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Spencer Torkelson Gets Hot as Tigers Labor In Washington · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

0:05
Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
0:08
Speaker 1: the Bowel Territory Network eight, Tiger's podcast in the way
0:13
Speaker 1: as a man who sets off fireworks every time he
0:15
Speaker 1: hits submit, He's Cody, Stave and.
0:18
Speaker 2: Egg and how you doing, dude?
0:20
Speaker 3: All right, Kieren, how are you? Holiday weekend? Happy fourth
0:22
Speaker 3: of July to everyone out there, Thanks for joining taking
0:25
Speaker 3: a little time to listen to us talk about the Tigers,
0:29
Speaker 3: even though they're coming off a little bit of a
0:31
Speaker 3: rough series in our Nation's Capital.
0:33
Speaker 1: Yes, Happy fourth of July. We are recording this Friday morning. Yeah,
0:38
Speaker 1: I had some mechanics that we had to sort through
0:41
Speaker 1: on our end, not that you guys care about that,
0:43
Speaker 1: but hopefully we can be a part of your holiday
0:45
Speaker 1: and your holiday weekend. Hope everybody stays safe out there.
0:49
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, Tigs didn't necessarily have a great time in
0:54
Speaker 1: the Nation's Capital. It was kind of like a weird
0:57
Speaker 1: week to assess, Cody because emotionally, emotionally, the highs were
1:01
Speaker 1: really high because you had the Riley Green Game, and
1:04
Speaker 1: you know, Spencer Torgelsen had himself a nice little series,
1:08
Speaker 1: and you have the obviously the All Star you know,
1:11
Speaker 1: selections starters Bayaz Green and and Tores In case you
1:16
Speaker 1: guys didn't hear so emotionally like, you's still like really
1:19
Speaker 1: feel good and of course you're still twenty games above
1:22
Speaker 1: five hundred, have a comfortable lead in the division.
1:24
Speaker 2: Blah blah blah blah.
1:25
Speaker 1: But then when you kind of get down into the swamp,
1:29
Speaker 1: I promise I'm going to try to cut down on
1:31
Speaker 1: these like, but but once you get down into into
1:37
Speaker 1: the the mud of things different word like, there were
1:41
Speaker 1: some instances that were not very pretty, you know, and
1:46
Speaker 1: it was kind of a it was a very uncharacteristic
1:52
Speaker 1: series for several players in a variety of ways, like
1:56
Speaker 1: overarching narratives. So, I mean, a three error fifth inning
2:02
Speaker 1: there on Thursday, Thursday Night Cody, including two by Zach
2:06
Speaker 1: McKinstry and one by recently named All Star starter Hobby
2:11
Speaker 1: Bias Tommy Cainley just you know, just serving up meat balls,
2:19
Speaker 1: you know for an ending there and and kind of
2:23
Speaker 1: and that kind of killed like a lot of team momentum.
2:28
Speaker 1: Now I'm not saying that's like directly related to how
2:30
Speaker 1: they played on Thursday, but that's just how it played out.
2:34
Speaker 1: When you're observing it, is that like, you have the
2:36
Speaker 1: big win at the front end of the doubleheader, you
2:39
Speaker 1: have the late lead in the back end of the doubleheader,
2:42
Speaker 1: and you're thinking, okay, series, doubleheader sweep.
2:45
Speaker 2: You know, Canley's coming on, vest.
2:47
Speaker 1: Will be on and bing bang boom onto Cleveland in
2:51
Speaker 1: a way. And then you start out Thursday just you know,
2:55
Speaker 1: the struck clock, struck mcnige a little bit on Detrich
2:59
Speaker 1: and it just kind of snowball from there, even though
3:02
Speaker 1: it sounded start out promising with the Torch home run
3:04
Speaker 1: on Thursday. So again, just like baseball wise, not really
3:09
Speaker 1: a pretty series, but it's still like a happy week
3:12
Speaker 1: in a lot of ways because the emotional highs were high.
3:15
Speaker 1: Just you know, trying to sort through that is is
3:18
Speaker 1: quite a mental process.
3:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I guess I think you got to
3:22
Speaker 3: be able to like compartmentalize and separate him. Right, Making
3:25
Speaker 3: the All Star Game is great, and hitting a bunch
3:28
Speaker 3: of homers the first game of the doubleheader is great.
