Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Analysis: Jackson Jobe's breakout, Hao-Yu Lee's swing, Justin Verlander's farewell

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Analysis: Jackson Jobe's breakout, Hao-Yu Lee's swing, Justin Verlander's farewell · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: And welcome in to another episode of Tiger Territory, part
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: of the Foul Territory Network, Detroit Tigers Podcast. I'm Kieran Steckley.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: With me, as always, the man who knows all about
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: them damn Cowboys. He is Cody Stavenhagen. How you doing?
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Doing all right, Kieran. It's a good weekend for us
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: with the big Oklahoma State. win uh hopefully the people
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: of detroit can appreciate that right we've got barry sanders
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: kate cunningham so yeah we're we're feeling good and the
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: tigers even won a series they are quietly they quietly
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: had a really good homestand.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah four game win streak uh and by the way
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: shout out to michigan for being oklahoma so that's a
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: good good vibes all around here uh so 6-2, 11-7,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: and 8-1 wins over the Rockies for the Tigers. It's
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: a four-game win streak, I believe, Cody. And it's one
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: of those deals where I'm curious. We can do the
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: vibe check right here at the top. I'm kind of curious, like,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: how is the behavior of this team right now on
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: this homestand? Because it's like you've moved past the doom
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: and gloom, and then you're looking forward. but you're not
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: in kind of to 2027, but like here in the now,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: it still kind of feels like there's an enthusiasm for
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: the game every day. There's like an emphasis on wins.
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: Like it, it doesn't feel down from afar. And then
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: you even like read the quotes where like nobody, it's
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: like they accept that the season is going to come
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: to an end, but they aren't, acting as if that's
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: the reality, like the main reality, if that makes sense.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I'm curious, like on a, on a, on a day
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to day and just kind of be in the clubhouse basis,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: like how, how you are kind of seeing these guys
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: and how it feels for them right now. Yeah.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Well, I said what coming off that road trip that
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: the vibe was fine. I think because there's so many
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: young guys who were just kind of trying to prove
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: they belong and, and, maybe some of the losing has
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: actually been hard on those guys who haven't necessarily been
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: through that at the day-to-day level of the major leagues before.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: But here coming off a, you know, winning five of
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: six on a homestand, it is kind of a fun vibe.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: Like for me, you know, I've kind of come to
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: the park and it's like, all right, I mean, the
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: season's pretty much over. Like, is there really, really that
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: much to be fired up about today? And then we
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: get to the game and I've really kind of enjoyed
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: watching these games just because like we talked about last time,
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: trying to learn more about all these players and see
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: them exposed to different settings and different situations. So that's
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: almost been kind of fun. Obviously, myself, probably a lot
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: of fans out there now watching the game from a
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: different lens, it's not good to not be in the race.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: And I would say there's not been a whole lot
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: of pretending that, oh, we can still do this. I mean,
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: obviously no one is going to say out loud, like, yeah,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: we probably don't have a good chance. But I almost
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: appreciate there hasn't been like some fake, thing about like
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: we can still make it although i don't know they
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: win a couple more and they win a couple in
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: toronto we'll see where that ends up um so yeah
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: it's just it's just different man it's it's been a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: in a way i think a better vibe than we've
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: seen throughout a lot of this season and that's because
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: of the guys you have and you know when young
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: guys start winning some games that in itself can be
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: fun um the rockies man they're not they're not a
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: very good baseball team somehow uh show already shown some
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: improvement over last season, but they have a long way
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: to go.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And, and that certainly, uh, does help things when you're, uh,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: when you're, when you're fighting it or fighting for your
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: major league life is, uh, you know, getting these opportunities
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: against teams that, you know, for being honest, uh, got
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: longer ways to go than you, I think would probably
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: be the way that I phrase that. Uh, by the way,
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: It's a PSA for everybody. Like I said, having some
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: work done in the house. If you hear some faint noise,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: there's just fans blowing to dry our floors and our
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: walls and all that stuff. So a lot of fun
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: things happening. So I apologize for any noise. And I
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: apologize if my voice is a little hoarse. Like I said,
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: I was at the said Oklahoma State-Oregon game. So still
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: recovering physically from that. But anyway, let's get to Jackson-Jove.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I think that's the story of today, Cody. Jackson-Jove. 6.1,
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: three hits. He had eight Ks and allowed, obviously, the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: one run, the home run there in the first inning.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: 16 swing and misses, if I read that correctly. And quietly,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: he's allowed two or fewer runs in five of his
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: seven starts since coming back from Tommy John. So we're
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: seeing a little bit of a maturation of a pitcher here, Cody.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: And honestly, today was a huge maturation game because you
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: had the home run. It's the classic 97, just no
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: movement at all. And it gets hit out. And even
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: in the first two innings, I would say he was
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: kind of leaving them. He was living in the middle
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: of the plate a little bit more than what I
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: would consider ideal comfort. But after that, if you look
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: at the charts, he started kind of painting the corners
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: a little bit. He looked like he got more comfortable,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit more confident. And it turns out, It's
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: a career high in strikeouts, maybe his best outing period.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, up there, right?
