Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Looking back, looking forward: The biggest Tigers storylines of 2025

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Looking back, looking forward: The biggest Tigers storylines of 2025 · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Ay Totroy Tiger's podcast.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I'm here secretly with me as always a man who,
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: while rich and Seoul, is not daycare center wealthy.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: He is coachy. David Eggan, how you doing.
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: The Christmas gifts would have been a lot nicer if
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: I had that kind of cash laying around. Hope everyone
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: enjoyed and is still enjoying the holiday season. Can't say
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: that Tigers have given us a ton of news here,
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: you know, since since we last talked. But I think
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: we're gonna look back, and looking back, try to spin
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: it forward, try to find some meaning from various happenings
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: and storylines throughout the twenty twenty five season twenty twenty
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: five off season. So I'll hand it over to you, Karen.
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: We're gonna try to make some fun out of this episode.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so this is you know, this is our last
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: episode in the year twenty twenty five.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: So it kind of got me thinking.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Like what defined the Tigers in twenty twenty five And
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: and I'll preface this, I went into it thinking not
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five season, per se although obviously that's
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: you know, the majority, but like the year twenty twenty five,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: because when you look back and you're kind of like
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: going through everything, you know, the various emotions of this.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: While there were some differences, you know, an unbelievable playoff
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: run in twenty two or one to the playoffs in
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, and then the collapse to just limp
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: in the playoffs in twenty twenty.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: Five, there is also a lot of similarity.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: So so I think we'll be able to have some
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: fun with the hope you guys will enjoy listening. And
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: by the way, if you're still listening during this time
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: of the year, thank you so much.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: You're real time hard.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, much appreciated.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we appreciate you guys a lot.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: So anyway, I guess I'll just kind of present it
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: this way, and I want everybody to kind of think
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: of it, you know, as I'm as I'm asking Cody
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: the question here, like what defined the twenty twenty five
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Tigers to you, Cody, Like, what defined or I should say,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the Tigers in the year twenty twenty five?
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: What defined that?
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Such a hard question given the course of their year.
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: Off the top of my head, I want to say
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: the collapse, because the tone of everything would be different
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: if not for the collapse. If they had won the division,
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: even if their season still ended in Game five of
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: the Alds, if they had won ninety plus games and
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: had a solid year, I think the vibe around everything
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: would be a lot different. If the offense in particular
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: had played better, we'd be viewing this offseason through a
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: different prism. It's not the only thing that matters, but
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: it's very hard to overlook when you talk about the
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: biggest story of the year, when you talk about what
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: defines the mood and everything throughout the year. I don't
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: am I wrong to think it's the collapse.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: So that's that's one of the And we never really
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: dove in this direction because a we were in the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: moment so much doing these pods and obviously you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: you covering the team on a daily basis. But now
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: now it's probably as good a time as any of
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: the reflect.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Is that, like does.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: The does beating Cleveland in a three game series at
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Cleveland surpass the collapse in terms of what it was
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: more defining for the year of the team, Like because
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: even though Seattle was a fun series, and you got
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: to Game five, and we'll you know, touch on that
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: a little bit if I can even remember what happened
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: in that game.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: It was it was such a blur.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: But like to me, I do think it is a
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I think there's a really strong case, as disappointing as
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: it was to just kind of see the lead shrink
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: over the so the last couple of months of the
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: summer and then kind of have to scratch and claw
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: your way into the postseason.
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: I do think the fact that you.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Beat Cleveland in Cleveland and you know, had to do
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: it the hard way and then had and then had
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: like you know, speaking of offense, had like the offensive
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: surge that that that finally occurred. I do think there
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: is merit to that overcomes the collapse, even though one's
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: historic and the other one is just something that happened
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: over the course of three days in October or whatever.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: So like, I don't know, I think that should be
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: like the collapse is the headline, but the meat is
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: actually the fact that Okay, yeah, they they lost the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: division of Cleveland, then they went to Cleveland and and
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: they advanced in the playoffs.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: So who's the real winner here? Does that make sense.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's why I said it's a hard question.
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: I think the collapse is like the biggest storyline, the
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: most impactful storyline. But I'm sure if we had Scott
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: Harris on here, he might say, well, we had six
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: All Stars and we had the best record throughout the
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: minor leagues, you know, across all levels, and would maybe
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: point to some of the good things that happened that.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: I don't know that having six All stars necessarily matters
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: going forward, but the progress on the farm certainly matters.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: The fact that Tigers showed they can play at that
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: good of a clip for almost one hundred games that
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: matters too. None of it's irrelevant. It's trying to put
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: together another kind of very disjointed year that it was
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: kind of a tale of two seasons and try to glean,
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: you know, some level of meaning out of that and
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: narrow it down to one thing. That's hard to do.