3:31
Speaker 3: But then I think, you know, Games two and three
3:33
Speaker 3: revealed kind of the persistent issue, the thing that you know,
3:38
Speaker 3: I'm not trying to harp one like the negative here,
3:40
Speaker 3: but look, man, this bullpens it's hard to have a
3:45
Speaker 3: lot of confidence in it right now. I think the
3:47
Speaker 3: Tigers were twenty sixth. Then bullpen in the ra in
3:49
Speaker 3: the month of June, and they come out the gates
3:51
Speaker 3: in July. And you know, one thing you really didn't
3:54
Speaker 3: want to see was a shaky performance from Tommy Kinley, who,
3:57
Speaker 3: along with the Vest had really been kind of your
4:00
Speaker 3: and Chase Lee. Maybe you're three real dependable guys. Now,
4:05
Speaker 3: kain Lee, he's having a great season. He's probably due
4:08
Speaker 3: to just have an outing where things weren't good. But
4:10
Speaker 3: trainer comes out in the middle of the outing. It
4:13
Speaker 3: was hard to know exactly what was going on there
4:15
Speaker 3: live on the broadcast. I couldn't tell. Kainlee said afterward, like,
4:19
Speaker 3: oh it was it was nothing like they came out
4:21
Speaker 3: and I was like, why are you out here? But
4:24
Speaker 3: then coincidence or not, he went on to really have
4:27
Speaker 3: no command, had little feel for the change up, and
4:30
Speaker 3: got hit around like we hadn't seen. Hopefully that's just
4:33
Speaker 3: a one off thing from him. But then you get
4:36
Speaker 3: into you know, the Wednesday game, and like the Thursday game,
4:40
Speaker 3: excuse me, and dietrich Ins doesn't pitch well, and then
4:42
Speaker 3: you're behind the eight ball, and then you're trotting out relievers,
4:45
Speaker 3: and then it's like, oh, yeah, there's only a couple
4:48
Speaker 3: guys we're actually feeling good about right now. That leads
4:53
Speaker 3: to two thoughts for me. One is like everyone wants
4:56
Speaker 3: to talk about the trade deadline, and yes, I think
4:58
Speaker 3: the Tigers are gonna have to go get relief help
5:01
Speaker 3: maybe two guys. But also and something someone mentioned to
5:06
Speaker 3: me and the Q and A I did on the
5:08
Speaker 3: Athletic and I thought I already had, Like can't you
5:11
Speaker 3: just hear Scott Harris coming out and saying like, well,
5:15
Speaker 3: we think our biggest additions are going to be just
5:17
Speaker 3: internal improvement. I guess Scott Harris line and might not
5:22
Speaker 3: be incorrect. You know what would really help this team
5:25
Speaker 3: if Tyler Holton could get right, If bow Brisky, who
5:29
Speaker 3: I don't think has been lighting the world on fire
5:32
Speaker 3: and Triple A can get back to being the bow
5:34
Speaker 3: BRISKI we saw in the second half in the postseason
5:38
Speaker 3: last year. If you can get one of your starters
5:41
Speaker 3: at Jack Flaherty to pitch like himself, We're going to
5:44
Speaker 3: talk about results in a minute he's back. I think
5:47
Speaker 3: that could be huge. But you have some guys who
5:50
Speaker 3: you felt confident in coming into the season, who have
5:53
Speaker 3: underperformed a little bit, and if you can get them
5:56
Speaker 3: just back to like a base level performance, maybe that's
5:59
Speaker 3: as good, if not better than going and getting you know,
6:03
Speaker 3: a role. This Chapman or whoever it is, you want
6:05
Speaker 3: to join this bullpen because it feels good and it
6:08
Speaker 3: feels sexy, So like, yes, you got to add outside,
6:11
Speaker 3: but I think it's gonna be You're gonna have to
6:13
Speaker 3: have some existing guys to improve otherwise. I do worry
6:17
Speaker 3: a little bit that this bullpen could be kind of
6:20
Speaker 3: that Achilles heel that it's like, ah, there are twelve games,
6:23
Speaker 3: you know, ahead of the second place team who cares whatever,
6:27
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden they lose in October
6:30
Speaker 3: and you're like, oh, why didn't we see this coming
6:33
Speaker 3: all along?
6:34
Speaker 1: So yeah, a couple of things there. One, Yeah, I'm
6:37
Speaker 1: glad you mentioned Chasi Lee. I think I gotta be
6:40
Speaker 1: better about kind of lumping him into into that category
6:45
Speaker 1: of Kinley invest Uh. The thing you know, Chase Lee,
6:50
Speaker 1: I want to say, like came out nowhere, but in
6:52
Speaker 1: a way kind of came out of nowhere in terms
6:54
Speaker 1: of like no one thought he was gonna be this
6:56
Speaker 1: heavily involved coming into the season. I think there's a
7:02
Speaker 1: limit on the amount of Chase Lee's that you can
7:04
Speaker 1: expect the internal additions to to help you out. So
7:11
Speaker 1: like Scott Harris has kind of earned the right to
7:15
Speaker 1: say that, but it's also at the same time not necessarily. Uh,
7:21
Speaker 1: it's not the greatest of bets. I would say, you
7:24
Speaker 1: just run out of those kinds of stories eventually. And
7:27
Speaker 1: then also one of the guys that you didn't mention there,
7:30
Speaker 1: Cody and he's on his on his rehab assignment right now.
7:35
Speaker 2: That's Alex Lane. There's a there's a there's.
7:38
Speaker 1: An Alex Lane factor that we have yet to really
7:43
Speaker 1: see under under like quite frankly on a winning Tigers team.
7:48
Speaker 2: I'm not I don't know what that be. That might
7:50
Speaker 2: be that might be on the at the lower end
7:54
Speaker 2: of the.
7:54
Speaker 1: Bullpen when games are somewhat decided one way or another,
7:57
Speaker 1: or it might be someone somewhere in the middle, or
8:00
Speaker 1: it might you might turn into the Alex Lane that
8:02
Speaker 1: we've seen over the years that like with the fastball
8:05
Speaker 1: curveball combination, Like I don't know, but I'm saying there's
8:07
Speaker 1: a piece there that's gonna be established in some fashion.
