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Detroit Tigers Boast Top Farm System · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the Battle Territory Network, a Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm Karen
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Steckley with me as always as Cody Stapenhagen and joining
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: us editor in chief Baseball America, the one, the Only
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Jay J. Cooper.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: How's it going. It is good.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: We're getting to talk prospects. That's always a good day,
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: but that's every day for me, to be honest, But
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: it's a good day and we're talking about them at
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: a time of the year where it doesn't seem that
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: far away now, which is nice. You know, we've been
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: talking about it. We've been thinking about prospects at Baseball
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: America all off season, but the off season seems really
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: short now as we're talking about you know, spring training
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: games not that far away, college baseball not that far
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: away or started here for d two and also very
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: fun time to be at BA.
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: But yeah, thank you for taking some time to join us.
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: If you're watching on YouTube, you can see our promotion below.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: But if you scan the QR code and use the
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: promo code Tiger thirty and get thirty percent off the
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: first year of any annual Baseball America subscription, so there
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: is our plug for that. You can unlock some of
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: that content, including the annual prospect rankings. The Tigers fared
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: quite well, I think in this year's ranking, and it's
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: been a pretty best ever change best best ever.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: All right, there you go.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: So we never had the Tigers decide their number two
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: in our farm system rankings, which I gotta be honest, like,
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: let's just be straightforward about it, Like the Tigers over,
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: we've been doing these rankings since nineteen eighty four. I
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: thankfully can't say that I'm that old that I've been
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: doing sin saety four. Baseball America has been doing them
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: since eighty four, and over the vast majority of those years,
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: the Tigers have been in the bottom half of our
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: farm system rankings. And if we look back on it,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: you know, there have been some pictures, you know, Verlander,
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Sure there's been. There have been pictures comes to hitters.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: It was pretty bleak there for really much of the
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: twentieth cent first century.
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  Speaker 2: And here we are.
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  Speaker 3: Obviously Riley Central, Torkisen hadn't turned out so far, but
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Riley Green did. Then you look at this group right now,
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: and this does feel like some of like maybe one
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: of the best assemblages of high end Tiger prospect talent,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: you know, really that the Baseball America era, which is
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: basically forty plus years.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So one of the ways I wanted to kind of
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: start this off JJ was I was, I was curious
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: from your perspective, from the BA perspective, about the balance
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of the Tiger system right now. And I kind of
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: mean that in two different ways. First, like the position
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: player to pitch your balance, and then also the balance
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: of like near major league ready talent and then some
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: of the talent that's on some of the lower rungs
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: because one of the caveats of being more highly ranked.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: The last time you mentioned Green, you mentioned Torque was
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: like by that time there basically major leaguers is like,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: what's happening after that? So if you could give us
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: your interpretation of the balance of the farm system right now, please.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: So I would say this one's a little bit more
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: evenly spread out than the last time. Now, the last
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: time worked out, you know, again, like Torque we can
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: talk about, but you know, I still don't know what's
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: gone wrong there. But that was also Terrek Scooble, So
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: like there was some balance there too, because you had
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: him coming up kind of with that same group as well,
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: and you know it was kind of Trek Scooble and
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: you know, throw a number of pictures there. But obviously
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: School's god n't be the best. You look at this,
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Jackson Job's knocking on the door. Obviously he was in
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: the big leagues at the end of last year. He
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: was on the team, you know, the team's playoff rosters.
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: So I would expect that we're going to see Jackson
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: Job a lot in the big leagues this year. There
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: are other prospects in the top ten that are also
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: kind of basically who've played in the big leagues already.
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  Speaker 2: We've seen Chray Sweeney, you.
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  Speaker 3: Know, like there's Jayce Young, who you know, let's figure
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: out where he's going to play defensively.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: You know, maybe there's.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Guys like that, But then there's also Max Clark, there's
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  Speaker 3: Kevin McGonagall. There are guys who are probably more of
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: a year away or two years in some cases, maybe
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: even a way. So there is going to be kind
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: of you would say, and this is kind of on
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  Speaker 3: the heels of the Tigers also have graduated some guys recently,
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: so it is kind of right now, kind of that
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: ideal scenario in some ways, where you're graduating guys, you've
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: got a next group who's coming up, then you've got
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: a group after that. Now I do think it'll thin
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: out to some extent because one of the reasons they
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: have all these guys is they drafted Max Clark very high.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: They drafted Jackson Joe very high. Maybe playoffs last year,
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  Speaker 3: they're probably you know, if the Tigers, if things go
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: the way the Tigers want and expect them to go,
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  Speaker 3: they will not be drafting nearly that high anytime going
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: forward for a while. And so that's going to start
• 4:58
  Speaker 3: thinning it out. But it is if there's a mix
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: of pictures, I would say it's position player heavy, but
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: there are pictures here. And then on top of that,
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  Speaker 3: I would say there are knocking on the door guys
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  Speaker 3: mixed in with some guys who you know are a
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: year or two away, which is again and I spent
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: more catchers than I can ever remember the Tigers having it.
