Latest / Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast / Are The Tigs Back?

Transcript

Are The Tigs Back? · Tiger Territory: A Detroit Tigers Podcast

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: And welcome into another episode of Tiger Tears work or
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the Baltork. Hey, I'm curiously with me as always a
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: man who's a senior level expert traveling around the junior circuit.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: He's got to Stavid egging how you doing.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: They're doing? All right, All is well in the world.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: The Tigers won a baseball game for the first time
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: in what felt like a long time. I wrote eight
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: days that felt like eighty I don't I'd like like
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: how we were feeling like this one win shouldn't get
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: ahead of ourselves. It is not a race, a very
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: very bad span of baseball, but it does kind of
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: remind you that's really all they needed was like one
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: or two wins to change the angle of the playoff picture.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: The Tigers playoff odds. We'll just go ahead and put
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: this out there. At eighty four point two percent, still
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: have an outside chance to win the division. They're tied.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: We got three games left. Basically, if you can get
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: one more win, I mean, your magic number is two.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: You know, some combination of two Tigers wins and Astrips
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: losses and you were going to the playoffs. So there's
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: that big exhale again. I don't think that makes any
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: of this better. You do have to be nice to
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: see him win maybe two in a row, but you
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: have a chance to write this ship a little bit.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I think it'd be the most twenty twenty five Tigers
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: thing ever. So get in the playoffs, go back to Cleveland,
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: beat the Guardians, and then who knows what happens from there.
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I'm not saying it's gonna happen, but I could sure
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: see it happening.
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, in regards to to Thursday Nights game,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: we're recording this Friday morning. Cody's already in Boston, so
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: like you know it, you know, it's full go time obviously.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: You know. I'm watching the game. I'm at my local
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: watering hole. I'm taking notes, and this guy is like
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: trying to talk to me about Russian literature and how
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: that's how he used to like get girls in college,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: and I'm like, dude, it's the eighth inning Finnigans on
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the mound. Like I'm trying to be nice, Like.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: The Russian literature thing doesn't actually work at least not
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: at the State May Toss or something.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: So so yeah, I'm just like I'm like I'm trying
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: to be nice, but it's like, dude, this is crucial
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: moments here.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Uh. But it was really fun. And my my wife
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: was at a conference and she was like, oh, how
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: was your evening? And you were able to relax. I
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: was like when that game was over, was able to
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: relax because it was like, whow all these things we
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: had kind of seen snippets of all these little things
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: that we know the Tigers do and what when they
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and they usually add up to like winning baseball that
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: necessarily wins all the time, but winning baseball, and it
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: was nice to kind of see that kind of stuff
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: like actually result in a w. So that's just like
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: my exhale, Like, whoof what was that clubhouse like? You know,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: because again you're there like every day and before the
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: game and after the game and and you and you're
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: kind of having to ask like the same questions over
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: and over again a lot of the same guys, and
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that's like a tiring experience from both sides. So what
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: was that clubhouse like? To be able to talk about
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: all those things and a win?
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a lot better. First time there's been
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: music playing in a long time. Definitely the most lively
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: and full it's been in a long time. I think
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: like three or four different guys used some variation of
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: you know, lifting a weight off our shoulder. Winsle Perez
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: literally gave like the biggest exhale I've ever seen. Like
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: it just felt like ah, and that is how it felt.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: I do think the Tigers felt like that collectively, even
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: after the first inning, the Jami Jones homer, the wintle homer.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: You got momentum, You gave your young starter a lead.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Oddly enough, they scored first in all three games in yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: Like a two oh lead rather than a one oh
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: lead made a difference this time. The homers, you know,
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: they were writing pretty high again. It kind of felt
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: like more than one win. Just I think that's how
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: bad they needed to break the streak. It's how bad,
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: how impactful one win at this point in the year
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: can be in changing the playoff picture. So we'll see
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: if they can keep that going. We'll see if they
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: can play another good game against a good Red Sox
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: team that also has a lot of stake this weekend.
