Latest / Foul Territory / Japan & Korea FA list + New Orioles skipper Craig Albernaz joins FT

Transcript

Japan & Korea FA list + New Orioles skipper Craig Albernaz joins FT · Foul Territory

0:04
Speaker 1: Welcome back to Fout's territory. Frit Jeroli here with Eric Kratz,
0:08
Speaker 1: Kevin Palar, and Craig Alburn as the new Oriole Skipper,
0:12
Speaker 1: who was introduced on Monday in Baltimore. Craig, I talked
0:16
Speaker 1: it up in the break, but I think your accent
0:18
Speaker 1: might be vying for like best in baseball. I did
0:21
Speaker 1: grow up a die I'm from New England. I grew
0:23
Speaker 1: up a diehard Boston Bruins fan. So whenever you talk,
0:27
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, it's like the nostalgia of the old Bees,
0:30
Speaker 1: you know. So that's how I feel. So if you
0:33
Speaker 1: could tell everyone on the show to maybe park the car,
0:35
Speaker 1: I think we could maybe decide or not.
0:39
Speaker 2: Yeah.
0:39
Speaker 3: I appreciate you saying this as the best accent. Yeah,
0:41
Speaker 3: I really appreciate that. I think everyone else has an accent.
0:46
Speaker 3: I talk normal, I talk the way it should be done.
0:49
Speaker 3: I'm kidding, but yeah, it has a leftie since I
0:52
Speaker 3: was seventeen.
0:53
Speaker 4: So yeah, but the baseball baseball will take your accent away.
0:59
Speaker 4: I mean, you know, some people from Alabama, they come
1:01
Speaker 4: in a season and they tall like this. By the
1:03
Speaker 4: end of the season, the only thing you hear is y'all.
1:06
Speaker 4: So your accent must have been super thick.
1:11
Speaker 2: That had to be.
1:12
Speaker 3: I tell everyone, when your first second grade, third grade
1:15
Speaker 3: teachers you learn, you know, learn English and stuff, and
1:17
Speaker 3: they talk like you, it just gets embedded in grain.
1:20
Speaker 2: So here I am still talking the same. Are you
1:24
Speaker 2: gonna talk that way to your team?
1:25
Speaker 1: Like?
1:26
Speaker 4: What does that mean? What does that mean to you
1:28
Speaker 4: being who you are? When you've now become I mean,
1:32
Speaker 4: reached the apex of being a coach. You've been a
1:36
Speaker 4: coach since we got done playing against each other in
1:39
Speaker 4: Triple A. Now you've reached that head coach status. You're
1:43
Speaker 4: now a manager in the big leagues. What does it
1:46
Speaker 4: mean to you to be who you are and not
1:50
Speaker 4: who baseball needs.
1:51
Speaker 5: You to be?
1:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I got to this position being who
1:55
Speaker 3: I am.
1:56
Speaker 2: It's almost gonna keep on doing the same thing.
1:58
Speaker 3: Like that's the That's where I see is what players want, right,
2:03
Speaker 3: And that's what players want to want to feel and
2:05
Speaker 3: want to be a part of. Is someone that's authentic,
2:08
Speaker 3: someone that has their back every step of the way,
2:10
Speaker 3: and it's going to tell them the truth. And that's
2:12
Speaker 3: who I am. I'm a truth teller. I let you
2:15
Speaker 3: know where I see it right or wrong or indifferent,
2:18
Speaker 3: And that's when the great conversations happened. And like I said,
2:21
Speaker 3: I'm not going to change. I am who I am.
2:24
Speaker 3: And you know, I joke around with Michael Elias like
2:28
Speaker 3: I'm hoping you know what you're getting yourself into. So
2:30
Speaker 3: you know, we joke around about it. But but yeah,
2:32
Speaker 3: I just that's the only thing I know. You can't
2:34
Speaker 3: be fake in this game.
2:36
Speaker 5: First Off, congratulations.
2:39
Speaker 2: Secondly, thanks Ape.
2:40
Speaker 5: Just talking talking to a lot of players in Cleveland,
2:43
Speaker 5: they always said Jose Ramirez is the guy that really
2:46
Speaker 5: sets the culture there. Whatever Jose does we do. Have
2:49
Speaker 5: you been able to kind of identify with your new
2:51
Speaker 5: team who you believe is going to kind of be
2:53
Speaker 5: that culture center and if you if you have someone,
2:57
Speaker 5: have you been able to get on the phone and
2:58
Speaker 5: talk to them.
3:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've I've talked to a handful of players. Now
3:02
Speaker 3: I'm trying to get to everyone. It's it's tough, man
3:05
Speaker 3: point everything going on. But the cool part about it
3:08
Speaker 3: is that this group has come up together through the
3:11
Speaker 3: minor leagues. They kind of all broke in around the
3:13
Speaker 3: same time and they're a very close knit group. So
3:17
Speaker 3: for me, there is multiple people that can that can
3:20
Speaker 3: fill that role. And for me, leadership looks different for everyone.