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: We can start with the big one, Jackson job. I
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: think he ranked number three overall on your list. For
• 5:25
  Speaker 4: as talented as he is, he has made a lot
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  Speaker 4: of tweaks throughout his time in the minor leagues. He's
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: still playing around towaying with his arsenal. What did you
• 5:34
  Speaker 4: kind of see or hear from him over the past
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: year that has influenced his development?
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  Speaker 3: As you mentioned, this is the guy who does like
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: to get in the weeds, and I think that's not
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: a bad thing. I think that there's a lot to
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: benefit from a guy who.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: I would say that Jackson job.
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: If there's any it's hard to find knocks on him
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  Speaker 3: at a macro level. I know that his walk rate
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: went up last year, but I do want to you know,
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: I keep kind of emphasizing his strike rate. His strike
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  Speaker 3: percentage didn't change. This is the guy who had one
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  Speaker 3: of the best walk rates in the minor leagues two
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  Speaker 3: years ago. Last year the walk rate ran up, but
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  Speaker 3: I think that's more of a pitch selection and things
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: he's trying to do more than it was. Oh, he
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: lost the feel for the strikes up. His strike percentage
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: was one of the best in the in the minor
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  Speaker 3: leagues last year is like sixty seven to sixty eight percent.
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  Speaker 3: You don't see guys doing that many strikes. In his case,
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: sequencing could probably get a little better. But again, I
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: think he does at times in the minors. I don't
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: want to say he gets bored, but I do think
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  Speaker 3: there's times where he's like, I'm going to try to
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  Speaker 3: do this, and maybe like he's not just rearing back
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  Speaker 3: where he gets fastball strike one, fastball strike two and
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  Speaker 3: then says, Okay, now I'm going to try the secondaries
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  Speaker 3: when okay, in reality, that guy's not going to catch
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: up to his fastball could be fastball strike three. He's
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  Speaker 3: trying to work, he's thinking about the long term. He
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  Speaker 3: has obviously multiple secondaries. He has multiple effective secondaries. I
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: do think at times, though, like if when I talked
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: to scouts about him, they would say, like, at times,
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  Speaker 3: maybe he got beat on his third or his fourth
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  Speaker 3: best pitch for a hit, not usually for a homer,
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  Speaker 3: but for a hit in you know, in the miners
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  Speaker 3: where it's like, why is he throwing that? But I
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  Speaker 3: think that that's kind of for him part of the
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  Speaker 3: bigger picture of he doesn't really he's not trying to
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  Speaker 3: win an ERA title in an eerie He's trying to
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  Speaker 3: be big league ready, and you know, like you saw
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  Speaker 3: him in the majors last year, you know, obviously different role,
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  Speaker 3: but this is a guy who stuff wise matches up
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  Speaker 3: quite favorably with pretty much anyone in the miners or majors.
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  Speaker 2: And then you do kind.
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  Speaker 3: Of throw in that does have control, It does have command,
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  Speaker 3: does have some field a pitch, does have multiple pitches,
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  Speaker 3: does have multiple ways of attacking hitters. It's kind of
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  Speaker 3: exciting if you can stay healthy, to think of what
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  Speaker 3: this guy could look like twenty six, twenty seven, twenty
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  Speaker 3: eight years old, which is still quite a ways away. Like, again,
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  Speaker 3: they're very different pitch, but it's hard not to think
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  Speaker 3: of like when Derek Scouble came up the report on school,
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  Speaker 3: who obviously draft pedigree wise was very different. But by
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  Speaker 3: the time Schooble reached the majors, when you went just
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  Speaker 3: talked about pure stuff.
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  Speaker 2: His pure stuff was.
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  Speaker 3: As good as almost any one of the miners, and
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  Speaker 3: it was like, Okay, now let's see him work it out,
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  Speaker 3: sort this out in the majors. And once he did,
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: you know, we saw last year like what that can be.
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  Speaker 3: I'm not saying that Jackson Job's going to have a
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: cy Young Award in his future, but at the same time,
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  Speaker 3: it's not crazy at all to think he could because
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  Speaker 3: that's the kind of stuff he has.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, Schooble actually talked to us about that.
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  Speaker 1: We had him on a couple of weeks ago, and
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: you know, he was like, I my fastball got me
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  Speaker 1: to the majors, so I'm just gonna run this fastball
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  Speaker 1: And it got run out of the stands quite a
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  Speaker 1: bit his rookie year especially, and that was part of
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: the learning curve. So it's interesting that you bring up
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: job kind of at least mentally thinking about the next
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: step and trying to get ahead of that, which I
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: assume is what he's being coached and developed into in
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the system as the Tigers are currently constructed. So with
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: that in mind, I'm curious from your perspective with the
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: rise the Tigers have had in the rankings and the
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: caliber prospects that you are ranking them, Like where, like
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: who or what is getting the most credit in your
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: or deserves the most credit in your opinion for the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: You know, anybody can draft all these guys in the
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  Speaker 1: first round are going to probably be ranked relatively high
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: to begin their careers, but they have to develop and
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: then they rise up the rankings. Right, That's how it works.
