TMLR Week 8 Recap: Tigers Need A Spark From Somewhere

Chris and Rogelio recap the Tigers losing streak as they are seeking answers outside of the injuries that have been affecting each level.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I don't have to do a game this game, rightcap Oh,
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
That out on.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Hi everybody, Welcome to another episode of the Tiger Mindore
podcast presented by Nobody at the moment. I just wanted
to explain that a little going on because we had
a couple of a couple of people d Emmy about
basically what was going on the audio feed. And we're
still an adjustment of we're still part of the Believe network,
but we're moving over Torus Baseball and we're just in

(01:11):
the period of transition. So this week's podcast will be up,
I assure you. And uh yeah, So I just wanted
to get that disclaimer on a wee because there's people,
there's a good amount of people Chris who still listen
to us on the audio side of things.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
Yeah, well that's how I listen. I don't. I don't
watch podcast their shows. I'm oh man. Yeah. Yeah, However,
people want to do it. We want to get get
our voices up to them.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Yeah. Yeah, it's like I said, it's a trying to
get this whole thing straightened out once and for all,
so there'll be it's on the works all.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
It's not a way to start a podcast. I'm not sure, folks.
It's been a great day, Like I did a lot
of stuff today, and thank you for all. By the way,
Happy Moral Day, thank you for all who have served.
We're much appreciated. And this is become the Space Force now,
So that was really cool to see. During the MLB
they were to talk about all the armed forces, and

(02:08):
the Space Force seemed like the new one they added
on there.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
So my cousin is a lieutenant colonel in the Space Force.
She was in the Air Force, so she's pretty high
ranking in the Space Force. Yeah, I know that.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Yeah, I don't know what goes into the average day
of somebody from Space Force, but whatever.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Yeah, that'll be interesting if it'd be interesting to find out.
But well, it has not been interesting in Tiger's baseball
this last week or so, it's been. It's been a
bad stretch of baseball. The Tigers come in currently just
they've just won, they just broke an eight game losing streak,
and it was just one of those things where you
have to kind of I understand people's frustration and I

(02:55):
understand it. Like I had a little venting session yesterday
for people on on Twitter or ax or whatever, and
they let their you know, let their frustrations out, like
when's when's Seal Perez gonna get cut? All those things,
and just as Chris like it, you have to I

(03:15):
understand people's frustrating. I do understand that. It's just but
the question is who you place replace them with? That's
you know, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Yeah, I mean, you know, we see this a lot
because we post clips of Anderson or Valencia or Clark
or Meltjer or anybody in Toledo doing something, and the
people would be like, oh, what do you know, but
we have Whitstele pres and it's like, you know, it's
it's Age Hinch came out and said, it's you know,
it's not that easy. It's more you've got roster implications.
And people take that to think like, oh, they're not
they're too scared to let go of Zach Short, and

(03:44):
that's that's just not the case. That the way it
is right now is with all these injuries, they literally
do not have anybody else to play short stuff. It's
McGonagall and Zach Short. And then after that emergency is right,
like Zach McKinstry is clearly something's wrong with his hip.
They haven't let them play short stuff for an ending
this year. They're not comfortable with Workman there. They haven't
played him there. And then after that, you're like, it's

(04:05):
like how you leave now. Trey Cruise is on the
way back. He played some rehab games last week. I
think that he will probably come up at some point.
Who knows if they're comfortable playing him at shortstop. But
he can't play short stop. We've seen him do it
at a fair high level, and so I think that
creates a possibility. And he's on the forty man right,
so that creates a possibility where you could you can

(04:26):
cut Zach short and send Wincel Perez down and bring
Trey Cruz up something like that. They just they really
were into a corner right now where when you've got
your you know, Babi Bias and Parker Meadow, so your
two center fielders are out right, You've got and Bias
is like your second shortstop. And then Tray Sweeney's been
on the il the entire time, so that's your third
stort shortstop. He's out, Trey Cruise is hurt, that's your

(04:47):
fourth short stop. They bring it Paul to young he
gets hurt, he's out for the year. They just really,
as much as we all know, Like, I don't think
they're under any delusion that did Zach Short's a great
baseball player that wins, so Perez is performing right, They
just don't have any other options right now. But but
those that this little period of not having an options
will be coming an end.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
So yeah, And look, it's one of those things too,
where like every time people you try to bring up
the fact that injuries play a factor, No they don't,
how they how do they not it? But then you know,
somebody's asking about why Zach Short over anybody else? And

(05:26):
Chrissy logically explained it the best way possible. But then
again there's also what other you know, I guess uh,
other people they're out there that they could replace them with.
Like what about somebody who was asking about uh, Andrew Navagado.
Navogado is not a shortstop. Just yeah, I'm a lead shortstop.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
I guess it is. Most teams, unless you're the San
Diego Padres, you don't have nine short stops running you're
willing to play, right, Like the Padre's built their whole
team out of shortstops and you know what, Like if
you look at the drafts for the last few years,
it seems like the Tigers are kind of like an
idea of just drafting tons of shortstops. You know, you've
got guys down in the miners. Some people wanted to
bring up John Peck and I think that's just upbridge

(06:07):
way too far. He's got like five walks and like
sixty five strikeouts this year, and he's got like eight
or nine errors. Like he's he's got some potential. He's
an exciting player, but there's you know, if he came up,
it would be it would be pretty ugly, I think.
And so yeah, you're just you know, you have to
go get a replacement player, and that's Sech and until
they somebody else comes up. And like I said, tray

(06:27):
Crew should be healthy soon and we'll see what happens then.
But yeah, and then you know, it's it's not all
injuries obviously, right, Like a lot of the injuries were
on pitching side, and the pitching managed to kind of
stay afloat at least the starting pitching. But it's certainly
a big part of it. And I don't know, it's
obviously very very frustrating for fans. And I'm you know,
I understand that they've been playing terrible baseball. I don't

(06:51):
think and and and you know, I've already seen people
talk about like, oh, who you could trade school before,
and it's like, I'm not ready. I'm not ready to
do any of this. I don't know if people remember
the last two seasons of Tiger's baseball. You may remember
a miracle run to the playoffs two years ago and
a miracle collapse last year. I don't know what the
opposite of a miracle is, but strange things happened in baseball.

(07:13):
And it's still only May. You've got two months until
the trade deadline. Let it play out at least for
another month.

Speaker 1 (07:20):
Yeah, I mean it is. You can't. I don't know,
That's what I'm saying. Like you try to approach us
with logic, and it's hard because everybody's just kind of like,
you know, having the the freak out kind of moment.
And yeah, you're right, it is a long season. We
saw the Twins fail, we saw the Tiger's fiel last

(07:41):
the Tiger's field too.

Speaker 2 (07:42):
It's you know what you just said that, and so
you know that's not necessarily a great, great talking point
for like saying, hey, they might turn it around this year.
I don't think they're this bad. I don't think there's
any way in hell that this bad. There are some
like some very difficult players in this roster to evaluate,
Like I don't know what the hell you do with
Spencer torkleson right, thirty home run year last year awful.

(08:03):
The year before thirty home run year before that awful.
The year before been pretty awful. This year, you know,
at a certain point you kind of have to move on,
but it's like you don't want to do it too soon,
right because you know that that thirty home run power there.
So it's it's just it's tough. You got cold Keith,
who I think I'm thinking now is also injured, just
based on you know, there was that one game where
Hints said he wasn't one hundred percent and it would

(08:26):
explain a little bit of why he's not basically using
his legs at all over the swing.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
That makes a lot of that would be a lot
of sense.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, And I just think, like, you know, somebody like
Keith and McKinstry, I think they're probably both hurt. It
wouldn't normally be on the il, but the Tigers have
so many injuries that they they're just gutting it out.
And you know, you still have three of the better
hitters in the American League in McGonagall, Green and Dingler
right now, and we've lost the Rogers muted himself. But yeah,

(08:53):
it's just I'm not ready to give up on the season.
I don't think Tigers as an organization are. I don't
think the players are. And you know, do I think
they're a good team? Probably not. Most good teams don't
go through like a four and sixteam stretch. But the
Tigers aren't even the roughest team in baseball right now.
I don't know if you've noticed. The Cubs have lost
nine games in a row the Cup. Now, they started

(09:15):
in a better spot, so they're not it's not as
ugly for them, But like sometimes everything goes wrong. Baseball
is one of those those weird, weird sports, Like not
every other sport has this, right. It's kind of like
the equivalent of standing at the free throw line, Like
there's that level of pressure but on every pitch, and
it's I don't know how to describe it other than

(09:37):
like we've all been there. Two years ago when when
the Tigers that seem like they just knew they were
going to win, right, Like, everybody in the stadium feels it.
Everybody in the team feels it, and it just kind
of you kind of manifest it. There's some I don't know,
you don't want to call it magic, right, but but
we're we're a communal species, right. We humans get together
in groups and do things and you feel things together.

