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The Tigers are hot. Is it good or bad for the game? · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: And welcome in too, another episode of Tiger Territory Party
0:12
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network. That's right, Tiger's podcast. I'm Kieren
0:15
Speaker 1: Steckley with me as always as a man that nobody
0:17
Speaker 1: would ever question.
0:19
Speaker 2: His goodness in the game of baseball.
0:21
Speaker 3: He is Cody Sabanaggan. How are we doing doing all right?
0:24
Speaker 4: Kieren?
0:24
Speaker 5: Glad you brought that up. The Tigers won again on Tuesday.
0:28
Speaker 5: They just keep winning, right, thirty seven and twenty two
0:33
Speaker 5: since June first. At the time we are recording this,
0:36
Speaker 5: they are a game out of a wild card spot,
0:39
Speaker 5: two and a half games out of the Al Central.
0:41
Speaker 5: That could change. They could only be a half game
0:44
Speaker 5: if the Rangers go on to win tonight. So I
0:48
Speaker 5: guess that does lead us to the question the streets
0:50
Speaker 5: are talking about, Kieran. Are the Tigers not the Dodgers?
0:53
Speaker 5: The Tigers bad for baseball?
0:58
Speaker 1: Well, let me let me like kind of flip it
1:01
Speaker 1: on the other side and argue with this way, Cody,
1:04
Speaker 1: I would argue that the Tigers are good for baseball
1:08
Speaker 1: because quite frankly, as you laid out there with the record,
1:12
Speaker 1: they are a good baseball team.
1:15
Speaker 3: Right.
1:16
Speaker 1: This is to reiterate thirty seven and twenty two since
1:18
Speaker 1: June twenty second. This is a ALDS game five team,
1:22
Speaker 1: back to back seasons, you know, trying to fight, fight,
1:25
Speaker 1: scratch and claw their way into the postseason, potentially win
1:28
Speaker 1: a division, something they haven't done in more than a decade.
1:31
Speaker 3: So this is an ascending team.
1:33
Speaker 1: Not only that, it's an ascending team potentially that also
1:36
Speaker 1: has stars, young marketable stars in Dylan Dingler and Ken
1:41
Speaker 1: McGonagall throwing Troy Melton.
1:43
Speaker 3: We'll see what happens with Max Clark.
1:45
Speaker 1: Certainly Mark well Hovey Bay is still a guy that
1:47
Speaker 1: you know, Garner's attention, we know, and.
1:51
Speaker 3: The whole bad for baseball thing.
1:52
Speaker 1: And this is something that our colleague at Foul Territory, obviously,
1:56
Speaker 1: Aj Prazinski said, and and he did clarify a little
1:58
Speaker 1: bit on on Tuesday's Territory. You guys can go watch
2:01
Speaker 1: the clips and see exactly what he was saying there.
2:05
Speaker 1: But the the point that he was making is that
2:09
Speaker 1: it's not good for a team that sells to still
2:11
Speaker 1: be able to make the playoffs. Right That's that's that's
2:13
Speaker 1: the part that he's kind of owning in on. But
2:18
Speaker 1: the Tigers didn't sell as a punt. They like, they
2:22
Speaker 1: made what I would say were universally considered worthy trades
2:28
Speaker 1: for Trek Skoogl and Casey Miiz. They were not just
2:30
Speaker 1: kind of getting rid of guys to get rid of guys.
2:32
Speaker 1: So you know, Laboratories is still on this team, ken
2:35
Speaker 1: Lee Jansen is still on this team. Kyle fin again
2:37
Speaker 1: is still on these teams. Maybe some people might regret
2:39
Speaker 1: that those parts, but they are still on this team. Cody,
2:42
Speaker 1: this was not a complete cell job by Scott Harris,
2:45
Speaker 1: and I would also argue that they are interesting, and
2:49
Speaker 1: part of their interesting is their flaws. This is a
2:52
Speaker 1: team that you just cannot look away from, and they
2:55
Speaker 1: are hard charging into the postseason against a lot So
3:00
Speaker 1: to me, this is a team that is good for baseball.
3:04
Speaker 1: I don't think it is bad for baseball. For a young,
3:07
Speaker 1: scrappy group of players coming into their own mixed up
3:10
Speaker 1: with some veterans and some All Stars, and some I
3:14
Speaker 1: would say, like quite frankly fun to watch ball players
3:18
Speaker 1: try to win the games like that.
3:21
Speaker 3: So we're being.
3:22
Speaker 1: Critical of the front office for not trying to win
3:26
Speaker 1: the World Series because they traded Casey Maiz and Terry
3:28
Speaker 1: s Google. But should we not buy the same coin.
3:33
Speaker 1: Credit the coaching staff and the players.
3:36
Speaker 3: For hello trying to win the game. So I think
3:40
Speaker 3: they're good for baseball.
