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Detroit Tigers Stars Show Out Amid Blackout · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:08
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm Kieren
0:11
Speaker 1: Seckley with me as always as a man who knows
0:13
Speaker 1: scene isn't believing believing the scene, he is. Cody Stavenaggan, how.
0:18
Speaker 2: You doing doing good? Well? I did see the game
0:21
Speaker 2: today in Sarasota. Not many other people did. No TV,
0:27
Speaker 2: no radio, no stat cast. You could sort of follow
0:31
Speaker 2: the play by play. It had some pitches on there.
0:34
Speaker 2: I don't think it had all the pitches, so it
0:37
Speaker 2: was kind of like going back in time to watch
0:39
Speaker 2: the Tigers. And it's a little bit unfortunate because guess
0:41
Speaker 2: who's on the mound. Jackson job probably the main attraction
0:45
Speaker 2: of spring training. First career spring training start. I believe, yes,
0:50
Speaker 2: you know, through the infamous ninth inning last year that
0:53
Speaker 2: was amazing. Job wasn't as good as he wasn't that
0:56
Speaker 2: ninth inning last year? He wasn't. I didn't think it
1:00
Speaker 2: sharp as he was in the live bullpen that we
1:03
Speaker 2: all raved about last week. He was Okay. The stuff
1:07
Speaker 2: is obviously there. The heater was sitting ninety eight ninety
1:10
Speaker 2: nine miles an hour, but a couple instances that popped
1:14
Speaker 2: up he got I believe it was Ryan O'Hearn was
1:17
Speaker 2: it was Tyler O'Neal. He was down, you know, got
1:22
Speaker 2: him down oh two, and I was like, all right,
1:24
Speaker 2: here we go. You have some curveball action and through
1:29
Speaker 2: one that was just kind of non competitive. Missed spot.
1:32
Speaker 2: I think, one fastball high. The next thing, you know
1:34
Speaker 2: is three to two. Next thing, you know, he walked,
1:37
Speaker 2: and then as Jackson drove himself said like you walt, guys,
1:41
Speaker 2: guys tend to score. Threw the fastball to Heston Kurstad,
1:46
Speaker 2: fellow Randall High School alum, and Heston Heston killed it
1:50
Speaker 2: opposite field homer, so two runs scored off job in
1:54
Speaker 2: that inning. I think the main thing everyone was excited
1:58
Speaker 2: to see was the curveball he did get on swing
2:00
Speaker 2: and miss on it. You say he threw five or six,
2:03
Speaker 2: which again this is without stat cast. It was a
2:07
Speaker 2: little bit different, right, You're like, oh, you have to
2:09
Speaker 2: actually really look to see what's happening. I would have
2:12
Speaker 2: guessed he only threw two or three, and that's because
2:14
Speaker 2: he threw two or three more that really just were
2:17
Speaker 2: not competitive. I'm not sure they even had the shape
2:19
Speaker 2: he wanted. So as I did mention last time he
2:22
Speaker 2: talked about Jackson job and I have to see this
2:25
Speaker 2: pitch consistently be as good as it can be before
2:28
Speaker 2: we really know. One of the big tests was like
2:30
Speaker 2: can he gets swing and miss and two strike counts,
2:34
Speaker 2: And much like Casey Miies the other day, he didn't
2:36
Speaker 2: actually do that when that was maybe the biggest thing
2:39
Speaker 2: for him to check off. So going pains, this is
2:41
Speaker 2: what spring training is for. I don't think this really
2:44
Speaker 2: alters where he should stand in the rotation competition or
2:48
Speaker 2: anything like that. The stuff is still premium, but he's
2:52
Speaker 2: got room to improve.
2:54
Speaker 1: So the whole joke thing in this today, like it
2:59
Speaker 1: really did like take me back because Cody, you and
3:02
Speaker 1: I were like at that perfect age where this is
3:04
Speaker 1: really how we had to follow the game or wait
3:08
Speaker 1: until the next day and read the newspaper. Remember that,
3:10
Speaker 1: So like this, especially as an out of market fan
3:14
Speaker 1: like myself, like there was I was.
3:15
Speaker 2: I wasn't on CBS every night, baby.
3:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, or Cubs on WGN, so you know, if you
3:22
Speaker 1: weren't one of those teams, you were kind of screwed.
3:24
Speaker 1: So it did kind of bring me back. I did
3:27
Speaker 1: like the little graphic in there that said, like not
3:29
Speaker 1: all stats are available on the MLB game day or whatever.
3:34
Speaker 1: It did kind of make me laugh.
3:35
Speaker 2: So it was just like, why it's twenty twenty five,
3:38
Speaker 2: Why is a spring training park not equipped with this technology?
3:41
Speaker 2: It's kind of ridiculous.
3:42
Speaker 1: Yes, well there you go. The owners are already playing
3:46
Speaker 1: the seeds for the collective. We're so poor. We can't
3:49
Speaker 1: new owners.