(09:57):
Like you go to a comedy special and it's better
when there's a lot of peopeople there. Uh, you go
to a funeral and it's sadder because there's all those
people there and you feel it. And so like I'm
sure everybody else felt it, felt it, you know the
other the first game against the Orioles, it's like I
wasn't predicting that Kenley Jansen was going to give up
that walk off home run, but you could feel it,

(10:17):
you could feel it coming. You felt like something was
going to happen. And that's this like this this collective
energy that happens in baseball. It goes both ways, and
I don't know how to get rid of it, but
there's it's clearly infected the tiger's locker room, and maybe
that win yesterday will help them get out of it.
But you never know until it happens.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Yeah, and I know that people are trying to figure
out what robster robster comes roster comminated also said lobster
roster combination would work, like yeah, but what what do
you run out there? I mean an exorcism would be nice.
And look as far as like you know, Jonathan, I will,

(11:01):
I'm with you about Max Anderson. I think Max Anderson
at this point deserves a call up. There's this easy
thing about like, well, what do you who you replace
him with? I mean, does he go back down? I
don't know. Anderson is a line drive hitter, and Chris
We've talked about this.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
He is.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
As far as like, looking at some of the advanced
numbers of what he can do hitting velocity, it's not there.
Advanced spin might be a problem because he's such an
aggressive hitter, doesn't walk often enough in that level. Well,
you need to hit for power. If you ain't for power,
that'd be an excuse. You can bring him up and
get in there. But as far as the metrics goll,
then mal Jerry is your next likely candidate based off

(11:41):
those those metrics they look.

Speaker 2 (11:42):
At yeah, and I would think yeah with mal Jerry.
And this is again one of those situations that where
I always have a hard time shaking. My initial perception
of him is that he's a He's at all the tools,
at least at that average level, and is a good player.
But I always like he wasn't going to be able
to hit big league sliders. That would make him far

(12:04):
from the only player, Like you know, I don't know
if Gag Workman has contacted the slider yet in the
big leagues, but yeah, I mean he can play all
three outfield positions. If Max Anderson could play shortstop, he
would have been up a month ago. Instead, he's a
third baseman, second baseman, and probably no better than how
you lead defensively, and doesn't walk like you said, and
doesn't really have any speed. You know, it's people. I

(12:27):
understand that the desire to just try something. But again,
he's a guy who's not on the forty man roster,
so you do have to clear a spot for him.
So do you cut Jase Young? Do you cut Gage Workman?
I mean you could cut you Gauge Workman, right, I
don't think you want to cut Zach short yet, because again,
they don't have anybody else to play short stop. So
it's they're just in this really tough spot. I do

(12:48):
think we'll see Max Anderson at some point this season,
maybe soon, but it's just they need to get some
bodies back before they can start cutting guys and then
swapping guys in and out. Like Whinsleprise has options. They
can send him down once they get another out older.
They're down six outfielders too, right like, yeah, Meadows Carpenter
Jami Jones doesn't play outfield like, I could see cutting

(13:08):
him too, But I don't know. It's it's just it's
it's a really tough spot. I understand that people wanting
to get rid of everybody, and I think that'll start
happening in the next few weeks. But it's it's just
they're just trying to survive right now.

Speaker 1 (13:21):
Yeah, And there's as far as like the signs and
players make some trades, you know, Adam, I think it
would be you know, you know, Nick, that's actually not
bad idea. If you're gonna bring up Anderson to put
cold on the get him healthie, that's not a bad idea.

Speaker 2 (13:38):
I mean, if you put him on the sixty day,
I guess you could bring up Anderson.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
Here's a question, Thomas, He said, why is the tiger
tainting coach now job on the line? They just hired
new coaches. Yeah, they just fired the ones that they
did from last year. That it's the problem.

Speaker 2 (13:52):
So, I mean Berdar has been there, right, Yeah, Beauregard
left on his own accord, and that the thoughts that
were there was he wasn't particularly happy with the way
Scott Harris kind of blamed the collapse last year in
the end of season press conference, kind of put it
on the offense right when it was really a full
team effort. The offense did collapse, but and so they

(14:14):
brought in with Cody Ashy from the Ools and somebody else.
I don't remember. James Rousing left for the Yankees a
couple of years ago. So yeah, it's I don't know,
Firing hitting coaches and things like that are always kind
of more symbolic than functional, right, Like they're not just

(14:35):
three coaches going into this telling you guys how to hit.
And yeah, you're down there a fairly frequently. I'm down
there occasionally. You go down there early they're taking batting
practice every day, They're working on their fielding every day.
There's no lack of effort, there's no lack of like information.
Sometimes it's just not working. And I get the desire

(14:57):
for like a powd to flesh, but I don't know
if that will make it better. It might make you
feel better, but I don't think it's gonna make the
team better.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
Yeah, Nick, it might be. There might be a situation
where Gliber hits a sixty day, But it makes sense
why his numbers. He still wasn't healthy from his surgery beforehand.
I mean, it just seems like that was the case.
You know, it's still lingered. We don't know for sure,
but I did liber go on the ale because, yeah,
when you had that that setback supposedly, which is not great. Yeah,

(15:24):
set back yet set back was it Saturday? I think
it was.

Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, that's a that's a good option.

Speaker 1 (15:29):
That's the first pitch. He throughout the first pitch for
the Royal Oak Leprechauns because j. Le Mayhew is the
manager of the Leprecauns. So shout out to the Royal
Oak Lepracauns, who are the semi pro baseball team in
town off Woodward. Yeah, but yeah, it's Adam. I think
you something up very well. I feel bad for you
guys because I'm tortured by this team. At least it's
not my job, so hold on. Yeah, but I thank

(15:51):
you for anybody who donates and trend ouder, Patreon and
all that stuff. It's much appreciated because right now I
just don't want to yell. You've got to put Yeah,
So I think yeah, I think it was the end
of April for labor, by the way.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
So yeah, I mean I was looking and so I mean, yeah,
you could definitely if I could definitely see that that
makes sense. Yeah, I got to I've been thinking about
this right, about what makes baseball great and also what
makes it particularly excruciating when teams are bad. Uh, And
I've got a strained metaphor. And I don't ever swear
on this show, but I think I need to to

(16:27):
kind of really get hit home this metaphor. And people
always say, what baseball is a marathon, not a sprint, right,
and that's what's great. Like you, you have a terrible nay,
you've got four more months to make it up. The
issue when a marathon becomes an issue when at mile
three you break your leg and you shit your pants
and you have to complete that marathon. You can't quit,

(16:49):
so you're just hoppling along with one leg in your
own waist for the next twenty five miles or so, right, Like,
that's that's what makes this so painful. It's like there's
nothing they got to keep playing. You can only play
your way out of it. And you know, if they
keep playing this poily, then yes, you gotta you gotta
tear it down a little bit and sell off what
you can, and it'll make it the most important year,

(17:12):
you know, twelve months, six months. However, you want to say,
i'scott Harris's tenure, but I don't know. I don't know
if the leg is broken yet. But it does feel
like the Tigers have soiled themselves and it's just a
matter of how long they can run before the chafing
gets too bad.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
Yeah, I mean, yeah, I it is a yeah, I can't.
There's no other way to put it better. That's in
and look, the bottom line is like it's they're streaking
right now, it's coming out of pants. It's it's bad,
it's insad.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
Yes, it's they've gone on a negative run for sure.
But again, I don't think they're this bad, right Like,
I don't know why. I feel like way like the
bullpen has not been great. You know, it feels like
it really does feel like whenever they make a mistake,
they just get maximumly punished for it, right Like McGonagall
makes that era the other day and then boom, three
run homer. It just doesn't it feels like they're rarely

(18:06):
getting away with these mistakes. They're making too many mistakes
in the first place. So I don't know, man, it
just feels like things have to level out a little bit.
But we'll see, you know, just try to play solid
baseball for for a month or so and we'll reevaluate.
But I understand people being very upset because this has
been a very unpleasant month.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, this is one of the worst months they've had
in a while. They're five and I think it's five
and seventeen now, and uh yeah, there's not really a
thing where the amount of times have been Looking at Toledo,
I've been watching a lot of Twleda lately. They'll tread
water un till people get healthy. It's pretty much where
they're at right now, I mean the Blue Jays. Yeah,

(18:46):
he mentioned the Blue Jays and it was the other team.
We talked about this the other day, christ the Breeze,
one of the Brazes a few years ago.