3:42
Speaker 5: Well, I just don't even think we're having the right
3:45
Speaker 5: argument or the right conversation here. The Tigers are playing
3:48
Speaker 5: within the structure of the sport, within the rules of
3:52
Speaker 5: the sport. You know what's bad for baseball here and
3:55
Speaker 5: is the expanded playoff. Adding a playoff spot has created
3:59
Speaker 5: a structure in which teams can sell and still make
4:02
Speaker 5: the playoffs, or which team teams that are below five
4:05
Speaker 5: hundred and slightly out of the race where it makes
4:08
Speaker 5: sense for them to sell, like the Detroit Tigers did
4:12
Speaker 5: to a degree, and yet they can still be within
4:15
Speaker 5: striking distance. They can be a good week of being
4:17
Speaker 5: in a playoff spot. If there weren't this final wildcard spot,
4:22
Speaker 5: there's a four game difference between the Boston Red Sox
4:25
Speaker 5: and the Texas Rangers. There are five games right now
4:27
Speaker 5: between the Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers. We wouldn't
4:31
Speaker 5: be having this conversation if not for the expanded playoff.
4:35
Speaker 5: It has become a huge problem to me because it
4:40
Speaker 5: has too many teams in the middle it's actually leading
4:42
Speaker 5: to less buying and less selling, more in action at
4:45
Speaker 5: the trade deadline. A lot of teams are trying to
4:48
Speaker 5: thread the needle or standing pat because they're not really
4:51
Speaker 5: sure what to do. And I can complain about this
4:55
Speaker 5: all I want. It's probably not going to go away
4:57
Speaker 5: because there is money involved. There is money playoff games
5:00
Speaker 5: and TV rights for playoff games, So probably not changing.
5:05
Speaker 5: But you want to know what's bad for baseball, it's
5:07
Speaker 5: the expanded Playoff. If any other point in the history
5:09
Speaker 5: of baseball, we would still not be talking about the
5:12
Speaker 5: Tigers in the playoff picture. And that's not to discredit
5:15
Speaker 5: what they've done. They've overcome a lot of adversity. They're
5:18
Speaker 5: playing really good right now. But this is the structure
5:22
Speaker 5: they operate within. They have made decisions that align with
5:26
Speaker 5: that structure and now here they are. Is that bad
5:29
Speaker 5: for baseball? Yeah, I think that's fair to say. But
5:31
Speaker 5: it's not really the Tigers or any other team. There's
5:34
Speaker 5: several other teams in a very similar position. It's not
5:36
Speaker 5: really their faults.
5:39
Speaker 1: Sure, And like everything you say there, I understand where
5:43
Speaker 1: you're coming from. I'm generally not gonna be against things
5:47
Speaker 1: that generate like higher levels of interest for the sport,
5:51
Speaker 1: any sport, even though I do, like you know, any
5:54
Speaker 1: entity that comes across like expanding playoffs, like if it
5:57
Speaker 1: becomes easier, like I get like the championship should be
6:01
Speaker 1: hard to come by. You should earn it over the
6:03
Speaker 1: course of a whole season plus the playoffs, right, like
6:06
Speaker 1: you know, But the flip side of that also is
6:09
Speaker 1: that over one hundred and six to two games, if
6:11
Speaker 1: a team can have a down month like the like
6:13
Speaker 1: the Tigers had and then can kind of prove their
6:16
Speaker 1: worth over the course of a season, I don't and
6:19
Speaker 1: still like be in the playoffs, and by the way,
6:21
Speaker 1: expanded playoffs, maybe not if they win this damn funky division, right,
6:26
Speaker 1: So maybe that part is, you know, might might end
6:29
Speaker 1: up being moved for this, for this specific Tigers situation.
6:33
Speaker 1: But I'm just I'm just gonna lean on the side
6:36
Speaker 1: of interest and lean on the side of more teams
6:39
Speaker 1: going for it, because like, I don't like the fact
6:43
Speaker 1: that we have kind of put a negative light on
6:47
Speaker 1: Oh well, they're just trying to get into the playoffs,
6:49
Speaker 1: and you know they're not really don't really have like
6:51
Speaker 1: a chance to win the World Series.
6:52
Speaker 2: They being like you know, Team X, not necessarily specifically
6:55
Speaker 2: to the Tigers.
6:55
Speaker 1: Because I don't think we should also lament getting into
6:59
Speaker 1: the postseason and giving you know, throwing your hat in
7:01
Speaker 1: the ring and see what happens, right, because like we've
7:05
Speaker 1: thought that Texas Rangers. You covered that team from start
7:08
Speaker 1: to finishing the playoffs. That was a team that was
7:10
Speaker 1: just like you know, got in and things about their
7:12
Speaker 1: way and now the World Series champions right, you know,
7:14
Speaker 1: Seattle making a deep run, the Tigers the past couple
7:16
Speaker 1: of years, making you know, making runs Toronto, getting this close,
7:20
Speaker 1: getting this close Cody to a World Series championship. I
7:23
Speaker 1: don't think it's a bad thing that like more teams
7:26
Speaker 1: feel like they have a chance and like on a
7:29
Speaker 1: general principle, even though I do agree like scarcity is
7:33
Speaker 1: also a good thing.
