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Detroit Tigers Fall Short On Opening Day · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tigers Territory, part of
0:08
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network. A Cody Stapenhagen, Austin Jackson. We
0:14
Speaker 1: are here recording late on a Thursday night as the
0:17
Speaker 1: Tigers drop their season opener five to four to the
0:21
Speaker 1: Los Angeles Dodgers. A lot of kind of things to
0:25
Speaker 1: kind of get into, and you know, like what's a
0:27
Speaker 1: big deal, what's not a big deal. Everything's a big
0:30
Speaker 1: deal because you've only played one game, So we'll kind
0:32
Speaker 1: of talk about that stuff kind of tongue in cheek.
0:35
Speaker 2: But we had Cody over there.
0:36
Speaker 1: He's actually in Dodger Stadium right now, so like like
0:41
Speaker 1: that's something not every podcast has. We got a podcast
0:43
Speaker 1: recording from Dodgers Stadium. So I kind of want to
0:47
Speaker 1: start out Cody, to just kind of give your thoughts
0:49
Speaker 1: on you know, opening day, defending champs, the stars showing
0:54
Speaker 1: now just wherever you want to take it. But the
0:56
Speaker 1: Tigers do start the season, oh for one, but there
1:01
Speaker 1: are some things to take from it.
1:03
Speaker 2: You go in whatever direction you want.
1:05
Speaker 3: Yeah, I am still here in Dodger Stadium, so I
1:08
Speaker 3: apologize if any for any noise. Feel one walks byres
1:12
Speaker 3: rolling the big cart down the hallway. Wanted to stay
1:14
Speaker 3: here and do it because this is my first time
1:16
Speaker 3: at Dodger Stadium.
1:17
Speaker 4: Awesome place, magical place.
1:19
Speaker 3: You definitely feel it almost feels like you're going back
1:21
Speaker 3: in time, like a nineteen fifties type feel. But it
1:24
Speaker 3: takes me about fifteen minutes to walk out to the
1:27
Speaker 3: Uber pickup and then about twenty five minutes to get
1:29
Speaker 3: back to the hotel, and you guys would be asleep.
1:32
Speaker 3: So we're doing this here, We are doing this live.
1:36
Speaker 3: What a game today? Man, It felt like we were
1:39
Speaker 3: right back in September. I think where the Tigers got down,
1:43
Speaker 3: maybe didn't have that much punch, but kind of just
1:46
Speaker 3: kept getting dudes on base, just kept crying, and by
1:49
Speaker 3: the ninth I was like, they're gonna win this, aren't they? Like,
1:53
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna come accustomed to that. For the most part,
1:57
Speaker 3: a pretty well played game. A couple of costly mistakes,
2:00
Speaker 3: obviously the home run balls, Twinklesen's out at the plate,
2:02
Speaker 3: even though he otherwise had a great day.
2:05
Speaker 4: Boom's kind of large in a way.
2:08
Speaker 3: It lost things in a way, Hey, you played well,
2:10
Speaker 3: You played just like you did down the stretch and
2:14
Speaker 3: if you keep at least generating some base runners, you're
2:16
Speaker 3: gonna have a chance.
2:19
Speaker 5: Yeah, go ahead, go ahead. Yeah, I was gonna say no.
2:24
Speaker 5: I mean, I think you're right.
2:25
Speaker 6: I think you know, there's no obviously no reason to
2:28
Speaker 6: hit the panic button already right in Game one. I mean,
2:31
Speaker 6: there was some there were some things that I think
2:33
Speaker 6: that some the things you can kind of highlight and
2:37
Speaker 6: take some positives from, Like you just mentioned getting the
2:39
Speaker 6: base runners out there, that's gonna be key.
2:42
Speaker 5: I think eventually.
2:43
Speaker 6: They'll I mean, I think this is the type of
2:45
Speaker 6: baseball this team is kind of built for scratching runs across.
2:50
Speaker 5: You know, it's not always gonna.
2:51
Speaker 6: Be that three run homer doing a really good job
2:54
Speaker 6: of getting those base runners out there, just gonna have
2:56
Speaker 6: to start finding a way to getting those timely hits,
3:00
Speaker 6: you know, to bring those dudes in.
3:02
Speaker 5: Yeah.
3:03
Speaker 1: They worked Blake Snell, Cody and Austin. They worked them
3:06
Speaker 1: basically the entire game. And like that was one of
3:09
Speaker 1: the things that I had identified and pointed out early on,
3:12
Speaker 1: is that, like, really, anytime the Tigers are facing a lefty,
3:18
Speaker 1: especially like a lefty the caliber of Blake Snell, that means,
3:22
Speaker 1: you know, you're not having carry Carpenter in her lineup.
3:24
Speaker 2: That means a J.
3:25
Speaker 1: Hinch is basically kind of waiting, and we saw it
3:27
Speaker 1: like he's just waiting to throw all these lefties back
3:30
Speaker 1: out there into the batter's box. And so like, you
3:33
Speaker 1: want to get to these guys as fast as possible,
3:35
Speaker 1: and they did a good job of working their way
3:38
Speaker 1: toward that while having the opportunities to and eventually do
3:43
Speaker 1: like get getting yourself a lead. So like, in that way,
3:48
Speaker 1: if you're like a process person, which we know the
3:51
Speaker 1: Tigers are a process oriented team, like this is a
3:57
Speaker 1: positive not gonna call a.
3:58
Speaker 2: W because it is win lost, you know, league.
