Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Austin Jackson on Kevin McGonigle, outfield fundamentals and more

Transcript

Austin Jackson on Kevin McGonigle, outfield fundamentals and more · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Try Tiger's podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm Kieren Steckley, and I got with me a couple
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of fellas that know how to rally. Austin Jackson, Cody
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: staven Haagen.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: What's up, guys? How we doing?
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: What up? Ute? Hey? How are we doing?
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah? I will rally, boot and rally.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Ways you could rally the boot and rally or you know,
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you know, rally runs, which is what we saw the
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Tigers do today. We're recording this a couple hours after
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a five to two victory to kind of salvage a
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: series over there in Atlanta. And and I kind of
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: wanted to start with this Cody, a couple elements that
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: we saw this week. And you know, we saw Trek Schoogle,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of finish a start in a way
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: that we hadn't seen in a bit Fromber kind of
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: the same thing. You know, what was the last ten
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: batters h put down? I believe Kyle Finnigan got a save.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: We saw Kenley Jansen blow a save as well, for
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: you know, with a walkoff from run Wentzel Perez, Matt
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Vierling kind of getting going a little bit, maybe sort
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: of that luck going in their favor. Oh, those are
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: just some Those are just some elements, Cody. But what
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: stands out to you from from this three game set
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: over in the atl.
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's hard to choose one thing. I mean,
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: we're recording this after the finale, so maybe just focus
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: on that. I think it's good they won the finale.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: They they kind of needed it. You know, you did
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: not want to come off that road trip one in
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: five again losing a couple of games that you probably
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: should have won. You're right on the tech schouble thing.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 1:40
  Speaker 4: We talked about him going three times through the order
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: and the numbers not being good in a small sample,
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: and sure enough, he was quite good third time through
• 1:48
  Speaker 4: the order, and you could tell it bothered him that
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: people were talking about that. Look listening to his postgame interview,
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: nothing crazy, but it was just kind of funny, you know.
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: And as he poured out they got to him a
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: little bit. The first time through the order, it probably
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: wasn't his A stuff, but once he got going, he
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: was pretty effective. Fromber you know, not his A stuff.
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: He was spraying the ball a little bit, but locked
• 2:11
  Speaker 4: in got out when he needed to that middle of
• 2:13
  Speaker 4: the game of the series. Though that you know, I
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: think that stings Kinley Jansen has given up three walkoff
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: homers already this year. Look, some things like that are
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: gonna happen, but that's that's obviously not what you want.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: I don't know if Jansen would have been available today regardless,
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: but Kyle Finigan did pitch the ninth, so you know,
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: we had talked about how crazy is it that one
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: guy's getting all the saves and then aj Hinch bullpen.
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: It's possible we're already moving away from that.
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: It'll be interesting to see who gets the ninth next
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: time around, you.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: Know, Austin, it's it's is it something that I was
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: curious how the team was going to respond today, especially
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: with it being a day game after like, you know,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: I want to say devastating loss because it is late April,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: but just like you know, you think you're gonna get
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: back in a series, and then you know, we'll see
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: what happens in Game three and then well, you know,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: a couple of swings of the bat and then all
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: of a sudden You're going into the clubhouse a loser
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: with a walk off there on the road. What's kind
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: of the what's the key I guess to kind of
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: flushing that and being able to bounce back real quick
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: and win a game and come back fashion too. It's
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: not like they came out fire blazing and you know,
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: everything was good. They had to kind of scratch and
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: claw their way to a victory today. So what's kind
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: of the key to being able to bounce back from
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: a late ending walk off loss.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Short memory.
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: You gotta have a short memory in this game, because
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: there's there's gonna be things that happen throughout a course
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: of a game, throughout the course of a season that
• 3:45
  Speaker 5: you just want to wipe clean. You want to wipe
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: it right away from the memory bank. And that's how
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: losses are. The losses that I've experienced has just been
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: a ton It's always just been about wiping that game clean.
• 3:59
  Speaker 5: You know, you think about the things that you did
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: wrong in the game. You know obviously want to correct
• 4:03
  Speaker 5: those things, But the biggest thing to me is coming
• 4:07
  Speaker 5: back out the next day and kind of setting a
• 4:09
  Speaker 5: tone early. Didn't necessarily do that today, but I think
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: got some runners in scoring position, got some good swings
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: went their way finally right and you know, got on
• 4:20
  Speaker 5: the board early, and I think just set that tone.
• 4:23
  Speaker 5: Setting the tone the next day right away, I think
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: is the biggest key after a tough loss is just
• 4:29
  Speaker 5: you know, right away coming and trying to you know,
• 4:32
  Speaker 5: get that run on the on the board early.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: You know, set that tone early.
• 4:37
  Speaker 5: And you know that's really like the main thing you
• 4:40
  Speaker 5: can do because there's so many games.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: There's so many games, and you.
• 4:44
  Speaker 5: Know, having that aggressive mindset after a walk off loss,
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: especially how that how it happened.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: You know with the Tigers that that's key.
• 4:53
  Speaker 5: It's key is being able to wipe that the memory cleaning,
• 4:55
  Speaker 5: come out the next day and set a tone early.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: You know, Cody, we've done these episodes, you know, after losses,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: you know, quite a bit, just kind of how the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: schedule works a little bit, and then we kind of
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: focus on the negative thing. So now that we're doing
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: this after a win, we can you know, focus on
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a positive element here. You know, we're a little bit
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: a shade over a month into the season now and
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: the Tigers are tied for the lead of eighth inning
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: or later. Comeback victories in Major League Baseball either tied
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: or they just took the lead in that I can't
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I can't remember. The graphic was a little early there
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: on the broadcast. Good good stat but just like a
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: little bit early. The game was not over yet when
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: they get it. So I don't know if if a
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: number goes up or not, but regardless, that is clearly
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: a thing with this team at this point in the season, Cody,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: so like is it? Can we say that that's like
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: part of an element of this of the twenty twenty
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: six Tigers, like being able to like get those runs
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: across the board, maybe even kind of the break the
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: dam a little bit, as in the case today where
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: you scratching claw a couple extra ones as well, not
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: just taking the lead, but getting a little bit of
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: a cushion. Can we say that this is at least
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: an element of like the fabric of the twenty twenty
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: six Tigers.
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: You know, I think it's a little early. I would
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: say there have been several games, even games they didn't win,
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: where some of that fight to stay in the game
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: mentality showed up. You would feel better if Kinley didn't
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: have three blown saves the Tigers is a whole five
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: blown saves. So I was like, maybe I'm about to
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: turn this positive into a negative. And then I looked
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: at the leaderboard. The Nationals have already blown ten saves
• 6:38
  Speaker 4: man in thirty one games, so five, by comparison is
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: just fine ten. So that's a good reminder things could
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: be worse. Tigers actually kind of middle of the pack
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: with five blown saves, a reminder that even though it's
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: not pretty, you don't want it to happen, these things
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: do happen from time to time. Yeah, I mean, I
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: think the way the Tigers play, we've seen it for
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: a few years now, that is somewhat a part of
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: their DNA. It's certainly not a team that that quits easily.