8:10
Speaker 4: Uh.
8:11
Speaker 1: In my opinion, Once again it comes to mind, you know,
8:16
Speaker 1: this is a this is a time where you kind
8:17
Speaker 1: of miss a Foley. I know, like I know that
8:20
Speaker 1: he got sat down for a reason and he was
8:21
Speaker 1: obviously hurt, But that was a piece too that you
8:24
Speaker 1: would that for a good stretch of the past two
8:27
Speaker 1: years you felt pretty okay about.
8:29
Speaker 3: You know what I mean.
8:30
Speaker 1: So, and that's the thing too, Like you start looking
8:33
Speaker 1: down the list and the the arms available is actually
8:39
Speaker 1: quite smaller. Then you realize just kind of in the moment,
8:44
Speaker 1: I think, and especially arms that you trust. And then
8:47
Speaker 1: this series not to you know, excuse poor play and
8:51
Speaker 1: you know, poor defense at times and the lack of
8:54
Speaker 1: hitting in other situations. But you know, you had a
8:58
Speaker 1: bullpen day. I think we do gotta give credit a Holton.
9:00
Speaker 1: He has now five straight endings of scoreless ball. So
9:03
Speaker 1: like maybe that's something that's kind of rectifying itself in
9:08
Speaker 1: real time. But you had a bullpen day, and then
9:11
Speaker 1: you threw Flarity out there, which Flarity had another what
9:15
Speaker 1: is Jack Flaherty outing as well? And then you throw
9:19
Speaker 1: Detrich for the rubber match, and like I said, he
9:24
Speaker 1: just you know, falling behind and counts.
9:26
Speaker 2: He's not talented enough to.
9:27
Speaker 1: Fall two to zho three to one consistently against like
9:32
Speaker 1: high high talent, high upside hitters that Washington has and
9:36
Speaker 1: and and he got burned like quickly five runs in
9:39
Speaker 1: the first that's about as quickly as you can get burned.
9:42
Speaker 1: To his credit, he got it out a little bit
9:44
Speaker 1: to say, the bullpen tax a little bit there. But
9:47
Speaker 1: but yeah, I mean it's just like that's the back end.
9:49
Speaker 1: That is the back end, like not to get lost
9:51
Speaker 1: and all this stuff is the back end of your
9:53
Speaker 1: pitching in various situations. He only saw vest just because
9:57
Speaker 1: well he hadn't worked in a while, so we'll throw
9:58
Speaker 1: vest out there.
10:00
Speaker 2: Uh.
10:00
Speaker 1: So like that, that's the scary part of the pitching situation. So, uh,
10:06
Speaker 1: you need arms, you need guys to correct themselves. I
10:10
Speaker 1: don't know what's easier, trading for somebody who's already in
10:13
Speaker 1: good form or hoping somebody regains good form. That's that's
10:17
Speaker 1: that might be the question of the trade deadline for
10:19
Speaker 1: Scott Harris and Chris Vetter and aj Hinch as they
10:22
Speaker 1: kind of pieced together this plant. So so yeah, now
10:26
Speaker 1: they don't want to sound like overly concerned, but at
10:28
Speaker 1: the same time, these are things that we have seen consistently,
10:31
Speaker 1: and uh, and it doesn't matter if you're playing the Pirates,
10:35
Speaker 1: doesn't matter if you're playing the Rays or the Nationals.
10:39
Speaker 1: It's like, if you don't have h if you don't
10:42
Speaker 1: have arms that you can trust, these guys are gonna
10:45
Speaker 1: are gonna hurt you. And and like I said, we've
10:47
Speaker 1: seen multiple examples of that. And and honestly, probably playing
10:50
Speaker 1: the doubleheader didn't necessarily help either.
10:53
Speaker 3: But I'm I'm concerned. Like the Tigers are a really
10:59
Speaker 3: good team and not trying to lose sight of that,
11:01
Speaker 3: but they do not have the pitching staff right now
11:05
Speaker 3: that's in shape to win a seven game playoff series.
11:10
Speaker 3: And this is a team that was supposed to be
11:12
Speaker 3: built on the strength of its pitching. That's not like
11:15
Speaker 3: a criticism of anybody in particular, it's just it's just reality,
11:20
Speaker 3: a combination.
11:22
Speaker 5: Much at one.
11:23
Speaker 1: Point we thought they had too much of that point,
11:25
Speaker 1: you bring in you bring in Andrew Schaffin on a
11:28
Speaker 1: minor league deal, and you think, all right, well, this
11:30
Speaker 1: could turn into something he never even gets to the
11:32
Speaker 1: big leagues.
11:33
Speaker 2: Exercises his option.
11:35
Speaker 1: He's in Washington now, had a really funny quote about
11:38
Speaker 1: being a chip pl a.
11:39
Speaker 2: Uh God, God bless Andrew.