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  Speaker 1: So what do you give the most credit to for
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: this like rise in the Tigers farm system.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: I'm going to give a crappy answer, but success has
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: many you know many you know fathers, forefathers and all.
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: It is something where I think the biggest thing you
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: would have to say is there is a cohesiveness kind
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: of that threads through here, right which is I'm not
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: going to say, you know, there are multiple hands as
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: far as pitching development.
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  Speaker 2: Obviously Chris Feeder, you know.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: The pitching coach, our major League Coach of the year
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: last year, plays a role in that.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: But I don't want to make it sound.
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: Like oh, because obviously he's not sitting there working with
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: the minor league pitchers every day, but just cohesive planned,
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: you know. Aj Hinch is the manager, but I would
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: say that he's part of this. You can look at
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: the entire front office. You can look at Ryan Garko,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: you know, and the you know, the cohesiveness of the
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: farm system and the instruction that's kind of now I
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: think has a little bit more of a of a
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: consistent message. I think that you can see some traits.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: You know, the Tigers are not particularly expansive. I would
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: say about, hey, this is what really works for us
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: on the pitching side.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Check at that. But you can see some traits.
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: That stand out, And I'd say one of the trades
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: that stands out is the Tigers very much emphasize for
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: all their pictures but especially their starting pitching prospects, they
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: want them to have ways to get a right handed
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: hitter out and a ways to get a left handed
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: hitter out.
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  Speaker 2: And if that means.
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: That you're kind of it, I see some roots of
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: the old Astros approach, which obviously aj Hinch came from.
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: You know, was with the Astros for for quite a while.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: And with the Astros it was like, we're gonna they're
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: going to develop the fastball, they're going to develop a slider. Often,
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: they're gonna have a slider and a curve ball, and
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: then they're have a change up. And you might pitch
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: a right hander this way, and then you may pitch
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: up entirely differently to a left hander. But the thing
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: about it is is by kind of it didn't mean
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: that every one of those pitchers mastered every one of
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: those pitches, but by asking kind of all of them
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: at an earlier age to try to master all of them,
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: you kind of figure out where they are. Like, you know,
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: some guys again we talk about now, you know, talk
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: to coaches, you hear a lot about supernators. You know pronators.
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: You know there are pitchers who just the way the
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: ball comes out of their hand, the way their armworks,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: is going to you know, if you're a if you're
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: a pronator, you're probably going to have a different change
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: up than the guy who's a supernat So you know,
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: if you're if you're if you're let me try to
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: get into this right. If your hand comes out this
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: way versus this way more comfortably, that's going to affect
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: how you pitch. But by giving, by asking all these
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: starters to do multiple things from an early part of
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: their pro career, you open up avenues that maybe they
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: had never seen before, maybe hadn't realized before.
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  Speaker 2: But the other part I would.
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: Say about that is is it opens up avenues where
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: a guy who was maybe you know, like a four
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: seam uh, you know, curveball guy may find that the
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: slider really unlocks something for him. And you see that
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: with the Tigers, like you see that. I think that
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: with the Tigers, one of the things that you have
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: to give them credit for is okay when a when
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: a Terrek Scooball, who is a scouting success story, is
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: a player development success story, is a personal development success story,
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: every bit of this right. He was not a first
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: round pick and he ends up being a sy young warner.
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: That's a giant success story for this organization. But to
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: go kind of beyond that, there are a lot of
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: pitchers who've had success for the Tigers at the big
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: league level who were i mean kind of like almost
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: found talent at some point in their career. And we're
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: seeing not just believers. You see a lot of I mean,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: there are a lot of relievers in the major leagues
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: who were cast off at some point in their career.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: But you're seeing like starters or you're seeing like a
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: Cater Montero last year. Who I mean, I've been talking
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: to guys about Montera for years who are like, oh,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: this guy's going to be a good reliever in the
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: big leagues. But when you say, well, what about starter,
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: It's like, no, he's not going to be a starter.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: They figured out a way. Now, when you talk about
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: the creativity of that, they didn't ask these guys, you know,
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: after they traded away Flaherty and said like, hey, we're
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: both in it, but we're also acquiring talent to help
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: bulke up the.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Farm system for the future.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: They didn't say to these guys, okay, so these are
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: the guys who are going to ask to get twenty
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: four outs a night going forward. It was like, how
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: can we position this picture to get twelve, fifteen, sixteen,
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: seventeen ounce for us? But how can we set him
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: up where we're going to get him against the parts
• 14:18
  Speaker 3: of the lineup where he can do that more capably
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: than if we put him against this part of the lineup.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: We don't want him turning over that part of the
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: lineup twice, but we do want him turning over this
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: part of the lineup twice again. Doing a lot of
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: kind of really granular in depth stuff of looking at
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: how you can put set pictures up for success. That's
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: something you know, again you see that at the major
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: league level, But I would say, you know, if you
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: go beyond the major league level, when you go to
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: some of the guys like the brand Herders and of
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: all of the world, you know that have done that
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: and are doing that, and it's like, Okay, the Tigers
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: are really helping set up guys to have success, not
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: just say Okay, go out there and throw.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: That's not boring at all.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: DJ.