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: I think that's a function of having a young team
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: that still has a hint of scrappiness in its identity.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Austin, you you played with several noteworthy, high volume save
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: guys in your career. When there's a walk off or
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: a blown save. What's is there a protocol in the
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: clubhouse where it's like, just like.
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Just let him be. Is let him be?
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: He's been doing this a long time, Like, we don't
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: what I say, is probably not going to have a
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: profound impact on his life. Or are you a guy
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: that's like, hey, you know, pound on the butt and
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: you know we'll get him next time.
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: What's the what's the protocol in the clubhouse?
• 7:48
  Speaker 5: Well, that totally depends on on the person, right, Like
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: a lot of times, you know, you you kind of
• 7:55
  Speaker 5: play it by here a little bit. You feel you
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: got to read the room. You know, playing with Valverde,
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: Valverde was such a you know, he had this this
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: aura about him on the mound, but in the clubhouse
• 8:08
  Speaker 5: he was a super chill guy.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: And you know, after a blown.
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: Save, he was a guy that I felt that you could,
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: you could talk to, you could, you.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Know, pump them up a little bit.
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: Didn't really need it, honestly, And throughout my career playing
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: with guys that have blown saves, it's kind of been
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: the same. You know, they all have this this certain
• 8:27
  Speaker 5: you know, macho man type on on the on the mound,
• 8:29
  Speaker 5: but they're they're easy to talk to. You know, they're
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: still your teammate. You know, you don't you never want
• 8:34
  Speaker 5: to see a teammate do bad. You always want to,
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: you know, pump them up when they're when they're struggling
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: a little bit, or a walk off home run. In
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: this case, I think it's just a matter of reading
• 8:44
  Speaker 5: the room and giving them their space if they need it.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: But it's also.
• 8:49
  Speaker 5: You you want to know that you know, hey, we
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: got your back in tough situations like this, it don't matter.
• 8:54
  Speaker 5: You're our guy. We trust you. We know baseball is tough.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: You know, things happen. Hey, those guys are are driving
• 9:00
  Speaker 5: nice cars too. They got big houses too, right, So
• 9:03
  Speaker 5: that was some of the best advice I've ever gotten,
• 9:05
  Speaker 5: oh by the way, But you know, it's it's one
• 9:08
  Speaker 5: of those things where you move on very quickly from it.
• 9:11
  Speaker 5: Like I said, you you pump, you pump a guy up.
• 9:14
  Speaker 5: You know, you know, you let him know that Jay,
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: you're here from him. You you you're gonna do everything
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: to not try to put him in that position. Obviously
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: you want it to be a lot smoother. But things happen,
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: and baseball is a tough game. So yeah, I read
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: the room. Though I never want to go in too hot.
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: You go in too hot, you might get burned. So
• 9:35
  Speaker 5: you know, you read the room.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: That's that's the best way to proach that situation.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like I feel like Kenley is probably
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: one of those guys that could probably take a but like, hey,
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: it's all good. We'll move on, move on to the
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: next money. Not a lot of situations in baseball that
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: guy has.
• 9:51
  Speaker 4: He's been through it. That's one thing you do have
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: to appreciate about Kenley Jansen. Just a quick look at
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: at the numbers. You know, one of the knocks one
• 9:59
  Speaker 4: can when the Tigers signed him was the exit velocity
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: against him. I mean, teams were hitting him hard last season,
• 10:07
  Speaker 4: even though he tended to get pretty good results. Average
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: x vlasi agains him last year was ninety one five
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: so far this year it's only eighty seven point eight.
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: But instead of getting good results, he's gotten bad results,
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: mostly as a result of the home run ball. Here
• 10:22
  Speaker 4: in these short samples, I think it's pretty easy to
• 10:25
  Speaker 4: single out what happened the other night. He left to
• 10:27
  Speaker 4: cutter right down the middle, and if you do that
• 10:30
  Speaker 4: against against a good hitter, it's it's gonna get banged
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: around sometimes. So honestly, as I look at it, I
• 10:36
  Speaker 4: don't think he's pitched enough yet for us to really know, like, oh,
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: is he washed? Is he just you know, got snake
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: bit by the home run ball? Is he?
• 10:46
  Speaker 5: This?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Is he?
• 10:47
  Speaker 6: That?
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: Like the whiff rate is not what it was at
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: his peak, but a little better than it was last year,
• 10:53
  Speaker 4: but he still is. We're dealing with a really small sample,
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: so we got to see him pitch more, regardless of
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: what or what role that's in, before I'm ready to
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: really declare anything about the state of his game.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: All right, well said that was very positive after you
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: started a couple of Mexico, being like, I think I
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: might go negative there.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: There you go, there's really positive there.
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: Yes, I mean I think maybe Kyle Finigan's earned some
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: more ninth endings though, I mean that dude's been pretty dynamite.
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: That is fair.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: All right, We are going to take a quick break
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: and then afterward we'll get to some injury updates and
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: then get Austin's opinion on the key to suctaining, suctaining, sustaining.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: There we go, got it out, sustaining success as a
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: rookie the first award from our sponsors. You know what
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: I'm doing, I'm looking for the best deal on five
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: dollars beer night tickets, because you know what makes five
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: dollars beer go a lot smoother down some cheap tickets
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: from seakeek, and that's why I want to give sea
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: geek a shout out on today's episode. With over thirty
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: five million downloads, seek is a number one rate of
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: ticketing app. There are more than seventy thousand events listed
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: on seakeek, including concert, sports, festivals, and more. Major League
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: Baseball obviously is a big draw, but NBA NHL playoffs
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: are here. The NFL schedule is coming out soon and
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: guess what World Cup tickets?
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: They're available on sea geek.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: And with seakeek being MLB's official ticketing marketingplace, your tickets
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: are fully guaranteed and instantly fulfilled in your account after purchase.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: I love using sea geek.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: There are so many options available to you, including the
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: Ada option, which comes in handy for me and my
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: wife with both our fathers being handicapped. And sea geek
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: has your back. Each ticket is righted on a scale
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: of one to ten, so that means you're getting a
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: good deal, so look for the green dot. Greenmings good,
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: red means bad. Plus every ticket is backed by their
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: buyer guarantee and of course I have a code for
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: you guys, you can use code Territory ten for ten
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: percent off your next set of tickets at Sea Geek.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: That's ten percent off any tickets with promo code Territory ten.
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Make sure you click the link in description and download
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: the app and have the code automatically added to your
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: account so you can use it later.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you, See Geek. My dog likes Seeke too. Apparently.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: All right, sorry if you guys heard that.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: So, Casey Mayes, Hobby Bayas, those guys got injured the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: last time Cody and I talked, and we didn't obviously
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: know the extent of the injuries, but we have at
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: least some official transactions. Casey Maes goes on the fifteen
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: day IL with a right abductor adductor strain and Emmele
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: de Jesus comes up to replace him, and then Hobby
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: Baias goes on the ten day I l with a
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: right ankle sprain. So uh, Cody first reaction to uh?
