Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Tarik Skubal, Tigers Chasing History

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Tarik Skubal, Tigers Chasing History · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger's Territory, part of
0:08
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network, a Detroit Tiger's podcast. I'm Karen Steckley.
0:12
Speaker 1: We got Cody Stavenhagen, and we got Ajax, and we
0:15
Speaker 1: got a lot to talk about today, Fellas, how you.
0:19
Speaker 2: Doing doing good?
0:21
Speaker 3: Great? As always.
0:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot of fun talking about this Tiger's
0:25
Speaker 1: team right now. I'm sure from Cody's perspective, it's a
0:28
Speaker 1: lot of fun to write about, and it's a lot
0:30
Speaker 1: of fun to reminists with Austin. By the way, we're
0:32
Speaker 1: gonna get to all of that today. I did want
0:35
Speaker 1: to do a little quick programming not we're recording this
0:38
Speaker 1: Friday afternoon. We do not know anything that has happened
0:41
Speaker 1: in Kansas City, but one of those things where schedules
0:43
Speaker 1: just kind of got, you know, crossed up a little bit.
0:46
Speaker 1: And that's okay because had we done a Thursday podcast
0:49
Speaker 1: to be published early Friday, we would not have gotten
0:52
Speaker 1: the news that we're about to talk about, which is
0:54
Speaker 1: that the Tigers are going to depending on when you're
0:57
Speaker 1: listening to have officially called up Dylan Smith kind of
1:03
Speaker 1: a rapid rise up the system, a little bit, Cody.
1:06
Speaker 1: One of the things that we were just kind of
1:07
Speaker 1: talking about off air over the past couple of weeks
1:11
Speaker 1: is like, you know something here a little bit. It
1:13
Speaker 1: kind of takes me back to when we first started
1:15
Speaker 1: doing a podcast together, because that was the first draft
1:18
Speaker 1: that we cover twenty twenty one. He was a third
1:20
Speaker 1: round pick out of Alabama, and I think at the
1:23
Speaker 1: time we're like, yeah, that seems like a pretty nice,
1:25
Speaker 1: intriguing prospect, and then those minor leagues are hard. Sometimes
1:29
Speaker 1: you kind of get through the wash and if you're
1:31
Speaker 1: not producing quickly enough, people want to talk about you.
1:34
Speaker 1: But he's been He has been the talk of prospect
1:38
Speaker 1: town in Tigers Land here recently, and now he's going
1:41
Speaker 1: to be a major leaguert Pretty cool.
1:44
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's funny how quickly these guys can
1:47
Speaker 4: move sometimes. Smith has been in the system a while,
1:50
Speaker 4: but he's had some shoulder issues. I think some four
1:53
Speaker 4: arm issues. Injuries had just set him back. He was
1:55
Speaker 4: drafted a little bit more of a pitchability guy out
1:58
Speaker 4: of Alabama. He had some really good feel, did some
2:01
Speaker 4: good things, you know, his first kind of full pro season,
2:04
Speaker 4: and then injuries just got to him. So what's the
2:07
Speaker 4: difference now, Well, the Tiger's moved him to the bullpen
2:09
Speaker 4: this year and pitchability is no longer the word for
2:12
Speaker 4: Dylan Smith. He's thrown upper nineties with a really good
2:15
Speaker 4: hard slider. He is missing a ton of bats. He's
2:18
Speaker 4: become like a power reliever who the Tigers were just
2:22
Speaker 4: kind of raving about.
2:23
Speaker 2: And I had.
2:24
Speaker 4: Heard it over the past couple of weeks. Started getting
2:27
Speaker 4: some people last night saying, hey, Dylan Smith's getting the call.
2:30
Speaker 4: I was able to get that confirmed. This move is happening.
2:33
Speaker 4: Still a little bit of a surprise. He wasn't on
2:35
Speaker 4: the forty man. He's gonna jump on the forty man,
2:37
Speaker 4: get a call ahead of old friend Matt Manning, even
2:41
Speaker 4: Tyler Owens, who we saw and is a pretty likable pitcher.
2:45
Speaker 4: That's how high the Tigers are on Dylan Smith.
2:47
Speaker 2: Now.
2:48
Speaker 4: Everyone wants to know what's the corresponding move. At the
2:50
Speaker 4: time we're recording this, we don't know for sure, but
2:53
Speaker 4: there's a lot of speculation around Jackson. Joe didn't talk
2:56
Speaker 4: to the media after his last start. Media got kicked
2:59
Speaker 4: out the clubhouse, which is a rules violation, but no
3:03
Speaker 4: one want's to hear. Us, why about that. I've heard
3:06
Speaker 4: the word arm fatigue, I've heard upper arm. I don't know,
3:11
Speaker 4: nothing's confirmed there. We should know this afternoon whether or
3:14
Speaker 4: not Jackson Job's going on the IL, and if he is,
3:17
Speaker 4: I'll be interested to see how they phrased that on
3:20
Speaker 4: the medical report, because the whispers I've heard so far
3:24
Speaker 4: really vague.
3:27
Speaker 1: So like a little contextualizing for Dylan. He has just
3:32
Speaker 1: over two hundred career innings as a professional, and again
3:37
Speaker 1: he was drafted in twenty twenty one. For a little perspective,
3:40
Speaker 1: fellow twenty twenty one draft pick, I just mentioned Jason
3:43
Speaker 1: Joe pitched in three minor league seasons two hundred and
3:48
Speaker 1: eleven give or take innings, So that gives you an
3:51
Speaker 1: idea of the usage and the injuries and all that stuff.
3:55
Speaker 4: Us, I'm curious from two and a third innings in
3:58
Speaker 4: Toledo they just bumped him up to two right, all right,
4:01
Speaker 4: we've seen enough.
4:02
Speaker 2: We're good with this.
