Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / 2026 Schedule Release & Realignment Talk

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2026 Schedule Release & Realignment Talk · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Territory, part of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the ful Teristor Network, a podcast. I'm Karen Steckley with
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: me as always as a man who knows and when
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: it comes to a love story, maybe just say yes, yes,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Cody Savin Eggan, how you doing?
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: Hey doing good care? And so sometimes people are just
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: too afraid to say yes. You know, we get we
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: got this culture now where you're supposed to protect your
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: boundaries and your space and you know you shouldn't hang
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: out with people if you're tired, Like how lame is that?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: Sometimes you just got to be open say yes to things.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Good things can happen.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Exactly and you know what, you never you never know
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: what can happen. You never know what can happen when
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you open the door to something that you never knew
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: was possible. All right, we are going to talk a
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: lot of schedule and some re alignment talks. We haven't
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: been able to get to that yet. But first we're
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: gonna do like a little bit of a reaction to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Monday Night's game. We're recording this before Tuesday Night's game.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: We'll have a full series recap on our Friday episode.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: As we have been doing the past couple of weeks,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: but there was Monday Nights game was just kind of
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: too bizarre to kind of let go unmentioned. Uh, I
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: don't know the last time I saw a manager use
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: a mound visit to like separate a pitcher from a
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: home plate umpire and then not take the bait from
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: said home plate umpire about arguing and by the way,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: school in that situation for that particular pitch was one
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: hundred percent right, but you know, regardless, it's also it
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: was also like it was a weird and a classic
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: school game at the same time. Obviously the way it
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: ended was the weird part. But he had he had
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a petty schoobl with the home run lights you know,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: and even the umpire stuff. But usually Dingler's pretty good
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: about getting in there. So I don't know, what's the
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: what's the number one takeaway from schools out And we
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: just talked about how he's taking care of his body
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: and you know, trying to go deeper in the games.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: He did go deep into this game, and he was
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: one out away from you know, getting through seven and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: having the lead, and you know, Tiger's being in you know,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: winning position even if it's not ideal winning position, but like,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: what's what was the number one takeaway from just kind
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: of a what theF just happened?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: He was boil that down to one takeaway, right, There
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: was kind of a lot going on. I think for
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: six innings, Trek Schougle was as good as he has
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: been all year. I mean, he was really good. And
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: you look at the line, even though only one of
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: those runs ends up being earned, like there were a
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: lot of hits. It got weird two home runs, but
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: there was an error that that marred that final inning.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: And there's a basis loaded jam, you know, facing Jacob Wilson,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: a contact oriented hitter, he gets a punch out, he
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: almost single handedly helped you escape that gets into good
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: count and through a sinker that leaked over the plate
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: eerily similar to the pitching through Laye Thomas in the Alds,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: you know, ruined the night. It unraveled real quickly. I
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: can't fault Eric's Scoogle. He pitched his butt off. It's
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: just like one of those things that happens regarding the
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: umpire stuff. I rarely, you know, wanted to criticize Terrek
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: Scoogle at all. I think he's gonna have to tone
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: down the jawing with umpires. It's getting a little bit
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: crossing the line. It's kind of all the time we get,
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: you know, tarik'sh competitor. I get being frustrated the heat
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: of competition. If he weren't the cy young winner, if
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: he weren't so good, like, the optics of this would
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: not be as in his favor. I think he's gonna
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: have to tone down the john to the umpires. He
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: even kind of said postgame, like I probably shouldn't have
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: done that. I think regarding the umpires, he's gonna have
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: to have a little more restraint or it's gonna get
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: him tossed from a game one day, and that's not
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: gonna be good.
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Well, you know, if you if you read or read
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: old stories or you know, watch old clips of yester
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: years in Major League Baseball, umpires were aggressive, like they
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: like they they gave it back to you whenever, whenever
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: you gave it to them. And then I think in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: a U and sort of like a TV world, like
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: a you know, National TV world, that was kind of
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: tampered down a little bit. Uh.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: In the profession, I talked to empires and managers about this,
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: like MLB doesn't want as much of the confrontation, which
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: I mean, who doesn't love looking at old videos of
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: Earl Weaver or Loopenella or whatever. I think we should
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: bring some of that back.