Speaker 2 (18:51):
After that year, right, did did we talk about? Like yeah, yeah,
sometimes teams just it just doesn't work. And you know,
the comparison from Tiger's history is two thousand and eight
and even twenty fifteen, right, Like, these were teams that
were supposed to be good. They looked good on paper,
and then things just start rolling the wrong way and
it's really hard to come out of that. And you

(19:12):
hope that it's not too late. But I know, yeah,
I'm not ready to throw in the towel yet. I
understand why some other people.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
Are, but yeah, I'm not either. For me, yeah, the
same here. Look, the bottom line is this, Like I
I like to if it's the you know, like as
far as like Dan of June goes and they're fifteen
games back or twenty games back or whatever the case is,
then you know, but look at, look at look at
I just watched the you know, I watched Cleveland today, Tyger, Uh, Cleveland,

(19:48):
what's the ibby yeah, Biby a lot of five home runs.
Cleveland's not running away with this division at all. You know,
this division is bad and Tigers, and you know it's
it's a thing where all you gotta do is just
going on winning streak, get your shit together, essentially, and
and go from there. I'm not saying the Tiger's gonna

(20:09):
come back and win the division, but they are. There
is a you know, an ability to them to come back,
and you need that's how to wipe your rear.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
I hope I didn't set this up for the entire episode,
but I get it. No, I mean, like I think
I was. I was mentioned this in the discord the
other day, but like, you know, Tampa Bay has the
best record in the American League right Their offense has
been better than the Tigers this year, but they're not.
It's it's fifteenth in War on Fangraphs, and they're pitching
is the exact same as the Tigers. It's like literally

(20:39):
their fifteenth the Tigers are sixteenth, five point one War
to five point zero War. But there's like a twenty
game difference. It's yeah, you know, baseball is super weird
and all I can all I can say, is that, like,
you know, as bad as it's been, it could be
good again soon.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
Maybe there's a that was funny. Can I went on
this roster played through minor injury? I cerously questioned, some
of these booboos are well come.

Speaker 2 (21:06):
On, well, okay, so did you see how he buys
his injury where his ankle went the wrong way? We
saw carry Carpenter run into the wall. It was kind
of pathetic in a way that he missed the ball
and ran into the wall like that, but clearly he
hurt himself. McKinstry has the muscle torn off his hip,
I believe, isn't that the word? There other minor injuries

(21:27):
like like Troy Mountain. I don't think what's necessarily a
huge injury, right, but they wanted to be super careful
because he's a pitcher, and how nice was it to
have him back.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Oh my god, lets start was insane and they needed
a start like that.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Yeah, and it's like they've gotten you know, we've talked
a bunch about how how good Montero has been for
them and how big Madden was in his few outings.
But you know, you've got to take precaution with guys.
So that they don't get more hurt. Now, this glabor thing,
like that's a perfect example of that. And I just
saw I think Cole Reagan's threw a bullpen and then
did not feel great after it, so he may not

(22:02):
be coming back for the Royals. It's you know, professional
athletes are always injured. They play through. I don't know
how often they are one hundred percent, maybe two games
a year, So it's just a matter of how much
they can handle.

Speaker 1 (22:18):
Yes, yeah, by way, Dan, thank you for the two
dollars for appreciated baseball Voodoo and Bannon Pirie. When isn't carry,
you know, Thomas brings up a good point though, I
mean when is carry injured?

Speaker 2 (22:31):
So I mean, but that brings up the point, right, Like,
so a lot of people are upset with Scott Harrits
for not signing more bats in the offseason, and you
know we talked about that. Yeah, everybody wanted Bregman or
somebody else, but it's like, who do you give up
on from last year? We knew mckistry and bias. We're
not going to repeat what they did. But then you

(22:53):
got Keith, you got Carpenter, you got Dingler, you got
Green meadows like these are all guys that I think
you want to stick with, you don't want to necessarily
get rid of right away. But that's I think the
hardest thing to me in baseball is properly evaluating your
own players self scouting, right, like the guys that you've

(23:13):
signed or you've watched, Like it's hard enough for us
as guys who watched these prospects, like we start, we
attached like latch onto these prospects when they're in you know,
Florida Complex League and like them, and we want them
to succeed. Now imagine you've given these guys money and
you want them to succeed. It's just really hard to
look at a player and be like, no, this is
not going to work, or we can do better. Uh,

(23:34):
and you put you got to be good at it,
You've got to do it. Uh. And I just it's
tough for me to have looked at last year's roster
and said, Okay, we got to upgrade Kerry Carpenter and
Spencer Torkelsen, but they clearly they probably should have, but
they didn't.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah, as far as circleson goes, I mean, I don't
really know what to say about anymore, Like it's one
of those like, yeah, well, somebody I had a questioned
I think I was on Twitter about Balencia about him
being a like possible replacement. They might do that. They
might do that, yesesoner than later, but defensively even warned, yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (24:15):
Mean that's the thing people always like, can't come on,
it can't be worse, and it's like, well and we'll
talk about the white Caps. It can get worse. Things
can worse at all times. So I don't know. It
is a very much be careful what you wish for.
I've positive that this is a monkey paw situation where

(24:36):
somebody out there had a monkey pond wanted Burl Andrew
to come back to the Tigers, and this is everything
that has happened since as a result of that. There's
also the theory that we're just living in the simulation
of some Indians fan or Guardians fan. I should say yeah,
but also yeah, as Dan said, it's just voodoo and
bat umpiring sometimes.

Speaker 1 (24:52):
Yeah, I mean, and look it's you know, like it
is a thank you, thank you Gordon. I appreciate that
guys are goded. I fee when we're nervous about the
future of the season in your future for the Tigers,
I feel like there's something a chance to say, put
fifty percent we sell look and Gordy like Gordy, Well,
shout out to your production skills. I don't. The thing

(25:15):
is is that like already we have to as fans, look,
as writers, whatever we are. There's one thing that's gonna
come up in the next month or so until the
trade deadline. Derek Schooble, Derek schools gonna be traded. They're
gonna trade even when Henny is on it already whin Henny,
there's an intelligence report. He's already telling everybody taker should trade. Everybody?

(25:38):
What the fuck is that? Like part of my language?
But what what is that like? Really? Like? Thanks Lynn, cool,
that's intelligence. It's not intelligence at all. That's just you're
you know what, you're just like the came into the world.
That's fine, you want to do that, go right ahead.

Speaker 2 (25:52):
Man, Yeah, I mean that's that's when standing operating procedure.
Operating procedure is. He's always kicking the kid down the road,
which is odd for a man of his advanced age.
Not the deed hole or but yeah, I don't know,
like you got to come to that point at some
point you would think that there would be some pretty

(26:12):
strong offers for Terrek School. I don't really want to
think about it yet. You also have you also have
Casey Mayes, who is pitching very well this year, that
you could potentially move from Bert Valdez. Aside from you know,
the blow up start, that's still a fairly attractive contract
for a pretty good pitcher. On most nights he pitched well.
The other day. They have some trading pieces. I know

(26:33):
some people want to get rid of Riley Green or
not want to, but say you could, he'd be a
trade asset. I don't think Scott Harris wants to tear
everything down. I think, if you know, just based on
everything else he's done, if they do end up selling,
I don't think it will be a full house cleaning
like that. It will just be small measured moves. Right.