4:03
Speaker 5: Well.
4:04
Speaker 1: Obviously the guys are familiar with him, you know, through
4:07
Speaker 1: the years and spring training and then you know various
4:09
Speaker 1: minor leagues. But Austin, when when a guy comes up,
4:12
Speaker 1: especially maybe some kind of sudden riser, like as a
4:16
Speaker 1: guy who like like to be sort of like a
4:18
Speaker 1: leader in the clubhouse, literally and metaphorically, like what how
4:23
Speaker 1: how do you welcome a guy into a clubhouse when
4:26
Speaker 1: the team's rolling and you know you're hearing buzz about
4:30
Speaker 1: him and you know there's a standard here, but you
4:33
Speaker 1: also want to make him feel comfortable and a lot
4:35
Speaker 1: of stuff. How would how would how did you handle
4:37
Speaker 1: that back in the day.
4:38
Speaker 3: Honestly, it was just about doing your best to make
4:41
Speaker 3: him feel comfortable. Talk to the guy. You know, you
4:43
Speaker 3: don't want to let him sit over there in his
4:45
Speaker 3: chair and not say anything to him. You know, you
4:47
Speaker 3: welcome him. You kind of show him around, show him
4:50
Speaker 3: you know, hey, this is where the food is, this
4:52
Speaker 3: where the snacks are, this with the weight room is,
4:54
Speaker 3: and you know, kind of give him a little tour.
4:57
Speaker 3: But you just you want to as as a as
4:59
Speaker 3: a player, it's been there. You want to just show
5:01
Speaker 3: him how things are done in this clubhouse, how we
5:04
Speaker 3: go about our business on the daily, from the routines
5:09
Speaker 3: that we have. You know, you want to make sure
5:11
Speaker 3: that you're putting him right in there and let him
5:14
Speaker 3: fit right in to the group, because if they want
5:17
Speaker 3: him to be an important piece. He's gonna have to
5:19
Speaker 3: do that. He's gonna have to step in right away
5:21
Speaker 3: and figure out how to mess with this team and
5:24
Speaker 3: be a guy that I think the Tigers are gonna
5:27
Speaker 3: have to rely on a little bit. I would, like
5:29
Speaker 3: I said, I would always make sure to make a
5:33
Speaker 3: newbie feel comfortable. Just talk to him. You know, you'd
5:36
Speaker 3: be surprised how much that how far that goes, because
5:39
Speaker 3: the nerves are crazy when you get there. You know,
5:41
Speaker 3: you're like, man, I don't know what to expect. I
5:43
Speaker 3: don't know if God's gone haze me. You hear all
5:46
Speaker 3: these horror stories, None of that stuff is. They ain't
5:49
Speaker 3: doing stuff like that no more. Like when guys are
5:52
Speaker 3: coming up, man, you want them to contribute, and you
5:54
Speaker 3: want them to contribute right away. So the best thing
5:56
Speaker 3: you can do is just making them feel comfortable, and
5:59
Speaker 3: like I said, just the conversation just to you know, hey,
6:02
Speaker 3: where are you from? Just figure out his backstory. Things
6:05
Speaker 3: like that go a long way with new guys.
6:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's uh. I can only imagine what's
6:12
Speaker 1: going through, like you know, somebody's because you know, Austin
6:15
Speaker 1: started out the season with the team, and that's that's
6:18
Speaker 1: that's one thing to make the opening day roster, but
6:20
Speaker 1: to kind of be in different locations Dan Smith's case,
6:24
Speaker 1: like in such a short amount of time, and.
6:26
Speaker 2: It was in Eerie like ten days ago, like he.
6:29
Speaker 1: Probably hasn't had time to think yet, like he like
6:31
Speaker 1: he probably like they're obviously the Tigers are in Kansas
6:34
Speaker 1: City right now. He doesn't know what state he's in.
6:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, like no, I mean, and that's like
6:39
Speaker 3: and even for me, like you just mentioned, like I
6:41
Speaker 3: started out with the team, but in spring training, those
6:44
Speaker 3: those nerves were absolutely there. A lot of those guys,
6:47
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of grew up watching it, and
6:48
Speaker 3: I was like, I don't really know if I should talk,
6:51
Speaker 3: if I should not say anything. So I just tried
6:53
Speaker 3: to be myself. I've just talked to guys. I act
6:56
Speaker 3: like I've been there for a long time, obviously staying
6:59
Speaker 3: in my lane. I wasn't coming in there super loud.
7:02
Speaker 3: But I also wanted to let them know that, hey,
7:04
Speaker 3: I'm part of this team and I'm gonna do whatever
7:06
Speaker 3: I can to contribute right away. I don't want there
7:09
Speaker 3: to be any question whether I actually be here or not.
7:11
Speaker 3: And that's the type of statement, like we can talk
7:14
Speaker 3: about all this stuff in the clubhouse and how to
7:16
Speaker 3: make somebody comfortable, but it's gonna be up to him
7:19
Speaker 3: to go out there and prove that he is. There's
7:21
Speaker 3: a reason why they called me up, and I don't
7:23
Speaker 3: want to go back down. Yep.
7:25
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7:29
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Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, I wanted to I just
8:38
Speaker 1: wanted to throw out some kind of simple numbers to
8:41
Speaker 1: kind of give a little bit of an idea about
8:44
Speaker 1: what we're watching from this Tiger's team. Obviously, this is entering,
8:48
Speaker 1: you know, tell you what everybody's listening to this, This
8:50
Speaker 1: is entering the series against Kansas City, and the Tigers
8:54
Speaker 1: currently are thirty seven and twenty. What does that mean?
8:58
Speaker 1: That's basically a six fifty percentage? Well, what does that mean?
9:02
Speaker 3: Okay?