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: I think it was pretty clearly the best outing of
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: his career. He had one or two last year that
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: were pretty strong. But yeah, career high in strikeouts with eight,
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: career high in whiffs, which is huge for him with 16.
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: The first time he's pitched into the seventh inning in
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: his major league career, which is you could almost like forget.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: You know, the amount of firsts he is kind of
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: still checking off. I thought Job was really good today.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: The only caveat would be what I mentioned earlier. Man,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: the Rockies, not great. But, hey, they're big leaguers, right?
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: And he did. He faced nine left-handed batters, Kieran, which
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: Job entered the day actually with slightly reversed splits. But
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I was curious how that was going to go given
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: how reliant he can be on the slider and the curveball,
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: things that are kind of breaking into the barrel of
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: left-handed hitters. The changeup, in theory, should be a huge
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: right-on-left weapon, but the changeup has kind of been the
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: pitch Joe Bastille's searching for. So he comes out on Sunday,
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: and the slider is cooking, man. It was the best
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: it has looked. Missed a lot of bats, had the curveball.
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: He was able to use them both and differentiate those
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: two pitches. Even mixed in a few cutters, which we
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: didn't think he was going to add until... Next year,
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: he said he threw a few in Cleveland and StatCast
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: didn't pick him up as cutters. I remember him throwing
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: a couple harder sliders and being like, hmm. Turns out, no,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: he's subtly adding in the cutter. He continued to use
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: kind of backdoor sinkers against some left-handed batters and had success.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: I think most importantly, he was efficient. He was efficient
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: enough to get into the sixth inning and probably could
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: have kept going and finish the seventh inning, excuse me,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: and could have kept going and finish the seventh inning.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: AJ Hinch said he took him out largely because He
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: just wanted to make sure that outing ended on a
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: positive note. He wanted Job to leave the field with
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: a good feeling. Sure enough, he did. He got a
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: standing ovation. Yeah, best outing of his Major League career
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: so far. A little bit of a reminder of what
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: he can do when he is getting in the strike zone,
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: being efficient with his pitches, throwing some stuff that can
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: miss some bats. Obviously, we'd like to see him do
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: it against a little more polished lineup at some point soon,
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: but Really, really encouraging outing from Jackson Job.
