Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Tigs Boom In The Bronx

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Tigs Boom In The Bronx · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: And move into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:09
Speaker 1: the pul Terry turn owork a Try Tucker's podcast.
0:11
Speaker 2: I'm Kiersteckley with me and.
0:12
Speaker 1: As always a man who treats podcasts and pulls the
0:14
Speaker 1: same way, he just wants to jump in.
0:17
Speaker 3: Hey, let's jump on in. We got two pretty good
0:22
Speaker 3: Tigers games in the Bronx and then the third one
0:25
Speaker 3: not so good. But I don't know what, how are
0:27
Speaker 3: you feeling coming off this series?
0:30
Speaker 1: I mean, I for myriad reasons, I feel amazing coming
0:35
Speaker 1: off this series because they are all these Don't You
0:38
Speaker 1: just love it when you start talking about things and
0:41
Speaker 1: they and they and they come together afterward in ways
0:44
Speaker 1: that you have no control over but still makes you
0:46
Speaker 1: look kind of smart. We talked about concerns with you
0:49
Speaker 1: gotta have a number two, maybe a number three? Like
0:52
Speaker 1: what like do you have confidence in miz or flarity?
0:56
Speaker 2: Right now?
0:56
Speaker 1: You're feeling pretty good about those two. We'll talk about them,
0:59
Speaker 1: uh and depth a little bit more. What do you
1:02
Speaker 1: what have you been kind of pound the table about
1:04
Speaker 1: when it comes to postseason offense power? Well, how about
1:09
Speaker 1: all your lefties? You could play in Yankee Stadium in
1:11
Speaker 1: a series, by the way, like all of your big
1:13
Speaker 1: time lefties hitting home runs, and then you add in
1:15
Speaker 1: Dingler for good measure as well. And then even if
1:18
Speaker 1: you want to throw in like you're gonna have to
1:20
Speaker 1: have somebody do something maybe unexpected from your pitching rotation.
1:25
Speaker 1: How about Chris Paddock recording to say like like that
1:29
Speaker 1: that was cool.
1:30
Speaker 3: For Chris Paddock, right Chris Pack's not the most popular
1:33
Speaker 3: player on the Tigers right now. But I talk to
1:34
Speaker 3: Chris Paddock a little bit when he came back from
1:38
Speaker 3: the breavement list, and man, pretty genuine guy. You could
1:43
Speaker 3: tell it meant a lot to him. You could tell
1:46
Speaker 3: he really wants to be good for this team. He
1:48
Speaker 3: told me that he had some Tigers fans reach out
1:51
Speaker 3: with really encouraging messages on Instagram, which kind of stunned
1:56
Speaker 3: me because I haven't heard of fans sending players positive messages,
2:01
Speaker 3: and not probably not in my time covering this sport,
2:03
Speaker 3: you know, in the in the world we live in.
2:05
Speaker 3: So I had really good talk with Chris Paddock that
2:09
Speaker 3: is like, Okay, this guy's not been very good, this
2:11
Speaker 3: is probably not a very good trade, but kind of
2:14
Speaker 3: made you want to root for him a little bit.
2:15
Speaker 3: He came out good performance, first, saved the good old
2:18
Speaker 3: three innings save, which I love, got a little beer shower,
2:22
Speaker 3: talked to postgame about how that meant a lot to him.
2:25
Speaker 3: We don't have to go spend a lot more time
2:27
Speaker 3: on that, but hey, that was a good little storyline
2:30
Speaker 3: that probably won't get quite enough attention from this series.
2:33
Speaker 1: Sure, and again, like you're like, if you're gonna go
2:35
Speaker 1: deep into the postseason, you're gonna need something seemingly.
2:38
Speaker 2: Random to kind of go your way.
2:40
Speaker 1: That is one of the things that like would would
2:43
Speaker 1: qualify if that were to happen in a more meaningful game. Obviously,
2:46
Speaker 1: so so good for Chris.
2:49
Speaker 3: Let me tell you something else. Maybe this's my Midwest bias.
2:52
Speaker 3: I know I haven't been that positive probably toward the
2:55
Speaker 3: Tigers in the second half of the season. You know why,
2:58
Speaker 3: because I've been watching every game, been at most of
3:01
Speaker 3: these games. They haven't played that good to baseball. They
3:03
Speaker 3: played two really good games in the Bronx. I felt
3:07
Speaker 3: this way a little bit in the postseason last year,
3:09
Speaker 3: and I feel that way big time this year. The
3:11
Speaker 3: Yankees are a great matchup for the Tigers because the
3:14
Speaker 3: Yankees just they just they just they have some star power.
3:17
Speaker 3: They have power, they hit the ball out of the part.
3:19
Speaker 3: They don't do the little things. Well, man, you saw
3:22
Speaker 3: it with that three to oh swing. That changed in thing.
3:24
Speaker 3: You saw it with the Tigers running on Judge, You
3:27
Speaker 3: like you saw that manifest. I think of all anyone
3:32
Speaker 3: in the American League, I think the Tigers are almost
3:34
Speaker 3: built to exploit a lot of the things that the
3:36
Speaker 3: Yankees don't do well.
3:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and I'm glad, like you know that was
3:40
Speaker 1: Grisham with the three to oh swing and then and
3:42
Speaker 1: then you mentioned Judge there these are not like the
3:45
Speaker 1: bit players for the Yankees that the Tigers were taken
3:48
Speaker 1: advantage of, like the you know, the Rodan was on
3:50
Speaker 1: the mound.
3:51
Speaker 2: Like these were that.
3:52
Speaker 1: This was These were their guys, like their their horses
3:55
Speaker 1: that they're gonna ride, you know, as far as they
3:58
Speaker 1: will take them. And so that was I'm glad you
4:00
Speaker 1: brought that up because that's another element that again makes
4:02
Speaker 1: you feel good about this series.
4:05
Speaker 2: Hard to win three in a row, you know, against anybody,
4:08
Speaker 2: much less the Yankee.
4:09
Speaker 1: So by the way I had won if my calculations
4:11
Speaker 1: are correct, they're four previous series. So it's not like
4:14
Speaker 1: they were on the downswing, you know, and they got
4:17
Speaker 1: a lot to play for obviously too, So like this
4:19
Speaker 1: was a very encouraging and you can tell how encouraging
4:23
Speaker 1: it was if you just, you know, should go listen
4:25
Speaker 1: to Pinstrite territory. Are colleagues over there doing the Yankee
4:29
Speaker 1: stuff because they weren't too happy about what they saw,
4:31
Speaker 1: So that could that should kind of tell you something.
4:33
Speaker 1: Let's let's get to let's get to the stars, if
4:37
Speaker 1: you would of the first two games on the mound,
4:40
Speaker 1: because again, that is the thing that if you were
4:43
Speaker 1: gonna do a power ranking of worries, that has to
4:48
Speaker 1: speaking out of turn here, that has to be number
4:50
Speaker 1: one for people who follow the Tigers and Tigers fans,
4:54
Speaker 1: it's just like, what are you gonna do starting pitching wise?
4:58
Speaker 1: Outside of schoobl And I say this all the time,
5:01
Speaker 1: as great as school is, guess what he's going to
5:03
Speaker 1: be going up against the other team's best pitcher too,
5:05
Speaker 1: So like you just don't know, uh, Mies and.
5:10
Speaker 2: Flarity kind of answer for this series?
5:14
Speaker 1: Answer the belt my six innings, four hits, two runs,
5:16
Speaker 1: eight k's Flarity five innings, two hits, zero runs, seven
5:20
Speaker 1: k's and I thought both of them like, I didn't
5:24
Speaker 1: think they had like exceptional.
5:27
Speaker 2: I thought they were working.
5:29
Speaker 1: They were pitching best that I've seen in a while
5:32
Speaker 1: without having like It's not like I thought Flarity was
5:35
Speaker 1: like spot and Corners or anything, but like.
5:37
Speaker 2: The sequencing and and keeping keeping the.
5:40
Speaker 1: Yankees hitters off balance is what worked there, and that's
5:42
Speaker 1: what Flarity can do when he's at or near his best.
5:45
Speaker 1: Also an example of not being afraid of the moment.
5:47
Speaker 1: Casey Mai showed that too. So if we were going
5:49
Speaker 1: to do a power poll between these two, which one
5:52
Speaker 1: was the most encouraging and if you had the name
5:54
Speaker 1: of number two starter right now.
5:58
Speaker 3: I think Casey Mice has jumped up in power rankings
6:00
Speaker 3: his past two starts. The stuff has been improved. Dan
6:04
Speaker 3: Petrie on the broadcast had a pretty good breakdown. My's
6:07
Speaker 3: just kind of standing back in that delivery a little more.
6:10
Speaker 3: He's getting a little more power. We know Mice can
6:14
Speaker 3: be good when he's locating. He's done that, and the
6:16
Speaker 3: velo has been up the overall stuff. He used a
6:19
Speaker 3: harder version of the slider with a lot of success
6:22
Speaker 3: against the Yanks. I think the past two starts for
6:25
Speaker 3: Casey Mice have been pretty encouraging, and it's kind of
6:28
Speaker 3: matched the eye test Jack Flaherty, I mean his last
6:31
Speaker 3: start in Detroit, Man, it was it was rough talking
6:34
Speaker 3: to him after that start. I felt like he was
6:37
Speaker 3: kind of at a loss, you know, for explanation. You
6:40
Speaker 3: could tell he was frustrated and rightfully so, and he
6:43
Speaker 3: handled it like a pro. But it was me. I
6:47
Speaker 3: was worried about a man after talking to him, and
6:51
Speaker 3: then you see the jack that can strike out seven guys.
6:53
Speaker 3: The reason I've said, like his ceiling is still pretty high,
6:56
Speaker 3: probably maybe higher than the ceiling of Casey Mice. He
6:59
Speaker 3: wasn't started that pitch efficient, but seven punches, five good innings.
7:05
Speaker 3: We've talked about like how thin the margin for error
7:08
Speaker 3: is with Jack Flaherty. When his stuff's not elite, his
7:10
Speaker 3: command has to be pretty dang good. Like you said,
7:13
Speaker 3: I don't know that he was painting every corner, but
7:16
Speaker 3: he seemed a little more precise. He seemed to have
7:18
Speaker 3: a little more conviction in his stuff. So two good outings.