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: Come on, well, I think it is. I think it
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: is coming back a little bit. I have seen more
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: of it this year of umpires, kind of like you know,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: being like like aggressive in their role, like that's enough,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: a little bit more saying that's enough. I don't know
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: if a Jacksons are up, but I but and you know,
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: maybe in some ways they are, because you know, with
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: the instant replay, they have that automatic trigger that they
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: can use. But I do feel like this they are
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: giving it back a little bit. I wonder what the
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: reasoning of that is. Maybe it's a reaction to what's coming,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: you know, what they know is coming for their profession.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: But but yeah, I mean at a good point. I'm
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: glad you said school needs to tone it down, because
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: that's it's all well and fun until it had until
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: it goes just one exactly one step too far. And
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: and and also you mentioned the earned run thing. That
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: was probably the funniest fallout because I don't everyone knows.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to get Trek to have the nickname Scary Terry.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: I don't know what about Tarik the teacher, because he's
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: teaching everybody baseball fans. I didn't know about what an
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: earned run is and how a run becomes earned or
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: how it becomes unearned. And if you're watching on YouTube,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: you have I would say, a flawless explanation from the
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: Twitter slash x account. Scoring changes. Uh, Basically, when an
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: error occurs and it results in an extension of the ending,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the runs afterward are unearned. I mean that. I mean
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: it's more complicated than that, but like that's that's that.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: That's a synopsis and I would encourage everyone to go
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: read it. But there are a lot of people that
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: really thought that this was like a clerical error. So
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: so it's good.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Good for school, Yeah, it was. It was the East
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Coast by it was biased against the East coast red
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: Sox to give the Midwestern pitcher the cy young over
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: gerrit Kurshet right. Uh, No, it was all It was
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: all scored correctly. It does look weird. You don't see
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: it very often. How does a guy give up two
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: homers and only end up with one earned run. His
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: only earned run on the night was the seventh inning
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: home run to H Thomas, and then there was an
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: E six and then Scooble punches two guys, so inning
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: should have been over. The Grand Slam never should have happened.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: And then of course his run earlier in the game.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: Similar deal if if there's not a bad row, that
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: runner doesn't advance to third and a run doesn't score.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so I thought it was pretty simple in the moment.
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: I didn't realize it was going to be all that controversial,
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: but it is sort.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Of Twitter is probably not a great place to, like,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: you know, talk to people about the rules of baseball
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: and baseball scoring.
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: Sure, well, it's that game and that sequence there Specifically,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: another kind of fallout I had in my mind was,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: you know, it'd be kind of nice if if Parker
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: Meadows could come back. I know, I know Hobby did
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: not play in that game period, but like the art
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: having Parker in center or via lane really you know,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: either one, but obviously Parker is the better defender, Like
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: having them in center allows Hobby to focus more on
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: shortstop and in that situation, like I think we all
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: acknowledge McKinstry is not at his best defensively at short right,
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: I think that.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, mckinstrey was plus three at shortstop last year and
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: he's plus three this year. He was plus three outs
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: above average last year, zero this year, kind of better
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: than I would think. The eye test with mckinstree at
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: short I don't. I don't love he's grated out fine
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: there though.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Okay, well, but there are there is also one of
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: the fears of mckinstrey in general is the wear and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: tear element, and that will certainly play play a part
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: if he has to play more extended log, more extended shortstop.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Any So, that was another another thought I had kind
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: of there in the moment.