• 7:51
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• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and another example, maybe people don't hold this with
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the same gravity that I do, but AJ kind of
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: understand the moment. That was not a quick pitching change.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? That was a... I want
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: to make sure he can kind of catch his breath
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and like kind of appreciate what he accomplished on that
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: day and like kind of give also like the crowd
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: like a little bit of a, like an extra beat
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: to like get in the moment as well. So AJ,
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: obviously the man, the man has, he's playing 4D chess
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: with everything. And that was, that was an example of that. So,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: you know, we mentioned the, the home run. That Job
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: gave up, but it was quickly neutralized by Riley Green,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: who I don't know if anybody is caught on to this,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: but since he came back from that hamstring injury, he
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: is this is entering today. So this is entering today.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: He is hitting 366. It's a good number for Tigers history.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: He's hitting 366. with a. 756 slug. It's a 1.165 OPS.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: That'll do. Just constantly coming up big. Had a nice
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: catch today as well, sliding catch. This is I love
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: seeing this from Riley Green, obviously, but this scorcher, as
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: we have the graphic up on our screen right now,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: actually kind of makes me upset that the team's not
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: in playoff contention. It's like, damn.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: It. Yeah, wasting a year of Riley Green's prime, yeah. Yeah,
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I think we've talked so much about Riley, right? From
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: all angles, the good, the not so good, the where
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: he can improve. I think given him flowers at a
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: lot of different points this year, but I think it's
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: worth doing again because he's having the best year of
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: his career in terms of OPS. He has put into
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: practice a lot of what he set out to do
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: this offseason. People wanted to see a better plate approach.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: For the most part, he has done that, and I
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: would say he's not perfect. He has a bad at
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: bat every now and then. It seems like he's kind
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: of flushed that, and we haven't necessarily seen him get
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: He's had a couple slumps, but not as much, at
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: least of these deep ruts where he looks totally lost.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: Maybe we've seen that for a day or two, and
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: he seems to kind of get out of it. He's
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: walking more than he ever has in his career. He's
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: cut his chase rate by nearly 5 percentage points from
• 11:29
  Speaker 2: last season, which I always said last year, it's not
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: so much about the strikeout number, it's about the chase.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: You're just not having good at-bats if you're chasing pitches
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: out the strike zone. He still strikes out at a
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: pretty high clip. But the at-bat quality, generally speaking, has
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: been a lot better. I think that's huge. And it's
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: funny how it works when you get going. Like this weekend,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: it seemed like he was getting stuff down the middle
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: every at-bat. And he was absolutely destroying it. But it's funny.
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: When you're hot, suddenly those pitches start coming in. Riley
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: Green is a really, really good hitter. I think, again,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: as much as we've talked about him, I've never really
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: wavered on that. I don't want that kid to get lost.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: He is one of the better pure hitters ever. underrated
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: pure hitters in the game, I would say, still really young,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: so good to see him having a great season, I
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: do almost wonder, you know, if you remember coming out
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: of the All-Star break, he got pretty cold there, and
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: then he got injured, and that wasn't great, and I
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: almost wonder if an IL stint kind of was able
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: to refresh him a little bit physically, I actually talked
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: to Riley a little bit about this this morning, he
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: was like, well, actually, maybe, but it's not like I
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: was just doing nothing, you know, he said he was
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: working really hard, he's doing a lot of running, he
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: was It's not like he was just chilling for 15
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: days or whatever it was. So that's probably worth noting.
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: But I almost wonder if there's something to that. It
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: doesn't mean it's a good thing he got hurt. He
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: didn't want to get hurt. No one really wanted to
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: see him get hurt. But kind of funny how he's
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: come back from that and just been kind of the
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: best version of himself. Again, the defense has declined, the speed.
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: We all know that conversation. But the guy can still
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: hit the baseball. And when you talk about his value,
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: the contract stuff that we've also speculated about, I don't
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: know exactly what the future holds, but the fact the
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: guy can hit, that does tend to go a long way.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, shout out Oscar Hightower on Twitter. Wrote up that
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: same thing about last week about him, you know, Riley
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Green just kind of getting the reset with the IL stint.
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: And the results thereafter. Yeah, I actually... this is like
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: kind of a half hearted attempt at a nickname for
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: Riley green, but so it's not really a nickname, but
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: it's going to be, it's just how I'm going to
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: think of him from now on. And especially like Riley
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: green discourse, champagne problems. Like, like, like there's, there's so
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: much to like, and like appreciate about his game that
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: I think that does tend to get lost and, and, and,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: you know, kind of pinpointing his flaws and, I think
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: over-exaggerating the negative impacts that they have. Because there's a
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: whole lot of good. There's a whole lot of positive.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: And this is a guy that, as a first-round pick,
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: that you nailed. Like, absolutely nailed. He hasn't had a
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: fall-off ever in his Major League career. He's been steady
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to pretty dang good since he got to Detroit. So
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I just think champagne problems, Riley green. It's like, what
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: do you want to complain about now? You know? Uh,
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: so I hope, I hope that doesn't necessarily get, get
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: lost in everything. Uh, all right, let's get to, we
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: have a Verlander update. Is this what we're, can we
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: call it an update? Can we have Verlander watch 2026?
