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A.J. Hinch Joins Tiger Territory · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:09
Speaker 1: the Bowl Territory Network.
0:11
Speaker 2: I am Karen Steckley.
0:12
Speaker 1: With me as always is Cody Stavenhagen and joining us
0:16
Speaker 1: is a first time, long time and recent finalists for
0:19
Speaker 1: AL Manager of the Year A J.
0:22
Speaker 2: Hinch Detroit Tiger Skipper.
0:24
Speaker 1: How you doing, Thanks for joining us.
0:26
Speaker 2: What's the what's the biggest accomplishment getting a top three
0:29
Speaker 2: vote for Manager of the Year or or being a
0:32
Speaker 2: friend of the program.
0:33
Speaker 1: It's it's well, you get a koozy as a friend
0:35
Speaker 1: of the program, So I would say that actually makes
0:38
Speaker 1: it better. Like I said, appreciate you taking the time
0:42
Speaker 1: for us this offseason. I did have one question right
0:46
Speaker 1: at the top, and you know this is very topical
0:49
Speaker 1: for the off season. Is there any form of player
0:53
Speaker 1: that you have managed before that is a free agent
0:57
Speaker 1: now that recently had a kid or was about to
1:00
Speaker 1: have a kid, trying to get out ahead of any
1:03
Speaker 1: sort of TMG like you know, internet sleuthing that might
1:07
Speaker 1: happen this winter. So just just wanted to set the
1:09
Speaker 1: record straight on that.
1:11
Speaker 2: So that's one of the more popular questions I'm getting.
1:14
Speaker 2: You know, I live in Houston in the off season,
1:16
Speaker 2: I go back and forth between here in Detroit and
1:21
Speaker 2: I'm getting it on planes. I'm getting that question in airport,
1:24
Speaker 2: in both airports, the Houston Airport and the Detroit Airport.
1:28
Speaker 2: I have a great relationship with said player that we
1:31
Speaker 2: will not mention the name. There's got to be a
1:33
Speaker 2: rule that I have to skate here about talking about
1:35
Speaker 2: free agents. But it's fun to be in this position
1:40
Speaker 2: to where there's a lot of talk about us, a
1:42
Speaker 2: lot of talk about us adding and making our team
1:45
Speaker 2: better coming off of an awesome season. But I stay
1:49
Speaker 2: in touch with a lot of former players that I
1:52
Speaker 2: that I've had and look forward to reconnecting.
1:55
Speaker 3: That's all good. I was in gosh, I was driving
1:58
Speaker 3: across like Oklahoma a couple of years ago when the
2:00
Speaker 3: leaked picture of you and Carlos Korea came out, and
2:04
Speaker 3: I don't know, I was like, Okay, what do I
2:06
Speaker 3: even do with this? I have no idea. Kind of
2:08
Speaker 3: ruined my whole day. So I hope you had a
2:10
Speaker 3: nice breakfast.
2:11
Speaker 2: Aja, Yeah, I had no idea that the breakfast that
2:14
Speaker 2: I go to matter to the to the internet world,
2:17
Speaker 2: but found out quickly. You know, it's still recognizable in
2:20
Speaker 2: the city, and more importantly, the Carlos who I was with,
2:25
Speaker 2: was there. Now the true story of that is I
2:27
Speaker 2: did have a baby gift. I was delivering a baby
2:30
Speaker 2: gift to to he and his wife Daniella. And another
2:35
Speaker 2: example of staying in touch. But that man that hit
2:37
Speaker 2: that hit the circuit pretty hard and a lot of
2:41
Speaker 2: conversation around that.
2:42
Speaker 1: Do you remember like seeing that, like or someone telling
2:45
Speaker 1: you about it, like at the time, like you know, hey,
2:47
Speaker 1: what was this? Or like or your reaction when you
2:50
Speaker 1: found out, like, oh my god, I can't do anything.
2:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, my phone started blowing up. You know, all my
2:55
Speaker 2: friends here and the people that follow the teams that
2:59
Speaker 2: I'm around, and all of a sudden, my phone started
3:02
Speaker 2: blowing up, so I could see and then I started looking around,
3:04
Speaker 2: like where it's a suspicious cell phone? Is it underneath
3:06
Speaker 2: the table somewhere? Are we being recorded? Can you hear
3:10
Speaker 2: what I'm saying? You know, my mind started going one
3:13
Speaker 2: hundred miles an hour, but it it was that that
3:16
Speaker 2: was a very you know, looking back, that was a
3:18
Speaker 2: very long week, you know, where we traveled around looking,
3:22
Speaker 2: you know, talking to a lot of different players. I mean,
3:24
Speaker 2: that was a in search of of a shortstop. So
3:27
Speaker 2: it was it was timely, but it was also man,
3:30
Speaker 2: it was it was hectic once, you know, once once
3:34
Speaker 2: it did, the photos started going around, you know everywhere.
3:38
Speaker 1: I say, I was gonna say, also signed a different
3:40
Speaker 1: time because that was the crunched off season with the
3:43
Speaker 1: with the labor dispute coming up. So I mean talk
3:45
Speaker 1: about just like a completely different world than what we're
3:47
Speaker 1: in right now.
3:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know now, I would say nowadays, there's
3:52
Speaker 2: there's no more patients across the sport for for anything.
3:56
Speaker 2: I mean, everybody wants everything done really quickly. We barely
3:59
Speaker 2: got through you know, the postseason, you start getting asked
4:02
Speaker 2: questions about next year's team. I always tell my teams
4:05
Speaker 2: at the end of the year like every team is different,
4:07
Speaker 2: and it immediately changes and you start, you know, kind
4:10
Speaker 2: of flipping the switch to the next the next conversation,
4:14
Speaker 2: the next team to build. And fortunately for us, we
4:17
Speaker 2: we got to do that a lot later this year,
4:18
Speaker 2: which is a cool part of the season.
4:21
Speaker 3: That kind of leads right into something I wanted to
4:23
Speaker 3: ask you aj. I think two decades ago, I like
4:27
Speaker 3: to envision managers has kind of disappeared in the off season,
4:30
Speaker 3: but I think the job has become a lot different.
4:32
Speaker 3: So what is this time like for you? Where are
4:35
Speaker 3: you in the country and how do you balance the
4:38
Speaker 3: responsibilities of your job with like your golf game.
4:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. I mean I try to get my
4:43
Speaker 2: golf game back back in shape a little bit. My
4:46
Speaker 2: friends here in Houston, you know, I get to reconnect
4:50
Speaker 2: with that whole social group. My wife and I live here.
4:53
Speaker 2: My kids are both out of the house, ones in college,
4:56
Speaker 2: ones working in Detroit, So I you know, I try
4:59
Speaker 2: to to just decompress a little bit. The job has changed,
5:02
Speaker 2: you know. I think I just did my tenth or
5:04
Speaker 2: eleventh year managing, and the jobs changed from the first
5:08
Speaker 2: time I started managing the off seasons kind of how
5:10
Speaker 2: they were scripted. A lot of attention went to the
5:13
Speaker 2: winter meetings, and you just sort of kicked your feet
5:15
Speaker 2: up a little bit as a manager until the winter
5:18
Speaker 2: meetings started. Yeah. See, we're hiring staff, and yes, you
5:21
Speaker 2: were doing some you know, some reviews with your players
5:24
Speaker 2: or trying to get their off seasons in order and
5:26
Speaker 2: staying connected with your own staff. Now it's all of
5:29
Speaker 2: that where we had forty exit interviews of players that
5:33
Speaker 2: we you know that we had this season Scott and
5:37
Speaker 2: Jeff and I. Sometimes we had fed on there. Sometimes
5:39
Speaker 2: we had Michael Badar on there, just to just to
5:43
Speaker 2: make sure we get the off season off start for
5:46
Speaker 2: our players and what their goals are. Then it would
5:49
Speaker 2: lead to the winter meetings. But it's still a lot
5:51
Speaker 2: of conversation. I talked to Scott daily. You know, we
5:53
Speaker 2: connect at some point every day and try to keep
5:58
Speaker 2: each other updated on things that are going on in
6:00
Speaker 2: our prospective job. So it is, you know, maybe not
6:03
Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty five days a year, but I
6:06
Speaker 2: would say it's upwards of three hundred and fifty to
6:08
Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty days a year where you're connecting
6:11
Speaker 2: with somebody or doing something, you know, kind of chipping
6:16
Speaker 2: away at their responsibilities for the offseason. Head it's just
6:19
Speaker 2: like season and in game season and no game season.
6:22
Speaker 2: Like that's kind of what being a manager nowadays is,
6:24
Speaker 2: Like I can take a vacation, I can get away
6:29
Speaker 2: and and and Scott will will let me be. But
6:32
Speaker 2: it it you know, to be invested in in the
6:35
Speaker 2: operation and be a partner and you know, to the
6:38
Speaker 2: front office, you got to make yourself available as a manager.
6:41
Speaker 1: So, you know you mentioned Scott there a couple of times.
6:43
Speaker 1: I'm I'm always curious about front office to coach slash
6:46
Speaker 1: manager dynamics. And in the case of you two, like
6:50
Speaker 1: neither one hired the other. Right, So you're more or
6:53
Speaker 1: less in the sports equivalent of an arranged marriage, which
6:57
Speaker 1: if you look at you know how a lot of
6:59
Speaker 1: teams are operate. That's relatively unique, even though the Lions
7:03
Speaker 1: are like that actually too. So what's kind of the
7:05
Speaker 1: what's kind of the key to that dynamic that you
7:08
Speaker 1: have with Sky, with you know, his responsibilities and your responsibilities.
7:13
Speaker 1: It's a ben diagrams. Sometimes they mesched, sometimes they're their opposite.
7:17
Speaker 1: What's kind of the key considering that you guys just
7:19
Speaker 1: were more or less, like I said, like kind of
7:21
Speaker 1: force to come together.
7:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, unfiltered communication is probably the most important ingredient.
7:28
Speaker 2: You know, we are we are attached, you know, and
7:32
Speaker 2: and and obviously we we come at this sport from
7:35
Speaker 2: a couple of different angles. I'm on the field, he's
7:37
Speaker 2: in the office. We meshed together. We we are unapologetic
7:42
Speaker 2: at challenging each other and in keeping each other in
7:46
Speaker 2: check on on things that we are are doing, and
7:49
Speaker 2: so I one thing that was really important for our
7:52
Speaker 2: relationship when it when it was arranged, you know, when
7:55
Speaker 2: they when Scott came on board, you know, I got
7:58
Speaker 2: a chance to sit down with them before where he
8:00
Speaker 2: was hired. I got a chance to get to know
8:01
Speaker 2: him a little bit. We knew mutual people, but we
8:04
Speaker 2: didn't really know each other. He was in the Chicago
8:07
Speaker 2: front office when I interviewed for the Cubs job years ago,
8:11
Speaker 2: and but I didn't really interact with him a ton,
8:13
Speaker 2: but a lot of mutual people in the game that
8:16
Speaker 2: kept telling me, and kept telling him this was going
8:19
Speaker 2: to be a good partnership. And and and they were right,
8:22
Speaker 2: you know when when we went through the first year
8:24
Speaker 2: together kind of feeling each other out and communicating the
8:26
Speaker 2: way we do, and he kind of saw my engine,
8:28
Speaker 2: and I saw how he you know, how he is
8:31
Speaker 2: relentless in his pursuit to make us a little bit
8:33
Speaker 2: better day in and day out. It became a really
8:37
Speaker 2: really good relationship, just like everybody, you know, everybody would
8:40
Speaker 2: would think. So at the end of that year, the
8:43
Speaker 2: first day in the off season, he sat me down
8:46
Speaker 2: and immediately wanted told me he wanted this to be
8:48
Speaker 2: a long term partnership. He didn't want me to feel inherited.
8:51
Speaker 2: He didn't want me to feel like it was this
8:53
Speaker 2: arranged marriage that you talked about and and and restructured
8:57
Speaker 2: my deal and gave me a long term deal, and
8:59
Speaker 2: that that meant the world to me. Like, you know,
9:02
Speaker 2: my loyalty to him and in my commitment to do
9:05
Speaker 2: everything I can to partner up with him and be
9:07
Speaker 2: good went through the roof. And so I really appreciated
9:12
Speaker 2: that gesture and that commitment, you know, after one year
9:15
Speaker 2: working together and now we continue to push each other
9:18
Speaker 2: like like we always have.