(26:55):
If they trade schoobl, they'll be getting a picture that
they think can help next year among other produce, and
they may ultimately just decide that they you know, they
want to keep going with Schoogle, give it a go,
get the most out of them you can, and take
the draft pick.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
So we see. But as far as that goes, I
mean I think I look at this way as far
as what the minor league, it's hair should not be
blamed because the amount of injuries they're in the minor leagues,
I mean they have, you think as a total as
an organization. I think Tiger's truck will will put this
out sixty five guys on the IL sixty five. What

(27:31):
you can blame on the Tigers is perhaps I don't
want that you can blame on the Tigers exactly. Some
of the pictures that they drafted immediately had to get surgery,
so maybe they knew that, and I think there was
the case of a couple of them correct.

Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, well River Hamilton they knew how to get surgery.
I don't know if they knew. And Massi was injured
as a junior. I don't know if they knew that,
like he needed surgery right away or not. You would
think that they know about this pretty quickly. But yeah,
I mean we talked about it. We wrote about that
something seems to be wrong with the entry prevention in
the organization. Whether it's just a string of horrible luck

(28:08):
or they need to completely re evaluate their process. It's
tough to know, but but yeah, like you could only
have so many backup plans, like I you know, I
don't know if it was Georgia or whatever who said
he never wants to see Trace Sweeney again. That's fine.
I think I would prefer Tray Sweeney to Zach Short.
Maybe maybe not right, but that's just where they are, right,

(28:32):
Like this is you're you're trying to get by with
the bottom of five guys on your forty man roster.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
Yeah, I mean it's it is a in terms of
trying to scrap everything together as much as they can.
This is why, like I said, I don't want to
wave the white flag yet, because it's just it has
to be in the June or July where you know,
if as far as how much bad baseball watching in
our lifetime, it is a most of it, most of it,

(29:02):
most of our lifetime. By the way I do like
this comedy is We've watched a lot of bad We've
watched a lot of bad baseball in our lifetime, and
this stretch is bad, but I have seen worse.

Speaker 2 (29:15):
I mean, I mean, that's what makes it feel so bad,
is the expectations. Right, That's why I go back to
two thousand and eight. What what I don't know what
saying there? She said a lot, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,
far too much. But h but without the without the darkness,

(29:37):
the sunshine wouldn't be so bright, right right, right. But
the problem is when you're expecting sunshine and you get
in the clips because uh, that just makes it really hard.
And and when they're playing Moore defense and the bullpen
blows it when they do score runs, it just it
feels like you're rolling downhill and you can't stop it.
But they wont a game, they got a day off,

(29:59):
Go get them tomorrow, right, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
And they have the Angels, who are if you're talking
about a team that's on the other side of the
spectrum of disappointment, the Angels are Angels are bad shape.
But the Angels always somehow play the Tigers very well.
I don't get it, So I can't really say this
is guaranteed weaker. Nothing's guaranteed.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
Obviously, Tigers need to go out there and they need
to hit, which they don't do a ton of the
need to pitchball. Yeah, we'll see what betting heavens.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
As far as Max anderson Eta goes, they would have
to make they would have to make a forty man
roster move. By the way, that pitch he came up
that the whole Runny gave up yesterday.

Speaker 2 (30:46):
Two pitch, terrible pitch, terrible pitch selection, terrible location. I
don't know why he threw a sinker O two down
the middle. You know it's it's yeah, bad things. But again,
you know you can do that a lot of times.
You'll do that and get away with it in baseball, right,
Sometimes you get away with stuff and then the Tigers don't.

(31:07):
They haven't gotten away with anything lately, so maybe that'll
turn around.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yeah, let's look at Toledo. Let's start with the mud Hens.
As the mud Hens did finish the season or they had.
Everybody was playing table with the Tigers, so every actually
Toledo is the only one. I'm sorry as far as
mine right.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
I did not. I did not include today's stats and
the mud Hends she except for time Adden start. I
thought that was worth mentioning. But there were you know,
Valency hit a home run. They had to walk off
win today, But that'll be on next week's The stats
will be on next week. So Joe, the.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Answer for everything is DFA short.

Speaker 2 (31:44):
Yeah, you know what, that's uh, as soon as they
have another body at shortstop, they will promise.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
And the reason why Pack's not up here is because
I think Peck we saw the look, Yeah, here's look
stand stand over here with the he's alway nibbler. Yeah.
I think Stando Stando's right on about that. Like this,
he's gonna he's gonna stay the course. He's going to
stay the course whether fans like it or not. And
I have I have a theory about that. I started
working on the article, but then I kind of backed

(32:11):
off a little bit. I think the reason why Tiger
fans are so frustrated with him is because, like if
you look at people, historically speaking, people don't like to
know it all and people don't think that they think
that Harris is a guy that comes across a smug,
comes across abrasive, and so I think fans are irritated
with that. And so when they see that, they're like, well,

(32:32):
what is this guy?

Speaker 2 (32:33):
You know?

Speaker 1 (32:33):
Why is he so smug that that he's not charming
or anything? And I think that's what it is. Even
though the Tigers have done then the postseason back to back,
that's the thing that kind of cracks me up a
little bit. Is Oh, by the way, I like this
Chris Socrates's brown Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
That's uh yeah, yeah, the Parable of the Cave or whatever.

Speaker 1 (32:53):
Yeah, those good some stuff. But all right, well there's
some good news on the way that Andrew Sears is
re having and you probably I think he should be
back in Eerie this week.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
I would think, right, yeah, I would think, though, I
mean he's uh so he pitched in FCL and then
pitched in West Michigan, so maybe one more rehab start.
But he threw three innings and so you know, a
lot of the guys have only pitched four or five
innings so far, so I think he's probably ready to
get up to Erie.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, it's speaking very lil Lockhart is back. That was
I kind of sighed a little bit there because I
was like, man, that's another art that would be gone.
But look what happened to DSL Chris Love That man
just decimated already.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
Good lord, Yeah, I mean that's you know, I think
that's when they had to put their rosters in. But yeah,
those guys, all those names there. Anderson Diaz was a
pretty fascinating guy. We posted a video or two of
him last year. I think he was their highest bonus
pitcher two years ago. Lefty with like the low nineties
fastball and I had a fun, really slow, loopy kurball.

(33:56):
But we saw one outing where his fastball was in
like the mid eighties and took him out and who
knows what happened there. And I'm assuming it's another albow
shoulder injury. But yeah, pitching is bad for you.

Speaker 1 (34:08):
Yeah, there is a the velocity veloss he's been you know,
it's it's been bad. I like this too for Jonathan,
like the Tigers. Look as far as Harris goes about
building out the farm system and everything, look at kind
of McGonagall. That was his first draft, right, second draft.

Speaker 2 (34:25):
That was the first draft. I you know, the hitters
they took that first draft. Last looks pretty good, right
like McGonagall. One of the things I've been toying with
tweeting and not tweeting or whatever is is because of
this may swoon, I don't think. And there's been plenty
written about McGonagall, right, but I still don't think people
quite understand what he's doing. So far. He's got two

(34:47):
point eight war on Baseball Reference again, the most for
a rookie, ever rookie position player a Tiger's history was
six point five and we're one third of the way
through the season. There have only been nine position players
and jor league history to post seven plus war as
a rookie. And mcgoniel is on pace to do that.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (35:06):
And it's just uh and and I still don't think
he's even like fully weaponized.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
No.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
I think if he could stop laying off the pitch
that's like four to six inches inside and start hitting
for you know, if he lays off that, then he'll
probably start hitting for more power or taking more walks
even and I don't know this guy's limit with this kid,
but even Yeah, that's that's Scott Harris's first draft. That's
also Max Clark, Max Anderson, John Peck, Brett Callahan, Andrew Sears.

(35:33):
He's a pretty good draft.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
You know, obviously only one of the guys has shown up,
but three years ago, that's what you expect, especially when
you invest in high schoolers the top. So I don't know,
I we got to give him time there. But but
there's other aspects of being a general manager or president, right,
you know, Dave Mbrowski was never great at drafting, but
he was the best trading GM of all time basically,

(35:58):
So you got to have your strengths. You got to
be able to excel in multiple areas.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Yeah, and not to mention too. I mean he will
say that Harris has created an infrastructure the Tires have
never had before. People tend to forget about that too,
but it is what it is. And and I know
people know we're defending here as well. There's a lot
of suberal evidence they's done good. So again, just a
bad stretch of baseball. Okay, let's just move on to
Toledo and the mud Hens are off to this week

(36:26):
they split with Indianapolis. Yeah. The the diving, the dumpster
diving for pictures, I agree, has not been really worth
I Toleer Holton and.