3:25
Speaker 3: You know that you get the vocal guys, you get
3:26
Speaker 3: the guys that lead by example. You know, you got
3:28
Speaker 3: the guys that behind the scenes, well we'll call we'll
3:31
Speaker 3: call you out, we'll talk to you. You know, there's
3:34
Speaker 3: a variably different ways to do it, and for me,
3:36
Speaker 3: it's just allowing the players to be themselves and figure
3:40
Speaker 3: out how they want to lead. And once once I
3:42
Speaker 3: identify that, then you can kind of use that through
3:45
Speaker 3: your conversations, through looping them in to to certain you know,
3:50
Speaker 3: areas of the game that you want to that you
3:52
Speaker 3: want to improve. But then there's also like the veteran guy.
3:55
Speaker 3: You know, it's crazy to think about, like Tyler O'Neal.
3:57
Speaker 3: He's you know, he's only thirty years old, but the
4:00
Speaker 3: most veteran guy on the team, and he's the one
4:03
Speaker 3: that reached out to me.
4:04
Speaker 2: I didn't reach out to him.
4:05
Speaker 3: So that right there just shows that you know, he's
4:08
Speaker 3: eager to step into that quote unquote veteran leadership role.
4:13
Speaker 2: So that's going to be a great, a great asset
4:15
Speaker 2: for us.
4:15
Speaker 3: And then you know, hopefully our coaching staff can come
4:18
Speaker 3: in and cultivate the same environment that I want to
4:20
Speaker 3: as well. And that's what we're trying to identify right now.
4:23
Speaker 5: Hey, since you mentioned his name, are you going to
4:25
Speaker 5: try to do curls with him?
4:28
Speaker 3: That guy's a unit, dude, he is a unit. I'm
4:31
Speaker 3: gonna try to do some curls with him because I.
4:32
Speaker 2: Just want to see what he can what he can curl?
4:34
Speaker 2: What can you put up.
4:35
Speaker 5: First spring training and be like, hey, let's you know,
4:38
Speaker 5: let's bond. Let me work out with.
4:39
Speaker 2: Him like you squatting today deadlift and I got you.
4:43
Speaker 3: You don't you don't have to unrack the plates and
4:46
Speaker 3: as I throw my back out, Yeah, that dude, he's
4:49
Speaker 3: a specimen though.
4:52
Speaker 1: Yeah, the early injury of report on Craig Albernas all
4:55
Speaker 1: write that now headed to the the.
4:56
Speaker 2: I L s frand hand no doubt, no doubt.
5:02
Speaker 1: As I'm sure you're where. The Orioles have not won
5:03
Speaker 1: a playoff game in a decade. There's been a lot
5:06
Speaker 1: of fan unrest because they went through the rebuild. They
5:09
Speaker 1: won the American League East and then they really had
5:12
Speaker 1: nothing to show for it in terms of October wins.
5:14
Speaker 1: And you know, kind of making the fans feel like
5:16
Speaker 1: sitting through all that was worth it. Often the manager
5:20
Speaker 1: job inherits like a rebuild, but you are inheriting a
5:23
Speaker 1: team that really is set up to win. Now, how
5:25
Speaker 1: does that change the job and how you go about
5:28
Speaker 1: learning on the job, because there's not a whole lot
5:30
Speaker 1: of easing in like there would be if you say
5:33
Speaker 1: we're taking over the Colorado Rockies.
5:36
Speaker 2: Yeah.
5:37
Speaker 3: I mean to me, every team, every player when they
5:40
Speaker 3: show up the spring training, the goal should be to
5:42
Speaker 3: win the World Series. Like, if you're in that that
5:46
Speaker 3: locker room and you don't feel that way, you shouldn't
5:49
Speaker 3: be in there.
5:50
Speaker 2: It doesn't matter what team you're on.
5:51
Speaker 3: Like, the ultimate goal for every player to start the
5:54
Speaker 3: seasons to win the World Series. So for us, that
5:56
Speaker 3: doesn't change it. For me, it doesn't change And for me,
6:00
Speaker 3: the only way for our guys to do that is
6:01
Speaker 3: for them to be themselves, use this shrinks and then
6:05
Speaker 3: play together as a unit.
6:06
Speaker 2: You know, it's it's such a grind of a season.
6:08
Speaker 3: This game is so hard as KP and cratch, you know,
6:12
Speaker 3: like one hundred and sixty two games is the hottest
6:14
Speaker 3: thing to do in spots and navigate that season and
6:16
Speaker 3: then when you punch your ticket to your playoffs, to the playoffs,
6:19
Speaker 3: that's the fun part. But you have to get there first.
6:21
Speaker 3: And to get there, you have to play baseball. You know,
6:24
Speaker 3: you have to do the little things right. You have
6:27
Speaker 3: to grind out at bats, you have to you know,
6:29
Speaker 3: get bunts down, you know, because ideally, you know, nine
6:33
Speaker 3: guys in the lineup, you want them to all feel great.
6:36
Speaker 3: But we all know that's not gonna happen. And also,
6:38
Speaker 3: if we go out and hit twelve hour runs a game,
6:41
Speaker 3: sign me up. But that's not the world we live in.
6:44
Speaker 3: So we have to do the little things to compete
6:46
Speaker 3: and win every day, and that's gonna be the mindset
6:49
Speaker 3: is like, what can we do today to win tonight's game?
6:53
Speaker 5: Yeah, we all know everyone in baseball. No, Stephen Bot's
6:56
Speaker 5: a special person. Look no further than what he did
6:58
Speaker 5: for you yesterday. Obviously a good friend of mine, was
7:01
Speaker 5: one of my most favorite teammates. Never got a chance
7:04
Speaker 5: to play for him. What was kind of what'd you
7:06
Speaker 5: learn from him? What was kind of his secret sauce
7:09
Speaker 5: as a manager to be able to kind of be
7:11
Speaker 5: maybe a one or two years removed from playing and
7:14
Speaker 5: and and you know, taking his team to the playoff,
7:16
Speaker 5: winning a Manager of the Year.
7:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean when when Kratzy asked me the question
7:21
Speaker 3: about changing and like being yourself, like by KP Like,
7:25
Speaker 3: that's what that's what body he is, like, he's himself
7:28
Speaker 3: and he's an elite person, elite communicator.
7:32
Speaker 2: That's why I'm throwing seeds on him right here.
7:34
Speaker 3: But he's, uh, you know, he has a way about
7:37
Speaker 3: him where he can he can make everyone in that
7:39
Speaker 3: clubhouse feel like their jse Aman Mirras you know. And
7:42
Speaker 3: and that's and that's a special sauce with him, Like
7:45
Speaker 3: he genuinely cares and loves every person that's in that
7:48
Speaker 3: locker room, every person that's.
7:49
Speaker 2: In the organization.
7:51
Speaker 3: And he's he's really great at the excess and those
7:54
Speaker 3: two you know, he does again enough credit for that,
7:56
Speaker 3: but he's really good with the end game decisions and
7:59
Speaker 3: that also can municating those decisions and why why we
8:03
Speaker 3: did something or why we didn't do something. He's open
8:06
Speaker 3: and honest at every step, you know, every turn. And
8:09
Speaker 3: that's something I'm gonna bring as well. And that's something
8:10
Speaker 3: I learned from him, is just that over communication piece
8:13
Speaker 3: and making everyone feel value valued because they do because
8:17
Speaker 3: they do have value no matter what role you're in.
8:20
Speaker 5: Was that moment tense right there when you're throwing seeds
8:22
Speaker 5: at him? And what do you say to you?
8:24
Speaker 2: No, I always throw seeds at him.
8:26
Speaker 3: So our normal cadence would be, you know, we you know,
8:30
Speaker 3: during the game, we always eat you know, chwo seeds
8:33
Speaker 3: at some point in the game, and we always have
8:36
Speaker 3: Doug Albanto talking about a variety of different situations, and
8:40
Speaker 3: you know, we both throw dumb ideas out there, and
8:43
Speaker 3: just so happened that he threw a dumb idea out there.
8:46
Speaker 2: That's why I kind of gave like a quick glance
8:48
Speaker 2: at him.
8:48
Speaker 3: Then I threw seeds on him, and then he's kind
8:51
Speaker 3: of like shaking his head like yeah, I'll be I know.
8:53
Speaker 3: But then he kept on talking. So that's that's just
8:55
Speaker 3: the usual usual cadence between us two. We try to
8:58
Speaker 3: keep the light but also check each other of the craig.
9:01
Speaker 4: The other part was his jersey didn't fit as nice
9:05
Speaker 4: as your jersey, like he was he was filling out
9:07
Speaker 4: his jersey a little bit. Are you prepared for the
9:09
Speaker 4: stresses that come with being a manager. Obviously you can't
9:13
Speaker 4: get gray hair because you ain't gotten none exactly exactly.
9:17
Speaker 4: I mean, you're gonna start filling the jersey out like
9:20
Speaker 4: like voter did and it's not I mean there's buttons.
9:23
Speaker 4: They're hanging on for dear life. So are you prepared
9:25
Speaker 4: for that? And do you have people around you to
9:29
Speaker 4: be able to handle that?
9:33
Speaker 2: Yeah?
9:33
Speaker 3: My wife, My wife will keep me, will keep me
9:35
Speaker 3: in check, dialed. Yeah, I mean, you know she did uh,
9:39
Speaker 3: you know, she trained m M A and stuff, so
9:41
Speaker 3: she fought a little bit. So she'll definitely uh if
9:44
Speaker 3: she needs to get a little physical uh, in a
9:47
Speaker 3: good way, not in a bad way. So there's there's that.
9:51
Speaker 3: But also that's why they make the pollovers. That's why
9:54
Speaker 3: they make the you know, the the other articles of
9:56
Speaker 3: clothing to wear.
9:57
Speaker 2: You know.
9:57
Speaker 3: So those days were you know, you and eating you
10:01
Speaker 3: know for two weeks. You know, you feel a little flabby,
10:03
Speaker 3: you can just throw on the pullover and try to
10:06
Speaker 3: hide it a little bit.
10:07
Speaker 4: And keep it baggy. I appreciate that, all right now,
10:10
Speaker 4: the title.
10:11
Speaker 3: But also we got we got Tyler O'Neill too, you
10:14
Speaker 3: know Tyler O'Neal.
10:15
Speaker 2: He'll look at him every day. I'm like, shit, I
10:17
Speaker 2: got to stay clean.
10:19
Speaker 4: Okay, Okay, that's fair.
10:20
Speaker 2: That's fair.