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: That was fascinating. I got my mind going a million
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: different directions just thinking of the seeds that the Tigers
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: have laid at the minor league level, A lot of
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: them you just laid out, and how we've already seen
• 15:16
  Speaker 4: them play in the major leagues. The Tigers bullpen is
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: full of like put two neutral pitchers, make them very
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: difficult to match up against.
• 15:24
  Speaker 3: We've seen a lot of them started in the miners.
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: A lot of them who started in the miners, a
• 15:28
  Speaker 4: lot of them whom were not heralded draft picks. We've
• 15:32
  Speaker 4: seen the Tigers give a few help a few guys
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: ad splitters. Ty Madden comes to mind. Typically it put
• 15:37
  Speaker 4: two neutral pitch. So there's there's a lot of thought
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: that's going into all of this about matchups.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: And let's just look at her her for a second. Right,
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: if you said in a different world and an older world,
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: probably her would probably end up as a lefty relief specialist,
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: right where it'd be like, this guy can get lefties out.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Okay, that's good enough.
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: Cool, We don't want him to face right handed hitters,
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: but they helped get him to a point where right
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: handed hitter steps in the box, which, by the way,
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: nowadays you kind of you're not going to have a choice, really,
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: you know, like three batter minims and all you there
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: is no such thing as the lefty who just gets
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: to face lefties. But he's a guy who has a plan.
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: Like I love how he can kind of backdoor right
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: handed hitters and he does have ways to attack. It's
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: not like, Okay, well there's not a lefty up, I'm
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: in trouble. They've they've worked with him to make it
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: where it works out for him, and that's why, like
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: there's guys on this list, like, Okay, I could put
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: a Jaden Ham. Ten's always a tough one because tens
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: your top ten prospect verse eleven. Herders our number ten prospect,
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: Hams are eleven, and I could see the argument Ham's
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: a much more exciting prospect in some ways, but I
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: did want at the end of the day, like what
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: Hurderr's doing and already has done in the big league
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: level is really valuable and he's already shown he can
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: do it, and I think Ham could end up being better,
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: but he's a good bit further away.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're talking with JJ Cooper Baseball America. Tiger thirty
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: the code you get thirty percent off in any annual subscription,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: so that is Tiger thirty. Yeah, we're a little bit
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: more than fifteen minutes into this and we have done
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: a little bit of a disservice. We haven't talked really
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: about Max Clark yet, the most visible of Tiger's prospects,
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: if not arguably the best. I know he's not ranked
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: that way, but maybe he will one day.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: This year when as soon as Joe graduates.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so when you read, when you read about Max,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: and then you see, like the highlights, the tools are
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: the ones. The obvious tools are obvious. That's a weird
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: way to phrase it, but like the speed, the glove,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: the contact, like it all plays out pretty quickly. If
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: there's something that I want to say, knock that might
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: be too strong of a word, but that people say, well,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: he's not quite there yet, it's power. So so I'm wondering,
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: in your opinion a kind of what do you kind
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: of see Max Clark's ceiling as a little bit of
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: a polarizing pick at the time because why at Lamford
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: was right there, like what is Max Clark seeing a
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: ceiling and do you think he can develop, you know,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: a power tool that will get him, you know, to
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: maybe another tier eventually.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think. I mean we got to remember this
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: guy's still really young. Like I mean, this is you know,
• 18:34
  Speaker 3: one of the things when you draft a high school
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: outfielder at the top of the draft like this, it's
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: easy when we're especially when comparing him to guys like
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: I said, Langford's already in the big league, since it's like, okay,
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: but white Langford is three years further along basically in
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: his development than Max Clark. It's it's something where when
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: you even compare him to Walker Jenkins, which I think
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: is also the easy one to compare him to, because
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Walker Jenkins, you know, those were the two high school outfitters,
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: Neck Class and Walker Jenkins. You know, he's a bigger guy.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: Although Walker Jenkins also faces power questions because in Jenkins's case,
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: I would say it's about just the nature of his
• 19:11
  Speaker 3: Swing's kind of a Joe Mauer swing where you're like,
• 19:14
  Speaker 3: maybe he develops power, maybe he learns to lift it
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: a little bit more, or maybe he just ends up
• 19:18
  Speaker 3: being that high average hit or the powers not as
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: much as his frame would seem to indicate. But in
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: Clark's case, I would say, you kind of want to
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: see the hit tool lead to the power. I don't
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: think that that's crazy at all to think like in
• 19:33
  Speaker 3: his development he's he's never going to be the most
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: physical player, although he's also not Like I don't want
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: to make it sound like he's some scrawny run either,
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: because clearly he's not. You know, like when you see Max,
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: that's not him. But but I would say though, like
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: it kind of reminds me there was some of this
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: questions with Riley Green when he was coming out of
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: high school, right like he was kind of pure hit
• 19:56
  Speaker 3: first and then okay, well the power will come. I
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: would just say, like with a guy like Max, and
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: we could talk about McGonagall the same way.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: Like that the Tigers.