3:50
Speaker 2: Now they're supposed to be rich. Not only did they
3:52
Speaker 2: not really spin to this offseason, their spring training park
3:55
Speaker 2: doesn't even have proper technology. It's kind of embarrassing. Come on,
3:57
Speaker 2: come on, Baltimore, but we're here.
4:01
Speaker 1: It's an embarrassment for Major League Baseball that you had
4:03
Speaker 1: this heavy Leyden. Seriously, these heavy Layden lineups for both teams,
4:07
Speaker 1: two playoff teams last year, by the way, and you're
4:10
Speaker 1: like your top pitching prospect in baseball and it almost
4:15
Speaker 1: might as well not existed in terms of the public guy.
4:17
Speaker 1: So anyway, that goes without saying, but we had to
4:19
Speaker 1: say it anyway too. So the job thing, because I
4:23
Speaker 1: couldn't watch, I couldn't listen, I couldn't hear Dan Dickerson
4:26
Speaker 1: like describe you know, every fine little details as he
4:30
Speaker 1: is prone to do, as he is great at. I
4:32
Speaker 1: kind of had to rely on a the numbers and
4:35
Speaker 1: then be like what people were saying so him and
4:38
Speaker 1: like AJ after the game and his stat line is
4:44
Speaker 1: as unremarkable as it is short, right, it's two innings.
4:48
Speaker 1: He gave up you know, his era, he's gonna take
4:50
Speaker 1: a hit from that. And he gave the two run,
4:53
Speaker 1: he had one strikeout, like he had the walk, like
4:55
Speaker 1: he said, yes that was to an eel, by the way,
4:57
Speaker 1: So you kind of look at it and you're like,
5:00
Speaker 1: all right, this is You're probably not gonna get a
5:02
Speaker 1: lot of boasting from the team. But then like AJ
5:06
Speaker 1: seemed glowing too strong a word, but he seemed like
5:09
Speaker 1: pretty positive. Job seemed pretty like resolute to like you
5:14
Speaker 1: know what went into that outing and then you know,
5:17
Speaker 1: like the stuff that you described and the details of that,
5:20
Speaker 1: so it almost kind of makes you have to you
5:23
Speaker 1: can't like you have to read beyond the box score.
5:26
Speaker 1: You can't look beyond the box score because he didn't
5:27
Speaker 1: watch the game, but you had to read beyond the
5:29
Speaker 1: box score. It seemed to me that people were pretty
5:32
Speaker 1: like in the organization we're pretty we're more positive than
5:37
Speaker 1: just if you just looked at the play by play
5:39
Speaker 1: might dictate, and that might speak volumes about how this
5:42
Speaker 1: organization is viewing him immediately, if that makes sense.
5:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean AJ seemed to like that Job knows
5:50
Speaker 2: what he needs to work on. This is a guy
5:52
Speaker 2: who is really young, has minimal major league experience, but knows,
5:58
Speaker 2: you know, exactly got too didn't strike the guy out
6:01
Speaker 2: left of fastball middle. Those are really the two blemishes overall.
6:04
Speaker 2: Probably didn't spot the secondary stuff as good as he
6:07
Speaker 2: would have liked, and Job is able to diagnose that
6:12
Speaker 2: and assess it and like know what he needs to
6:15
Speaker 2: do to improve. He admitted maybe he was like almost
6:18
Speaker 2: trying too hard to get Chase in that O two count,
6:21
Speaker 2: So you know, just kind of talking about that, AJ
6:24
Speaker 2: was like, yeah, I mean he sets a very high
6:26
Speaker 2: bar for himself. That's a good thing. He like, we're
6:30
Speaker 2: continuing to understand that Jackson Job knows pitching and has
6:34
Speaker 2: come He's learned a lot about pitching in a very
6:37
Speaker 2: short amount of time. Remember this guy was not a
6:40
Speaker 2: starting pitcher until like his senior year of high school,
6:44
Speaker 2: so he's come along quickly. He knows what's up. That's
6:47
Speaker 2: that's the entire point of all this. That is why
6:50
Speaker 2: we have way too many spring training games as that
6:53
Speaker 2: so young players can make mistakes and learn for them
6:56
Speaker 2: and older players can ramp themselves up into shape and
7:00
Speaker 2: all that stuff. That's not necessarily that fun to talk about.
7:03
Speaker 2: But AJ keeps kind of mentioning that we shouldn't overreact
7:07
Speaker 2: to mistakes. You want to get those mistakes out of
7:09
Speaker 2: the way.
7:10
Speaker 1: Now, mistakes, And actually sometimes it goes beyond that is
7:17
Speaker 1: that I think one of the things that I've gotten
7:20
Speaker 1: better at and I hope other people are getting better
7:23
Speaker 1: at it too, is when you watch just from this
7:26
Speaker 1: rebuild alone, if you're at a certain age, this is
7:29
Speaker 1: kind of like, oh, you know, right, and you're watching
7:31
Speaker 1: these young pictures develop some more than others, and you
7:36
Speaker 1: you hear this term a lot swing and miss, And
7:39
Speaker 1: I think the natural inclination of that is, oh, the
7:43
Speaker 1: fastball goes fast, the curve ball has a deep you know,
7:47
Speaker 1: deep drop or whatever, like you know, the slider. It's
7:50
Speaker 1: actually a lot more than that. And I and I
7:52
Speaker 1: think it bears repeating because when we talked about Casey Miz,
7:56
Speaker 1: we talked about his you know, throwing the fast ball
8:00
Speaker 1: to low to set up the split. Right, That's what
8:03
Speaker 1: swing and miss really is. It's not just the house.