10:21
Speaker 4: So you keep it, you keep it healthy by looking
10:23
Speaker 4: at your players. I got a question for you, though,
10:25
Speaker 4: and this is a tough one, all right. It is
10:27
Speaker 4: your tough first tough question as a manager. You came
10:31
Speaker 4: in and you brought in Dustin Lynn as your new
10:33
Speaker 4: hitting coach. The hitting coach that was there is gonna
10:36
Speaker 4: get a lot of flak for what happened with the organizations. Hey,
10:40
Speaker 4: you know what, this offense didn't do what they needed
10:42
Speaker 4: to do all that stuff. How hard of a decision
10:46
Speaker 4: is that when you get rid of a guy who
10:48
Speaker 4: was there and worked with some of these guys coming
10:51
Speaker 4: up through the minor leagues, some continuity and really the
10:55
Speaker 4: Orioles didn't win because they're pitching was trash. But you
10:59
Speaker 4: bring in a hitting coach. How hard is that first decision?
11:03
Speaker 4: Bringing in somebody that you know and are comfortable with.
11:05
Speaker 4: I assume you guys were together in San Francisco if
11:07
Speaker 4: I'm not correct, Yeah, how hard is that?
11:10
Speaker 2: We were? How hard is that? Yeah?
11:13
Speaker 3: I mean to be honest with you, Cratsey, it wasn't
11:15
Speaker 3: that hard because that move a lot of coaching moves
11:19
Speaker 3: were made before I got the job, and so I
11:21
Speaker 3: came in with with I had a you know, we
11:24
Speaker 3: had to bring in a new a new hitting group,
11:27
Speaker 3: and Dustin Lynn was the first day on my list.
11:30
Speaker 3: You know, I was around them in San Francisco. You know,
11:33
Speaker 3: he he has in a very diverse background. I mean
11:37
Speaker 3: he's a you know, formerly a physical therapist. He's a doctor,
11:40
Speaker 3: so he has he knows everything to know about the body,
11:43
Speaker 3: and he's also knows the swing, knows the hit, has
11:46
Speaker 3: you know, teaches a variety of different approaches, you know,
11:50
Speaker 3: like he's a he's a really a unicorn hitting coach.
11:53
Speaker 3: But then also he got to be in Philadelphia and
11:56
Speaker 3: get to work under Kevin Long. We all know Kevin Long.
12:00
Speaker 3: He's one of the best hitting coaches ever. I mean
12:02
Speaker 3: just looking at his track record, that dos an elite
12:04
Speaker 3: leader and communicator and could teach hitting and beating you know,
12:08
Speaker 3: in Philadelphia with that group of players and learning on
12:11
Speaker 3: the k Long like, it to me was a no
12:13
Speaker 3: brainer to bring him in, Like he's ready for this
12:15
Speaker 3: opportunity and our players are going to be communicated with
12:19
Speaker 3: every step of direction, and he's going to cater to them.
12:22
Speaker 3: This is not going to be a one size fits
12:24
Speaker 3: all approach. That's something that really excites me about, you know,
12:27
Speaker 3: bringing Dustin linn In and you know in the players
12:30
Speaker 3: feedback so far is that they're fired up about it.
12:36
Speaker 1: Craig, I gotta say, I'm a little disappointed because you
12:39
Speaker 1: signed on and your two year old daughter, Gigi, who
12:42
Speaker 1: I was at the press conference Monday, she's the highlight.
12:45
Speaker 1: Was was there and she's not here, so I want
12:47
Speaker 1: to know is she taking a nap much the rest
12:50
Speaker 1: right now? It's it's that afternoon naptime for Gigi. It
12:54
Speaker 1: was such a cute moment. I think we have a
12:55
Speaker 1: little video to show of her, but the whole family.
12:59
Speaker 1: I'm sure this was your wife wearing the matching shoes,
13:02
Speaker 1: the little Oriel outfits. For those who are not there,
13:06
Speaker 1: Orioles owner David Rubersin picked up Gigi, the youngest of three,
13:10
Speaker 1: put to put her on Craig's lap during this press conference.
13:14
Speaker 1: It was a really sweet moment. Is she excited to
13:18
Speaker 1: to go to Baltimore? She probably doesn't really know what's
13:20
Speaker 1: going on, but it seems like your two older sons
13:22
Speaker 1: are very into baseball and what you do. How how
13:26
Speaker 1: ready is the family to to be in Baltimore long
13:29
Speaker 1: term and to switch all their stuff to orange and black.
13:34
Speaker 2: They are excited.
13:35
Speaker 3: Both of my boys initially were not, you know, they're
13:39
Speaker 3: upset that we were leaving Cleveland, Like what do you mean,
13:41
Speaker 3: like we're not going to see like obviously body has
13:44
Speaker 3: has kids and not going to see his kids. And
13:46
Speaker 3: also the players, like we mean we're not going to
13:47
Speaker 3: see Hoosey and David fry and and Hedgi. But then
13:50
Speaker 3: they start to realize like, oh, this is this is
13:53
Speaker 3: a good thing. So they're they're fired up. And little
13:56
Speaker 3: Gigi she's I mean, she's the best. She can have
13:59
Speaker 3: whatever she wants. And then when David picked her up,
14:01
Speaker 3: I was like, in my head, I was like, David,
14:03
Speaker 3: do you know what you're doing? Like this is going
14:05
Speaker 3: to be this This can go a variety of different directions.
14:08
Speaker 2: So it's they're fired up. It's great. It was such
14:12
Speaker 2: a great day.