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: To these transactions. Then I'll ask Ajax whether whether he's
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: ever slit in the first base, So Cody first.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 13:48
  Speaker 4: Unfortunate obviously that they're both hitting the injured list in
• 13:51
  Speaker 4: a way closer to the best case than the worst case.
• 13:55
  Speaker 4: Even though they're on the il AJ Hinch said things
• 13:57
  Speaker 4: were pretty good with Casey. I think it's a rather
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: mild strain. Now, as we talked about Groin's adductors, that
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: can still be a little tricky for pictures. We just
• 14:06
  Speaker 4: mentioned Kyle Finnegan. He had one of those at the
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: tail into last year and when you recall when he
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: came back from it, he just wasn't quite as effective,
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: and you gotta be careful. You don't want that to
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: alter your mechanics or the way you're pushing off the
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: mound and have that effect of the arm. So good
• 14:21
  Speaker 4: that it's mild, but he's obviously gonna miss a couple
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: of starts. The Tiger's brought up in Manuel DeJesus Sunday
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: is that good old TBD and the probable pitchure category,
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: so we may see the bullpen game. It's also possible
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: that Tigers could turn sendto Hayesu's back down and bring
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: up someone as a traditional starter. Gotta wait and see
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: on that one, and then Bias, you know, sprain ankle
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: sounds like it's more significant. Gonna take a while for
• 14:46
  Speaker 4: that pain, the inflammation the swelling to go down, you know,
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: but at least nothing's broken. There's not some ligament shredded
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: or anything. No timetable for aj Hinch and the Tigers,
• 14:57
  Speaker 4: but you know, probably gonna be more than ten days,
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: but it's not something that's gonna cost him months, I
• 15:04
  Speaker 4: don't think. Let's see how that ankle heals up. Tiger's
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: brought up Jase Young rather than our pick, which I
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: think was was Gage Workman. But Young was on the
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: forty man. So even though they could have made a
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: forty man move, maybe it's somewhat about still preserving spots
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: down the line. Maybe it's taken a deeper look at
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: at what Workman was doing, you know, in Toledo. I'm
• 15:26
  Speaker 4: not sure exactly what all went into that. But Jase
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: is gonna be up here for a little bit. He'll
• 15:30
  Speaker 4: get to play against his brother again this weekend against
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: the Rangers, and that's that's kind of where we're at
• 15:36
  Speaker 4: with the injuries.
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: So Ajax, when I when I saw the clip, and
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you probably thought the same when I when
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I first saw Hobby's injury, I was like, oh man, Hobby.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Do anything to try to win.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: You know what, I mean, like it's just even if
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: it's like a weird kind of motion or whatever, and
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: then he gets hurt.
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: So that's that's the unfortunate part.
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: But as a man who like kind of made a
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: lot of his living with his legs, Like, did you
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: have a strong opinion on did you ever slide in
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: the first base?
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: Was that a big no no? Do you?
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: Teachers your son never do it? Like what's what's what's
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: what's the what's the read there?
• 16:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, my son has definitely done that before. And like
• 16:17
  Speaker 5: first that bat of the game just just just just
• 16:21
  Speaker 5: a powdy, little nine year old just mad because you
• 16:24
  Speaker 5: just hit a chopper or a pitch ten feet over
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: your head and now you're gonna try to, you know,
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: salvage it by sliding at first.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: That's a whole different story.
• 16:34
  Speaker 5: But I honestly can remember sliding at at first base
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: head first. I think it was in the minor leagues.
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: I think it was in the minor leagues. It was
• 16:45
  Speaker 5: a close game, needed to get that game. I think
• 16:47
  Speaker 5: it was later in the season, you know, playoffs, all
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: that stuff was was that, uh, you know, we we
• 16:53
  Speaker 5: had that going forward. So I think I made a
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: slid at that time. But I'm not a big fan
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: of it. But also in the heat of the moment,
• 17:02
  Speaker 5: especially by us, He's you know, he's a magician sliding,
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: so you know, I know that that in the heat
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: of the moment, you're trying to avoid a tag or
• 17:10
  Speaker 5: you know, trying to get to the back sooner, and
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: I do get it. I'm not a big fan of it,
• 17:15
  Speaker 5: you know, for the simple fact that it's just it's
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: not normal.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: It's not normal.
• 17:20
  Speaker 5: We don't practice that sliding at first base, and then
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: things can things can happen. You know, you got the
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: first basement right there. They can, you know, at the
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: last minute, reach for a ball, step on your hand,
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: step on your foot, anything like that. It's just a
• 17:34
  Speaker 5: it's it's an injury prone play. I feel like sliding
• 17:39
  Speaker 5: at first base, and obviously it's unfortunate what happened, But
• 17:42
  Speaker 5: I'm not a.
• 17:43
  Speaker 3: Big fan of it.
• 17:44
  Speaker 5: But also in tough games or if something's on the line,
• 17:49
  Speaker 5: you know, in the heat of the moment, it does happen.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: But I'm just I'm not a really big fan of
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: that for the simple fact that there's just so much
• 17:56
  Speaker 5: that goes on at first base with that first basement
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: and having to reach for a ball and it's just
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: a lot of feet in the way, and so I
• 18:04
  Speaker 5: don't like it. You know, it's I would have preferred
• 18:07
  Speaker 5: if he just maybe would have just gave himself up.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: And you know, maybe he's still in there.
• 18:12
  Speaker 5: I don't know, But again heat of a moment, you know,
• 18:15
  Speaker 5: we I can say I don't like it, but you know,
• 18:18
  Speaker 5: when you're when you're trying to avoid a tag or
• 18:20
  Speaker 5: trying to get there, things happen.
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: Man. You just you kind of just react.
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: So I'll stin playing as much ball as you did. Man,
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: do you just like think in memories moments from games?
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: Because I'm sitting here fourteen years later, We're talking about
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: sliding it first. Once Once I made a great slide
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: in first, this dude did not tag me, and some
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: umpire called me out.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 18:41
  Speaker 4: That's I'm just sitting here thinking to that.
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: It's just all it just I just remember because I
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: remember that because I've never done it really up until
• 18:54
  Speaker 5: that point, so I just remember that specific moment when
• 18:58
  Speaker 5: I did it.
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I imagine, I mean, I guess we can have
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: like a little bit of a lighthearted discussion about it now.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: Since you know Hobby's not seriously injured, even though you
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: know that's obviously not like you know, it's goenning me
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: out probably six to you know, six weeks to two months,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: I would guess. Sometimes he's ankle injuries, they just they
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: just linger. But I imagine like aj is probably likes
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: he's got he's gotta be like two face about it,
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: because you gotta be supportive of your guy who got hurt.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, he's probably thinking this g
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: D slide in the first base getting hurt, you know
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: what I mean, just like just like probably MFN under
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: his breath.
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: I mean, that's the play there, right, What else do
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: you want him to do? That's fine with it?