9:21
Speaker 3: Hey, James, we reflect on the twenty twenty four season
9:23
Speaker 3: a little bit. It's a lot to take in, right,
9:26
Speaker 3: Like I kind of looked back and was like, wait,
9:28
Speaker 3: what just happened? That was a whirlwind? Does it like
9:30
Speaker 3: that for you at all?
9:31
Speaker 2: No, it really happened. Like it wasn't you know, some
9:34
Speaker 2: mirage or some dream or some you know, some make
9:37
Speaker 2: believe movie script story. Like it really happened, you know.
9:40
Speaker 2: I we went through a lot, you know, and I
9:43
Speaker 2: do think the beginning of the season gets a little
9:46
Speaker 2: bit overlooked, and we got off to a decent start, certainly,
9:49
Speaker 2: better starts than I've had, you know, as the as
9:52
Speaker 2: the manager here with the Tigers, and then and then
9:54
Speaker 2: I would like to forget June. I mean that was
9:57
Speaker 2: not the best the best time. We hit by the
10:00
Speaker 2: injury bug and we didn't perform well except for terrk
10:03
Speaker 2: schoobl and Riley for that matter. It really it really
10:08
Speaker 2: was a tale of a couple of different seasons. And
10:10
Speaker 2: then when we had the deadline, you know, there was
10:13
Speaker 2: a lot of emotions, uh, for me and for for
10:16
Speaker 2: our team, you know, around that we were holding on
10:19
Speaker 2: as much as we could, trying to get us to
10:21
Speaker 2: back to five hundred, and then and then the deadline happened,
10:25
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden we had a completely new team.
10:27
Speaker 2: So I know everybody wants to talk about the back
10:31
Speaker 2: half of the season and that was incredible and such
10:34
Speaker 2: a such a fun time to be you know, Detroit Tiger.
10:38
Speaker 2: The year in its entirety is it takes a It
10:41
Speaker 2: takes a while to process kind of the the ebbs
10:43
Speaker 2: and flows of what we went through and then the
10:45
Speaker 2: sprint race at the end, we found ourselves not only
10:48
Speaker 2: in the playoffs, which I think would have satisfied a
10:50
Speaker 2: lot of people, we won a series in Houston, of course,
10:55
Speaker 2: and and and we got to advance and arguably should
10:58
Speaker 2: have advanced even for that, we were in position to
11:00
Speaker 2: win the second series and get to the ALCS. So
11:04
Speaker 2: major steps forward for us as an organization, and we
11:08
Speaker 2: enjoyed every minute of it.
11:09
Speaker 1: Except for Jim Well, you know, on that accord, you know,
11:13
Speaker 1: Cody being the reporter that he is, you know, during
11:17
Speaker 1: this kind of run to the postseason, he's trying to
11:19
Speaker 1: figure out, like, was there a moment? Was there a
11:21
Speaker 1: moment that it kind of clicked for everybody? And to
11:24
Speaker 1: a t to their credit, they were like, no, we
11:26
Speaker 1: always believe, you know, blah blah blah. And I'm not
11:28
Speaker 1: saying that's incorrect, but slightly contradictory to your postgame celeb
11:34
Speaker 1: or postseason clinching celebration where he said, I asked what
11:38
Speaker 1: kind of team you wanted to be, and I guess
11:40
Speaker 1: you wanted to be a playoff team. So was there
11:42
Speaker 1: a pivot point? Was there something that you can look
11:44
Speaker 1: back on and say, that's that's kind of where we
11:47
Speaker 1: could have gone this direction or that direction, and we
11:50
Speaker 1: chose this direction.
11:52
Speaker 2: You know, those celebrations where I don't get to get
11:54
Speaker 2: my senses together, and I started to disclose information to
11:57
Speaker 2: Cody and others that I had kept so private, like
12:01
Speaker 2: I keep those things so close to me. It came out.
12:05
Speaker 2: You know, what what happened after the deadline was we
12:09
Speaker 2: started getting healthy. You know, Carry Carpenter came back, Riley
12:13
Speaker 2: Green was scheduled to come back. We ended up promoting
12:15
Speaker 2: a couple of young players, and and so we we
12:19
Speaker 2: had a meeting about just what the rest of the
12:22
Speaker 2: year was going to be. And if you if when
12:24
Speaker 2: I stood in front of that group and I looked out,
12:27
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't see anybody that had won as
12:30
Speaker 2: Tigers outside of the minor leagues. Every you know, I
12:32
Speaker 2: think guys had won an Eerie and and guys had
12:34
Speaker 2: won in Toledo, but nobody had won in the big leagues.
12:37
Speaker 2: Like Terror Scrubel had never been a part of a
12:39
Speaker 2: winning team in the big leagues. You know, there was
12:42
Speaker 2: there was no sign of of reflection back into the
12:46
Speaker 2: into these experiences, and so, you know, we had two
12:49
Speaker 2: paths we could go. You know, we could turn it
12:51
Speaker 2: into sort of the development level we needed to get
12:53
Speaker 2: better in a lot of different areas. We're gonna get
12:55
Speaker 2: guys some playing time where we're gonna gonna kind of
12:58
Speaker 2: stop with trying to win the margins and and do
13:01
Speaker 2: a lot of the pinch hitting or taking guys out
13:03
Speaker 2: early on the mound, and or we could play Game
13:06
Speaker 2: seven of the World Series for the next two months,
13:09
Speaker 2: and and and asking that team kind of where they're
13:12
Speaker 2: where their minds were at on what they what they
13:14
Speaker 2: believed they were like incredibly all in on let's win
13:19
Speaker 2: as many games as we can. And generally speaking as
13:22
Speaker 2: a manager, that's what you want to hear, right, You
13:24
Speaker 2: want your guys to to buy into, like there is
13:27
Speaker 2: no game that we're just trying hard. This isn't a
13:29
Speaker 2: try hard league. This is not one that we should
13:32
Speaker 2: just show up and see what happens. Like that's garbage.
13:35
Speaker 2: If you want to win, then you've got to you've
13:37
Speaker 2: got to do everything you can in that day to win.