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: They didn't play a perfect game. They squandered a lot
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: of run scoring opportunities. They had some bad at bats
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: with runners in scoring position, gotten a couple of sticky situations,
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: but they got out of it, and that was the
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: biggest thing. They pitched well. Their bullpen day pitching chaos
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: actually unfolded according to plan. Oddly enough, their last two
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: victories have been bullpen days if you go back to
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: that Sunday in Miami with Jose Raikhidi and cater Montero,
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: so the strategy can still work every now and then.
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: It worked pretty much to perfection. Aj Hinch was back
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: in control, making good decisions, the decisions that made sense,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: and he got good results. It is one game, but refresh.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and like there, you know I had I had
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: reference at a previous episode, like all these like potential breakthroughs,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and they didn't happen. Uh, you know, because you end
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: up getting the losses. But now that there's a win,
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: we can talk about like some some breakthrough aspects. So
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: you have, you know, the advantageous line up, the righty
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: centric lineup, the switch hitting Perez and like I said,
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: two home runs in the first ending, Riley Green gets
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: himself a home run off a lefty, not a cheap
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: one either, uh. And in the bullpen, the bullpen like
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: actually playing out at designed as instructed. Uh. I think
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: obviously these pieces were acquired at different times and there's
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: been injuries, but like that, the Herder gainly and again
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: best like go go you know, line up if you would,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: it's something that AJ would probably like to use at
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: a decent clip. You have the righting, you have the
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: lefty specialist, you have the writy with what you know,
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: what we've seen this year can be a devastating uh
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: pitch and Kainlee and then you bring in essentially your
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: two closing horses and they're able to get the job
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: done even through the uh you know, the kwand and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the Ramirez part of the line up there. So what
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: was again one game that's going into the final weekend,
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: what's the bigger deal from that win? And also the
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Mountain piece which we'll get to as well.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd like to say it's the pitching, but looking
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: at at the stats, you know, the Tigers game notes
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: puts out every day fighters are now seventy and five
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: when they lead after six innings, which it doesn't feel
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: like that given how much we've complained about the bullpen
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: all season. I think what that shows is like, well,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: You've had two pretty good guys at the back of
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: your bullpen for most of the year. Vest has been
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: pretty good all year, just bite a little lull this month,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Kaine Lee actually from Kinley's back to being good again.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Maybe for a lot of the year Kinley's been good,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: You've been okay at being able to hold on delete.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: It's when you have to dig deeper in your bullpen
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: that the Tigers have gotten in some real trouble. When
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: tied after six, they have a losing record twelve and fourteen,
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: and when they're trailing after six, they're only four and
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: fifty four, which is interesting. They haven't had a lot
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: of dramatic come from behind wins. For as much as oh,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: this is a full and emotional team, they haven't come
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: from behind very often. And you could argue they haven't
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: had the bullpen to keep them in games when it
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: gets late and they're losing and aj Hinch is deploying
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: the bullpen a little bit differently. So those are kind
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: of some illuminating numbers to show what's really going on.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: I still think, especially if we start talking about playoff baseball,
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: you got to have more than one or two guys
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: in the bullpen and at least for a night you
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: did you had Melton coming out of the gates. We'll
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: talk a little bit more about him in a second.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Brent Herder, pretty important guy for you man. Not having
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: him for a stretch in the air, him having to
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: go down and rediscover his mechanics. That hurt Will Vest.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: That was his best outing in a minute. His style.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: It looked a little more like Will Vest. I thought that.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: I asked Aja Hinchlick, did you need to see that?
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: And he said, no, I just need to see the
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: final out. You know, you trust well and all that,
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: But yeah, I needed to see that. You know, I
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: think you feel a lot better. Kyle Finning and low
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: key been getting up some runs. Keep an eye on that.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: But strung together, the game unfolded his plan. I think
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: that was the most important takeaway.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I also don't want to let the fact
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: that Hobby had himself an RBI too, Like.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: He was gonna say, Karan, who's the MVP of that game?