Speaker 2 (36:38):
Yeah, yeah, I would argue the pitching, just the pitching,
UH acquisition hasn't been good at all. Like even when
they're not dumpster diving, right when they're paying guys a
fair amount of money, it has not been great. Good
to know Alex Cobb, justin Burlander, Like, they haven't done
a great job of going out and getting pictures to help.
So even the dumpster diving yeah, beyond that, it's basically

(37:01):
just pictury evaluations that needs to take a step forward.
But whatever, Yeah, Max Clark might be might be turned on,
might be flipping the switch.

Speaker 1 (37:09):
Yes, And it was so funny. I was talking to
somebody who was I talking to on Twitter about he
just suddenly this time of year like that, just like
he fit once he figures things out. Give him time,
boom and he figures it out. And so Clark has been.
He had another home run, he had a double in
the same game. Well nicely those opposite field double too.

(37:31):
It was impressive piece of hidden and overall the as
far as like the mud Hens pitching is concerned, like Madden,
tonight start was good. So Gibson long woksaka. I looked
into him a little bit. The velocity is only like
ninety two to ninety three, but he looks like a
completely different picture. Since he got sent down to Eerie,
he's been striking out left and right. He has been

(37:53):
very effective. He hasn't been walking guys. Does it play
up in the big leagues, I don't know. I think
he has to have a little more velocity to it
to play up a little bit. But his split fingers
looked really good.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
Yeah, I mean then the amount of swing and miss
and strikeouts he's gotten is kind of off the charts.
But again, yeah, like you know, it's one thing to
do this to guys in Double A and Triple A,
and it's completely different animal do it in the big leagues.
We saw the numbers that Ricky Banasko was putting up
in Toledo, and you know, he's been kind of replacement
level at the big league. So but you know, it
wouldn't shock me if we see go at some point.

(38:26):
I think, you know, he's a former prospect he was
involved in and I think the Luise Ryes trade back
in the day, So I don't know there's something there,
but who knows.

Speaker 1 (38:38):
Yeah, it's it is a Again, the Tigers will probably
maybe try and throw everything at the wall to see
what sticks. So that's that's what I think it's gonna
happen here. I mean, you're you're just going to continue
to see arms.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
Yeah, you know, I wonder if at some point they
might swap out Jones bro Jolps if you get if
you want a right handed power hitter who comes in
to hit left, these jokes can do that. And also jokes.
It has the third lowest swinging mister rate in the
system this year, behind Clark and Eddie on Espinal. So yeah,

(39:16):
I mean there might be something there, but they get
like you said, like they'll they'll try all this at
some point, but I don't know if they're quite ready
to start jettison UH guys that they believed in. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:29):
Especially The one thing too, is like when somebody was
talking about the Glasco getting the call back up again,
I just didn't see anybody else that would. I mean,
at some point what's gonna happen is they're going to
probably put sorry Gibson on back in or somebody else
like that. But Carlson or the five minutes of Luke
Jackson or Carson Fulmer who the uh Toledo hit up yesterday.

Speaker 2 (39:51):
I think Fullmer was pre Harris. But yes, that you know,
these these guys who just show up and they're here
for an inning and then gone, Like there were several
guys the last two years that you look at, like
look at last year like, wow, I totally forgot he
pitched Cody Hoyer.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
I forgot about that.

Speaker 2 (40:07):
Yeah. So but yeah, somebody was talking about, you know
why why get rid of counter seabolt, and it was basically,
you know, there's value in being able to take somebody
send them back and forth to Toledo. That's why Venasco
is still here in my Sea Bowl, isn't That's it?
Seat Bowl had no option, but Asco does.

Speaker 1 (40:28):
Yeah, And you know, at the same time, what's gonna happen.
What I think is going to happen here too, is
that at some point and I take another arm from
Eerie or something like that, it's gonna come about. We'll see.
I don't know, like there's bound to think that with
some of these arms being injured and what have you,

(40:49):
they're due to have some sort of luck. I mean,
it's it's about happening. Yeah, So I wish I had
a better explanation than that. I don't. But anyway, Uh
and then as far as Clark sebul make it through waivers, he.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Pitched fairly well in the big leagues. It wouldn't shocked
me if somebody napped. I'm sure the Tigers would love
for him to get through waivers again. But uh, yeah,
I imagine somebody is gonna or they'll work out a
small deal for cash considerations or something like that right.

Speaker 1 (41:20):
Yeah, they'll find out the way to Yeah, I can
see the Reds do and I don't know why I
feel like the Reds would pick them up or somebody
like that. Oh, so we'll see what happens. I mean,
uh yeah, maybe, I don't know. Do you think that
it would be the Reds?

Speaker 2 (41:37):
I have no idea. I mean it could be, could
could be back to the Blue Jays where he was before.
I don't know. I haven't paid attention to who's like,
you know, whose bullpen has been decimated by injuries this year,
but you would think somebody would have a roll for him.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah, we'll see what happens. Well, Yeah, as far as
the one heads goes there anybody else you wanted to highlight?

Speaker 2 (41:59):
Chris not not really. I mean, gives a long pitch
today as well and look pretty solid. But I didn't,
like I said, I didn't put that in there. Yeah,
I don't know. Nick Sandlin continues to look Okay, He's
another guy we might see at some point the slider monster.
Brisky has not looked great, but he's healthy, it seems,
so he'll be out for the I L and like

(42:21):
another week or so.

Speaker 1 (42:22):
Let's say, is the ra was not not good at all,
and he's been He's just it's I don't want to
say Brisky's over. I want to I want to believe
that he has something less than the tank, you know,
because he was so effective down the stretch a couple
of years ago. But man like, at some point is.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
You know, yeah, relievers, relievers come and go. That's unfortunate,
but that's the way it is.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
And what was that?

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Now?

Speaker 1 (42:48):
Right handed relievers?

Speaker 2 (42:50):
What's that?

Speaker 1 (42:50):
What was that? What was the one you said about
when they uh oh.

Speaker 2 (42:54):
Yeah, right handed Like middle relievers are just the most
numerous player in professional baseball. They're just there's dozens of
them at all times, like Sea Bowl, you know, they're
getting cut by other teams or you Yeah, I haven't.
I haven't looked to see what Dylan Smith is doing,
have you not?

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Really?

Speaker 2 (43:14):
You know what?

Speaker 1 (43:14):
No, I haven't. I haven't seen him in I haven't
looked in a while. I mean, I would think that
there's always some Tiger fan that's going to bring him up.
So and the fact that he hasn't been brought up
yet so he's with the Giants, is he is the
triple A. Let's see he hado point two innings and
for the Giants this year, and looks like he walked.
He walked one and through a wild pitch. But he's

(43:37):
in the triple A for the Giants.

Speaker 2 (43:40):
Yeah, four four one e r A five h nine
fip ten point four walks for nine five point five
or ten point four scots for nine five point point
walks for nine. So yeah, these guys have good arms
and they're just somewhere in that little thin line between
being effective and not being able to be a big leader.

Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:59):
Well, I guess the only other one I mentioned is
Brian Salmons, who that was like a deep, deep depth
starter down the road. People remember him. But yeah, he
threw one pitch and fell down and looked like he
strained his groin or something in came out of the game.
It's unfortunate. That sucks.

Speaker 1 (44:17):
Yeah, and little it was. It was almost the same
injury like the brand Herder, right, It almost looked like
the same kind of like, you know, although I don't
know if there was a ground, was a brown bad
or anything.