9:02
Speaker 1: Well the eighty five or excuse me, the eighty four Tigers,
9:05
Speaker 1: the famous thirty five and five start. They finished the
9:08
Speaker 1: season with a six forty two win percentage. Right now,
9:13
Speaker 1: the Tigers, if you're an on pace guy, are on
9:16
Speaker 1: a roughly one hundred and five win page. Now, I'm
9:21
Speaker 1: not preaking eight predictions. I'm just telling you what the
9:24
Speaker 1: thirty seven to twenty record that is your pace?
9:26
Speaker 3: All right?
9:27
Speaker 1: And I went look this up when you know thirty
9:29
Speaker 1: seven is a random numbers, So again I want to
9:31
Speaker 1: contextualize it a little bit. So the twenty eleven Tigers
9:36
Speaker 1: LCS team, they won their thirty seventh game on June fourteenth.
9:41
Speaker 1: The twenty twelve Tigers World Series team won their thirty
9:45
Speaker 1: seventh game on June twenty ninth. The twenty thirteen Tigers
9:50
Speaker 1: LCS team won their thirty seventh game on June thirteenth.
9:56
Speaker 1: They to this year's Tigers won their thirty seventh game
10:00
Speaker 1: on May eight. So there, so there's some perspective about
10:04
Speaker 1: what we're watching here. Sometimes in the day to day
10:06
Speaker 1: you get caught up in whatever, but those are some
10:08
Speaker 1: real It's an impressive start, I guess, is what I'm
10:12
Speaker 1: trying to get.
10:13
Speaker 3: At, No no doubt, brother, I mean, they're man, they're
10:18
Speaker 3: on Like you said, they're on the pace that it's
10:20
Speaker 3: gonna be hard to replicate for the guys coming behind them.
10:24
Speaker 3: But it's just impressive to watch because we talk about
10:27
Speaker 3: how how they would respond to when they hit a
10:31
Speaker 3: little bump, and we saw that in that Cleveland series
10:34
Speaker 3: where yeah, you know, they got thumped a little bit,
10:37
Speaker 3: but then how did they respond come back and roll off?
10:40
Speaker 3: What four? I mean, yo, that I'm sorry that we
10:45
Speaker 3: are talking about with this type of team, the special
10:49
Speaker 3: type of team that we're watching in the baseball that
10:52
Speaker 3: we're watching. I'm gonna keep saying, it's just not a flute, man,
10:55
Speaker 3: Like when you see a team respond the way this
10:58
Speaker 3: team did, uh that Cleveland series and then come back
11:01
Speaker 3: out and roll off you know, four in a row, man,
11:04
Speaker 3: then lets you know this team is for real?
11:07
Speaker 4: Okare someone in the media room after the finale against
11:11
Speaker 4: the Giants sat down was kind of like thirty seven
11:14
Speaker 4: and twenty like it doesn't even feel real, and it
11:17
Speaker 4: kind of doesn't like, yeah, it's not a fluke. We
11:20
Speaker 4: know this is a good team, but yeah, one hundred
11:23
Speaker 4: and five win pace, Like what is I never would
11:26
Speaker 4: have thought that of this team, Like I thought this
11:28
Speaker 4: could be a competitive team, but yeah, like a hundred
11:32
Speaker 4: even you know, you go up and down the roster
11:34
Speaker 4: and you look at all the numbers and you're like, oh,
11:36
Speaker 4: all right, this team will.
11:37
Speaker 2: Win ninety nine.
11:38
Speaker 4: No, they're on one hundred and five in pace and
11:41
Speaker 4: every time we think they're hitting a bump in the road,
11:43
Speaker 4: Like you said, Austin. That Cleveland series, I've called it
11:46
Speaker 4: the low point of their year. You know, it wasn't
11:48
Speaker 4: a great series, and then they come out, they take
11:51
Speaker 4: the finales, Google dominates and then they just outplay the Giants.
11:55
Speaker 4: The first two nights and the third game they really
11:57
Speaker 4: didn't play all that well, but they just kind of
11:59
Speaker 4: wore them out, you know, and and end up winning
12:02
Speaker 4: that game.
12:03
Speaker 2: They they've tapped into something pretty special.
12:06
Speaker 4: And I don't know if he'll finish with one hundred
12:08
Speaker 4: and five, but at this point, like it's hard to
12:10
Speaker 4: put limits on him because they just keep doing.
12:14
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I think, what what's kind of impressive about
12:18
Speaker 1: that Giant series? And then you know, you can say
12:22
Speaker 1: the bounce back is part of this too, obviously, but
12:24
Speaker 1: the Giants in a lot of ways have like tried
12:27
Speaker 1: to play baseball the same, like in similar fashion what
12:30
Speaker 1: the Tigers do, and the Tigers just out tigered them,
12:33
Speaker 1: and I and there are other teams that are kind
12:36
Speaker 1: of emulating the Tiger model. And you know, thirty seven
12:39
Speaker 1: and twenty you're out.
12:41
Speaker 4: You could argue this is the what was it twenty
12:44
Speaker 4: twenty one Giants model? You know, Scott Harris did come
12:47
Speaker 4: from the Giants and this maybe maybe there's some pretty
12:49
Speaker 4: similar vibes there, although between twenty one Giants didn't have
12:53
Speaker 4: a Trek Scooble and it wasn't necessarily young core that
12:56
Speaker 4: was all going to be together for the foreseeable future.
12:59
Speaker 1: Well here's the thing, here's the There are certain moments
13:03
Speaker 1: that I tried to remember as like checkpoints in a
13:07
Speaker 1: team's story, and the Giant series was one of those
13:13
Speaker 1: for me because every single time that Justin Verlander came
13:19
Speaker 1: back to Detroit after the trade, it was this big
13:23
Speaker 1: story where it's like, you know, you do, like you
13:25
Speaker 1: know what hat you're gonna wear on your plaque and
13:28
Speaker 1: you know, tell me about your time in Detroit and
13:31
Speaker 1: you know, like kind of the the run.