7:34
Speaker 3: So what's that balance? I don't When.
7:37
Speaker 5: The experiment playoff was first being discussed, I thought it
7:40
Speaker 5: was going to be a good thing for that exact
7:41
Speaker 5: reason or more interest more, I thought more teams would
7:44
Speaker 5: be going for it, and the opposite has happened. There's
7:47
Speaker 5: been Is there more interest? I don't know, because there's
7:49
Speaker 5: less action, certainly at the trade deadline, So.
7:54
Speaker 3: I don't know.
7:55
Speaker 5: I once thought it would be this way. It's not
7:57
Speaker 5: how it's gone. It's cheap into the playoffs, it's cheapen
8:00
Speaker 5: the meaning of a playoff appearance. When you can win
8:03
Speaker 5: eighty two eighty three games and get in the postseason,
8:06
Speaker 5: I mean, that's good, it still counts, but doesn't really
8:08
Speaker 5: mean the same thing. I don't think so.
8:12
Speaker 1: No, the that the ask the guys on the field
8:16
Speaker 1: and in the dugouts whether they feel like it's it's
8:18
Speaker 1: the same level of accomplishment. But I I, like I said, I,
8:24
Speaker 1: I don't think we should have an attitude where guys
8:28
Speaker 1: like Ken McGonagall, guys like Dylan Dingler, guys like spencro Torrelsen,
8:32
Speaker 1: Riley Green, you know, at all, like you know, they're
8:35
Speaker 1: fighting for their lives here to try to, you know,
8:37
Speaker 1: accomplish something great. And I don't think it should like
8:40
Speaker 1: the cloud should hang over them where it's like, okay,
8:42
Speaker 1: well they sold. It's not necessarily good for these guys
8:45
Speaker 1: to like to go out there and play to win
8:48
Speaker 1: the game. Like, I just don't feel like that negativity
8:50
Speaker 1: should cloud over it. And sometimes the cynical part of it,
8:55
Speaker 1: you know, can do that.
8:56
Speaker 5: So the best thing you said here, and they're only
8:58
Speaker 5: two and a half games out of when the ALE Central.
9:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, so blow up the divisions, talking about things will
9:06
Speaker 1: never happen.
9:07
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, there's a strong case for that, where the
9:10
Speaker 5: Cleveland Guardians could spend or the Kansas City Royals could
9:14
Speaker 5: not nascibly overachieve or underachieve or Yeah. So the ALE
9:18
Speaker 5: Central is also a structural issue, but then another one
9:20
Speaker 5: that's probably not gonna change again.
9:23
Speaker 1: Over the course of one hundred and sixty two, we
9:25
Speaker 1: should have a pretty good idea of what teams are
9:27
Speaker 1: worthy of competing in the postseason. And I think the Tigers,
9:31
Speaker 1: based on all these metrics, based on just win loss record,
9:34
Speaker 1: by the way, they have the best, still have the
9:36
Speaker 1: best run differential in the American League. So it's not
9:39
Speaker 1: like it's not like this is some team that is
9:41
Speaker 1: by happenstance, like could potentially kind of get into the playoffs.
9:46
Speaker 1: If they do get into the playoffs, if they do
9:47
Speaker 1: win the division, it's gonna be earned, all right, And
9:51
Speaker 1: I and I don't want anybody to uh to lose
9:53
Speaker 1: sight that. Obviously there's a lot that will happen between
9:56
Speaker 1: now and then, and we're gonna get to a quick break.
10:00
Speaker 1: We'll break down Tuesday night's game speaking of well earned
10:03
Speaker 1: a well earned win for the Tigers.
10:04
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11:11
Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, So obviously Tigers six to
11:14
Speaker 1: four winners over the Cleveland Guardians on Tuesday night to
11:17
Speaker 1: begin an obviously very crucial three game set here. And
11:22
Speaker 1: you know, as much momentum as the Tigers had going
11:25
Speaker 1: into uh Tuesday's game, Cody seven and two road trip,
11:29
Speaker 1: you know, there was off day in there, maybe a
11:31
Speaker 1: little bit of rest.
11:32
Speaker 3: Uh.
