:20
Speaker 1: you create your own luck.
1:21
Speaker 2: This was the opposite of that for the.
1:24
Speaker 1: Times, like they kind of created their own misfortune. Uh
1:28
Speaker 1: if you would, and and it and it started with
1:31
Speaker 1: you know, just kind of like a series of baffling
1:35
Speaker 1: plays and then again like you know, broken bat singles
1:38
Speaker 1: at score runs and and all that stuff. And even
1:41
Speaker 1: Ken McGonagall, it's the first time I'll tell you this, Cody,
1:43
Speaker 1: is the first time I thought maybe a game or
1:46
Speaker 1: two in triple A wouldn't have hurt Kevin McGonagall.
1:49
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, I don't know about that, but some learning moments, right,
1:56
Speaker 3: fast runner we've heard about as good baseball timing. No,
1:58
Speaker 3: he was a little slow there, and even the arm
2:01
Speaker 3: you know that that throw with a fast runner a
2:03
Speaker 3: close play. I think collucked at sixty eight miles an
2:06
Speaker 3: hour or so, certainly a learning moment for him.
2:09
Speaker 2: How you lead?
2:10
Speaker 3: That was a really tough play on the bunt. But
2:12
Speaker 3: aj Hinch did bring it up post game. I went
2:14
Speaker 3: back and watched maybe he could have taken a little
2:16
Speaker 3: bit a better angle. Maybe he gets out of his
2:19
Speaker 3: glove a little faster. Not sure many people not named
2:22
Speaker 3: Prime Nolan Arenado get the out on that play. But again,
2:25
Speaker 3: two rookies, you know, playing a team that gives you
2:28
Speaker 3: zero room for error. The best way to view that
2:32
Speaker 3: as a learning experience. The worst way to view that
2:34
Speaker 3: game is more like through the lens of the manual.
2:36
Speaker 3: The Hashu's play, which I we'll talk about a little later,
2:40
Speaker 3: throwing the ball away and then leading to a beginning
2:43
Speaker 3: that that changes the game, right, And.
2:46
Speaker 1: I guess you know, again, we thankfully we don't come
2:49
Speaker 1: on this podcast after lopsided drummings like that very often,
2:55
Speaker 1: at least not in several years.
2:57
Speaker 3: But I think we used to do it a lot.
3:00
Speaker 3: Are probably a little more fun.
3:02
Speaker 1: Seeing as as it's somewhat of a rare occurrence, I
3:06
Speaker 1: guess I'm kind of curious. Like AJ's presser, you mentioned,
3:11
Speaker 1: you know, what he talked about with McGonagall and Lee there,
3:13
Speaker 1: but AJ's presser, and then even like the guys in
3:16
Speaker 1: the clubhouse, like look, I think it's a pretty mature clubhouse,
3:20
Speaker 1: and I think it has been over the past couple
3:22
Speaker 1: of years despite their age, but just like a mature
3:24
Speaker 1: approach to the game, Like what is what is a
3:27
Speaker 1: postgame like after a game where it's just like, not
3:30
Speaker 1: really much to talk about other than you got your
3:32
Speaker 1: teeth kicked in.
3:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, those are hard, man, Those are hard as a reporter,
3:37
Speaker 3: and I'm sure it's harder to be the guy up
3:39
Speaker 3: there having to answer those those questions, especially like when
3:43
Speaker 3: it's this early in the season and you know, it's
3:45
Speaker 3: a little bit of a one off game, so it's
3:48
Speaker 3: like you're not necessarily trying to make too big of
3:50
Speaker 3: a deal of the fact they just got their bots kicked,
3:53
Speaker 3: Like is it really part of some bigger trend like
3:56
Speaker 3: some of the sloppy play, maybe a little bit, but otherwise,
3:59
Speaker 3: like just what is there to say? You know? One
4:02
Speaker 3: thing I appreciated about aj Hinch is he keeps things
4:04
Speaker 3: so straightforward and a lot of times those postgame press
4:09
Speaker 3: conferences are pretty quick and easy. You talk about the
4:11
Speaker 3: main storylines, you get out of there. There's something to
4:14
Speaker 3: really follow up on, maybe the next day is the
4:16
Speaker 3: best time to do it. I also laugh, like I
4:19
Speaker 3: think any sport I've ever covered, any loss I've ever covered,
4:22
Speaker 3: someone has to ask the question, like, you know, we're
4:25
Speaker 3: we're proud of how the guys fought, and AJ will
4:29
Speaker 3: play into that certainly sometimes talk about, you know, we
4:31
Speaker 3: play our twenty seven outs. We hear that ad nauseum.
4:34
Speaker 3: But AJ actually plays into that a lot less than
4:37
Speaker 3: most coaches or managers in his position. And that was
4:41
Speaker 3: the first question of his postgame presser, and he kind
4:43
Speaker 3: of shot that down right away. He said, yeah, you know,
4:45
Speaker 3: that's nice, but that's not what I'm going home with
4:48
Speaker 3: talking about like a couple good at bats in the
4:50
Speaker 3: ninth inning. So he laid it out, you know, he
4:54
Speaker 3: was dis pointing the team. And then the locker room's
4:56
Speaker 3: pretty quiet, not a lot of guys in there talk
4:59
Speaker 3: to him. Manuel de Hays his credit to him for
5:01
Speaker 3: kind of owning up after a poor outing and being
5:04
Speaker 3: a real pro. Kevin McGonagall. Jake Rogers actually didn't want
5:08
Speaker 3: to talk on camera after pitching the ninth inning, which
5:11
Speaker 3: again I can't fault him for. You know, he just
5:13
Speaker 3: thought that would be kind of a bad look, maybe
5:15
Speaker 3: not set a good precedent for the team, and I
5:18
Speaker 3: think that's hard to argue. So it was pretty short
5:21
Speaker 3: and sweet tonight. So if anything as I got home
5:24
Speaker 3: in time to do this podcast before midnight.
