Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Breaking down Tigers rookies and their surprising skillsets

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Breaking down Tigers rookies and their surprising skillsets · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: And welcome to another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:12
Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network. Troy Tiger's podcast. I'm Kieran Stegley.
0:15
Speaker 1: With me, as always, is a man who will not,
0:17
Speaker 1: no matter how much you offer, he will not sell
0:20
Speaker 1: his Sunday parking pass. He is Cody Sabanagan. How are
0:23
Speaker 1: we doing?
0:24
Speaker 2: Doing all right, Kieran. Yeah, football season is upon us,
0:27
Speaker 2: which that got here fast.
0:30
Speaker 1: Still baseball season here, though.
0:31
Speaker 2: Still baseball season. Don't forget.
0:33
Speaker 1: Still baseball season. Still got plenty to talk about, plenty
0:36
Speaker 1: to analyze. I almost did a Dallas Cowboys thing, but
0:39
Speaker 1: I was like, no, no, no. We're going to wait
0:40
Speaker 1: until after.
0:41
Speaker 2: It's still baseball season. Come on now.
0:43
Speaker 1: Still baseball season. Just a little PSA for everybody out
0:47
Speaker 1: there having some work done at the house. I'll do
0:50
Speaker 1: my best to kind of reduce the noise, but if
0:52
Speaker 1: there is something in the background, I do apologize. And
0:54
Speaker 1: thank you for your understanding.
0:57
Speaker 2: All right.
0:58
Speaker 1: Speaking of structures, organizational structures, Cody, something that we haven't
1:04
Speaker 1: really gotten a chance to talk about a lot is
1:06
Speaker 1: the fact that the Tigers had a front office departure
1:12
Speaker 1: almost on their hands. It was reported that Jeff Greenberg
1:16
Speaker 1: was a candidate. It was a while ago, like two
1:19
Speaker 1: weeks ago-ish, was a candidate for the Red Wings president
1:23
Speaker 1: of hockey operations job. And he has removed his name
1:27
Speaker 1: from consideration. So one of those things where you almost
1:31
Speaker 1: got to be like, oh, yeah, I forgot. Greenberg got
1:34
Speaker 1: a pretty diverse skill set back there, you know, like
1:37
Speaker 1: kind of going back and forth. And I guess it
1:39
Speaker 1: would have made sense to go to hockey if if
1:41
Speaker 1: that was his next move. But he has removed his
1:44
Speaker 1: name from consideration. So. How do you remove your name
1:49
Speaker 1: from consideration when it's the same boss? That'd be my question.
1:54
Speaker 2: You tell the boss you don't want the job.
1:56
Speaker 1: Do you just send a paper plane across the hallway?
1:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, you inform the Red Wings. It's like, well, this
2:03
Speaker 2: is somewhat all the same people, I think. Which is
2:06
Speaker 2: one of the weird setups with the Illich Sports and
2:09
Speaker 2: Entertainment umbrella. I'm going to be honest, I'm sure Jeff
2:13
Speaker 2: Greenberg is a very bright guy, obviously has experience in
2:17
Speaker 2: the Chicago Blackhawks front office as well as the Chicago
2:20
Speaker 2: Cubs front office. He comes from the Theo Epstein tree
2:24
Speaker 2: in a lot of ways, is well-qualified, works very closely
2:27
Speaker 2: with Scott Harris on a lot of their decisions, but
2:32
Speaker 2: it is weird to have one sports franchise interviewing an
2:35
Speaker 2: executive from the other franchise under the same umbrella. I
2:39
Speaker 2: don't think that would happen, mostly because there aren't that
2:41
Speaker 2: many organizations with this sort of setup. I think it
2:45
Speaker 2: makes sense, just from a procedural standpoint, to maybe bring
2:49
Speaker 2: in someone. Bring in Jeff, ask him what he thinks,
2:54
Speaker 2: if there are any candidates he should consider, what he
2:56
Speaker 2: learned from his time working for the Blackhawks. I thought
2:59
Speaker 2: taking it to a step where it seemed like he
3:01
Speaker 2: was a serious candidate, and that had been mentioned far
3:04
Speaker 2: longer than two weeks because this has been a long search, was.
3:09
Speaker 2: Weird, surprising, not necessarily good for the Tigers, not necessarily
3:13
Speaker 2: good for the Red Wings in my personal opinion. And
3:16
Speaker 2: then here they are. He seemingly takes his name out
3:20
Speaker 2: of the running, which was kind of a strange thing
3:22
Speaker 2: to also just announce publicly in the middle of the day.
3:26
Speaker 2: I guess I appreciate the information, but it was unusual.
3:30
Speaker 2: The whole thing was unusual today. I don't know that
3:33
Speaker 2: I want to opine on it a lot more other
3:35
Speaker 2: than like, what are the Red Wings doing here? I
3:37
Speaker 2: don't know the first thing about hockey, but this is
3:40
Speaker 2: a really long search. Their training camp's about to start.
3:42
Speaker 2: Their season is about to start. It doesn't seem like
3:46
Speaker 2: it's been the most competent process from Illich Sports and Entertainment.
3:51
Speaker 2: Probably a good thing the Tigers don't have to replace
3:53
Speaker 2: someone if this is how we're doing searches now.
3:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't say the Red Wings have, the most
4:02
Speaker 1: confidence of any, uh, you know, the fan base of any, uh,
4:05
Speaker 1: team in the area there. Uh, I think they were
4:07
Speaker 1: probably last on that, uh, on that totem pole, but
4:10
Speaker 1: this is a, this is a Tigers podcast. And, you know,
4:12
Speaker 1: like Greenberg is one of those, one of those names
4:15
Speaker 1: that you like, you know, as a, as a fan,
4:18
Speaker 1: as an observer, you like, you read and you hear occasionally,
4:21
Speaker 1: like he does like the whole, like, you know, this
4:23
Speaker 1: is Jeff Greenberg. Uh, you're listening to Detroit Tigers on,
4:26
Speaker 1: you know, whatever, uh, So he does that and he
4:29
Speaker 1: occasionally will do a presser with you guys. So like,
4:32
Speaker 1: is it, is it fair to say that like, A,
4:36
Speaker 1: he's Scott's right hand? Like, is that fair to say?
4:40
Speaker 1: And then B, like, could we call him a face
4:44
Speaker 1: of the organization? Like from a, you know, from a
4:48
Speaker 1: structure standpoint? Yeah, my understanding.