7:23
Speaker 3: But mis has done it in back to back starts.
7:26
Speaker 3: This stuff has ticked Up'd be right if you can
7:30
Speaker 3: get a little more of that heading into October.
7:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and and I think I think their ability
7:39
Speaker 1: to go deeper into games like ended up working out
7:44
Speaker 1: in today's game too, because obviously AJ had to go
7:47
Speaker 1: to the pen a lot more than he was comfortable with.
7:51
Speaker 3: Good good thing, yet some arms vailable.
7:53
Speaker 1: I was like, as I was watching the game of
7:55
Speaker 1: my wife and you know, Gibson Lungs getting hit a
7:57
Speaker 1: little bit and it's like, is.
7:59
Speaker 2: He gonna come out?
8:00
Speaker 1: I was like, you might have to let his armful
8:02
Speaker 1: of as not gonna want at a certain point, you gotta,
8:07
Speaker 1: you know, you gotta make a move. And it was
8:09
Speaker 1: a little faster walk than AJ usually does to the mouth.
8:13
Speaker 3: But I think he gets a little more booze in
8:15
Speaker 3: Yankee Stadium, maybe just trying to get off the field.
8:20
Speaker 3: Man Sawyer gips along to go like guys coming off
8:24
Speaker 3: Tommy John. I think we knew it was gonna be
8:27
Speaker 3: a little rough reacclimation, even though the Tigers seem to
8:30
Speaker 3: have a lot of faith in him leading up to
8:32
Speaker 3: the summer, and they're about to do the same thing
8:34
Speaker 3: with Jose Rikety, probably about to be Jose Rakety's turn.
8:37
Speaker 3: I'll be excited to watch him but I think what
8:39
Speaker 3: we've just seen with Sawyer Gibson long serves as a
8:42
Speaker 3: word of caution for jose Rikety. Even if he comes
8:45
Speaker 3: out and has a nice first outing, like there's a
8:47
Speaker 3: guy fresh off Tommy John, it's hard for me to
8:49
Speaker 3: see that going well, especially here in September, Like there's
8:54
Speaker 3: no ramp, there's no runway, You're thrown right into a
8:57
Speaker 3: Pennant race. And then maybe the postseason. Just something to
9:01
Speaker 3: keep an eye on in the next week or two.
9:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I agree.
9:04
Speaker 1: And something else that's gonna that is great to watch
9:09
Speaker 1: and something to keep an eye on is how Parker
9:11
Speaker 1: Meadows uh Will continues to play. And that brings us
9:14
Speaker 1: to our chart topper of the Week, brought to you
9:16
Speaker 1: by DraftKings DraftKings Sportsbook. The Crown is Her. So Parker
9:27
Speaker 1: Meadows Cody is this thing that we all acknowledge.
9:34
Speaker 2: We all know like how good.
9:36
Speaker 1: This team is when he is there, and we know
9:38
Speaker 1: the skill set, but we've also seen the struggles and
9:41
Speaker 1: then obviously the injuries have been heavily part of the
9:43
Speaker 1: equation this year. So I just want to kind of
9:47
Speaker 1: give you the floor and say and ask, like, what
9:51
Speaker 1: is Parker Meadow's greatest value to the Tigers, because I
9:55
Speaker 1: think that might be the best scope of which to
9:58
Speaker 1: view him.
10:02
Speaker 3: Well, we know there's upside at the plate, and if
10:04
Speaker 3: you can get the version of Parker Meadows that has
10:06
Speaker 3: an eight hundred plus OPS, that's huge. But if you
10:09
Speaker 3: ask me, like, what's his best value, I think it's defense,
10:12
Speaker 3: and I'm not sure it's close. Now it's worth pointing
10:14
Speaker 3: out Parker in a pretty small sample, is actually negative
10:17
Speaker 3: defensive run saved this year, negative two. If you recall
10:20
Speaker 3: his when he first came back from the IL, he
10:22
Speaker 3: had a few misplays that just seemed kind of weird.
10:26
Speaker 3: I don't think that's a true reflection of his ability.
10:28
Speaker 3: I do think it's important to note every team thinks
10:31
Speaker 3: they're center fielder is elite, and so as we've talked
10:33
Speaker 3: about before, if you've listened to us over the years,
10:35
Speaker 3: it can be tough to be a plus ten DRS
10:38
Speaker 3: center fielder every year. But Parker Medos is a really
10:41
Speaker 3: good defender, and that's something that Tigers have lacked in
10:44
Speaker 3: center field this year, even though Hobby Bias has filled
10:47
Speaker 3: in admirably, but he's spent a lot of time in
10:49
Speaker 3: the infield two. The Tigers for the season negative four
10:52
Speaker 3: defensive runs saved in centerfield field. That ranks eighteenth in
10:58
Speaker 3: the Major League's an important position in America Park, where
11:01
Speaker 3: you have a really big outfield. They've not had day
11:03
Speaker 3: to day elite centerfield defense. They've not even had average
11:07
Speaker 3: centerfield defense. Been a lot of Winstle Perez, a little
11:10
Speaker 3: bit of Matt Vierling thrown in there, some hobby bias.