4:00
Speaker 1: But it is a positive element for the team, and
4:04
Speaker 1: you know, to just kind of get put a number
4:06
Speaker 1: on this runners aspect that Austin touched on oh for
4:09
Speaker 1: fifteen with runners in scoring position. That feels like an
4:12
Speaker 1: anomaly that the Dodgers had two at bats with runners
4:17
Speaker 1: in scoring position. Uh, if you're into like made up
4:22
Speaker 1: analytical or Twitter metrics, I think I saw that the
4:26
Speaker 1: the Tigers had like an eighty seven percent like chance
4:30
Speaker 1: to win it without bad luck basically, and and so
4:33
Speaker 1: like that those these kinds of things happen. And that's
4:36
Speaker 1: not to mention Cody and I think we can go
4:37
Speaker 1: here now. Not nearly the caliber of start from Trek
4:44
Speaker 1: Schooble that that you just are gonna bank on getting
4:49
Speaker 1: when you go into an outing with Schoolble five inning,
4:52
Speaker 1: six hits, four runs, only two strikeouts.
4:55
Speaker 2: Uh, he just he was leaving balls over.
4:58
Speaker 1: He got away with some pitches too, so it's not like,
5:01
Speaker 1: you know, it's not like he got killed for every
5:03
Speaker 1: mistake he made, but obviously not as sharp as what
5:06
Speaker 1: you're gonna expect School to be on.
5:08
Speaker 2: A regular right.
5:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, in the first inning he got away
5:12
Speaker 3: with the middle middle fastball to show hey Otani that
5:14
Speaker 3: Otani rolled over, and then he threw onto Mookie Betts
5:18
Speaker 3: that Bets hammered, but you know, Rley Green was able
5:20
Speaker 3: to catch it. And I kind of was like, Okay,
5:22
Speaker 3: you're lucky to get away with that. This is schoobl
5:25
Speaker 3: I bet he's going to dial in a cruise now.
5:27
Speaker 3: And that didn't quite happen. I mean, the stuff was
5:30
Speaker 3: still good, he was still good, but he didn't generate
5:32
Speaker 3: as much swing and miss as he normally would, and
5:35
Speaker 3: for whatever reason, the command was just off.
5:37
Speaker 4: He kept throwing center cut stuff.
5:39
Speaker 3: Tommy Edmund hammered one, he gave up some other loud contact,
5:42
Speaker 3: and then Taoscarnandez the three run homer.
5:45
Speaker 4: That was kind of the decisive blow.
5:47
Speaker 5: You know.
5:47
Speaker 3: I was talking to Terrek after the game and he
5:50
Speaker 3: said it like that was twenty twenty me, not me now,
5:54
Speaker 3: And it did remind you of a young Terrek. Scoogle
5:56
Speaker 3: just leaving the ball over the plate. I don't know
5:58
Speaker 3: if there's any more grand explanation to it. This is baseball.
6:02
Speaker 3: Sometimes that's going to happen. But it is a little
6:05
Speaker 3: bit I don't want to say worrisome, but you just
6:08
Speaker 3: know Schoogle does have a history in his younger days.
6:11
Speaker 3: I've given up a lot of homers. The home run
6:13
Speaker 3: ball diedim in in the playoffs. You know, you hope
6:16
Speaker 3: he's able to get away from that like he did
6:18
Speaker 3: the vast majority of last season.
6:22
Speaker 5: Yeah.
6:22
Speaker 1: So this game tonight was on ESPN. They're not going
6:28
Speaker 1: to be on ESPN every night. Cody in Austin. So
6:31
Speaker 1: if you want to watch the Tigers, there is a
6:35
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6:38
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Speaker 1: dot Com. Slash packages expires five to twenty five nineteen
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Speaker 1: ninety nine per month after free trial. Cancel during free
6:59
Speaker 1: trial to a void charges eligibility restrictions apply. So I
7:07
Speaker 1: that the you know, the kind of the anomaly stats
7:10
Speaker 1: and schoolvil stuff was obviously really prevalent. But one of
7:14
Speaker 1: the other storylines that I wanted to react to here
7:17
Speaker 1: prisoner of the moment, and we all acknowledge we're being
7:20
Speaker 1: prisoners of the moment right now, is that there were
7:24
Speaker 1: a lot of I would say second guessable it's not
7:28
Speaker 1: really a real term, but second guessable roster decisions that
7:32
Speaker 1: the Tigers made, and the lead up to this opening
7:35
Speaker 1: day roster, which as we all know, is not the
7:38
Speaker 1: finishing day roster. It might not be the roster in
7:41
Speaker 1: three days, but it is technically the opening day roster.
7:45
Speaker 2: And I gotta say.
7:48
Speaker 1: Kind of every aspect of that paid off for one
7:53
Speaker 1: game in some way. So to have a quick rundown
7:57
Speaker 1: special Torgulsen, we all kind of figured he was going
8:00
Speaker 1: to be on the roster, but he still entered in
8:03
Speaker 1: to spring training. I would say with an uphill climb.
8:06
Speaker 1: To his credit, he made it. What do you do today?
8:09
Speaker 2: He had four walks, four walks and.
8:11
Speaker 1: A home run, base running blunder, which you mentioned, by
8:16
Speaker 1: the way, That's something I would go back to a
8:18
Speaker 1: lot last season. Everybody remembers last season when he came
8:21
Speaker 1: back to the major leagues. I was like, I think
8:23
Speaker 1: he's seen the ball a little bit better because he's
8:24
Speaker 1: walking more. So maybe this is a continuation of that.
8:27
Speaker 1: Who knows, but he did have four today. Seems like
8:30
Speaker 1: a lot plus the home run. Obviously. Ryan Kreidler centerfielder.