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: I would also say that, you know, to spin it
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: forward a little bit here. I think it's actually okay
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: also to say that it's in that the answer to
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: that question is incomplete, because if the twenty twenty sixth
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: season is another kind of back and forth with Cleveland,
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: even if there's no like substantial collapse or anything like
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: that by either side. But if it's another back and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: forth with Cleveland or you know, throw Kansas City in there,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: we don't want to forget about the talent that they have,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: like like in Chicago, should you know, improve as as
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: an organization just in general. But but like if it's
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: if it's Detroit and Cleveland again and you you know,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: you come up short once again, then I think we
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: look back and we say that it's kind of connected,
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: that the collapse was a little bit more of a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: lasting impact than beating Cleveland in the playoffs. But if
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: they win the division by you know, five game, just
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: making up a number, uh in Cleveland, does you know,
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: looks like they were just kind of the hottest team
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: in the history of baseball there for a couple of months.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: Then it then then maybe you say, okay, well that
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: was just kind of an anomaly, and the Tigers are
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: over all like they are in better position than that
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: division fell. So I actually think, you know, again it
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: spin it forward twenty twenty six actually might define the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five. They hear twenty twenty five Tigers in
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: a way, which is got it weird.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: To say, Yeah, I don't know, like how much of
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: this stuff carries over? How much does this actually matter?
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: The Tigers entered twenty twenty five on a world of momentum,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: coming off a hot September, and that feels like a
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: lifetime ago already, to be honest, So I think twenty
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: twenty six is going to be a new year. Some
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: of the storylines carry over, some of them still matter,
• 7:36
  Speaker 3: but I think the beautiful thing about this sport is
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: all that really matters is when you step between the
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: lines and you start playing the games again, and that's
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: we got some off the field storylines will touch on,
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: but that's that's how new storylines develop, and that's how
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: you kind of develop the emotional mood and feeling of
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: a season that people hold on to and then people
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: cling to and that people remember. It's normally the stuff
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: that happens once the game is played.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Which again is probably something that aj Hinch would mention.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: So let's let's go to if we're talking about like
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: defining twenty twenty five, it's also like it's just Trek Scoogle,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: Like that's that that's gotta be like really high up
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the list because again the historic uh you know, back
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to back Cy Young's he uh he was. He became
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the face of your franchise and in some ways the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: face of baseball. He started, you know, talk about being
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: an All Star. He started on the mound for the
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: All Star American League All Star Team.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: And has.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: Like become like the emotional catalyst for Tigers fans for
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: on the field stuff and off the field stuff.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: Cody.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: So like like when we say, like the twenty twenty
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: five Tigers and you look back at you know, like
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: the Baseball Reference page or whatever, or if you get
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: a pro from the twenty twenty five season, guess who's
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: face and numbers are plastered all over that more than
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: any other and well deserved trek scouble. So he is
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: a he is probably the defining character of the Tigers
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five because I believe that the year
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty five includes him receiving the twenty twenty four
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: Cy Young Award, right, because they get it in like.
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: January Black in January the BBWA.
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Then and then winning.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: So so he he received an award and won the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: same award again in the same calendar year. So I
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: think that that's that's worth mentioning as a defining trait
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: for them.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: Just Trek Scouble, Yeah, Terrek scuoball. I think if we
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: want to rank him, I'll go Collapse one, Trek Scouble two.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: Maybe Terrek Scooble should be one. Actually if we if
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: we give the full Trek schouobl storyline, because he had
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: a dominant season. Again, he is their best player, He
• 9:59
  Speaker 3: is their most fami player, he is their most exciting player.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: First ale pitcher to win back to back cy Young's
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: since Pedro Martinez in nineteen ninety nine and two thousand
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: and also since the last game of the season, all
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: we've been doing is talking about Trek scoopl Will they
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: or won't they trade him? Maybe the most pressing decision
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: this franchise has faced since I don't know when right
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: that that is something hugely consequential to both the twenty
• 10:25
  Speaker 3: twenty sixth season and in numerous ways twenty twenty seven
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: and twenty twenty eight and more. Whether they trade him
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: or they don't, it's a decision that is going to
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: have ripple effects going into the future. So both for
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: his performance on the field, his dominance, his greatness and
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: when you have a player like that, what he means
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: for everything else. There's maybe no more important storyline around
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: the Detroit Tigers than Trek Scooble.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: And now is as good a time as any to
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: aginst unsponsored but's actually obligated. Trek schouogle update he posted
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: on Instagram. We talked about his recent uh I guess
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: you could say tour of the finer Winter Detroit Sports Options,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: and he posted on Instagram some highlights and I'm just
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: gonna read the the people that he took pictures with
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: or met with, so Tom Izzo, Kay Cunyneham, that's his
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: parent right there, Jared Goff, nice little hug, Calvin Johnson,
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Dan Campbell, Bob Seeger. And there's a clip of him
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: draining the three at lca SO and the caption Detroit
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: versus everybody with.