8:07
Speaker 1: What's the drop on the split?
8:08
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
8:09
Speaker 1: Like, there's a pitch ability aspect to swing and miss.
8:12
Speaker 1: It's not just stuff. So I just wanted to say
8:14
Speaker 1: that in case people are trying not to are having
8:17
Speaker 1: trouble connecting the two things when it terms like, well,
8:19
Speaker 1: I hear he has this great curveball. I hear he
8:21
Speaker 1: throws ninety eight. How is he struggling with swing and miss?
8:24
Speaker 1: It's little, It's those kinds of things, its sequences, it's deception.
8:28
Speaker 1: It's like all these kind of things that aren't necessarily
8:31
Speaker 1: like what you create your player at in the road
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Speaker 1: to the show, you know what I mean?
8:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, tunneling. I mean, this is why Jackson drove
8:37
Speaker 2: more or less his ditch, the sweeper that was three
8:39
Speaker 2: thousand plus rpm and was amazing because it came out
8:42
Speaker 2: of his hand and was noticeably slower and noticeably loopier,
8:45
Speaker 2: and a lot of times there's probably a ball to
8:48
Speaker 2: ball pitch, meaning it never looked like a strike, or
8:51
Speaker 2: even if it did, hitters knew that was gonna move.
8:54
Speaker 2: It didn't look anything like his fastball, so he laid it,
8:57
Speaker 2: you know, so they would lay off of it. The
8:59
Speaker 2: curveball theory is gonna come out of that same arm slot.
9:02
Speaker 2: It's not gonna pop, It's gonna look like the fastball
9:05
Speaker 2: until it does that, until it drops. So that is
9:09
Speaker 2: in part pitching. Terrek Scouogble throws strike to ball, sliders,
9:14
Speaker 2: strike to ball, changeups as good as anyone in the
9:17
Speaker 2: league right now. Looks like a strike until the last minute,
9:20
Speaker 2: then that thing moves. Scoobale also throws ball to strikes,
9:24
Speaker 2: sinkers really well, you know, there are ways. That's kind
9:27
Speaker 2: of what it is. And then being able to beat
9:29
Speaker 2: hitters in the strike zone, which is what Jim Leland
9:32
Speaker 2: has famously talked about, and something again scooble does really
9:36
Speaker 2: well that other pitchers don't necessarily replicate. Can you get
9:39
Speaker 2: a fastball by a guy? Can you throw a slider
9:42
Speaker 2: in the strike zone and still get a swing and miss?
9:46
Speaker 2: These are things Jackson jobs learning you to do. These
9:48
Speaker 2: are why, this is why he has continued to tweak
9:51
Speaker 2: his arsenal in search of being able to do those
9:53
Speaker 2: things against higher level hitters.
9:56
Speaker 1: Yeah, very well. But sticking with this game, that probably
10:00
Speaker 1: the most encouraging and best highlight. And there is video
10:05
Speaker 1: of this, it does exist. I can't confirm I have
10:08
Speaker 1: seen the video. Riley Green made his debut major, you know,
10:13
Speaker 1: spring training debut this season and he got a hold
10:17
Speaker 1: of one Cody he got He got a hold of
10:19
Speaker 1: one pretty good there. He ends up two for two,
10:21
Speaker 1: He has a walk, he has the two run home run.
10:24
Speaker 1: And you know, earlier in the day was I was
10:29
Speaker 1: recapping some of the ESPN plus is putting out. I
10:31
Speaker 1: believe it's buster only. Don't put me on that is
10:33
Speaker 1: putting out. Like top ten players in the position. They
10:36
Speaker 1: kind of grouped corner outfielders and Riley Green was an
10:40
Speaker 1: honorable mention. The athletic put together guys under twenty five
10:46
Speaker 1: and Riley Green didn't make the outfield team, but he
10:48
Speaker 1: was a designated hitter. So all that to say that,
10:54
Speaker 1: don't don't your national people, don't don't you forget about
10:57
Speaker 1: Riley Green.
10:58
Speaker 2: Green, Man, I don't underst I don't understand this guy.
11:01
Speaker 2: At a one thirty five WRC plus, number twenty among
11:04
Speaker 2: all hitters qualifying hitters in baseball last year at his age.
11:09
Speaker 2: I think twenty four season, Ryley Green's really good. He
11:13
Speaker 2: played elite level defense, got snubbed from even being a
11:16
Speaker 2: Gold Glob finalist. I don't know what it's going to
11:18
Speaker 2: take to put some respect on Riley Green's name, but
11:22
Speaker 2: if he keeps performing, the accolades will eventually be there.