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Kinstrey's negative seven at third base this year, I didn't
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: realize he was that bad negative seven, negative seven, but
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: plus three at short I don't know. No, I think
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: you're seeing the impact of not having Meadows or Vierling.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: You just don't necessarily really have a true everyday shortstop
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: defense wise, like you know how things have gone with Sweeney,
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: And then mckinstrey's playing more shortstop on in every basis
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: probably than he ever has, definitely as much as he
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: has in a Tiger's uniform. Be nice to have Hobby
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Bias playing a little more shortstop. If you want to
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: get real big picture, who do you want to be
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: your shortstop next season? Kieran, Because I don't when we
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: talk about the construction and the infield and what they
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: should or shouldn't do in free agency, that kind of
• 9:19
  Speaker 2: is overlooked. I mean, I guess Hobby's still going to
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: be under contract. You roll with Hobby and a combination
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: of McKinstry, Sweeney, maybe McGonagall. I don't think, for as
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: much as the Tigers have tried to proclaim, McGonagle can
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: stick it short now, you know, teams always say that
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: until guys get close to the majors, I'm not sure
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: the plan is to play him there every day. I
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: think they're gonna start working a more at third, so
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: we'll see what happens there. But I'm not as much
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: as as great as Kevin McGonagall is, I'm not sure
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: I want him being the everyday shortstop either. So that's
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: kind of a question that's going to hang over things
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: some this offseason as well. I guess if you have
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Meadows and beerling back, though, you can plan on a
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: little more Hobby and then it's just like, Okay, Hobby
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: gonna be able to hit next year. We can worry
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: about that later.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll just say my mindset is it's probably McGonagall
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: at second base, and you patchwork something with Hobby and
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: maybe some maybe it's Sweeney, maybe it's somebody else of
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: that ill can you patchwork it there, McKinstry, and you know,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: figure out third base too, So that's that's just my opinion.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: Maybe it's Jason Second McGonagall at third. I don't know,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: but I don't really think there's.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: That's a name.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: I've not heard any Yeah, mate, but I don't think
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: they're gonna force feed mcgonagall's major league shortstop to uh.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: And you can signed Boba Schett, who's like negative seven
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: at shortstop this year and probably needs to move to third,
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: So that doesn't help you at that there.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's why they get paid the big bucks. But
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: speaking of you know, some of these decisions are hard.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: They're like what we just went through was gonna be
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: tough to figure out for Scott Harrison the offseason, and
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: one of the things that he figured out this past
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: offseason was I need a bet in starting pitcher, and
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I'm going to sign Alex Gobb to a one year,
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: fifteen million dollar contract. And aj Hinch today on his
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: regular MLB radio appearance, said that Cobb is being pulled
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: from his Rehobit rehab assignment and shut down for a
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: week now. Chris Pokowski puts on Twitter, this allows the
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: club to reset the assignment for another thirty days. Uh,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: but you know they're gonna have to make some sort
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: of decision here pretty soon, obviously with it being August
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: twenty sixth Uh, it's hard to say. It's hard to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: say you think you're gonna see Cobb in a Tiger
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: uniform this year and thus period. People are gonna have
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: fun with this. I wanted to ask you, let's just
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: say he doesn't pitch this this season or period. Is
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: there like tangible blame to be had, not like who's
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: the blame or whatever? Is there tangible blame to be had?
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Because this is the ultimate on known is what was
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: what did the front office know? What was shared with them?
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: You know, what did Cobb know about his body? These
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: are just things that we don't know. I almost think
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: the simplest explanation Oakom's razor is that he had himself
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: an old man injury and his old body just has
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: not been able to recover. Now, if you want to
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: say the blame is for signing the picture that old,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: maybe that's fair. But in terms of this specific situation,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: I just kind of feel like this was a perfect circumstance.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: No, I think there's blame. I mean, I think the
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: Tigers probably shouldn't have signed Alex Cob. When I was
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: going through pitchers this offseason looking at who they should sign,
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: who they shouldn't sign, I gave Alex Cobb a look
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: for about ten seconds and was like, he's injured a lot,
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: he barely passed, barely pitched last year, he's thirty five, Like,
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: they don't want someone like that. Moved on. Clearly I
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: was wrong, Clearly there was untapped value. And then when
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: they signed him, I was like, well, you know, if
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: he's healthy, I think he could be a good pitcher.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Then that was their rationale, right, But not only was
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: he not healthy, he was not remotely close to healthy.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: There was a lot of history that could predict he
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: probably wasn't going to be healthy. What exactly did they
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: know about his hips? Again, hard to say. Was there
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: some oversight there. We don't know the answer to that,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: But I think when you signed a thirty five year
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: old with as checkered of an injury history as pretty
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: much any player in the league, what exactly were you expecting?