5:28
Speaker 2: There you go.
5:29
Speaker 1: You take not a lot of wins for the Tigers,
5:31
Speaker 1: but for your boy here a little a little victory.
5:34
Speaker 1: Uh you know, actually, you know, speaking of the ninth inning,
5:36
Speaker 1: I did kind of want to talk this out here
5:39
Speaker 1: just for a second.
5:40
Speaker 2: You know, Like I think.
5:42
Speaker 1: Sometimes as fans and media were like quick did this
5:45
Speaker 1: miss like uh, garbage time abs and garbage time like moments.
5:52
Speaker 2: As not having a whole lot of meaning.
5:56
Speaker 1: And I say that as someone who used to more
6:00
Speaker 1: veered toward that in my mind. But ever since, like
6:03
Speaker 1: you know, we do this podcast with with Austin Jackson
6:06
Speaker 1: and and just hearing him talk about like spring training
6:09
Speaker 1: and just like live BP and just like the competitiveness
6:13
Speaker 1: that goes into everything that these guys do. That's gotten
6:17
Speaker 1: me to kind of lighten up a little bit on
6:19
Speaker 1: that mentality. So like, look, I'm not gonna sit here
6:22
Speaker 1: and be like, oh, yeah, it was so awesome. You know,
6:24
Speaker 1: Wentzel got his second head of the season. McGonagall got another.
6:28
Speaker 2: Head, you know.
6:29
Speaker 1: Vera Laine doubles and and and scores a couple of runs.
6:32
Speaker 1: Like I'm not gonna like remember this the next time
6:36
Speaker 1: that we have to talk about them on the podcast.
6:38
Speaker 1: But if we're being fair here, those at bats count
6:41
Speaker 1: the same as every other at bat, and those metrics
6:44
Speaker 1: are gonna be on the Baseball Savant page just like
6:47
Speaker 1: everything else that they do. And so I don't want
6:49
Speaker 1: to dismiss it as something that doesn't matter. So does
6:52
Speaker 1: that make sense, Like we're we don't have to congratulate
6:55
Speaker 1: them for you know, never giving up or anything. But
6:57
Speaker 1: I do think it matters because every single play does
7:00
Speaker 1: have importance for these guys, especially someone like Perez who's
7:04
Speaker 1: got to get going. It's on, like McGonagall, who every
7:07
Speaker 1: at bad as a learning live for him.
7:08
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, I tend to agree. I've kind of
7:12
Speaker 3: always felt that way. I mean I remember watching the
7:14
Speaker 3: Texas Rangers growing up and people will be like, oh,
7:17
Speaker 3: a Rod only hits homers. When it's you know, the eighth.
7:20
Speaker 2: Inning and they're losing.
7:21
Speaker 3: It's like, well, I mean you finished with fifty something
7:23
Speaker 3: homers or you're trying to say a Rod sucks, Like like,
7:26
Speaker 3: what is the point here? This is the major leagues, man,
7:29
Speaker 3: Every bat counts Now. I guess you're facing like Jake
7:33
Speaker 3: Rogers maybe that's a little different. Although look at that
7:36
Speaker 3: Jake Rogers punch out. So this is the major leagues,
7:39
Speaker 3: it all counts. No one's going back in the record
7:42
Speaker 3: books and they're racing homers from Barry Bonds or hits
7:45
Speaker 3: from Pete Rose or Ty Cobb because they were in
7:48
Speaker 3: garbage time. I think you got to be competitive every
7:52
Speaker 3: single time out there. Some guys do get that label
7:55
Speaker 3: of like, oh, they don't perform when it counts, or
7:57
Speaker 3: they're better in garbage time. But I think over the
8:00
Speaker 3: course of a long season, these things tend to even
8:02
Speaker 3: out a little more than people realize. I think it's
8:05
Speaker 3: a little bit different than like, I don't know, you
8:06
Speaker 3: ever lost in fantasy football because you're going up against
8:09
Speaker 3: a running back who's just getting the ball in garbage time,
8:12
Speaker 3: getting those extra points. Like that's a little that's a
8:15
Speaker 3: little bs. I think in baseball, man, every yet bat matters.
8:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, there you go.
8:20
Speaker 1: And then Montero today obviously again ran into some bad
8:25
Speaker 1: luck there and then you know, like was able to
8:29
Speaker 1: kind of right the ship, you know something, it was
8:31
Speaker 1: self induced. You know, there were some walks in there
8:32
Speaker 1: as well. But one walk yeah, excuse me, yes, one
8:39
Speaker 1: walk hard to like, not feel good about a storry
8:43
Speaker 1: pitcher that was able to record twelve straight outs though.
8:46
Speaker 3: So yeah, after the three running twelve straight from Montero,
8:50
Speaker 3: I thought he was pretty good again. Not as sharp
8:52
Speaker 3: as his last outing at Camerica, maybe not as much
8:55
Speaker 3: swinging miss stuff, but he was still he was still
8:59
Speaker 3: pretty good, man. Not a lot of hard hit balls
9:01
Speaker 3: against him, even the runs that were scored. You know,
9:03
Speaker 3: the two infield singles we talk about a walk, a blop,
9:08
Speaker 3: another hard hit ball like Cater was pretty good. If
9:12
Speaker 3: that's kind of his b stuff, man, you will take
9:14
Speaker 3: that anytime.
9:17
Speaker 2: Good way to put it.