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: A blue collar shirt emoji. How about that?
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah, So there's the update right there. Man.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: That's a I'll say this, it's it's it's funny because
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: we all know the school situation. But I would like
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: that's a post like had he just been a free
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: agent that signed, like like in a way like the
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: hobby by is con track from a couple of years ago,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: like like you signed a big contract and then you
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: just kind of explore the city and become you know,
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: put your face everywhere, try connect with fans or whatever.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: He's acting like he's got to like sell himself a
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: little bit.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: With the man who has to do the least selling
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: of himself in the city, I would say Trek Scooble.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: So it's, uh, it is fun to watch and obviously
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: pretty jelly with uh what he was able to do
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: that weekend.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: I had two thoughts. I feel really bad the Bob
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: Seeker picture. I was like, who is that? And I
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: like Bob Seeker's music. Try I actually really like like
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: seventies eighties stuff. I just I just didn't know what
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: Bob Seeger looked like these days. And be honest, I
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: haven't seen him in a while, in a very long time.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: My second thought, they want some insight and do Terk
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: Schooble's tour of Detroit. Check the comments under the post,
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: because we got Justin Wakefield, one of Schoobl's trainers, Guy
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: I've interviewed a couple of times. He says seems like
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: a publicity stunt with three laughing crying emojis. Somebody comments, well,
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: you're his trainer, you would know what was the purpose
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: of this trip. Justin replies, and I quote, ha ha,
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: hear me out. If you look back to last year
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: when he won a cy Young he did the exact
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: same thing. When someone wins a big award from the
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: hometown award, the hometown teams paid tribute to that pretty
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: cool experience for winning in the city. Also, as a
• 13:25
  Speaker 3: sports fan, it's a bonus to go watch some cool
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: games and cheer on the city you represent. But idk
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: ha ha ha. So I think that's pretty much what
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: we said last time we sacked. Scooble did the very
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: similar thing last year. Being a sports fan, cool experience.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: Scooble gets it. He makes a post cater the people
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: a little bit. But I don't think the trip in
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: itself was any sort of publicity stunt, nor was it
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: a secret recon mission to work on a contract extension.
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: It was what it was, and I think Justin Wakefield
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: spelled it out pretty well right there.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Man, are you gonna have egg on your face if
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: he if we find out he'd agreed to the contract
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: extension during that time.
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: But the chances of that seem rather.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: So, all right, well to announce it, what are we
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: waiting for?
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I was gonna say just one more point on that.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: You said, like one of the most consequential decisions that
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: Tigers have to make, probably since just off the top
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: of my head, who to replace Jim Leland as manager.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: That was obviously a pretty consequential decision. And we don't
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: have to go into specifics, and we all know how
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: it played out, but that was pretty consequential. Probably the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Scherzier decision, pretty consequential.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: Firing Dave Dombrowski replacing yeah, Scott harris Hire certainly very consequential,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: and a J. Hinch higher there are a few that
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: come to mind.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so all right, well, speaking of consequential, I I
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: really do think the Alex Bregman drama is a pretty
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: huge Detroit Tigers in the year twenty twenty five storyline,
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: because like we've done this now for over a year,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: and the fact that like in the year twenty twenty
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: five he more or less thought he was going to Detroit.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: That's a paraphrase of what he said in spring training,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and then you know, like it's a storyline whenever he
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: you know, came and played as a member of the
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Red Sox Ink America and hit like, what two home runs,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: and then we're doing this again this offseason, you know,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: going into the twenty twenty six where we've done a
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: lot of deja vu when it comes to Alex Bregman.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: Even though this one feels like a little it feels
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: different because it doesn't seem to be as much smoke there.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: But the Alex Bragman thing has hung over the Tigers
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: the entire year of twenty twenty five. And then if
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: you want to blame the collapse partially on offense, you know,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Alex Bregman would have been a guy who would have
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: had a thing or two to say about that.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: So I mean, I feel like that's a pretty big
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: one as well.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: No it is. I think actually, if we're gonna rank
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: him up, I'll go Scuba one collapse to Alex Bregman three.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: And guys know, I kind of hate this storyline. It
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: lingers and it won't go away, but it ends up
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: being a very consequential storyline. The fact that the Tigers
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: pursued him, offered him a six year deal, did not
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: ultimately sign him, and there were a lot of times
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: throughout the course of the season they would it looked
• 16:34
  Speaker 3: pretty nice with Alex Bregman at third base, especially what
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: happened with the collapse. They could have used more offense,
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: They could have used another disciplined right hand bat. They
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: probably could have used the veteran leadership. And so you
• 16:47
  Speaker 3: go through all that and all the drama that came
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: with it, and there's another offseason here and Alex Bregman's
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: opted out of his contract and he's a free agent
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: and they're not pursuing him with any level of aggression.