11:26
Speaker 2: I wrote about Riley Green on the Athletic. You can
11:29
Speaker 2: check out that story. Yes, it does talk about the
11:31
Speaker 2: Chick fil A a little bit, but we're going back
11:33
Speaker 2: in history to a time where Green admitted he had
11:36
Speaker 2: a bad diet, so even even some new context in
11:39
Speaker 2: the Chick fil A discussion the Homer. Look, he got
11:42
Speaker 2: a fastball middle he crushed it. That's what Riley Green
11:45
Speaker 2: is going to do. Talking to aj Hinch after the game,
11:48
Speaker 2: agent kind of mentioned, like Riley's first at bat, he
11:51
Speaker 2: battled Charlie Morton seven pitches, he fouled off at least
11:55
Speaker 2: one really tough to strike pitch, and then he laced
11:58
Speaker 2: a single to the pull side. And it's probably at
12:01
Speaker 2: bats like that that are going to shape the next
12:03
Speaker 2: level for Riley Green. To get the average ten fifteen
12:06
Speaker 2: points higher, to get the one base percentage up, to
12:09
Speaker 2: cut down on the strikeouts to be able to battle
12:12
Speaker 2: in two strike counts, and I think that's where Riley
12:14
Speaker 2: has really matured as a hitter. His pitch selection is
12:19
Speaker 2: much better. He seems to know his swing much better.
12:22
Speaker 2: And if you can stay in at bats like that,
12:26
Speaker 2: I think that is what could make him an MVP caliber.
12:30
Speaker 2: I don't want to say MVP because like you got
12:32
Speaker 2: Bobby Way, you got Aaron Drodge, you got Gunner, But like,
12:34
Speaker 2: this guy could easily receive top five, top six, top
12:38
Speaker 2: seven votes in the MVP race next year if he
12:41
Speaker 2: stays healthy in place to his potential, and maybe eventually
12:45
Speaker 2: the national scene will realize just how good he is
12:48
Speaker 2: at still a very young age.
12:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, sticking with Green for a second,
12:53
Speaker 1: like he's also like if you look at All Star projections,
12:56
Speaker 1: which is obviously meaningless, but like that's name that's left off,
13:01
Speaker 1: you know for the Tigers, everyone's gonna throw School in there,
13:03
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna tell them they're wrong on that. But like,
13:06
Speaker 1: I think Riley Green deserves to be in that category.
13:10
Speaker 1: You're like, no doubt, now I know MVP year, people.
13:12
Speaker 2: Didn't realize how good School was. Now they know.
13:17
Speaker 1: No, they know, Oh, they know and and you know,
13:21
Speaker 1: Riley Green is he's still so young, like this is
13:27
Speaker 1: like there's still a lot to be had for him.
13:30
Speaker 1: And I guess we can just kind of say this
13:32
Speaker 1: right now because we haven't talked about it because there
13:35
Speaker 1: hasn't been anything to talk about really since Winter meetings,
13:38
Speaker 1: where it's like nothing really on the table extension wise
13:40
Speaker 1: right now, so like just we're not really reporting anything,
13:43
Speaker 1: we're just staying of fact that.
13:46
Speaker 2: Uh yeah, I mean I haven't heard anything since Winter meetings.
13:49
Speaker 2: But last I heard, you know, there had not even
13:52
Speaker 2: been like a cursory discussion between the Tigers and Riley
13:56
Speaker 2: Green's representatives about any sort of extension in a way
14:00
Speaker 2: that surprises me, because I mean, if Scott Harris signed
14:03
Speaker 2: Keith pre debut, I just kind of figured out he
14:06
Speaker 2: was reaching to every reaching out to everyone who was
14:08
Speaker 2: halfway good. Hey, what do you guys think, you know,
14:11
Speaker 2: five years ten million signed to you. But I think
14:15
Speaker 2: in the case of Riley Green, as I said before,
14:18
Speaker 2: health is gonna be huge to make the Tigers feel
14:22
Speaker 2: comfortable extending him. But now that he's asserted himself as
14:25
Speaker 2: an all star, Riley Green is probably gonna want a
14:29
Speaker 2: nine figure deal. If he were to sign an extension,
14:32
Speaker 2: he ain't gonna come cheap. If Riley Green can play
14:36
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty games this year, not have an
14:39
Speaker 2: IL stint and be a four plus win player again,
14:43
Speaker 2: I think it'll be time to really.
14:44
Speaker 3: Start having those conversations. And he's not a Scott Boors client,
14:48
Speaker 3: so maybe there's a chance. I don't know, but he
14:51
Speaker 3: needs to stay healthy, I think for the team to
14:53
Speaker 3: feel comfortable committing the years and the dollars.
14:57
Speaker 1: So obviously a big thing. Just in general. I'm not
15:00
Speaker 1: really going to predict his price will go down with time,
15:03
Speaker 1: So just just throwing that out there, all right, little
15:08
Speaker 1: topical news there, Cody that since we last talked, let's
15:14
Speaker 1: let's stick with let's let's go with an old friend.