9:18
Speaker 1: All Right, We're gonna do a mail bag for this episode,
9:21
Speaker 1: but first we gotta we gotta pay some bills. So
9:23
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Speaker 1: all the difference. All right, coming back here. Thank you
11:07
Speaker 1: everybody who submitted a question for our mail bag. You know,
11:10
Speaker 1: Cody and I did an episode after the fourth game
11:13
Speaker 1: in Boston because we wanted to have like a series
11:15
Speaker 1: wrap up before we you know, began the week, so
11:17
Speaker 1: only one game.
11:18
Speaker 2: To talk about.
11:19
Speaker 1: So you guys help helping this out tremendously right here
11:22
Speaker 1: right off the top. Got a topic here, Cody that
11:24
Speaker 1: we haven't really like had a chance to kind of
11:27
Speaker 1: dive into, So I'm appreciative of this question.
11:30
Speaker 2: It has to do with Labor Torres.
11:32
Speaker 1: Labor Torres, who, like you know, all Stars started last
11:36
Speaker 1: year really the you know, second half, just like the
11:38
Speaker 1: rest of the team didn't. There wasn't anything to brag about.
11:41
Speaker 1: Had the injury. We chalk it up to that. But
11:43
Speaker 1: this is from and I'm so glad I get to
11:46
Speaker 1: say this spankster, the gangster, what level of concern with
11:50
Speaker 1: what is there with Torres's declining skills both offensively no
11:54
Speaker 1: power or poll ability and defensively. So the way I
12:00
Speaker 1: look at this, Cody is Labor is somebody that when
12:05
Speaker 1: it's not looking like when when it's not looking good,
12:09
Speaker 1: it's really not looking good.
12:10
Speaker 2: I think is the kind of the way to describe
12:11
Speaker 2: Labor Torres.
12:12
Speaker 1: That's kind of been his career, man, if you follow
12:14
Speaker 1: how Yankee fans have looked at him. But like but
12:18
Speaker 1: like the everything that we know the Tigers like about
12:21
Speaker 1: the professional at bats, like the ability to you know,
12:26
Speaker 1: find his pitch. You know, like there's a reason, like
12:31
Speaker 1: he's always at the top of the order, Like AJ
12:33
Speaker 1: is not afraid to make any changes necessary to a
12:36
Speaker 1: lineup that in response to how a player is performing.
12:41
Speaker 1: But Labor pretty consistently is at the top of the order.
12:45
Speaker 1: We even saw him this weekend get a start with
12:47
Speaker 1: fromber on the mound right, which hadn't happened yet.
12:51
Speaker 2: And I think.
12:54
Speaker 1: It's he's not anybody to brag about right now, but
12:56
Speaker 1: if you look at some of the metrics, it's a
12:58
Speaker 1: lot better than I want to say, a lot. It's
13:00
Speaker 1: it's certainly more positive.
13:02
Speaker 2: Than you think.
13:03
Speaker 1: We have the Savan page up right now if you're
13:05
Speaker 1: on uh, if you're watching this on YouTube.
13:07
Speaker 2: A lot of red there, now some pretty blue. There's
13:11
Speaker 2: some pretty blue moments there.
13:13
Speaker 1: But what if I told you that he had a
13:15
Speaker 1: fielding run value in the eighty nine percent tile and
13:19
Speaker 1: his range his range. Cody also in the eighty nine
13:22
Speaker 1: percent tile, and then of course you know the things
13:25
Speaker 1: like chase and width percentage and k percentage and based
13:29
Speaker 1: on ball percentage also really high, even if there is
13:32
Speaker 1: some stuff that's not so positive. So I don't know,
13:34
Speaker 1: I just feel like Labor. Glabor's a guy that you
13:37
Speaker 1: can just kind of pencil in. Because AJ's penciling in.
13:40
Speaker 1: He's on the qualifying off for twenty two million dollars,
13:43
Speaker 1: he's not getting sent to Toledo. You don't really have
13:45
Speaker 1: a lot of options, especially in light of other injuries
13:48
Speaker 1: and the ripple effects there, to put at second base.
13:52
Speaker 2: You got Glamor. That's that. That's my main point.
13:55
Speaker 1: You got Glabor, And for all his good and all
13:57
Speaker 1: of his blows.
13:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just I certainly still appreciate Glaber's consistency. He
14:03
Speaker 3: has a three seventy three one base percentage, so we
14:06
Speaker 3: should probably be hesitant before we knock him too much.
14:10
Speaker 3: But I also get the spirit of the question. I mean,
14:14
Speaker 3: right now he's probably out performing the eye test, and
14:18
Speaker 3: the eye test has not been good dating back to
14:20
Speaker 3: the second half of last season. You know, we learned
14:22
Speaker 3: he was dealing with the Hernia last year. He wondered
14:25
Speaker 3: if you would look a little better coming out this year,
14:28
Speaker 3: and he kind of doesn't. He just appears slow. I
14:32
Speaker 3: mean that shows up in the sprint speed, which you
14:34
Speaker 3: can see all the blue thirteenth percent Island sprint speed.
14:38
Speaker 3: The bat speed is in the bottom four percentile. His
14:41
Speaker 3: average speed was seventy last year. It's down to sixty
14:44
Speaker 3: seven so far this season, so he is losing bat speed.
14:48
Speaker 3: That to me is actually a huge red flag. His
14:51
Speaker 3: average axit the loasty bottom two percent Island Major League
14:54
Speaker 3: Baseball eighty three point two miles an hour. I would
14:57
Speaker 3: like to believe Glaber is going to start pulling ball,
15:00
Speaker 3: hitting the ball a little bit harder, But the bat
15:02
Speaker 3: speed's pretty hard to ignore, just kind of the it's
15:06
Speaker 3: not even sluggish, it's just like slow. Just the slow
15:10
Speaker 3: nature of some of his movements does have me a
15:13
Speaker 3: little concerned. Certainly glad he's only here, you know, under
15:17
Speaker 3: contract for one year. I think you'd do a lot
15:20
Speaker 3: worse than Glaber Torres at second base in the American League.