13:41
Speaker 2: And we started playing that way, and you know, kind
13:43
Speaker 2: of the the opener bulk strategy, breaking in young pitchers,
13:48
Speaker 2: which which was a little bit more of the motivation
13:50
Speaker 2: than trying to create pitching chaos, which I did not
13:53
Speaker 2: know would catch on end up on T shirts and
13:56
Speaker 2: end up you know in some articles, but I we
13:59
Speaker 2: wanted to try to do what we could to win
14:01
Speaker 2: every single game, and then you win a series and
14:03
Speaker 2: you win a week. Cody's heard me say that time
14:06
Speaker 2: after time after time, that that's the mentality that we needed.
14:10
Speaker 2: And you know, it wasn't as single It wasn't that
14:12
Speaker 2: meeting that did it it. You know, I'd love the
14:15
Speaker 2: the resilience to win the walk off at the Little
14:18
Speaker 2: League Classic in Williamsport. I mean, obviously as we got
14:22
Speaker 2: deeper into this little run, Parker Meadow's homer, improbable Grand
14:27
Speaker 2: Slam with two strikes against, you know, in one of
14:29
Speaker 2: the toughest environments, including the playoffs that we played in,
14:32
Speaker 2: was in San Diego in September, all the way to
14:36
Speaker 2: that stretch where I think I think I was hearing
14:38
Speaker 2: a lot of noise about all that Kansas City Baltimore trip.
14:42
Speaker 2: You know, it was going to be really cool, and
14:43
Speaker 2: then Trey Sweeney goes all Matrix on us and catches
14:48
Speaker 2: a ball down the left field line. I mean, there
14:50
Speaker 2: were moments along the way. We needed all of them.
14:53
Speaker 2: Albeit we did clinch a playoff birth you know, a
14:56
Speaker 2: few days in advance of the of the of the season, ending,
14:59
Speaker 2: which you know, it felt like it was going to
15:01
Speaker 2: lead towards the last day of the season. Trek Scouoble
15:03
Speaker 2: was going to rescue the day, and instead we got
15:06
Speaker 2: to keep Terrek in Game one and and get off
15:08
Speaker 2: to a good start in the playoffs. So I know
15:10
Speaker 2: I said a lot, but I think there's there's a
15:12
Speaker 2: lot of moments throughout that stretch that we needed to
15:17
Speaker 2: keep our heads on straight and have that attitude that
15:19
Speaker 2: you that you talked about of you know, believing and
15:23
Speaker 2: just trying to figure out that day.
15:25
Speaker 3: I don't think we should overlook the fact you got tossed,
15:27
Speaker 3: I think for the first time all year in Game
15:29
Speaker 3: one sixty two.
15:31
Speaker 2: Last the day of the year. I know I can't
15:32
Speaker 2: disappoint the fans, you know, I know I don't get
15:35
Speaker 2: thrown out, and probably enough for their liking, you know
15:38
Speaker 2: what's funny, like I'm not good at it. I don't.
15:41
Speaker 2: I don't love the rant. I do think they've made
15:44
Speaker 2: it harder and harder for that to happen. You can
15:46
Speaker 2: chirp from the dugout about the strike zone. That's really
15:49
Speaker 2: about it, unless they, you know, don't interpret a rule correctly,
15:53
Speaker 2: or if foot ball hits the wall and Zimac you
15:56
Speaker 2: know who, by the way, had a really up and
15:57
Speaker 2: down season, deserve to hit, you know at the end.
16:00
Speaker 2: But you're right, it did take me till three sixty five.
16:03
Speaker 2: But I I've always subscribed to that, you know, even
16:06
Speaker 2: older managers that I've that I've that I've talked to
16:09
Speaker 2: over the years, and Tony LaRussa and Dusty Baker and
16:12
Speaker 2: Cito Gaston and Bobby Cox. Bobby Cox is the only
16:15
Speaker 2: one that that has the big record of getting thrown
16:18
Speaker 2: out of games. The rest of them would always preach,
16:21
Speaker 2: like your job as the managers to manage the game,
16:24
Speaker 2: and if you leave in the third or fourth or
16:26
Speaker 2: fifth inning, I guess there's an argument some days it
16:29
Speaker 2: probably you know, you need to get out of the
16:31
Speaker 2: way and go and go to your office and let
16:33
Speaker 2: the team play. But you're hired to be that to
16:36
Speaker 2: be that person in the middle of the dugout when
16:39
Speaker 2: when the game matters the most, and you're not going
16:42
Speaker 2: to be that way if you're if you're you know,
16:44
Speaker 2: getting tossed over a borderline ball strike that you can't
16:47
Speaker 2: see from the dugout. Anyway, you guys get to see it.
16:50
Speaker 2: You know, on monitors, we can't tell whether whether it's
16:54
Speaker 2: right or wrong, so I'll get thrown out sooner next
16:57
Speaker 2: year for sure. You know, every time I start to
17:00
Speaker 2: chirp a little bit from the dugout, both Lombard and
17:03
Speaker 2: Fetter tell me to pipe down, so at least my
17:05
Speaker 2: coaches don't want me to get thrown out.
17:08
Speaker 3: In all seriousness, I think one thing covering you for
17:11
Speaker 3: four seasons now, which feels like it's gotten by fast,
17:14
Speaker 3: has definitely made me watch and consume the game more
17:18
Speaker 3: like a manager. Like I know you'll joke about watching
17:21
Speaker 3: other games and you're like, Okay, I need to manage
17:24
Speaker 3: my own team, you know, But I'll do that watching
17:26
Speaker 3: teams around the league, like oh, is he gonna hit
17:28
Speaker 3: for this guy? Here? Is he gonna And as I'm
17:31
Speaker 3: trying to do that watching Tigers games sometimes trying to
17:34
Speaker 3: get in your head and I'm usually wrong, like thinking
17:37
Speaker 3: ahead to what matchup might come up, or especially in
17:40
Speaker 3: the second half of the season with the pitching chaos,
17:43
Speaker 3: I realize it's a lot of information to consume kind
17:46
Speaker 3: of on the fly, like people think baseball's too slow,
17:48
Speaker 3: but then when you're trying to digest everything, it moves
17:52
Speaker 3: really fast. So as a manager, how do you process
17:55
Speaker 3: information during a game? How much data do you have
17:59
Speaker 3: in front of you? Just kind of how does that
18:01
Speaker 3: actually work?
18:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, the homework has done before the game, you know.