11:14
Speaker 3: Probably one of the most forgotten things at the Tiger season.
11:17
Speaker 3: Their opening days center fielder was Ryan Kreidler, and we
11:21
Speaker 3: were all supposed to think that was a good idea.
11:23
Speaker 3: That wasn't I tried to be like at the time, like, well,
11:27
Speaker 3: I kind of see there, thinking, man, that was silly
11:29
Speaker 3: looking back, But obviously the reason they were thrust in
11:33
Speaker 3: that situation and have been in this situation all year,
11:36
Speaker 3: you didn't have Parker Meadows. Now you're in the stretch
11:39
Speaker 3: run of the season, You're heading into it with a
11:41
Speaker 3: guy who roams the outfield with a lot of grace,
11:44
Speaker 3: covers a lot of ground, can make some highlight grabs,
11:47
Speaker 3: can rob some homers like he can change a game
11:50
Speaker 3: with his defense in center field, regardless of whether he's
11:53
Speaker 3: feeling good at the plate that day.
11:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I couldn't agree more.
11:58
Speaker 1: It's a per is a guy that when you you know,
12:02
Speaker 1: just watching the TV copy, you know, you see that
12:05
Speaker 1: it's going somewhere in the gap or just even straightaway center,
12:08
Speaker 1: and you can kind of tell within two steps whether
12:11
Speaker 1: Parker is like he's got like he's like he's going
12:14
Speaker 1: to get to this ball, and a lot of times
12:16
Speaker 1: he gets to it with like with these like he
12:19
Speaker 1: ends up camping underneath it. And that's any direction. I
12:22
Speaker 1: think that's probably the underrated part of his defense, Cody,
12:25
Speaker 1: is that he tends to it's sorry, trying to do
12:29
Speaker 1: multiple things here. He he gets there from old direction.
12:32
Speaker 1: It's not just lateral, it's not just front and back.
12:34
Speaker 1: He can do it all. And and I like that
12:37
Speaker 1: you brought up the center field thing because that brings
12:39
Speaker 1: us to our another metric, if you would, about Parker
12:44
Speaker 1: Meadow's value, and that is what he does for others,
12:47
Speaker 1: specifically in this case Wentzel Perez, and that is our
12:52
Speaker 1: pick of the Week presented by DraftKings. Winsel Perez is
12:57
Speaker 1: a guy that is kind of been thrust into the
13:00
Speaker 1: center field role, uh with with Parker being out and
13:03
Speaker 1: you know, spending time with Hobby or whatever.
13:05
Speaker 2: Did you know that Wentzel is actually played.
13:08
Speaker 1: He's actually played like twenty pulling up right now, twenty
13:11
Speaker 1: something games in center field, which was a little higher
13:15
Speaker 1: given how much we talk about Hobby Baya is in
13:18
Speaker 1: center field, Like that was actually higher than I anticipated.
13:23
Speaker 1: But Wentzel Perez in centerfield is a minus one out's
13:28
Speaker 1: above average, all right, So like you can obviously you
13:31
Speaker 1: can live with that when you're the third fourth string centerfielder.
13:35
Speaker 2: You know, depending on how you look at it.
13:36
Speaker 1: In right field, he's two outs above average. Uh so
13:41
Speaker 1: that's obviously a substantial difference. And then Wentzel also excels.
13:47
Speaker 1: I mean, he's excelling at the plate period, but when
13:49
Speaker 1: he starts in right field, he has eight thirty eight
13:51
Speaker 1: ops as compared to a very respectable seven to fifty
13:55
Speaker 1: eight ops when he starts in the center. So Parker
13:58
Speaker 1: Medal is in the lineup, allows Wentzel to play his
14:01
Speaker 1: better defensive position and statistically speaking, his higher offensive output position.
14:09
Speaker 1: So that's another kind of illustration of Parker Meto's value
14:12
Speaker 1: in my opinion, and that's why I have Wenzel Perez
14:16
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15:17
Speaker 1: Another another aspect, Cody, I wanted to get in real
15:20
Speaker 1: quick quick that I forgot to mention earlier. The Tigers,
15:23
Speaker 1: with you know, with eighty four wins, have already exceeded
15:27
Speaker 1: their earliest win total of the season. I was able
15:31
Speaker 1: I put this bed in in before Christmas, Like, that's
15:35
Speaker 1: how long ago I've been sitting on this at a
15:37
Speaker 1: three and a half and and and that cash today.
15:40
Speaker 1: So on September tenth, they were able to surpass their wintel.
15:45
Speaker 1: So that's just another like illustration of kind of what
15:50
Speaker 1: we're seeing with all the all the stuff that that
15:53
Speaker 1: we've experienced in the second half, like a lot has
15:56
Speaker 1: gone right, and based on what we saw week in
16:00
Speaker 1: the Bronx, a lot of a lot of the familiar
16:03
Speaker 1: things going right is as reassuring as just getting the win.
16:06
Speaker 1: Never never in Yankee Stadium history, either one had the
16:09
Speaker 1: Yankees lost back to back games by ten runs or.
16:12
Speaker 3: More, which is amazing. Yankees played baseball for a long time.