15:23
Speaker 3: Don't be shocked to this guy makes the All Star
15:25
Speaker 3: Game again if he keeps making elite swing decisions. But
15:31
Speaker 3: the point here is right, Like there is some room
15:33
Speaker 3: for concern. You need to see him moving a little
15:36
Speaker 3: bit better, swinging a little bit better, hitting the ball harder,
15:38
Speaker 3: pulling the ball a little bit more, because if he
15:41
Speaker 3: doesn't do those things, he's going to have to continue
15:43
Speaker 3: to be near flawless when it comes to pitch selection.
15:47
Speaker 3: Glaber's always been pretty good at that, but like he'd
15:50
Speaker 3: better be elite or else that game could fall off
15:52
Speaker 3: a cliff pretty quickly. So I understand why people are
15:56
Speaker 3: talking about it.
15:58
Speaker 1: That question was sent in before or the game. Obviously
16:01
Speaker 1: during the game he took a ball off the foot.
16:03
Speaker 1: Obviously he was okay, you know, stayed in the game and.
16:07
Speaker 2: And all that stuff.
16:08
Speaker 1: But like, had he you know, God forbid gotten some
16:11
Speaker 1: sort of injury that he was knocked out, I think
16:14
Speaker 1: the whole of labor Torres would would would certainly be
16:17
Speaker 1: felt pretty early on if he had to miss extended time.
16:20
Speaker 2: So that's that's the way I would answer that question.
16:23
Speaker 1: All right, This one comes from Sleepster Ryan, and it's
16:28
Speaker 1: it's kind of an extension of what we talked about
16:30
Speaker 1: last episode, Cody, but you know, maybe not everybody listened
16:33
Speaker 1: to it, So we can touch on a little bit here,
16:35
Speaker 1: should we despair about Torklesen yet? And And I'll tell you, like,
16:41
Speaker 1: I'll even kind of reframe the question in my mind.
16:44
Speaker 1: It's like, are we like heavy on torque watch? Like
16:47
Speaker 1: do we hyper analyze everything? I'll tell you. In his
16:51
Speaker 1: first set bat, which did result, you know, his only
16:53
Speaker 1: hit of the game, but it did result in the
16:55
Speaker 1: base hit, he saw six pitches worked account full. He
16:58
Speaker 1: had only one non fastball pitch. It was a slur
17:02
Speaker 1: that was down in the dirt kind of ball out
17:05
Speaker 1: of hand. Other than that, he was getting pummeled with fastballs.
17:08
Speaker 1: So I think I think your boy Pat was listening
17:11
Speaker 1: to our last podcast about Spencer's struggles with the fastball.
17:16
Speaker 1: But he did get a hit as right in the middle,
17:18
Speaker 1: I believe, and it was in the middle of the
17:20
Speaker 1: plate as well. So if you like, can you could
17:24
Speaker 1: despair togle Sen and you can hyperanalyze. I think we're
17:27
Speaker 1: I think the fan base and you and I are
17:29
Speaker 1: going to do some of both here looking for every
17:33
Speaker 1: little sign. I think I don't know about despair, but
17:36
Speaker 1: I think it is fair to kind of look at
17:38
Speaker 1: every little thing and try to realize, like, look for
17:42
Speaker 1: signs that things could turn around, because if they don't,
17:44
Speaker 1: could get pretty awkward pretty fast.
17:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I continue to not know exactly how to talk
17:50
Speaker 3: about Spencer Turklesen. I just listen to Bobby Scales on
17:53
Speaker 3: the radio, Who's like, yo, it's been sixty seven at
17:57
Speaker 3: BET's eighty two plate appearances, Like cal him down to
18:00
Speaker 3: sixty seven at bats.
18:01
Speaker 2: And Bobby knows ball.
18:03
Speaker 3: I feel that, and Bobby does no ball. The counter
18:06
Speaker 3: is okay. Spencer Turkelsen has twenty two hundred Major League
18:10
Speaker 3: played appearances with an OPS plus of ninety nine, so
18:15
Speaker 3: he's been slightly below league average for the course of
18:18
Speaker 3: his career. And now we all know there have been
18:20
Speaker 3: kind of extreme peaks and valleys here, right, But even
18:23
Speaker 3: as did you know Spencer Torkelsen has never had a
18:26
Speaker 3: season with an eight hundred OPS. He has two thirty
18:29
Speaker 3: home run seasons. His total OPS was seven fifty eight
18:33
Speaker 3: and seven eighty nine last year, So even at his
18:37
Speaker 3: very best, he hasn't really been quite the hitter you
18:41
Speaker 3: would like him to be. That's why this gets complicated, right,
18:46
Speaker 3: because you know, like this, this guy's pretty good. This
18:49
Speaker 3: guy could run into four homers next week, and we're
18:52
Speaker 3: not talking about this anymore. But the way he's being
18:56
Speaker 3: late like that, that does have me concerned because we
18:59
Speaker 3: have seen struggle that way for prolonged periods before. I
19:05
Speaker 3: still think he needs a leg kick man. I've been
19:07
Speaker 3: saying that for like three years. I don't know. I
19:10
Speaker 3: think it's a little too soon to despair, to call
19:13
Speaker 3: for him to get sent down whatever. But I do
19:17
Speaker 3: think we have to acknowledge the reality that if he
19:20
Speaker 3: doesn't turn it around, the Tigers could play cold Keith Moore,
19:23
Speaker 3: even Matt Vierling. You know, they've talked about playing him
19:26
Speaker 3: at first. We haven't seen it like there could be
19:28
Speaker 3: more alternatives here than we're talking about. And the totality
19:32
Speaker 3: of Tourgulsen's career right now has been so much up
19:36
Speaker 3: and down and overall just has been has been okay,
19:39
Speaker 3: it hasn't been great, And that's just kind of the hard,
19:42
Speaker 3: cold reality.