4:52
Speaker 2: And again, the Tigers aren't the most transparent with a
4:54
Speaker 2: lot of things, but my understanding is Greenberg is like,
4:57
Speaker 2: he's a guy in the room. He is very much
4:59
Speaker 2: Scott's right-hand man. Sometimes you see these setups and it's
5:02
Speaker 2: like clear one person is making all the decisions and
5:05
Speaker 2: another person is just kind of in the background. Or
5:08
Speaker 2: the Tigers have had assistant GMs before who were more
5:11
Speaker 2: just like rules people, procedure people. Greenberg may not be
5:15
Speaker 2: as front-facing as Scott Harris is. Not that Scott is
5:19
Speaker 2: necessarily all that front-facing, but you know what I mean.
5:21
Speaker 2: A lot of people might not know what Greenberg looks
5:24
Speaker 2: like or sounds like, but my understanding is he's working
5:28
Speaker 2: very closely with Scott and maybe some of the other
5:31
Speaker 2: AGMs as well as, to some degree, A.J. Hinge. They
5:36
Speaker 2: get in the room and they make these decisions, man,
5:38
Speaker 2: and they don't necessarily... You know, some organizations have these
5:44
Speaker 2: big meetings and everyone from the org is in there
5:46
Speaker 2: as they hammer stuff out. My understanding is the Tigers
5:49
Speaker 2: don't necessarily do it that way. Obviously, they they listen
5:52
Speaker 2: to information and read the reports from the scouts and
5:55
Speaker 2: the analysts. But then it's kind of some of the
5:57
Speaker 2: dudes in the room making the final call. And Greenberg
6:00
Speaker 2: is very much very, very high on that list, obviously.
6:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I guess no brain drain from the Tigers
6:10
Speaker 1: after the 2026 season. So, you know, got that going
6:14
Speaker 1: for you. All right. Well, you know, speaking of the
6:17
Speaker 1: front office, you know, I– As the Tigers like kind
6:23
Speaker 1: of faltered down the stretch, Cody, and, and, you know,
6:26
Speaker 1: it became apparent that like, you're going to have to
6:28
Speaker 1: trade school bowl and like all the kind of like, uh,
6:31
Speaker 1: second guessing and like national narratives were, you know, kind
6:34
Speaker 1: of bubbling to the surface. Like one of the things I, I,
6:37
Speaker 1: I wanted was I didn't want the organization to kind
6:40
Speaker 1: of be put in a bad light. Like I still
6:43
Speaker 1: wanted it to be considered like a smaller, a smart
6:45
Speaker 1: baseball organization and I think you and I would both
6:49
Speaker 1: agree that the return for Scooble and the return for
6:52
Speaker 1: my is like, that was good baseball decision. Like everything
6:56
Speaker 1: led up to that. You can talk about, but like
6:58
Speaker 1: those specific trades in the vacuum, good baseball decisions. Uh,
7:04
Speaker 1: and I, and I think the majority of like the
7:06
Speaker 1: national baseball public acknowledge that as well. But then, you know,
7:11
Speaker 1: you got the guy that goes to Los Angeles and
7:14
Speaker 1: he's living the California dream and, And then you got
7:19
Speaker 1: Max Muncy going on our parent show, Foul Territory, and
7:24
Speaker 1: talking about how Scooble was shocked that the Dodgers had
7:27
Speaker 1: a plane. And I'm paraphrasing this, so don't think it's
7:29
Speaker 1: an exact quote. Was surprised that the Dodgers had a
7:33
Speaker 1: plane that didn't need to refuel. And then you got A.J.
7:36
Speaker 1: Brzezinski and Eric in there just like, what? What? Like,
7:43
Speaker 1: what do you mean? You know, I just like think
7:45
Speaker 1: it's like the most shocking thing. Like it's this like
7:46
Speaker 1: the Tigers fly on a plane like in like in
7:48
Speaker 1: major league. You know what I mean? With duct tape
7:52
Speaker 1: all around it. So my understanding is like this is
7:55
Speaker 1: not like some sort of revelation in regards to like
7:58
Speaker 1: what the Tigers playing situation is. So I don't know
8:00
Speaker 1: if you could.
8:01
Speaker 2: Kind of shed some light on the plane, right?
8:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, they were talking about the old plane is my understanding.
8:08
Speaker 2: So Scoogle was shocked that it wasn't just the Tigers
8:11
Speaker 2: now that have a plane that doesn't have to refuel.
8:14
Speaker 2: That's my understanding. That's one of the beauties of our
8:17
Speaker 2: friends at Illich Sports Entertainment. They bought a plane. I
8:20
Speaker 2: think they're maybe the only MLB team that owns its
8:23
Speaker 2: own plane rather than chartering out private flights. And obviously
8:28
Speaker 2: the plane's quite nice. Players seem to like it. Players
8:30
Speaker 2: love it. It was well overdue because... As I understand,
8:34
Speaker 2: the old plane was terrible. Not only did you have
8:36
Speaker 2: to stop to refuel, it still had ashtrays, which I've
8:41
Speaker 2: said on this podcast before many years ago. It was
8:45
Speaker 2: from another era, so the new plane was needed. Now
8:48
Speaker 2: it's quite good. I don't know that they still need
8:52
Speaker 2: to be catching strays for the old plane, but yeah,
8:55
Speaker 2: the old plane was past its prime for sure.
9:00
Speaker 1: Yeah and i think the way muncie you don't.
9:01
Speaker 2: Get mad chris the new plane's nice i think.
9:05
Speaker 1: I think and muncie was saying it wasn't necessarily that
9:08
Speaker 1: they couldn't make it the flight it's just like the
9:11
Speaker 1: regulations about the amount of fuel required when you land
9:14
Speaker 1: uh so it's not like it would be on e
9:16
Speaker 1: or whatever so whatever that's worth it was just one
9:18
Speaker 1: of those things it's one of those things where you
9:21
Speaker 1: just like you just It's didn't really want to see
9:23
Speaker 1: like that social media headline in the, at the end
9:26
Speaker 1: of the day, because it's the old plane and because
9:28
Speaker 1: it's social media, it's just kind of like, you'll, you know,
9:31
Speaker 1: people are going to forget about it, but you don't
9:32
Speaker 1: want those kinds of things like sticking to your organization.
9:35
Speaker 1: If you work for them. Yeah.