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: And keep in mind they signed him at winter meetings
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: early December, there were other dudes on the market. They
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: thought they cut a good deal. They gave him fifteen mil,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: but talked about other teams that offered him more. I
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: don't know, obviously, it's easy to say this in hindsight
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: after it had clearly has not worked out. But in hindsight,
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: this probably wasn't a good signing. That's just reality here.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: Well, I mean, it's one of your worst value signings
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: that you had in a long time.
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: It took a risk, one of really injured thirty five
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: year old in your line. Yeah, that's what happened.
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's an L. I mean, there's no doubt about it.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: It's an L and one that they a have to
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: eat and you know, have been dealing with them. We'll
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: continue in the likelihood to deal with all Right, We're
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: gonna give our twenty twenty six schedule reactions here in
• 14:18
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• 15:23
  Speaker 1: All right, coming back here. Schedule release Cody later than
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: it typically is, and it's usually you know, mid July,
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: definitely before the trade deadline. I have a friend who
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: works for vivid Seats, and she said that they are
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: getting complaints, like the ticketing partners are getting complaints from
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: people that the schedule's not up.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: You know why.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know, but you know, people
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: play their summers.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: Are yeah, like any like not that the MLB schedule
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: is ever really going to be a big news story,
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: but I feel like the longer you wait, you know,
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: it's where people are sett on football all the less
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: it matters. And then you happen to wait so long.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey get announced right when it
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: comes out, get engaged right when it comes out, So like,
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: really pretty terrible. I'm not sure it really matters in
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: terms of the news cycle. But I don't know why
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: it was later this year. I've not heard.
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, there there's a couple anomalies on
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: the schedule, and we'll pull it up here.
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: They're figuring out all these World Cup games they're going
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: to eat into a Tiger's July series in Texas.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's the main thing. I'm sure everybody's seen
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: it by now. But the Tigers are at New York
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: to end June and go into July and then start
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: a series against Texas on July second. Then they're off
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: the third and then finish the series that weekend the
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: thirds of Friday, finish the series that weekend at Texas.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: And of course that stands out. And the reason for
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: that is the World Cup is going on at at
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: and T Stadium aka Jerry World, which, if you guys
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: are unfamiliar, is one hundred yards away from from the
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: from globeal Live Park, So that would be why they
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: don't want to crowd that little section of Arlington with.
• 17:08
  Speaker 2: The World The Rangers are having a couple series interrupted
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: like this and are spending a good chunk of what
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: late June early July on the road.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: Yes, and so highlights include opening the season on March
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: twenty sixth at San Diego, so that that should be
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: a pretty sight. So back to back West coast too.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Nice weather out in San Diego in April or excuse me,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: late March. I won't be mad about that trip.
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And the home opener is April third, a series
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: against the Saint Louis Cardinals. And actually they're on the
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: road a decent bit to begin the year, Cody Mare.
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, people don't love that Tigers haven't opened at home
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: since what twenty twenty two? Is that right? But the
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: weather here is just so bad in March and April.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: It makes sense, it just makes It's just that way. Yeah.
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: And and then the you know this, this will work
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: out for some guys on the team presumably, but they
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: are at they play Philadelphia, so that's at home actually,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: But then the All Star Game is in Philadelphia, so
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: they can probably just take get on the same flight
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: with with the Phillies after that series and go back
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: to go back to Philadelphia for the All Star Game,
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: which is a July fourteenth.
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: Then you'll open the second half on the West Coast,
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: which I guess is better than going from like East
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: Coast to West coast. But that's, you know, big trip,
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: coming fresh out of the All Star break.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then during the trade deadline, presumably it's going
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: to be July thirty first again they will be at
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the Athletics, which will be where they're at right now
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: in Sacramento. So so yeah, so those are some key
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: sites and then they.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Do you're gonna have to go to Sacramento next year.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: I don't know how I actually want to see it.