18:05
Speaker 2: I try to keep as much you know, data and
18:08
Speaker 2: confusing information off my plate at the moment where it's
18:12
Speaker 2: most I'll have the most important information that I feel
18:16
Speaker 2: like it's that I need, and generally that's going to
18:18
Speaker 2: be our bullpen matchups against their hitters, you know the
18:23
Speaker 2: other stuff. I've done a lot of homework by the
18:25
Speaker 2: time that we get to the game, and I never
18:28
Speaker 2: want to lose my instincts. I never want to lose
18:30
Speaker 2: like combining what I see with what I know. I
18:33
Speaker 2: can study and I can have all the data in
18:35
Speaker 2: front of you, but the eyes up to the field.
18:37
Speaker 2: You have to watch the game and you can you
18:39
Speaker 2: can sense a few things, and instincts still matter in managing.
18:43
Speaker 2: I think. I think as as you know, analytics and
18:46
Speaker 2: information and new age managers and even strategies that have
18:50
Speaker 2: changed over the years. People generally think these are scripted.
18:54
Speaker 2: Like we don't have a like a football play sheet
18:57
Speaker 2: that has like the first ten plays scripted or whatever,
18:59
Speaker 2: like we don't do that in baseball. It feels like
19:02
Speaker 2: that sometimes because of the chess pieces that get moved
19:06
Speaker 2: around during the game. But you have to keep your
19:08
Speaker 2: instincts as a manager and watch the game and not
19:13
Speaker 2: let your emotions get into it. Like I do say,
19:15
Speaker 2: like some of the decisions that get made, whether you're
19:18
Speaker 2: pulling a pitcher, pinch hitting for someone or more appropriately
19:22
Speaker 2: with someone, the guy coming off the bench is the
19:25
Speaker 2: reason that you're pinch hitting. A lot of times, those
19:28
Speaker 2: those plays that they're you know, you've done your homework
19:31
Speaker 2: on the matchup that you want. You also got to
19:34
Speaker 2: pay attention to what you're seeing and stay unemotional when
19:38
Speaker 2: it comes to making those decisions. That's my job is
19:40
Speaker 2: to is to stay grounded in information and grounded in
19:43
Speaker 2: your instincts and not be emotional in the decisions that
19:47
Speaker 2: you make. So I think that the generally the decisions
19:51
Speaker 2: that are made or made maybe an inning in advance
19:54
Speaker 2: or as the game is unfolding, and not at two
19:57
Speaker 2: o'clock like a lot of people seem to think, and
20:01
Speaker 2: certainly not last minute ambush, no information, just roll with whatever.
20:06
Speaker 2: And it's it's hard to explain that sometimes in a
20:10
Speaker 2: media setting or why you did or didn't do things.
20:13
Speaker 2: It's and I say this, I poke fun at Cody,
20:15
Speaker 2: Like Cody's really good with questions after the game. But
20:19
Speaker 2: I'm always wondering if the if the media is going
20:22
Speaker 2: to capture what I'm grinding on the most, like what
20:25
Speaker 2: I am. And a lot of times it's about a
20:27
Speaker 2: decision I didn't make, not a decision that I did make.
20:30
Speaker 2: The decisions I made, I either did or I didn't.
20:33
Speaker 2: In this sport, there's a lot of things that I
20:36
Speaker 2: bypassed along the way, and I'm always curious if you're
20:39
Speaker 2: going to catch it. Cody will catch him every now
20:41
Speaker 2: and then, Karan, he's pretty good at it, but I
20:44
Speaker 2: do keep him on his toes with with what the
20:46
Speaker 2: most important, you know, play of the game is.
20:49
Speaker 1: Yeah, I even I kind of pick up on that
20:52
Speaker 1: a little bit. I was like, I think he's going here,
20:55
Speaker 1: you know, watching those presss. But amongst the data that
20:58
Speaker 1: you have in front of you, do you do you
21:00
Speaker 1: have like a pedometer or are you like tracking your calories?
21:04
Speaker 1: Because I'm just saying during bullpen days, that's a lot
21:07
Speaker 1: of pitching changes, a lot of walks to and from
21:09
Speaker 1: you know, dugout to mound like you had to set
21:11
Speaker 1: a record for managers steps taken in the season, maybe
21:15
Speaker 1: at least a personal record.
21:17
Speaker 2: So let me tell you a funny story real quick.
21:19
Speaker 2: In twenty eighteen, I got to manage the All Star
21:21
Speaker 2: Game and I brought my staff in and I brought
21:25
Speaker 2: Kevin Cash as the as the extra coach, the extra manager.
21:29
Speaker 2: And at the time we stood up in front of
21:30
Speaker 2: our team or all the All Stars, and I was like, hey,
21:33
Speaker 2: my stats here for you. We'll do anything for you,
21:35
Speaker 2: just let us know how you can enjoy your All
21:37
Speaker 2: Star experience. The one member not on my stap's Kevin Cash.
21:40
Speaker 2: And he's the only manager that knows how to use
21:43
Speaker 2: ten pitcher or nine pitchers in nine innings at the time,
21:47
Speaker 2: and that's why he is he is invited to the
21:49
Speaker 2: All Star Game. Little did I know that I was
21:52
Speaker 2: going to sort of morph into into doing this strategy,
21:56
Speaker 2: you know, five six, seven, eight years later, whatever it is.
21:59
Speaker 2: So I think that the best way for me to
22:02
Speaker 2: explain like the pitching chaos or or the bullpen games
22:06
Speaker 2: is I get to choose when the pitcher enters the game,
22:10
Speaker 2: and so when you start before the game and you're
22:12
Speaker 2: doing your homework and you're looking at the pitching matchups,
22:14
Speaker 2: and I look down on my card and I have Holton,
22:17
Speaker 2: and I have Gunther, and I have Hanna Fee, and
22:19
Speaker 2: I have Foley, and I have vest In Brisky. Those
22:22
Speaker 2: are six really mainstays that that that pitched in these
22:26
Speaker 2: bullpen games, you know, not counting Hrder or Madden or
22:30
Speaker 2: or some of the bolt guys. I get to choose
22:32
Speaker 2: when they enter, and that's the most important time that
22:36
Speaker 2: you're bringing a pitcher into a lot. Can happen after that.