14:13
Speaker 3: I mean for me, honestly, that's something that I wasn't
14:16
Speaker 3: looking forward to just because it was like a whole
14:19
Speaker 3: day about me, and that's something that is not in
14:22
Speaker 3: my personality. So but you know, the way they incorporated
14:25
Speaker 3: the family and made my family, feel welcome and all
14:28
Speaker 3: the little stuff behind the scenes. It was such a
14:30
Speaker 3: great day and I'm glad that the world got the
14:33
Speaker 3: CGGI and you know how great of a kid she
14:37
Speaker 3: is and how lucky I am.
14:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, and two little boys. Craig, No, you're fine. I
14:42
Speaker 1: was worried for you when she went up there, because
14:44
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, this could go really well or
14:46
Speaker 1: she could have a total melt down here on the podium.
14:48
Speaker 1: So as a toddler parent, I was a little I
14:50
Speaker 1: was sweating it out for you. But she was excellent.
14:53
Speaker 2: It was excellent.
14:53
Speaker 4: Yeah.
14:54
Speaker 3: Yeah. My two boys are sitting in the front and
14:56
Speaker 3: they're looking at me like can I come up?
14:57
Speaker 2: Can I come up?
14:58
Speaker 3: And I'm mouth until I'm like no, can't come up yet. No,
15:01
Speaker 3: And I'm like as like David's talking and Mike's talking.
15:04
Speaker 3: I'm like, oh, no, this is this has got to
15:06
Speaker 3: get chaos real quick.
15:09
Speaker 5: Well, speaking of change, and I guess now chaos cans
15:11
Speaker 5: he use the word for someone who spent parts of
15:14
Speaker 5: seventh season in the Al East. Are you prepared for
15:18
Speaker 5: this change? And seeing the Blue Jays, you know, win
15:21
Speaker 5: the division obviously get to the World Series has to
15:24
Speaker 5: you know, service some sort of motivation, knowing that if
15:29
Speaker 5: you're able to get out of the al Beast, which
15:31
Speaker 5: we like to call it beast, you got a good
15:34
Speaker 5: chance of running the table.
15:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it is. It's a gauntlet of the division.
15:41
Speaker 3: It's but it's also so much fun. I think as
15:43
Speaker 3: a competitive as a baseball fan, like, that's something where
15:46
Speaker 3: you want to be, like, you want to go up
15:48
Speaker 3: against the best every night, which is what this league is,
15:52
Speaker 3: and everyone in this division is ready to win every
15:56
Speaker 3: year and that's the best part about this place.
15:58
Speaker 2: And that's that's the challenge of it and the beauty
16:00
Speaker 2: of it.
16:01
Speaker 3: And even coming up as a minor leaguer in the
16:03
Speaker 3: Raised organization, that's something our you know, old farm director
16:07
Speaker 3: used to speach.
16:08
Speaker 2: To us all the time.
16:09
Speaker 3: Was every time we're competing against someone another vision, whether
16:11
Speaker 3: it's ping pong, shuffle board, pick up basketball, whatever, it is,
16:15
Speaker 3: like we're trying to beat them. And that's something that
16:18
Speaker 3: I've had my upbringing, grown up as a as a
16:21
Speaker 3: player in the minor leagues and also as a staff member.
16:23
Speaker 3: So the opportunity to jump in here and jump in
16:27
Speaker 3: the al Beast, which is real, you know, it's it's
16:30
Speaker 3: it's awesome. And what the Blue Jays did you know
16:32
Speaker 3: they were in last place last year and you know
16:34
Speaker 3: in the division now you know, go to the World
16:36
Speaker 3: Series and take it to seven games. I mean, what
16:39
Speaker 3: a great series it was to watch, and it was
16:41
Speaker 3: just it's great for baseball and being able to jump
16:44
Speaker 3: right into that. I mean, it's exciting.
16:50
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for joining us, Craig, best of
16:52
Speaker 1: luck in Baltimore. We really appreciate it.
16:55
Speaker 5: Good luck.
16:55
Speaker 2: Thanks guys. Yeah, thanks for having me on.
16:58
Speaker 1: Welcome back, foul Territory Aircraft. It's Kevin Fuller Bridge ROI
17:01
Speaker 1: here with you. We have Cody Stavenhagen, who covers MLB
17:06
Speaker 1: and the Tigers for the Athletic. He also co hosts
17:08
Speaker 1: Tiger's Territory here on the Foul Territory Network. Cody, how
17:12
Speaker 1: are you. It's good to see you.
17:14
Speaker 6: Yeah, doing all right, guys, How are you?
17:18
Speaker 1: Good s?
17:18
Speaker 5: Sheels, good shols. A lot of stuff on your shelves.
17:20
Speaker 5: I appreciate it.
17:22
Speaker 2: I appreciate that.
17:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, A little a little dig there, Cody. You had
17:27
Speaker 1: such a great timely piece today with our colleague Will
17:30
Speaker 1: Salmon about the KBO and everything that we should expect,
17:34
Speaker 1: and then of course we get the news today about
17:37
Speaker 1: the posting of I'm gonna have to I'm gonna have
17:39
Speaker 1: to look down at my notes because I do such
17:42
Speaker 1: a terrible job at pronunciation with these names. Some of
17:44
Speaker 1: the last names, Jerolie, I'm very sensitive to that. Munataka
17:47
Speaker 1: Murakami the big news today, obviously. Can you talk to
17:53
Speaker 1: us a little bit about how this guy profiles? It
17:57
Speaker 1: seems like he's like the guy that teams potentially our targeting,
18:01
Speaker 1: but he's not like an Otani or a Sasaki type
18:04
Speaker 1: of like impact talent. Right, What did you gleam in
18:07
Speaker 1: your reporting from executives and from people around the game
18:10
Speaker 1: as to what to expect from a guy like that?