9:37
Speaker 2: Like in actual fairness, I think the tigers have, have
9:40
Speaker 2: much improved their player experience. I think the facilities have
9:44
Speaker 2: gotten toward the top of the league. It seems to
9:47
Speaker 2: me like they treat their players really well and players
9:49
Speaker 2: feel like They're in a good spot and they have
9:53
Speaker 2: all the resources they need. That, again, was not the
9:55
Speaker 2: case up until three or four years ago. I don't
9:59
Speaker 2: know how it compares to. the Dodgers, who are obviously, again,
10:01
Speaker 2: at the top of the league. I would say you
10:03
Speaker 2: don't really have Ice Cube or Magic Johnson or Rob
10:07
Speaker 2: Lowe or whoever it may be at most of your games.
10:09
Speaker 2: So the ambiance is a little bit different. But Tigers
10:13
Speaker 2: actually do deserve credit. Even again, it was kind of overdue.
10:17
Speaker 2: Their player experience is fine, so they should not necessarily
10:20
Speaker 2: still be tied to that kind of negative publicity in
10:23
Speaker 2: that regard.
10:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, couldn't have said it better.
10:26
Speaker 2: Their hockey team should hire a GM before training camp, though.
10:31
Speaker 1: In an ideal world, you're making a lot of sense there, Cody.
10:35
Speaker 1: You say you're not a hockey guy, and you laid
10:36
Speaker 1: down a bar like that. Right, I mean, just... Cody
10:41
Speaker 1: for GM. All right. We are going to take a
10:46
Speaker 1: quick break. And then afterward, let's talk some rookie ball, Cody.
10:49
Speaker 1: See if we can have player experience. Is there some
10:52
Speaker 1: untapped potential out of these guys? We're going to talk
10:54
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12:02
Speaker 1: All right, coming back here. So, you know, one of the,
12:05
Speaker 1: I would say, fun aspects of watching this team right
12:09
Speaker 1: now is that, like, there's so much newness to every
12:13
Speaker 1: sort of wrinkle of watching, you know, the, even McGonagall still,
12:17
Speaker 1: but Max Clark, Valencia, Ben Malgeri, you know, like, all
12:20
Speaker 1: this stuff. Like, it's like, oh, I didn't know that
12:22
Speaker 1: was in the bag. And, like, well, is it actually
12:25
Speaker 1: in the bag? Like, you know, or is it just
12:27
Speaker 1: kind of like a play that happened or whatever? So,
12:29
Speaker 1: I thought it'd be kind of fun to kind of
12:30
Speaker 1: talk about these things and, discuss whether we think this
12:33
Speaker 1: could actually be like part of their profile. Uh, I
12:37
Speaker 1: think it's really smart to talk about Kevin McGonigal as
12:40
Speaker 1: much as possible. So we'll start with Kevin McGonigal and
12:44
Speaker 1: he now has, make sure I have the number correct. Uh, 16, yeah,
12:48
Speaker 1: 16 home runs on the year, a little bit of
12:50
Speaker 1: a power surge of late. And it, this many games
12:57
Speaker 1: left could he get to 20 you know like we'll
12:59
Speaker 1: see uh obviously i wouldn't put anything past it but
13:02
Speaker 1: if he didn't it wouldn't be the most surprising thing
13:05
Speaker 1: on the planet but uh for a guy who is
13:08
Speaker 1: such a kind of natural power but not power power
13:13
Speaker 1: guy uh it is kind of interesting to try to
13:17
Speaker 1: project what his ceiling is and if you go into
13:20
Speaker 1: his baseball savant page it's red like It's like a newspaper.
13:26
Speaker 1: It's read all over. Except for things like bat speed
13:31
Speaker 1: and I believe exit velo and barrel rate. I need
13:35
Speaker 1: to get in front of me before I say that concretely.
13:37
Speaker 1: But I believe those kinds of things. So those things,
13:42
Speaker 1: if you want to say, are lacking or, quote, lacking.
13:46
Speaker 1: So having watched them all year, do you have a
13:49
Speaker 1: grasp of what kind of power is in that bat
13:53
Speaker 1: moving forward?
13:54
Speaker 2: Well, it said earlier this year that I thought McGonagall
13:57
Speaker 2: could be eventually a 25-30 homer type guy, or at
14:01
Speaker 2: least that's probably where a realistic ceiling sits. I think
14:05
Speaker 2: someone had quote-tweeted that, a Cardinals fan, and said if
14:08
Speaker 2: McGonagall can hit 25-30, J.J. Weatherholt will hit 60. Right
14:13
Speaker 2: now McGonagall's got 16 homers, Weatherholt has 17, so whatever.
14:19
Speaker 2: I don't think it's ridiculous to say McGonagall can get two.
14:21
Speaker 2: 25 because he's already at 16 as a rookie with
14:25
Speaker 2: a few games left to play. I'm actually surprised his
14:29
Speaker 2: average exit velocity, Kieran, only 88 miles an hour. That
14:32
Speaker 2: ranks in the bottom 30th percentile of the league, and
14:35
Speaker 2: I believe that's significantly lower than it was coming up
14:38
Speaker 2: through the minor leagues. As much as he may not
14:40
Speaker 2: profile as a typical power hitter, he hits the ball
14:44
Speaker 2: on the line a lot. In theory, he hits it
14:46
Speaker 2: hard a lot, and eventually that's going to produce some
14:51
Speaker 2: home runs. As long as he makes good swing decisions,
14:54
Speaker 2: he's often in good counts. That helps you get pitches
14:56
Speaker 2: you can drive for power. Just a really good innate
14:59
Speaker 2: sense of timing most of the time. I think it's
15:02
Speaker 2: in there. Obviously, he's not the biggest dude in the world.
15:05
Speaker 2: I don't know that he's going to hit 40, but
15:09
Speaker 2: you guys have watched him. I mean, I just don't
15:11
Speaker 2: think it's a stretch to say 25-30 is super attainable
15:17
Speaker 2: for him. And that's not that he has to get there.
15:18
Speaker 2: I don't certainly shouldn't sacrifice the things that are making
15:22
Speaker 2: him good to get a little extra power. But the
15:25
Speaker 2: things that make him good, if you just do that
15:27
Speaker 2: every single day, I think you can run into 20,
15:31
Speaker 2: if not more.