15:16
Speaker 1: An old friend is back. Andrew Schaffin, as the graphic says,
15:22
Speaker 1: you can see it on our YouTube, is back again
15:26
Speaker 1: for his third stint with the Tigers.
15:29
Speaker 3: Uh.
15:30
Speaker 1: I have been wondering about Shaefin. I have been wondering
15:33
Speaker 1: because it's a classic reliever thing and it's not the
15:36
Speaker 1: first time he's done this where you know you get
15:40
Speaker 1: you gets signed. While camp has already started the fame.
15:44
Speaker 1: I'll always remember. It's like, yeah, I don't really need
15:46
Speaker 1: to talk to Chris Fetter or anything, you know, up
15:49
Speaker 1: and end down a way, like I just I just
15:51
Speaker 1: love that so much. Uh. He he was he is
15:56
Speaker 1: a second jet, second guy to Jack flaherty. If he
16:00
Speaker 1: can actually pitch against guys or I guess he can't
16:03
Speaker 1: pitch against them, but like he can be a part
16:05
Speaker 1: of guys that in trades for him with the Tigers,
16:07
Speaker 1: that's kind of neat there too. So another feather in
16:09
Speaker 1: the sky Harris cap It is a minor league deal
16:13
Speaker 1: technically right, with an invitation of spring training. Obviously, if
16:18
Speaker 1: he gets to the majors, he's due to make two
16:20
Speaker 1: hundred or see me, two point five million dollars. This
16:24
Speaker 1: is all reported. I don't have the sources, so I'm
16:26
Speaker 1: saying it's reported one point five million dollars in incentives.
16:30
Speaker 1: And if he gets traded, which you know it's happened
16:33
Speaker 1: before to him, he has a two hundred and fifty
16:36
Speaker 1: k trade kicker bonus, so he stands to make a
16:42
Speaker 1: decent amount of money, but he has to make the
16:43
Speaker 1: team first. Cody, What's what's what's the read here about him?
16:47
Speaker 1: Coming in at this time that, you know, with it
16:50
Speaker 1: being a minor league deal, aj Hinchtain, you got to
16:52
Speaker 1: earn your spot like everybody else, Like, what can you
16:54
Speaker 1: kind of share with us about, you know, bringing Chafing
16:57
Speaker 1: back at this time to that deal.
16:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, for as much as he wasn't great when he
17:03
Speaker 2: was with the Rangers after the trade last year, I'm
17:05
Speaker 2: surprised he had to settle for a minor league deal.
17:08
Speaker 2: At various points, I think were reports that the Mets
17:10
Speaker 2: were interested, and maybe Andrew Chafin hates the big city
17:13
Speaker 2: so much he settled for a minor league deal. We
17:16
Speaker 2: know he likes the location and it's close to his family.
17:21
Speaker 2: Still surprised, you know that he wasn't able to land elsewhere.
17:24
Speaker 2: But one of those things that again seems to work
17:26
Speaker 2: out pretty well for the Tigers. They reunite with them,
17:29
Speaker 2: but they don't even have to commit to putting him
17:32
Speaker 2: in the major leagues and what is going to be
17:35
Speaker 2: a crowded bullpen. Scott Harris seems to be leaning in
17:38
Speaker 2: to the idea that you can never have enough pitching
17:42
Speaker 2: because now I'm like, man, I mean, I mean, Chaffin's
17:44
Speaker 2: pretty good, He's pretty proven. He does have the capability
17:48
Speaker 2: to miss more bats than most of your guys in
17:50
Speaker 2: the pin, But is he gonna make the team? Are
17:53
Speaker 2: you really going to put him on there over Sean
17:55
Speaker 2: Gunther or Brant Herder. Herder, for what it's worth, hasn't
17:59
Speaker 2: looked great in his first two spring outings. His mechanics
18:02
Speaker 2: look a little after me. I'm no pitching coach, but
18:05
Speaker 2: it seems like he's just kind of crossfiring a little bit,
18:08
Speaker 2: and the command has not been as precise as you
18:10
Speaker 2: would expect of him. But in theory, the Tigers love
18:13
Speaker 2: hurt Her and they love Gunther, and I don't think
18:16
Speaker 2: they're gonna and they obviously have Holton, so I don't
18:18
Speaker 2: think they're gonna carry four lefties in the bullpen. The
18:21
Speaker 2: fact that this is a minor league deal and he's
18:24
Speaker 2: gonna come to camp theoretically a little bit behind, makes
18:27
Speaker 2: me think they could start him in Toledo, and if
18:30
Speaker 2: one of these other guys underperforms or gets injured, he's
18:34
Speaker 2: the next man up, and then him and my guy,
18:37
Speaker 2: Chase Lee are gonna have to battle for a camp site,
18:40
Speaker 2: maybe in this little campground they have between Detroit and
18:43
Speaker 2: Leda where maybe it's big enough they can live together
18:46
Speaker 2: in harmony. Chasing me and Andrew Chaffin. That seems like
18:49
Speaker 2: a weird Camper sitcom waiting to happen.