19:46
Speaker 1: One of the correct the record on something his base
19:48
Speaker 1: hit was on a fastball outside, which actually is also
19:51
Speaker 1: a good sign because it was ninety five miles an
19:53
Speaker 1: hour right on the outer black and he was able
19:55
Speaker 1: to hit up the middle for a basis, so it
19:57
Speaker 1: wasn't in the middle of the place. I just wanted
19:59
Speaker 1: to correct record on that.
20:00
Speaker 2: Well.
20:01
Speaker 1: Speaking of first base, Cody, we got a question from
20:04
Speaker 1: Dan Rose. Is there any chance that Jamia Jones could
20:08
Speaker 1: be a better first baseman than he is an outfielder.
20:13
Speaker 1: My answer to this is yes, I feel like there
20:15
Speaker 1: is a chance because they don't really want him in
20:17
Speaker 1: the outfield, so like in theory, like he and he
20:21
Speaker 1: is an infielder by trade as well, so in theory,
20:24
Speaker 1: there's nothing to say that he couldn't be a viable
20:28
Speaker 1: first baseman or certainly better than what they think of
20:31
Speaker 1: him as an outfielder or a third baseman. Maybe a
20:33
Speaker 1: little size limitation there, but I wouldn't be opposed to
20:37
Speaker 1: having that in the arsenal Cody, if he's gonna be,
20:40
Speaker 1: you know, if he's gonna be in the lineup as
20:43
Speaker 1: often as like his bad dictates, what do you oppose?
20:47
Speaker 3: That's kind of an interesting point. It is important to
20:50
Speaker 3: remember Jami Jones has played in field. He's played in
20:52
Speaker 3: field in the major leagues, and his first spring with
20:55
Speaker 3: the Tigers, he was playing some second and some third
20:58
Speaker 3: and they just kind of gave up on that real quick.
21:01
Speaker 3: So that is somewhat in his tool bag. I would
21:03
Speaker 3: say that he hasn't played first, probably because they don't
21:06
Speaker 3: in theory, don't need him to play first. Torklesen has
21:09
Speaker 3: been the guy every day, and you have Keith there,
21:11
Speaker 3: you even have Jase Young. We should probably mention in
21:14
Speaker 3: Toledo Edward of Valencia. So like, I don't know that
21:19
Speaker 3: Jamai Jones moving to first base is the end all
21:21
Speaker 3: be all. Is that we're throwing that out there? I mean, sure,
21:24
Speaker 3: why not? You know, he has some infield experience, even
21:26
Speaker 3: the hype thing, Like, I don't know, we saw India.
21:29
Speaker 3: Bania has play first base. The Tigers have put shorter
21:31
Speaker 3: players at first base before. I think they would have
21:35
Speaker 3: to get pretty desperate to, you know, to even experiment
21:41
Speaker 3: with this. But I don't think it hurts to raise
21:43
Speaker 3: the question. I don't know I'd be interested to see
21:45
Speaker 3: what he looked like over there. I've kind of forgot
21:47
Speaker 3: forgot what he looks like in the infield at all,
21:50
Speaker 3: because it's it's been so long.
21:53
Speaker 2: It's just kind of weird to think of him fielding
21:55
Speaker 2: at all.
21:55
Speaker 1: I know he does a little bit, but it's just
21:57
Speaker 1: like he's just like it's just it's.
22:00
Speaker 2: Not really his role, you know, uh.
22:02
Speaker 1: And by the way, you know, obviously he put a
22:04
Speaker 1: charge in that ball credit. You know, yeah, almost had
22:09
Speaker 1: another home run and and uh and you know it's
22:12
Speaker 1: again that's one of those things where it's.
22:13
Speaker 2: Just not your day.
22:14
Speaker 1: Not like it was a crazy, out right out out
22:17
Speaker 1: you know, Joe Adell type home run.
22:19
Speaker 2: Robert.
22:19
Speaker 3: It was like the most nonchalant Robert was that was
22:22
Speaker 3: that like Perkins, I think, just like a little jump
22:24
Speaker 3: catch it all right, a big deal.
22:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was pretty good, pretty good, all right.
22:31
Speaker 1: Uh, let's go to a question from Sparky's ghost.
22:37
Speaker 3: This is what nobody using their real name today? Interesting
22:42
Speaker 3: Tiger's front office burner.
22:43
Speaker 2: Accounts Spankser the Gangster could be his real name. Uh.
22:48
Speaker 2: This is from Sparky's ghost.
22:50
Speaker 1: What's the biggest surprise you've seen in the Al Central
22:53
Speaker 1: so far? Who do you think will emerge as the
22:56
Speaker 1: top two contender? So? Uh, biggest surprise for me? I know,
23:01
Speaker 1: I'll be honest with you. I was saying it kind
23:03
Speaker 1: of tongue in cheekly, but I got kind of validated
23:07
Speaker 1: over the weekend, Cody when I said that I thought
23:09
Speaker 1: the Royals were done and they went ahead and got
23:13
Speaker 1: and got swept by the Yankees and had this weird
23:16
Speaker 1: manager disagreeing with his star player about whether he needs
23:21
Speaker 1: a you know, I got players going to.