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: I think anything has changed on that front. It would
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: take some wacky circumstances for that to change. So that's
• 17:08
  Speaker 3: again another big consequential decision from the Tigers. Everything we
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: just went through, the collapse, We're not gonna go chase
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: Alex Bragman. He's still a pretty nice fit. Probably not
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: as good of a fit as I've said as he
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: was this time a year ago, because he's a year older,
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: prospects are close to the big leagues, all that good stuff,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: But they're gonna do it. Sure seems like they are
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: going to double down on the young talent and Colet
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Keith and Zach McKinstry and Matt Vierling at third base
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: and maintaining payroll flexibility and all that stuff. That is
• 17:39
  Speaker 3: the course they are taking. And maybe that's fine, but
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: that is a big consequential decision that is again related
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: to none other than Alex Bregman. You want to talk
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: about things that defined the year and are still defining
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: the year and could just define someone next year, Alex
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Bregman's one of them.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and one of the few, one of the few,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Like sports, especially in baseball, like consequential decisions that like
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: very easy to second guess in the moment. You don't
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: have to rely on like Monday morning quarterbacking like this
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: or whatever, like a draft pick that fails, or like
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: you know, like an Alex cop thing.
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: We'll speaking at things.
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you could say, Alex Cobb define
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five Tigers, but it was it was
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: a storyline in the year twenty twenty five to you know,
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: payroll flexibility. You're not fifteen million during during that year
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: for one, Alex Cobb.
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: That was a weird one.
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: But how about let me let's you mentioned the prospects there,
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: the hype train of obviously mainly Kevin mcgonag well, but
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: like Max Clark deserves credit for that too, and and
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: we'll throw in front of the show Max Anderson as well.
• 18:53
  Speaker 2: Is that like guy, like you know, like.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: If there's it, if you want to criticize the front
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: office for not being aggressive enough at the major league level,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: most of these people are also going to be really
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: excited and like have heavy expectations for Ken McGonagall. Oh,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: I would say here in about six weeks and then
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: and then Max Clark at some time during the twenty
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: six season. So like the come up of these prospects
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: has to be like a defining feature of the twenty
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: twenty five Tigers because that kept that that made them
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: look like a completely well run org, a well operated organization.
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: In addition to the fact that for the majority of
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: the season they were record wise, one of the best
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: teams in baseball.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely important, you know, best record across all systems,
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: a historic year from the West Michigan White Cats. Not
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: everything was perfect on the farm. The pitching, as we've
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: talked about, didn't actually go all that well. But Kevin
• 19:58
  Speaker 3: McGonagall emerged as not just a really prospect, he emerged
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: as arguably the best prospect in all of baseball. Max
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: Clark took some real steps forward, Max Anderson, Jose Brassinio
• 20:08
  Speaker 3: had huge years. The guys who went from interesting prospects
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: to legit prospects. Not as good as a year from
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: Tyrann Lorenzo, but there's still a lot of talent there
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: and some other developments from guys. So the Tigers are
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: obviously proud of this. They're obviously staking everything on it.
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: It's not gonna make my top three storylines because none
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: of these guys have done a thing in the major
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: leagues yet, but you know, even the progress someone who
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: has someone like Troy Melton who had a nice first
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: half on the farm and then was a huge contributor,
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: you can't say it doesn't matter because it is central
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: to the entire philosophy and the entire plan that this
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: front off is building around, and objectively, they had a
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: heck of a year on the farm that their player
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: development system is much improved. See if they can improve
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: things on the pitch side a little bit next year,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: and see if these dudes get to the big leagues.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: There's a huge, huge factor in twenty twenty five, and
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: I think every year, whether you have a good year
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: on the farm or a bad year on the farm,
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: it's going to be one of the more important storylines
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: in your organization.
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: Like I said, it's.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: Heavy when you when yeah, you phrase it like that, man,
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: it's not as much as you love these prospects, like
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: there's you know, the term prospect exists for a reason.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: It's you know, it's it's it's not established right, so
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: uh And that kind of brings me to another one
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: that I still don't know if we know how to
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: fully grapple with it. But someone who's like partially a
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: cautionary tale and then also like a pretty interesting case
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: study would be Spectro Toklsen, who was at one point
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: one of those guys that like you know, fans and
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: in media or like champion at the bit to see
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: him play. I mean, I remember we had JJ Cooper
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: on the on the show last year and one of
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the things he says, I still don't understand how you
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: know this was before the season, right, So he goes,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I still understand how a Specivetorkulsen, I don't know.