11:41
Speaker 1: Uh and again all these like other injuries and stuff
11:45
Speaker 1: like there's no way in hell that we anticipated like
11:49
Speaker 1: the Tigers being desperate for pitching in early July, like
11:53
Speaker 1: that would have been something like yeah, you just add
11:55
Speaker 1: some arms or whatever. That that like the usual thing,
11:58
Speaker 1: come Drade deadline time. Now it's like you start looking
12:01
Speaker 1: down the list. It's like, well, if this doesn't work,
12:03
Speaker 1: if this doesn't work, this don't work, I mean we
12:05
Speaker 1: are we just it's Melton all a sudden, a guy
12:07
Speaker 1: that you're gonna have to trust in key situations, you
12:09
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like this this is the path
12:10
Speaker 1: that we're on. Uh So, like yeah, concern one hundred
12:15
Speaker 1: valid there it because it is. I would say, starting pitching.
12:20
Speaker 1: We'll talk about starting pitching later, starting pitching and uh
12:25
Speaker 1: in bullpen very top heavy, very top heavy, and and
12:29
Speaker 1: you know not every series is a seven game series,
12:32
Speaker 1: but if you want to get to where you want
12:33
Speaker 1: to get to, you're gonna be involved in a couple
12:35
Speaker 1: of seven game series. So uh so that you know,
12:38
Speaker 1: with that framework, I think it's important also to realize.
12:41
Speaker 1: So we'll talk about I mean, we're gonna talk a
12:44
Speaker 1: lot of pitching obviously next week too because because of
12:47
Speaker 1: what what the Tigers are putting out there in Cleveland.
12:50
Speaker 1: But now, Cody, we we're gonna go We're gonna do
12:52
Speaker 1: something a little bit new here. We are going to
12:55
Speaker 1: introduce a new segment. It is our Chart Topper Player
12:59
Speaker 1: of the Week. Our Chart Topper Player of the Week
13:07
Speaker 1: is powered by DraftKings Sportsbook. So, Cody, we have special
13:15
Speaker 1: torgle Sen as the graphic for this episode. We actually
13:17
Speaker 1: hadn't used torgal Sin in a bit, and for like
13:21
Speaker 1: good reason, like he had not He did not have
13:23
Speaker 1: a good month of June, and it was you know,
13:27
Speaker 1: the BALLI and average is easiest number to look at.
13:29
Speaker 1: It's like, you know, it's kind of a little two thirty.
13:32
Speaker 1: But I was never overly concerned about Torque because he
13:35
Speaker 1: was still taking his walks, his you know, his hard
13:38
Speaker 1: hit rate or his yeah, his hard hit right. I
13:41
Speaker 1: felt like he was taking good swings. He had a
13:43
Speaker 1: little bit of bad luck in there, and the home
13:45
Speaker 1: runs were enough to kind of keep him afloat production wise.
13:49
Speaker 1: But he opens up the month of July in a
13:51
Speaker 1: big way, this whole series in a big way with
13:55
Speaker 1: with a couple of home runs and and the double
13:57
Speaker 1: in there.
13:58
Speaker 2: So I think he's deserving of this.
14:00
Speaker 1: He is a guy that is still trusted by AJ
14:02
Speaker 1: in the middle of that order, and we talked about
14:05
Speaker 1: his defense before. He recently has made a couple of
14:08
Speaker 1: really nice defensive plays as well, even though he still
14:10
Speaker 1: grades out negatively, But I think I think Porkleson is
14:14
Speaker 1: a good guy for this right now. Cody as somebody
14:16
Speaker 1: who has ridden like a really high high and then
14:21
Speaker 1: like came down, but we've seen early returns that he is.
14:25
Speaker 1: It's not a it's not a plummet. It is you know,
14:29
Speaker 1: it's a little bit of a steady way with still
14:31
Speaker 1: high upside.
14:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll go back to like what I've said before,
14:36
Speaker 3: which is, have you ever really thought Torkleson looked lost
14:39
Speaker 3: this year? And my answer to that question is no, Like,
14:43
Speaker 3: he's had multiple droughts and he's shown an act for
14:47
Speaker 3: still having a good approach, still hitting some balls hard,
14:50
Speaker 3: finding ways to come out of that. Right when it
14:53
Speaker 3: was starting to get like, okay, this drought's getting kind
14:55
Speaker 3: of prolonged, here. Well, now he's ten for his past
14:58
Speaker 3: twenty seven he has three homer in I think five games.
15:02
Speaker 3: You know, he hit two oh seven in June, off
15:04
Speaker 3: to a hot start here in July. He's having a
15:09
Speaker 3: good year. It does like I got another question, like
15:11
Speaker 3: what do you what do you think the front office
15:13
Speaker 3: thinks of him long term now? And it's like, yeah,
15:17
Speaker 3: I don't know. That's kind of a tough question to
15:20
Speaker 3: really think of because you're seeing a guy thirty thirty
15:24
Speaker 3: five home run power can hit in the middle of
15:26
Speaker 3: your order, driving a hundred runs. But the more I
15:30
Speaker 3: say it like that, that twenty twenty three version of Twirklesin,
15:34
Speaker 3: Like maybe that's kind of what he is, this in
15:36
Speaker 3: between guy who's like got power but not the average
15:40
Speaker 3: maybe not quite the OBP that you really want. That's
15:44
Speaker 3: a player you can work with. Do not get me
15:46
Speaker 3: wrong at all, But in terms of like, okay, do
15:50
Speaker 3: we feel good about Towirklesin for the next three years now?