8:34
Speaker 1: We'll talk about center field here in a second centerfielder,
8:37
Speaker 1: not a lot of experience there. He runs down a
8:40
Speaker 1: ball that had a was it Cody ten chance of
8:43
Speaker 1: being caught over there and in deep right center as
8:47
Speaker 1: a great play. He did have a hit as well.
8:50
Speaker 1: Manuel Margo, what does he do two for three? He's
8:53
Speaker 1: got a rivy, you know, like he did exactly why
8:57
Speaker 1: is he in the lineup because he hits lefties?
8:58
Speaker 2: What do he do he hit at these today?
9:00
Speaker 5: You know?
9:01
Speaker 1: And Glabor Torres also you know, he was two for
9:04
Speaker 1: five from the you know at the plate today, so
9:06
Speaker 1: it's like he's not a roster bubble guy. But you know,
9:10
Speaker 1: in terms of the decisions to bring guys in, Colt
9:13
Speaker 1: Keith look fine defensively today, in terms of the configuration
9:16
Speaker 1: of the infield, that a lot of the loud roster
9:20
Speaker 1: decisions played out positively for the front office and in
9:25
Speaker 1: the coaching staff today. So again, prison of a moment,
9:28
Speaker 1: I thought that was part of what we saw.
9:30
Speaker 3: Today's it's interesting and it's it's going to be debatable
9:34
Speaker 3: for the next month until you get your guys back healthy.
9:38
Speaker 4: In a way, we saw the good and the bad.
9:40
Speaker 3: Right, Kreidler makes a catch that maybe would have been
9:42
Speaker 3: a triple and maybe that leads to the Dodgers scoring
9:45
Speaker 3: another run. Terrific catch. Krydler also puned with with two
9:49
Speaker 3: guys in scoring position, and you can't like place too
9:52
Speaker 3: much on one at bat. But we did see the
9:56
Speaker 3: need for the Tigers to have hitters in their lineups.
9:58
Speaker 3: When you go over fifty with ourners and sporting position. Yeah,
10:01
Speaker 3: so that's the randomness of baseball. But like I don't
10:04
Speaker 3: know when to mind seeing seeing justin Henry molloy in
10:07
Speaker 3: that lineup today, you know, maybe he laces one or
10:10
Speaker 3: draws the time we walk and things can change. So
10:13
Speaker 3: but one thing I did want to say on that, Like,
10:16
Speaker 3: even though I'm not the biggest fan of Kreidler being
10:19
Speaker 3: on the team and playing center, I think the Tigers
10:22
Speaker 3: aren't just doing this because they feel like that's the call. Like,
10:26
Speaker 3: I'm sure they ran some sort of projections and have
10:29
Speaker 3: a lot of numbers that have led them to believe
10:31
Speaker 3: that Kridler's defense will save them more runs than maybe
10:36
Speaker 3: Mloy's bat would generate runs. Now, like if the projections
10:40
Speaker 3: are reality, who knows. But like, I think that's important
10:44
Speaker 3: to note. I don't think it's just Scott Harris and
10:46
Speaker 3: aj Hinch just being like hmm, no, I like outfield defense,
10:49
Speaker 3: you know. I think there's a little more that goes
10:51
Speaker 3: into it than that.
10:53
Speaker 6: Yeah, well, I agree with you on that too, I mean,
10:55
Speaker 6: because that's that's really important what you said about being
10:59
Speaker 6: able to take away runs as opposed to the bat
11:03
Speaker 6: being able to generate the runs. And sometimes that's the
11:06
Speaker 6: as kind of you know, the odds that you're playing there,
11:09
Speaker 6: You're you're hoping that, Hey, this guy is really good defensively,
11:14
Speaker 6: and we know that he's going to take away runs
11:16
Speaker 6: more than he's going to give back runs.
11:17
Speaker 5: So that's a really good point there.
11:19
Speaker 1: Well, also, I was going to ask you, now it
11:22
Speaker 1: did not play out today, but one of the kind
11:25
Speaker 1: of funny statistical quirks of last year's Tiger squad was
11:31
Speaker 1: that Javier Baiaz, while having you know, poor offensive numbers
11:37
Speaker 1: you know, across the board, actually did have some pretty
11:41
Speaker 1: decent runners in scoring position numbers. Now, it was like,
11:45
Speaker 1: what did that really mean? I don't know, but it
11:47
Speaker 1: was also kind of fun to look at. So I'm
11:49
Speaker 1: just kind of curious. And this is as prevalent as ever,
11:53
Speaker 1: considering that the team was zero for fifteen or runners
11:55
Speaker 1: in scoring position, is there a difference going to the
12:00
Speaker 1: plate where the runner you know, second and first was
12:03
Speaker 1: zero out, second and third with one out you know
12:06
Speaker 1: whatever runners in scoring position? Is that take us into
12:10
Speaker 1: the batter's box mentality in those situations, especially when this
12:14
Speaker 1: is a close game.
12:15
Speaker 2: This is a close game throughout.
12:16
Speaker 1: Every single time he came up to the plate with
12:18
Speaker 1: runners in scoring position, it was going to be, you know,
12:22
Speaker 1: a big moment if you would so if you could
12:25
Speaker 1: just kind of take us through it, is there a
12:28
Speaker 1: change it, Should there be a change, should there not
12:31
Speaker 1: be a change in the mindset and all that stuff,
12:33
Speaker 1: you know, in those kind of situations.