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: I don't want to put.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Words in his mouth, but failed or hasn't worked or
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever he whatever he said.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: Uh, but since then.
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: You know, Torque had you know everyone knows that, you know,
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: thirty one home run season, okay, seven to eighty nine
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: ops one seventeen ops plus stabilized, Uh the infield a
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: little bit because you know, had he not found himself
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: in a way, then you know, the colt Keith there's
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: the there's definitely a world where the colt Keith experiment
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: gets really weird really fast, you know, at first base,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: and then you're like, what do we do now? Did
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: we ruin like any you know, prospects he's in a
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: pun prospects for Spencer turkul Sen, Like there's there's a
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: lot especially you know he obviously end with him being
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: right handed too, like the fact that he, like I said,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: found himself for gain some form, is an above average
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: hitter by you know, various metrics. That's it happened, and
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: we just kind of like accepted it right away. But
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: I don't know if we ever really kind of gave
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: it the gravity it deserved of like.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: Man kind of nuts, kind of nuts that he did that.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, let's just envision world where Spencer Trocalson
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: didn't do it cold Keith would be playing first. I'm
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: not sure what would have happened throughout the season at third.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: I guess maybe Zach McKinstry just would have been there
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: almost every single day. But you'd be entering this season,
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know, looking to sign Alex Bregnant. You would
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: have a wide open spot at third base, and I
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: do think cold Keith would be under more scrutiny just
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: because the demand on his bat would be so much
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: higher at first base. A lot of things would be
• 24:01
  Speaker 3: different for this franchise, including an offense that ranked eleventh
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: and benefited from thirty plus homers from Spencer Tourglesen. It
• 24:09
  Speaker 3: wasn't a perfect offense, but it would have been a
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: lot worse without him and without his power, without some
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: protection in.
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: The middle of that order.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's interesting to think where things would be. You
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: would not feel as good about things. Maybe it'd give
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: you more a little more flexibility to make moves this offseason,
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: but you feel better. I think the floor for this
• 24:32
  Speaker 3: team is a little higher with a productive Spencer Tourgulsen.
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and also another one of those guys that like
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: like him specifically. I really do feel like how he
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: does in twenty twenty six is going to like reflect,
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: it's going to affect my feelings on his twenty twenty
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: five season. Obviously they're not connected. But if twenty twenty
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: five turns out to be like his career year, like
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: an outlier, uh and I know he had the other
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: thirty home run season, but you understand what I'm saying, Like, like,
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: you know, his presence is his impact, Like it turns
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: out to be a huge outlier, then that's gonna then
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: then I'm gonna look at twenty twenty five as more
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of a well that was random as opposed to Okay,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: this is him establishing closer to who he would be
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: as a major league player, Like he was able to
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: build off that and remained like you know, this level
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: productive and and all that stuff.
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: So that's that that's a that's a big thing there too.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: And and I guess also let's just kind of get
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to the you know, Game five still Game five Alds
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: fifteen innings still a blur. I still haven't had like
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: the abuilt like the like notion to kind of like
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: go in and try to relive, like play by play
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: that game that was you know, obviously a whirlwind. It'd
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: be nice for this generation of Tigers fans to have
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: one of those that goes.
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: Their way.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, yeah, sixty three didn't quite work out,
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: and yeah, you know the.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: Two thousand you know, you know, Tory Hunter's doing the
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: uh the the podcast circuit talking about Ben Watts tipping
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: this change up and and all that stuff, and and
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: even I know two thousand and six mags happened. But
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: like when I say this generation, there are people who
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: don't even remember that, you know what I mean? So, uh,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Like it'd be nice to be on the right side
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: of one of those, I guess you could say. But
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: at the same time, you're when you look back when
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: you think about the twenty twenty five Tigers, their season
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: ending on in a game five and fifteen and a
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: fifteen ending affair, and just like everything righting on the
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: like emotionally on the line with every pitch, Oh that's
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: gonna be, that's gonna that's not gonna be a footnote,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: that's gonna be like at the top two of like
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: how you think of this team, because obviously that's a
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: unique circumstance of which the season's at.
• 27:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't remember anything about that game I bought.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: I was so stressed, my you know, it was that
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: stress response where your brain just stops storing memories because
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: it's in like a fight or flight mode. Like I
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: don't remember extra innings. I know it is an awesome
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: game and obviously a consequential winner take all game, but
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: I don't, like you said, it's hard to even talk about.