16:17
Speaker 3: I amazed that that's never happened. Real quick, that's that
16:21
Speaker 3: you mentioned about Winstle's offensive output being so much better
16:24
Speaker 3: in right field. I just want to address it because
16:26
Speaker 3: that doesn't seem to make any sense to me. I'm
16:28
Speaker 3: going to assume that's a result of a weird sample.
16:32
Speaker 3: I wonder I haven't looked into this. Has he been
16:35
Speaker 3: in right a little more on days there's a lefty
16:38
Speaker 3: starter because Hobby's played more center. Could that be a thing?
16:43
Speaker 3: And he's been so good from the right side of
16:45
Speaker 3: the plate this year? Is there any correlation there? I
16:49
Speaker 3: don't know.
16:49
Speaker 1: It's hard to dive into that that nitty gritty, but
16:53
Speaker 1: I will say that it's obviously a lot more games
16:56
Speaker 1: in right field, sixty two games compared to twenty four
16:59
Speaker 1: in center. Uh, they're at his average is about the same.
17:03
Speaker 1: It's two seventy two seventy one for the two of them.
17:05
Speaker 1: It's the on base and the power that that is
17:08
Speaker 1: the difference, a slug of nearly five hundred when he's
17:11
Speaker 1: in right field compared to compared to four forty six
17:17
Speaker 1: when he's in center.
17:18
Speaker 2: So is this correlationships?
17:20
Speaker 3: I had to guess that's probably a complete coincidence. But
17:24
Speaker 3: that's an interesting stat Nonetheless, I was not aware of it.
17:27
Speaker 1: It also kind of speaks to just how freaking good
17:30
Speaker 1: he like we say it all the time, man, Like,
17:33
Speaker 1: like these conversations that we have about Parker Meadows like that,
17:39
Speaker 1: like the twenty twenty six version, perhaps like those conversations
17:44
Speaker 1: could be had about Winzel. You see what I'm saying,
17:46
Speaker 1: because like he like he is one of their more
17:49
Speaker 1: reliable offense I would almost stay consistent with what he
17:52
Speaker 1: does offensive players.
17:55
Speaker 2: So and you throwing the versus.
17:57
Speaker 3: They're in the hell out of me. He's been too
17:59
Speaker 3: he's been too good. It's where they're going to rely
18:02
Speaker 3: on him too much next year. We'll talk about this
18:07
Speaker 3: all winter. But that's a little bit of a fear
18:10
Speaker 3: of mine, an you know.
18:17
Speaker 1: And and and uh, speaking of things that may or
18:20
Speaker 1: may not be a big deal. If you're if you're
18:22
Speaker 1: one of the people that loves Lefty on Lefty home
18:24
Speaker 1: runs a couple of a couple of pieces of evidence
18:28
Speaker 1: this week, I don't know if that's going to change
18:29
Speaker 1: the equation at all. Oh man, so uh but at
18:37
Speaker 1: least again, I know I mentioned it already, but I
18:39
Speaker 1: wanted to kind of circle back to it. Like if
18:42
Speaker 1: you're gonna play like big games in October, it's important
18:47
Speaker 1: to be familiar with those like type of environments. Now,
18:50
Speaker 1: this is a team obviously that went on the road
18:52
Speaker 1: to Houston last year.
18:53
Speaker 2: That was tough.
18:54
Speaker 1: We were both there, and then Cleveland was obviously a
18:57
Speaker 1: rough environment as well. But if you're gonna be playing
19:01
Speaker 1: a Yankee stadium, you can't be intimidated by by Yankee Stadium.
19:04
Speaker 1: I believe is the first time the Tigers have won
19:05
Speaker 1: a series in Yankee Stadium since like what two thousand,
19:08
Speaker 1: It's been a while, so like to have myyes in flarity.
19:12
Speaker 1: Flarity shouldn't be intimidated by anything. He's seen a lot.
19:15
Speaker 1: But it's nice to see Parker Metals in Riley Green
19:18
Speaker 1: and carry Carpenter and Colt Keith like take advantage of
19:20
Speaker 1: the porch. You see what I'm saying. And then and
19:23
Speaker 1: then also like I know, I'm like re reiterating things,
19:26
Speaker 1: but I just want to emphasize them because I do
19:28
Speaker 1: think they're important. Like watching a game at Yankee Stadium,
19:33
Speaker 1: you feel how small it is, even though it's a
19:36
Speaker 1: big stage, but you feel how small it is.
19:38
Speaker 2: Right, So, still doing the things.
19:42
Speaker 1: That the Tigers, like we would say, kind of need
19:45
Speaker 1: to do in order to like get the best version
19:48
Speaker 1: of themselves. The extra bases and all that stuff in
19:50
Speaker 1: a more confined environment.
19:53
Speaker 2: That was extra encouraging as well.
19:55
Speaker 1: And by the way, this is without Zach McKinstry, who.
20:00
Speaker 2: I guess should be Okay, don't want Specley.
20:02
Speaker 3: Obviously good to go, but like I he's good to go.
20:07
Speaker 1: I would I would have wagered that we would have
20:09
Speaker 1: thought to ten plus. Uh, scoring outputs would have been
20:13
Speaker 1: part like Zach McKinstry would have been heavily part of
20:16
Speaker 1: that equate.