15:54
Speaker 3: Maybe that's a silly conversation because you're kind of taking
15:57
Speaker 3: these things a month, a year, a game at a time,
16:00
Speaker 3: you know, to begin with. Anyway, like I think Towrglsen
16:04
Speaker 3: could have the worst first half, the worst second half
16:07
Speaker 3: on earth, and it's probably done enough to like he's
16:09
Speaker 3: got to be your first basement next year. But I
16:13
Speaker 3: don't know that anyone's looking to hand out a contract
16:16
Speaker 3: extension either, And maybe that's okay. Maybe we just take
16:19
Speaker 3: this for what it is. Twar's having a good year
16:22
Speaker 3: even with the lows, he's having good at bats. We
16:25
Speaker 3: know the power is there and it is very real.
16:28
Speaker 3: Maybe we should just feel good about that for right now,
16:31
Speaker 3: give him the praise he deserves, and uh, we'll see
16:34
Speaker 3: what this looks like in two more years.
16:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean he has been, in my opinion, like
16:41
Speaker 1: he's been an additive. Now of course, okay, yeah, got
16:44
Speaker 1: nearly twenty home runs. That's such great analysis. But like again,
16:47
Speaker 1: like the approach, the at bats, the you know, you know,
16:50
Speaker 1: taking his walks, uh, making good contact. His calmness I
16:56
Speaker 1: think has also been an additive to to this team
16:59
Speaker 1: as well, because I mean we've talked about all the injuries,
17:01
Speaker 1: like it's it's been it's been a it's been a
17:03
Speaker 1: thing in the lineup as well, and you know, maybe
17:07
Speaker 1: uh maybe even it's like base running, Like I look
17:11
Speaker 1: at his he's the funniest thing, Cody, he's got a
17:14
Speaker 1: uh a sprint speed in the twenty nine percent TILE,
17:18
Speaker 1: but he's almost average in terms of feeling run value,
17:22
Speaker 1: that fielding run, base running run value. So actually, no,
17:27
Speaker 1: he's higher than average. He's sixty eight percent TILE. So like,
17:30
Speaker 1: so what does that mean. That means Like, it's like
17:32
Speaker 1: we talked about with tours, that means.
17:33
Speaker 2: He's bought in. That means that he's you know, running
17:36
Speaker 2: the basis smartly. Uh. Like that that that's not I
17:40
Speaker 2: would wager.
17:41
Speaker 1: That's probably on the top end of first baseman base
17:44
Speaker 1: running run value UH in the American League. So like again,
17:48
Speaker 1: asset and and and the power in the middle of
17:51
Speaker 1: the lineup.
17:51
Speaker 2: He is somebody.
17:52
Speaker 1: He's not a platoon dependent player at all. And also,
17:57
Speaker 1: like we probably haven't we're not going to about cold
18:00
Speaker 1: Keith today. We probably haven't talked about Cold Keith enough.
18:02
Speaker 1: But like there's an element like the way that cold
18:07
Speaker 1: Keith is being used right now is partially a result
18:11
Speaker 1: of how you can keep a stable presence like torque
18:14
Speaker 1: at first base slash dh uh in your order. So
18:18
Speaker 1: like that's that's something that that I think is also
18:22
Speaker 1: part of the torque experience. I think you're right, just
18:24
Speaker 1: kind of take it for what it is.
18:26
Speaker 5: I don't.
18:27
Speaker 1: We're not gonna analyze as you need to get better
18:29
Speaker 1: at this that the other. But like, the production is there,
18:32
Speaker 1: we're in it's July fourth, the production is there, and
18:34
Speaker 1: he's gonna he's gonna have his second at least a
18:37
Speaker 1: second career, uh, twenty homer season. He might have a
18:40
Speaker 1: thirty homer season, you know, I mean twice in four
18:43
Speaker 1: years or whatever. It's like in some ways, it's in
18:46
Speaker 1: some ways it's not bad. In some ways not bad.
18:49
Speaker 1: And and so that brings us Cody to a special
18:55
Speaker 1: part of this segment with Draft DraftKings Sports Book. So
18:59
Speaker 1: Friday night, the Tigers are in Cleveland and they are
19:02
Speaker 1: playing going up against I love this name. I believe
19:05
Speaker 1: it's his birth name too, Slade.
19:09
Speaker 2: Say Coney.
19:09
Speaker 1: I want to make sure I get that right. Slay
19:11
Speaker 1: to Coney, And he has pitched against the Tigers one time.
19:17
Speaker 1: That was back in late May, and Spencer Torgulsen went yard.
19:21
Speaker 1: It's a solo shots the only run that the Tigers
19:23
Speaker 1: scored in a three to one loss on a Friday
19:26
Speaker 1: night in those City connect uniforms and so I think
19:32
Speaker 1: Cody Spencer Tourgelsen is going to get at least two
19:37
Speaker 1: total bases. So, like I said, he had the home
19:40
Speaker 1: run against Slade last time. If you look at the
19:43
Speaker 1: matchup here, Slade is only in the nineteen percent tile
19:49
Speaker 1: and fast run fastball run value, it's a lot of
19:52
Speaker 1: words there, whereas Torque has done most of his damage
19:56
Speaker 1: as good hitters are supposed to do against the fastball,
19:58
Speaker 1: including eight of his home runs. And if you look
20:01
Speaker 1: at the where the metrics line up, barrel rate he's
20:05
Speaker 1: slayed is near the bottom, whereas whereas Torque is in
20:10
Speaker 1: the ninety percent tile, and you know his secondary pitch
20:14
Speaker 1: is a slider, which is what Torque hit out last time.