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: You could argue, Meltain could argue Jemai, there's a low
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: key case for Hobby bias RBI single, another knock and
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: some nice defensive plays a reminder that the Tigers are
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: just better and a different team when Hobby is able
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: to be a on the field and be at least
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: somewhat productive. Yeah, I don't know if that's gonna be
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: the case going forward. It was a little reminder of, like, dude,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: this guy matters.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: They did a lot of the small things yesterday that again,
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: it's like, this is the team that I've watched since
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: late March. You know, I did. I didn't recognize this
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: team over the past couple weeks, But this is the
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: team that I've watched since late March. All the little
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: things Hobby, the you know how comfortable he is, like
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: going after balls and you know his IQ. And then
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: like really really aggressive, like a really aggressive base running
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I would say yesterday as well from a couple of
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: guys including Parker Meadows. Uh. And then even like what
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: was at the bottom of the fourth labor Torrez makes
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: a bare handed play on Rokyo and gets the out
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: umpire kind of like sneezes or something. I don't know,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: I didn't see where his hands went, and and so
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: but Torque throws home and makes a perfect throw where
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: Dingler just has to like catch glove down right where
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: right where the slide was obviously didn't matter because the
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: out was at first base, but there was a situation
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: where what if he's safe and then what you know,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: what happens at home? And then like is it does
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that become like the are you effing kidding me? Tigs?
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: You know what I mean? Like that was a real
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: thing that could have happened, but like all those little things, uh,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: play play played into it. So that was really good
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: to see. And then we got to give credit to
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: one Jami Jones and we will do that in the
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: form of making him our chart topper of the Week,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: presented by Drekkings. So yeah, you know, DraftKings uh gives
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: us an opportunity to kind of look at like different
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: things of what makes this team go and and and
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: Jami Jones is one of those like pieces that has
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: really made this team go in a variety of ways
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: code and and sometimes you forget just like how I
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: don't want to say random, that's not the right term,
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: but how like low key bringing Jami Jones into the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: organization was and you're like, oh, this is kind of cool,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: like you know, you have the family aspect of it.
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: That's nice. You know, and he's become like a vital
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: component to to what aj wants to do with this lineup.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Not only is he you know, a lefty killer and
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: I'll get to some some some numbers examples in a second,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: but the fact that he's a guy that you put
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: at the top of the lineup so that when you know,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: the bullpens come in, you want to bring in your carpenter,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: you want to bring in you know, Meadows is a
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: bad example, but McKinstry, you know whoever, like you can
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: put those guys at the top of the lineup to
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: be with the you know, the heart of your order.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: You see what I'm saying. So that's it's not just like, oh,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: he's a guy we play against lefties. We play him
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: from the jump and I think that's important too. So
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: how do you kind of illustrate Jami Jones's importance to
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: this team?
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Here? Me O, remember when the Tigers in j or
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Jami Jones and the opening day roster so they could
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: sign Manuel Margo and have Ryan Kreidler be the opening
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: day centerfielder.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Was that two years ago? I can't remember.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: That was this year? That was this season. So if
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: you want to add to the list of things that
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: probably weren't handled well, maybe you could put that on
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: there at the same time. In the big picture, one
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: thing Scott Harris got right this year was picking up
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Jami Jones. That was probably the one smaller under the radar,
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: you know, the type of move that tends to be
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: his mo that he got right. You got this guy
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: for nothing on a minor league deal and he has
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: a nine to twenty three OPS. Like he has been
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: really good. We were talking about the trade deadline, like, okay,
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: if you get another right handed bat, you're probably just
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: replacing Jamai. Is that worth it? Probably a good thing
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: they didn't take a a you know, roll the dice
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: on some other right handed platoon guy, because you might
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: not have Jami Jones with a nine to twenty three
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: OPS hitting a leadoff homer in a huge game against
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: the Guardians. He's been a low key bright spot. Probably
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: has not been talked about enough just because Hey, there's
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: been kind of a lot of other stuff to talk
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: about lately. Credit is where credits do wage mine. He's
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: got a great personality, really authentic guy. Seems like he's
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: fitting while in this clubhouse. Handled his role really well
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: and come up in some big moments and he might
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: not be done coming up in big moments.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So that was his seventh home run off left
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: handed pitching of the season, which matches Glabor Torres. And
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: if you look at like their like their offensive output
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: in various numbers, Like he said, what was Jones's ops
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: against left.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's just overall, I don't.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: Know, well against lefties six I have it right here
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: and and ninour is Jones. So it's like their profiles
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: are very similar. Even if you look at.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, if the Tigers any ideas king, we don't need
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: to get any more right handed hitting next year. We
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: have Jamai Jones.