11:33
Speaker 1: This obviously was I think a formula that you might
11:38
Speaker 1: you might have just kind of had to eat this
11:40
Speaker 1: game because hey, it's Cleveland. And then b you're having
11:42
Speaker 1: to do you know, you're having to put Drew Anderson
11:44
Speaker 1: out there because it's his spot in the rotation. He's
11:46
Speaker 1: not obviously fully stretched out as a starter. You know,
11:48
Speaker 1: it's gonna be somewhat of a bullpen day. And that
11:52
Speaker 1: is more than some what uneasy for Tigers fans when
11:56
Speaker 1: you when you when you hear that, But this was
12:01
Speaker 1: a game Cody that the Tigers did. Obviously didn't do
12:05
Speaker 1: everything right, but they did everything they could to win
12:08
Speaker 1: this game. They came out on top. Jerry Anderson I
12:10
Speaker 1: thought was excellent. He had a great stretch in the
12:12
Speaker 1: second ending to get out of get out of a
12:15
Speaker 1: jam with three straight, three straight strikeouts, timely hitting, chaos
12:20
Speaker 1: on the bases. How about that? And then a bullpen
12:23
Speaker 1: that hangs on just enough, you know, like, okay, good
12:29
Speaker 1: for baseball. I had fun watching this game.
12:31
Speaker 3: I don't know about you, guys.
12:32
Speaker 1: I had fun watching this game. So Where's Where's the
12:35
Speaker 1: Where's the A one for Tuesday Night?
12:37
Speaker 2: Cody.
12:38
Speaker 5: Well, before before this game, I was already thinking about
12:42
Speaker 5: talking about it because the Tigers have kind of rediscovered
12:45
Speaker 5: their identity. They got their brain to baseball back. They've
12:48
Speaker 5: had it back for a while, and it's starting to
12:51
Speaker 5: kind of show up in the heightened manner. You point
12:53
Speaker 5: out the base running like they're running the bases well again,
12:57
Speaker 5: aggressively again. Hovey Baya stealing third picture, goes inside move bias,
13:03
Speaker 5: retreats to the base and immediately points as Zach McKinstry
13:07
Speaker 5: basically told the whole world, Hey, I'm going you better
13:09
Speaker 5: follow me, takes off goes. He might have been thrown
13:13
Speaker 5: out if Jose Ramirez catches the ball. But guess what,
13:15
Speaker 5: Jose Ramiroz did not catch that ball. Hobby gets up,
13:18
Speaker 5: scores mckinstrey, following Hobby's signal, had followed him, gets to
13:21
Speaker 5: the third scores next play. That's what having Hobby Bya's
13:25
Speaker 5: back brings to the team. That's what the Tigers having
13:28
Speaker 5: their identity back brings to the game. Also, notice there
13:31
Speaker 5: haven't been like any just dumb, ridiculous over aggressive outs
13:35
Speaker 5: on the bases really since the Tigers let go of
13:38
Speaker 5: Joey Kua, which was still a strange, strange timing, strange move.
13:42
Speaker 5: And I think Joey did a lot of good for
13:45
Speaker 5: the organization and helping instill this aggressive ideentay we're talking about.
13:50
Speaker 5: But they're not making dumbouts anymore, and I'm not sure
13:52
Speaker 5: that's coincidence. So you have that and then the fielding
13:56
Speaker 5: think back to me here, Yeah, how many games they
13:59
Speaker 5: were just given away? I mean, that's part of why
14:03
Speaker 5: I can only go so far, and like, well, they
14:05
Speaker 5: were really injured, they were really injured. That was unfortunate.
14:08
Speaker 5: They still should have won a lot more games than
14:11
Speaker 5: they did, and they were making just terrible mistakes night
14:14
Speaker 5: after night, whether they were physical airs, mental airs, whatever. Lately,
14:19
Speaker 5: the defense has been crisped.
14:20
Speaker 7: Man.
14:21
Speaker 5: Maybe not perfect. Every now and then there's an air
14:23
Speaker 5: Kevin McGonagall made air in San Francisco, but the defense
14:27
Speaker 5: has been very good. Zach mcinstry making incredible plays, Max
14:31
Speaker 5: Clark ranging center field, doing some little things like cutting
14:34
Speaker 5: off a ball in the gap to hold a runner
14:35
Speaker 5: to a single hobby, Kevin coming and charging a slow
14:39
Speaker 5: roller dingler, throwing dudes out. Like all these crisp plays
14:42
Speaker 5: just add up to help you get a win on
14:45
Speaker 5: a night where you're again really sweating it in the
14:47
Speaker 5: eighth and ninth with the bullpen, but you got a
14:50
Speaker 5: few extra outs. You maybe did some things to help
14:53
Speaker 5: prevent runs and give you a little bit of a
14:54
Speaker 5: better margin to play with.
14:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so like I agree, Like I had kind
15:01
Speaker 1: of been formulating that thought as well before this game,
15:05
Speaker 1: and one of the things I came to a conclusion
15:08
Speaker 1: after this game. And obviously we'll see how the rest
15:10
Speaker 1: of the week in the series goes. But this is
15:12
Speaker 1: also like it's like a no mystery ink tigs. So
15:17
Speaker 1: there's your another slogan. They're like, it's not really like
15:20
Speaker 1: nothing's no opponent is gonna be surprised by what goes on.
15:24
Speaker 1: You know, we as observers are not like shocked as
15:28
Speaker 1: to how this is playing out. It's like, you know,
15:30
Speaker 1: they're gonna now start, They're gonna be playing sound defense,
15:34
Speaker 1: they're gonna get good starting pitching. They're capable of unleashing
15:39
Speaker 1: this offense.