15:33
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, and keep in mind too, like he's
15:36
Speaker 1: so young, it's hard to say like exactly what his
15:39
Speaker 1: body will be forever. But you know, if he's going
15:44
Speaker 1: to be up the middle athlete, if he's going to
15:46
Speaker 1: be running the bases, like he runs the bases, it's
15:50
Speaker 1: not a concern to be like a 22 to 24,
15:54
Speaker 1: 25 home run guy. The majority of his time in Detroit,
15:59
Speaker 1: or at least we'll just throw like, you know, with
16:01
Speaker 1: his contract extension that, that doesn't really bother me at all. Um,
16:07
Speaker 1: how he finishes will, uh, we were starting to see
16:10
Speaker 1: like little mechanics with his swing that like he's changing
16:13
Speaker 1: because he is kind of admitting like, Hey, well, a
16:16
Speaker 1: lot of baseball this year, you know, there's some, Yeah.
16:19
Speaker 2: Talked about getting almost kind of stuck, squatting down a
16:22
Speaker 2: little too low. He's trying to sit back up and
16:24
Speaker 2: make sure he has feel for his legs, things like that,
16:26
Speaker 2: for sure. And so that's kind of why it's encouraging,
16:29
Speaker 2: even as he's been in a mini rut per Kevin
16:33
Speaker 2: McGonigal standards that we've seen the power really tick up
16:37
Speaker 2: as of late.
16:40
Speaker 1: And again, apologize for the noise, everybody. Max Clark. I
16:45
Speaker 1: want to see this guy bunt. Like, am I crazy, Cody, that, like,
16:48
Speaker 1: this could be, like, a weapon for him? Because we
16:52
Speaker 1: talked about it before. It's not something that he's ever
16:54
Speaker 1: really charged with doing coming up through the organization because,
16:57
Speaker 1: you know, like, he's one of the best hitters in
17:00
Speaker 1: every single level he's been at, right? But in the majors,
17:05
Speaker 1: I think with his speed and his, like, sense of
17:07
Speaker 1: timing and, like, all the baseball instinct stuff, I think
17:10
Speaker 1: that is something that could be a real asset for
17:12
Speaker 1: him at the plate, make the third baseman come in.
17:15
Speaker 1: If you look at his spray chart, he's it's, it's,
17:18
Speaker 1: it's pretty even given that he's a young left-handed hitter
17:20
Speaker 1: who is, you know, facing left-handed pitching whenever it comes up.
17:24
Speaker 1: It's not, it's not being hidden at all. So like,
17:27
Speaker 1: I think it would be that he has impressed me
17:29
Speaker 1: enough that like, I would have been singing AJ and
17:33
Speaker 1: his praises on Tuesday. Uh, if he would have bunted
17:37
Speaker 1: when Mal Jerry, I believe it was Mal Jerry was
17:39
Speaker 1: at third base with zero outs, like, and just kind of,
17:43
Speaker 1: just as another way of kind of making things happen.
17:45
Speaker 1: I think that should be in his tool belt. Now
17:48
Speaker 1: you don't have to make it something you do all
17:49
Speaker 1: the time or like as a gimmick to get on base.
17:53
Speaker 1: But I think when the opportunity comes, I think that
17:54
Speaker 1: is something that he is equipped to do and should do. Yeah.
17:58
Speaker 2: Nothing wrong with having the ability to, let's say bump
18:01
Speaker 2: for a base hit in the tool bag. Clark obviously
18:03
Speaker 2: has speed. He has good back control. It's in there.
18:06
Speaker 2: I don't think he needs to do it all the time.
18:08
Speaker 2: I think he's too good of a hitter to be
18:09
Speaker 2: doing it when he doesn't have to. And, AJ Hinch
18:12
Speaker 2: was asked about that, um, decision with Mal Jerry on
18:15
Speaker 2: third after the game. And I'm leaning hard in AJ's
18:18
Speaker 2: favor here. He basically said, I'm not trying to bunt
18:20
Speaker 2: with nobody out, uh, with, with you have multiple chances
18:24
Speaker 2: at scoring a run. We don't want to make that
18:26
Speaker 2: out at home. We want to get something out of
18:28
Speaker 2: the infield. And I agree. You got three shots at
18:32
Speaker 2: one of your guys poking a single somewhere or sack fly,
18:35
Speaker 2: whatever it may be. Clark, again, a really good contact hitter. Um,
18:40
Speaker 2: you would like to trust him to be able to
18:42
Speaker 2: touch the ball and it can get through, get through
18:45
Speaker 2: the infield or, um, or hit a sack fly and
18:50
Speaker 2: what he grounded out.
18:51
Speaker 1: Right.
18:51
Speaker 2: And then how you Lee struck out was just terrible
18:54
Speaker 2: at that. And then next thing you know, innings over, um,
18:57
Speaker 2: but I don't know that Clark balls a couple feet
18:59
Speaker 2: to the right or left and that run scores. I think,
19:02
Speaker 2: I think Clark makes too good of swing decisions to
19:04
Speaker 2: be kind of unnecessarily bunting when, when you don't have to, um, hey,
19:10
Speaker 2: but it's fun when he lays down a good one
19:11
Speaker 2: and beats it out for a hit or whatever. If
19:13
Speaker 2: there's a tough guy on the mound or he sees
19:15
Speaker 2: the pitcher falling off the rubber a certain way, to
19:18
Speaker 2: have it on the tool bag, not at all bad.
19:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then I would add that what AJ is
19:26
Speaker 1: saying is not anything I would argue against, but given
19:31
Speaker 1: the offense, given the fact that you're just trying to
19:35
Speaker 1: squeeze a run out here, which you're going to squeeze, Yeah,
19:38
Speaker 1: Ben Malgeri on third, and I went and looked this up, Cody.
19:43
Speaker 1: 91 percentile sprint speed in Major League Baseball. You could
19:49
Speaker 1: run the squeeze. play there, and you're probably not getting
19:52
Speaker 1: the out at home if it's executed properly by Max Clark.
19:56
Speaker 1: So I guess that would be my counterpoint and then transition. Man,
20:01
Speaker 1: I know this, you know, Ben had this in him.
20:03
Speaker 1: You know, he's seen him go after some balls, and
20:05
Speaker 1: you see him, you know, leg out a triple, and
20:07
Speaker 1: he's like five for five on stolen bases. But 91%?
20:09
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure that's comfortably the best on the team.
20:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, again, it surprised me as well. At least in
20:23
Speaker 2: terms of average sprint speed, Ben Malgeri has been comfortably
20:27
Speaker 2: faster than Max Clark. I actually felt bad because I
20:30
Speaker 2: wrote a lot about the subtle signs of uptick we're
20:33
Speaker 2: seeing from the Tigers in terms of stealing bases. And
20:38
Speaker 2: for a team that is last in the league in
20:40
Speaker 2: stolen bases since 2022, last in the league this year,
20:44
Speaker 2: And I didn't mention Ben Malgeri. Now, there's a lot
20:46
Speaker 2: of info in that story, so I couldn't quite get
20:48
Speaker 2: to everything, but Malgeri, 5 for 5, swiping bags so far,
20:52
Speaker 2: 91st since Island Sprint Speed. It's really Ben Malgeri, not
20:56
Speaker 2: Max Clark, who is adding an extra, and in conjunction
20:59
Speaker 2: with Max Clark, adding an extra layer of success on
21:04
Speaker 2: the bases, and at least early in his big league career,
21:06
Speaker 2: has looked a little more comfortable getting the green light
21:09
Speaker 2: to run, so that certainly has been a nice surprise.
21:12
Speaker 2: I think he easily exceeded what the expectations were, were
21:16
Speaker 2: for him in the field. We saw him with a
21:17
Speaker 2: nice diving catch and left. Um, he's been pretty exciting
21:21
Speaker 2: and pretty fun to watch. And I think he's obviously
21:24
Speaker 2: deserves credit for that. Now it's also a little bit
21:28
Speaker 2: easy to get carried away. And just cause the guy
21:30
Speaker 2: had like a couple of exciting things happen. Like, I
21:34
Speaker 2: don't know. It's a six 96 OPS right now, obviously
21:38
Speaker 2: less than a hundred at bats rookie, very small sample, but, um,
21:44
Speaker 2: The bat's going to determine if Maljari is an up-and-down
21:48
Speaker 2: guy or a fifth outfielder or a major league regular.
21:53
Speaker 2: He's been getting a lot of hype lately, and I
21:55
Speaker 2: just feel like it's a 696 OPS. I don't know.
21:58
Speaker 2: But the legs, the fielding, that's what can give you
22:01
Speaker 2: a floor, right? That can actually also be the difference
22:04
Speaker 2: between are you an up-and-down guy or are you a
22:08
Speaker 2: fourth outfielder type. if you can be an above average
22:12
Speaker 2: defender and bring real value on the basis that that
22:15
Speaker 2: can make a sizable difference in your career as well.
22:17
Speaker 2: So I would say that is absolutely one of the
22:20
Speaker 2: encouraging things about both Clark, Maljiri, some of these other
22:24
Speaker 2: young guys up right now, a lot of them have
22:27
Speaker 2: profiles that can do little things to add value beyond
22:31
Speaker 2: just hitting the ball. And that's actually a little different
22:33
Speaker 2: than a lot of the Tigers prospects we've seen in
22:36
Speaker 2: recent memory. And that's not an accident either. Like clearly the,
22:40
Speaker 2: This front office, for all the crap they get and
22:43
Speaker 2: for many of the criticisms we have, they've done a
22:46
Speaker 2: pretty good job in terms of the profiles they've targeted
22:49
Speaker 2: in drafting and acquisition. There's actually such a clear divide
22:53
Speaker 2: right now between the things they're doing well on the
22:55
Speaker 2: amateur side, like Mark Conner, really well-respected scouting director, Rob Metzler,
23:01
Speaker 2: respected in that world, Ryan Garko, Shane Farrell. Clearly those
23:05
Speaker 2: guys are getting things right, and Scott Harris and Jeff
23:08
Speaker 2: Greenberg deserve credit for that too. they're reshaping, you know, what, uh,
23:13
Speaker 2: prospects look like, what development looks like. And then it's
23:16
Speaker 2: just on the pro side where they're not really getting
23:19
Speaker 2: much of anything.
23:20
Speaker 1: Right. Well, I mean that when it comes to Mal Jerry,
23:28
Speaker 1: I'm like, all right, you know, to not like get
23:31
Speaker 1: like over, you know, over my skis a little bit.
23:33
Speaker 1: I think he has safely moved into one to watch
23:36
Speaker 1: one to watch moving forward. Uh, want to watch to
23:40
Speaker 1: kind of put his hat in the ring for some
23:41
Speaker 1: sort of role and however um however this team gets
23:46
Speaker 1: shaped for 2027 and which any guy in the minors
23:50
Speaker 1: like that's not a guarantee at 100 at bat someone's
23:53
Speaker 1: going to feel that way about you you know so
23:55
Speaker 1: uh so yeah more more power to him there's definitely
23:57
Speaker 1: a uh there is a skill set there to work
24:00
Speaker 1: with and you can look at his quality of at
24:01
Speaker 1: bats you know he he takes his walks he doesn't
24:05
Speaker 1: chase uh like those are those are things that do
24:10
Speaker 1: managers a lot of good when they say, all right,
24:12
Speaker 1: we'll put him in the game. All right, let's go
24:15
Speaker 1: to Eduardo Valencia. So I was curious. I was like,
24:20
Speaker 1: you know, he's a work in progress behind the plate. Everybody, like,
24:24
Speaker 1: knows that. But he, by the nature of him being
24:28
Speaker 1: up there, like, you can't be hidden as a backup catcher, like,
24:32
Speaker 1: especially when you've been riding Dylan Dingler as long as
24:36
Speaker 1: you have. So, you know, he's been out there. I
24:38
Speaker 1: will say his throws, I think, have gotten better. It
24:44
Speaker 1: was really rough there at the beginning. And his pitch
24:47
Speaker 1: framing has actually kind of made me take notice. I
24:51
Speaker 1: looked it up. He's plus one catcher framing runs, which
24:56
Speaker 1: if you have the minimum, he's not qualified yet because
25:00
Speaker 1: he hasn't had enough instances. But if you just kind
25:02
Speaker 1: of take the minimum pitches taken on baseball savant, it's
25:06
Speaker 1: like 35th in Major League Baseball. Again, it's a small
25:11
Speaker 1: sample size, not going to overreact to it, but definitely
25:15
Speaker 1: something that I've noticed, and it feels like something he's
25:18
Speaker 1: worked on and been successful at.
25:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, that definitely surprises me, just seeing that he's slightly
25:26
Speaker 2: above average right now. I know it's something Valencia has
25:28
Speaker 2: put a ton of work into over the past few years,
25:31
Speaker 2: and that kind of was the report on him when
25:34
Speaker 2: he was promoted that, actually adequate receiving game calling it's
25:39
Speaker 2: really the throwing and controlling the running game that's the
25:42
Speaker 2: issue i'm still somewhat skeptical just like watching the movements
25:46
Speaker 2: the actions he doesn't necessarily feel like the smoothest receiver
25:50
Speaker 2: but it's clearly working on paper and i know it's
25:53
Speaker 2: it's light years better than what it was probably even
25:55
Speaker 2: two years ago so good to see those small subtle
25:58
Speaker 2: signs of progress and then and yeah the throws i
26:02
Speaker 2: look it's not like it's just an auto run when
26:05
Speaker 2: he's behind the plate. I think there's still a lot
26:07
Speaker 2: of room to grow there, but he's made a couple
26:09
Speaker 2: of nice throws too. So, uh, if you can just
26:12
Speaker 2: keep that arrow trending up in all these directions, I,
26:15
Speaker 2: that could be a really encouraging sign for Valencia.