13:33
Speaker 4: Of the ever come back here, like the run of
13:36
Speaker 4: the mill kind of cliche news stories.
13:39
Speaker 1: And then when Aj Hinch became the manager of the Tigers,
13:43
Speaker 1: it was like, you know, that was like another wrinkle
13:45
Speaker 1: where it's like, you know, Aj talking about Verlander, Erlander
13:48
Speaker 1: talking about Aj and like all these kind of things.
13:51
Speaker 1: I know he's hurt, but there's a good possibility the
13:56
Speaker 1: last time that Justin Verlander like throws a pitch from
14:01
Speaker 1: a mound in Camerica Park. It was a bullpen session
14:06
Speaker 1: that he had this week, you know, as he's trying
14:08
Speaker 1: to come back from his injury and it could be
14:10
Speaker 1: the last time he's in Detroit as an active player.
14:12
Speaker 1: Could be you never know, but like that possibility exists,
14:16
Speaker 1: and it wasn't really a storyline. It was kind of like, oh, yeah,
14:19
Speaker 1: he's in the dugout right there. Yeah, it's kind of
14:21
Speaker 1: cool Verlander. We all remember, but we got schoobl now,
14:24
Speaker 1: you know, like the Tigers have officially turned a page
14:27
Speaker 1: a little bit in terms of like this new era
14:30
Speaker 1: when you're not looking back as much. I don't know
14:33
Speaker 1: if that makes sense, but that that stuck out to
14:35
Speaker 1: me this week.
14:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean, I mean the thing to do this
14:38
Speaker 4: year was let's go talk to verry Lander about schoobl right,
14:41
Speaker 4: And I did it. And it was kind of funny
14:43
Speaker 4: because he got asked about Schoobol last year in Detroit
14:46
Speaker 4: and he was like, oh, yeah, seems good. To be honest,
14:49
Speaker 4: I haven't really watched him, and this year he's like, oh, dude, yeah,
14:53
Speaker 4: I saw the line score and I was like, I
14:55
Speaker 4: gotta go pull up the highlights. And then he just
14:57
Speaker 4: kind of started raving about Schooball and kinda kind of
15:01
Speaker 4: almost being like, I hope this guy can continue the
15:03
Speaker 4: legacy of being a workhorse starter, throwing innings, going to
15:08
Speaker 4: deep into games, even just like the concept of being
15:11
Speaker 4: a famous starting pitcher. If you think about it in
15:14
Speaker 4: terms of household level names, there aren't that many, And
15:17
Speaker 4: Verlanders said, like, who's gonna carry that on after me?
15:20
Speaker 4: Max Kershaw, Well Schooble, along with Paul Skins, maybe a
15:24
Speaker 4: couple other guys very much in the uh in consideration
15:29
Speaker 4: to maybe reach that type of level.
15:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, man, I think about like you think about how
15:34
Speaker 3: like with the Mavericks. I know it's probably a touchy subject,
15:39
Speaker 3: but I'm gonna go. I'm gonna go. I'm going I mean,
15:42
Speaker 3: you know, Dark Dark's was the man, you know, and
15:44
Speaker 3: then when Luke came, it was like, yeah, you're cool,
15:48
Speaker 3: Like we see him, you know what I mean, Look
15:52
Speaker 3: we got Luca after you drop a diven. It's just
15:57
Speaker 3: it's just it's just one of those things where it
15:59
Speaker 3: just it just happens. Is it's gonna come at some
16:01
Speaker 3: point where somebody's gonna come and you'll always be remembered.
16:06
Speaker 3: But we got this guy now, and this dude is
16:09
Speaker 3: I mean, we talk, you know, we talk about the
16:12
Speaker 3: similarities and things, and the biggest thing to me, honestly,
16:17
Speaker 3: is just the bulldog mentality that I see the similarities.
16:22
Speaker 3: You know, I played behind this guy for several years
16:25
Speaker 3: of Verlander, and I just this. When this dude hit
16:29
Speaker 3: the mound, it didn't it didn't matter, It didn't matter
16:32
Speaker 3: what we were going through as a team, as far
16:34
Speaker 3: as if we were winning or losing, it didn't matter.
16:37
Speaker 3: It was this this, this like laser like focus every
16:41
Speaker 3: single time, and that brought something out. I know, it
16:43
Speaker 3: brought something out of me, and I'm sure it brought
16:45
Speaker 3: something out of the rest of the guys that were
16:47
Speaker 3: playing behind him. When you see a guy going up
16:50
Speaker 3: there like a Verlander, like a schoobl and there's just
16:53
Speaker 3: bulldog and people they just they just have this this energy,
16:56
Speaker 3: you know, and it's very infectious to the other guys
16:59
Speaker 3: around them. They like make they make you step their
17:02
Speaker 3: game up. You Like, I see him up there working,
17:04
Speaker 3: I have to. I gotta be on my p's and
17:06
Speaker 3: q's out here one because he's gonna look back if
17:08
Speaker 3: I let a ball drop and don't die for it.
17:11
Speaker 3: He gonna throw his hands. I'm like, oh, dang, brother,
17:13
Speaker 3: I'm bad like I, you know, like I had to be.
17:16
Speaker 3: I just had to be ready and I and like
17:18
Speaker 3: again like that, that bulldog mentality. It's just hard to find.
17:22
Speaker 3: And those similarities, obviously, the how hard these guys can
17:26
Speaker 3: throw late in the in the in the games are
17:28
Speaker 3: similarities like that. But I think Verlander even mentioned it.
17:31
Speaker 3: You know, it's just there, They're two different type of pictures.