15:40
Speaker 3: At any point.
15:40
Speaker 1: Obviously it wasn't necessarily unleashed, but you still got critical
15:43
Speaker 1: runs and insurance runs that turned out to be essential.
15:47
Speaker 1: And then the bullpen is kind of like it's a
15:49
Speaker 1: white neck knuckling and an old vice's bullpen. As I said,
15:53
Speaker 1: you're not putting any devices watching this bullpen. And by
15:56
Speaker 1: the way, it was the same combination of Drew and
16:00
Speaker 1: again and Jansen with with Holton in there as well,
16:05
Speaker 1: so and and wagas pack got to give him credit
16:08
Speaker 1: for coming in there.
16:08
Speaker 2: And it's been really good man.
16:10
Speaker 5: He's kind of been a satan grace for what's a
16:12
Speaker 5: bad bullpen. And we talked about Holten recently and I
16:14
Speaker 5: kind of undersold him here. In his last twenty six outings,
16:20
Speaker 5: a one point two to three er stranded eleven of
16:24
Speaker 5: twelve inherited runners. He's actually been pretty lights out for
16:28
Speaker 5: a prolonged period. And again, Wagaspak, what won five two
16:32
Speaker 5: ERA since since coming to the Tigers. That's the type
16:35
Speaker 5: of marginal move that, yeah, there's some luck involved, but
16:38
Speaker 5: that this front office for a while kind of seemed
16:41
Speaker 5: to have a knack for and then that went away.
16:43
Speaker 5: They just weren't hitting on those guys. They hit on
16:46
Speaker 5: one and Wagaspack, I'd like to see them have tried
16:49
Speaker 5: to hit on a couple of more throughout throughout the
16:51
Speaker 5: course of this season, to be honest.
16:54
Speaker 1: Well, with Jansen there in the ninth so that we
16:57
Speaker 1: hadn't seen that version of Jansen in a bit, I
17:02
Speaker 1: feel like where he just I mean, I don't know
17:04
Speaker 1: how many elevated, like ball out of hand elevated cutters
17:08
Speaker 1: he threw, but it seemed like a lot and it
17:11
Speaker 1: was certainly uncomfortable there but still able to zero in
17:16
Speaker 1: and obviously get the safe.
17:17
Speaker 3: Yeah.
17:18
Speaker 5: Talking to Kinley after the game, he made some comments
17:21
Speaker 5: that indicated maybe he wasn't feeling good physically. I don't
17:24
Speaker 5: know if that's like an injury or maybe just a
17:26
Speaker 5: mechanical thing. It was kind of vague, but something clearly
17:30
Speaker 5: wasn't right. And I think he got to hope, you know,
17:33
Speaker 5: that it's not an injury or something.
17:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, and and like you and you got to hope
17:40
Speaker 1: that on any given day that like you know, like
17:43
Speaker 1: the Tigers are gonna be able to score runs to
17:47
Speaker 1: kind of make this like as comfortable a cushion as possible.
17:50
Speaker 1: Like I didn't really sweat looking up who hit that
17:55
Speaker 1: last home run for Cleveland. Sorry it's late at night.
17:59
Speaker 1: I didn't really I had to becoming a three run games.
18:01
Speaker 1: I knew AJ wasn't going to treat it any differently,
18:04
Speaker 1: Like you know, he treats four runs the same as
18:06
Speaker 1: three runs in terms of safe situations. But these are
18:11
Speaker 1: your guys now, and you gotta and it's kind of
18:14
Speaker 1: up to like with all the I would say, either
18:18
Speaker 1: guys that have kind of turned the corner a little
18:20
Speaker 1: bit or gotten out, there's slump just overall on the team.
18:22
Speaker 1: You gotta hope that magic kind of percolates to the
18:25
Speaker 1: bullpen enough, like.
18:27
Speaker 5: Yeah, hope's hope. Yeah. If you want to ask me,
18:30
Speaker 5: like what has to happen for the Tigers to let's say,
18:33
Speaker 5: win the al central. This lineup has to stay hot, right,
18:39
Speaker 5: which the one thing about hot streaks sometimes they kind
18:41
Speaker 5: of scare me. It's like there's a correction coming eventually.
18:45
Speaker 5: I do that. I'm kind of a pessimist, so I
18:47
Speaker 5: do that in life you have like good things coming,
18:49
Speaker 5: It's like I should probably really be enjoying this instead
18:52
Speaker 5: of I'm like, Ah, what's on the other side of this?