18:14
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think there are three big names to know
18:16
Speaker 6: coming over from Japan likely to be posted this winter.
18:20
Speaker 6: Murakami is probably the most famous of this group. My
18:24
Speaker 6: colleague Will Salmon at the Athletic helped on a story
18:26
Speaker 6: we kind of broke all these guys down with a
18:28
Speaker 6: lot of perspective from the scouting realm. Murakami's really interesting
18:32
Speaker 6: because he's a bona fide power hitter. Some scouts have
18:34
Speaker 6: graded him at a seventy or eighty grade power, I mean, elite,
18:39
Speaker 6: real stuff, But it's really the other parts of his
18:42
Speaker 6: game that are more questionable. The big concern is the
18:45
Speaker 6: contact rate, the strikeout rate. There's a lot of whiff
18:48
Speaker 6: and it's a little bit unknown how his game will
18:50
Speaker 6: translate when he's facing major league pitching every night. In Japan,
18:54
Speaker 6: he has not handled velocity very well at all. A
18:57
Speaker 6: sixty three percent contact rate again ninety three miles an
19:01
Speaker 6: hour plus over the past three years, and an even
19:03
Speaker 6: worse contact rate against breaking stuff. MPB is a lower
19:07
Speaker 6: strikeout rate than MLB, so this seems to me to
19:11
Speaker 6: profile of someone who can hit thirty plus homers and
19:14
Speaker 6: is also going to strike out at a thirty percent
19:17
Speaker 6: plus clip in Major League Baseball with probably not a
19:20
Speaker 6: lot of defensive value. He can play third, he's probably
19:23
Speaker 6: better suited for first. He might not be great at
19:26
Speaker 6: either position, So who is going to be willing to
19:29
Speaker 6: bet on his power? And then also see can he
19:32
Speaker 6: make adjustments? Can he make more contact, learn to hit
19:35
Speaker 6: velocity better, because if so, there could be some really
19:38
Speaker 6: big upside in more Commi's bat.
19:42
Speaker 4: Is his posting the timing like kind of more advantageous
19:46
Speaker 4: because of the fact that a lot of free agency
19:49
Speaker 4: kind of gets pushed back to the end of the winter,
19:52
Speaker 4: and now his clock is ticking already. Yeah.
19:56
Speaker 6: I don't know if that was the strategy behind it
19:58
Speaker 6: or not, but I like it forces some action. He
20:01
Speaker 6: has forty five days to negotiate with MLBA teams he
20:04
Speaker 6: will be signed by I think December twenty second is
20:07
Speaker 6: going to be the deadline there. So if you're one
20:09
Speaker 6: of these other big ticket free agents who might be
20:11
Speaker 6: looking to push things into January or February, or maybe
20:15
Speaker 6: not looking, but that's just how the market seems to
20:17
Speaker 6: play out in recent years, some teams might be willing
20:20
Speaker 6: to pivot and move on to a guy like Murakami.
20:25
Speaker 2: Yeah.
20:25
Speaker 5: I mean, maybe the timing is good, maybe the timing's bad,
20:29
Speaker 5: because my hopes is that what we saw in the
20:31
Speaker 5: World Series this year, that contact is a way of
20:34
Speaker 5: winning games, and hopefully it's a way forward. But what
20:37
Speaker 5: you're talking about from this guy is the prototypical Major
20:40
Speaker 5: League Baseball player hits thirty homers and punches out thirty
20:43
Speaker 5: percent of the time. So I guess two questions is,
20:47
Speaker 5: do you believe that what we saw kind of in
20:49
Speaker 5: the postseason is a way teams are going to start
20:51
Speaker 5: to kind of move forward. I guess that would be
20:54
Speaker 5: my only question right now. I'll follow up after Yeah.
20:58
Speaker 6: I think quietly. I mean, I mean, you would probably
21:00
Speaker 6: no better than I, Kevin, But I think quietly, behind
21:02
Speaker 6: the scenes, we've already been seeing a shift back toward
21:04
Speaker 6: contact for the past couple of years. Look at the
21:07
Speaker 6: Milwaukee Brewers, who have built a team through kind of
21:10
Speaker 6: pesky contact type hitters and speed. Some of the new
21:13
Speaker 6: rules have incentivized that a little bit more. I think
21:17
Speaker 6: teams are realizing that that contact matters. That's not to
21:21
Speaker 6: say power doesn't. That's not to say laun jingle is
21:23
Speaker 6: going to go away. That's to say slug and pulling
21:26
Speaker 6: the ball in the air is going away. But some
21:28
Speaker 6: of these boom or bus type players, maybe like Morikami,
21:31
Speaker 6: aren't going to be attractive to everyone. They haven't been
21:35
Speaker 6: in the last couple off seasons, and they might not
21:38
Speaker 6: be going forward. I do think you're right that there's
21:40
Speaker 6: going to continue to be even more of a premium
21:42
Speaker 6: on guys who can hit the ball put the ball
21:45
Speaker 6: in play. In the playoffs where it's an unpredictable environment,
21:48
Speaker 6: contact matters, Power matters as well, though, so there's certainly
21:53
Speaker 6: still a blend, and maybe that over correction towards power
21:57
Speaker 6: is coming back to earth a little bit.