23:23
Speaker 2: Social media like that's not a that's not a good thing.
23:25
Speaker 1: And then they lost on Monday, although they did win
23:28
Speaker 1: Tuesday night in the bottom of the ninth walk off
23:30
Speaker 1: against Baltimore, so the losing streak is over for the Royals.
23:34
Speaker 1: That's my biggest surprise because again, you have Bobby Witt,
23:38
Speaker 1: You're a strong you know, obviously I have a lot
23:39
Speaker 1: of strong pitching. If Jack can get going offensively, like
23:43
Speaker 1: we talked about last week, that that lineup looks a
23:46
Speaker 1: lot different, you know, got like guys like India and
23:49
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So like it, it's that surprising to me.
23:52
Speaker 1: I still I guess I can't say that they would
23:55
Speaker 1: be a top two contender because I said that they
23:57
Speaker 1: were done, but come into the season that would And
24:00
Speaker 1: one of my u one of my choices, I think
24:03
Speaker 1: Minnesota will continue to fall, you know, kind of water
24:07
Speaker 1: will find its level there. So I think it's gonna
24:09
Speaker 1: be a Detroit Cleveland division with Kansas City if they
24:14
Speaker 1: can get there together, like kind of making things interesting too.
24:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, biggest surprise so far. I mean, it has to
24:21
Speaker 3: be the Twins, and it's funny. There was a point
24:24
Speaker 3: in December where I was like, I don't know many
24:26
Speaker 3: everyone's writing off the Twins. I know they kind of
24:28
Speaker 3: did the fire Sail thing, but they still have Buxton,
24:31
Speaker 3: they still have Royce Lewis, and they have some really,
24:34
Speaker 3: some really good pitching. And when Pablo Lopez got hurt
24:37
Speaker 3: was when I was like, okay, like they don't have
24:40
Speaker 3: him and like that that really hurts their pitching, which
24:42
Speaker 3: I was basing a lot of this one, like they're done,
24:44
Speaker 3: they're gonna be terrible, and I don't They're still pretty thin,
24:49
Speaker 3: but they're off to a good start. They're twelve and eleven.
24:51
Speaker 3: They have a better record than the Tigers at the
24:53
Speaker 3: time that we are recording. This easily the biggest surprise.
24:59
Speaker 3: I also just want to moving to Taka Murakami, who
25:02
Speaker 3: I was not so sure how he was going to
25:04
Speaker 3: fare in the major leagues. He has nine home runs
25:07
Speaker 3: so far for the Chicago White Sox. It's only hitting
25:10
Speaker 3: two thirty, but he has a three eighty nine one
25:12
Speaker 3: base percentage. Really interested to continue watching him. He is
25:18
Speaker 3: striking out a lot. He's already struck out thirty one times.
25:20
Speaker 3: But the power is real pleasantly surprised there top two
25:26
Speaker 3: teams in the division. I mean, I think the Tigers
25:28
Speaker 3: need to be up there from a talent standpoint. I
25:31
Speaker 3: like the Royals roster the second best in this division.
25:35
Speaker 3: I like to think that they will emerge. But those Guardians, man,
25:39
Speaker 3: they just never go away, do they. Here they are again,
25:42
Speaker 3: They're in first place. They're fourteen to eleven. I'm not
25:45
Speaker 3: even sure how, but they're doing it again. So realistically,
25:49
Speaker 3: maybe it'll be the Guardians, but I'm gonna stick to
25:52
Speaker 3: Tigers Royals right now. The Royals time to pick it
25:55
Speaker 3: up though.
25:59
Speaker 1: All right, stuff, let's uh, let's go to something that's
26:02
Speaker 1: obviously pretty relevant today. Uh. You mentioned the Emmanuel the
26:08
Speaker 1: Hayesius play. Do the do they the Tigers practice PfP
26:12
Speaker 1: sure hasn't looked like at the last two games embarrassing.
26:16
Speaker 2: Uh that's fair.
26:19
Speaker 1: Because the Jack Flarity play we talked about a little
26:22
Speaker 1: a little bit, uh last time out, and then you
26:25
Speaker 1: know the Hayesius.
26:26
Speaker 2: I mean it just looked like something that was not routine.
26:30
Speaker 1: It was a routine play that did not look routine
26:33
Speaker 1: by Flarity and the Hayesius and and you did provide
26:36
Speaker 1: an answer on Twitter, So if you wanted to just
26:39
Speaker 1: kind of, like, you know, elaborate on that a little.
26:41
Speaker 2: Bit, like it just it's one of those things. It's
26:43
Speaker 2: one of the worst looks you can have on the field,
26:45
Speaker 2: is you know what I mean.
26:48
Speaker 3: I mean, the Tigers do practice PfP. They do it
26:52
Speaker 3: all spring long. I've seen them at certain times do
26:55
Speaker 3: it in the regular season. It's led me to the
26:59
Speaker 3: theory that PfP just doesn't really matter because this isn't
27:03
Speaker 3: just the Tigers. I see it in games all across
27:05
Speaker 3: the league. Pitchers get the ball not on the rubber
27:10
Speaker 3: and they just freak out. They just suddenly do not
27:12
Speaker 3: know what to do. I really think it's they're put
27:15
Speaker 3: in situations that they're just not exposed to. Very often.