17:34
Speaker 3: It's a different era Verlander. You know, he'd come out early,
17:38
Speaker 3: you know, and just spot up ninety one, ninety two,
17:41
Speaker 3: maybe pop up ninety four in there every once in
17:43
Speaker 3: a while. But boy, by the time you get through
17:46
Speaker 3: that inning or that that lineup a couple of times
17:49
Speaker 3: and y'all ain't doing that yet. It's the first pitch
17:53
Speaker 3: in the seven be like you look back, you're like,
17:56
Speaker 3: ninety eight. Wow, got eighties? That what you mean? Night
18:02
Speaker 3: be A. You got that in the taking, You've been
18:04
Speaker 3: saving it. And I know, I know lineup, so I
18:07
Speaker 3: know the other guys that think of the same thing, Like, Yo,
18:10
Speaker 3: I thought you was just gonna be spot up guy today.
18:12
Speaker 3: Now you coming like and then you get behind and
18:15
Speaker 3: that he ho coming, you know that that he yeah,
18:19
Speaker 3: well then he came. Hey, that's that's when it got
18:22
Speaker 3: nasty late in the game too. That's a whole nother
18:24
Speaker 3: that's a whole nother conversation though, But no, I love,
18:28
Speaker 3: I love the comparison, but also I think, in all fairness,
18:31
Speaker 3: you know, to schoogle Justin Verlin, he did it for
18:34
Speaker 3: for a long you know, extended amount of time, and
18:38
Speaker 3: so only time is gonna tell if he's you know,
18:41
Speaker 3: reached that Verlinder uh uh, you know status. But I
18:45
Speaker 3: mean from what we see right now, I definitely think
18:48
Speaker 3: he's trending that way.
18:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, longevity of the starting pictures. Hey, you never know.
18:53
Speaker 4: To Trek's credit, he's like the first to point out,
18:56
Speaker 4: I haven't done this for near as long as JV
18:58
Speaker 4: or any of these guys. I mean, And I sat
19:00
Speaker 4: there and watched him scroll through Justin Verlander's baseball reference
19:04
Speaker 4: and just be like, he's just still kind of scrolling,
19:07
Speaker 4: you know, year after year. If you're listening to this podcast,
19:10
Speaker 4: you're I'm sure very familiar with with Verlander's greatness, but
19:13
Speaker 4: sometimes it's still like you go and look at the
19:15
Speaker 4: numbers and you just see every year two hundred innings
19:19
Speaker 4: sub three ra like it's still it's still kind of
19:22
Speaker 4: a refresher to remember just like how good that is
19:26
Speaker 4: and how how rare that is.
19:27
Speaker 2: To be able to do that for you know, eighteen
19:30
Speaker 2: nineteen twenty years.
19:33
Speaker 1: So there's a couple of things that I think can
19:36
Speaker 1: be true at uh at the same time with this,
19:39
Speaker 1: like it's okay to feel the same, like from from
19:45
Speaker 1: a fan's perspective, to feel the same that you did
19:48
Speaker 1: with Verlander and when he was in his prime, which
19:51
Speaker 1: again it was a pretty long prime, all right, like
19:54
Speaker 1: like the you know, but there there are there are
19:57
Speaker 1: some facts here where there are several years where he
20:00
Speaker 1: he was an eight war pitcher, you know, and he
20:03
Speaker 1: did win an MVP Award and a cy Young in
20:06
Speaker 1: the same season and in that in like a four
20:09
Speaker 1: year span including that that year, he was top three
20:11
Speaker 1: cy Young finisher h three times in five years. Like,
20:15
Speaker 1: like there are levels to this. It's okay to feel
20:20
Speaker 1: like you're seeing some dominance that that that brings you
20:24
Speaker 1: back to.
20:24
Speaker 3: That, but.
20:27
Speaker 1: Schoobl's not there yet. And by the way, that's okay,
20:30
Speaker 1: He's like it like that he there are ways for
20:35
Speaker 1: him to overcome the very Landers shadow. One of them
20:39
Speaker 1: would be the one thing that Verlander wasn't able to accomplish,
20:42
Speaker 1: and that was, you know, win a World Series. If
20:45
Speaker 1: if Schooble leads a team to a World Series win,
20:47
Speaker 1: then that conversation really accelerates in a different way. And then,
20:51
Speaker 1: of course, you know, there's that impending free agency thing
20:55
Speaker 1: that will have plenty of time to talk about over
20:56
Speaker 1: the next couple of years. We don't necessarily have to
20:58
Speaker 1: do that now. But in my opinion, it's a it's
21:03
Speaker 1: a little bit dismissive of just how long Verlander was
21:06
Speaker 1: dominant to to kind of put them in the same
21:10
Speaker 1: conversation resume wise, But I think emotionally you're valid and
21:15
Speaker 1: feeling like you're seeing the same level of dominance on
21:19
Speaker 1: a like a start to start basis. I think that's fair.
21:22
Speaker 4: I agree, Austin, you never actually faced Verlander in the
21:28
Speaker 4: regular season.
21:29
Speaker 3: No spring training. I did because I knew it was coming.
21:35
Speaker 3: I already know, I've watched it. I watched everything, so
21:39
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm not going to sit over here. I
21:40
Speaker 3: know you working on stuff, but I need to get
21:42
Speaker 3: I feel good too, So I got services to the
21:47
Speaker 3: same way, but you know, they look different. They look
21:50
Speaker 3: different when they lock it in. But I'm hey, I
21:53
Speaker 3: took that, I got that in the bank. I'm keeping
21:55
Speaker 3: that one forever.