22:01
Speaker 1: All Right, Cody, I feel like I need to ask
22:03
Speaker 1: you about Trek Scooble, because like, that's all you're gonna
22:05
Speaker 1: get asked about this entire winter. From your interactions with
22:09
Speaker 1: Scott Harris, from knowing that front office and kind of
22:11
Speaker 1: how they operate, Where do you place your bets here?
22:15
Speaker 1: What are the chances that Scooble is a Tiger next season?
22:19
Speaker 1: And real quick, can I just can I just say
22:22
Speaker 1: one of the issues that I felt like I have
22:24
Speaker 1: with baseball is that teams now think like, oh, what's
22:27
Speaker 1: gonna happen after next season? What about if the Tigers
22:29
Speaker 1: go all in when the World Series this year, if
22:32
Speaker 1: they lose Scoble, who cares at that point? Like flags
22:35
Speaker 1: fly forever? I don't know why you wouldn't go all
22:37
Speaker 1: in try to win, And then if you miss out
22:39
Speaker 1: on Schooble, fans would be a little bit more like, well,
22:41
Speaker 1: we had a great final year with him, but if
22:43
Speaker 1: you trade him away now it feels like a faction
22:45
Speaker 1: of that fan base will be upset. And we'll never
22:47
Speaker 1: get over it because he will go somewhere else and
22:49
Speaker 1: he will win anyway.
22:50
Speaker 6: To you, it's a hard spot to be in, right.
22:53
Speaker 6: This is why the executives make the big box because
22:56
Speaker 6: if you make a push and don't win at all
22:59
Speaker 6: and then Google walks for nothing, how are we going
23:02
Speaker 6: to look back on that decision in two or three years.
23:05
Speaker 6: I do think if you have the best pitcher in baseball,
23:08
Speaker 6: I do think that represents a real window. That doesn't
23:11
Speaker 6: mean your window closes after Schooble leaves, when you have
23:14
Speaker 6: a good organization with a lot of young talent when
23:17
Speaker 6: the rise. But we've seen what Scooble can do in
23:20
Speaker 6: the playoffs. This is why this is not This is
23:23
Speaker 6: just speculation in my personal opinion, but I think it
23:25
Speaker 6: would be wise for the Tigers to pick a lane
23:28
Speaker 6: either except the fact you're not going to re sign
23:30
Speaker 6: him and you're really playing the long game and look
23:33
Speaker 6: long and hard at trading him, or you have to
23:35
Speaker 6: make a more meaningful push to win the World Series
23:38
Speaker 6: in twenty twenty six. That means spending. That means blocking
23:41
Speaker 6: some young players with a veteran bat or two in
23:44
Speaker 6: this lineup. That means going after some big ticket swing
23:47
Speaker 6: and misrelievers. That's a compelling argument, something fans would love.
23:51
Speaker 6: We also haven't seen in the Scott Harris era really
23:55
Speaker 6: the idea that the Tigers are going to pursue free
23:58
Speaker 6: agency at that level, that that is their mo as
24:00
Speaker 6: an organization. That would require a little bit of a pivot.
24:03
Speaker 6: So what's going to happen. I'm not sure, but I'm
24:06
Speaker 6: not sure trying to thread the needle here is the
24:08
Speaker 6: right answer.
24:10
Speaker 5: Hey, but guess what if they do keep them, as
24:12
Speaker 5: me and Brittain and Kratzy were discussing, you'll get a
24:15
Speaker 5: qualifying offer, so you're not, you know, missing out entirely,
24:18
Speaker 5: and that's very valuable.
24:20
Speaker 6: Well, the Tigers do love their draft picks. I am
24:23
Speaker 6: probably a little more skeptical personally, like a draft picks
24:26
Speaker 6: not nothing, you're right, but the value of a compensation
24:30
Speaker 6: round pick compared to what you could get if you
24:33
Speaker 6: traded him right now that the trade return is obviously better,
24:38
Speaker 6: And I'm not saying they should trade Schooble, but I'm
24:40
Speaker 6: saying I understand that thinking and why it seems like
24:44
Speaker 6: a decision point for the Tigers this winner.
24:47
Speaker 4: If they move in that direction. Is it a clear
24:50
Speaker 4: step back? I mean, you mentioned all the things that
24:52
Speaker 4: you could get for them, but is it a clear
24:55
Speaker 4: step back because when we go into the office or
24:57
Speaker 4: when we go into the postseason, Okay, they're set up
25:01
Speaker 4: where Schooble's gonna pitch game one in game five, they
25:04
Speaker 4: have to figure out how to win one more. Now
25:07
Speaker 4: you don't have that. Is that a clear step back,
25:09
Speaker 4: which would then indicate, Hey, you know what, we're also
25:13
Speaker 4: gonna get rid of this guy. We're also gonna go
25:15
Speaker 4: down the line and get rid of that these other guys.
25:19
Speaker 6: Well, I think you're right cratzy in that if you
25:22
Speaker 6: move Trek'scooble, it's hard to see the Tigers being better
25:24
Speaker 6: in twenty twenty six than they were in twenty twenty five,
25:27
Speaker 6: regardless of what else you do.
25:29
Speaker 5: It just is No.
25:30
Speaker 6: I don't think that means they would rebuild or move
25:34
Speaker 6: other pieces because they move Schooble. Like, the Tigers have
25:37
Speaker 6: this young core, they have more young guys on the rise.