• 18:56
  Speaker 2: I'm obviously not on this trip. I just kind of
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: want to see what the vibe is like. So, you
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: know what, not, I'm not mad about it.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: There you go and finished the year at Pittsburgh or
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: excuse me, hosting Pittsburgh hosting Pittsburgh. Uh, you know, to
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: close out close out the regular season. And I know
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: you were. You guys were thinking it too. Trade deadline,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: when's the home finale. That's a six game home stand
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: against Washington and Pittsburgh to finish the season. As of
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: right now, that is the last those are the last
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: regular guaranteed games in which Trek Schoogle is under contract
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: with the Detroit Tigers, so that those trade deadline and
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: that last week of September could be could be pretty
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: loud in terms of outside the lines story lines there Cody.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: So I just wanted to point that out. I don't
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: know if anyone else thinking it. I was thinking it.
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: Hopefully he's on the team when they opened in San Diego.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Right there, you go, any anything is possible. So so yeah,
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: I mean it, teams are going to change. It's not
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: you know, strength of schedule and all that stuff that
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. Everything's balanced. But uh, they're away on
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Mother's Day. I wrote this down somewhere. They're away on
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Memorial Day, and they're away on fourth of July. No, no,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: no city downtown Detroit baseball parties that those those those
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: holidays forever that's forth.
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: It's kind of kind of a bummer. I mean, those
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: are always good atmospheres at at Comerica. So I'm sure
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: there are people who are disappointed, like no summer holidays.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Are the Tigers playing in Detroit?
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: Look at this May schedule. You you have an off
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: day on the first Thursday, and then the second Monday
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: and the fourth Monday. May is going to be a grind.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you that right now. May is going to
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: be grind.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: So you think ga J. Hanch or Scott Harrison have
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: already looked at this, and I'm like, all right, when
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: can we bring up cater Montero for a fuss start
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: next year?
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: There's a non zero percent chance that that, like some
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: sort of like formulaic element has already been discussed in
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: the Tigers front office. I would say that I think it.
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: Hass Yeah, I think there's an zero percent chance. When's
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna put you on the spot right now, Cody,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: when's Max Clark's debut? Pick a date? O?
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: All right? I like this Kevin mcgonagall's debut. It's gonna
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: be in San Diego at least it should be Max Clark.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: It's gonna be later. How late is the question?
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah? Real?
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: Is it bad? My mind's pushing it back because I'm
• 21:42
  Speaker 2: just like, they're gonna have a couple guys in center.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: He's gonna have to really tear it up to like
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: get up there in the first half. They're gonna want
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: to keep them at that point, you're gonna probably want
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: to try to keep them rookie eligible. Yeah, I think
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: August or September. I think it's gonna be later.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: I'm saying with that in mind, because I do think
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: the rookie eligible thing is big. I'm saying September seventh,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: home Monday against the Twins. That's my call. You heard
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: it here.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: First go September one, opening up on the road, Arcur
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: Meadows can't hit. Maybe it'll be May.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: First, May first, Okay. I was also looking at that
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: Baltimore series in late July. I don't like right before
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the trade deadline? Maybe maybe actually, you know what, what
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: about right after the All Star Game? Give him with
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: some time to kind of get his feet wet, see
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: how he mixes with the roster right before the trade deadline.
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: It's a tough calculus. I kind of want to keep
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: him rookie eligible, man, I don't know. It's kind of
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: like the Jackson Joe pay There's almost going to be
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: a pressure to bring him up early where he cruise
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: a full year of service time I'm in his draft
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: pick incentive eligible, or to just keep him down, you know,
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: as long as you reasonably can.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: What about how you leave if we don't see him
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: this year?
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: I don't think the PPI is going to be as
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: big of a deal with with how you Lee? I
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: think how yeah, I think I think we're in. There's
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: a chance we see him in September, not guarantee, but
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: a pretty good chance, and then he's going to be
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: battling for a roster spot. But it's it's a different
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: circumstance than like next Clark. So whenever there's need, can
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: you win a job in spring training? I don't know,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: it depends on the rest of Chris Rogeriuez.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: That's obviously I'm kidding. So yeah, I mean these are
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: these are so you look at the schedule and you
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: kind of like think things through a little bit and
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: you kind of think like what's going to kind of
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: be part of the equation at this time. And that's
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: why I want to kind of talk about this stuff.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: And we've talked a little bit about the future for
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: a team that's right there in first place. We're going
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: to continue to talk about the future and something that's
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: actually way more hypothetical, and that would be realignment talk.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: But first a word from our sponsors.