18:53
Speaker 1: Well, nobody's happier than Jason Foley. I'm sure to have
18:56
Speaker 1: his boy back, so you know, the the bros are reunited.
19:02
Speaker 1: It should be noted like Shaven is not just a
19:05
Speaker 1: lefty specialist. I think it's just like Bears repeating like
19:09
Speaker 1: he had reverse splits last year for his care for
19:12
Speaker 1: his career. Left He's hit two thirty one off him
19:16
Speaker 1: and Righty's hit two twenty nine. So it's not just
19:20
Speaker 1: it's not just like bringing them in for the lefty limes.
19:22
Speaker 1: I just wanted to put that out there, so it
19:26
Speaker 1: is worth noting, all right. Another thing worth noting Cody
19:34
Speaker 1: a situation that I guess is gonna be okay, but
19:39
Speaker 1: at the same time, I don't necessarily know if I
19:41
Speaker 1: feel great about it at this moment right now, And
19:44
Speaker 1: that is Parker Meadows, Friend of the podcast, By the way,
19:47
Speaker 1: friend of the podcast, Parker Meadows. One of the things
19:52
Speaker 1: that you you talk about Riley staying healthy, you really,
19:56
Speaker 1: really really want Parker Meadows to stay healthy too, for
19:59
Speaker 1: like obvious reasons, but not the least of which you
20:02
Speaker 1: just want to see what he can do over the
20:03
Speaker 1: course of a season in the major leagues. And he
20:05
Speaker 1: has what is officially being deemed right arm inflammation? Am
20:09
Speaker 1: I correct on that right upper arm and right upper
20:13
Speaker 1: arm inflammation and going through tests and we'll eventually hopefully
20:18
Speaker 1: presume resume baseball activities.
20:20
Speaker 2: Blah blah, blah blah.
20:21
Speaker 1: This had been out there since Sunday that you know
20:24
Speaker 1: something had been up, I guess, and then we hadn't
20:29
Speaker 1: really heard a whole lot, so we didn't want to
20:30
Speaker 1: talk about it here. But now that there is an
20:32
Speaker 1: official record of him being on the injury report, we
20:36
Speaker 1: can talk about it with as much certainty as the
20:39
Speaker 1: Tigers allow us. With that injury report, the way that
20:46
Speaker 1: the language is, it makes me concern more concerned than
20:48
Speaker 1: probably what it will end up being. Is that fair
20:50
Speaker 1: to say? Like some of the catch language, that's all,
20:54
Speaker 1: that's all.
20:55
Speaker 2: I don't know. These things are always concerning, and to
21:00
Speaker 2: read from both the injury report and aj Hinch's words
21:04
Speaker 2: seem to be like, probably not a big deal. But
21:07
Speaker 2: I've heard that before, and I've been told there's no
21:11
Speaker 2: structural damage with Parker Meadows, but I've even been told
21:14
Speaker 2: that before, and there can end up being structural damage.
21:19
Speaker 2: Usually if a guy's not right back on the field,
21:23
Speaker 2: I tend to worry he's being reevaluated. Also, we have
21:27
Speaker 2: not heard from Parker Meadows. I have not seen him
21:31
Speaker 2: in a couple days. That seems a little sketchy. So
21:35
Speaker 2: there's one of those things that you hope that it's
21:36
Speaker 2: all good and he completes a test and he's back
21:39
Speaker 2: on the field Thursday or Friday. But it already kind
21:42
Speaker 2: of went from oh, no big deal to like, well
21:44
Speaker 2: he's going to have to miss a couple of days,
21:46
Speaker 2: Like well he's going to be reevaluated, and just say
21:50
Speaker 2: there's a saying in baseball writing like always overwrite injuries.
21:53
Speaker 2: You really hope Parker Meadows is going to be fine.
21:56
Speaker 2: He's an important player to this team. We were talking
21:58
Speaker 2: about it off air, like if he goes down, what
22:00
Speaker 2: does that mean for the roster? And your head immediately
22:03
Speaker 2: start spinning with a million scenarios. I don't know that
22:06
Speaker 2: we should go there quite yet because maybe it won't happen.
22:09
Speaker 2: But in a way, just even this scare, I think
22:14
Speaker 2: highlights his importance to the roster because even though Scooball
22:20
Speaker 2: and Green are higher profile, like, does anyone make the
22:24
Speaker 2: whole thing work as much as Parker meadows. We saw
22:26
Speaker 2: that last year when he didn't play well and they
22:29
Speaker 2: had to send him down and the team kind of
22:32
Speaker 2: knows dive right then, and then he came back and
22:35
Speaker 2: he was great and they went on a crazy run.