20:17
Speaker 3: Like I like that the Tigers hadn't won a series
20:22
Speaker 3: in Yankee Stadium since twenty and eleven. No against is
20:28
Speaker 3: this against the Yankees as a whole, their first series
20:32
Speaker 3: win versus New York since twenty eleven, their longest drought
20:36
Speaker 3: against ale FO That's why.
20:40
Speaker 2: That is nuts. That's uh, that's my senior year of
20:43
Speaker 2: high school. Like that's that's that's.
20:47
Speaker 1: Being graduating man that long that that that is wild.
20:53
Speaker 1: And and also got to get a lot of guys
20:57
Speaker 1: some good work. So I mean, I'm just I'm just
20:59
Speaker 1: in couraged by so so much in this. And then
21:02
Speaker 1: also like you got a little help from Toronto, so
21:05
Speaker 1: you know, even though you lost today, did gain ground
21:07
Speaker 1: on Houston for that pivotal number two series and in
21:11
Speaker 1: Cleveland and Kansas City kind of duking it out for
21:14
Speaker 1: the right to be second place as of now. Uh So,
21:16
Speaker 1: if I if I were to guess, I believe the
21:18
Speaker 1: magic number is still eight, I didn't. I didn't double
21:22
Speaker 1: double check that. But yeah, I mean it's this version
21:26
Speaker 1: of the team that we saw. I mean, I guess
21:29
Speaker 1: we're discounting Thursday's game a little bit too much. But
21:32
Speaker 1: this version that we saw this week is is as encouraging,
21:35
Speaker 1: again given the stakes, given the Yankees, given it's on
21:38
Speaker 1: the road, given the history, like all that stuff, very
21:42
Speaker 1: very encouraging.
21:43
Speaker 3: Which you did Tuesday and Wednesday. Just just do that
21:47
Speaker 3: every time. It's easy, right doing that'll be right?
21:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, Jack?
21:51
Speaker 1: If you just like you just do that every time,
21:54
Speaker 1: we wouldn't be having many of these these discussions. Uh,
21:59
Speaker 1: all right, we are going to take a quick break
22:01
Speaker 1: and then we are going to talk about the element
22:04
Speaker 1: of the team that was in the news this week
22:07
Speaker 1: that had to do with off the field matters.
22:09
Speaker 2: So first a word from our sponsors.
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Speaker 3: I think that's true.
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23:14
Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, just a little bit of
23:16
Speaker 1: in the weed stuff. The Athletic dropped the story about
23:21
Speaker 1: the Tigers culture in the front office, and we had
23:25
Speaker 1: done a podcast since then, but we had already scheduled
23:28
Speaker 1: a talk with Roger Castillo Tiger's minor league report. And
23:31
Speaker 1: by the way, if you haven't gone and watch or
23:32
Speaker 1: listened to that, it was a lot of fun. Roger's
23:35
Speaker 1: a one of one kind of guy and he was great.
23:37
Speaker 1: So I would encourage everyone to go to go watch
23:40
Speaker 1: or listen to that. But that so we had not
23:42
Speaker 1: addressed this yet, Cody, I'll read the headline. I'll encourage
23:46
Speaker 1: everybody to go read the story. But four vps others
23:49
Speaker 1: affiliated with the Tigers accused of misconduct toward women, multiple
23:54
Speaker 1: bylines on there by. Your colleagues at the Athletic and
23:58
Speaker 1: the Tigers also also had a response to this as well.
24:04
Speaker 1: So I mean I was just I would just say, Cody,
24:08
Speaker 1: kind of take this and and whatever rightever direction you
24:11
Speaker 1: would like.
24:15
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, this is the elephant in the room.
24:18
Speaker 3: It was great reporting by my colleagues Britt Jeroli and Alexandreev.
24:24
Speaker 3: It's a little bit hard to talk about, but I
24:26
Speaker 3: want to at least address some of this stuff because
24:29
Speaker 3: I think it's important. Again, like here and just said
24:31
Speaker 3: you should read the story if you haven't. Talks about misconduct,
24:36
Speaker 3: mistreatment of women, and generally a suboptimal culture within the
24:44
Speaker 3: Tigers and Elich Sports Entertainment. This is not really the
24:47
Speaker 3: baseball stuff. This is the front office. And by front office,
24:50
Speaker 3: I mean like business side ticket sales. A lot of
24:53
Speaker 3: this is a big organization and this was not ultimately
24:56
Speaker 3: my story, but I cannot say I'm surprised heard whispers
25:03
Speaker 3: and more than whispers about this stuff for years. It's
25:08
Speaker 3: and so you guys can go read the story. I'm
25:11
Speaker 3: not going to comment on what's in there what's not
25:14
Speaker 3: some of it, you know, some of the stuff like
25:15
Speaker 3: kreigman Roe, some of the stuff that the Tigers probably
25:18
Speaker 3: didn't want out there. The name Cameron Maven's in that story.