• 24:17
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• 25:14
  Speaker 2: Get after it.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: All right, coming back here. You know that was Rob
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Manfred about during the what was it the Little League
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: World Series? Uh, you know, game Broadcast kind of dropped
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the little nugget that you know, the MLB is looking
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: at realignment and expansion expansion, I should say, and this
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: is something that's ways out, but it is kind of
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: good fodder to kind of think about. And instead of
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: like predicting it, we'll show here in a second, like
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: an example of what that could mean. Instead of like
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: kind of discussing this that the other thing I just
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: wanted to ask, like does it matter and what does
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: matter for baseball moving forward? So we've gone we've made
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the leagues in unison, right, We've expanded replay so that
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: it's no longer the human element rules all. We just
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: talked about umpires and that's, by the way, going to
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: continue to expand. Uh, there's a collective bargaining element that
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: is coming up here pretty soon. We know the owners
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: are gonna want a salary cap and with it will
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: come a salary floor. We know the players are not
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: gonna want that balance schedules what really matters? So those
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: alignment really matter and what really matters? That's my question.
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, on the list of like real life and worried
• 26:35
  Speaker 2: about the rising costs of living and the rise of
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: AI and the threat of World War three, So MLB
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: expansion is pretty low in the list. Even in terms
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: of MLB I think the immediate priorities getting all your
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: TV deals done. Sounds like that's close getting a CBA
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: done in a couple of years, hoping to avoid a
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: work stoppage. That's going to be a mess. This is
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: so far down the line. I'm kind of amazed by
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: how much ink has been spent on it and how much,
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: how many minutes people have talked about it. But we're
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: going to join the crew. But I guess because people
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: like talking about it. Rob Manford once expansion plans in
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: place by twenty twenty nine, when he is likely to
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: be done as commissioner as plans so expansion teams probably
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: not twenty thirty one, twenty thirty two, so we're probably
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: six years at least away from this being any part
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: of reality. I do think it's it's important to the
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: league to expand. I believe they think it can spark
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: some more revenue. Right. Is that the is that the.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: Is it's in here better, it's it's a higher property value,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: you know, and then you get the you get the
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: expansion fees from the ownership group, and you and you
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: enter into markets that are beneficial for the overall brand.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: I mean, that's really the only. I mean, that's why
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: that's why businesses in general expand, because if you're not expanding,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: your dying, So you're always looking for additional revenue streams
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: and uh and more partners invested, and.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: You're what I do. Like, I mean, I think there's
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: some interesting markets out there. I think Nashville highly mentioned
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: as as a very likely market. I think that'd be
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: a great market for baseball, right, Charlotte's in that mix,
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: and then Portland is commonly mentioned. Like, I think there
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: are some cities that would make sense. It would also
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: be better than a couple of your existing markets, you know,
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: I think that would be exciting just to have baseball
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: in some in some cool places and some cities that
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: seem eager to support it.
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and but then you got then you gotta
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: worry about what the NBA went through in the nineties,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: where your talent is diluted and you and you and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: your your have and have not are are grander the difference,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: and so like, that's that's got to be part of
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: the consideration, which will probably which will probably result in
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: a push for a salary cap because they're gonna because
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: they're gonna because they're gonna want to like incentivize, They
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: want to spread the talent, and they and basically force
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: the talent to be spread by capping uh by capping expenses.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: And then number one expense for any team is obviously
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: a payroll on the field. So like, so that's already talked.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: They expanding the playoffs more for a bigger TV deal.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: The expanding playoffs are already bad. We're really going to
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: do this more, but that probably creates more randomness and
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: who ends up being your champion. Yeah, there a lot
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: of ripple effects, one of which is realignment. There's talk
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: that if this happens, MLB may reimagine it's divisions, which
• 29:44
  Speaker 2: is interesting to think about. There are a lot of
• 29:47
  Speaker 2: different examples out there, ideas out there creating some fun
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: divisions with both New York teams in the same division,
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: or both Chicago teams in the same division. My colleague
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: stephen Nesbit at the f actually did a version of this.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: I thing is probably more realistic. It's not that exciting
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: if you're a Tigers fan. This puts basically keeps your
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: division the same, just kicks the Royals out of it.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: You would be in the new Al North. There would
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: be what four four team divisions in each league, so
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: it would look a little different, but you know, this
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: might actually be the simplest solution to realignment.