25:40
Speaker 6: They've pretty clearly incentivized a core of homegrown hitters. So
25:46
Speaker 6: I don't think it would represent a step backward for
25:48
Speaker 6: like the entire organization and its trajectory necessarily, but I
25:52
Speaker 6: do think do you feel better or worse about your
25:56
Speaker 6: chances of winning ninety games without Trek Scouble? It would
25:59
Speaker 6: take quite a lot of major league ready players to
26:02
Speaker 6: feel any better about that. In twenty twenty.
26:04
Speaker 4: Six, all right, best case scenario, you signed free agent
26:09
Speaker 4: Glabor Torres. Now you offer him a qualifying offer. What
26:13
Speaker 4: is the best case scenario out of this qualifying offer
26:17
Speaker 4: that he comes back hits two to eighty for the
26:20
Speaker 4: team on a twenty centilly twenty two million dollars deal
26:24
Speaker 4: for one year, or that he takes the qualifying offer
26:28
Speaker 4: and says no, thank you, I'm gonna go to free
26:31
Speaker 4: agency and they get a draft pick.
26:34
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:34
Speaker 6: Another great question. If you guys don't follow the Tigers
26:36
Speaker 6: every day, I hope you can see why they're in
26:38
Speaker 6: an interesting spot because they have some tough calls. I
26:41
Speaker 6: think because they extended Glaber to where's the qualifying offer?
26:45
Speaker 6: I think that's a sign they wouldn't mind having him back.
26:47
Speaker 6: We talked about contact, we talk about good at bats.
26:49
Speaker 6: That's something that Tigers need a lot more of, and
26:51
Speaker 6: that's something Glabor Torres did probably better than any other
26:55
Speaker 6: hitter in their lineup. He slumped in the second half.
26:57
Speaker 6: He was playing through a hernia. So if you get
27:00
Speaker 6: him back on a one year deal, I'm not sure
27:01
Speaker 6: you feel terrible about that at all. You might feel
27:04
Speaker 6: kind of good about it. The question is what does
27:06
Speaker 6: it mean for the rest of your infield and the
27:08
Speaker 6: rest of your off season, Because when you have Cole
27:12
Speaker 6: Keith and Zach McKinstry, you can play third. When you
27:14
Speaker 6: have Kevin McGonagall knocking loudly on the door and he
27:17
Speaker 6: can play second or third. Could you bring back Labor
27:21
Speaker 6: Torres and still go after a Bregman or a Boba
27:24
Speaker 6: Shad or whoever else you want to name, or is
27:26
Speaker 6: it kind of Glaber Tores and then you're going with
27:29
Speaker 6: the young players you have. I think that's a real
27:32
Speaker 6: question because I think one thing the playoffs revealed is
27:35
Speaker 6: that the Tigers, if they're serious about winning a World Series,
27:38
Speaker 6: they have to find a way to reshape this lineup
27:40
Speaker 6: beyond just running it back with the group they had,
27:43
Speaker 6: And that's tough when you have ascending young hitters. Maybe
27:47
Speaker 6: they could upgrade at shortstop, maybe they could upgrade at
27:49
Speaker 6: center field. These are things to certainly keep an eye on.
27:53
Speaker 6: You like the profile Glabor Torez brings you, though, So
27:55
Speaker 6: if he accepts this qualifying offer and comes back one
27:59
Speaker 6: year and then you can move on, I'm not sure
28:01
Speaker 6: that's a bad thing at all.
28:03
Speaker 4: They can go after all those guys. You know that, Cody,
28:06
Speaker 4: You're just asking the questions. But the biggest question I
28:09
Speaker 4: have are the Tigers twenty twenty five first half tigers
28:16
Speaker 4: or are they twenty twenty five second half tigers going
28:19
Speaker 4: into the twenty sixth season.
28:22
Speaker 2: Yeah?
28:23
Speaker 6: I think the answer right, it's not the fun answer,
28:25
Speaker 6: but the answer is neither. They're some blend of that.
28:28
Speaker 6: If they had the weirdest possible season, and they kind
28:31
Speaker 6: of had a very weird season the year before that
28:33
Speaker 6: they won eighty six and eighty seven games, I think
28:36
Speaker 6: they're an eighty six eighty seven win team. It'd just
28:38
Speaker 6: be nice if they could find a more normal, smooth
28:41
Speaker 6: way to get there. I think the projections are going
28:44
Speaker 6: to come out and unless they do something groundbreaking this offseason,
28:47
Speaker 6: they're going to be picked eighty two, eighty three, eighty
28:49
Speaker 6: four wins, and they think with Aj Hinch managing this
28:52
Speaker 6: team and some young guys who can get better and
28:55
Speaker 6: maybe some unheralded pitching, they can win eighty seven, eighty eight,
29:00
Speaker 6: eighty nine games. I think that's clearly kind of the
29:03
Speaker 6: team they are if you look at the talent they have,
29:06
Speaker 6: that seems to match up in my view.
29:11
Speaker 1: Thank you, Cody, we appreciate it, and be sure to
29:13
Speaker 1: check out Tiger's territory with Kieran Steckley where they will,
29:16
Speaker 1: i'm sure, get into trek spooble and all of the
29:19
Speaker 1: offseason questions using a very interesting Detroit Tigers team.