20:17
Speaker 1: So so and the miles per hour is right in
20:20
Speaker 1: Tork's wheelhouse for both pitches, both pitches. So I like
20:24
Speaker 1: s better Torrelsen to get two plus total bases on
20:26
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20:29
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20:53
Speaker 2: The crown is yours.
20:55
Speaker 3: Sounds good. Kieran Look, I work for the athletic part
20:59
Speaker 3: of the New York Times Company. I don't bettle on baseball.
21:02
Speaker 3: I don't hand out gambling advice, but we just talked
21:06
Speaker 3: about all the all the factors involving Torklesa, and he's
21:09
Speaker 3: on a roll. As last seven games he's hitting three
21:11
Speaker 3: seventy with a twelve hundred ops. So certainly looking forward
21:16
Speaker 3: to see if he can keep that up in this
21:18
Speaker 3: Cleveland series.
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21:52
Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, Cody, who do you think
21:55
Speaker 1: leads the Tigers starting pitchers and wins of overplacement?
22:00
Speaker 3: Scoople?
22:01
Speaker 2: Oh man, I made that too easy for you, obviously, but.
22:07
Speaker 3: This all day.
22:09
Speaker 2: But here's something interesting.
22:11
Speaker 1: Casey Mize is second one and a half games above
22:16
Speaker 1: wins above replacement, and riese Olsen who presumably it's not
22:21
Speaker 1: officially yet but presumably will be pitching on Friday, making
22:25
Speaker 1: his return one point two. So that I mean, those
22:28
Speaker 1: are your top pitchers period, in terms in terms of war.
22:32
Speaker 1: And I think like as much as the Flaarty signing
22:36
Speaker 1: like seemed like a you know, at the time, like
22:39
Speaker 1: an influx of pitching coming in and you know, and
22:42
Speaker 1: he's become sort of like the super varsity version of
22:45
Speaker 1: our old Matt Manning discussion. But I think right here
22:48
Speaker 1: in a division series, if you're looking to be optimistic
22:51
Speaker 1: here in the division series, you're laying out your three
22:55
Speaker 1: best pitching options against against Cleveland and in the series
23:00
Speaker 1: at again, it's only early July, but you could kind
23:04
Speaker 1: of metaphorically put him down a little bit. If you
23:07
Speaker 1: command this series. Now, the backside is you can give
23:09
Speaker 1: them life. So like we understand all that, but here
23:13
Speaker 1: I do believe, like, if you're gonna, if you wanted
23:17
Speaker 1: to line these guys up, these are the three guys
23:19
Speaker 1: you would want in a series against a team that
23:22
Speaker 1: kicked you out of the postseason last year.
23:25
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, for sure, the Guardians have had kind
23:29
Speaker 3: of a rough go of things, you know, big picture,
23:31
Speaker 3: over the past couple of weeks. So seems like an
23:34
Speaker 3: opportunity for the Tigers to rub it in a little bit. Resolson.
23:38
Speaker 3: I mean, we'll see, he had a lengthy rehab stance.
23:40
Speaker 3: Some theory he shouldn't be rusty, but this is first
23:44
Speaker 3: time back in the big leagues, a little worried about
23:47
Speaker 3: the Russ factor. How long will he go. At the
23:49
Speaker 3: same time, I think his just him coming back to
23:54
Speaker 3: this pitching staff is is huge. I mean, this is
23:56
Speaker 3: a guy who could be your number two. I think
24:00
Speaker 3: Resultant at his best might be Casey Miiset. His best
24:04
Speaker 3: is really good too, But in terms of like kind
24:06
Speaker 3: of steadiness, like he might be your second best pitcher.
24:09
Speaker 3: Reesulsen in his major league career has a three six
24:13
Speaker 3: oeer that includes, you know, sometimes his first year where
24:16
Speaker 3: he was getting knocked around a little bit. Really, since
24:19
Speaker 3: September of his rookie season, ree Oulsen has been a
24:22
Speaker 3: really good starting pitcher. Unfortunately, he's had a couple kind
24:25
Speaker 3: of minor injuries mixed in there, but Reesulsen is the
24:31
Speaker 3: guy who can go out and give you a quality outing.
24:33
Speaker 3: He's something this rotation badly needs. I'm glad we're gonna
24:37
Speaker 3: get to see him, you know, three times through maybe
24:41
Speaker 3: leading up to the trade deadline, because in a way, look,
24:44
Speaker 3: the more I think about it, I'm still like, I
24:47
Speaker 3: think the Tigers need to go get another starting pitcher
24:49
Speaker 3: and maybe a good starting pitcher who can start a
24:53
Speaker 3: game for you in the playoffs. But you're gonna feel
24:55
Speaker 3: a lot better about everything if Reesulsen can a stay
24:58
Speaker 3: healthy and be pitch anything like himself.
25:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you know, we we I think it's
25:05
Speaker 1: okay to periodically look at things from the scope of
25:08
Speaker 1: the postseason, like like like you did earlier in terms
25:12
Speaker 1: of a seven game series, uh with with the with
25:15
Speaker 1: the Tigers, but they're putting out there obviously schools your
25:18
Speaker 1: guy and he proved he is a big time pitcher
25:20
Speaker 1: last year in the postseason, Like not to be mistaken, dude,
25:24
Speaker 1: Reese Olsen two earned runs in nine innings of a
25:27
Speaker 1: postseason ball last year, And and that's with uh, I
25:32
Speaker 1: get this right. Eight strikeouts and two walks. So like this,
25:36
Speaker 1: like maybe proven is like too strong of a word
25:40
Speaker 1: because it is such a small sample size. But at
25:43
Speaker 1: the end, one of them was weird because of the
25:45
Speaker 1: Holton opener experience there in Game one. So like again,
25:49
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to overrate it, but the numbers are
25:51
Speaker 1: the numbers in the situation was the situation, and like
25:54
Speaker 1: Casey Mayes was left off, like as of now, like
25:58
Speaker 1: this could be your three, like it if Flarity is
26:02
Speaker 1: still more or less a average picture, which at point
26:06
Speaker 1: one war is like the definition of average, Like this
26:10
Speaker 1: could be your three to begin the postseason. So again,
26:13
Speaker 1: it's it's okay to kind of start thinking in those terms.
26:16
Speaker 1: And I bring that up because I don't think like
26:20
Speaker 1: we haven't seen the best out of Resulson. And to
26:22
Speaker 1: see the best out of Resulson when you are down
26:25
Speaker 1: in Alex Copp, when you're down to Jackson, Joe, when
26:29
Speaker 1: jack Flaherty is is kind of fledging there a little bit.
26:32
Speaker 1: My ada is no longer on the stand like like
26:34
Speaker 1: like that list I said, it is actually kind of
26:36
Speaker 1: long when you start going through it. This is he
26:39
Speaker 1: could be a real stabilizer for you, uh as well.
26:43
Speaker 1: So like I I have high I have high hopes
26:46
Speaker 1: for Resulson based on what I've seen from him over
26:49
Speaker 1: the past couple of years. I don't think I'm overrating him,
26:51
Speaker 1: but I think I'm I think his importance needs to
26:54
Speaker 1: be like understood for sure.
26:56
Speaker 3: The flarity thing you mentioned just made me think, Karen,
26:59
Speaker 3: it's kind of funny to look back on the free
27:01
Speaker 3: agent acquisitions the Tigers made pretty boom or bust right.
27:05
Speaker 3: Labor Torres like a A plus right, like a to
27:10
Speaker 3: a plus range, Alex Cobb looking like a hard f
27:15
Speaker 3: right now, Tommy Kinley pretty close to an A A plus.
27:23
Speaker 3: Jack Flaherty, I don't know what grade to put on that,
27:27
Speaker 3: you know, I don't want to give that a failing grade.
27:29
Speaker 3: And then you're like, gosh, he's really only a zero
27:31
Speaker 3: point one war Like, that's a lot of money for
27:34
Speaker 3: a replacement level pitcher in a move. I liked it at
27:38
Speaker 3: the time. But that's not getting flying marks for sure.
27:42
Speaker 3: So yeah, what do you make of any of that?
27:45
Speaker 3: Like a couple of really good moves and a couple
27:47
Speaker 3: of moves that have not been so good.
27:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why, that's why armchair gms never get fired,
27:55
Speaker 1: because they don't have to make these make these calls
27:58
Speaker 1: in real time and and and you're never get to
28:01
Speaker 1: bat a thousand.
28:02
Speaker 3: John f Yeah, Margo, we'll go just incomplete there.
28:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Zach McKinstry at his number is an A.
28:14
Speaker 2: We'll say that. I know it's not a free agent,
28:17
Speaker 2: you know, edition, but it.
28:19
Speaker 3: Took three years but now it's an A now.
28:22
Speaker 1: Uh so, yeah, it'll be a lot of fun. All right,
28:25
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break and then we're gonna
28:27
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Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, it's the fourth of July.
29:40
Speaker 1: Like I said, Hope, thank you for making us part
29:42
Speaker 1: of your holiday weekend. Hope you guys are out there
29:45
Speaker 1: having fun, staying safe, anybody, it's I hope you guys
29:50
Speaker 1: are also fans of the hot Dog inc Contest. Joey
29:52
Speaker 1: Chestnuts back. We don't know what happens, obviously recording this
29:54
Speaker 1: before the hot Dog Inc Contest, but it did make
29:56
Speaker 1: me think. Because the Tigers social media team they do,
29:59
Speaker 1: you do a pretty good job, like walking around with the
30:01
Speaker 1: with the microphone.
30:02
Speaker 2: It's like, who would be the best at this? Uh?
30:05
Speaker 2: Who would be the best at that?
30:06
Speaker 1: Like a pretty good one was who would be the
30:08
Speaker 1: best who would win a home run derby among all
30:09
Speaker 1: the pictures? Blah blah blah. So I thought that was
30:12
Speaker 1: pretty fun. Here's our version of that. I kind of
30:15
Speaker 1: want to know, Cody, who who you think would win
30:18
Speaker 1: a hot dog eating contest on the among the Tigers players.
30:21
Speaker 2: So I have a couple.