25:22
Speaker 3: There are some other people, you know who you wouldn't
25:24
Speaker 3: have heard of, who did some bad things. Some of
25:29
Speaker 3: those people were fired appropriately as soon as the Tigers
25:34
Speaker 3: find out some It took the athletic reporting this. There
25:39
Speaker 3: was a gentleman by the name of Pete Soto who
25:45
Speaker 3: worked on scoreboard operations and other things of that nature,
25:48
Speaker 3: who HR investigated. He was not fired. The athletic brought
25:52
Speaker 3: more allegations to the tigers attention, and then he parted
25:55
Speaker 3: ways with the organization. So that's the way of saying
26:00
Speaker 3: article is what it is. I was disheartened by the
26:03
Speaker 3: teams the organization's response to the article. The day after
26:07
Speaker 3: it ran, Ryan Gustafson, the CEO of Village Sports Entertainment,
26:11
Speaker 3: held meetings with some employees. From what I've heard from
26:15
Speaker 3: people who were in some of the those meetings, a
26:19
Speaker 3: lot of employees left there not feeling great. They did
26:21
Speaker 3: not feel like there was a great sense of accountability.
26:24
Speaker 3: The Tigers had a call with local media to I
26:29
Speaker 3: was not invited on that call. Interesting someone sent me
26:33
Speaker 3: the link, so I hopped on there. That's what happened,
26:36
Speaker 3: and it seemed like they didn't really want some of
26:38
Speaker 3: these the things Ryan Gusson was saying on this call
26:40
Speaker 3: out there, but it was not in my opinion, broker
26:44
Speaker 3: well in terms of, you know, if this was on
26:48
Speaker 3: the record, if this was off the record. I got
26:51
Speaker 3: on that call and it seemed to begin sincere I
26:55
Speaker 3: was talking about appreciating the women that came forward for
26:58
Speaker 3: the story. I was like, okay, this, you know, this
27:00
Speaker 3: seems like it's going in a good direction, and it
27:02
Speaker 3: kind of just descended into calling this story a gross
27:08
Speaker 3: mischaracterization of the Tigers culture, saying things weren't framed accurately,
27:12
Speaker 3: including the fact that Tigers don't have a maternity leave
27:15
Speaker 3: policy twenty other twenty seven other teams do. Gusten said,
27:19
Speaker 3: it's been in the works, but it has not been
27:21
Speaker 3: communicated to employees yet, So I personally did not believe
27:25
Speaker 3: the article mischaracterized that at all. Said the article was
27:30
Speaker 3: written with some intent. So that seemed like a very
27:34
Speaker 3: strange way to me to handle things from like a
27:37
Speaker 3: communications standpoint, to talk to other media and question the
27:44
Speaker 3: reporting of another entity. That was weird. I've not encountered
27:48
Speaker 3: that before. I've been in some crisis communications situations, especially
27:52
Speaker 3: in my days covering college football. I ain't seen anything
27:55
Speaker 3: like that. And then the meetings with employees, that's that's
27:58
Speaker 3: probably an appropriate thing to do, right, communicate to your
28:01
Speaker 3: employees on a more personal level. Maybe some people felt
28:06
Speaker 3: it went well. I heard, and my colleagues Bred and
28:09
Speaker 3: Alex also heard from others who didn't feel it went well.
28:12
Speaker 3: Thought it was a lot of the same, and there
28:17
Speaker 3: was kind of some weird you know, saying you appreciate
28:19
Speaker 3: the woman who came forward and then kind of saying
28:23
Speaker 3: the article was a mischaracterization. And there's no cultural problem,
28:27
Speaker 3: but then also saying this can be a catalyst for change.
28:30
Speaker 3: So it seemed like the club, the organization Ryan Gustavsen
28:33
Speaker 3: did not really pick a lane in their response, which
28:37
Speaker 3: to me felt like not a great level of accountability,
28:44
Speaker 3: Like it felt like like kind of admitting some things
28:48
Speaker 3: and also making excuses for others. I think a lot
28:51
Speaker 3: of people learn this lesson in first grade. Here and
28:53
Speaker 3: if you take someone's pencil and you get caught, you
28:57
Speaker 3: give the pencil back, you apologize sincerely, ye don't do
29:01
Speaker 3: it again. You do your best to move forward. It
29:03
Speaker 3: seems like the Tigers kind of made this a multi
29:05
Speaker 3: day story. There was a follow up story containing more
29:08
Speaker 3: details with myself, Britt and Alex. I don't know, I'll
29:14
Speaker 3: probably leave it.
29:15
Speaker 2: At that, but.
29:20
Speaker 3: The response to me was just as troubling as some
29:23
Speaker 3: of the allegations that came forward, and I think in
29:25
Speaker 3: a way explains how a culture can get to a
29:28
Speaker 3: place like this if there's not a better accountability being taken.
29:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think the way that I would summarize my feelings,
29:38
Speaker 1: and again I want to stress to everybody please go
29:40
Speaker 1: read the story because it goes into the various arms
29:44
Speaker 1: of the business, like Cody described, And there's a lot
29:47
Speaker 1: of layers to like how we got here as a collective,
29:52
Speaker 1: and I think it's important to like, you know.
29:55
Speaker 2: Realize all that. I think the.
30:00
Speaker 1: Should be on getting it right and less about being right.
30:05
Speaker 2: Right.
30:06
Speaker 3: That's such a great that's such a great thing.