Speaker 2 (44:30):
I don't know if it was bad or he just
slipped or caught his pleat on the mound or what
you know, it's kind of unnatural going down the mound
like that, and who knows what happened to me up
as a bummer. But yeah, but you know, they it
does figure. You know, they got Troy Whitson back finally
and he had a nice five inning outing and then
they lose Sammons.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
Yeah, but and look, and that's that's really good that
Watson's coming back. And it was a guy who was
very interesting before his injuries, and so I, like I said,
I I really would hopefully come back to what he
was before. We'll see what happens there. So let's go
on to Erie. Let's see here goes lost? Ye, like

(45:10):
I mentioned earlier, was nineteen ninety three. All right, so
Sea Wolves, Yeah, you know, seeting up Tyrond Theronzo and
that's definitely look Eerie, I look putting up of CELLI
has done a hell of a job with the roster
he's been giving with all the injuries they've had, Like
Eerie's been decimated, their rotation has been decimated. But offensively speaking,

(45:33):
they've been able to stay in a little bit. But
you know, typical cap of them. I mean, Bret Callahan's
been still doing things. He's what The number encouraged about
Chris is the fact that he is walking more than
he's stricken out, and that was something that he was
not doing beforehand.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
Yeah, I mean, overall in the season, he's still striking
out more than he's walking, but he's walking plenty. He's
walking more than enough to you know, justify the strikeouts, right,
and the power is there, and the speed is there,
and the defense is there. It's been a really nice
year for him. He's definitely one of the guys in
the system who's moving up on our lists. I think
how high he moves up, we'll see.

Speaker 1 (46:09):
Yeah, yeah, so yeah, I look, I I have him.
I'm not gonna tell you how high I am. You
know you know how high I have them. But yeah,
it's uh Detroit needs to spark. What a curious way
to spell exorcism? Yes, Pat, uh Pat shout out to
Sean down in Tennessee.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
There somebody else talked about an exorcism earlier too.

Speaker 1 (46:30):
Yeah, yeah, look I have Look I was, I was.
I said this earlier, and Chris, you've seen this, Like
my dad's Cuban voodoo thing that's in the garage. I
showed you that thing before, right, mm hmm. That's why
I prove that, Like, so we can't I was talking.
I've talked to my wife about this. We can't take
it out of there because you have to get it
properly taken out. But I give that thing money, like

(46:53):
we've given that thing, and it's helped Sarah Land a
job you know, of course thanks to you of course
as well. But uh, yeah it is you know, yes,
you didn't see a uh you did see a photo
of Braseno taking VP earlier today and.

Speaker 2 (47:09):
Only found that on his uh yeah, look, yeah.

Speaker 1 (47:16):
The whole anyways, that whole voodoo thing that that's kind
of that's there's some real things to that. So anyway, yeah,
Big B being a prospect a couple of years ago,
and that is weird to think that he was like
we had him really high and then he got tweeto
and just went anyway.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Well you know that was a Yeah, we learned from that.
I think we learned, uh you know, certain bath bat
paths and certain people who live going to the opposite
field and can't pull the ball. Teams with more advanced
pictures will take advantage of that. And that's something I
learned from and part of what makes me a little
bit more skeptical about Max Anderson because he's he's kind

(47:53):
of the same type of hitter, although it's a different swing.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
It's more like a line drive swing. I mean, yeah,
but uh no, as far as the rest of here
he goes. The pitching has been Checko and Hyde the bullpen.
There's been some spots in the bullpen that has been Miller.
Miller still pitched as well, Chris, I mean Joe Miller
is still I still believe that Joe Miller.

Speaker 2 (48:18):
Yeah, he's you know, he's still a kind of a
touch and field pitcher despite having you know, increased stuff
the velocities there, but he still works the edges and
he will walk guys rather than throw down the middle.
And what happens. I've seen it a couple of times
this year where he end up with like the bases
loaded and then he just goes at guys and gets
like three strike ups. So yeah, I mean, I still

(48:41):
I still like him as a potential kind of left
handed reliever. Maybe emergency started on the road, but it's
been a nice development there. For sure. He is older,
but yeah, it takes time sometimes.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Wow, this is a if it makes anyone feel better.
The Brats keeps saying Jarvis, this might be better than
I sunk. I sunk him down here. Wow, yeh, that's
you know what?

Speaker 2 (49:01):
And I mentioned that first Harris draft and that's not
I forgot Jim Jarvis another you know, another big leader
draft forgot us. He's there's there's two big leaders from
the draft and one of them was there eleventh round pick. Yeah,
so it's pretty good draft. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
What has not been good, though, is West Michigan Chris.
Every time I watch so I've been watching primarily I
watch the upper Miners. I've been watching a little. I've
watched Lakeland, West Michigan. Every time I go to sit
down and watch West Michigan, they the team goes up
four or five runs and then the bullpen is a
daily occurrence. This stat right here has lost twenty four

(49:37):
to last twenty six eleven one run losses, five two
run losses. Their bullpen cannot hold the lead to save
their life.

Speaker 2 (49:47):
Yeah, and it's it's somebody different every time. Jalen Evans
has been really good out of the bullpen over the
last month or so. But and again it's like what
I talked about, where this like this thing just kind
of creeps in and suddenly you're just expecting it to happen.
We've seen two games this year where they it wasn't
even the bullpen really it was left fielder committing an

(50:08):
error that cost them to lose the game. It's just
there's there's a there's a taint spreading from Grand Rapids
to Detroit and h and it's not it's not fun
to look at.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Yeah, nice, there's something going down in ninety six and
ninety six to ninety four or to the Grand River
in the ninety four, depending on how you get downtown. Yeah,
either way, it is uh. Yeah, it's just a another
record setting season.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Yeah, I mean I haven't looked at it, but they
have to have one of the four or five worst
records among all the full season leagues. But yeah, and
again it's just kind of odd, like it's not like
they're getting blown out consistently or they're starting pitching is terrible.
Like they've they've got they get some good outings, they

(51:00):
score some runs. They just it's it's certainly not the
team from last year. And again, this is another team
that's that's suffering from injuries. Haydine is coming back. Jack
Penny is coming back. That should help. But they've lost
four outfielders, five outfielders, six outfielders. I don't know, so
that'll help. Rainer. Did you know he had an okay week?

(51:21):
I did highlight. He had a couple of singles. One
of them was one hundred and fifteen miles an hour
and the other one was one hundred and eleven. You know,
it really makes contact. It's it's a rocket, but it's
you know, it's a learning year for him.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah. By the way, Dom yourself, some of these mock
trades are so weak. That's why I said, we're gonna
avoid talking about Derek school Mott trade until an actual
trade happens. And that's you know what, that's that's a
real healio guaranteed right there. I'm not gonna We're gonna
bring it up. If we bring it up, if you
guys want to bring it up in the chat, by

(51:54):
all means, but I'm not bringing it up. I just don't.
I don't have the paces for it right now and
until the actual trade deadline, you know what, within two
weeks of the treated line anyway, Sorry about that. I
just the Lucas also, I was gonna ask you about that, Chris.
I haven't had a chance to watch him pitch in
a while. Is it just still trying to feel out
of hisself, like you just.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
You know what, it just it, It doesn't I don't know.
He's another guy that seems like he just gets absolutely
punished every time it makes a mistake. But he's making
a lot of them, and he's either kind of missing
on the edge of the zone or throwing it right
down the middle. And part of what made him successful
was that fastball at the top of the zone and

(52:37):
when you missed that spot, people hit it pretty far.
He's given up a fair amount of hard contact. He
still gets the strikeouts, the walks are up a little bit.
It just looks like a guy who's not He's not
a great picture yet to me, which is odd again
because I thought he was a great pitcher last year
without good stuff, and now this year he looks like
he's got good stuff. But that's so much good pitching.
Still really young, right, he's twenty one, I think maybe

(53:00):
even twenty still, so he might just be a guy
who takes a few years to Like we talked about
Kader Montero, right, like they always liked his stuff, and
it just took him a long time to to kind
of put it all together. And so I could see
last being like a two year guy in West Michigan.
But I'd still believe in the arm.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
Yeah, I do too, And I really think that there's
there's some arms in West Michigan that I don't know
what what I don't know. I think that I know
why I think this. I think there's some potential in
these arms in West Michigan. I just think it's a
matter of it is just a matter of time. Is
it just I don't know, But there's some arms in
West Michigan are still intriguing to me. Minton is one