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: I mean, why you did it?
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: But but but but we know, but we know, we
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: know that slide in the first base. As as Austin
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: eloquently put it is just not a whole lot of
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: upside to doing okay, like it like that that there's
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: there's more risk than reward, I think pretty substantially. And
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: again that's not even me saying like I can't believe
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Hobby did it. I understand one hundred percent why Hobby
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: did it, Like Austin said this for the moment thing
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: he of the moment, Like I understand, but like there's
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: a reason why it's taught at a very young level
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: to basically never do and at and one of the
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: first things you're taught and then it doesn't change. One
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: of the few things in baseball when of the first
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: things you're taught and it doesn't change as long as
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: you play the game. Don't say in the first base.
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: Do you see what I'm saying? Like like but like,
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: but again I get what he's trying to do there.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: So I'm not even trying to be critical of hobby,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: but it's just like it's an element. Well, the first
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: things you're taught, don't do it, and he did it
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: and unfortunately he got hurt. So anyway, I didn't really expect.
• 20:48
  Speaker 5: You if anybody could do it, though, if there was
• 20:51
  Speaker 5: one guy that you could pull that off, it is
• 20:55
  Speaker 5: it is that it is heavy, you know what I mean.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: Well it is.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: And also if there was a guy that I just
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: if you just said pick somebody on the lineup, who's
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: who's most likely to slide the first base, you know,
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: take away the injury part of it. Just like in general,
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: hobby is leading that pool, you know what I mean.
• 21:13
  Speaker 4: If that throw goes high, man, I'm fine. If my
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: guys going low, I'm fine with it. We're trying to
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: get on base here.
• 21:21
  Speaker 5: What if he comes down though, And I guess that
• 21:24
  Speaker 5: could happen at any base, right, I mean a guy
• 21:27
  Speaker 5: could you know a ball could go high and you
• 21:30
  Speaker 5: slide in head first and comes down and steps on
• 21:33
  Speaker 5: your hand.
• 21:33
  Speaker 3: You know. It's it's just unfortunate.
• 21:35
  Speaker 5: It's kind of like one of those unwritten rules kind
• 21:37
  Speaker 5: of you know, like don't slide at at first base.
• 21:41
  Speaker 5: But man, it's just it just sucks because he got
• 21:45
  Speaker 5: injured doing it. And that's why I think we're talking
• 21:48
  Speaker 5: about it, and that's why we're like, see, that's why
• 21:50
  Speaker 5: you don't do it. If it would have worked out,
• 21:52
  Speaker 5: we would have been like, hey see.
• 21:55
  Speaker 3: High, you know, yeah, you know.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: So it's like, you know, it was every element had
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: to be there for him to have that kind of
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: injury where it was like a last second decision, like
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: he wasn't gunning for the base thinking he was gonna slide.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: It was a last second decision based on how he
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: saw the throw was. And then that created kind of
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: the awkward angle and then the fact that you know
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: he's reaching with his left leg that gets his right
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: leg underneath, and like like they're like in fairness to him,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: a lot had to go into that formula to result
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: in him getting that injury. And again a positive element
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: it does. It's not a broken angle. So like that
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: like he should you know hopefully be okay, uh, sooner
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: than than what was feared otherwise, especially when the cart
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: comes out and and all that stuff.
• 22:45
  Speaker 3: Kidd I got it just real quick. Do you ever
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: think he'll do it again?
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, I mean, like I.
• 22:52
  Speaker 7: Think, like here's the thing, probably the one are the
• 22:59
  Speaker 7: things that I find charming about Hobby is that there's
• 23:02
  Speaker 7: not a mistake that he's made that he wouldn't do again,
• 23:06
  Speaker 7: because he's gonna be himself the entire time that he's
• 23:09
  Speaker 7: playing Major League baseball.
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: And I do mean that.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Like he's gonna he's gonna make he's gonna, you know,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: try to make too good of a tag. He's gonna
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: have lapses in concentrations sometimes and you know, make a
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: bad throw a first base. Like it's all baked in.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: It's all part of the Hobby formula. And like you
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: can choose to look at that as a negative. I
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: choose to look at it as like this hobby being hobby.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: You gotta live with it.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: When a tie a tie, sometimes it's low, but you know,
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: sometimes you get to talk eight minutes about sliding the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: first base to find it.
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: Fun, you know. And I so, you know, thank you
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Hobby for that.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: All right, We gotta we gotta get to another another
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: another sponsor here, Cody Tiger Territory is brought to you
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: by FanDuel.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Baseball Fans.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: The MLB season is in full swing, and FanDuel is
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: giving you a chance to call your shot with Daily Dingers.
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Joining the action is easy.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Just make your free pick on who's hitting a home
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: run in their game, and if you're right, you get
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: a profit boost to use on your next bet for
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a chance at extra winnings. It's just another reason why
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: FanDuel is the home of home runs.
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: I love a little ate alliteration Daily Dinger. So my
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: pick for Friday is Dylan Dingler, and we got Mackenzie
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: Gore on the mound for the Texas Rangers, a left hander.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Dylan Dingler has not homerd he had that hot start
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: in terms of a long ball.
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: He is not homerd since April nineteenth. Last year.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: He had a nine to sixty one ops versus left
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: handed pitching this year, and I thought I wrote it down,
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: but I didn't, So that's a bad job I me.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: This year it is.
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: Lower.
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: Well, as I check it up, it is uh. It
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: is uh seven forty seven. So he's got some ground
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: to make up for. And I think Friday could be
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the day it gets a left handed pitcher in Mackenzie Gore.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: So that is my pick, Dylan Dingler. You can head
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: over to FanDuel dot com slash podcast to get started.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: That's FanDuel dot com slash podcast. Opt in for Daily
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: Dingers and make your free pick on who's heading the
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: homer playball and swing for the fences on FanDuel and
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: official partner of Major League Baseball.
• 25:38
  Speaker 8: No purchase necessary, opt and required. Bonus issued as non
• 25:42
  Speaker 8: withdrawable profit boost tokens. Restrictions apply, including any token expiration
• 25:47
  Speaker 8: and max wager amount. See terms at sportsbook dot FanDuel
• 25:51
  Speaker 8: dot com. Gambling problem call or text one eight hundred gambler.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: You know Dylan Dingler did feast on left handed pitching.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Uh last year and this year just in terms of
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: batting average, but he's basically an even split, so he's
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: due to to to do some damage against left handers.
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: All right, let's uh, let's get to something that I've
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: been dying to talk to Austin about. And uh, and that's,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: you know, unfortunately the result of another you know, injury
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: in the in the Parker Meadows injury when he collide
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: with Riley Green and left center field a couple of
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: weeks ago. And I'm kind of too fascinated by this because.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: Everything is so like down to a science.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: With with how outfielders specifically are positioned and you know,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: all this stuff, and it's kind of meant to like
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: avoid these kinds of things from happening, but they do happen,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: and unfortunately it was you know, with consequence in the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: in the case of Parker Meadows. So I'm curious Austin
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: as a man used to roam the outfield, specifically center field. Uh,
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: what are the rules, what's the coaching points? Like, how
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: how do we avoid collisions in the outfield, Because even
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: posts that Parker you know, Riley Green collision, there were
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: a couple of close calls where you're just like, ugh,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: like why is this happening? So like what's what what
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: is the what is what is the coaching points there
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: Austin to prevent these things from accura.