27:19
Speaker 3: You can have runners and try to simulate PfP at
27:22
Speaker 3: game speed, but it's just not the same. It's not
27:25
Speaker 3: actually game speed. Infielders at least are kind of drilled
27:30
Speaker 3: through this, you know, all the time, where like, how
27:33
Speaker 3: many even though it's an incredibly basic play, you have
27:36
Speaker 3: a guy picked off, you should run him back to
27:38
Speaker 3: the base. There's a chance he could have just tagged him,
27:41
Speaker 3: or like you just give up the ball, get it
27:43
Speaker 3: to your infielder, Like it was clearly a mistake. It
27:46
Speaker 3: doesn't excuse the mistakes. Same on the flarity play, but like,
27:50
Speaker 3: how many times has he actually done that in a
27:52
Speaker 3: game in his life? Very few, I promise you. It's
27:57
Speaker 3: probably single digits and going back to when he was
27:59
Speaker 3: a child as possibly you have never done that exact
28:02
Speaker 3: play right there, Like that doesn't make it okay. Should
28:05
Speaker 3: you execute the fundamentals? Yes, But like pitchers across the league,
28:09
Speaker 3: not just the Tigers, don't know what to do when
28:12
Speaker 3: they're not on the rubber. It just happens a lot.
28:14
Speaker 3: And I'm not really sure how you like how you.
28:17
Speaker 2: Improve upon that. It's gotta I mean, I.
28:22
Speaker 3: Guess you can practice it more more. PfP blow out
28:25
Speaker 3: your your position players, make them run at full speed.
28:28
Speaker 3: Like that's the closest thing I can think of.
28:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it's.
28:36
Speaker 1: You just put that film on over and over again
28:39
Speaker 1: and just kind of drill, like what the steps are,
28:41
Speaker 1: what the movements are, and maybe like and maybe you
28:45
Speaker 1: just have to go through. It's one of those things
28:47
Speaker 1: you just have to go through it and the next
28:48
Speaker 1: time it's gonna be flawless because you get you're right, Like,
28:51
Speaker 1: it's just like you just don't get that many examples,
28:53
Speaker 1: so uh to go through it, all right, it's just
28:56
Speaker 1: obviously a bad look to that happened two games in
28:58
Speaker 1: a row.
28:59
Speaker 2: All right, this is from here's the name Daniel grizz.
29:03
Speaker 3: I don't know if there's a real name or not.
29:05
Speaker 3: It's a little bit deceptive. I like it, but it
29:08
Speaker 3: is a name.
29:09
Speaker 1: Why has the organization not changed its metrics or analytics
29:13
Speaker 1: for pitching? So many poor signings and trades from this
29:17
Speaker 1: new regime. Anderson and the Hayesius are perfect examples from
29:21
Speaker 1: this season.
29:22
Speaker 2: I'll tell you what.
29:22
Speaker 1: Anderson and DeJesus are, Cody, two guys who shine has
29:26
Speaker 1: probably come off the most since spring training, you know,
29:31
Speaker 1: two guys that we spent a lot of time. We
29:32
Speaker 1: talked about Drew Anderson a little bit. Dejesius as well.
29:36
Speaker 1: It seems like he's kind of, I don't want to say,
29:39
Speaker 1: stuck in.
29:39
Speaker 2: His role, but.
29:41
Speaker 1: He's got a certain role that AJ's using them in.
29:43
Speaker 1: And it doesn't appear to be the most high leverage
29:46
Speaker 1: here right now that could change, but as of right
29:49
Speaker 1: now we still in the opinion you're kind of stuck
29:54
Speaker 1: with these guys and just kind of have to figure
29:56
Speaker 1: it out or.
29:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, we'll see. One thing I did want to bring
30:03
Speaker 3: up with Drew Anderson from Eddie Bagik, I hope I'm
30:06
Speaker 3: pronouncing that properly on Twitter. Kind of the contracts roster guru,
30:11
Speaker 3: a lot more knowledgeable than I am, pointed out that
30:13
Speaker 3: Anderson doesn't have five years of major league service, so
30:17
Speaker 3: it is possible that he actually could get sent down
30:22
Speaker 3: if he were to reject an assignment, assuming he's on
30:25
Speaker 3: a standard contract, he would he would forfeit that money.
30:29
Speaker 3: Now we don't know, you know, the ins and outs
30:33
Speaker 3: of Anderson's contract. I think a lot of guys coming
30:35
Speaker 3: back from a foreign league might have some clause written
30:39
Speaker 3: in there to get around this. I would just I
30:43
Speaker 3: just wanted to throw that out there. It is possible
30:46
Speaker 3: maybe that the Tigers could assign Drew Anderson to Toledo
30:50
Speaker 3: and he would have to accept that assignment. I don't know,
30:55
Speaker 3: so I'm not going to talk about it anymore. You
30:59
Speaker 3: would have to think if that were on the table,
31:01
Speaker 3: we'd be pretty close to that point, probably to go
31:05
Speaker 3: back to the original question, like, I don't know if
31:08
Speaker 3: it's their metrics, their analytics. They've clearly gotten some things
31:11
Speaker 3: right over the years, but I do think we now
31:15
Speaker 3: have enough examples of poor pitching signings that it's like
31:20
Speaker 3: track record has to matter at some point. Dahesius did
31:23
Speaker 3: not have a track record of success in the major leagues.
31:25
Speaker 3: Jo Anderson did not have a track record of success
31:28
Speaker 3: in the major leagues. Dahsius wasn't even good in terms
31:31
Speaker 3: of counting numbers in Korea, and Anderson was pretty good,
31:34
Speaker 3: but he wasn't even as good as someone like a
31:38
Speaker 3: Cody Puntz. Look at some of the other guys we know.
31:42
Speaker 3: You know, their strategy was kind of quantity based. Let's
31:45
Speaker 3: bring in a lot of arms, hope a few of
31:47
Speaker 3: them stick. But it was a lot of guys who
31:49
Speaker 3: have failed at other places. Burt Smith, for example, a
31:53
Speaker 3: veteran who has just never had success in the major leagues.