22:00
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, well, I mean it's it was like again,
22:06
Speaker 1: if you care about kind of storylines that go back
22:09
Speaker 1: to what Cody kind of began this segment about with
22:12
Speaker 1: the sort of like it's kind of like a validation
22:14
Speaker 1: thing from from Justin Verlander and sort of like the
22:17
Speaker 1: Old Guard, which again I know he's still player, but
22:19
Speaker 1: like the Old Guard kind of given the green light
22:23
Speaker 1: to like embrace Schooble in this way. I actually did
22:25
Speaker 1: kind of appreciate that because Verlander is such an intense guy,
22:29
Speaker 1: at least from the outside. Obviously I don't know him,
22:31
Speaker 1: but like, he's such an intense guy that I don't
22:33
Speaker 1: really feel like he allows himself to speak like that
22:36
Speaker 1: and think like that all that often. But that that
22:39
Speaker 1: tells you how special Schoolble you know is, And definitely
22:43
Speaker 1: most recently was with that with that start on Sunday.
22:47
Speaker 1: And also I think Cody really good point about maybe
22:52
Speaker 1: wanting to see more guys like him period, that pitch
22:55
Speaker 1: like him, that can that can have the kind of career,
22:59
Speaker 1: because see, he's seen the starting picture kind of role
23:04
Speaker 1: change a lot in his in his time in the game.
23:06
Speaker 1: So uh, a little bit a little bit of reflective
23:09
Speaker 1: Verlander in his forties. You know, you don't necessarily expect
23:12
Speaker 1: that all that often, but ages wisdom, I suppose get
23:16
Speaker 1: a little bit.
23:16
Speaker 3: More emotional too. We get older, you know, start feeling
23:20
Speaker 3: you start feeling those emotions a little bit, and you
23:23
Speaker 3: start reacting and responding to him. It was good, like
23:26
Speaker 3: you said, it was good to hear him. Give him,
23:28
Speaker 3: Give him some praise because if you you don't get
23:31
Speaker 3: it that much from him, if you get it, that
23:34
Speaker 3: means you're doing something.
23:35
Speaker 2: So he's grown soft.
23:37
Speaker 4: And every time I've ever talked to him, he's like, actually,
23:39
Speaker 4: he's just like great man, He's yeah.
23:43
Speaker 3: Soft man, I'm over talking about bulldog. You like a
23:47
Speaker 3: little English, little English, a little preachy.
23:53
Speaker 2: I hope he doesn't hear that.
23:54
Speaker 3: He might run from Orlando. Let's go.
24:00
Speaker 1: Come on any time, justin by thirty now all right, Well,
24:10
Speaker 1: I wanted to get the transition here to another kind
24:14
Speaker 1: of fun moment of the week, or at least memorable
24:17
Speaker 1: moment of the week. Was we had an ejection one
24:19
Speaker 1: hobby or Bias had himself, you know, speaking of you know,
24:23
Speaker 1: being emotional, had himself in an emotional time on a
24:26
Speaker 1: on a pretty bad, pretty pretty bad called third strike
24:31
Speaker 1: call from Phil Cuzzy and and it was one of
24:34
Speaker 1: those things that kind of escalated a lit little bit
24:36
Speaker 1: and you know, like I said, he got tossed and
24:38
Speaker 1: then Aj kind of came out. And Aj is always
24:41
Speaker 1: so pointed whenever he talks to an umpire, and he
24:44
Speaker 1: said on this podcast he was going to get ejected
24:46
Speaker 1: early in season. Hasn't happened.
24:48
Speaker 3: Uh.
24:49
Speaker 1: He believes managers are you know, should be managing, and
24:52
Speaker 1: you know it's kind of hard to argue with that
24:54
Speaker 1: kind of logic, but there is this notion out there
24:57
Speaker 1: Austin that when a manager it's ejected, like in the
25:02
Speaker 1: you know right situation, that it can kind of be
25:05
Speaker 1: a little bit of a a you know, a rallying
25:08
Speaker 1: cry for the team. You know, he managers got my
25:10
Speaker 1: back and you know, we gotta go out there. You know,
25:12
Speaker 1: a little bit of an emotional uplift. You know, you
25:16
Speaker 1: played for a guy for several years in Detroit that, yeah,
25:19
Speaker 1: wasn't afraid to speak his mind to the Boys in Blue,
25:23
Speaker 1: and that was Jim Leland, who is tenth all time
25:26
Speaker 1: and managerial ejections with seventy three and thirty of those
25:30
Speaker 1: happened while managing your Detroit Tigers. So you've seen it,
25:35
Speaker 1: you experienced it. Is Is there any any realness to
25:40
Speaker 1: the notion of, you know, the fiery managerial ejection kind
25:45
Speaker 1: of hyping up the team a little bit?
25:48
Speaker 3: For sure? But first I just want to say, like,
25:50
Speaker 3: I'm more like a j because I never I never
25:53
Speaker 3: got ejected. I always talked this big game like I'm
25:55
Speaker 3: gonna do it, this is the year, I'm gonna do it.
25:57
Speaker 3: I'm tired of it. But I I wish I would
26:01
Speaker 3: have at the very least been more like what Javier
26:04
Speaker 3: Bias did. He didn't even really like I can call
26:06
Speaker 3: you out on that terrible call that you come on
26:09
Speaker 3: cuz like you you just that's below the zign ain't
26:12
Speaker 3: off route at the hand. I know what it's gonna do,
26:15
Speaker 3: and I can't talk to you about it. You we
26:17
Speaker 3: grown men. You talk to me. I talked to you,
26:19
Speaker 3: and get a little heated. Like Harvey said, we already competing.
26:21
Speaker 3: You know. The adrilline is all high and everything. So
26:25
Speaker 3: I was just like, I didn't I didn't really like
26:27
Speaker 3: that that you just got the power just because you
26:29
Speaker 3: you you know, you sensitive. I can't say something to you.
26:32
Speaker 3: You gonna hear it.
26:33
Speaker 2: I don't care.