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Verlander watch 2026.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: It's an update. I think AJ hinge talked to, kind
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: of at length about Verlander. He threw off the mound,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: off the game mound. There was a hitter in the box.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: The hitter was not swinging, but this was a step forward.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: His velocity was supposedly very good, up to about 93
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: miles an hour. It seems like he recovered okay. He's
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: going to throw either a live BP or some sort
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: of sim game, some other live session this coming week
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: in Chicago. and he's kind of on like a seven-day
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: routine right now, and how that math adds up is
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: they hope he can pitch on Verlander weekend, maybe that Saturday,
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: the final Saturday of the regular season. Now, I do
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: want to emphasize the word hope. A.J. Hinch was pretty
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: clear to say, like, I don't want to make a
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: false promise. That is what they're targeting. There are plenty
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: of boxes Justin still has to check. At this point
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: in the season, if there are any setbacks, it's not
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: going to happen. Verlander knows that. talking to him after
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: the game, you know, he basically said there's some risk here.
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: He could really hurt himself. He could tear the hamstring
• 16:04
  Speaker 2: off the bone or something is almost what he's alluded to.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: So it's not like he's 100%, but it seems like
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: he's feeling better, pitching a little bit better, really wants
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: to get out there both for himself, for the fans.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: You know, he said the fans, the comments he hears like, hey,
• 16:21
  Speaker 2: we want to see you one last time have almost
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: kind of inspired him. So, I think we now have
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: a better idea of what this could look like. It's
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: probably not going to be multiple outings. Um, Verlander said
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: he would like it to be like a start and
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: a real start, uh, go as long as he can.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: I look, I don't know if that's probably like best
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: case scenario. I still wouldn't be shocked personally if it's
• 16:46
  Speaker 2: just like, Hey, one inning. And if you get a one, two, three, maybe,
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: maybe get them out of there so everyone can feel
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: good and have a great day. Um, I think there's
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: a lot to still be determined, but we now kind
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: of can at least zoom in on what the best
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: case scenario is. It's going to require him continuing to
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: feel good and the stuff continuing to feel good, but
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: there's a chance that we will see Justin Verlander in
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: a Tiger's uniform one final time in the final weekend
• 17:17
  Speaker 2: of the regular season.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: Hey, today's episode is presented by the ASPCA Pet Health
• 17:23
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• 17:24
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• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Shout out to the production department that's got to prepare
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: all this stuff for essentially his send-off. First of all,
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: you've got to nail it. This guy's going to be
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: in the Hall of Fame now. But number two, you
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: kind of have to have two scenarios. One where he
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: pitches and one where he doesn't pitch. You've got to
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: be prepared for both.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: It's weird. They could actually have a lot going on
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: that last weekend. Kenley Jansen's at 495 saves. I know
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Jansen had never been a Tiger before, and his year
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: hasn't exactly gone well, so I don't know that that's
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: really being treated with the gravitas it probably deserves, and
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: we'll see if he can get there. It's going to
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: require the Tigers winning some games, Jansen closing out some games,
• 19:09
  Speaker 2: the scores being close enough that he can get in
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: five more save situations. I don't know, but there's a
• 19:16
  Speaker 2: chance we could have JV's last outing and Kimley Jansen's
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: 500th save, maybe on the same day or something. Wouldn't
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: that be cool?
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, in contrast to all the young guys, too. I mean,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: that's funny here down the stretch for the season. All right,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: let's talk about how you lead, Cody. Because as I
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: was kind of going through different kind of content ideas,
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: I was trying to think of like a.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Sort of like a power rankings of guys that... How
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: you feel about them kind of being on the opening
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: day roster next year. And I was like... And really,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: every time I see how you lead, I think about that.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Like every time he makes a play. Every time he
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: gets a hit. You know, he had this... As a
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: part of that, what was it, a seven-run, eight-inning on Saturday,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: he kind of bookended that with a double, then a triple, right? So, yeah,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: it's like every single day, I think, could this be
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: like your second baseman next year? But we just talked
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: about how it doesn't make any sense how he is
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: this successful, you know, if you just kind of look
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: at his baseball savant page. So I don't know. Uh,
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: like you got a chance to talk with him recently.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: Like what, what's, uh, what, what's how you leave like
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: right now?