• 27:22
  Speaker 5: Man Like watching it, it just, man, it just churned
• 27:26
  Speaker 5: my stomach because it's one of those those balls that
• 27:29
  Speaker 5: either either one of the outfielders could have caught, Like
• 27:33
  Speaker 5: if you say it was just it was perfectly hit
• 27:37
  Speaker 5: at least in respect to where they were playing, like
• 27:40
  Speaker 5: it kind of split them a little bit, and it
• 27:42
  Speaker 5: was and if you look.
• 27:43
  Speaker 3: At it, it's like there wasn't a lot of time really.
• 27:47
  Speaker 5: To take a peek, you know, like if like if
• 27:50
  Speaker 5: you take your eye off that ball, there's a chance
• 27:53
  Speaker 5: that you might not catch it. It wasn't hit hard, but
• 27:55
  Speaker 5: it was hit, you know, pretty kind of on a
• 27:58
  Speaker 5: soft line to where and with kind of telling a
• 28:01
  Speaker 5: little bit to where, you know, both outfielders have to
• 28:04
  Speaker 5: keep their eye on it.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 28:06
  Speaker 5: The biggest thing, which is probably universal everywhere, is communication.
• 28:10
  Speaker 5: Right like early and often if when I play center field,
• 28:15
  Speaker 5: I like to let it be known that if a
• 28:18
  Speaker 5: ball is pretty much hit in the gap to gap,
• 28:21
  Speaker 5: like I'm going to get that ball, that's my ball,
• 28:24
  Speaker 5: And A lot of that starts in baton practice with
• 28:28
  Speaker 5: you know, the guys that are starting and that are
• 28:30
  Speaker 5: playing in the outfield. That's how we're going to get
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: a good idea of each other's range, right, So we're
• 28:37
  Speaker 5: taking bats, you know, balls off bat in baton practice
• 28:41
  Speaker 5: is so crucial because and taking it seriously because that
• 28:45
  Speaker 5: you get a feel for everybody's range.
• 28:48
  Speaker 3: You get a feel for everybody's range.
• 28:50
  Speaker 5: Guys know what balls you can get to, even though
• 28:53
  Speaker 5: the corner guys might can get there. I'm letting it
• 28:56
  Speaker 5: be known that, hey, this this is my territory out here,
• 29:00
  Speaker 5: so you worry about those lines. I got these gaps.
• 29:04
  Speaker 5: I'm not sure with park you know Parker and his
• 29:07
  Speaker 5: you know his injury history, and if that plays a
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: little bit into it, with them not having as many
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: games together and so that that could play a little
• 29:18
  Speaker 5: bit into it. But it's the communication part, and it's loud.
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: It's loud, you're still saying I got it, I got
• 29:26
  Speaker 5: it after you catch the ball, like everybody has to
• 29:29
  Speaker 5: hear it.
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: Everybody has to know. I'm not sure on that ball.
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: If if there was a lot of communication, again, because
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: there probably wasn't a lot of time.
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: So for me, I really.
• 29:42
  Speaker 5: Like to let it be known that I have the
• 29:45
  Speaker 5: range to get these balls in the gap focused on
• 29:47
  Speaker 5: the lines.
• 29:48
  Speaker 3: You know that that was me. That's how I took it.
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: And I made sure that was known in batan practice
• 29:54
  Speaker 5: by every ball that was hit. If it's hit in
• 29:57
  Speaker 5: a place that I can get it, guys new and
• 30:00
  Speaker 5: they would back off and then they would understand in
• 30:02
  Speaker 5: the game that's his range. Also, he's capable of covering this.
• 30:06
  Speaker 5: Now I need to be more so focused on another area.
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: So I'm not saying that they don't work on that
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: or that's not something that's talked about, but I think that,
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: I mean, that's that's starting to become something that's that's
• 30:19
  Speaker 5: happening more often with outfielders and not knowing each other's range,
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: and then you have these scary injuries like that, and
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: it's just unfortunate, man, because again, though that's a ball
• 30:30
  Speaker 5: that probably both outfielders can catch, but me personally, I
• 30:34
  Speaker 5: think that I would just like to see the center
• 30:36
  Speaker 5: fielder catching that ball to avoid these type of collisions.
• 30:40
  Speaker 5: And again, watching it, I mean, I can't tell if
• 30:44
  Speaker 5: they both were saying I got it, because that's that's
• 30:46
  Speaker 5: definitely happened to me. Where we're both saying I got it,
• 30:49
  Speaker 5: I got it, I got it at the same time.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: And but I always took a peak.
• 30:54
  Speaker 5: I always took a peek, you know, anytime that I
• 30:57
  Speaker 5: was running, I.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Would take a peak real quick just to see where
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: my guys were.
• 31:01
  Speaker 5: And you know, I was very fortunate to avoid a
• 31:04
  Speaker 5: lot of injuries that way by just taking that that
• 31:08
  Speaker 5: last second peak.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: I knew where the ball was at.
• 31:11
  Speaker 5: But if I'm running and I'm looking straight ahead this way,
• 31:14
  Speaker 5: and you know, it's it's kind of hard to see
• 31:16
  Speaker 5: somebody at your peripheral if they're attacking that ball too
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: on the same angle. So me, you know, taking a peek,
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: communicating being loud and uh, you know, letting guys know
• 31:27
  Speaker 5: your range. Parker, he can go get a lot of
• 31:29
  Speaker 5: balls that I think the typical center fielder uh wouldn't
• 31:33
  Speaker 5: be able to get.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: So you gotta trust it.
• 31:35
  Speaker 5: You gotta trust that he's gonna be there, because he
• 31:38
  Speaker 5: is going to be there, and that that that's gonna
• 31:40
  Speaker 5: have to be a ball that the corner guys are
• 31:43
  Speaker 5: gonna have to start trusting that.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: You know, medicine is going to be there.
• 31:46
  Speaker 5: I'm just praying for the dude, man, and hopefully he
• 31:49
  Speaker 5: comes back stronger.
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: It's just been unfortunate and his young career, these injuries man,
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: and you know, those injuries start adding up.
• 31:56
  Speaker 3: But he's young and he'll bounce. He'll bounce back from it.
• 32:00
  Speaker 4: Remember when we had Andy Dirk's on last spring, did
• 32:03
  Speaker 4: you guys say you would you never collided with each
• 32:05
  Speaker 4: other or was it you you collided once then said
• 32:07
  Speaker 4: that will never happen to.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: They said they never collided because Andy was like, if.
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: Okay to get into his territory.
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: But that's the but that's the thing.