26:34
Speaker 3: It's a bad call. It was just terrible. You're gonna
26:36
Speaker 3: hear it, You're gonna throw me out. Whatever. But to
26:39
Speaker 3: your point about AJ and well about Leland, I loved
26:45
Speaker 3: it and the way Leland did it, it was just funny.
26:48
Speaker 3: It was comical. You know, you get out there and
26:50
Speaker 3: get in his face, start kicking dirt around and stuff
26:53
Speaker 3: and you start mfing them. Boy, he'll let him have it.
26:57
Speaker 3: But I remember it was this one specific time. I
26:59
Speaker 3: can't remember who we were playing, if we were, I
27:02
Speaker 3: know we were down because he went out there and
27:06
Speaker 3: we just didn't have any energy. We were just we
27:08
Speaker 3: were just kind of just going through the motions and
27:11
Speaker 3: he went out there and let him have it. I
27:12
Speaker 3: don't even know if he was mad or he was
27:15
Speaker 3: just I think it was more if he was trying
27:16
Speaker 3: to like ignite something in us, and it did because
27:19
Speaker 3: when he got back in the dugout, he looked at
27:21
Speaker 3: me like, let him have it. In the jet, let
27:23
Speaker 3: him have it. I'm like, oh man, he wasn't even
27:25
Speaker 3: he was just doing that. So you get us, get
27:27
Speaker 3: us ignited, get us some energy, and it did. So
27:30
Speaker 3: I think there is something to be said about you know,
27:34
Speaker 3: everybody's different, but I think there is something to be
27:36
Speaker 3: said about that, you know, a manager going out there
27:39
Speaker 3: and sticking up for his team. Not that AJ doesn't.
27:41
Speaker 3: I think his style is is different. He more of
27:44
Speaker 3: a cool, calm collected dude. Leland would let it rip
27:47
Speaker 3: at any given moment. He didn't like some first pitch.
27:50
Speaker 3: If I remember something from last time that you were
27:54
Speaker 3: behind the plate, I'm thinking about that that wasn't even
27:57
Speaker 3: that bad of a call. But I'm gonna call you
27:58
Speaker 3: out on the last time that you that you were
28:01
Speaker 3: behind the plate first pitch get ejected. You're like, whoa man?
28:05
Speaker 3: And it just it just it just shoots this a
28:08
Speaker 3: drilling in the team. And again, I think that it
28:10
Speaker 3: just depends on on the personalities of the of the manager.
28:14
Speaker 3: A J is a great you know, he's a great manager.
28:16
Speaker 3: I think he gets those boys, those boys going, you know,
28:20
Speaker 3: in his own way. But Leland, man, he just had
28:22
Speaker 3: a way of making you just wanting to run through
28:24
Speaker 3: a brick wall sometime. Man. When he you see this
28:27
Speaker 3: little dude out there getting fired up like that, Man,
28:29
Speaker 3: You're like, man, I gotta I gotta get some energy. Man,
28:32
Speaker 3: then go in there and hit withing the little Marlboro's
28:34
Speaker 3: real quick, like you't even finishing and Macer that was
28:42
Speaker 3: the man, dude, I'm telling you the man. And I
28:45
Speaker 3: enjoyed every bit that that I got a chance to
28:48
Speaker 3: be around him and play for him. One of the
28:50
Speaker 3: best managers and just storytellers and and all that. So
28:54
Speaker 3: but yes, I think it does. It does the night
28:57
Speaker 3: a team with the right personality, Yep.
29:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean there's a time and place for it,
29:03
Speaker 4: right I've said, like, I'm totally on board with AJ's thought, like,
29:07
Speaker 4: you get paid to manage the game.
29:08
Speaker 2: If you're a player, you get paid to play the game.
29:11
Speaker 4: You know, you have to defend your player, but especially
29:14
Speaker 4: a team like the Tigers who have a million moving parts.
29:17
Speaker 2: All the time.
29:18
Speaker 4: Hey, you know, the managers kind of got to be
29:19
Speaker 4: in the dugout making sure the game is flowing the
29:22
Speaker 4: right way. So I don't have a lot more to add.
29:25
Speaker 4: We've kind of talked about it a lot. One thing,
29:28
Speaker 4: you know, I've spent a lot of time around aj Hinch,
29:30
Speaker 4: spend a decent amount of time around Jim Wheland. They
29:33
Speaker 4: see the game man pretty similarly. Like different managerial styles
29:37
Speaker 4: because they manage in different.
29:38
Speaker 2: Eras, but like in a way they have a lot
29:42
Speaker 2: in common.
29:43
Speaker 4: They just have very different ways I think of going
29:45
Speaker 4: about the way that they deliver their messages.
29:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean different era Yeah, yeah, and that's part
29:52
Speaker 2: of it too.
29:54
Speaker 1: And you know, talk about the journey, I mean, the
29:56
Speaker 1: Leland journeys fascinating. We don't have to get into it.
29:58
Speaker 1: But if you haven't read it just by or you
30:00
Speaker 1: haven't read in a while, go reread it again because
30:03
Speaker 1: you would probably be fired up too if you were
30:04
Speaker 1: Jim Leland on a daily basis to be a major
30:08
Speaker 1: league manager. All right, let's wrap up here with something else,
30:13
Speaker 1: kind of light another thing. Sometimes I'm just like, hey,
30:16
Speaker 1: I wonder what Austin thinks about this, So I write
30:18
Speaker 1: it down. I was like, all right, well, next time
30:20
Speaker 1: we get them ono math asked this question even if
30:21
Speaker 1: it's not that timely, but I think this is kind
30:23
Speaker 1: of timely. Tigers are playing Kansas City Royals Kansas City
30:26
Speaker 1: Royals in Division two, teams that were rebuilding at the
30:29
Speaker 1: same time, two teams that made a playoffs at the
30:31
Speaker 1: same time. You got the young Superstar and Bobby with Junior,
30:34
Speaker 1: and you got obviously Riley Green, same draft class. I
30:37
Speaker 1: like those kind of storylines. As I've said before, it's
30:41
Speaker 1: not really you wouldn't really call it a rivalry per se.