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, again, doesn't change much. And and the key part
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: of what Manford said when he you know, dropped this
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: little nugget on the broadcast was he talked about it
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: being beneficial for players in terms of less travel, better arrest,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: better recovery, and then all that stuff and and and yes,
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: it is real, but it it's also not the goodness
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: of his heart. Like there's a like there's there's there's
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: a strategic element to wanting that and making it a
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: partial like good for the player's move I mean, that's
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: just how these things have always worked in the history
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: of professional sports, you know, so no matter, no matter
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: of the sports. So like it's like, Okay, we're gonna
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: have a realignment. These things are coming, So how do
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: we make the product the best you know it can be.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: That's gonna be part of the CBA negotiation. Right now,
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: we have the National League potential realignment from from your
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: colleague there that puts the Raleigh or Nashville team and
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: what would be the NL South with Tampa Bay so
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: that would be a change moving to the National League
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: with Miami and Atlanta. And you know, the only the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: only thing that makes these interesting or like frustrating for
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: certain fan bases. Would you just kind of look at
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: the ownership profile and think, is that what I want
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: to compete against on a regular basis? So, uh like,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: if you're Texas and the American League and you get Colorado,
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: you're probably thinking this is probably like this is nice,
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: you know, like, but things could change in between now
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: and then. But but yeah, so it does. It does
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: look tighter, It does look a lot tighter, and and
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: it would allow for you know, maybe new rivalries to form,
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: uh while creating a system that also keeps in a
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: lot Minnesota and Detroit, for example, Like I've saw some
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: that didn't have Detroit with either Chicago team, and that
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: would just seem unnatural for a Detroit team to not
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: be in a division with the Chicago team, like, you know,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: like that just wouldn't make sense to me. Uh So
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: I also.
• 32:31
  Speaker 2: Saw something in the same division would be fun though, that.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Would be fun. I would like that. I saw some
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: that had the Mets with the with Boston and the Yankees,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: and that upset a lot of people up in the Northeast,
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: but the biggest spenders or biggest able spenders one so
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: so yeah, it's all hypothetical. It They're not going to
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: get clarity on this, but this example right here that
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: we're showing should make Tigers fans feel like the comfort
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: level that you've enjoyed with watching these teams on a
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: regular basis, and like if you have friends from Cleveland,
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: you have friends from Chicago, you have friends from Minnesota,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Like you still get that element here.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I don't know if we'll still be doing
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: this in twenty twenty nine, but maybe check back then
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: and we can provide you at least a little more
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: clarity on what these expansion sites will end up being.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: And we'll see what what what we will have correct
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: including the schedule that we just talked about and and
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: the hypotheticals at second.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: Base, second base next Clark's debut. Yeah, yep, the school
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: future a lot of hypotheticals.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: A lot of hypotheticals, and a lot of strangeness as
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: we enter this September, in the in the in the
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: Swan song of the of the season. So we will
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: be back on Friday, discussing the Oakland series and looking
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: forward to Kansas City and in Labor Day weekend, and
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: and we will have a more in depth reaction to
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: how the Tigers fair against Oakland, because the bottom line
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: is like this is you gave one away. This is
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: not a series that you want to drop. So we'll
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: see how much this sentence holds up by the time
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: you guys are listening. But you can follow us on
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Twitter x as it is currently known at Coy Stavenhagen,
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: I'm at Kieranoscourse Steckley Pop pages at Tiger Territory, Underscore, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Apple, Spotify,
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: Tiger Territory Shop dot com. You guys know what to do.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: We appreciate all of you. So for Cody Staveanhagen, I'm
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Kieran Steckley. Everybody have right there,