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, I, again, this is a guy we've talked
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: about a lot, right? Kind of the good and the bad. He's,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: he's really pretty dang entertaining to watch. Uh, I think
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: we can all respect the way he plays the game,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: the passion, the energy he brings. I've talked a lot
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: about like some of the doubts about his game. a
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: big one being him stepping in the bucket, striding toward
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: third base. I finally got a chance to ask him
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: about that. And I was just like, are you focusing
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: on that? Are you worried about it? And it was
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: kind of interesting. He said he was trying to figure
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: it out and he was basically told, well, hey, that's
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: just the way your body moves. Whatever biomechanical analysis the
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: Tigers conducted, all our bodies move a little different. He's
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: predisposed to Probably that front hip or front foot just
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: kind of veers out that way. That's not necessarily a
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: good thing, I think, for your swing. We've seen it
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: expose him on the outer third of the plate. But
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: then talking to A.J. Hinch about it, I think the
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Tigers are willing to accept he may never have the
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: most aesthetically pleasing swing mechanics. That's just, again, kind of
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: his natural swing is going to be open front side
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: a little bit. So it's kind of trying to minimize that.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: He can't be going all the way toward third base,
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: but you can still... put a quality swing on the ball,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: even if that's how it is. So I don't know
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: if that makes any sense, but hearing that, it kind
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: of made more sense to me. I was like, okay,
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: might just have to accept he's always going to do
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: this a little bit. Can you still find a way
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: to cover the outer third of the plate is kind
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: of what the question is becoming. And yeah, like in
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: a way he's done so good. I mean, we forget
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: he had, what, I think 320 something for a 53
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: game stretch in the major leagues. He's, again, really cooled off.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: I think he's 10 for his last 57, 22 strikeouts.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: So that's not what you want.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: 176 in September.
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's not great. And we talked about the
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: StatCast thing last episode. Go on the StatCast page. There's
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: honestly almost like nothing to like. But then you– I
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: looked a little deeper. Because his thing coming up was
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: like exit velocity, right? This guy hits the ball hard.
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: And it's been okay at the major league level. So
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: you go a layer deeper, EV90. That's basically your top 10%
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: in exit velocity. So it removes all your weak contact.
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: And it's basically like, okay, when he really squares it up,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: how well does he square it up? A lot of
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: teams look at this as a measure of power, almost
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: a more stable indicator of projecting power. And Lee ranks,
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: I think, like fifth on the team in EV90. He's
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: right up there with Dylan Dingler. It's like 104.7. So
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Like his high-end swings are really high-end. There's probably just
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: a little more, a lot more probably low-end contact than
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: you would like to see. But that's like an indicator
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: of why the Tigers like him so much. Because the
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: high-end stuff can be pretty good. Again, there's some rough
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: edges with this guy. And I don't say that to
• 23:42
  Speaker 2: knock him. That's just kind of the reality. I think
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: he's going to be on this team next year. I
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: think the question is how big of a role. Are
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the Tigers going to hand him in spring training? But
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: I think someone right now you can put in pencil
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: when we're talking about the roster all winter, he's probably
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: going to be a part of this infield mix.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's a situation that he certainly earned this
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: part of the discussion. And then also part of me
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: is also glad that there's some struggle in there to
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: be able to correctly analyze exactly like what they have
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: in him and then how you know that shapes your
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: infield outlook etc uh because if because we would just
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: always be looking for regression if if he had kind
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: of kept up that that streak a little bit now
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: we we got regression now we can just kind of
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: say we don't have to like wait for it it's
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: happened now what you know move on uh speak where
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: does this torque rank high on that he's got a
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: rank high on.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: That uh how you is above him i don't have
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: it pulled up in front of me um how you
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: is above is above torque for sure.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: That home run that he had Sunday, I don't know
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: exactly what the exit velocity was on that one.