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: If I went big picture on this, there was a
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: time when the Tigers I felt like drafted athletes and
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: then like, oh, we're going to help them learn how
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: to hit, and then especially on the college side, like
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: this guy's really good fielder, he's a really good athlete,
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: and then they would hit pro ball and it's like, oh,
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: they really can't hit, and that's a hard thing to
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: learn how to do. The Tigers very much now it's like, okay,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: let's take the hit tool first and let's add the power.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: And I do think, especially if you when you're talking
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: about guys who have enough physicality, the bat's not going
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: to get knocked out of their hands. They're going to
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: get to some power now, especially nowadays in the major leagues.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: I think that you're talking I think with Max Clark,
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: you're talking more. You're thinking more twenty home run power,
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: not thirty, thirty, five, forty, but twenty home run power,
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: hitting for average, getting on base, stealing bases, playing center field.
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: That's not just a good player. That's it's like a
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: like that's an impact player that kind of helps carry
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: your team kind of guy.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: I think that that this is going to be a
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: big year for him and McGonagall, just because last year
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: they got their feet wet, they got kind of established,
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: you know. And I mean it's McGonagall, which you know,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: wishes he had kind of been healthier a little bit more,
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: but you know, you wish that for him. But I
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: think this year could be the year for both of
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: them where now that they have that kind of that
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: experience behind them, now that there should be getting to
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: double a you know, at some point this year, this
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: could be kind of the breakout year where you say,
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: by the end of this year, you're asking the question, Okay,
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: these guys ready to help. And the other thing I
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: would say, if I was gonna if I was going
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: to basically offer a mild complaint about some of the
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Tigers prospects who have come up recently. They've gotten hitters,
• 21:54
  Speaker 3: but there are a lot of these guys who've come
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: up and you really do ask the question, like where
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: are they going to play defensively? Like I mean, obviously,
• 22:01
  Speaker 3: as we're doing this right now, we don't know where
• 22:03
  Speaker 3: Alex Bregman's gonna play. But I will say, like, like
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: I went, like, the part of this is I love
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: watching I love you know, it sounds like the NFL,
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: but I love grinding tape when I do this and
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: watching Jace Young, which I know you guys probably got
• 22:18
  Speaker 3: to see a lot of too, but watching every defensive
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: play at third base I could for Jace Young last year.
• 22:26
  Speaker 3: It's not like it's not just say it's not ready,
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: it's enough where you asked the question will that ever
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: be a fit for him?
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: We talked about Colt.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: Eith when he came up and it was like, oh,
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: he's a second basement and it's like, no, that's really
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: a stretch. Justin Henry molloy could hit, and it was like,
• 22:43
  Speaker 3: where is he going to play? Oh it is a
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: third basement.
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: Nah.
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: You know, there was a lot of these guys where
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: you're like, Okay, these guys can hit, but they can't
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: all end up in left field, you know, like and
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: you know, and that's kind of where there was that
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: wave of guys where we don't know if Keith play
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: in the dirt, we don't know where Jayce Young can play.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: We don't know where Justin Henry molloy can play. You know,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: Carrie Carpenter who's become a revelation, been a great player,
• 23:09
  Speaker 3: but it's like, again, he's limited defensively. All these guys
• 23:13
  Speaker 3: having a guy like a Clark who he's gonna play
• 23:15
  Speaker 3: up the middle, he's you know like with okay, maybe
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: he doesn't credit to Meadows. If Meadows is in center,
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: you could see Clark in a corner, not because he
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: can't play center, but you're gonna have a center fielder
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: in a corner in that situation, which, again like the
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: Greef scenario I think for the Tigers is one day
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: you have Green, Meadows and Clark. That's three center field
• 23:35
  Speaker 3: types all in the outfield. McGonagall, is he going to
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: be a shortstop? I don't know, but I promise you this,
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: he's good enough. He's gonna be a shortstop or he's
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: gonna be a good second baseman. Like this, these are
• 23:46
  Speaker 3: guys who they are not that wave of guys who
• 23:50
  Speaker 3: came up where you're like they're really trying to stretch
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: them to the limit of their defensive ability to see
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: if they can fill a hole. These are guys who
• 23:58
  Speaker 3: are kind of more up the middle, who the question
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: is going to be, Okay, you may have someone better
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: at that position, but these guys are going to be
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: defensive assets.
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: WELLD you mentioned McGonagall.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: I think he's probably the guy I'm most interested to
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: watch the spring, just because I haven't seen a ton
• 24:13
  Speaker 4: of them in a person and he rose up really fast,
• 24:16
  Speaker 4: ring number twenty three on your list. Interested to see
• 24:20
  Speaker 4: how he looks at shortstop. Also interested to see more
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: of this bat for myself, what do you think the
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: players saw in him?