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: We we worked that out in in spring training. We
• 32:23
  Speaker 5: worked that out in uh in in batten practice because
• 32:26
  Speaker 5: we were we were taught that, hey, this is the
• 32:29
  Speaker 5: best way that you're going to get a feel for
• 32:32
  Speaker 5: the game is taking balls off back. Seriously, you didn't
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: have to be the whole practice obviously, but for around,
• 32:40
  Speaker 5: you know, really focusing on where you're out your corner
• 32:45
  Speaker 5: guys are playing and just figuring out each other's range
• 32:48
  Speaker 5: and that that you know, that obviously goes a long way.
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: So yeah, you made an interesting point, like, I don't
• 32:53
  Speaker 4: know if collisions are actually more common. I have no
• 32:56
  Speaker 4: idea that does feel like they are close calls kind
• 32:59
  Speaker 4: of a lot.
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Uh.
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: And my theory is just like positioning has gotten a
• 33:04
  Speaker 4: lot more precise, everyone's a little deeper, everyone's shading the gaps.
• 33:08
  Speaker 4: You're probably just a little closer together more often, and
• 33:11
  Speaker 4: that that maybe there are more of these tweener balls
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: as a result of that.
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Well, they're outliers, right, That's kind of the whole point.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: These A lot of times these plays tend to be
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: like outlier balls, so like if they're you know, if
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: they're getting to that spot, like obviously it's not designed
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: to fall in this particular area where there could be
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: a collision, you know.
• 33:28
  Speaker 4: Yeah, but it's not really an outlier when you have
• 33:30
  Speaker 4: both fielders shade it deep and shaded toward a specific
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: gap like you see you see all the time.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: Now, well, is it also Austin?
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Is it like is it still like the rule like
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: if the center fielder says mine or I got it
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: or you know whatever, like, is that still like the
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: is it still on the corner outfield or you know
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: even maybe like a shortstop or it's like a basement,
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: depending on you know, where the ball is to like
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: back off, like as soon as you hear that, like
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: like the rules, I'm back off, or because I just
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: feel like they're both calling it at the same time.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: We saw it with Matt and Wentzel a couple of
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: weeks ago, where they're both calling it at the same time,
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: and it's like, well, if Matt's calling it, he's a
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: center fielder, is it on Wentzel to get the f
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: out of the way, Like like, what, what's is that
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: still the rule?
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: The common practice?
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, get out of the way.
• 34:22
  Speaker 6: I don't care ifout running to the infield if I
• 34:25
  Speaker 6: call it, get out the way, you know. And and
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: it's tough because you have middle infielders that have really
• 34:32
  Speaker 6: good range. You know, they can go deep in the
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: outfield and get a ball. But for me, I just
• 34:38
  Speaker 6: felt like, uh, you know, growing up.
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: That's that's the rule.
• 34:41
  Speaker 5: You know, the center fielder calls the ball, you got
• 34:44
  Speaker 5: to back off. And that's just that's just something that
• 34:48
  Speaker 5: I took pride in knowing that, Hey, I am literally
• 34:51
  Speaker 5: trying to get to every single ball. So if a
• 34:54
  Speaker 5: ball is hit in the outfield anywhere in this vicinity,
• 34:58
  Speaker 5: that that's my ball and I and I you know,
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: I established that, and I did that by going after
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: everything as well. You know, once once I kind of
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: established it, Okay, well he's gonna be there. I think
• 35:09
  Speaker 5: it kind of put the corner guys at ease knowing that,
• 35:13
  Speaker 5: you know, I don't have to get on my horse
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: for this ball because you know, I trust it US
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: is going to be there.
• 35:20
  Speaker 4: Probably there we go a little ricky sound right?
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: That is right.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: A lot of a lot of that probably is like
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: just kind of your instincts and your preparation on being
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: able to adequately read a ball off the bat to know,
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: like like I like if it if I call it,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: it's mine. That means I have to be to be
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: able to get there. No, I'm going to be able
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: to get there.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: So like sometimes sometimes we think it's just like oh,
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: seaball run the spot, Like No, there's a there's a
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: lot more too. And I like that you brought up
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: the spring training element where it's like, you know, the
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: work starts like right away about like establishing uh that
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: sort of before and and so hopefully I mean, according
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: to Dan Diggerson on the radio, that's something they've continued
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: to work on to prevent these kind of collisions because again,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: obviously with the Parker metals being a great example, they
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: can they can be not great, they can be not great.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: So uh yeah, hopefully I know Parker was with the
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: team a little bit this week since he's back home
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: in Georgia, so hopefully, uh that was that was good
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: for him, and he continues to recover and and you know,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: comes back strong because one doing too bad when when
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: he got hurt. So you know, we keep waiting for,
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: you know, a consistent Parker. Maybe we'll get that in
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: the second half of the year. All right, Let's move
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: on to another topic that I think a Jax is
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: an expert on or at least can relate to very well,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: and that's having a you know, the Tiger's got a
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: hot shot rookie right now who is tearing the cover
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: off the ball, who is playing good defense.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: And baddie lead off.
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: You know, is one of those like like either an
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: acquisition in the traditional sense like you were, or an
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: acquisition in terms of the Major League Ross Kevin McGonagall
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: is drawing a lot of best Tigers rookie to do
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: X since Austin Jackson.
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: So we're yeah, there we go. Right here. It's on
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: our YouTube if you guys are are watching.
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: We got Kevin mcgonagal's reach base safely in his last
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: twenty five starts, the first Tiger's rookie to do so
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: since Austin Jackson reached in twenty.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: Five straight starts in twenty ten.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: So the AJAX legend is alive and well, I just
• 37:30
  Speaker 1: gotta say that. So like very few people I've been
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: in Ken mcgonagall's shoes to have this kind of success
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: this early on, You're somebody that we can talk to
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: and be like, hey, what.
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: Is that like? And then be like, how do you
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: make sense of it?
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: Be able to stay grounded, like you know, be able
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: to sustain sustain the success. I'm going to get it
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: one of these days that you know happens at the
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: beginning of your major league career and then just like
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: throughout the rookie year, knowing there's gonna be ups and
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: downs and everything you're dealing with life, you know this
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: that the other thing.
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: So you know, just take it away, Austin, like, how
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: do you how do you do it? How'd you do it?
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: How was Kevin doing it?
• 38:13
  Speaker 5: Honestly, when I first got to the major leagues. For me,
• 38:18
  Speaker 5: it was just about being a good athlete, right. I
• 38:22
  Speaker 5: just wanted to just be an athlete and just do
• 38:25
  Speaker 5: things naturally and not you know, try to fit into
• 38:29
  Speaker 5: a box, because honestly, I was never a leadoff hitter,
• 38:32
  Speaker 5: so I really didn't you know, really know that role
• 38:36
  Speaker 5: very well when when when I first got to the
• 38:39
  Speaker 5: big leagues. But as the season started to go on
• 38:43
  Speaker 5: and you know, clubs start to figure out more information
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: about me, the biggest thing is just being able to
• 38:49
  Speaker 5: make adjustments and being able to adapt to the way
• 38:53
  Speaker 5: the game is played at the major.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: League level, because it's fast. It's fast, there's a lot.