30:08
Speaker 5: Like I like it.
30:10
Speaker 1: It's bad enough that these things happened, and these things
30:12
Speaker 1: happen to these women and these people.
30:14
Speaker 2: That's bad enough.
30:15
Speaker 1: But what what you want to see is somebody focused
30:19
Speaker 1: on getting it right, an organization focused on getting it right,
30:22
Speaker 1: so that that that's how I would, uh, that's how
30:25
Speaker 1: I would stress my feelings on the situation is get
30:28
Speaker 1: it right, less focused about being right.
30:31
Speaker 2: So uh.
30:32
Speaker 1: And obviously all those the accusations, the actions, they are
30:35
Speaker 1: unacceptable and should be you know, measures should be taken
30:39
Speaker 1: to hold those accountable. So all right, as we sometimes
30:45
Speaker 1: have to do here, Cody, we have to kind of
30:46
Speaker 1: make like a less an ideal transition. Looking forward to
30:50
Speaker 1: the Tigers upcoming games, they have a series at Miami
30:56
Speaker 1: Schoogle Day on Friday, so that is exciting, and then
30:58
Speaker 1: off day Monday, and and then the last homestand I mean,
31:02
Speaker 1: like it's kind of crazy to say, but it's like
31:05
Speaker 1: the last home stand of the regular season is coming up,
31:09
Speaker 1: three games with the Guardians, three with the Braves, and
31:11
Speaker 1: then three more with the Guardians on the road, three
31:14
Speaker 1: more with the Guardians and three at Boston. So as I,
31:18
Speaker 1: as I laid out, the magic number should be about eight.
31:21
Speaker 1: So it's entirely possible that next week, next homestand the
31:26
Speaker 1: Tigers will clinch their first division championship since since you
31:31
Speaker 1: were and I we're spending Thursday nights not talking on
31:35
Speaker 1: Zoom but doing other social social events than twenty fourteen,
31:40
Speaker 1: so a long time. It feels longer and longer each year,
31:45
Speaker 1: I can tell you that much.
31:47
Speaker 2: But a lot of things.
31:48
Speaker 1: You're gonna be in Miami for this. You'll obviously be
31:51
Speaker 1: uh you know, be there for the homestand and then
31:53
Speaker 1: the last road. So it's here, man, end of the season.
31:59
Speaker 1: It is is here and like and it's only good
32:02
Speaker 1: and it's only gonna ramp up from here.
32:04
Speaker 2: So I'm excited.
32:04
Speaker 1: I'm excited to watch and see how it happens. See
32:07
Speaker 1: if Casey Miz and Jack flaherty can follow up on
32:10
Speaker 1: on how they played in New York, if the team
32:13
Speaker 1: can kind of keep as much of like the core
32:15
Speaker 1: elements that we saw in New York lesser on Thursday.
32:19
Speaker 1: But you know, still there. Uh, this is this is
32:23
Speaker 1: what it's all about. Postseason push, division championship, playoff seedings.
32:27
Speaker 1: The American League picture is shifting. So don't don't make
32:30
Speaker 1: any travel plans about for the postseason yet because if
32:33
Speaker 1: it is real, it is shifting a lot. Man, It's
32:36
Speaker 1: an exciting, exciting stretch of the season.
32:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been, it's been. It feels like this year
32:42
Speaker 3: has gone by so fast. This is the best year
32:45
Speaker 3: of Tigers baseball in a long long time. It's also
32:48
Speaker 3: been I think one of them my more stressful years
32:52
Speaker 3: on the beat, maybe because the expectations have been heightened
32:55
Speaker 3: with the team. Everything's been under a little more scrutiny.
32:58
Speaker 3: Like we just talked about, there's been off the field
33:00
Speaker 3: stuff that's kind of hung in the back drop somewhat
33:03
Speaker 3: throughout the year. I think in my career, I'm going
33:07
Speaker 3: to look back on this as a memorable season. However
33:10
Speaker 3: it ends up. You gotta play each game, right, they
33:15
Speaker 3: all count. But I'm ready for the playoffs, ready.
33:18
Speaker 2: For the playoffs.
33:19
Speaker 1: And I'll say this, it does feel like it's been like, uh,
33:23
Speaker 1: a whirlwind and uh and gone by really quickly. But
33:26
Speaker 1: at the same time, it's like when you mentioned Ryan
33:28
Speaker 1: Kreidler as the opening day center fielder, that did feel
33:35
Speaker 1: like that did feel like a lifetime ago. Not gonna
33:37
Speaker 1: lie that felt that felt like that felt like a
33:40
Speaker 1: lifetime ago. All Right, you guys can follow us on
33:44
Speaker 1: x froll me known, Twitter, at co you Stavenhagen, I
33:45
Speaker 1: am at Karen Oderscore s decly pot page at Tiger
33:48
Speaker 1: Territory Underscore Tiger Territory shop dot com for your Tiger
33:51
Speaker 1: Territory merch goes great with postseason attire, just saying uh, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, Instagram.
33:57
Speaker 2: You guys know what to do.
33:58
Speaker 1: We appreciate all of you, so for Cody, Save and Hagen,
34:02
Speaker 1: I'm Keersckley. Everybody, have a great day.