• 27:25
  Speaker 3: It was just so much, you know, it was so
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: intense and so pressure packed. I do think the guys
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: who are on the field, the young guys, are going
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: to be better for having experienced something like that. Like
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: you talk about going through the Wars, I can't say
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: you haven't. Not only have you played in the postseason,
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: you've played one of the toughest environments in baseball in Seattle,
• 27:48
  Speaker 3: and you've gotten fifteen innings riding on every single pitch.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: I think the guys will be a little better for
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: just that experience.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: You know, it'd be nice for one of those games
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: to be at.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: Home, so I have that you should win the division.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: That would that would go a long way toward that Cody,
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: that's a very due point. Let's let's go. Let's go.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Like I guess this one's it's a little bit negative,
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: but like it definitely defined how we were feeling in
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: the moment. Riley Green in the strikeouts, man, well, Roley
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: Green in general is is that was kind of a
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: roller coaster as well, because he got started in the
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: All Star Game.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: You know, he hit make sure I have the number right,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: He hit.
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Thirty six home runs, which even saying it back now,
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: I'm like, man, god, he actually got the thirty six
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: the guy that we were like, you know, does he
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: have twenty five power?
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean. I'm old enough to remember
• 28:44
  Speaker 2: when that was a conversation.
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: But he also had the two hundred and one strikeouts,
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: and that's gonna be That's gonna be a weird year.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: And I'm looking at it right now.
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, silver Slugger all started, like I said, seventeenth
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and MVP voting if you're into that sort of thing,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: but like just another one where it's like, I don't
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: know how I'm really going to be able to feel
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: about it until I see kind of what the second
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: act is, you know, from him, because.
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: Oddly enough, kind of a weird point in his career.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: Can't you can't make a living if you're Riley green
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: striking out two hundred times a year, like it just
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: can't happen.
• 29:21
  Speaker 3: Well, you can. You just better hit thirty six homers
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: every year, and you better do all the other things right,
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: you know. AJ Hinch at winter meetings did talk about
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: Riley a little bit and just trying to get his
• 29:34
  Speaker 3: body in a better place. I straight up asked, almost
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: kind of for the first time, like are you concerned
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: about the decline and his speed and his defense. I
• 29:44
  Speaker 3: don't have AJ's verbatim answer in front of me, but
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: I think a lot of the point was like they're
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: trying to get Riley in not better shape, but like
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: a different type of playing shape this year, and I
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: guess for him to a still be healthy and stay
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: on the field, but be a little more mobile, be
• 30:02
  Speaker 3: a little more agile. Talked about getting back to some
• 30:05
  Speaker 3: of the pre pitch stuff that ended up costing him
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: range in the field, and as far as what he
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: did at the plate. I've seen some fans and stuff
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: arguing on X like does he need to cut down
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: his swing tilt which is the highest in baseball? And
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: it's fair to say yes, but it's so easy forget
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: like it's okay if his end zone whiff rate is
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: really high, and he hits thirty six homers, it's okay.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: What's not okay is ranking in the bottom third of
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: the league and chase rate. You know, he chased at
• 30:36
  Speaker 3: a thirty one point two percent clip. That's just not acceptable,
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: especially when you look at that's not what he had
• 30:42
  Speaker 3: done earlier in his career. His walk rate fell from
• 30:46
  Speaker 3: eleven percent to seven percent. If he can just be
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: more disciplined in the strike zone, take a few more walks,
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: he doesn't have to make massive adjustments or changes to
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: his swing. I think that's an important part in all this.
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: And I know, you know, if we had Austin Jackson
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: on here, he would talk about, like, some of this
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: is related. When you're trying to do damage and hit
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: for power kind of subconsciously, maybe that can lead to
• 31:11
  Speaker 3: a little more chase. But rather Green's chase rate went
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: from twenty three percent to thirty one percent. That's the
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: thing that really cannot happen again. If he just gets
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: the chase rate back to a round league average, he's
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: going to be a dangerous, dangerous hitter, And maybe he
• 31:27
  Speaker 3: should keep that swing tilts. If you hit thirty six
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: homers and be a little more disciplined in the strike zone.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: You're a real threat, You're a real force to be
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: reckoned with. So it will be fascinating to see what
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: his evolution is. There's no doubt about that.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I don't mind the till I echo everything you said there,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: but I did want to, you know, make mention. I'll
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: give him some credit. He led the team in games
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: this year. He played one hundred and fifty seven games,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: So like, like, cause, I'm sure like if Riley were
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: listening to this, be like, oh, you can play about
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: my body.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I did this. I did this.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: I played one hundred and fifty seven games, which, like
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: I said, led the team. Uh Torque was close at
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: one five one twenty six form Dingler. They don't really
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: want to do that again. But but but yeah, like
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: Riley Green deserves credit for putting his body in a
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: position that he could do that. But I do believe
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: there's an element of can can you, like you said,
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: be in like a better shape at twenty four years old?