31:57
Speaker 3: At what point do you have to stop getting those guys?
32:00
Speaker 3: The Tigers have hit on some other pitchers, notably kind
32:04
Speaker 3: of younger pitchers who didn't have a ton of experience.
32:07
Speaker 3: Tyler Holton, who had barely pitched in the Major leagues.
32:10
Speaker 3: Jack Flaherty at the time had had flashes of success, Like,
32:15
Speaker 3: maybe they would be better off identifying younger pitchers and
32:18
Speaker 3: helping them improve. Going for veterans with poor track records
32:22
Speaker 3: is clearly not working out. I believe there must be
32:26
Speaker 3: something in their models. There must be some reason they
32:28
Speaker 3: liked these guys and they think they have upside, And
32:32
Speaker 3: by the way, Anderson shown some upside. He was lights
32:34
Speaker 3: out in spring training. Dahiesius was lights out against real
32:37
Speaker 3: hitters in the WBC. But this stuff is an elite.
32:42
Speaker 3: I would also just to get on my soapbox. I
32:45
Speaker 3: would like to see them get after relief pitchers who
32:48
Speaker 3: strike people out, who miss bats. I guess there was
32:51
Speaker 3: some hope Anderson could do that with the advent of
32:53
Speaker 3: his kick change, but you gave him seven million dollars
32:56
Speaker 3: without knowing for sure. I would like to see them
33:01
Speaker 3: sign pitchers with a track record of striking people out
33:06
Speaker 3: that can help you out of some situations in minimal
33:08
Speaker 3: that he's who's got one with on seventeen swings tonight,
33:11
Speaker 3: like that game could be over a lot sooner if
33:15
Speaker 3: he's just able to get a strikeout or two to
33:17
Speaker 3: help get out of the inning. For as good as
33:20
Speaker 3: the Tigers are and as many you know Kenley Jansen's
33:24
Speaker 3: pitching well, Kyle Finnigan's pitching well, I think their bullpen's
33:27
Speaker 3: still averaging less than nine strikeouts per nine innings, and
33:30
Speaker 3: that worries me going forward, not just with their garbage
33:34
Speaker 3: time relievers or with their their middle relievers, but maybe
33:38
Speaker 3: even the guys at the back end as well.
33:43
Speaker 1: Track Record has to matter. I think that's gonna be
33:45
Speaker 1: the number one thing I kind of take take from that.
33:47
Speaker 1: I mean, that's put it. You put it so simply.
33:51
Speaker 1: Track record has to matter.
33:54
Speaker 2: And yeah, the youth thing probably a result of being
33:57
Speaker 2: pretty or I.
33:59
Speaker 1: Would say lack of depth in the system at the
34:01
Speaker 1: top of the system. You know, they've had to do
34:03
Speaker 1: this the past couple of years. Maybe maybe that's not
34:07
Speaker 1: something that has to be the be the direction moving
34:12
Speaker 1: forward in future roster constructions. But but yeahs as of
34:17
Speaker 1: right now, I just think you're you're making some I
34:20
Speaker 1: think it's safe to say there have been costly mistakes
34:23
Speaker 1: in terms of identifying the major league pitching major league
34:28
Speaker 1: pitching prospect perspective, pitchers that come in and definitely been
34:31
Speaker 1: costly There both on the field and in the payroll.
34:36
Speaker 1: All right, Cody, anything else you wanted to get to
34:39
Speaker 1: I miss anything.
34:41
Speaker 3: Did we get to the main questions? I think we
34:43
Speaker 3: addressed them all. No, I think we'll call it good
34:47
Speaker 3: for tonight. Hopefully we will be back with maybe some
34:50
Speaker 3: better stuff to talk about on our next episode. I
34:53
Speaker 3: guess overall, like Tigers are twelve and twelve, Like it's
34:56
Speaker 3: not that bad, but they've been some lower moments than
35:01
Speaker 3: you would expect this early in the season, Like the
35:04
Speaker 3: sloppiness continues to be maybe the single biggest concern with
35:10
Speaker 3: this team, Like, Okay, you can't keep doing that forever.
35:13
Speaker 3: That's going to get you in trouble. That's already cost
35:15
Speaker 3: you three four games that could come back to buy
35:19
Speaker 3: you at the end of the year.
35:23
Speaker 1: Aj does not like to ride the roller coaster, as
35:26
Speaker 1: he said repeatedly, But I don't know what you call
35:29
Speaker 1: games like tonight and then blowing and then blowing like
35:32
Speaker 1: you know, four or five run leads a rhetor that
35:34
Speaker 1: we see in a couple times this season. So you're right,
35:37
Speaker 1: the lows have been have been more considerable than we're
35:40
Speaker 1: used to. But then again, it's able twenty first, a
35:43
Speaker 1: lot of baseball left to be played, and a lot
35:45
Speaker 1: of questions that we got today will obviously have answers
35:49
Speaker 1: as the season moves forward. All right, thank you everybody
35:52
Speaker 1: who submitted a question. You can follow us on x
35:54
Speaker 1: formally known as Twitter at quity. Steven Haigen, I'm at Kieran.
35:57
Speaker 1: Underscore is declely pot page at Tiger Territory Underscore YouTube.
36:00
Speaker 1: Please subscribe if you haven't already hit that bell. We
36:03
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36:06
Speaker 1: and Spotify and wherever you get your podcasts. We appreciate
36:09
Speaker 1: all you guys. That's why we get to do this
36:11
Speaker 1: three times a week throughout the season. Have a lot
36:13
Speaker 1: of fun doing it. So for coach Davenhagen, I'm Kieren Steckley.
36:16
Speaker 1: Everybody have great dep