18:54
Speaker 5: You know, it always kind of evens out. That's how
18:57
Speaker 5: I feel when the lineup's really rolling. And then the
18:59
Speaker 5: other one is the bullpen needs to get quite honestly,
19:02
Speaker 5: they kind of need to get lucky, all right. We
19:03
Speaker 5: see this happen. Kyle Finnegan for a lot of this
19:07
Speaker 5: season was getting lucky, and still see he has a
19:09
Speaker 5: good era despite some very concerning wock metrics, home run metrics,
19:14
Speaker 5: underlying metrics. His luck has dried up lately and it's
19:19
Speaker 5: really caught up with him. You need Kyle Finnegan to
19:22
Speaker 5: if he can't be better, which I think he's certainly
19:25
Speaker 5: capable of being better, you start getting lucky. You need
19:27
Speaker 5: Kinley Jansen to start getting lucky. You need someone else
19:30
Speaker 5: to kind of capture lightning in a bottle because there
19:33
Speaker 5: isn't any grand help coming for this bullpen. But if
19:37
Speaker 5: you can luck into some out some babbit luck from
19:41
Speaker 5: you know, kind of like to be honest, that Tigers
19:43
Speaker 5: did in twenty twenty four and you had Sean Gunther
19:47
Speaker 5: suddenly was just you know, getting ground balls for six
19:49
Speaker 5: three double plays like no other. I think that's what
19:52
Speaker 5: has to happen. This bullpen's not gonna flip a switch
19:54
Speaker 5: and just magically start striking guys out or magically be
19:58
Speaker 5: a lot better they are due to going roof and
20:00
Speaker 5: again being a big one. I think you just got
20:03
Speaker 5: to hope for some good luck.
20:06
Speaker 1: I mean hell again over like think about all the
20:09
Speaker 1: you know, quote unquote bad luck that was occurring, uh
20:12
Speaker 1: you know earlier in the season. Like if there's regression there,
20:14
Speaker 1: there's certainly uh you know, certainly some things could be
20:18
Speaker 1: coming on the Tiger's end. It was Joe Adell, by
20:20
Speaker 1: the way, hit that last time. I just wanted to
20:22
Speaker 1: correct correct the record on that. And then and then
20:24
Speaker 1: also like you know, like the little things, not even
20:27
Speaker 1: just like outside of the the bullpen specifically, but again,
20:31
Speaker 1: Jose Ramirez, you would you would bet your year's salary
20:34
Speaker 1: he's gonna catch that ball, right, you know what I mean?
20:37
Speaker 3: And he doesn't.
20:38
Speaker 1: And then even Ken mcgonagall's double was fair by how
20:41
Speaker 1: much you know? I mean, that's baseball, those one hundred
20:44
Speaker 1: and sixty two games, things correct themselves pretty frequently.
20:47
Speaker 3: So I argue.
20:51
Speaker 5: You mentioned this last time. I'd argued Drew Summers as
20:53
Speaker 5: someone who's actually had some degree of bad luck. You know,
20:55
Speaker 5: he walks, have been on a couple of times, but
20:59
Speaker 5: had not had the best added balllock. You look at
21:01
Speaker 5: his stat cast page, there's a lot of red he
21:03
Speaker 5: gets with. He does a lot of good things, has
21:05
Speaker 5: not been getting good results. I haven't been feeling confident
21:08
Speaker 5: when Drew Summers comes in the game, and it's like,
21:11
Speaker 5: well is it mental? And it's like, I don't know.
21:13
Speaker 5: There's a lot of data that suggests he is pitching well,
21:16
Speaker 5: and maybe if the outcomes start tilting a little bit,
21:20
Speaker 5: we will feel better when he enters the game.
21:26
Speaker 1: I don't know if we'll ever get to the point
21:27
Speaker 1: of quote feeling better about anybody in the back end
21:30
Speaker 1: of the bullpen, but I'll tell you what, we will
21:32
Speaker 1: be entertained, that is for sure. All right, we are
21:35
Speaker 1: going to get to a quick break, and then we're
21:36
Speaker 1: gonna get to a couple unsung heroes, a couple of
21:39
Speaker 1: trends with the Tigers.
21:40
Speaker 2: And then some injury updates. But first a word from
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22:45
Speaker 5: Karen Quick follow on Drew Summers. I didn't have the
22:48
Speaker 5: data in front of me when I was talking. Averaging
22:50
Speaker 5: thirteen point five strikeouts per nine. He is walking over
22:53
Speaker 5: four guys per nine, a three three ninety five babbit
22:57
Speaker 5: against him right now, really high. His FIP is almost
22:59
Speaker 5: a full run lower than his r Keep an eye
23:02
Speaker 5: on your Summers. Do for some good luck.
23:04
Speaker 2: There you go.
23:06
Speaker 3: Well, it's not luck.
23:07
Speaker 2: It's not good or bad.
23:09
Speaker 1: But I just wanted to point out as the Tigers
23:10
Speaker 1: were closing out Tuesday Night's game, the outfield consisted of
23:15
Speaker 1: Ben Maljerry. That's right, Ben Maljerry, Max Clark, and then
23:19
Speaker 1: Zach McKinstry slash James Outman with the late inning substitution
23:23
Speaker 1: there McKinstry going the second base. So that leads us
23:28
Speaker 1: to the injury updates company. Riley Green left tonight's game
23:32
Speaker 1: with right hamstring tightness. We don't have any more updates
23:37
Speaker 1: on that. We'll see what happens tomorrow with more testing.