22:39
Speaker 1: I don't know, Well, there's a couple things. Number One,
22:41
Speaker 1: if you were to take the top ten plays from
22:43
Speaker 1: the run, there's a lot of them that evolved Parker
22:47
Speaker 1: number one. Number Two, the record speaks for itself. I
22:51
Speaker 1: don't have any from it. If the record speaks for
22:52
Speaker 1: itself in terms of when he's in the line when
22:54
Speaker 1: he's not in the lineup. And we talked a lot
22:57
Speaker 1: last year about how they were adamant they did not
23:00
Speaker 1: want to send him down for these very reasons like
23:02
Speaker 1: they were. They were as firm about that, and they
23:05
Speaker 1: eventually just had to you know what I mean, And
23:07
Speaker 1: it was obviously the right decision. I don't necessarily want
23:11
Speaker 1: to go into all the deep dives and and trickle
23:13
Speaker 1: downs of of if he misses some time, I'll just
23:17
Speaker 1: say this though. Last night I was at a local
23:19
Speaker 1: watering hole by myself, just kind of collected my thoughts
23:22
Speaker 1: and you know those internet memes where it's like, you know,
23:25
Speaker 1: I wonder what he's thinking about right now, for like
23:26
Speaker 1: the wife or the girlfriend, and it's like my I was,
23:30
Speaker 1: That's what I was thinking about. So if everybody was curious,
23:32
Speaker 1: I was, like, what happens with this guy? Do you
23:35
Speaker 1: do here? But if you're facing this this situation, I was.
23:38
Speaker 1: I was. I was also like Charlie Day and always sunny.
23:42
Speaker 1: I was. I was going all deep into the roster,
23:44
Speaker 1: texting Cody some crazy thoughts and uh, not necessarily for
23:48
Speaker 1: air yet because we don't have a reason for him.
23:50
Speaker 1: But let's just say it affects a lot of things.
23:52
Speaker 1: It affects a lot of things. Uh, all right, we
23:57
Speaker 1: could wrap up here a little bit, Cody. I think
24:01
Speaker 1: we gotta give a special shout out, a special shout
24:03
Speaker 1: out because we we we've done the camp darling thing,
24:06
Speaker 1: but we got we got the hottest guy in camp,
24:09
Speaker 1: the scorching bat of Ben mal Janure Majenure. I don't
24:13
Speaker 1: know if I'm saying that correct. I throw a little
24:15
Speaker 1: little Italian in there, you know, a little Northeastern, little
24:18
Speaker 1: Northeast accent, Ben Maljerry MISGERI, uh, holy Cross, Northeastern. Those
24:24
Speaker 1: are schools that I I know people have gone to,
24:28
Speaker 1: not necessarily known for their baseball. Can't play baseball a
24:31
Speaker 1: lot that area of the country all year round like
24:33
Speaker 1: you can down here in the South. But uh, the
24:36
Speaker 1: guy is Mays May had a memorable week. He's remember
24:40
Speaker 1: a week. He had a home run today. I think
24:42
Speaker 1: he's like six for eight or something. In uh, in
24:45
Speaker 1: spring training games, he's a you know, an extra bat
24:47
Speaker 1: that they call up or whatever. So he's obviously not
24:50
Speaker 1: the forty man or anything like that. But fun, fun, fun,
24:54
Speaker 1: fun week for this guy, and shout out. We'll see
24:57
Speaker 1: what happens next. But I wanted to be a prisoner
24:59
Speaker 1: of a moment and just say, hey, man, it's pretty awesome.
25:02
Speaker 2: They're one of the great things about spring training. You know,
25:04
Speaker 2: this guy, not a very heralded prospect, gets called up
25:08
Speaker 2: to big league camp and what three hits his first game,
25:12
Speaker 2: three RBI and a laser home run his second game.
25:16
Speaker 2: That's cool. Ben mal Jerry's twenty five years old. He
25:19
Speaker 2: had a solid year last year in Double A, eerie
25:21
Speaker 2: he hit two fifty two with twelve homers. So there's
25:25
Speaker 2: a little bit of power in the tank, you know,
25:30
Speaker 2: in theory, not a guy who's probably going to advance much.
25:34
Speaker 2: But we probably would have said that about Kerry Carpenter
25:36
Speaker 2: two years ago, three years ago, so you never really know.
25:41
Speaker 2: I hope Ben Maljerry enjoys this. I hope his family
25:43
Speaker 2: enjoys this. We'll see if he ends up getting more opportunities,
25:48
Speaker 2: you know, to do this in like the actual major leagues.
25:51
Speaker 2: One day, but aj Henjims said, hey, like, we're gonna
25:54
Speaker 2: keep bringing them over. You know, you earned more opportunities
25:57
Speaker 2: when you do stuff like that. So no, it's cool.
26:01
Speaker 2: These are the stories that kind of only emerge in
26:03
Speaker 2: spring training, and sometimes they're really fun. Yeah.
26:06
Speaker 1: I went down a little bit of a dive on him.
26:08
Speaker 1: I looked at some his like college like tape and
26:12
Speaker 1: photographs and all that stuff. He plays with a lot
26:14
Speaker 1: of motion. He's got that Northeast Italian emotion when he plays.