26:20
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, if by certain defensive metrics you can
26:23
Speaker 1: get in the, you can be a top 40 with
26:26
Speaker 1: his bat potential. Like you can definitely live with that
26:30
Speaker 1: as your number two catcher.
26:31
Speaker 2: Right.
26:31
Speaker 1: And, um, and somebody that could be that AJ could
26:35
Speaker 1: be more comfortable, you know, using in certain pension situations,
26:39
Speaker 1: if he has to come into the field too, and
26:41
Speaker 1: you know, whatever, everything that's going, you know, going on. So, uh,
26:45
Speaker 1: so yeah, still at one walk.
26:46
Speaker 2: So I wasn't going to worry about that, but we're,
26:50
Speaker 2: we see our guy take a walk sometime soon.
26:53
Speaker 1: He's just so excited to be in the plate, man.
26:55
Speaker 1: He doesn't have patience for it. Uh, all right, let's
26:59
Speaker 1: get to another fun one. Cody, uh, How you, Lee?
27:04
Speaker 1: And I say this as someone who likes watching him
27:09
Speaker 1: play baseball. And it's like my dad's favorite young player
27:13
Speaker 1: on the team. He's like, oh, I just love watching
27:15
Speaker 1: him play, blah, blah, blah. Man, when you look at
27:19
Speaker 1: his baseball savant page, you're just like, how is this
27:23
Speaker 1: guy a Major League Baseball player? But even if he is...
27:29
Speaker 1: you know, not hitting as, as well. It goes on
27:32
Speaker 1: some dry spells. It still doesn't feel like, again, go guys,
27:35
Speaker 1: go look at this. Like it is bad. It's not
27:38
Speaker 1: a lot of redeeming qualities in there, but you watch
27:40
Speaker 1: it and you think there's a good amount of redeeming qualities. Uh, so,
27:44
Speaker 1: so it's like, it is remarkable. He still needs to,
27:48
Speaker 1: you know, have better plate approach at times, but he
27:50
Speaker 1: did take with three walks the other game. So like,
27:52
Speaker 1: maybe that's something there. Uh, so yeah. How you leave?
27:57
Speaker 1: Like it, it, All the positive things you think about
28:00
Speaker 1: him are not reflected, and we have this up if
28:04
Speaker 1: you're watching on YouTube, are not reflected on his baseball
28:07
Speaker 1: savant page. I mean, there is a lot of blue.
28:11
Speaker 1: One percentile range, Cody?
28:13
Speaker 2: That's not what you want. I've been on the record
28:17
Speaker 2: as saying I think he can be a better defender
28:20
Speaker 2: at second, particularly second, than he maybe gets credit for.
28:24
Speaker 2: Supposedly in the minors, he always graded out better than
28:27
Speaker 2: you might think with the eye test. Not a big
28:30
Speaker 2: fan of him at third because he just doesn't seem
28:32
Speaker 2: to have very soft hands. You're obviously having to make
28:34
Speaker 2: harder throws at third. The arm strength grades out poorly
28:37
Speaker 2: right now as well. I still think maybe he could
28:41
Speaker 2: be adequate at second, but then, yeah, bottom one percentile
28:45
Speaker 2: in range, that's not what you're wanting to see from
28:48
Speaker 2: a second baseman. It's really interesting because we've given Lee
28:54
Speaker 2: his flowers at multiple points this year. It came up.
28:57
Speaker 2: When he got called back up to the bigs for
28:59
Speaker 2: the second time, he played really well. He brought an
29:02
Speaker 2: edge and an energy that this team kind of desperately
29:05
Speaker 2: needed at one point this summer. But now we're getting
29:08
Speaker 2: to the end of the year. He's six for his
29:10
Speaker 2: past 51, Kieran. He's really cooled off, or I would
29:13
Speaker 2: say come back to earth at the plate. I think
29:16
Speaker 2: he's going back into that old habit, just kind of
29:18
Speaker 2: stepping out of the box, stepping into the bucket a
29:21
Speaker 2: little bit, that stride direction. Um, has changed. And I
29:25
Speaker 2: think that's why he's whiffing one up and away pitches
29:27
Speaker 2: at a really high rate. The twins really exploited him
29:31
Speaker 2: this past series with that. You go back to August 2nd,
29:34
Speaker 2: he's only hitting 228. So I don't know. We've seen
29:39
Speaker 2: the good version of how you lead, and we've seen
29:41
Speaker 2: the bad version of how you lead. Some of those
29:43
Speaker 2: subtle things we were just talking about with Malgieri, with Clark,
29:47
Speaker 2: with even maybe Callahan to an extent, you're not seeing
29:51
Speaker 2: that with how you right now, because he's been bad
29:53
Speaker 2: in the field. He can make some bad decisions on
29:56
Speaker 2: the bases. Even the ball he cut off to home
30:00
Speaker 2: plate in the first inning in one of those games
30:02
Speaker 2: against the Twins, I thought was a pretty glaring mistake.
30:04
Speaker 2: I don't know for sure if they would have had
30:06
Speaker 2: the runner out, but Callahan threw a bullet, and I
30:08
Speaker 2: think there would have been a play at the plate,
30:10
Speaker 2: and Lee cut it. He apparently told the coaches in
30:14
Speaker 2: the dugout he just didn't think there was going to
30:16
Speaker 2: be a play. But that's like his instincts, his decision
30:20
Speaker 2: making can be a little bit erratic at times. I
30:24
Speaker 2: don't love seeing this stat cast page full of blue
30:26
Speaker 2: because that was kind of supposed to be the thing.
30:28
Speaker 2: He was going to post in the exit velocities, not terrible,
30:31
Speaker 2: but he was going to post exit velocities. He was
30:32
Speaker 2: going to barrel the ball and he did a lot
30:35
Speaker 2: of things that made the models like him and we
30:38
Speaker 2: haven't actually seen that so far at the major league level.
