West Michigan Whitecaps Playoff Bound

We spoke with Whitecaps General Manager Jim Jarecki on this special season as the playoffs start in just over a week. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is West Michigan's morning news. We'll edit that for
the left coast. Yeah, unless you're watching this on Facebook
live on Wood Radio, they'll never know. Steve Kelly, Brett
Bekada back in studio, the guy in charge of your
West Michigan white Caps, Jim Jireki, Welcome back to Wood Radio.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Great to be back here. I mean, when I realized
we were here in April before the opener, and I
was going to say, what a great season we're gonna
have with town we got on the white Caps. Boy,
I did not misspeak, did.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
I b No, you did not. Let me just throw
some numbers out because I love the stats. Eighty seven
and thirty eight. Now put your head around that. Eighty
seven and thirty eight almost fifty games over five hundred,
and they could do that because they've still got this
homestand left before we get to the playoffs. But here's
the number that's incredible. So you have the big three

(00:52):
as we know, Brisangio, Clark and McGonagall. They go up
pretty much after the first half, Jim, so you're thinking, Okay,
you know it's gonna be a little a dip this second
half led by Isaac Pacheco and the guys has been
just as good. They win the second half on Sunday
with that victory over Great Lake, So congratulations on that
they win both halfs of the Midwest League East. But

(01:13):
if you follow baseball, there's one number that you kind
of track, and we do it with the Tigers as well,
run differential. They're plus two sixty nine. That means they've
scored two hundred and sixty nine more runs than their opposition.
Have you ever seen a number over two hundred?

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I have not. You know, the consistency that we've gotten
this year at minor league baseball, at this level, because
you lose all these players ripping down, you know, across
the board. But it's been simply plug and play this year.
And the talent that the Tigers have, Man, I am
so excited by what they've got coming up the pipeline.
You see what's happening in Detroit right now, but you
come down to you know, Toledo, Eerie, West, Michigan, and

(01:51):
as these guys worked their way up, they're competing against
each other, but man, they're pushing each other. And even
the second half when we were forty three and seventeen.

Speaker 3 (01:59):
Well and send They've gone to the high a format
we talked about, they've condensed down the minor leagues, so
you're gonna see better talent across the Midwest League. Jim
will attest to that. I mean, even though we saw
great talent in the past years. You know, we talk
about guys that we saw play at now LMCU Ballpark,
right it was amazing. Well, now it's gonna be that way.

(02:20):
And I talked to the Tigers. You would have appreciated this.
I went down to Affiliate Day and they did a
little panel with Dan Dickerson and everybody. Dan Peatree was
on it. I wore my White Caps hat with pride,
and I said, I got to ask this question. I said,
have you guys ever now again when Lance Paris and
those guys came up, I would say that would rival
this in seventy seven, seventy eight I think it was.

(02:40):
But I said, have you ever seen a minor league
system stacked as much as the Tigers ever in Tiger's history?
And they pretty much said no. I mean, because as
you know, there's guys from Lakeland that are coming up
to fill those holes. We've never seen that before.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
No, you haven't. And the guys that did come up,
I mean they've just plug and play. As I said earlier, Yeah,
I mean, they've just stepped on there. And Tony Capacilli
has got some magic going on in that clubouse. Because
who no matter who you put in the white Caps
uniform this year, these guys are coming. They're winning. They
want to win. I mean, between the walkoffs and the
exciting plays that we've got home and the road. I mean,

(03:15):
when you look at the record that we are at
home forty three and sixteen, that's fans support. Yeah, I mean,
the fans come out and the players see it, they
know it, you know, the knights that we've had, solo
crowds and walkoffs and the excitement you know at LMCU Ballpark.
You know, it can't be matched.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
One of the things I want to tell Steve about
that you're starting off tonight's dog Day. Tonight. They've got
all kinds of giveaways every night to celebrate this great team.
At the end of the regular season, we'll tell you
about playoff tickets a little bit, but they are following
up with the tribute obviously to the World War Two
veterans tonight as well.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Yeah, the greatest generation. Obviously something special the last couple
of days where you've seen celebrations, but that's one thing
that we are going to acknowledge it. I mean, you
think about it eighty years ago. That's why we're here
today because exactly generation YEP.

Speaker 1 (04:01):
Six game homestand right gets underway to night. You will
find tickets online. We'll put the link in the podcast
section at Woodradio dot com. But then we talk playoffs
after that and ticket availability. As you guys clinched the
first half, the second half, the well what's up ahead?

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Yeah, absolutely, the playoff tickets are available. We're gonna play
on Thursday, September eleventh, so we'll finish up these sixth
game homestands this week against Fort Wayne. We got a
whole bunch of stuff, as you said on the dock
and including two fireworks shows. But also the playoff tickets
are available right now Whitecaps Baseball dot com. And you
know what this is where it is in the postseason.
The fans support is so so important. We'll open up

(04:41):
on the road, but on September eleventh, we'll be home
at LMCU Ballpark.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Weather it's still gonna be great. We'll tell you a
little more about that right now. Vice President and general
manager Jim Dereki. Always great stuff. Thank you man, LMC
you at the ballpark.