12:36
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean you got to think about like these guys,
12:38
Speaker 6: they practiced this situation over and over and over again
12:43
Speaker 6: in bat in practice. So these guys they know what
12:45
Speaker 6: to do, but you got to take ano account that
12:48
Speaker 6: they don't have a snail pitching as well, you know
12:50
Speaker 6: what I mean. They this guy really you know, bear
12:54
Speaker 6: down when he needed to and made pitches when he
12:56
Speaker 6: needed to. And that's the thing that it's tough because
12:58
Speaker 6: you do get those runners out out there, and I
13:01
Speaker 6: think as a hitter.
13:01
Speaker 5: Your mindset is really too.
13:04
Speaker 6: You can kind of sacrifice power a little bit in
13:07
Speaker 6: those situations, try to drive the ball to the opposite field,
13:11
Speaker 6: you know, to get that runner in. But Yil Cabro
13:13
Speaker 6: was really good at that by letting that ball travel
13:16
Speaker 6: and going the other way with runners in scoring position.
13:19
Speaker 6: So that might have to be something that they have
13:20
Speaker 6: to start, you know, trying to implement a little bit
13:24
Speaker 6: is you know, letting that ball travel and go the
13:26
Speaker 6: other way. But it is tough because when you get
13:28
Speaker 6: in there, you know that the job at hand and
13:32
Speaker 6: what you're trying to do is make solid contact. But
13:36
Speaker 6: like I said, when you got snell up there, you know,
13:37
Speaker 6: painting the corners in those situations, really bearing down with runners.
13:41
Speaker 5: In scoring position, making tough pitches.
13:45
Speaker 6: Guys are doing their best to try to burrow those
13:47
Speaker 6: some of those balls up and you know you're having
13:50
Speaker 6: to hit a pitcher's pitch. You know, he's not giving
13:53
Speaker 6: you anything to hit in those situations. So what you're
13:56
Speaker 6: just you're trying to see the ball, but you're also
13:59
Speaker 6: probably hit some pitches that are you know, out of
14:03
Speaker 6: you know, your comfort zone with driving the ball. So
14:06
Speaker 6: I think he, like I said, he beared down when
14:08
Speaker 6: the runs are on, and I think that's, uh, you
14:10
Speaker 6: got to tip your head the way.
14:14
Speaker 4: Yeah.
14:14
Speaker 3: I'm always kind of towrn on runners in scoring position
14:18
Speaker 3: stats and how much they matter, Like, oh, for fifteen today,
14:21
Speaker 3: but they were four for forty two over five games
14:24
Speaker 3: in the ALDS. Generally, we're taught to think that like,
14:28
Speaker 3: hitting with runners in scoring position isn't.
14:30
Speaker 4: Really that sticky.
14:31
Speaker 3: Like you can go look at almost every hitter year
14:33
Speaker 3: by year, and the numbers are kind of volatile because
14:36
Speaker 3: you may have five hundred played appearances, only one hundred
14:40
Speaker 3: are with runners in scoring position. So you know, the
14:44
Speaker 3: numbers by the very nature are going to be a
14:46
Speaker 3: little more up and down. At the same time when
14:49
Speaker 3: a team struggles with runners in scoring position. Look at
14:52
Speaker 3: the bottom half of the Tigers order right now. You
14:54
Speaker 3: know Hobby by as Jake Rogers, rank Kreidler. Maybe it
14:58
Speaker 3: makes sense that you wouldn't have great numbers runners in
15:00
Speaker 3: scoring position. So I don't think it's extreme as like
15:03
Speaker 3: they're gonna go oh for fifteen every night or even
15:06
Speaker 3: four for forty two. Again, they probably will have a
15:08
Speaker 3: night soon where they go six for seven, but it
15:11
Speaker 3: can still speak a little bit to the offensive holes
15:13
Speaker 3: that the team does have.
15:18
Speaker 1: Sure, And at the same time, I'll i'll just you know,
15:24
Speaker 1: for the sake of not trying to seem like shining
15:27
Speaker 1: spotlight on management here, I'll also mention that, you know,
15:33
Speaker 1: Cole Keith did not have a great day at the
15:36
Speaker 1: plate today. And and if if we're just doing again,
15:40
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff is tongue in cheek. It's a
15:42
Speaker 1: late night on a Thursday. But if we're gonna do
15:44
Speaker 1: like some.
15:44
Speaker 4: Second gues lost Jacks here.
15:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, we lost we lost a jack.
15:48
Speaker 2: See if we can get him back.
15:49
Speaker 4: On talking about analytics, he was like.
15:55
Speaker 1: As we try to get Ajax back on, I was
15:58
Speaker 1: gonna say, like the Tortosen play where you know, he's
16:02
Speaker 1: obviously going at the sound of Wood hitting the ball
16:05
Speaker 1: right and it turns out to be less than a
16:07
Speaker 1: swinging bunt from cold Keith. But that was a bad
16:10
Speaker 1: at bat by Cold Keith. And again it's Blake Snell.
16:13
Speaker 1: Let's so Austin pointing out it's Blake Snell as a
16:15
Speaker 1: hundred percent like ballad. But so, but we're still gonna say, like,
16:19
Speaker 1: like he he was way behind on what a ninety
16:23
Speaker 1: four mile an hour fastball? Then he was, then he
16:25
Speaker 1: was behind the eight ball metaphorically speaking, you didn't and
16:29
Speaker 1: then you're setting up off speed and you're just you're
16:32
Speaker 1: just like you're just out of that at bat more
16:35
Speaker 1: or less if you're not gonna be able to connect
16:37
Speaker 1: on a middle end fastball that's ninety four against Blake Snell, Like,
16:41
Speaker 1: this's just like it's gonna be hard to recover from
16:43
Speaker 1: that at bat.
16:43
Speaker 2: And he did not recover there.