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Uh careful, well, yeah, even if you look at the
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: you know, if you go on DraftKings, you just kind
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: of play around with the batter props, which which I
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: find fun because I think it actually does tell a story.
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: Three plus total basses Labor Torres plus three twenty nine,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: three plus total basses Jami Jones plus three sixty six
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: two plus hits plus two ninety for Torres two plus
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: hits plus three twenty two. These are like, these are
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: sense differences. Is that that's the point of what I'm
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: saying with these numbers is that they largely view these
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: guys as similar hitters when there's a left handed starter
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: on the mount. And that brings us to our pick
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: of the week. We have it on the screen here.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: Jami Jones two plus hits at plus three twenty two
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: could have done on the toll basis thing. If he
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: does what he did on Thursday on Friday, then that
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: would have taken care of that. But I was thinking
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: right hander, you know Fenway, like get you know, just
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: you know, hit it off the wall. He's certainly capable
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: of that. The the Red Sox are putting Kyle Harrison
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: on the mat on Friday as of as of this recording,
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: so uh you figure, you know, Jami Jones is going
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: to be right. I actually made this pick before the
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: leadoff home run for the record, so this is this
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: is not just pick itbacking. It's one of those things
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: that actually kind of worked out in our in our favor,
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: which doesn't always happen. So Jami Jones two plus hits
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: plus three twenty two. You can download the DraftKings sportsbook
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: app and use code foul bet five dollars and that
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: bet hits you get two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: Draftking Sportsbook, The Crown is yours. Your season, your shot.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: The NFL season is rolling. Every touchdown can bring you
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: closer to a payout. With Draft Kings Sportsbook and official
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: sports betting partner of the NFL, every snap is loaded
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: with opportunity. Download the DraftKings sports Book app and use
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: code foul that's code foul to get two undred dollars
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: in bonus bets instantly when you place your first five
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: dollars bet plus over two hundred dollars off NFL Sunday
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. If parts ship with DraftKings,
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: the Crown is yours.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Gambling problem called one eight hundred gambler in New York
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: called eight seven seven eight hope and wire text hope
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: and y four six seven three six nine in Connecticut.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Help is available for a problem gambling call eight eight
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: eight seven eight nine seven seven seven seven or visit
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: CCPG dot org. Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: Casino and Resorting, Kansas. These may apply in Illinois twenty
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: one and over. Agent eligibility varies by jurisdiction. BOYD and Ontario.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: Bonus bets expires seven days after issue and see Sportsbook
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: dot DraftKings dot com Slash promos. NFL Sunday Ticket offer
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: for new subscribers only in autowork News until canceled. Digital
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: games and commercial use excluded. Restrictions apply. Additional NFL Sunday
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: Ticket terms at YouTube dot com slash Go Slash NFL
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: Sunday Tickets Slash terms Limited time offer.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: All right, coming back here. Another piece of what we
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: saw Thursday and something that could be you know, could
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: be a factor later on, is Troy Melton starting for
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: the first time in like a month, I think, and
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: really showing why this guy is Wiseman your boy for
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: for a while now, and why, like the starter upside
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: is a lot of fun. You hope you can kind
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: of transition that into some sort of bullpen arm. But
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: that was fun. He was pumping ninety nine. He ends
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: up going three point two innings, gives up one run.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: He has only two hits and a strike out there
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: with two walks. Obviously he wasn't gonna go five or
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: six or anything. It's it's too late for that. But
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: just a reminder of what an asset this guy is
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: when used, I think in his more natural setting.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the usage of Melton remains a big topic.