22:39
Speaker 2: But if you can get the first guy right, meaning
22:42
Speaker 2: he can go and dominate the guy that he comes
22:44
Speaker 2: in against, you're just either going to squash a rally
22:48
Speaker 2: or you're going to kick start an inning in it
22:50
Speaker 2: in your favor and make it really hard for the
22:53
Speaker 2: for them to score runs because the first out matters.
22:57
Speaker 2: Inherited runners matter. So I spent when more time on
23:01
Speaker 2: where are they going to enter, and not so much
23:04
Speaker 2: like all the chaos that happens of like this and
23:06
Speaker 2: that it's like I want this guy to face this now.
23:08
Speaker 2: There are some games like like Game two in Houston
23:11
Speaker 2: in the in the DS where it was mapped out
23:14
Speaker 2: about as perfectly as I could have scripted. I want
23:17
Speaker 2: this guy to come in here. I want this guy
23:18
Speaker 2: to come in here. I did not want Gunther to
23:21
Speaker 2: come in with the bases loaded and Kyle Tucker up,
23:24
Speaker 2: but I wanted him to face Tucker, and I wanted
23:27
Speaker 2: Tucker to see, you know, three or four different arms.
23:29
Speaker 2: I wanted Bregman to see three or four different arms.
23:32
Speaker 2: And if you can create that, the map, so to speak,
23:35
Speaker 2: gets gets written for you when you pick the first
23:38
Speaker 2: guy and it starts working out in your favor and
23:41
Speaker 2: you can you can run a bullpen game. They're not easy.
23:44
Speaker 2: I'm exhausted at the end of those days. But that's that,
23:48
Speaker 2: to me, was the key in our strategy working is
23:53
Speaker 2: these guys came in and got the first batter out
23:55
Speaker 2: eight ton.
23:57
Speaker 3: Well, speaking of like bad questions from reporters like me,
24:01
Speaker 3: but is there a baseball cliche you hear that you're like, well,
24:06
Speaker 3: that's just not really true, Like is there one that
24:08
Speaker 3: sticks out as like not reality?
24:12
Speaker 2: Oh man, baseball cliche? I mean I I I try
24:18
Speaker 2: to call myself out on these coach speak things all
24:21
Speaker 2: the time. I want to do it before you do it.
24:23
Speaker 2: I don't. I mean, I don't know if either of
24:24
Speaker 2: you your tweeting about it, but I but I really do.
24:28
Speaker 2: I really do want to try to catch myself, and
24:29
Speaker 2: so I always condition that with Cody'll Noah, get hey,
24:33
Speaker 2: I know this is coach speak, but we got to
24:35
Speaker 2: take this one day at a time, right, Like the
24:38
Speaker 2: I think one thing it's not so much a cliche
24:40
Speaker 2: as much as it's a a a perspective that that
24:45
Speaker 2: to come clean on is like we're always paying attention
24:49
Speaker 2: to the rest of the league. Like when we were
24:51
Speaker 2: in this playoff race, we always knew what Cleveland or
24:54
Speaker 2: Minnesota or you know that the Royals were doing. Like
24:58
Speaker 2: you're always walking. You always know that you're in the
25:02
Speaker 2: mix and what you're trying to do. Now you I
25:04
Speaker 2: try to take all that stuff and put it on
25:06
Speaker 2: me or take it away from our team so they
25:08
Speaker 2: can go out and play with freedom. But these guys
25:11
Speaker 2: watch everything. I watch everything, the coaches watch everything. And
25:14
Speaker 2: it's probably the thing I had to do the most
25:17
Speaker 2: this year that I wasn't necessarily prepared for, is how
25:21
Speaker 2: do you shield a team who was arguably one of
25:24
Speaker 2: the number one stories in baseball away from believing or
25:28
Speaker 2: thinking that they're the number one story in baseball because
25:31
Speaker 2: they're watching all the time. Their friends are texting them,
25:33
Speaker 2: their their parents are texting them, their brothers or sisters,
25:36
Speaker 2: and you know, ex coaches. I mean, they're doing it
25:38
Speaker 2: to me too. And so that's probably the thing that
25:42
Speaker 2: is misunderstood the most, like standings watch like people do
25:46
Speaker 2: that in April. It doesn't matter, but people do it.
25:49
Speaker 2: We watch the scoreboard all the time. That's why they
25:51
Speaker 2: put all the out of town scoreboards, you know, right
25:53
Speaker 2: in my vision.
25:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, back in the day, I don't know, you know,
25:57
Speaker 1: and now it's all on the phone.
26:00
Speaker 3: I really thought it was twenty six guys and they
26:02
Speaker 3: always believed and they never had a bad day, and
26:04
Speaker 3: they also somehow never knew where they were in the
26:07
Speaker 3: standings at any point of the year.
26:09
Speaker 2: Right too low, you know. I just tried to strike
26:12
Speaker 2: the fear in them that they can't say that out loud,
26:15
Speaker 2: to get the wrath of me behind closed doors.
26:17
Speaker 3: So did a good job. It worked for the most part.
26:22
Speaker 1: Well on sort of that token, you know. Obviously one
26:25
Speaker 1: of the themes and one of the reasons why the
26:27
Speaker 1: team was like the number one story there toward the
26:30
Speaker 1: end was the youth. And it's kind of funny because
26:32
Speaker 1: you had done numerous interviews, podcasts or whatever saying like,
26:37
Speaker 1: you know, you can win with youth, and then you know,
26:40
Speaker 1: June happens basically to call back to that month and
26:43
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, whatever, But then youth did win. Youth
26:47
Speaker 1: got to the you know, within striking distance of the alcs.
26:51
Speaker 2: So I'm kind of curious.
26:53
Speaker 1: It's kind of a twenty twenty four and a twenty
26:55
Speaker 1: twenty five ish question, like when does youth no longer
26:59
Speaker 1: become you? So like you've coached Riley every day that
27:03
Speaker 1: he's been a big leaguer. Trek School I think had
27:05
Speaker 1: seven starts before you got to Detroit, So when did
27:09
Speaker 1: guys like that become no longer like in the youth category.
27:13
Speaker 1: And you know, side with that is like the expectations.
27:17
Speaker 1: I guess you can't really raise expectations for school, but
27:19
Speaker 1: the team as a whole, Like when is the expectations
27:22
Speaker 1: and the demanding of it, you know, kind of raise
27:25
Speaker 1: the level when basically like, yo, you guys are no
27:27
Speaker 1: longer kids now, you're no longer pups.
27:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, so I think we have to separate the
27:32
Speaker 2: word youth, and so many of us take it to age, right,
27:36
Speaker 2: Like you look at Jackson Job he is he's young,
27:40
Speaker 2: and it's easy. He's twenty one, twenty two, he's gonna,
27:42
Speaker 2: he's gonna. He's a young young player. You look at
27:46
Speaker 2: you can have you know Andy Vanyez, who when he
27:49
Speaker 2: came in, you know, a year ago, started being this
27:53
Speaker 2: sort of lefty masher like he was young. He was
27:56
Speaker 2: not twenty one, twenty two, twenty three. He's more in
27:59
Speaker 2: his in his late twenty and he's into early thirties.
28:01
Speaker 2: So the number matters to some, it doesn't matter to all.
28:06
Speaker 2: The experience level probably matters to everybody. And now that
28:09
Speaker 2: you are tested a little bit, you have some experience,
28:13
Speaker 2: you're not so much young, but you can still have
28:16
Speaker 2: young traits or young tendencies or young decision making. You know,
28:20
Speaker 2: justin Henry molloy had a terrific postseason. You know off
28:25
Speaker 2: the bench, he's going to come back having been battle
28:28
Speaker 2: tested and not really young that he's experienced a little
28:30
Speaker 2: bit of playoff baseball now still has young traits that
28:33
Speaker 2: we've got to get out of him, both at the
28:35
Speaker 2: plate and in the field. And so It's not like
28:38
Speaker 2: a yes or no question, like are we young or not.
28:41
Speaker 2: It's the maturity level of us being able to handle
28:45
Speaker 2: all sorts of things that are thrown at us. You
28:48
Speaker 2: know what we're young at going into next season, regardless
28:50
Speaker 2: of what we do this offseason with additions, is we've
28:54
Speaker 2: never had to handle what's the attention that's probably going
28:58
Speaker 2: to come our way? Like we are going to be
29:00
Speaker 2: a trendy team to follow, We are going to be exciting,
29:03
Speaker 2: Like Parker Meadows has more expectations on him today than
29:06
Speaker 2: it did twenty you know, twelve months ago, and twelve
29:09
Speaker 2: months ago, we were all pretty hopeful that Parker Meadows
29:12
Speaker 2: was going to be exactly the player that he is
29:15
Speaker 2: right now coming out of the playoffs. So we're going
29:18
Speaker 2: to have to battle a little bit of youthful traits
29:21
Speaker 2: that that don't often are aren't associated with age, they're
29:25
Speaker 2: they're associated with a little bit of experience, and and
29:28
Speaker 2: then we go from there. I think that the way
29:30
Speaker 2: that one of the things I was proud of the
29:32
Speaker 2: most with our team is they we were pretty resilient.
29:35
Speaker 2: What does that mean? We were we were pretty centered
29:38
Speaker 2: on what we were trying to do. That day, like
29:41
Speaker 2: we we didn't really look spooked. I think the most
29:43
Speaker 2: nervous our team was was in Game five of the
29:46
Speaker 2: ale al Ds. You know, we're going out to face Boyd.
29:51
Speaker 2: We have Schooble on the mound. It's an elimination game,
29:53
Speaker 2: and it felt like we had a lot of elimination
29:55
Speaker 2: games along the way, but we really didn't. We were
29:57
Speaker 2: never going to be eliminated over one game until we
30:01
Speaker 2: got to that game five. That was a new experience
30:05
Speaker 2: for everybody. So I think our players become, you know,
30:08
Speaker 2: a little bit more hardened, a little bit more mature
30:12
Speaker 2: by the experiences that they have, and we're still gonna
30:16
Speaker 2: make youthful mistakes. So I I think it's I think
30:18
Speaker 2: it's just important for us to learn from all this
30:20
Speaker 2: and and that tipping point should start to shift into
30:26
Speaker 2: being in the past, that we are not a young
30:28
Speaker 2: team anymore, despite our lack of experience in some areas
30:32
Speaker 2: or or you know, the number on our birth certificate.
30:38
Speaker 1: I do have one question that I'm very curious about.
30:42
Speaker 1: Uh it's way less relevant than what we've been talking about,
30:47
Speaker 1: but I I do have to know what goes into
30:50
Speaker 1: the decision of Jersey or the hoodie or pullover before
30:55
Speaker 1: a game, Like, what's that thought process?
30:57
Speaker 2: I gotta know. Sorry, temperature is one. I mean, you
31:02
Speaker 2: should never be a cold coach, number one, Like you
31:05
Speaker 2: have all the resources in the world, like you're they
31:08
Speaker 2: shouldn't even really show us on the TV. So like
31:11
Speaker 2: being cold, but being like like the players is like
31:14
Speaker 2: the most ridiculous thing ever. You should be warm, That's
31:17
Speaker 2: the number one thing. Sometimes, you know, you just sort
31:20
Speaker 2: of break up the mojo a little bit and go
31:22
Speaker 2: with the jersey. And the other way about it is
31:25
Speaker 2: like the day games are hot in some areas, and
31:27
Speaker 2: so if it's a hot day, you know, you definitely
31:30
Speaker 2: go jersey. But it's pretty random. I used to always
31:32
Speaker 2: go jersey. Then I went shifted into my comfort stage,
31:36
Speaker 2: and then then now I go back and forth a
31:38
Speaker 2: little bit. And you know, I'll be honest. There's a
31:41
Speaker 2: couple of times I look over and I'm like, man,
31:43
Speaker 2: that dude's got his jersey on, like he's trying to
31:45
Speaker 2: show me up. I'm gonna go get my jersey. So
31:49
Speaker 2: I try to win the psychological battle with the other
31:51
Speaker 2: manager on what we're wearing. So it's pretty random, I know.
31:56
Speaker 3: Can you imagine pulling to Jim Leland and managing in spikes.