• 38:58
  Speaker 5: Of information that's been thrown at you, and you're trying
• 39:02
  Speaker 5: to perform. While you're doing all of this, right like,
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: you're trying to, you know, prove your worth. You're trying
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: to carry your weight and show people that hey, I'm
• 39:10
  Speaker 5: here for a reason. They they invested in me for
• 39:13
  Speaker 5: a reason. But the biggest thing, I think is just
• 39:15
  Speaker 5: being able to make those adjustments because eventually clubs are
• 39:19
  Speaker 5: going to start to figure out some of your weaknesses,
• 39:22
  Speaker 5: and if you're not able to adapt and make those adjustments,
• 39:25
  Speaker 5: it could be a long rookie season now, so far
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: he's been able to, you know, make those adjustments. You know,
• 39:31
  Speaker 5: all the scouting reports on him is pretty much he's
• 39:36
  Speaker 5: he's showing what he's capable of doing and what he's
• 39:38
  Speaker 5: been doing pretty much this whole time in professional baseball.
• 39:42
  Speaker 5: So I think that as the season goes on and
• 39:45
  Speaker 5: the club starts figuring out more about who he is
• 39:48
  Speaker 5: and the things that he struggles with, I guess, for
• 39:51
  Speaker 5: lack of better words, I think that he's going to
• 39:53
  Speaker 5: have to make those adjustments. And he's been doing such
• 39:57
  Speaker 5: a great job of just setting a tone for that
• 40:00
  Speaker 5: team at.
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: The at the top of the lineup. I love that
• 40:03
  Speaker 3: about him.
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: As as a leadoff hitter, you know, you know you're
• 40:06
  Speaker 5: gonna get a quality at bat, and you know, his
• 40:10
  Speaker 5: his ability to lay off tough pitches, to have these
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: long at bats and draw walks, getting on base, getting
• 40:18
  Speaker 5: on base, having an elite on base percentage is what
• 40:23
  Speaker 5: is key is you know, hitting at the top of
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: the lineup, He's able to do it. Man, he has
• 40:28
  Speaker 5: so many tools, and I think that even when the
• 40:32
  Speaker 5: team start figuring out, he figuring him out. I think
• 40:35
  Speaker 5: he just has this makeup to where he's going to
• 40:37
  Speaker 5: make the adjustment and then they're gonna have to try
• 40:40
  Speaker 5: to figure him out all over again. So the adjustments
• 40:43
  Speaker 5: are the are the biggest thing for for rookie that
• 40:46
  Speaker 5: they're gonna have to make throughout the course of the season.
• 40:50
  Speaker 4: I'm not gonna say anything new here, but like if
• 40:53
  Speaker 4: someone had put on social media like Kevin McGonagall was
• 40:56
  Speaker 4: so good, it's it's creepy, and I'm kind of feeling that,
• 40:59
  Speaker 4: like get it, Like it's not just that he's reached
• 41:02
  Speaker 4: based in twenty seven straight games, not just that he's
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: hid in three thirty his first month in the big league,
• 41:07
  Speaker 4: is that he looks like a ten year veteran. He
• 41:11
  Speaker 4: acts like a veteran. He today, is it Dan Dickerson
• 41:14
  Speaker 4: Who's like, did Kevin McGonagall just check swing? It's the
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: first time we've seen him check swing. That's the first
• 41:19
  Speaker 4: time we've ever seen him not either you know, let
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: it go a swing or like firm, solid, confident take.
• 41:27
  Speaker 4: So many things he does continues to amaze me, and
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: we throw out all these usual qualifiers like there's going
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: to be a tough time, like teams are going to
• 41:34
  Speaker 4: figure out as the weaknesses I think that all that's
• 41:36
  Speaker 4: still true. But I've also been saying that since the
• 41:39
  Speaker 4: first day of spring training. And aside from like, I
• 41:42
  Speaker 4: don't know what a week in spring training where he
• 41:44
  Speaker 4: started seeing a ton of breaking balls and just walking
• 41:46
  Speaker 4: all the time, it still waiting on that to happen,
• 41:50
  Speaker 4: Like still waiting on him to cool off. It's just
• 41:53
  Speaker 4: not happening. And I think it's because he's so confident,
• 41:56
  Speaker 4: he's so convicted. He has such not just the back
• 41:59
  Speaker 4: top ball skills, but the approach really is next level.
• 42:03
  Speaker 4: And it's weird that like the more you see it,
• 42:06
  Speaker 4: somehow it continues to get even more impressive.
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: He's tough too. We've seen that the last two days.
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: Uh, not that we needed the evidence, but like just
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: specific to the past two days, like found the ball
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: off like right at the top.
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Of his shin and you know, staying in, staying in.
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: The back, getting the getting the uh in field single
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: and then uh and then today Thursday, having one off what.
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: Was it the thigh like it was it was a
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: lot higher.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: He did not look like it did not look comfortable,
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: and he was not comfortable and and what did he
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: do date in the game.
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: Got the walk?
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's like like the dude, the dude is
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: just a ballplayer, just a bonafide ball player, and like great,
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: sometimes you say that about guys.
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: Aren't that like skilled? Like he is very skilled and
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: he is a ballplayer.
• 42:58
  Speaker 3: You know, he wants to prove it, you know. You
• 43:02
  Speaker 3: you can tell that.
• 43:04
  Speaker 5: You know, there's that that chip on his shoulder a
• 43:06
  Speaker 5: little bit, you know, and that and that's what you need,
• 43:09
  Speaker 5: Like you you don't want to be the rookie that
• 43:12
  Speaker 5: thinks that, oh, well, you know, I got I got
• 43:15
  Speaker 5: it all right now, he's like, no, I still I
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: still want to show y'all why the hype is is real,
• 43:22
  Speaker 5: you know.
• 43:22
  Speaker 3: And that's how he plays. That's that's how his his
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: makeup is.
• 43:25
  Speaker 5: That's how he just looks when he gets in the
• 43:28
  Speaker 5: battles box, when he's you know, out on defense and
• 43:30
  Speaker 5: he's making plays making him look easy. He just like
• 43:34
  Speaker 5: to your point, Cody, he just looks like he's a veteran,
• 43:36
  Speaker 5: like he's been doing this for a long time. And
• 43:39
  Speaker 5: that's that's gonna play. That's gonna play when you have
• 43:42
  Speaker 5: that comfort level at this at the major league level,
• 43:46
  Speaker 5: because the game is fast as speeds up there's a
• 43:49
  Speaker 5: lot of things to get thrown at you, and and
• 43:51
  Speaker 5: you know they're gonna do whatever it takes UH to
• 43:54
  Speaker 5: keep him off the base pass. So it's gonna be
• 43:57
  Speaker 5: up to him, UH to make those adjustments. And he's
• 44:00
  Speaker 5: he's done it. He's done a great, great job so far.
