00:00I want to pivot to the Detroit Tigers now because they got Major League Baseball's active saves
00:05leader locked up. They signed Kenley Jansen to a one-year deal that's north of $10 million.
00:12Kenley Jansen is a guy that seems like he's going to pitch until somebody takes the baseball out of
00:17his hand and says, thank you very much, heck of a career. We may see you in Cooperstown in the next
00:23couple of years. Kenley Jansen is not built the same way that Aroldis Chapman is, where Chapman
00:29is still a top five to 10 reliever in Major League Baseball at his age. Kenley Jansen is someone that
00:35is going to get the ninth. It can be a very stressful ninth inning at points, but Kenley Jansen is going
00:41to get the eighth or the ninth or the seventh for Detroit. They signed Kyle Finnegan as well.
00:48Detroit's starting to fill out that bullpen a little bit, and you just wonder, what does that
00:53anchor do in the midst of bullpen chaos for A.J. Hinch? Yeah, and we always talk about how hard it
00:59is to analyze relievers, right? Because you're working on a small sample size already. It's a
01:04fraction of the sample size that you're looking at with a starter, and then a lot of times, some of
01:09the more endearing qualities, like I talked about with Iglesias, it's like, oh, well, did you see the
01:12way he finished the year? And it's like, okay, well, now I'm dealing with a small sample within a small
01:17sample. That said, when a guy tows the rubber 36 times, which is like the final 36 times that Kenley
01:25Jansen towed the rubber after he gave up two earned runs at Baltimore on June 15th, from that point
01:31forward, he had a 1.02 ERA. He struck out 27% of batters and walked 7% of batters for the Angels,
01:37and they held opponents to a 118 batting average. Something clicked there for Kenley, who's, you know,
01:43had to adjust a little bit over the years as his stuff doesn't stuff the same way that it did,
01:47but he's still Kenley with, I think, a unique look with that cutter and the sinker that he'll mix in a
01:53little bit off of that. But I think what really stood out to me is he started to up like a slider
01:57usage a little bit just to take, I think, hitters off of that cadence. And all of a sudden, you saw a lot
02:02more success. And I mean, again, small sample of a small sample, but he didn't give up a hit in his
02:09final 10 appearances of the season. And I just, I struggled to think that that could be like luck
02:14there. I think clearly Kenley found something, whether it was from a command perspective, changing his
02:18usage, his location, whatever it may be. I'm not going to pretend that I dug that deep into it,
02:22but I think he's a plus addition to this Tigers bullpen where, you know, Kenley reminds me a
02:28little bit of when I was playing like fantasy football in high school, I would never want to
02:33draft Larry Fitzgerald because I'd always think that he was too old. And then I knew that the one
02:39year I take him, he's going to stank. And I tell myself that, and then he'd be a great flex guy for
02:44you. And I'd always be like, damn, I should have just taken Larry. He's so consistent, but I couldn't
02:48do it at that point. If I thought he was too old the year before, I'm not going to do it again the next
02:51year. So I always feel with Kenley. And then he ends up turning in a pretty good year and usually
02:56ends up getting better down the stretch. So I'm not going to count this guy out. Would I, would he
03:00be on the top of my priority list? No, but neither was Larry Fitz and Larry Fitz helped some of my
03:04classmates and some of my friends win fantasy championships and not me. So I will say, I think
03:10he clearly is an asset to them. And I think the Tigers are buying into the way that he finished that
03:14season. And those five years of Larry Fitz made him one of the greatest wide receivers of all time,
03:20him not being the spring chicken. He was yet still outperforming father time that made him a hall
03:27of famer. And I'm just curious if Kenley Jansen does make it. And I'm not going to ask you, is
03:32Kenley Jansen a hall of famer? I'm going to ask you this. Is that Kenley Jansen cutter close to entering
03:38the pantheon of reliever pitches all time. And we talk about Mariano Rivera's cutter. That's probably
03:43the best singular pitch in the history of major league baseball, Billy Wagner's fastball from the left
03:48side. Trevor Hoffman's changeup. Aroldis Chapman's fastball. After that, I don't really know the
03:54arsenal Lee Smith. I don't really remember, you know, maybe, but like Kenley's cutter has to be
04:03close to that conversation. No. Uh, yeah, because I think what is the final touch on like a pitch like
04:10that, right? Like the, the specific pitch that you call back to is when they can throw it 80% of the
04:16time at 38 years old and still get guys out. And that's exactly what Kenley's doing. That's what
04:20Mariano did. Right. And I think that's what makes this an iconic pitch with, without a doubt is like
04:26as the velocity drops, as he gets older, you know, as, as he really looks like physically doesn't look
04:33like anything like the guy that was a catcher, a switch hitting catcher at one point. And, you know,
04:37an $80 million reliever, he's still able to get you out. And I think that puts that pitch,
04:43which by the way, opponents hit one 64 against last year into, you know, one of the best reliever
04:48pitches of all time. And I think this, a big reason why Kenley wants to keep playing is he wants those
04:52500 saves. And I mean, he's going to have a good chance to get there, right? He needs 24 more.
04:58That that'll be pretty cool. I know what, what is it for ever to, to, to have 500 saves.
05:03I think so. I mean, that's, that'll be pretty sweet.
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