16:45
Speaker 1: So like as much as people as long as much
16:48
Speaker 1: as like the Special Tourkalsen. You know, base running blunder
16:52
Speaker 1: is loud in that situation, and when you lose by
16:54
Speaker 1: one run, that that is a loud situation.
16:58
Speaker 2: I still I was like, I just didn't love that
17:01
Speaker 2: at bat.
17:02
Speaker 1: And then and then it brings like to point is like,
17:05
Speaker 1: you know, you probably wager that Jay Hen has a
17:08
Speaker 1: better at bat there. Does he have more success, maybe
17:10
Speaker 1: strikes out, I don't know, but he's probably not like
17:14
Speaker 1: late swinging a ninety four mile an hour fastball. So again,
17:18
Speaker 1: it's not even like some like cold key sucks or
17:21
Speaker 1: whatever thing. It's just that if we're gonna do the
17:24
Speaker 1: second guessing, and that's something that we're going to try
17:27
Speaker 1: to do kind of tongue in cheek throughout the season.
17:29
Speaker 1: It's just like second guessing everything that would be one
17:31
Speaker 1: that I could second guess.
17:33
Speaker 3: You know, it was a bad night for cool Keith,
17:36
Speaker 3: There's no way around that. Pretty much all five plate appearances,
17:39
Speaker 3: he looked kind of lost. At the same time, I
17:43
Speaker 3: am kind of puzzled at like the the dislike for
17:47
Speaker 3: Cole Keith that's popping up on X these days. Look,
17:52
Speaker 3: I know he hits too many ground balls. He's also
17:54
Speaker 3: really young. He has great hitting aptitude. Power comes last
17:59
Speaker 3: as the old outing adage like, I don't know if
18:02
Speaker 3: he's gonna hit be you know, a thirty homer first
18:05
Speaker 3: base masher, but I think he's a good ballplayer.
18:09
Speaker 4: He's proven, he's adjustable at the plate. You know.
18:12
Speaker 3: I think I remember last year when he signed the
18:14
Speaker 3: pre debut extension and Scott or Cole, one of them
18:17
Speaker 3: said kind of like, oh, well, this takes the pressure
18:19
Speaker 3: off now you don't have to worry about the money.
18:21
Speaker 3: And I was kind of like in the back of
18:22
Speaker 3: my head, going, it takes the pressure off that. But
18:26
Speaker 3: in a way, now there's a microscope. Now there's a
18:28
Speaker 3: spotlight on you. Anytime you have a bad game, you're
18:31
Speaker 3: gonna hear, Oh, this is the guy we signed to
18:33
Speaker 3: an extension. Now he is He is more locked into
18:36
Speaker 3: this roster, end up being playing first base probably than
18:40
Speaker 3: other players because of his contract stature. And I don't
18:43
Speaker 3: think the Tigers should bench cool Keith or whatever. But yeah,
18:48
Speaker 3: it's it's just kind of an interesting reflection. You gotta
18:52
Speaker 3: hope he makes an adjustment and performs better than he did,
18:55
Speaker 3: because the opener was kind of.
18:56
Speaker 2: Rough, which I think he will.
18:58
Speaker 1: And we got Austin back now, so so so everybody
19:03
Speaker 1: sometimes that's technology.
19:05
Speaker 2: That's okay, we we roll with it.
19:07
Speaker 1: Uh And so like with cold Keith, like the only
19:11
Speaker 1: reason I kind of bring that up because I'm not
19:13
Speaker 1: gonna bring it up every time he goes oh for
19:15
Speaker 1: But the only reason I bring it up is that
19:17
Speaker 1: he is just like Riley Green, who you know Riley Green.
19:21
Speaker 1: It is not like he tore the cover off on
19:23
Speaker 1: one for five days. But like Cold Keith, he has
19:25
Speaker 1: a position change. He's playing first base, and he's a
19:28
Speaker 1: lefty and he is still penciled in as of now
19:32
Speaker 1: to get a lot of starts against left handed pitching.
19:36
Speaker 1: So therefore, like we're just gonna bring it up just
19:39
Speaker 1: just of note.
19:40
Speaker 2: It's just of note. Uh So, so yeah, that.
19:44
Speaker 1: Like there's I didn't love Labor's defense today either.
19:49
Speaker 2: To you guys, so like and but.
19:52
Speaker 1: And and but I did like his base running aggressiveness,
19:56
Speaker 1: you know, on multiple fact sets, so that like, like
19:59
Speaker 1: that was an AGGRESSI have said there the first time
20:01
Speaker 1: he got on and and and so like we we
20:04
Speaker 1: saw enough because one of the things that I was
20:08
Speaker 1: curious about was the year to year, whether you can
20:13
Speaker 1: carry over, like we're gonna be aggressive on the base
20:16
Speaker 1: pass and we're gonna like we're gonna make pitching our
20:20
Speaker 1: like matchup pitching like our thing, and like all these
20:23
Speaker 1: like the formula for last year. How much of that
20:25
Speaker 1: carries over year to year. Not everything does carry over.
20:28
Speaker 1: Austin knows better than us, obviously, but like there are
20:31
Speaker 1: certain things that can, and it seems like they are
20:34
Speaker 1: intent on making like the base running aggressiveness part of it.
20:38
Speaker 1: I'm for that. I know Austin's for that. Uh so.
20:42
Speaker 1: So so that was that was.
20:43
Speaker 2: Overall good, good to see.
20:47
Speaker 1: We're gonna get to center field talk here in a second,
20:51
Speaker 1: But first we wanted to have a player spotlight for.
20:56
Speaker 2: The rest of the series.
20:57
Speaker 1: And again, just like last time, code we're playing the hits.