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Did they get this writer or not? Should he have
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: just been part of the rotation. It's an interesting question.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: I think there's a case for it. I don't hate
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: what the Tigers did moving him to the pin. The
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: whole idea was they could use him more often, they
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: could use him in a wider variety of scenarios. He
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: could be a multiening bridge type reliever. That's kind of
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: something they really needed twenty twenty high being hindsight, that
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: didn't really unfold the way they want because they lost
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: twenty of twenty seven games. They did not have a
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: lead very often, and therefore I don't think Melton was
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: getting as much work or maybe pitching in a lot
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: of scenarios they envisioned him pitching in, which then begs
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: the question like, well, maybe he should just be bringing
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: him in when the game is a ROSIERO. So I
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: guess I see this one both ways. I'm not gonna
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: get I've been pretty tough on the Tigers lady. I'm
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: not gonna kill him for this because I think the
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: thought was there and kind of made a lot of sense. Now,
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: the results ended up being you probably didn't use Melton
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: as much, maybe didn't get as much of him out
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: of him as you could have had you just put
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: him in the rotation, called it good. The innings limit
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: certainly would be a concern, but it's a concern anyway.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Now you're fighting for your lives, and now you know
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: if you make the postseason, who knows how many innings
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: this guy is gonna end up throwing throwing for you.
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: So I don't know where I land on that one.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: You feel strongly about it one way or another.
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: Well, I feel strongly that the best use of me
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Elton was what we saw was a version of what
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: we saw yesterday, and that's him as a starter. I
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: also understand where it's like he gave up assets for Paddock,
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: you gave up, you know, assets for Morton, Like you
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: almost kind of owe it to yourself and your process
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: to let that play out, and as you said, the
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: results kind of blow up in your face as a
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: result of that. I get that thought process. I get
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: the whole, whole, the lead thing. A lot of timing
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and baseball regression kind of worked against that thought process,
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: but it's obviously clear that this is the better like
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: way to use him. And like you said, it's like,
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: well nings limit, It's like okay, cool, Well he could
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: be under the endings limit. You can miss the damn playoffs.
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: So so yeah, sometimes I.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: Think you think the concern remains, like what's this going
• 19:46
  Speaker 2: to look like for him next year? You know, just
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: both reacclimating to being a full time starter, the mysteries
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: of arm health messing with his routine in the middle
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: of the taxing season. Will there be a cost pay
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: on the back end of this that's worth worrying about
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: Sure, a lot of a lot of a lot of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: thinking goes into it. Sometimes sometimes you can overthink too.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: Uh So that's uh, that's something that was at least
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: good to see because I think it's just a reminder
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: of what a real asset he is. All right, let's
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: get into actually let's let's take a quick break and
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: then we'll we'll discuss various scenarios and odds and numbers
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: and maths and and all these things as we head
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: into uh a crucial weekend in Boston. But first award
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: from our sponsors CRATS.
• 20:32
  Speaker 4: Let's talk about Omaha steaks. And it's not just steaks,
• 20:35
  Speaker 4: it's chicken winnings, it's smash burgers, big Deli style franks.
• 20:40
  Speaker 4: There are a number of categories that you can hit
• 20:43
  Speaker 4: all in one place. They've been doing it for a
• 20:44
  Speaker 4: long time. They're the best of the biz.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: And if you got a good full a life's good. Man.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: But you gotta finish every meal with some delectable desserts too.
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: They have those too to go along with these delicious steaks.
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: Mm hm apple caramel tarts on the list many other
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: menu items to check out. Be the hero that orders
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: Omaha Steaks and is the most popular person in your household.
• 21:09
  Speaker 4: So get fired up for fall grilling with Omaha Steaks.