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: The declining speed stuff should not be as definitive as
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: as it was last year. And he's certainly obviously a
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: capable and instinctual defender, but the numbers were a lot
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: worse than what he's capable of. So if you can
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: kind of do those little things, if maybe a year
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: more of eating right, you know, like you know, is
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: that like seriously, like maybe there's more dividend the longer
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: he sticks with a program and then the Tigers and
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: there's you know, sports science division can kind of hone
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: in on some things, then yeah.
• 33:04
  Speaker 2: That could that could work. Speaking speaking of Dingler.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: Man, guy coming out of nowhere to win a Gold
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Glove to like take just like grab a position like
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: catcher in a pitching staff like the Tigers, and you know,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: Trek Skoobl you know, guy who you know, probably not
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: the easiest one to earn trust, you know, he has
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to really, I don't think he just gives it away
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: for free. Dylan Dingler kind of becoming one of the
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: best catchers of enfranchise, you know, post two thousand, you know,
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: catching seasons not anything to sneeze at, and one of
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: those like you talk about what defined twenty twenty five
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: one of the first things of Scott Harris like kind
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: of I guess being in defense of like how the
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: Tigers operate is what Dylan Dingler was able to do
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty five, So that's up there too.
• 34:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, huge, huge storyline again, a guy going from a
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: pretty nice player to a goal glove winner, a potential
• 34:09
  Speaker 3: just legit top of the line catcher. I love Dingler.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: I love the way he goes about his business. I
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: have a lot of respect for him and just the
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: way he handles himself. I'm all worried, like, did he
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: set the bar too high?
• 34:23
  Speaker 2: Man?
• 34:23
  Speaker 3: You look at some of the projection systems right now,
• 34:26
  Speaker 3: like they're not totally buying a repeat. And that's based
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: on some of his data, you know, from the minor leagues,
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: and he's obviously improved as a hitter since then. But
• 34:36
  Speaker 3: just you know, he had a one oh nine WRC plus,
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: so his offensive production was nine percent above league average.
• 34:43
  Speaker 3: The Steamer projection system right now has him at ninety
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: six for next year, so going from above league average
• 34:49
  Speaker 3: to slightly below. He hit two seventy eight Steamers picking
• 34:52
  Speaker 3: him to hit two forty five. The thing I think
• 34:55
  Speaker 3: could help an offset in a decline in average could
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: be more power. He only hit thirteen homers. I could
• 35:02
  Speaker 3: believe there's twenty homers in there in the tank for
• 35:05
  Speaker 3: Dingler projection systems are going with ten homer runs, so
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: at least the Steamer projection system, so thirteen if you
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: go by another one on fangrafts that has him getting
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: a little more at bats. Look, it's tough, it's complex.
• 35:18
  Speaker 3: Dylan Dingler is really good. But the point there, he
• 35:21
  Speaker 3: set the bar super super high. So now we'll see
• 35:25
  Speaker 3: if he can if he can meet it, or if
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: he might be a victim of his own success a
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: little bit next season.
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, there's there's no doubt about it that
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: the bar is insanely high, and that's obviously a credit
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: to what he was in twenty twenty five. But there's
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: just like it's only so high he can go man like,
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: so like, you know, there's there's an element of like, yeah,
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: of course he probably should come down a little bit
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: on the on these in this way. But if the
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: if the fueling is still there is still there, you're open.
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: If a J. Hinch were on here, he would say, hey,
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: just keep playing elite defense, going me another gold glove
• 36:01
  Speaker 3: and like the offense will take care of itself, like
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: we'll worry, but you know, we won't even worry about that.
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: Go with another gold glove also a pretty high barah exactly.
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: Uh. And lastly, I mean I have injuries too.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: Was was a big part of of what what defined
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five Tigers, And obviously that's not necessarily unique,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: but we mentioned Alex Cobb, who was hurt literally the
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: entire time. Uh, you know, Jackson job had to undergo
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: Tommy John surgery. You know, you were without Parker Meadows
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: and Matt Vierling for the majority of the season, and
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: I mean you basically got nothing production wise out of
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: those guys, and you know, specifically Parker, Like you know,
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: talk about what the will define twenty twenty six, that's
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: probably that that's a top three storyline, is a can
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: he be healthy and be like, can he you know,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: continue to develop a little bit more consistency on offense
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: because that that that you know, talk about, you know,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, twenty seven, twenty eight Parker Meadows, who
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: is still only twenty five years old or that was
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: his age twenty five season, I should say, like it's
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: that that's a big one there too. So Reesulson getting hurt.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: You know, it's just like how they had to go
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: about the trade deadline. General Jason, you know you got
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: nothing out of fully all year, Like injuries defied every team.