30:43
Speaker 1: And then we had her fun with the Toronto Blue
30:46
Speaker 1: Jay series happening on rivalry weekend. So I was kind
30:50
Speaker 1: of curious. Obviously, Austin, you guys had playoff battles in
30:53
Speaker 1: your time in Detroit, Like who who was your rival?
30:58
Speaker 1: I guess it doesn't necessarily have to be division or
31:00
Speaker 1: anything like that, but like, who was the team that
31:03
Speaker 1: you guys kind of looked at as your quote rival
31:06
Speaker 1: or even players or you know whatever. You could take
31:09
Speaker 1: that in any direction you want, But I'm just kind
31:10
Speaker 1: of curious from your time, like who you guys kind
31:13
Speaker 1: of put into that box?
31:14
Speaker 3: Well, you know, to me, it was always in our division,
31:18
Speaker 3: at least to the way it felt when we played
31:22
Speaker 3: teams within our division like Cleveland, it was just some
31:26
Speaker 3: straight up, just grinded out games with them. It just
31:30
Speaker 3: felt like it took so much out of you when
31:32
Speaker 3: you left there, you like, man, I'm glad to get
31:35
Speaker 3: out of here. That to me is like the definition
31:37
Speaker 3: of like a rivalry when you when every time we
31:40
Speaker 3: go in here, it's just this battle. You know, there's
31:43
Speaker 3: a battle you you ben just could clear at any
31:46
Speaker 3: given moment. It just it was just something about going
31:50
Speaker 3: in there and when they even when they would even
31:52
Speaker 3: come to Detroit, it just felt like a playoff battle,
31:56
Speaker 3: like if I beat you or you beat me, like
31:58
Speaker 3: we're going to the playoffs, we beat you. They just
32:02
Speaker 3: they just those games just they were so it's just
32:05
Speaker 3: just so much into those games that I just think
32:09
Speaker 3: that for me, at least personally, I felt like Cleveland
32:12
Speaker 3: was one of them. Also felt like Minnesota was, man,
32:15
Speaker 3: Minnesota was a tough team during those times. Man, Like
32:18
Speaker 3: they had some guys that could play. So I mean
32:21
Speaker 3: it was them. And then Kansas City was like that
32:24
Speaker 3: team that they could like ruin your playoff chances if
32:26
Speaker 3: you if you take them likely at least at that time,
32:28
Speaker 3: like they were like it's hot here, we really don't
32:32
Speaker 3: want to be here. You go in there and Billy
32:33
Speaker 3: Butler is clicking balls everywhere, and I.
32:37
Speaker 1: Mean it's just it's just a completely.
32:40
Speaker 3: Hey really was clapping now, but now it was. It
32:43
Speaker 3: was just I really felt like those two teams to
32:46
Speaker 3: me felt like rivalries. And and then the Yankees was
32:51
Speaker 3: more of like a personal rivalry for me, Like when
32:53
Speaker 3: we played them, like I always wanted to beat them
32:55
Speaker 3: because it's like, oh, you traded me, all right, Well
32:57
Speaker 3: the was gonna beat you, you know, Like so I
32:58
Speaker 3: always took those games as a personal rivalry because I
33:01
Speaker 3: always wanted to beat them. But like Cleveland, I would
33:04
Speaker 3: say for me that that felt like our biggest robbery. Yeah.
33:10
Speaker 1: I mean, and we again, we might be you know,
33:12
Speaker 1: not playing Cleveland right now obviously, but we might be
33:14
Speaker 1: in the midst of that too, because there's there's there's
33:19
Speaker 1: a lot of elements there that Austin just described. I
33:22
Speaker 1: think we saw last year the postseason, and then I
33:26
Speaker 1: saw this past weekend as well. Uh, all right, Cody Ajax,
33:30
Speaker 1: anything else we want to get into before were jet
33:32
Speaker 1: out of here.
33:34
Speaker 2: I think we're good for them. Yeah, we got awesome,
33:37
Speaker 2: you got anything?
33:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's good man. I I'm enjoying. I'm
33:41
Speaker 3: enjoying with what I'm seeing, man. And and a lot
33:43
Speaker 3: of this is really cool because I can, you know,
33:46
Speaker 3: show my youngsters, you know, how to play a different
33:50
Speaker 3: style of baseball than they're used to getting on YouTube
33:53
Speaker 3: kids and and looking up just you know, the home
33:56
Speaker 3: runs and all this. Now we get to look at
33:58
Speaker 3: a different style of base ball, more like an old
34:01
Speaker 3: school style of baseball. So this is this is really
34:04
Speaker 3: cool for me because now I get to talk about
34:06
Speaker 3: it and then I get to go show them like, hey,
34:08
Speaker 3: it's not all about line chain go all the time
34:11
Speaker 3: and all this stuff, even though that's very much integrated
34:13
Speaker 3: in this game. We get it, but they just play
34:15
Speaker 3: a style of baseball that I think that these young
34:18
Speaker 3: kids can really see and they can like you know,
34:20
Speaker 3: gravitate to of how to play the Game's.
34:23
Speaker 1: Good, very well said. We'll end on that. You can
34:27
Speaker 1: follow us on xprobably known as Twitter. I co you,
34:30
Speaker 1: Stave and Hagen. I'm a Krean Onderscore Steckley, pop page
34:32
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34:37
Speaker 1: your podcasts like subscribe, rate review. We appreciate all of
34:41
Speaker 1: you so for AJAX, Colee, Stavenhagen, I'm Kieren Steckley. Everybody
34:46
Speaker 1: have great there