23:40
Speaker 1: A j Hinjeri said he's not going to be in
23:42
Speaker 1: the lineup on Wednesday. Uh, this is of course, after
23:46
Speaker 1: he took a foul ball off the kind of like
23:48
Speaker 1: the middle part of his leg, his right leg was
23:51
Speaker 1: able to literally, you know, half sprint the first base.
23:55
Speaker 1: Afterward it seemed like okay, Riley's okay. And and then
23:58
Speaker 1: he you know, he looked good scoring from first on
24:01
Speaker 1: Spencer Torkelson's double. But I guess shortly after that he
24:04
Speaker 1: felt the titaness. So we'll see about that. Wintl Perez
24:07
Speaker 1: looks like they're kind of slowing it down, taking them
24:10
Speaker 1: out of the rehab stints. They kind of do some
24:13
Speaker 1: more testing, get some more evaluation of his eye, and
24:18
Speaker 1: carry Carpenter is still not you know, still doesn't that
24:21
Speaker 1: necessarily look like that's around the corner.
24:23
Speaker 2: What else can you tell us about all that?
24:26
Speaker 5: Yeah, Winstle's an interesting one. Given the eye injury, that's
24:29
Speaker 5: still scary, even though it seems like the prognosis has
24:32
Speaker 5: been good, but then gets out on rehab assignment, doesn't
24:35
Speaker 5: do well early in the rehab assignment. Aj may sound
24:38
Speaker 5: like his vision is just not quite back to normal.
24:41
Speaker 5: He still a little bit sensitive delight even used the
24:44
Speaker 5: term like eye fatigue. So they're just gonna get them
24:49
Speaker 5: some rests. Slow them down a little bit. I think
24:51
Speaker 5: hope to get them back up on a rehab assignment soon.
24:54
Speaker 5: You hope all is well there, but that's just such
24:56
Speaker 5: a scary injury. You certainly have to keep a close
24:59
Speaker 5: CLI watch on it. Yeah, Kerry Carpenter, Look, he's throwing,
25:04
Speaker 5: he's swinging and everything, but that planar fasciitis is no joke.
25:08
Speaker 5: He's not running. Unfortunately, running pretty important for athletic activities.
25:12
Speaker 5: So I don't think we really have an idea of
25:15
Speaker 5: what that timeline looks like. He has to be able
25:17
Speaker 5: to run, and he has to be able to recover
25:19
Speaker 5: and planar fasci iis you kind of good days and
25:22
Speaker 5: bad days. I get the sense it's going to be
25:24
Speaker 5: a while. Matt Vierling's down in Florida with a quad injury.
25:28
Speaker 5: Still kind of not a ton of info with what
25:32
Speaker 5: he's going through, but sounds like it could be the
25:34
Speaker 5: few weeks for him. Jack Flaherty is throwing, increasing his volume,
25:38
Speaker 5: his intensity, so that's good. You hear flexer inflammation. That's
25:42
Speaker 5: another thing that's just scary. You gotta watch. It seems
25:45
Speaker 5: like he's continuing to progress well, although not quite doing
25:49
Speaker 5: bullpins or anything.
25:51
Speaker 3: Like that.
25:52
Speaker 5: I'm sure there are some more injury updates. There were
25:53
Speaker 5: a lot of Brent Herder thrown on reab assignment, but
25:56
Speaker 5: we kind of covered the big one, obviously, Riley green Man.
25:59
Speaker 5: That that would be very poor timing. Even though Riley's
26:02
Speaker 5: kind of slowed down and been slumping, It's not a
26:05
Speaker 5: guy you want to lose when you're starting to really
26:07
Speaker 5: get back in the playoff chase. We talk about Riley
26:10
Speaker 5: and his health all the time. He's done an admirable
26:13
Speaker 5: job of taking care of himself staying healthy this year.
26:15
Speaker 5: But the Tigers kind of run him into the red
26:18
Speaker 5: because they have to, because that's how important he is
26:21
Speaker 5: to their team and their lineup. And so I'm always
26:23
Speaker 5: afraid that something like this could be around the corner
26:27
Speaker 5: with Riley. Hopefully we'll learn a little bit more Wednesday
26:30
Speaker 5: and we'll see if he can avoid the il or not.
26:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this might be completely irrelevant by the time
26:38
Speaker 1: some of you guys are listening to this, But like
26:41
Speaker 1: the way AJ described it was like he comes, he being,
26:45
Speaker 1: Riley comes into the dugout, and then AJ gets notified
26:49
Speaker 1: that hey, we gotta check him out, and then like
26:51
Speaker 1: the ending changes, so it's like, well, you got to
26:54
Speaker 1: make a decision. So they just opted to take him
26:56
Speaker 1: out of the game because there wasn't really much of
26:57
Speaker 1: a choice if he's going.