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: This is the very again good scouting by them and
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: good development because McGonagall was a guy who I know
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: I got to give big battle on our staff credit.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: He'd seen him a lot and really was a believer
• 24:39
  Speaker 3: in him. But I would say, like, pretty quickly it
• 24:43
  Speaker 3: became clear like, Okay, this is not they got Max
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Clark and then they got Kevin McGonagall. This is they
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: got Max Clark and Kevin McGonagall. And when you like
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: Ker what you said, like that, Okay, Max Clark could
• 24:54
  Speaker 3: be their number one before long. The one other thing
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: I should note on that, like these guys are really
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: close together, and you can it is not hard to
• 25:05
  Speaker 3: find scouts, evaluators, you know, for teams who like if
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: you said, who do you like better? Clark mcgonaga, who
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: said McGonagall, Like, it's not unanimous, obviously we have Clark
• 25:15
  Speaker 3: ahead of McGonagall, but it's something where there's a very
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: interesting question there. Both of these guys look like who
• 25:23
  Speaker 3: they could have impact beats. I would say that McGonagall defensively,
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: I think there's still are questions about shortstop, but he's
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: better than what the expectation was for him coming out
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: of high school. I would say, like as a hitter,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: there was guys who really liked him as hitter coming
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: out of high school. But I would say he's been
• 25:40
  Speaker 3: better than you know that. And the thing that's interesting again,
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: like looking at this forward, you know when I keep
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: kind of segueing us to the next guy, you know,
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: and accidentally, but when you talk about a Bryce Rayner,
• 25:53
  Speaker 3: you know, like on this too. Again, probably the Tigers
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: hope the last time that they get to pick at
• 25:59
  Speaker 3: the top of the draft of a guy of that
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: talent for a while. It does kind of line up like, okay,
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: so in an ideal world for them, they had these
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: we just talked about these bats who kind of gravity
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: moves them to the corners right their corner outfielders or
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: their corner infielders who are pushed defensively at those positions,
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: and then what they did after that we talk about
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: kind of this progression they've now kind of emphasized up
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: the middle, like the guys that they have Clark's a
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: center fielder and could move to a corner. Mcgonagall's a
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: shortstopp or a second basement. Bryce Rayner is a shortstop,
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: then we could get to all the catchers that they have.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: It's all up the middle guys, which really does fit
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: pretty well for an organization that kind of has when
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: you talk about Carpenter, when you talk about Riley Green,
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: when you talk Okay, maybe it's not torque, but when
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: you talk about col Keith, you know, when you talk
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: about these guys who kind of have moved to the
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: down the defensive spectrum, they now have these guys who
• 26:56
  Speaker 3: are kind of plugging in who could fit in the
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: middle of the defensive spectrum, which kind of increases athleticism
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: and increases your defense down the road.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: So yeah, and I love the fact that Clark and
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: McGonagall are like just forever connected, same draft, every prospect list,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: They're like right next to each other. It seems like
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: they're you know, buddy, buddy, you know, throughout the system.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: And and I always say like to people that you know,
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Lament not having Langford and we obviously don't know what
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: kind of major leaguer he's gonna be, is like you
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: know these it's not like you probably don't have McGonagall
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: if you take Langford, like probably, So it's all it's all.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: It's all like connected and to the Brass's credit in Detroit,
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: like that was an underslot overslot thing they did. And
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: then with Rayner it you know, they went overslought because
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: they wanted to get They wanted to get the guy
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: that you know, fit the profile what they're looking for.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: So they've done it different ways. I guess it is
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: my main point. But Bryce Rayner is a guy that
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: I'm really interested in to see how he Obviously it's
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: going to be his first outing in pro ball. He
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: probably he hasn't played probably a competitive game in baseball,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: I don't know, like eight months, like it's probably been
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: a long time, probably a long time. So uh, if
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: you could just kind of expand on like the scouting
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: report of a Bryce Rainer and it seems like you're
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: pretty confident he can stick it short, which I know
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: that was one of the things that people were, you know,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: that was part of the is like is he a
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: short stop? You know obviously I don't know, But what's
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: what's your scout on Rainer?
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: Well, we'll see, you know, on that, we will see
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: like he is the non traditional from that standpoint in
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: that I would say again twenty years ago, he wouldn't
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: be a short stop because he doesn't run right. It
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: used to be is like, can't be a short stop
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: if you're a blow average. Corey raises his hand Carlos Korea,
• 28:42
  Speaker 3: who did get faster and then slowed back down, But
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: he raises his hand like there are guys who have
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: proven you can play shortstop. You like first step quickness
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: and long you know sixty yards, you know sixty foot.
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: You know base to base speed are two different things.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: So that's a little bit less traditional. But you know,
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: we do have to see with him. I mean, he's
• 29:03
  Speaker 3: a guy who at different times in his amateur careers
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: like this guy gonna be a pitcher or is this
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: guy going to be a short stop, So there are
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: some questions there. The other thing I do find fascinating
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: about this, and I'm not saying they're the only team.