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: Visit Omaha Steaks dot com for fifty percent off site
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: wide during their red Hot Sale event, and for an
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: extra thirty five dollars off. Yeah, thirty five bucks off
• 21:20
  Speaker 4: on top of that, used promo code foul at checkout.
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: That's fifty percent off at Omaha Steaks dot com and
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: an extra thirty five dollars off with promo code foul
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: at checkout sea site for details.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: All right, coming back here, the Red Sox have already
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: kind of made their they've made their decision on this.
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: They did so earlier in the week. They feel comfortable
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: that they're going to be playing in the postseason and
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: they want their ace available for game one of a
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: wildcard series, so they adjusted their rotation pitch Crochet earlier
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: in the week so that he can be available Tuesday, well, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the Tigers are obviously playing the Boston Red Sox, so
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: they are avoiding if you want to call things a break,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: you're avoiding Garre Crochet. But as of now, the Tigers
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: have a scheduled Trek Schooble to pitch Sunday. So we
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: actually got this question, and and I love it when
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: everybody's kind of on the same page here, because I
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: was thinking about bringing it up anyway. What if you
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: have clinched a playoff spot, you technically could still win
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: the division. It's still all in the open on Sunday,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: what do you do with Trek Schooble, Like, what is
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: what is the move there for you?
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, save them for a game one of the wildcard series. Right,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: You're playing a three game series, no matter what your
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: your chances of getting a bye are all are they
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: officially out the window. They're certainly all but out the window.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Here are the Tigers playoff scenarios. This courtesy of Evan
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: Woodbury at in Live via playoff status dot com. So really, yeah,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: you could win the division. You could say you want
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: a division title and then roll into the wildcard game
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: not having Scooble in game one or two, and then
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: maybe a short rest situation if you make it to
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: game three. That's just far too risky. Yeah. Maybe it
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: could be the difference of playing at your home field
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: and playing at Progressive Field, but I think at the
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: end of the day, you're gonna want Trek Scuoble on
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: the mound. So that's certainly important to keep in mind.
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: These first two games in Boston, it's like, you probably
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: need to get one of these two games. Maybe you
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: hope the Astros can lose one so you're not faced
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: with that scenario of using Scooble on Sunday. That could
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: still be pretty close to a worst case scenario other
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: than missing the postseason altogether. Yeah, if you get in
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: the playoffs before Sunday, I'm holding Schooble to the wildcard series.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, obviously this is an automatic decision. If Cleveland has
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: already clinched the cent and you've got a playoff spot.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: There's no discussion points. I don't think as much as
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: like when the division is like the kind of the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: cool talking point. I don't think it's as important as
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: having School available early, even if it's not Game one.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: I know in this scenario would be but like even
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: if it's not game one, but just having him available
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: in one of the first two crucial games and then
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: cannot figure out if you get to a game three situation.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: I don't think there's much to discuss there. I think
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: you have to look at if you're trying to win
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: a World Series on a division, like you have to
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: play Schooble in the postseason. Yeah, I get there first.
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: We all understand that. But you have to play School
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: in the postseason. This is a wild list, dude, Like
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: shout out to the people that bring this up.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Through watching on YouTube. We have all the odds of
• 24:51
  Speaker 2: where the Tigers could match up in the postseason. They
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: could go to Cleveland, they could go to New York,
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: they could host Cleveland, they could go to Toronto. I
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: didn't bring my passport with me. That's gonna be a problem.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: They could host Houston, they could host Boston, Like pretty
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: much everything is still on the table here. Cleveland is
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: probably most likely forty odds, but this weekend could get wacky.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: Having basically the same percentage of hosting Cleveland as going
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: to New York is wild to me. Having seven percent
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: chance of going to Toronto is wild to me.
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: Don't let that happens.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: And then Boston or or or Houston go into Detroit
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: is something that I just mentally hadn't even put in there.
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: But you know, four to five percent, I guess that
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: that that does make sense. You know, I almost I've
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: been mentally kind of preparing for a Cleveland series in Cleveland.