32:00
Speaker 2: I thought you were gonna ask me if I smoked
32:01
Speaker 2: a cigarette during well times you wanted to, Yeah, that
32:07
Speaker 2: might shock people more than that. So there's a couple
32:09
Speaker 2: of things that I that I've never done that, and
32:11
Speaker 2: I haven't done this as a Tiger, but I did
32:14
Speaker 2: it in my previous stop. Is where you go warm
32:16
Speaker 2: up a picture behind you know, like that both catchers
32:20
Speaker 2: are in the game, and I had three catchers at
32:22
Speaker 2: one point in a game a couple of years ago,
32:24
Speaker 2: and you don't really want them to have to worry
32:26
Speaker 2: about it, and you know, pictures going out to run
32:28
Speaker 2: out and now with the clock, and I'm like, man,
32:30
Speaker 2: I don't want to give these pictures that shot at me.
32:33
Speaker 2: Like they can really like take a shot at me
32:35
Speaker 2: if they're mad at me over some decision that I
32:37
Speaker 2: made a month ago, and they can take a shot
32:39
Speaker 2: at me. So I stopped doing that.
32:42
Speaker 3: Probably wise, since we're talking about your catching glory days,
32:46
Speaker 3: there's another question I've always wanted to ask you, and
32:48
Speaker 3: we're kind of wrapping up here, so time for a
32:50
Speaker 3: couple of fun ones. You know, you were a quarterback
32:53
Speaker 3: at what Midwest City High School and it's football season.
32:57
Speaker 3: Hope Lions fans are enjoying it. I'm not enjoying it
33:00
Speaker 3: being a fan of my teams. But hey, how good
33:03
Speaker 3: of a quarterback were you? What's your self scouting report?
33:06
Speaker 3: And did you have interest to play at the college?
33:09
Speaker 2: So I loved I loved football. I just went to
33:12
Speaker 2: the Lions Texans game the other day. I was back
33:14
Speaker 2: in Detroit for the Lions. The Lions playing the Titans.
33:18
Speaker 2: I watch every weekend, both college and the NFL. I
33:24
Speaker 2: was a pretty solid quarterback, you know. To tie it
33:26
Speaker 2: to you, guys, I went to Middwi City High School
33:29
Speaker 2: and previous quarterbacks were Mike Gundy, Kale Gundy, and then
33:34
Speaker 2: a guy named Jeremy Woods who went on to play
33:35
Speaker 2: at Arkansas. And I was next, and so I was
33:39
Speaker 2: the I broke the Division one tree of going and
33:43
Speaker 2: playing college football and so but I got recruited by
33:48
Speaker 2: a bunch of schools, including Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, some of
33:51
Speaker 2: the Texas schools. But I was baseball and my future
33:55
Speaker 2: was in baseball, and I stayed there. So I I
33:57
Speaker 2: one player of the year in Oklahoma. I was, you know,
34:00
Speaker 2: we would do a little bit of run option. We
34:02
Speaker 2: passed quite a bit. I destroyed our hopes of winning
34:05
Speaker 2: the high school state championship by throwing I think two picks.
34:08
Speaker 2: One was a pick six in the in the in
34:12
Speaker 2: the semi finals before we could go to the five
34:14
Speaker 2: A state championship. Thanks for bringing that up. That kind
34:18
Speaker 2: of hurts me to this day. But I was solid.
34:21
Speaker 2: I could have played in college, but definitely feel like
34:25
Speaker 2: my path was was much more defined by by sticking
34:29
Speaker 2: to baseball.
34:30
Speaker 1: Never had a Brandon Weedon motivation, No.
34:33
Speaker 2: But you know, let me tell you once. So when
34:35
Speaker 2: I got to Stanford, Bill Walsh was the head coach
34:38
Speaker 2: at Stanford, and so they were having they had a
34:41
Speaker 2: really good team, and I was I was. I did
34:44
Speaker 2: get approached about going and being a placeholder because the
34:48
Speaker 2: backup quarterback had a hell of a time being able
34:51
Speaker 2: to to hold for the kicker and that was the
34:53
Speaker 2: one area where the team was was struggling. So they
34:56
Speaker 2: Bill Walsh went to Mark Marquisz, who was my my
35:00
Speaker 2: my college baseball coach, and We're starting to talk about
35:03
Speaker 2: whether or not I could just come out and be
35:05
Speaker 2: a placeholder. I'm like, man, I'm gonna I'm gonna grab it.
35:07
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna tell anybody I'm gonna fake it. I'm
35:09
Speaker 2: gonna run a roll around. But that that dream died
35:13
Speaker 2: when they didn't come to an agreement that I could
35:15
Speaker 2: keep playing.
35:17
Speaker 1: Could have been an athlete Russian type situation where all
35:19
Speaker 1: of a sudden, you know, you've seeing the clip of
35:21
Speaker 1: him tackling Christian McCaffrey when he was a freshman in
35:23
Speaker 1: Oregon State, Like, we could have had that moment with you.
35:25
Speaker 2: It's missed opportunity. It's just hard. It's hard when when
35:28
Speaker 2: he's a better football player and better baseball player than
35:31
Speaker 2: I was. So the only thing I have on him
35:34
Speaker 2: is I've managed more games and I feel like I
35:35
Speaker 2: can run a game. But other than that, he's pretty
35:39
Speaker 2: much ahead of me in every category.
35:41
Speaker 3: It's funny those high school interceptions still haunt you a
35:43
Speaker 3: little bit, But at least like a defining moment of
35:47
Speaker 3: the end of my poor athletic career is watching Jake
35:49
Speaker 3: Rogers hit a walk off double, Like, at least you
35:51
Speaker 3: don't have to deal with.
35:52
Speaker 2: That, No, but I got to deal with Jake Rodgers
35:55
Speaker 2: all the time, you know, which I love. By the way,
35:58
Speaker 2: Jake if you're watching. I I do love you and
36:01
Speaker 2: we go at it all the time. It's great.
36:05
Speaker 1: All right, Well that was that was That was a
36:07
Speaker 1: fun time, fun time. I want to thank you AJ
36:10
Speaker 1: for taking time out of your busy schedule, your golf
36:13
Speaker 1: game schedule. I guess we're talking with us. I want
36:17
Speaker 1: to remind everybody to follow and subscribe Tiger Territory wherever
36:21
Speaker 1: you get your podcasts and YouTube as well. If you
36:24
Speaker 1: are listening to this, you can go to YouTube and
36:26
Speaker 1: watch it and it's even more fun. So, like I said,
36:29
Speaker 1: thank you AJ, thank you Cody. I'm Kieren Steckley. This
36:32
Speaker 1: is Tiger Territory. Everybody, have a great week.