21:01
Speaker 1: We're not gonna overthink this, all right. So last year
21:04
Speaker 1: the Tigers had Jack Flaherty, they signed in free agency,
21:07
Speaker 1: and then they trade him to the Dodgers, and what
21:08
Speaker 1: does he do.
21:09
Speaker 2: He goes to win the World Series ring.
21:11
Speaker 5: So what's his.
21:12
Speaker 1: First outing of the twenty twenty five season. He's gonna
21:15
Speaker 1: play the Dodgers in Dodger Stadium, it's also World Series
21:21
Speaker 1: Ceremony Rings ceremony night, so he's gonna get his ring
21:24
Speaker 1: and then have to go out and shove. So that's
21:27
Speaker 1: gonna it's gonna be a lot for Jack Flarity. By
21:30
Speaker 1: the way, Jack flaherity opponents hit like two fifteen against
21:35
Speaker 1: him in Dodger Stadium. It's obviously one of the stadiums
21:37
Speaker 1: that he's had the most starts in. I think it's
21:39
Speaker 1: like third behind Bush in Camerica. That makes sense, right,
21:43
Speaker 1: So so Jack Flarity is our player spotlight. Cody, you've
21:49
Speaker 1: been around Jack throughout spring. You probably saw him bouncing
21:52
Speaker 1: around today. Can you kind of glean anything about like
21:57
Speaker 1: what what to expect from from Jack this season? We
22:00
Speaker 1: didn't talk a lot about him in spring, but he
22:03
Speaker 1: just because he's Jack, It just you just kind of
22:05
Speaker 1: expect him to kind of do his thing, you know
22:07
Speaker 1: what I mean. But like, Tomorrow's gonna be an interesting.
22:10
Speaker 4: Day for him, Yeah, for sure.
22:12
Speaker 3: I mean, not only do he play for the Dodgers,
22:13
Speaker 3: he's an LA kid, Like he was born and raised
22:16
Speaker 3: in this area. One funny thing about Jack, he used
22:19
Speaker 3: to talk about how he never pitched well when his
22:22
Speaker 3: mom was in the attendance, and she was at that
22:25
Speaker 3: Cardinals game last year where he ca'd what like eleven guys.
22:29
Speaker 3: He's like, this was the first time I've ever pitched
22:30
Speaker 3: well in front of my mom. Well, then he ended
22:32
Speaker 3: up pitching in front of his mom a lot. She's
22:34
Speaker 3: in LA, She's at all these games and it worked
22:36
Speaker 3: out for him. So I don't know if she'll be there,
22:38
Speaker 3: but I would imagine there's a good chance.
22:41
Speaker 4: Also, we don't even know how he's getting this ring.
22:44
Speaker 3: They're gonna have a pregame ceremony while he's like warming
22:46
Speaker 3: up in the bullpen.
22:47
Speaker 4: They're not pulling him out to do that.
22:49
Speaker 3: So we don't know if he'll get it, like after
22:51
Speaker 3: or maybe the next day he'll have his own ceremony.
22:54
Speaker 4: Interested to see what's gonna happen.
22:56
Speaker 3: But talking to Jack, you know, if you've ever seen
22:58
Speaker 3: an interview with him, you know he he keeps it cool,
23:02
Speaker 3: acting like it's no big deal. Yeah, it's fun, you know,
23:05
Speaker 3: it's special. It doesn't doesn't really elaborate a ton a
23:10
Speaker 3: ton more than that. So I think it means a
23:12
Speaker 3: lot to him both to get that ring, both to
23:14
Speaker 3: be back in this ballpark. But yeah, hard to know
23:18
Speaker 3: what's really going on in his mind sometimes.
23:21
Speaker 1: Well, you can stream that game through the FanDuel Sports
23:26
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Speaker 1: Eligibility restrictions apply. Visit fandulsportsnetwork dot com for details. All Right,
23:57
Speaker 1: Cody against all odds. Also, we saw Riley Green play
24:01
Speaker 1: some center field today and this is where we go
24:05
Speaker 1: take a long This is where we got to bring
24:07
Speaker 1: the expertise of Austin in here. And one of the
24:10
Speaker 1: many things that we turned to him for is that
24:13
Speaker 1: there's this narrative going around Austin that like the Tigers
24:18
Speaker 1: want to preserve I guess is a way to put it.
24:22
Speaker 1: Preserve Riley Green's body. He's twenty four years old. He
24:26
Speaker 1: is a capable center fielder. It's not his best outfield position.
24:30
Speaker 1: We know that, but when you're down four in your
24:34
Speaker 1: Major league forty man ish organization like that, that's a
24:39
Speaker 1: pretty good fifth option, I think, is how I would
24:42
Speaker 1: phrase it. But the Tigers seem intent on limiting that.
24:46
Speaker 1: And it's and it's about Scott Harris said this earlier
24:49
Speaker 1: this week, just not over extending basically Riley didn't use
24:53
Speaker 1: Riley's name, but that's basically what he's talking about. And
24:56
Speaker 1: so I'm curious your perspective on this, Austin is just
24:59
Speaker 1: like how so rigorous is center.
25:02
Speaker 2: Field compared to the corners?
25:05
Speaker 1: And and even though they haven't played in America yet,
25:07
Speaker 1: you know eventually they will, you know, especially atk America,
25:12
Speaker 1: And like is there like how much merit is there too,
25:16
Speaker 1: like the preservation of the body. Not wanting to kind
25:19
Speaker 1: of like over extend a guy like Riley Green by
25:23
Speaker 1: having him play we'll say, like thirty games beginning of
25:27
Speaker 1: year like in centerfield.