30:42
Speaker 2: I think Lee's going to be part of the infield
30:43
Speaker 2: mix next year, but It's going to be fascinating to
30:47
Speaker 2: see what that role actually ends up looking like and
30:49
Speaker 2: really going forward what he will continue to look like
30:52
Speaker 2: as he gets more and more exposure to the major leagues.
30:55
Speaker 2: We've already seen he can adjust and he can come
30:57
Speaker 2: back and he can do some fun things, but there
31:00
Speaker 2: are a lot of rough edges in that game and
31:02
Speaker 2: that makes me pretty nervous.
31:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you would have asked me last week, what's
31:09
Speaker 1: your confidence level kind of having him be a hat
31:12
Speaker 1: in the ring guy, like for a, a, a everyday
31:15
Speaker 1: role next season, I would have felt pretty decent about
31:18
Speaker 1: it looking at that and, and kind of seeing maybe
31:22
Speaker 1: some not as great habits like, uh, perk up. It's
31:26
Speaker 1: a little lesser now.
31:27
Speaker 2: And again, I think it's, I think it's a good
31:30
Speaker 2: thing for everyone that he has cooled off. I think
31:33
Speaker 2: that the chances of him being the starting second baseman
31:36
Speaker 2: next year have, have taken a hit. And I think that's,
31:39
Speaker 2: That's for the best, maybe even best for how you
31:41
Speaker 2: lead because you can kind of keep them from that overexposure.
31:47
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that. Well, you mentioned Brett Callahan a
31:51
Speaker 1: couple times this week, Cody, just like showing off the rocket.
31:56
Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't know this was in your bag.
31:59
Speaker 1: Kind of doing it assuredly, comfortably. You know what I mean?
32:03
Speaker 1: Like you said, yeah, this is what I do.
32:08
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
32:08
Speaker 1: I just let this thing sling. And so Calhoun's an
32:14
Speaker 1: interesting one, too. If you look at his savant page,
32:16
Speaker 1: there's a lot of metrics that are red, barrel rate,
32:20
Speaker 1: hard hit rate. Basically, if he makes contact, technically good
32:23
Speaker 1: things happen. Everything else kind of leaves you wanting. But
32:28
Speaker 1: despite those great throws that he had this week, Cody,
32:31
Speaker 1: still low 40s-ish. Arm strength on arm value, I should say,
32:40
Speaker 1: on baseball savants. 50-50 on the range with a 68
32:45
Speaker 1: sprint speed percentile. Kind of an interesting guy. I think
32:51
Speaker 1: it's clear that he's a tier lower than... I don't
32:54
Speaker 1: want to say a tier lower, but he has not
32:56
Speaker 1: shown as much as a Mal Jerry, obviously, as a Clark.
32:59
Speaker 1: Those guys are different levels of prospect. But I give
33:02
Speaker 1: him credit, man. I didn't think this was something... The upside,
33:06
Speaker 1: I would say, is a lot higher than I thought
33:09
Speaker 1: a prospect of his caliber. So what does that mean?
33:11
Speaker 1: I don't know. But when things go well, things tend
33:14
Speaker 1: to go pretty well for him. It's just not that consistent.
33:17
Speaker 1: By the way, playing Major League Baseball is very hard. Yeah.
33:20
Speaker 2: Surprised to see him rank that low in arm strength
33:22
Speaker 2: after those two rockets he threw in. The one that
33:27
Speaker 2: resulted in an out was, I think, 91.6,. 8 miles
33:29
Speaker 2: an hour. Then you go look on StatCast, and it's
33:35
Speaker 2: a reminder, guys in the big leagues have really good
33:37
Speaker 2: arms because if that's your max throw, that puts you
33:40
Speaker 2: at like 39th among major league left fielders. You got
33:44
Speaker 2: Carson Binge throwing 103 miles an hour, Cody Bellinger 99
33:49
Speaker 2: miles an hour. You have some dudes who can really
33:53
Speaker 2: sling it from the outfield. Is this right? Carson Binge
33:56
Speaker 2: threw 103 miles an hour from the outfield? That's crazy.
34:00
Speaker 2: even Chandler Simpson, like his max is 96, but it
34:04
Speaker 2: was nice to see Callahan, you know, uncork it a
34:07
Speaker 2: little bit, and put some throws on the money, again, yeah,
34:09
Speaker 2: that's like, okay, interesting, and at the plate, I think
34:13
Speaker 2: you described it well, it's a big aggressive swing, that's
34:16
Speaker 2: one thing that has very much lived up to the
34:18
Speaker 2: scouting report, it's a big aggressive swing, and when he connects,
34:21
Speaker 2: it looks pretty nice, but we've already seen a lot
34:24
Speaker 2: of instances of him not connecting, and that is troublesome,
34:28
Speaker 2: so Another guy, I'm not sure exactly what he is.
34:31
Speaker 2: He's done some things to make you raise your eyebrows
34:34
Speaker 2: a little bit. He, Malgieri, Lee, Valencia, Peck, these are
34:41
Speaker 2: guys who are going to be in the mix next year.
34:42
Speaker 2: They're probably not all going to be able to make
34:44
Speaker 2: the roster, but they're all going to show up to
34:46
Speaker 2: spring training looking to win a job, and I would
34:49
Speaker 2: expect we'll probably see all of them in some form
34:52
Speaker 2: or fashion maybe for the next handful of years. Now
34:56
Speaker 2: it's kind of that battle, okay, like who's– Who's able
34:59
Speaker 2: to take their game to a higher level? Do any
35:02
Speaker 2: of them have that in there?
35:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then lastly, we'll do John Peck. How many
35:11
Speaker 1: games has he played? He's played nine games, so obviously
35:15
Speaker 1: a pretty small sample size. But I will say this.
35:20
Speaker 1: In terms of just comfortability and approach and general athleticism, Uh,
35:27
Speaker 1: like there's, there's some stuff there that it like appeases
35:31
Speaker 1: me more than I thought, given the way he was
35:34
Speaker 1: talked about as a prospect, basically all year. And he's
35:37
Speaker 1: got two stolen bases, which I think puts him in
35:39
Speaker 1: the top 10 on the team. Uh, so, uh, so
35:44
Speaker 1: basically one of the things I thought of, I was like, Oh,
35:45
Speaker 1: what if this guy is like what everybody, like their
35:49
Speaker 1: dream scenario for Ryan Kreidler? Like, is, is this what,
35:53
Speaker 1: is this what like Peck could be? Uh, because I mean, yeah,
35:56
Speaker 1: I could tell you, At the plate, he looks better
36:01
Speaker 1: than Ryan Cridler looked when he first would come up.