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: It's where he backspins the ball really well. He's not
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: necessarily an exit velocity king, but when he gets it
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: in the air, he hits it hard enough and it
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: just has a weird natural carry. I think he gets
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: so much backspin. That's how I would describe it.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: He's obviously an example of a guy that when he
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: gets it good, he gets it really good, but not
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: not consistent, uh, let's say not enough to satisfy everybody.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: Might be the right way, right way to phrase it. Uh,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: speaking of, speaking of, uh, we, do we have to
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: do like a platoon update every episode now just to
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: kind of see like how, uh.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: It works. 90 is one Oh 3.3. How he leaves
• 25:39
  Speaker 2: is one Oh four seven. Dylan's English is one Oh
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: four eight among tigers regulars. Guess who has the best?
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: It's Riley green. One Oh seven, six.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: There you go. So, yeah. Well, again, if you're confident
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: in Haile playing second or third base, that affects you.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: But you have to have Keith on the team and
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: on the roster and in the lineup. And then where
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: are you going to put him? Well, you might have
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: to put him at first base. Well, then you have
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Tork there. And Tork, yeah. So, you see what I'm
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: saying here about how to figure this thing out. And
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know. Part of me almost wishes that like
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: that a decision is made on the first base question
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: right now uh i don't want to necessarily be influenced
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: by a late season surge even though like i i
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: like to work i root for the guy but like
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: if they have decided that this isn't the right fit
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: or working or whatever i don't want that decision to
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: be made september 13 on does that make sense yeah
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: you should kind of.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: Have it I don't think they know what they're going
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: to do. I mean, it's possible maybe first base is
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: a place you'd look outside the Oregon. There's so many
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: different ways they could configure this infield. It's going to
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: be pretty fascinating. I do wonder if they should pick
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: some sort of lane. Like, is a Keith Tork platoon
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: next year productive? Because although Keith can play multiple positions,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: you're A first base platoon just seems to me like
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: not the best use of a roster spot for at
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: least one of those guys. And that goes back to Colt.
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: I think I've been pretty clear. I don't know. I
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: still think there's a little more in there. You signed him,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: and I don't think the Tigers front office is going
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: to want to part with a piece that still has
• 27:32
  Speaker 2: some surplus value, right? But he is a weird fit
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: on this roster, and he makes constructing things difficult if
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: you don't want to commit to him at a position.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: It'd be easier, of course, to commit to him at
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: a position if he would take that next step with
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: the bat and not just be a 720-ish OPS guy.
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: If you could see a little bit more of that,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: I think there's been some talk that, you know, and
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: even Colt kind of said this, like, well, if you
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: want those left-handed at-bats, one way to do that is
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: to be better against right-handers. not just to inspire more faith,
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: but even like say there's a sixth inning lefty comes
• 28:13
  Speaker 2: in the game. If you were a big enough threat
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: that like AJ really wants to leave you in against
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: the closer, you know, who might be right-handed that's, that's
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: one way to get that extra lefty at bat is
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: to be better against righties. And that's kind of interesting.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: Colts has seven to 18 OPS entering Sunday's game. I
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: don't know. He's an interesting player. He's not a bad player.
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: He's one of how you lead to work. There's so
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: many guys right now who are just kind of hard
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: to talk about. It's just a little bit in between.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: There's enough there, but not enough there at the same time.
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: That's the way I look at it. I wouldn't put
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: it past him to look at that as a next
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: year option and just kind of kick the can down
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the road a little bit or kind of let it
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: play out naturally. We'll see. In hell. this win streak continues.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: We're going to have to have completely different discussions. You know,
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: play Toronto, play Chicago. You know, it's going to be
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: a week, Cody.
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: It's going to be a week.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: I'm not going there yet.
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: Crazier things have happened. But, yeah, so we will be
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: there every step of the way. I want to thank
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: you guys for following along. At Cody Stamenhagen, I am
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: at Kieran underscore Stekley. Pod page at Tiger Territory underscore. YouTube, Apple, Spotify,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: you guys know what to do. We appreciate all of
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: you so far. Stabenhagen, I'm Kieran Stekley. Everybody have a
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: great day.