25:30
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, I think I think he's capable of
25:33
Speaker 6: doing it right. And and I know we've kind of
25:35
Speaker 6: spoke on this before about you know, different body types
25:38
Speaker 6: out there in center field. And then you got a
25:39
Speaker 6: guy like Aaron Judge who's two hundred and eighty pounds
25:42
Speaker 6: playing center field. So you're like Okay, never mind, body
25:45
Speaker 6: types don't work. But uh no, but I mean I
25:48
Speaker 6: do get it. I mean centerfield. You're putting a lot
25:51
Speaker 6: of miles pretty much every game, every practice out there
25:56
Speaker 6: in center field.
25:57
Speaker 5: So there's a lot of told it that goes onto
26:00
Speaker 5: the to the.
26:01
Speaker 6: Legs, and when you got a guy that can drive
26:03
Speaker 6: the ball like him, you know, that might be something
26:06
Speaker 6: where you don't want to put those those extra miles
26:08
Speaker 6: on his legs maybe to take away that that possibly
26:13
Speaker 6: could take.
26:13
Speaker 5: Away a little you know, power at the plate.
26:16
Speaker 6: You know, I've heard that with with older guys as well,
26:19
Speaker 6: but you know, obviously he's not an older guy. But
26:21
Speaker 6: I think, you know, giving him some innings out there,
26:25
Speaker 6: definitely getting some experience because you never know that that
26:28
Speaker 6: might be a position that he might have to hold down,
26:31
Speaker 6: uh you know, for a little bit.
26:32
Speaker 5: So I think that he's capable of capable of doing it.
26:36
Speaker 6: But I do understand why the Tigers are kind of
26:38
Speaker 6: being are cautious with it because there's there's a lot
26:42
Speaker 6: more running, there's a lot more opportunity to get injured.
26:45
Speaker 6: You know, playing center field, there's a lot more you know,
26:49
Speaker 6: you're a lot more involved in the game. So where
26:52
Speaker 6: is his IQ level, you know, in center field? Is
26:55
Speaker 6: he is he capable of, you know, playing a full
26:58
Speaker 6: game in center field, and and also you know, staying
27:01
Speaker 6: locked in at the plate because there's gonna be times
27:03
Speaker 6: where you know you're you're not hitting and as we
27:07
Speaker 6: talked about earlier, can your glove you know, save runs
27:10
Speaker 6: and not give runs back?
27:12
Speaker 5: Is he capable of doing that? I don't.
27:14
Speaker 6: I'm not sure if we've seen the you know him
27:17
Speaker 6: at you know, full extent being able to play center field.
27:20
Speaker 5: So we don't know that until he gets out there.
27:23
Speaker 6: But I think that being able to preserve him, I
27:26
Speaker 6: think for as long as possible, hit his legs and
27:29
Speaker 6: especially when a lot of guys are down, I think
27:31
Speaker 6: it's gonna be key because you know, you're you're running
27:35
Speaker 6: the most out there, that's that's the most running on
27:38
Speaker 6: the field center field, and you're you're going in each
27:41
Speaker 6: and every gap, you're coming forward, You're it's just a
27:44
Speaker 6: lot of it's a lot more wear and tear on
27:46
Speaker 6: the body. And uh, I think if you want to
27:48
Speaker 6: keep him healthy, you know, for a full season, I
27:51
Speaker 6: think it is kind of smart to just kind of
27:53
Speaker 6: give him some innings out there, but not fully just
27:56
Speaker 6: you know, dive into that where he's our center fielder.
27:58
Speaker 2: Now and we know he will die.
28:01
Speaker 6: Oh yeah, he's laying out. He's laying out. I've seen
28:05
Speaker 6: it plenty of times. And that's a big boy again,
28:08
Speaker 6: you know, it's a big boy. That's a lot of
28:10
Speaker 6: weight hitting the ground. You got to think about that.
28:12
Speaker 6: And then again, you know we talk about Mike. You
28:14
Speaker 6: look at Mike Trout. This dude's two forty out there.
28:17
Speaker 6: But these are different body types. You know, He's he's a.
28:20
Speaker 5: Riley he's a big just big country fan looking dude,
28:23
Speaker 5: you know what I mean.
28:24
Speaker 6: Like he hit that ground hard. You know it's like, dang,
28:26
Speaker 6: you didn't kind of brace for it. You just body
28:29
Speaker 6: just hit. No bounce or nothing, just bomb. So yeah, just.
28:35
Speaker 4: A good question. Awesome.
28:36
Speaker 3: One thing they're working on, or like telling him last
28:39
Speaker 3: year is hey, when you dive, stop like being six
28:42
Speaker 3: feet in the air, like like slide low to the ground.
28:45
Speaker 3: But I'm like, can you that you're when you're going
28:49
Speaker 3: for a ball, Like I feel like that's just reaction.
28:52
Speaker 5: No, it is, That's what I'm saying.
28:54
Speaker 6: I think that it's something that you just constantly consciously
28:57
Speaker 6: have to be aware of, you know, as knowing that, hey,
28:59
Speaker 6: I can't keep diving like this, hitting his ground day
29:03
Speaker 6: in and day out. I mean, that's a lot of
29:05
Speaker 6: it's a lot of pounding on the body, and it
29:07
Speaker 6: does start to take you know, it takes his toll
29:09
Speaker 6: on you.
29:10
Speaker 5: One hundred sixty two games and you're hitting the ground
29:12
Speaker 5: like that.
29:13
Speaker 6: And he's a guy like we, like you just said,
29:15
Speaker 6: he likes to dive, So I don't think you want
29:17
Speaker 6: to take that out of him, though, you know, you
29:19
Speaker 6: like that aggressiveness. You know, I like guys to die,
29:22
Speaker 6: even though I never did. I didn't really know how.