36:05
Speaker 1: Maybe that's an overstatement, but that's just kind of how
36:07
Speaker 1: I feel. I think he swings the bat well. He's
36:10
Speaker 1: obviously athletic. You know the glove is there. That could
36:14
Speaker 1: be his thing. Everything we always wanted Ryan Cridler to be,
36:18
Speaker 1: maybe that's John Peck.
36:21
Speaker 2: It's certainly interesting, and I don't think it's the worst comparison,
36:23
Speaker 2: at least in terms of prospect profile. It's a really
36:28
Speaker 2: small sample. I want to see more with the bat.
36:32
Speaker 2: Some strikeout, you know, pretty tough punch on four pitches
36:35
Speaker 2: the other day, but then some lace a single into
36:38
Speaker 2: left field in his last at bat of the game.
36:40
Speaker 2: I worry he's going to get beat a little bit
36:43
Speaker 2: at the plate, but we'll see. And then on defense
36:46
Speaker 2: is interesting, man. Kreidler was just so smooth. I mean,
36:50
Speaker 2: I love just watching that guy take infield. And there
36:54
Speaker 2: were times in the actual game it wasn't quite as
36:57
Speaker 2: graceful as maybe you thought. Peck, to me, is the opposite.
37:01
Speaker 2: His actions are pretty quiet. You watch infield, he doesn't
37:04
Speaker 2: just pop. It's like, oh my gosh, look at that guy.
37:07
Speaker 2: He looks like he's writing poetry out there. But he's
37:12
Speaker 2: got a reputation for just being really rock solid. He's
37:15
Speaker 2: able to make the plays. I guess we've seen a
37:17
Speaker 2: couple instances already where maybe he didn't. But clearly he's
37:21
Speaker 2: a really good defender. going to be all at the
37:24
Speaker 2: bat to determine can you break out of the Ryan Kreidler,
37:28
Speaker 2: Zach Short mold. Only got six games in AAA, so
37:31
Speaker 2: you know what, if he doesn't show us a little
37:34
Speaker 2: more this season, I don't know that that's his fault.
37:37
Speaker 2: He's being asked to do a lot right now, and
37:40
Speaker 2: you're right, Kieran. I think overall the comfortability level has
37:43
Speaker 2: kind of impressed me. He hasn't seemed daunted. He hasn't
37:47
Speaker 2: looked overmatched, even if this is a big step for him.
37:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, and another thing to just kind of keep in
37:56
Speaker 1: mind as you watch these guys, as we talk about
38:00
Speaker 1: these guys, as you think about these guys, is that
38:03
Speaker 1: a lot of them, maybe even the majority of them,
38:06
Speaker 1: who knows, are not going to be on your opening
38:09
Speaker 1: day roster in 2027. That's just obviously not how it works.
38:13
Speaker 1: So if there's some refinement that you want to see
38:16
Speaker 1: out of them, most of the time they're going to
38:18
Speaker 1: get some of that in AAA next year.
38:22
Speaker 2: Cba pen yeah and i know we're going on about
38:25
Speaker 2: these guys but i it's making me think because it's
38:28
Speaker 2: kind of you're trying to peg down like well what
38:30
Speaker 2: is this guy when really the answer is like i
38:33
Speaker 2: don't know if you're a scout it'd be easy to
38:35
Speaker 2: write like 45 for all of them but i know
38:38
Speaker 2: at least one one org makes their scouts write out
38:43
Speaker 2: their report put a grade on it and then they
38:46
Speaker 2: have to pick an over or an under like do
38:48
Speaker 2: you think this player will exceed everything you just wrote
38:52
Speaker 2: or underperform and it's kind of a way of like
38:55
Speaker 2: making you actually take take a stand or or at
38:58
Speaker 2: least project like how much confidence do you really have
39:00
Speaker 2: in this guy um maybe we'll do that sometime this
39:04
Speaker 2: offseason so that's kind of an interesting exercise for for
39:07
Speaker 2: all those players we just listed.
39:11
Speaker 1: Yeah i like that that's fun it gives you again
39:14
Speaker 1: it just it forces you to be honest yeah and
39:17
Speaker 1: and sort of just kind of even kind of put
39:19
Speaker 1: your stamp down and you know it's okay to be
39:23
Speaker 1: wrong on these guys. These guys, I mean, some of
39:25
Speaker 1: them have already outperformed their draft position. You know what
39:27
Speaker 1: I mean? Like, it's just like, you know, that doesn't...
39:30
Speaker 1: necessarily doesn't necessarily mean uh where they're at now is
39:33
Speaker 1: where they're gonna be but and all these things that
39:36
Speaker 1: we talked about are at least encouraging and then you
39:39
Speaker 1: know some of the flaws in there as well we
39:41
Speaker 1: discussed uh have played themselves out and that's going to
39:43
Speaker 1: be the player and you got to figure out the
39:45
Speaker 1: best way to utilize it in order to make your
39:46
Speaker 1: 40 or 26 as competitive as can be. The reason
39:51
Speaker 1: we're talking about this is because these are the questions
39:53
Speaker 1: that the Tigers have to have answered when they go
39:56
Speaker 1: into free agency and trades and all this stuff because
40:00
Speaker 1: that's going to determine every move that they make. If
40:05
Speaker 1: you're not watching, they're watching. What's happening right now, if
40:08
Speaker 1: you're a little bit down about likely not being in
40:10
Speaker 1: the playoffs, these are important games. These are important pieces
40:15
Speaker 1: of the pie here in order to determine the Yeah, let's.
40:18
Speaker 2: See a little more, and then let's think, hey, would
40:20
Speaker 2: you take the over on the scouting report on any
40:23
Speaker 2: of these guys? Unfortunately, that's kind of what this September
40:25
Speaker 2: has turned into, but that's going to be worth revisiting.
40:30
Speaker 2: We get a couple more weeks to watch them play.
40:33
Speaker 1: Yep, and we will be there every step of the way.
40:35
Speaker 1: You guys can follow us on XFoam and on Twitter,
40:37
Speaker 1: at CodyStevenHagan. I'm at Kieran underscore Stackley. Pod page at
40:40
Speaker 1: TigerTerritory underscore. YouTube, Apple, Spotify. You guys know what to do.
40:44
Speaker 1: We appreciate all of you. So for CodyStevenHagan, I'm Kim Steckley.
40:48
Speaker 1: Everybody have a great day.