(53:39):
of them. To his strikeouts are getting better. I mean
that that outing alone is why you want to like he.
That's for him. He's been always not totally more of
a walk guy, right, I mean he's not been well.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
No, I think he I think he may have walked
some guys in his first year, okay, think but I
want to say, like Baseball America had him as the
best command in the system. I think he threw a
lot of strikes last year. It's more like he just
doesn't Yeah, I don't know. When he's not pitching well,
he gets hit pretty hard. I think it's kind of

(54:12):
like a sinker that doesn't miss a ton of bats.
But he's always had pretty good breaking balls. Like I
don't know, he feels like a depth starter in the
ORG to me, like remind kind of reminds me of Burhan,
the guy that might just spend multiple years in Double A.
But we'll see.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
Yeah, there's like I said, I even with even with
I know Castillo's struggling. The one arm that we mentioned
is what the hell is going on with? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (54:42):
You know what's funny is is like he's just walking everybody,
but he's not giving up a ton of runs. It's
it's like seven walks and two strikeouts is absurd. And
what were we look at? I think it was twenty
seven walks and twenty four strikeouts on the season. Is
that right? Oh? No, no, No, twenty three strikeouts at
thirty one Wa Boks in twenty nine innings. So he's

(55:02):
got a six point basically seven strikeouts per nine and
nine point four walks per nine and yet it's a
four two five era. I don't know, I don't remember
him having strike throwing issues in Lakeland. But this is uh,
you know, maybe this is why they were reluctant to
bring him up in the past, Like maybe they do something.
There's stuff we can't see about his strike throwing ability,

(55:24):
but I don't know. I mean, it's kind of a
bummer with him and Castillo. We do. Yeah, Like I said,
I think we mentioned last week two weeks ago that
you reminded me that, you know, sometimes it just takes
these guys longer in West Michigan to get comfortable. So
I thought Castello's stuff was looking closer to what it
looked like two years ago. His fastball was ninety three,

(55:46):
getting up to ninety five pretty consistently, that the slider
was like eighty two eighty three. It doesn't seem to
be holding it though, So I don't know. I don't know.
Maybe if he's got a future, it's in the bullpen,
won't We'll see.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Yeah, And it's like I said, it's it's a it's
gonna be like I said, there's some art. There's potential
in these arms. I really, I really think about that
as far as like just maybe it's reliever kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
So and yeah, and Jacob's remains very exciting. That's you know,
the self bend is the best offense in the Midwest League,
and he shut him down. Yeah, I think he starts
tomorrow in Lansing. By the way, we like to go see.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
But yeah, we're gonna say. I was gonna say we
are overdue.

Speaker 2 (56:26):
We are.

Speaker 1 (56:26):
We're gonna start going to more. June and July are
gonna be We're going to a lot more games. And
I'm with the The problem is, I can't really go
anywhere too much because the dog. I gotta it's time
to find to watch the dog because.

Speaker 2 (56:40):
I don't know. Yeah, and you know, we keep going
on work trips. Yeah, no, just people would just pay
us to cover minor league baseball for a living, then
we fine.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
But yeah, I'm not giving you guys a guilt trip
or anything. Just saying.

Speaker 2 (56:55):
That these people have paid us at all is amazing
to me.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
Yeah. Look in fact, yeah, anybody, I'm just grateful we
have a fan base. So thank you again, seriously, go ahead, Chris, I'm.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
Sorry, No, it's yeah, it's been it's been tough this
year to get out the one time, so I did
go to Lansing for a game earlier this year and
then I got ranked out. It was fun talking to
those guys. I haven't been out to West Michigan yet
this year. Yeah, I need need to go there. It
is It's just it's you know, it's tougher when I'm
in Baltimore for a full week and it's like you
get home, I'm like, I don't want to go to
Grand Rapids today, but we do, and we need to

(57:25):
get to Toledo. Well Clark and Andrews and are still
there and yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
But yeah, we're going to go toled I I mean,
Toledo would be easier for me to go to because
a list is like not you know, I could let
the dog out go you know, leave the dog here
for a game sale. It's like a thirty five to
forty minute try from where I'm at. But AnyWho, let's
go on to Lakeland. Lakeland, the Wave of the Future
serves a pitching goes. They they've been able to stay competitive.

(57:53):
They've had some injuries too, but not as bad. But
that's been all. Chris talk about him a little bit
because he's a ten round draft pick and he's also
appearing up on our list quite a bit.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Yeah, I mean he's just keeps performing and it's he's
the kind of guy that you know, I compared him
with like Elie's or Alfonso or Carlos Mendoza, except you know,
he's hitting the ball pretty hard. I think his average
exit the last is like ninety miles an hour, which
is above major league average. Now it's you know, low
a so but he doesn't swing a miss very often.
He's a switch hitter. He puts the bat on the ball,

(58:25):
he walks, he hits the ball like. He hasn't shown
a ton of in game power, but it's it's in there.
So it's a really interesting package offensively, and they're trying
to teach him catch it, and you know, it's okay,
right now he's got you can see the arm strength
is there. I think his cot stealing rate is below
twenty percent, but again, you you know that's on the

(58:46):
pitchers and he's learning. He's got five pass balls, which
is not great, but you know he's learning how to catch. Right,
if he can become a viable defender, it looks like
a really like it's kind of a Liam Hicks starter kit,
which as a bummer to think about, Liam mix that
Liam Hix I think is mostly playing first base now,
but just this sort of on base percentage driven catcher

(59:09):
who can also you know, hit your home run every
now and then. So yeah, I mean he's he's a
guy that's very intriguing to me. I think it makes
sense to keep him in Lakeland to work on the
catching aspect of it, and you know, maybe they'll get
him up to Rene Rivera at some point later in
the season. But yeah, I mean he's a guy that
I think should be probably on prospect radars. I don't

(59:31):
know what the ceiling is there, right it's probably a
backup catcher. But we'll see, we'll see what he does
at higher levels. But yeah, so far it's been it's
been fun to watch. He's been a key part of
that team.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
Yeah, it's Yeah. One thing I do like about Lakeland
right now too, is that they have a series of
players that as far as like the pitching prospect outside
of the pitching prospects go, the outfield has been a
nice change of change the base. But McDon well, even
McDonald's a little bit of a quote unquote soul weak,

(01:00:03):
he's still putting. He's still put up impressive numbers and
enough to where you have to wonder when he's gonna
get to call it to West Michigan with all the
injuries they've had. At some point, you think in next
month or so.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Yeah, it depends on when they whatever kind of benchmark
they've set there, because the key weakness with him is
the swing and miss, particularly in zone. I don't know
if they think that that's something that he can fix,
or maybe maybe it gets to the point where, like, hey,
they send him up to West Michigan to prove that
he needs to fix it, right, because it's like a
thirty five percent strikeout right in low A that's not

(01:00:38):
going to work. But he's got so much power, he's
got speed, he's a good defender. Like, there's a lot
to light there. So if you can just kind of
rein that in a little bit. But again, if it's
in zone and it's swinging miss, I don't it's it's
kind of tough to deal with that. But this is
a guy who was from is he from the Grand
Rapids area, He's from Michigan, Kalamazoo. Maybe I went to

(01:00:59):
Bowling Green, Do I have that right? I don't remember.
He went to a max school, so we probably didn't
see a ton of advanced pitching.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
So with the Miami Ohio I think it is okay.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
I think you're right. So it's just, yeah, maybe he
just needs to see more advanced pitching it get to
make some improvements there, but the tools are there. Same
with Solas. Solas is an interesting young outfielder, Pinto. They
all have like good tools on defense and offense. They're
just all kind of raw. So it's kind of exactly

(01:01:32):
what you want to see in Loway and you just
hope some of these guys can take that next step forward.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
Yeah, all right. As far as pitching wise, who I
wonder if when Howard is going to come come back
up to West Michigan.

Speaker 2 (01:01:48):
I think he was promoted or you know, I think
he's technically on the mud Hens roster and he's on
a rehab assignment to West Michigan, but I assume that's
where he's going to stay. But yeah, you know, there
was the game on Saturday I think was rained out,
and then doubleheader on Sunday was called early due to

(01:02:09):
lightning or wet conditions, so they only played five games
in the week. So Charlie Christensen didn't pitch, but everybody
else pitched fairly well, like whether Whetherstone was a bummer
right he got he took two steps forward. The last
two starts really good, and then this was a step back.
He just didn't have it. He was wild and he
was giving up hits. Salcedo looked good. Cash Kuyper has
started to look He's looking better every outing, which is nice.