26:58
Speaker 2: To get looked at.
26:59
Speaker 1: So hopefully it's more precautionary than anything in a day
27:02
Speaker 1: off doing some good and uh and and then we'll
27:05
Speaker 1: kind of move on from there.
27:07
Speaker 2: But obviously time will tell on that one.
27:09
Speaker 1: But I will say this, Cody, like watching Zach McKinstry
27:12
Speaker 1: in that outfield, we didn't really give him.
27:14
Speaker 3: We didn't highlight as.
27:15
Speaker 1: Much as we should have on on on Sunday or Monday,
27:18
Speaker 1: I should say, with that throw from from right field
27:21
Speaker 1: to keep keep that game scoreless against San Francisco, and
27:24
Speaker 1: then what second battery of the game, first batter of
27:28
Speaker 1: the game, he tracks down the ball in the deepest
27:30
Speaker 1: part of right center uh ninety two percentile range overall
27:35
Speaker 1: on baseball samont with an eighty six percent tile arm,
27:38
Speaker 1: kind of looking like a real right fielder if I'm
27:41
Speaker 1: being if, if I'm being honest, So you know, talk
27:44
Speaker 1: about some good things that have kind of come about
27:46
Speaker 1: with this run. Zach McKinstry in the outfield has has
27:49
Speaker 1: been excellent. And then I also wanted the highlight Spencer
27:51
Speaker 1: Torkosen at the plate Cody. Since July twenty six, he's
27:55
Speaker 1: at hits in twelve of fourteen games. He's got seven
27:59
Speaker 1: multi hit games in that span and ten Ribby's obviously,
28:02
Speaker 1: including Tuesday Night. So the often maligne Spencer Torklsen on
28:06
Speaker 1: a good little stretch here.
28:07
Speaker 5: So yeah, it hasn't been a lot of power for
28:09
Speaker 5: tork And you know what, I'm okay with that. What
28:12
Speaker 5: do we always like to has power? Power is never
28:15
Speaker 5: going to be an issue. He continue to put together
28:17
Speaker 5: good at bats and hit the ball. Some of them
28:20
Speaker 5: are eventually going to leave the yard. What I've always
28:23
Speaker 5: wanted to see to work do is hit for average
28:25
Speaker 5: or have a higher on base percentage. Recently he has
28:28
Speaker 5: been doing that. I hope he doesn't sacrifice any of
28:30
Speaker 5: that for power, excuse me. And then McKinstry obviously deserves
28:37
Speaker 5: big flowers contributing a lot on both sides of the ball.
28:40
Speaker 5: Those are two of the guys. How many times the
28:42
Speaker 5: first few months of the season do we come here
28:44
Speaker 5: and rattle off like zag McKinstry, where are you at?
28:47
Speaker 5: Spencer torkelsin, Matt Vierling, like the list went on and on, Well,
28:50
Speaker 5: those are two guys who have It took them a while,
28:54
Speaker 5: but they are finally contributing in a in a more
28:57
Speaker 5: meaningful way, and it's good to see.
29:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I would say, you know, like not for nothing.
29:03
Speaker 1: I know nobody cares about bating average, but you know,
29:06
Speaker 1: for a while Spencer was at the two two o five,
29:08
Speaker 1: two o seven, and now he's up near two thirty,
29:11
Speaker 1: So like that just kind of gives you an idea
29:13
Speaker 1: of just like more consistent at bats he's been putting together.
29:16
Speaker 2: And uh, and.
29:17
Speaker 1: Then I think he's also done more ranging defensive plays
29:21
Speaker 1: than than he normally does over the past couple months.
29:23
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's a conscious effort, but I
29:25
Speaker 1: feel like he has. He has made more of them
29:29
Speaker 1: and made more attempts at them, I guess, so again,
29:32
Speaker 1: forever that's worth. I'm not here to talk about defensive
29:34
Speaker 1: metrics about Torque, but I feel like he has made
29:36
Speaker 1: more of those plays than we are used to seeing.
29:38
Speaker 2: In addition to obviously the scoops at first base, all.
29:41
Speaker 1: Right, anything else, Cody before we jet out of here,
29:44
Speaker 1: I feel like we had some good Yeah, that's all
29:48
Speaker 1: I got, all Right, well all right, well, we will
29:50
Speaker 1: be back to recap the Cleveland series and preview the
29:54
Speaker 1: Chicago series for Friday. So hope you guys follow along
29:57
Speaker 1: at Cody Stavenhagen. I'm Matt Kieran on his course Deckley
29:59
Speaker 1: Pop page at Tiger Territory, Underscore, YouTube, Apple, Spotify, You
30:03
Speaker 1: guys know what to do. We appreciate all of you,
30:05
Speaker 1: so for Cody Stapenhagen, I'm Karen Steckley. Everybody, have a
30:08
Speaker 1: great day.