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: We could say this now because they won a game,
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: Like is there anything like how would that? How would
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: that play in the clubhouse? You think going up against
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: Cleveland again, Like there's a there's a certain part of
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: it where it's like you don't it's just like you
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: there's familiar familiarity aspect of it that's kind of like
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: a they're not daunting, but they have had your number.
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: You know them so well, they know you so well.
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: It kind of reminds me of like like a like
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: this could be like the new rivalry, you know what
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, it could be like Pacers and Pistons in
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: the early two thousands, where it's like it doesn't really
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: matter what the game plan is. It's just like it's
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: gonna be Jimmy's and Joe's and not ex'es and o's,
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: and and that that aspect actually does kind of intrigute
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: just from a your baseball perspective, having teams that just
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: like know each other. And that's how you get like
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: real rivalries, is that you play so often with real stakes,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Like that that's that's fun
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: to me from a from a baseball player perspective.
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, there's there are a lot of things
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: that would be fun about it. It would be intense.
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: I think there's got to be a part of that
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: team that doesn't really want to see the Guardians again,
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: especially at Progressive Field. That's kind of been the Tiger's
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: house of horrors lately. That's where things that run ended
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: last year, That's where things fell apart the first two
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: games of this past series. That's been the sight of
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: probably the two worst happenings of Tyk Skougel's career. That
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: like injuries and stuff aside, So I don't know. But
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: you also can't lose to Cleveland all the time, man,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: which is kind of why I think if they end
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: up meeting, it just it just makes sense that the
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: Tigers could take two out of three, Like, yeah, I can.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: It just feels like that's how baseball plays out sometimes.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: So I don't know, my gut told me that's that's
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: where it's headed, and we'll see what happens.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, no shortage of a playoff atmosphere,
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: at least from the you know, the TV radio perspective
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and progressive field.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: You would imagine what a place that place shows out
• 27:56
  Speaker 2: And we.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: Saw it last year too, like how they are in
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: the post season. So uh so yeah, I mean it
• 28:04
  Speaker 1: was it was such a wrap it up here. It
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: was such a relief to just see them kind of
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: do all those things that we know they can do
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: and and and get get some not like unexpected but
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: like unheralded like production like from the Unheralded Guy's production,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: the Jamai Jones piece. Wentzel Parise had been feeling it, dude,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: uh to just to see him, to see him get
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: get a home run, get a home run there to
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: get off, to get off to a hot start and
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: kind of control that crowd a little bit. And then,
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: like I said, the bullpen hold them off kind of
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: work as design. Uh. It's so it's still all there.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: That that's my real point. It's still all there. Still
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: we see it, it still exists. And uh, and now
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: they go to Boston with a sense of purpose as
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: opposed to like what would probably be a feeling of dread,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: even though they would still obviously be in it. So
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: it also looks a lot better to be tied, even
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: though I understand a tie breaker, it looks a lot
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: better to be tie going into the final weekend than
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: to be down two games. So so there you go.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Anything else before we reach out here.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: Cody, No, No, that covers it up. The feels a
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: lot better even if this team goes on to win
• 29:14
  Speaker 2: the World Series. I don't think we should forget the
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: lessons learned from this slide, but I don't know, maybe
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: maybe we can enjoy these games again here at the
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: last three and whatever might may or may not come after.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: Rather than it did, it felt like dread every night
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: there for a little bit, like it was. It was
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: not fun and see if we can get back to
• 29:35
  Speaker 2: at least having some fun.
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: Exactly all right. You can follow us on ex probably
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: known as Twitter, at Cody Stavenhagen at kan Underscore deckty
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: Pop page at Tiger Territory Underscore YouTube. Thank you so
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: much to everybody who has subscribed there. If you haven't already,
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: please do as we get to the end of this
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: season and potentially the postseason, Tiger Territory Shop dot com
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: fro all your Tiger Territory merch. So for Cody Stavenhagen,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I'm Kieren Steckley. Everybody, have great da