29:24
Speaker 6: I felt like I was gonna miss the ball. So
29:26
Speaker 6: but you know, but I liked, you know, I like
29:28
Speaker 6: seeing guy's layout and giving that extra effort. But again,
29:31
Speaker 6: you know, we talked about the body types and him
29:33
Speaker 6: hitting that ground like that, and you know, in a big,
29:38
Speaker 6: spacious center field. And then also you know, you're relying
29:41
Speaker 6: on this guy to go up to the play and thumb,
29:43
Speaker 6: so he has to have his legs under him. So,
29:47
Speaker 6: like I said, it'd be tough to just give him
29:51
Speaker 6: that because some of the things that we're talking about.
29:54
Speaker 6: But I think that he's capable of stepping in and
29:56
Speaker 6: filling that role when it's needed.
29:59
Speaker 1: Ye and maybe and maybe that's the ultimate like, uh
30:04
Speaker 1: you know thing for aj Hinch to have in his
30:06
Speaker 1: back pocket. Is that, like, you know, with all these
30:09
Speaker 1: other configurations that I'm working with on any given game,
30:12
Speaker 1: it's like, I can't put Riley in centerfield for a
30:15
Speaker 1: couple of innings and and it's gonna be okay, And
30:17
Speaker 1: that allows me to put Kerry Carpenter in left field,
30:20
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it's like maybe that's
30:22
Speaker 1: an underrated part of how they're how they viewed like
30:26
Speaker 1: the construction of this roster.
30:28
Speaker 5: As of now.
30:29
Speaker 2: So right, So yeah, I mean it.
30:32
Speaker 1: You know, everything affects everything, as as a great Mike
30:36
Speaker 1: here Sitch, former Oklahom State offensive coordinator, used to say,
30:38
Speaker 1: everything affects everything, all right.
30:41
Speaker 2: Cody Austin. Anything else you guys wanted to add before
30:44
Speaker 2: we jet out of here?
30:46
Speaker 5: Man, I'm excited. I'm excited. I was.
30:49
Speaker 6: It was excited. I was that I was at my
30:51
Speaker 6: little boys baseball game in the outfield. They needed an
30:53
Speaker 6: extra center fielder, so I was going hard on these boys. Hey,
30:57
Speaker 6: it was a tough day to hit the ball the
30:58
Speaker 6: center at eight you oh, oh ahead it I was
31:01
Speaker 6: PLoud of them boys. But no, but I'm watching the game.
31:05
Speaker 6: I'm running down ball, you know, just catching them their pad.
31:07
Speaker 5: I'm laughing.
31:08
Speaker 6: I'm looking at the phone like I you know, but
31:10
Speaker 6: it was just it was cool. I was like, man,
31:12
Speaker 6: I can't wait to like kind of go back, because,
31:15
Speaker 6: you know, just looking at at this team, it's it's fun.
31:17
Speaker 5: It's it's gonna be a fun team.
31:19
Speaker 6: I think it's gonna be a fun team, a very
31:20
Speaker 6: competitive team that you know, I think you're seeing the
31:25
Speaker 6: brand of baseball that this team is capable of playing
31:27
Speaker 6: like they're they're capable of going deep in these games
31:30
Speaker 6: like this and manufacturing runs. When when once they start
31:33
Speaker 6: doing that, but them just showing themselves that, look, we're
31:37
Speaker 6: capable at the end of the game to give ourselves
31:40
Speaker 6: an opportunity to win. That's what you want. Ultimately, we
31:43
Speaker 6: know this isn't like the Big Three. You know, they're
31:46
Speaker 6: gonna a couple they're gonna clip a couple of three
31:49
Speaker 6: run home runs and get ahead like that. But I
31:51
Speaker 6: think for the majority of the time, it's gonna be
31:53
Speaker 6: those close games, those hard fought games and they're gonna
31:56
Speaker 6: have to manufacture some runs. So that's I like that
31:58
Speaker 6: brand of baseball. And this team is built to where
32:02
Speaker 6: like there's so many intermingling pieces and anybody can step
32:06
Speaker 6: in and play third base or short or center field.
32:09
Speaker 6: So that's fun to watch. You've got guys constantly moving.
32:13
Speaker 6: It's just a different brand of baseball that I'm excited
32:15
Speaker 6: to see these guys play.
32:18
Speaker 1: Well put, yeah, I like that, all right, Well, we
32:23
Speaker 1: can't wait to watch the rest of it. And like again,
32:26
Speaker 1: like I'm not saying we're the best podcasts out there,
32:29
Speaker 1: but I guarantee you we're the only one that has
32:30
Speaker 1: a combination of a guy at Dodger Stadium and who
32:35
Speaker 1: was watching the game while shagging flag ball fly balls
32:38
Speaker 1: for his for his son's select team. So I guarantee
32:42
Speaker 1: you that combination doesn't exist anywhere else. So we have
32:47
Speaker 1: a lot of fun doing this, even late on a Thursday.
32:49
Speaker 1: And I hope you guys can can see that and
32:51
Speaker 1: hear that as you listen. Want to thank everybody for listening,
32:54
Speaker 1: subscribing apples, Spotify, YouTube, Instagram, wherever you listen to your
32:58
Speaker 1: podcast by star review if it feels so inclined, we
33:01
Speaker 1: definitely appreciate it and we are just getting started. So
33:04
Speaker 1: for Austin Jackson, Cody Stavenhagen, I'm Kieren Seckley.
33:08
Speaker 2: Everybody, have a great weekend.