• 44:03
  Speaker 4: The quick preview of some stuff I'm working on. You know,
• 44:05
  Speaker 4: Kevin McGonagall was committed to Auburn. I talked to Butch Thompson,
• 44:09
  Speaker 4: the coach at Auburn today. One of the things he said,
• 44:14
  Speaker 4: you know, McGonagall committed after his freshman year, so he
• 44:18
  Speaker 4: was still really young. But Sjohnson said, I think that
• 44:20
  Speaker 4: guy thought he was going to the play in the
• 44:22
  Speaker 4: big leagues. Then a lot of these guys don't have
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: it on their radar or don't have it in their
• 44:27
  Speaker 4: gut their spirit. This boy had it early and it
• 44:31
  Speaker 4: just showed. It just stuck out one of those like
• 44:35
  Speaker 4: there's so many anagos like that where people just had
• 44:38
  Speaker 4: that feeling about McGonagall.
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing. And you know, in addition to his we'll
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: wrap up with this, addition to all these other elements,
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: it makes him seem like a veteran ball player. His
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: understanding of the strike zone specific to the abs, you know,
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: with the challenges, he said, he does seem on point
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: with when he does challenge and it's come up big
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: and and certain spots.
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: So I'm curious, hey, Jax, would you would.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: You be a guy that would have would have been
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: loose with the challenges or would you have been a little.
• 45:10
  Speaker 2: Bit more conservative with it or what do you think?
• 45:14
  Speaker 5: Look, man, I jumked around with people a lot, you
• 45:17
  Speaker 5: know when they were talking about doing, you know, implementing this,
• 45:21
  Speaker 5: and I was like, oh, I'd have been I'd have
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: been hitting my hat all the time.
• 45:25
  Speaker 3: But then you know, as you start to watch this
• 45:27
  Speaker 3: thing play.
• 45:27
  Speaker 5: Out and the reality of it is, I probably wouldn't
• 45:31
  Speaker 5: have been so sure. I think balls up and down
• 45:36
  Speaker 5: would have been pretty tough because you know a lot
• 45:40
  Speaker 5: of the times you there would be times where I
• 45:42
  Speaker 5: would take a pitch and I'm like, oh, that's low,
• 45:44
  Speaker 5: and then I look back and it's like, hold up,
• 45:47
  Speaker 5: that's not my mid thigh, Like hold up now? Like
• 45:50
  Speaker 5: it just you know, that's how good catchers are, right
• 45:52
  Speaker 5: Like they deceive everybody.
• 45:54
  Speaker 3: They even deceive you make you think that that a
• 45:57
  Speaker 3: ball is a strike.
• 45:58
  Speaker 5: Me you're like, man, I thought that was it was
• 46:00
  Speaker 5: a ball, and then the the the ones that really
• 46:04
  Speaker 5: get me are the ones that like nick It like
• 46:07
  Speaker 5: Nick the strike zone. I think that would throw me
• 46:10
  Speaker 5: off because if I'm up there and I'm so sure
• 46:14
  Speaker 5: then I'm hitting that hat and I'm like, yeah, nah,
• 46:16
  Speaker 5: I ain't no way, and then you see it and
• 46:19
  Speaker 5: you're like, oh, yeah, I ain't never using that again.
• 46:24
  Speaker 3: I'm not about to do that. I got MIGGI I
• 46:27
  Speaker 3: about to be calling that. Nah, I ain't doing that.
• 46:30
  Speaker 5: So I would have done it on like the blatant ones,
• 46:33
  Speaker 5: like there's been some blatant like balls and I'm like yeah,
• 46:38
  Speaker 5: like yeah, Like I would have definitely did it then.
• 46:40
  Speaker 5: But I think that I would have been very selective
• 46:43
  Speaker 5: on when I would have, you know, chose to tap
• 46:47
  Speaker 5: that hat, because man, when I'm seeing it, I'm like, dude,
• 46:50
  Speaker 5: that ball missed by like I think one today was
• 46:52
  Speaker 5: zero point one. I mean it was like there was
• 46:55
  Speaker 5: very little, you know, space in between that ball from
• 47:00
  Speaker 5: being a strike and I'm like, man, that's that's.
• 47:03
  Speaker 3: Some good eyes right there.
• 47:04
  Speaker 5: So to your to answer your question, I don't think
• 47:07
  Speaker 5: I think I would have been selective on it had
• 47:10
  Speaker 5: to be like a blatant ball where I'm like, no,
• 47:11
  Speaker 5: I'm very confident in that, but them close ones, I'm
• 47:15
  Speaker 5: not sure if I would have been hitting the hat,
• 47:17
  Speaker 5: swing the bat.
• 47:18
  Speaker 3: You got to swing the bat?
• 47:21
  Speaker 5: Sweet about AJ, you ain't getting that because I feel
• 47:24
  Speaker 5: like if I would have missed it one time and
• 47:26
  Speaker 5: I'd have looked over there at Jim, Jim would have
• 47:29
  Speaker 5: been like.
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: That's exactly what I was about to ask you. I said,
• 47:34
  Speaker 4: if you use it on something stupid and you're wrong,
• 47:37
  Speaker 4: what is Jim?
• 47:39
  Speaker 3: Jim would have said he would have hit that cigarette.
• 47:45
  Speaker 9: So you feel I feel like pretty missed out not
• 47:52
  Speaker 9: having a BS in the Meggi era toog Meggie would
• 47:55
  Speaker 9: have had some fun with that one way or another.
• 47:57
  Speaker 5: Yea, but nobody would have said anything to Meggi if
• 48:00
  Speaker 5: you would have got it wrong, you'd have just been like,
• 48:01
  Speaker 5: that's all right, Mickey, you know you get sometime me.
• 48:04
  Speaker 3: They would have he would have tore me up. Bro.
• 48:08
  Speaker 3: I'd have probably got one challenge a year. That's it.
• 48:13
  Speaker 5: But it's cool. I do like it, though I do.
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: I do like it, and I'm i'm because it's quick.
• 48:19
  Speaker 5: It doesn't really take too much time. It's just like
• 48:21
  Speaker 5: you look up their boom, all right, get it, get
• 48:23
  Speaker 5: it right, you know, so I think I think it's cool.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that did not disappoint. I was like, wonder how
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: a Jack's gonna reactually disappoint? And now down to the
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Jim Leland and pressure. If you guys are just listening
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: and you're not subscribing to YouTube, go to this part
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: on the YouTube.
• 48:40
  Speaker 2: So you can see a Jackson.
• 48:41
  Speaker 7: You see that if you don't subscribe, he don't subscribe
• 48:47
  Speaker 7: on YouTube.
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: After seeing Austin Jackson's Jim Leland and Pressure.
• 48:50
  Speaker 3: I don't know what.
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: So appreciate you guys for taking the time with us.
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: Appreciate everybody for listening, following on all the socials and
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: subscribing wherever you listen your podcast. It's a lot of
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: fun we get to do this, and I thank you
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: all for letting us be able to do it.
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: So for Klee Stapenhagen, I must I am puris. That's
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: I have a great ta