Tigers' Season Starts Today! How Many Games Will They Win?

WXYT-FM / 97.1 The Ticket

Costa and Jansen give their season win totals for the Detroit Tigers this season.

Transcript

00:00Baseball back tonight. People want to be optimistic. People want to believe you got Scoobel on

00:05the mound chance to start one to know. But as we peel this back and we ask you your expectations,

00:11do you think they're making the playoffs? Given the injuries, given the off season,

00:17you tell us. And is there one tiger that you're putting a lot of emphasis on? Because to me,

00:21it's Torkelson right or wrong. He's got to deliver if they're going to be in this thing.

00:25I don't think they get buried, but I don't think they make make the playoffs. I just

00:29don't see enough defense outside of the pitching. I don't see enough run support that I could

00:35sit there and say, this is what I believe. And hopefully guys like Spencer Torkelson

00:43and Kerry Carpenter's healthy for a whole majority of the 162. That'll be a big difference.

00:52Ticket text 248-539-9797. Starting today, I don't think they will be over 500 all season.

00:59Tigers win 78 games. Bad defense, not enough bats, having the outfield simply because ownership

01:05won't cut his atrocious contract. Last year was amazing, but not reality. And you can

01:09watch mediocre baseball from those sparkling new $600 home plate club seats. Positive approach.

01:17Pitching will help carry this team until they get healthier. They will win the division

01:19title with 89 wins. Bill in Newport. Yes, hope springs eternal. Tigers win 87 games,

01:27more than last year. They'll make the playoffs, win the American League crown. And yes, I

01:30have money riding on it. Go Tigers. Jason and Royal Oak. Well, at that pace in another

01:37five years, it could be a 90-win team. I'm going to hammer the under 83.5. It's the biggest

01:43unit play I've ever placed from an unnamed texter. After the season, all I've heard all

01:49week on the station is the Tigers will fall back and suck this year. The only thing that

01:53sucks is what you guys have become. Bill in Newport. Oh boy, he's coming at us. Don't

01:58be mad at us because they didn't do much. So I think some of it is, how much do you

02:06believe in what happened last year? And if you just take the last two months of the season,

02:13not that they'd have to come back from a deficit, but that they can play the way they did at

02:18the end of that season and be able to do it without pitching chaos, can they just

02:25have a reliable rotation? And then the chaos flips to the lineup. Who's in center? Who's

02:31the third? Who's batting second? Who's batting fourth?

02:33Look, you can manufacture it some, but AJ has got like five guys on the team who can't

02:36hit and like five guys on the team who can't field. So I'm not really sure. I mean, he'll

02:39do the best he can. Are you including Torque in that? Do you think he can hit? Well, I

02:44think it's a huge question mark. I also don't have him making the playoff. So it would tell

02:49you he may give us some spurts, but I think he's got his issues.

02:53It's just hard to fathom this team right now, the lineup, the way it is in a significant

02:58time. The Vierling and Meadows will both miss that. You're going to need 20 plus homers

03:02from Torque. I mean, you have decided as a team to keep Torque in this lineup and on

03:08the opening day roster, and you sent down Justin Henry Malloy, who led off against lefties

03:14in the playoffs last year. You're going, there has to be something there that they think

03:19is real with Torque because that's what that's a choice you made because of the outfield.

03:23They don't want Malloy to play outfield. So they went with Kreidler and Torque instead

03:26of Malloy and Kreidler for defensive purposes. I mean, to me, that's telling because you

03:33were willing to lead this guy off last year, Malloy, in the playoffs because I think the

03:38all-around game may be provided at the plate. They're going with Torque's power. They believe,

03:44I think, that it's going to happen because it'll be a short leash. If he starts off like

03:49last year, Malloy will be up here in two or three weeks.

03:52Oh, yeah. I don't think this is going to be a thing where he's going to be buried in AAA.

03:57They're going to need bats.

03:58Last year's to this lineup right now, last year's start, they survived Torque. Remember,

04:03they actually started well last year. They survived Torque and how we're finally like

04:07even AJ called him out kind of like, look, eventually there's a it's a place, a seat

04:11next to me.

04:12I understand the explanation of why they took Kreidler. The backbone of their team is outfield

04:17defense to help the pitching. And that's what wins games here. Isn't Kreidler and Harvey

04:22kind of redundant? They're both super utility guys who can't hit. Just take one. Why both?

04:28And that's why if Torque doesn't hit or Keith doesn't improve, if Keith is inconsistent

04:32like last year, they're going to be so anemic offensively at times.

04:36I think they're a candidate to be the first team to be no hit. I know I hate to, but that's

04:40negative sounding.

04:41Well, when you say something like that, you have to take into account the White Sox are

04:47going to be playing baseball. And so I don't know that they're the first team. I think

04:55they're a candidate because there are going to be days and hopefully it's not back to

05:00back days. Hopefully it's not a week's time or week's time where they just struggle to

05:06make contact.