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: I understand that, but like it, it was relatively unique
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: that the Tigers were hit in areas that they really needed,
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: like they couldn't necessarily afford to be hit at, and
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: you know that that helped, that helped define them, especially
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: at the end in that collapse that Colaspby doesn't happen
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: with some of some of those injuries.
• 37:48
  Speaker 3: So yeah, we don't we actually don't talk about the
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: Resultson one enough, another kind of broken year for him
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: that led to the Tigers trading for Chris Pattock, which
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: was a disaster. Tigers need a full healthy year out
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: of resourcings. I still don't think we know just quite
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: how good he could be if he can stay healthy
• 38:07
  Speaker 3: and get a little more consistency. But to your another
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: point you made there, Like one of my least favorite
• 38:13
  Speaker 3: things to hear from coaches and executives is to be like, well,
• 38:16
  Speaker 3: you know, we had injuries, or like we're getting X
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: player back, which is almost like a free agent signing,
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: because like, I mean, all these things are true, and
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: the Parker Meadows is hugely important to the Tigers obviously
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: he's going to be one of their most interesting and
• 38:30
  Speaker 3: important players in twenty twenty six. But I have bad news,
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: like you're probably gonna have a couple other guys with
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: broken seasons this year, and you better hope it's not
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: one of your big boys, and you better hope it's
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: not whatever. This version of the year's version of Parker
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: Parker Meadows is. I don't want to wish injury or
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: even throw that out into the air with any player,
• 38:50
  Speaker 3: but like, this is pro sports, that's what's gonna happen.
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: And there's really never like a convenient or a good injury.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, breaking news, injuries not convenient. Thank you for listening
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: to the Tiger territory. No, but you're right, But you're right,
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: But you're right, and that's and and you know, the
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: best front offices, the best coaching staffs like have contingency
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: plans in place for various aspects. It's just you you
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: can't like Parker Metals is too instrumental to how like
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: you shape your defense and then you know what you
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: expected about of them offensively.
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Of course that's also his history, so.
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: It stuff stuff I talked about, like you know, Max
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: Clark are we ready for this, like kind of like
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of pressure on him. Yeah, yeah, Parker Medals
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: has a lot to say about what pressure or impact
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: or anything Max Clark will have in twenty twenty six.
• 39:45
  Speaker 2: So definitely something to look for.
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: And again, Matt Berling, if you can get if you
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: can get twenty twenty four, Matty b back, that is
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: that is a boom for for the organization as well.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: So that's a lot man.
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: I know, again, looking back on all this stuff, it's
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: like you feel good about this, you feel a little
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: bit uneasy about this, and and and you and you
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: think this could happen. But then you look back and like, well,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: I couldn't see Dingler coming. I thought Alex Cobb might
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: pitch one game. You know, you can't necessarily like predict
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: back to back Cy Youngs because it's so rare. Uh,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: you know, two hundred strikeouts, torkl Sin's return. So toy
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: twenty six is gonna have some stuff that we're not
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: even thinking about right now. And that's and that's and
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: that's the fun of it. That's the fun of it. So, uh,
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: is there anything else you wanted to get into Cody
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: before we.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: Jet out of here?
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: No, man, it's the end of December. We just talked
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: about the Tigers for forty minutes. You guys, go enjoy
• 40:39
  Speaker 3: your new year. We'll be back. We'll be back some
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: good stuff cooking in the new year. But that's all
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: I got right now.
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and again, like thank you everybody who's listening, you know,
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: prior to twenty twenty five, but twenty twenty five, especially
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: with this like new venture, you know, with the with
• 40:55
  Speaker 1: the Foul Territory Network and we and we love being
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: a part of a part of the network here.
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: They support us very well.
• 41:02
  Speaker 1: So thank you to them, and thank you to you
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: guys for supporting us and whether it's following us on exach,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Coty Stavenhagen at Keran Underscore, deectly at Tiger Territory Underscore,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: subscribing on YouTube, we really appreciate it. Going to the
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: Tiger territoryshop dot com get your Tiger Territory merch. We
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: appreciate everybody for what you've done for us in twenty
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: twenty five and look forward to an even better, more
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: fun and what the hell is gonna happen twenty twenty six.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: So for Cody Stapenhagen, I'm Kieren Steckley, Everybody, have a
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: great New Year.