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: That does this, but.
• 29:16
  Speaker 3: Man, the Tigers love left handed hitting in films like
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: they almost don't have right handed hitting in fielders. Like
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: it is something where you just look up and down
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: this depth chart, you look at the big league level,
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: you look everywhere, and it's like, I mean, I know
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: that there are a number of left handed hitting left
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: handed hitting crows right in fielders. Obviously you are gotta
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: throw right if you're gonna play second, short, third, But
• 29:40
  Speaker 3: almost everyone the Tigers draft there's like, okay, maybe we'll
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: work a switch hitter in here or something. But it's
• 29:46
  Speaker 3: very left handed heavy, which is interesting to me just
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: how that happens, you know, how that kind of works.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: But no, he's one of the guys like Cody you mentioned,
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: who you're looking forward to seeing if I get down
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: to Florida, I'm really looking forward to seeing, you know,
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: getting to Lakeland and seeing because as as y'all mentioned,
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: he hasn't played a whole lot in quite a while.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Kind of want to see.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: Okay, so how does he look that first that first
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: year you don't want the first full year, you don't
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: want to overrate it, but you can get a pretty
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: decent sense of and I would expect him to hit
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: the ground running, like you consider the background and all,
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: like he is coming out of one of the absolute
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: best areas for high school baseball in the country. You
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: give like, you know, you when you take a guy
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: from you know, the Northeast or something, a high school
• 30:31
  Speaker 3: guy and he hits the ground, takes a little time,
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: You're like, Okay, he's got to he's got.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: To catch up to the speed of this.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: You come from La Area cif you do not have
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: to catch up to the speed, You're like, nope, this
• 30:44
  Speaker 3: is nothing that I have not seen before. So I
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: would expect him to kind of hit the ground running
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: and have a good start, you know, And again, he'll
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: probably be going to the Florida State League.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: He wouldn't have to.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: Worry about the weather, and you don't have to worry
• 30:56
  Speaker 3: about the park in West Michigan or anything like that
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: right away. So I would expect him to have a
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: pretty good start to the season.
• 31:03
  Speaker 4: Well, there is at least one switch hitter or note
• 31:05
  Speaker 4: in the Tiger system. That's Tigern Lorenzo traded in the
• 31:08
  Speaker 4: Flarty deal, and at the time I thought that was
• 31:12
  Speaker 4: a pretty good trade. I liked it more than a
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: lot of people. I had no idea what Lorenzo was
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: going to go on to do in West Michigan and
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: then the Arizona Fall League. What do you make of
• 31:22
  Speaker 4: this guy and why he was more successful, especially in
• 31:24
  Speaker 4: the second half last year.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Catching's hard, you know.
• 31:28
  Speaker 3: I'll always start with that right like again, like you know,
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: we don't have to spend a lot of time on
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: Dylan Dingler, but just look at how long Dylan Dingler.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: Everyone's loved his glove for a long time. The bat
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: really took off last year. Well that's a that's a guy,
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: that's a college guy, and it took him multiple years
• 31:43
  Speaker 3: in pro ball. I kind of like it never surprises
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: me when a catcher takes longer to develop at the plate,
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: because if you told me that it takes them two
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: three years just to figure out how to kind of
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: survive and hold up doing what you're doing. It's not
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: just catching is hard during the games, but like this
• 32:05
  Speaker 3: is you're catching bullpens. You know, you're working with pitchers,
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: like you have two full time jobs. Like even if
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: you're playing shortstop, your job is to Okay, I'm gonna
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: take some infield, Okay, I'm gonna hit, I'm ready to go.
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: As a catcher, one of your jobs is kind of
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: almost completely selfless, Like I'm doing this stuff not because
• 32:26
  Speaker 3: it's helping me, although it might, but because my.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: Pitchers need me to do this.
• 32:31
  Speaker 3: And again in the minor leagues it's gotten better than
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: it used to be, but still you're gonna be out there,
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: you know, doing early work day after day after day,
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: trying not to wear down. And I mean there's a
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: little bit I think of that, but because Loren's is
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: still young. But I do think also just this is
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: the guy who's you know, he was a pretty prominent prospect,
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: you know, coming up through the Dodger system, although it's
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: kind of hard to really break out in a system
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: that feels like it has a thousand prospects who stand
• 32:57
  Speaker 3: out that way.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: So it does.