05:07I wanted to say just one thing. I think the money question today is OK, if you don't think

05:12I personally, I'm going with 86 wins. I think you're going to match last year. I think they're

05:15going to methodically kind of go up and down through the season again. And I think Meadows

05:19or Vierling or maybe both will be back. That'll be the difference.

05:22These are guys that were three and two war players last year when they played. I know

05:26people want to laugh at the Vierlings and Meadows defensively, what he provides to this

05:31team. If they can survive the first 60, get these guys back, I think that they can

05:35potentially make the playoffs. But I don't think last year was a fluke. I don't. I think

05:38this team was rising with young talent and a good, decent pitching staff.

05:44The problem is, is I right now I'm leaning towards it might fall off the rails, even

05:50though I'm still sticking with the 86 right now. I think they can be that good. So I'm

05:54going to choose to be the positive side of it right now. But I can see where this thing

05:58gets very, very ugly. You're talking about Vierling and Meadows. That's 225 starts minimally

06:04in the outfield for you that you long term cannot overcome that, especially when they're

06:10the first two guys that are going to go first to third when they're on the base pass.

06:14Ticket texture. I think this is a typo. Says leave it to Costa to be so negative. No, I

06:19think you meant to say John. He's the one who has him winning the fewest amount of games

06:22on the show. Yes. One below 500 ticket. Texture says it's the start of baseball season, the

06:28start of spring, and we have to listen to negativity. Costa, are you ever happy? Another

06:34one says, shut up with the negativity. Costa, you're being an ass. Do you want us to lie

06:37to you? Like serious question. Do you want us to lie to you, John? You don't think they're

06:43making the playoffs.

06:44I don't think they're making the playoffs. Do you want us to lie to you? Is that what

06:47you tuned into for today? You want to get on the radio and you wanted to say they're

06:51actually winning 90 games because the old English D because baseball, because the sun

06:59is out. What do you want us to lie to you? They don't have a center fielder, a shortstop

07:03or a third baseman. Do you want us to lie to you? That's it. That's what I'm getting

07:08from these ticket texts. They want us to lie to them. So we're making our preseason predictions

07:16and they're both right there at 500 until we see 1520 games because they're starting

07:25off against the defending world champs. They're going up to Seattle. Then they'll be here

07:30against the socks. You have both extremes where they're playing against really good

07:36baseball teams and they're playing against one that I think we all agree is going to

07:40be awful. The more we get a chance to see them and learn about this team because what

07:48is possible, it is possible that Spencer Torkelson will be more of what we saw in 23 where he

07:57hit 30 home runs. It is possible that Kerry Carpenter, instead of only playing in 87 games,

08:06plays in 145. How much of a difference does that make? If you can get power from those

08:13guys and then Colt Keith doesn't have the downswings that you see in rookies that he

08:22had, not that he's going to be perfect or he's going to be the baseball player.

08:26He will be in two, three, four years, but he's better than he was last year. It is possible

08:32that this team could be right there, even though they have these catastrophic injuries

08:37at one position, that they could be a team that when they get to 40 games is 19 and 21.

08:45I think that'd be a huge win to be right around 520 games. All of a sudden you get Parker

08:50Meadows back. Sure. Veerling back. Could they? I don't think they're a team that be that

08:56is 90 wins now, but they could certainly be as good as they were last year. But here's

09:00the thing. Here's why I say they don't make the playoffs just because they hit 86 games

09:08or 86 wins. Doesn't mean they're a playoff team.

09:12They got in by the final game. Really? I mean, right. But by, by the margin possible, right?

09:18They closed on the Friday. There were a couple of days left in the season, but it really

09:20came down to that final weekend. But what we can hope for is that we are in a playoff

09:24run at the end of the season, that they are still in the, the, the conversation of their

09:29game back there, two games back. And then they put together, Oh, well, they're one above

09:33the cut line. They're in the wild card. Like that's where we, I think where they are as

09:38an organization, as a skill, as a talent, as injuries, as production, that's where they're

09:43going to be. Yeah. I mean, in terms of like, I feel like we've highlighted the pitching.

09:48That's pretty positive. I said, get me to the deadline and I can buy, that'd be positive,

09:54right? Survive the injuries early. Those are positives, but there's so many questions

10:00with this baseball team. The fact that the answer for all of them is going to be yes.

10:05So unlikely it's unlikely, but out of, you know, five questions, can you get three yeses

10:11and two nos? What does that do for you? Again? That's why I say this team's going to have

10:15to be opportunistic there. One of the things that they struggled with last year was runners

10:19in scoring position. They need to improve upon that. And then you think about this pitching

10:26staff where it's not just Scooble and last year it was Scooble and Flaherty. Now you

10:31have Scooble, Flaherty, Olsen, Mize, Jobe. And then when Cobb comes back, what does it

10:37mean moving forward? This is a pitching staff that can be dominant. No question about it.

10:45Two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97. You let us know your thoughts because we're

10:48too negative. Sell us the positive. Tell us what we're missing because I don't see this

10:52as a playoff baseball team. It's 97.

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