30:22
Speaker 1: I have a couple, uh, I have a couple of theories.
30:26
Speaker 1: I have a couple of guys that, like I think,
30:28
Speaker 1: hm that maybe you know, maybe maybe a little bit
30:30
Speaker 1: of a wildcard there. I'll start out with, I don't
30:34
Speaker 1: think you can do any segment about who would be
30:36
Speaker 1: the best at X without leading with Trek Schoogl because
30:40
Speaker 1: he's so competitive that like he might just will his
30:44
Speaker 1: way to winning a hot.
30:45
Speaker 2: Dog eating contest.
30:47
Speaker 1: Uh And I think will vest thinks he's the best
30:51
Speaker 1: at everything.
30:52
Speaker 2: That's what I've learned from these videos.
30:53
Speaker 1: So will Vess would probably say yes, But I have
30:56
Speaker 1: a couple of other names here, Cody, But who do
30:58
Speaker 1: you who kind of comes to mind when I say
30:59
Speaker 1: who into hot dog eating?
31:02
Speaker 3: Two names come to mind for me. One is Tommy
31:04
Speaker 3: Cainley just kind of like seems like his vibe something
31:07
Speaker 3: he would enjoy put on a show for the crowd.
31:12
Speaker 3: How many hot dogs could he actually down? I don't know.
31:14
Speaker 3: I don't know much about his eating or eating habits,
31:17
Speaker 3: but I just could see him thriving. And then like,
31:20
Speaker 3: let's look at these guys, you know, Joey Chestnut, Kobayashi.
31:23
Speaker 3: They're not you know, they don't have the bill like
31:26
Speaker 3: professional eaters aren't usually like huge guys, Like they're slimmer guys,
31:30
Speaker 3: high metabolism, they trained for this. I could see Parker
31:34
Speaker 3: Meadows low key crushing everyone in the hot dog eating contest. Andy.
31:41
Speaker 2: I like that.
31:41
Speaker 1: I like that because I have another name along those
31:43
Speaker 1: same lines. But what about what about your boy?
31:46
Speaker 3: Jake Rogers seems kind of like his vibe too with Jake.
31:52
Speaker 3: I love you, Jake, but I'm I don't know, I
31:54
Speaker 3: just don't see you crushing like sixty hot dogs. I
31:57
Speaker 3: think you're too sensible. Actually, I think at a certain
31:59
Speaker 3: point in JA could be like this is this is stupid, man,
32:02
Speaker 3: What am I doing?
32:03
Speaker 2: I love that.
32:04
Speaker 1: It's like I'm doubting you, but I'm doing it because
32:07
Speaker 1: I think your quote too sensible, to which.
32:10
Speaker 3: Probably he probably doesn't get. Said a lot about Jake
32:12
Speaker 3: Rodgers and the Tigers clubhouse, but I.
32:16
Speaker 2: How about how about Wenzel Perez along the same lines
32:23
Speaker 2: of Parker.
32:25
Speaker 1: Both you know, both still young, you know, so they
32:27
Speaker 1: got they got they got the guts to uh to
32:31
Speaker 1: be able to handle all that. And you know he's
32:34
Speaker 1: he's a ball of energy as well. I could see
32:35
Speaker 1: him burning those galleries, you know, pretty quickly.
32:38
Speaker 2: Uh.
32:39
Speaker 1: And yeah, I like uh, I like the Parker pick there.
32:42
Speaker 1: That's a little low key sleeper. I can't really see
32:44
Speaker 1: Riley winning one. I think Riley has too much sense.
32:47
Speaker 1: Riley has too much sense. That's that's a good way
32:49
Speaker 1: to phrase it.
32:50
Speaker 2: Uh.
32:51
Speaker 1: Maybe Sweeney is a little bit of a wild card,
32:54
Speaker 1: you know, he's got that. Yeah, yeah, you know he's
32:58
Speaker 1: got that, he's got that build. I feel like he
33:00
Speaker 1: he could, uh, he would withstand the like you know,
33:02
Speaker 1: the what the force on the body that is a
33:04
Speaker 1: hot dog eating contest. I also think Dingler would just decline,
33:09
Speaker 1: that's just my I think you'd be I think he
33:12
Speaker 1: would just kind of like eat one and like enjoy
33:14
Speaker 1: it and be like, y'all, y'all have fun. I'm gonna
33:17
Speaker 1: I'm gonna enjoy the rest of my day without without
33:20
Speaker 1: any pepto bismal needed. So all right, well, I'd like
33:23
Speaker 1: to see what you guys think. Who do you guys
33:25
Speaker 1: think would win a hot dog eating contest? You can
33:28
Speaker 1: follow us on x formerly known as Twitter at Cody
33:30
Speaker 1: David Hagen, I am at Kieran Underscore Steckley Pop page
33:34
Speaker 1: at Tiger Territory Underscore, YouTube, Instagram, Apple, Spotify, where you
33:38
Speaker 1: guys get your podcasts. We appreciate all of you. Once again,
33:41
Speaker 1: Happy fourth of July. I hope you guys have a
33:43
Speaker 1: happy and safe weekend. Thank you for making us part
33:46
Speaker 1: of your holiday. So for Cody David Hagen, I'm Keeran Steckley.
33:50
Speaker 1: Everybody have great day.