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: That the Tigers really did get to kind of have
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: the best of both worlds in that you could really
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: look at that Flaarty trade and say, man, they gave
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: up on it even though they you know, still had
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: the smallest chance of making a playoff run. And then
• 33:19
  Speaker 3: you look at it, it's like, no, actually they got
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: better on the pitching Tray Sweeney the other guy they got, like,
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: I know, he didn't like set the world on fire,
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: but man, they needed him down the stretch because they
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: just needed someone who was going to capably play shortstop
• 33:36
  Speaker 3: day in day out, and if anything he hit was
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: like a bonus. But that was getting them more than
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: they had gotten before. And then to add in the
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: best catching prospect in an organization that has like five
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: I think catching prospects. How many do we have on
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: our thirty one, two, three, four, four on the thirty
• 33:54
  Speaker 3: and a couple others who are interesting. Three in the
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: top ten, you know, because we've got Loronzo, We've got Dingler,
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: we've got Jose Persona. Although we're saying it could end
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: up playing for space, but that's that's like, how did
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: they manage to pull that off? They managed to both
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: add a top hundred prospect and somehow in the same
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: trade not kill their chances of making a improbable run
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: to get to the postseason. I mean that that is
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: something that Tigers fans have not had a lot of
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: situations like that to enjoy in recent years. I would say,
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: like the best of both worlds type of trade.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, don't want to take out too much more
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: of your time, but if you I did, think it'd
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: be nice to kind of end the podcast with maybe
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: a biggest riser, maybe someone who's maybe stalled out a
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: little bit, or maybe just a name that you love
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: that's a little bit under the radar people aren't talking
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: about as much. You can answer all three of those.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: You can answer one of them, but whichever kind of
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: names come to mind there JJ, So.
• 34:56
  Speaker 3: Okay, let's try a couple of these. I'm still interested
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: in how you as a guy who would have been
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: on the top a year ago, was a top ten
• 35:04
  Speaker 3: type prospect guy they traded acquired from the Phillies and
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: now has slid down, not because he's been awful by
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: any stretch of the imagination, but just because, oh, they've
• 35:14
  Speaker 3: added a lot more talent in recent years. So he's
• 35:17
  Speaker 3: one who's interesting to me. He's kind of one where
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: the scouts view his defense as he's fine, and then
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: you talk to organizations, not just the Tigers, but other
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: organizations like analytically, his defense really like jumps off the page.
• 35:33
  Speaker 3: So I'm kind of interested to see if the eye
• 35:36
  Speaker 3: test is going to be the case there or the
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: data is picking up something about he's actually better defensively
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: than when you're watching him because the guy guy's always hit.
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: But so if he really is like an above average
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: defender of second base, that would make him really interesting.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: I also do think that when you look at some
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: of those relievers that the Tigers added to the forty man,
• 35:58
  Speaker 3: the guys that in some cases they trade. Again, it
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: wasn't that they made one trade at the deadline. They're
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: also trading with the Rangers, and all you know, they
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: added Tyler Owens to the forty man. They added Chase
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: Lee to the forty man. I don't think that those
• 36:12
  Speaker 3: are going to be impact guys, but the value of
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: having optionable relievers who can give you a month or
• 36:21
  Speaker 3: two months or three months of success at some point
• 36:24
  Speaker 3: during the year.
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: You need those.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: And those are guys like like in Lee's case, I
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: I can't help but root for a side armor who
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: was on a club team in college and then basically
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: pitched his way into a school record for eer at Alabama, Right, Like,
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: how do you not root for a guy like that?
• 36:46
  Speaker 3: When you literally have a guy who's like, Nope, there's
• 36:49
  Speaker 3: no job for me here. I'll just pitch on the
• 36:51
  Speaker 3: club team because I love baseball. Then they see him like, hey,
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: maybe you can help us, and it's like the career
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: era champion in Alabama school history.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: He goes on to Pro Bowl. That's that's amazing. I
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: love guys like that.
• 37:04
  Speaker 3: And so if you told me that he figured out
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: a way, like it's it's hard for me to say
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: that he has no hope of figuring out a way
• 37:12
  Speaker 3: to get big league hitters out when he had to
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: figure out a way first to go, how can I
• 37:16
  Speaker 3: get my way onto the varsity roster because you know
• 37:19
  Speaker 3: I'm pitching, you know, probably at a high school field
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: for a club team, and didn't give up on his
• 37:24
  Speaker 3: dream Like guys like that, I just kind of love that's.
• 37:27
  Speaker 4: Good writing that one down for one of about a
• 37:29
  Speaker 4: million square ideas to dive into and here in spring training. No,
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: thank you so much.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: His nicknames the viper because he's.
• 37:37
  Speaker 4: I didn't I did see that.
• 37:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's awesome, but.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: She doesn't look like viper. I gotta be honest, you
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: picture viper. Chase Lee is not one who strikes me.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: Is like, if you said one of these guys is Viper,
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: you would not pick him out, you would you know,
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: there are other guys that you might be like, Oh,
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: got to be that menacing dude with the you know,
• 37:55
  Speaker 3: the Fu Manchu over there or something.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: Great stuff, great stuff, JJ, thank you, And another reminder,
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: Tiger thirty is the code if you want thirty percent
• 38:08
  Speaker 1: off any annual subscription to Baseball America. You can follow
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: us on social media and JJ on social media for
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: all the great work at Baseball America. Thank you for
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: partnering with us here at foul Territory and for joining
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: us to talk some exciting times in the farmland of
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the Detroit Tigers. So for Karen Steckley, Cody Stavenhagen, and
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: JJ Cooper, everybody have a great day.