(01:02:30):
He's touching ninety five now, this fastball, his slider, and
his change up looked pretty good. So it's interesting. And Grinsell,
I don't think he started. I think he came in
and relief from Melton maybe that game, but he continues
to pitch fairly well. I think hitters are kind of
laying off some of his stuff now, the change up
below and the fastball up, so he's walk right through

(01:02:51):
going up. But he's still not giving up a ton
of heart contact. So that's good to see.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
Yeah. Yeah, And it depends on where the Tigers want
to do as far as like when this is the time.
This is I think it feels like this is the
time of year where you're gonna start seeing more call ups.
June usually what middle of June, right, that's when we
used to see that that seems like that's the case.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
Yeah. Sometimes they do it shortly after the middle of
June is when the first half of the minor league
season ends, and sometimes they do it right after that,
depending on you know, they want to keep guys to
make for a playoff push. Sometimes they wait until after
the All Star break or after the Futures game, like
we saw with Clark and McGonagall a couple of years ago.

(01:03:36):
But yeah, in the next probably six weeks, I think
we're gonna see a lot of player movement.

Speaker 1 (01:03:41):
Yeah, and hopefully John why not sign Joan plays some
sash sword with him. But yeah, this seems taint.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
Tainty Tigers. That seems like the name of this episode.
I want to go to the White Sox game Crypto,
if I have the ability to, I might. Either it's
gonna be Toledo or the I'm doing the podcast way,
I'm going on a White Sox podcast tomorrow. So uh yeah, Crystal, Yeah,
and I think Europe next after that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
So do you mean me or Ashley? Oh? Whatever? Yeah? Jay?

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
Uh, Jane? Wait, wait what.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
Would you say? I don't know, it's gonna be me
or Ashley.

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
No, it's gonna be you.

Speaker 2 (01:04:27):
Okay, yeah, that's what she said.

Speaker 1 (01:04:31):
That's the that's in between.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Yeah, I know, just because I made a joke about
the tanks in saying this guy's tank.

Speaker 1 (01:04:38):
Yeah, I want to go to the White Sox game.
That would be cool. All right. Anyway, let's let's move
on and let's wrap things up with the FCL Tigers
and Chris Rodriguez making a case to stay in the
top ten.

Speaker 2 (01:04:51):
And four should be a home run.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
But yes, yeah, I know, I know you meant by that.

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Yeah, he had a solid week. You know, it's it's
still a lot of swing and miss with him, but
he's making a lot of good power contact, playing center field,
stealing the occasional base. It's it's nice. Dale Santos had
a pretty good week two although you know, no walk,
six strikeouts, but then he stole four bases and he's
hitting for more power. Denandros Cologne had his first like
big week where he got a bunch of hits. Yeah,

(01:05:19):
it's they're playing much better. And they started oh to
seven I think it was, So they're six and four
in their last ten. That's that's better. And part of
it is the offense showing up. They did not start
very well. But also you got some pitching. Our old
buddy on on Cova cold hit eight strikeouts in three
and a third like he is. It's translating to the States,

(01:05:41):
which is good to see. So that's exciting. Owen Hall
is solid. You know, he's giving up some contact and
some runs but not walking. Guys, get some swings and misses.
That's what you want to see. We hope to see
Coba and haul up in Lakeland later the year.

Speaker 1 (01:05:58):
That would be ideal, you know, it be cool. Look
what's a.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
Yeah, Deli Injabs did point out, and I didn't realize this,
we do have a bushel and a peck. Those are
two like you know, old timy measurements. We don't have
a furlong or a hectare or whatever. But yeah, I
guess there there's a rod. We've got Chris Rod and
other rods, so a rod is there. So yeah, there's
a lot of old measurements.

Speaker 1 (01:06:25):
All right, that's all right. And then the DSL Tigers
are underway as well. Well, no, that's that's not it.
But there there's just starting. Uh. They played the praise
this afternoon.

Speaker 2 (01:06:38):
Was actually I thought it was a preseason game.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
Still so I'm sorry the preseason, so it was that
was on. It was just a game it was on,
so it was actually.

Speaker 2 (01:06:46):
Cool it was on. Yeah, I need to go back
through that and look at it they've had. It'll be
the third one we've seen they had where they're playing
the Toyoa carp and they had one earlier than that.
I forgot who they were playing. But yeah, they're getting
ready to start their season and obviously we saw those
guys get thrown on the i L. But yeah, kind
of one one third of the way through the big

(01:07:07):
league season, slightly farther than that in the minor league
season because it's shorter. Yeah, I think I think we're
that that period where there these teams are going to
start to get a little bit more healthy and so
we might have a better idea of who they are.

Speaker 1 (01:07:23):
Yeah, we have a better idea of the depth of
the farm system is. By the way, the Houston Astros
have combined with two two three pictures tatsu Yami and
two leavers no hit the Rangers.

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
I swear I feel like Houston has a combined no
hitter like every year. I feel like they only throw
combined no hitters.

Speaker 1 (01:07:44):
Yeah, it's the first time there's been a no the eight.
It's the eighteenth no hitter in Houston history. So that's
a good call, Chris. It's quite a bit of no hitters.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Well fromer threw on, right, are we just part of
a couple? Yeah, let's see.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
And then but here's here's the thing. Here's the thing
that Houston has better luck with the Tigers at least
Amber sant Tanta, a twenty year old Dominican right hander,
against the MLB to be secure the final six outs
of the first baseball first no hitter of any kinds
of twenty twenty four.

Speaker 2 (01:08:16):
Well yeah, so yeah, I'm looking. The Astros had a
combined no hitter in June eleventh, two thousand and three.

Speaker 1 (01:08:25):
Fifth combined no hittering team mystery, right, go ahead, continuing.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
Another one in twenty nineteen, another one in twenty twenty two,
two in twenty twenty two. All right, so you're not
crazy then in the one this year. So yeah, the
five combined no hitter, I feel like it always feels
like they're combined.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
So yeah, yeah, it's that's a good call. But the
uh no, One of the things that we will end
the podcast with is that this week, our draft or
our top our top list will be done. I'm about
to finish up mine. I did forty. Else is doing
fifty or sixty, so I'm gonna try to go to fifty.
So our list is gonna be done. We're gonna have

(01:09:05):
all our sports done. And yeah, so our top thirty
is gonna be set this week. So I'm pumped for that.
I'm glad because it's just be one last thing, not
one lest thing. But with all the healthy arms coming
back or the healthy bodies coming back, I think that's
gonna be very helpful for our list. So, like I said,
for all those listening at home or people potentially listening

(01:09:27):
or watching tonight that are listening, we'll have this podcast
up in the morning. So but thanks so much for
watching things, so much for tuning in. And also our
draft coverage is gonna be kicking up here now, not
too draft is just a month away. Is almost a month,
like a month and a half.

Speaker 2 (01:09:41):
Away mid July.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean it's what it's today's gonna be.
It's May twenty fifth, and we're gonna be heading in
the June. And finally, for those who live in southeastern Michigan.
Damn right, there's good weather seven weeks. Oh he divilan
Ininjvie's once to you have your full mock draft.

Speaker 2 (01:10:01):
One negative, although I mean I have set aside it.
You know, the handful of names that I think tigers,
that fits the Tigers model as you will. But yeah,
I mean this is this is kind of the part
of the year where suddenly, like a handful of guys
pop up, usually northern players who had a good high

(01:10:21):
school season or you know, guys who weren't seeing a
ton in the showcase circuit. And this is where your
Jackson Merrill show up from out of nowhere near Michael
Levetto's and things like that. So keeping an eye out
for those guys.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
Yeah, but uh yeah, Well, like I said, well, between
that and SIS, hopefully series comes back to Eerie. Well
we'll find out tomorrow. Tomorrow. I'm sure there will be
a whole plethora of roster moves in between the system.
Who knows, you know, we've stock of the farm system. Absolutely,
stay class, everybody, have a good night. We'll talk to

(01:10:53):
you soon.