26:17
Speaker 1: You know, even his look at his eerie page. He's
26:20
Speaker 1: like screaming as he hits the ball on his eerie page.
26:23
Speaker 1: So you know, respect that, and he's kind of a
26:25
Speaker 1: little bit of a tank six one, two fifteen, not bad,
26:28
Speaker 1: not bad, not bad at all, and speeding here guy.
26:31
Speaker 2: Another guy who played that didn't know existed. Patrick Lee
26:34
Speaker 2: was signed out an Indie ball last year. He got
26:36
Speaker 2: a couple innings in the game, made a couple of
26:39
Speaker 2: plays in center field. So yeah, some some faces tend
26:43
Speaker 2: to emerge this time of year. And if you're one
26:45
Speaker 2: of these players, look, you're trying to make a name
26:47
Speaker 2: for them for yourself right now, Ben mal Jerry, what hey,
26:51
Speaker 2: you got on Tiger Territory? I mean, what what do
26:54
Speaker 2: you want?
26:55
Speaker 1: Come on anytime? Ben? Yeah, absolutely, I think he's probably
26:59
Speaker 1: got a fun story. He went to like North New
27:02
Speaker 1: Mexico Juco. I think in between those two stops, like
27:06
Speaker 1: the guy loves game. He loves ball, all right, so
27:08
Speaker 1: and we love ball too, So we'd love to have
27:10
Speaker 1: Ben on if he wants to come on. Speaking of
27:13
Speaker 1: Carry Carpenter real quick, I also saw him. He was
27:16
Speaker 1: three for three, So honestly, don't have a lot of analysis,
27:19
Speaker 1: but I did want to mention Carry Carpenter guy that
27:21
Speaker 1: I just feel like hasn't really gotten a whole lot
27:23
Speaker 1: of spring training buzz. If you would the bats working
27:29
Speaker 1: through one spring training game, I can say the bat's working.
27:31
Speaker 1: So I wanted to give I wanted to mention Carry
27:33
Speaker 1: Carpenter three for three. Obviously, that's an encouraging sign when
27:36
Speaker 1: your two best pure hitters on the team come up
27:40
Speaker 1: and get five hits combined in one game against you know,
27:44
Speaker 1: a prominent team that figures to be in the national
27:47
Speaker 1: spotlight the majority of the season. Hey, Dale's Cody before
27:51
Speaker 1: we jet out of here.
27:53
Speaker 2: Nothing major, you know. Other observations from the game, no
27:55
Speaker 2: one could see. Jayeng had a nice diving stop that
27:58
Speaker 2: I actually didn't fully because of how the press box
28:01
Speaker 2: is there. My line of vision did not extend all
28:03
Speaker 2: the way down the third baseline. But you know, I
28:06
Speaker 2: know he didn't grade out well in the short sample
28:08
Speaker 2: in the majors, but he does have a knack for
28:10
Speaker 2: just like making plays. You know. I don't think his
28:12
Speaker 2: range is that great. I don't think his arm is
28:14
Speaker 2: that great. But he's never just botched the fundamentals like
28:19
Speaker 2: he might think, given how bad the reviews of his
28:22
Speaker 2: defense tend to be. And then justin Henry malloy Man
28:25
Speaker 2: had a great pick at first. There was another play
28:28
Speaker 2: where I think he ventured too far to his right
28:31
Speaker 2: and one of those things. A J. Hinch literally was like, yeah,
28:34
Speaker 2: I'm glad that happened, you know. Now he knows. So
28:37
Speaker 2: we saw an instance of him looking good and comfortable
28:39
Speaker 2: at first. We also saw an instance of the growing
28:41
Speaker 2: pains that can come with first I continue to be
28:45
Speaker 2: kind of impressed by Jay. Hen here's a fun nugget.
28:48
Speaker 2: I asked Jay because Cole Keith talked about having to
28:51
Speaker 2: order at first basement men. Jay had already had one
28:54
Speaker 2: man because he was like, what if they what if
28:57
Speaker 2: they put me over there? So not only were we
29:00
Speaker 2: calling for to play first bade Jayan himself was ahead
29:03
Speaker 2: of the train, knowing he should probably eventually play first base.
29:07
Speaker 1: How about that? How about that? Hey, that's that's a
29:10
Speaker 1: feather in our cat. We don't get the two in
29:12
Speaker 1: our homes too much. That's a feather in our cat.
29:13
Speaker 1: Because we were we were thinking the same us and
29:16
Speaker 1: Jay heads.
29:16
Speaker 2: Everyone was except.
29:19
Speaker 1: All right, Well, you can follow us on xboib on
29:22
Speaker 1: Twitter at Cody Stavenhagen, I'm at Kieranunscore Deckley pot page
29:25
Speaker 1: at Tiger Territory, Underscore, Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram. You know
29:28
Speaker 1: the Deal, follow and subscribe. We appreciate all of you
29:32
Speaker 1: for Cody Stavenhagen, I'm Kieren Steckley. Everybody, have a great deck.