00:00Welcome back to Newswire here on Sports Grid. Always great to catch up with Tom Vecchio and with Tom, it's
00:04our first baseball conversation of the upcoming 2026 season. So great to have Tom back here on the show. And
00:09we'll talk about some of the teams that he's at least in on in the early part of spring training.
00:14Naturally, as we get closer to the season, a lot more opinions, easier to formalize. Pitchers and catchers reported they're
00:19back on the field. Full squads all reporting early next week, spring training games next weekend. Wow. Hey, Tom, great
00:26to catch up with you here on the show. And let's kind of get into it. Some of the news
00:29news on players has been stolen a little bit by the news that came out in the last 48 hours,
00:35which is sort of going through some of the new rules in Major League Baseball, which always catch everybody and
00:41everyone starts getting angry and yelling and screaming. But meanwhile, all these new rules have really worked out the last
00:46couple of years, too. But the ABS system is in play, happened on the head this year to sort of
00:52challenge these calls. And, you know, I wonder if it affects your thinking at all in dynamics of betting or
00:58anything else.
00:59It does. And immediately my mind goes to probably the opposite ends of the spectrum, where one would be in
01:07one scenario, pitchers are getting out of innings quicker because we're actually seeing pitches that actually should be strikes.
01:13And those are going to be called strikes and strikeouts. Therefore, pitchers are getting out of innings earlier and they're
01:18saving pitches. Therefore, they can go deeper into games.
01:20And on the other side, it would be, hang on, you know, that pitcher actually, that's a ball. And that
01:25pitcher has to stay in. Therefore, the next guy comes up, he fouls off some, you know, some more, you
01:31know, another walk or a single here or there.
01:32And therefore, he's being pulled early, especially early in the season, where we know that pitchers are not fully stretched
01:38out and they don't want them to go super deep.
01:40So they're going to be super, you know, conservative with things where they actually want to pull them after 60,
01:4570 some odd pitches and they're only getting to the fourth inning.
01:48So it's way too early to tell where things would go. Frankly, I'm going to say to be very cautious
01:53with betting overs on pitcher strikeouts or innings.
01:57And I'm going to be siding with a lot of unders until we get a decent sample size.
02:01Yeah, I think that's a fair point. And, you know, naturally, spring training, we'll see some of this in action
02:06like we did last year, and then we'll know more during the regular season.
02:09One of the teams that Tom wanted to bring to the table today and kind of go through some of
02:13the thinking on maybe some futures opportunities, Tom, is the Detroit Tigers.
02:19So I guess it's a two-part question. Number one, why do you like the Tigers this season? And number
02:25two, is it simply because of the moves that they made in the past week?
02:28Or was it something that you liked prior to these moves to add the couple of pitches that they did,
02:34one future Hall of Famer and another starting pitcher that slides into the two-spot in their room?
02:39Right. I would take the bit of everything. It's not just one thing. You know, first off, Scooble deserves that
02:43money that he got.
02:44You know, getting Valdez is great. Bringing back Verlander is great. You know, to me, I think that the Tigers
02:50need to have a little bit of urgency when it comes into the season
02:52and really approaching the deadline because there have been some quotes and things that Scooble has referred to dating back
02:59to last season
03:00that he wants to be somewhere where the team wants to win as much as he does. And we know
03:04how the team ended last season, which was absolutely terrible.
03:06You know, the collapse in September, the Guardians come storming back. You know, they win the division.
03:10But if Scooble is going to remain with the Tigers long term as he approaches free agency,
03:15he needs to believe that the Tigers are willing to take the steps and go all chips to the middle
03:20to prove to him, essentially.
03:22Like, I don't want to say they need to bend the knee to him and say, if you want to
03:24stay, we'll do whatever you want.
03:25But they need to make moves. You know, last trade deadline, you know, acquiring Chris Paddock, no offense to him,
03:32but, like, he's not a needle mover. They need to make moves to show that we are willing to make
03:36the moves
03:36to retain the two-time reigning Cy Young, arguably the best pitcher in all of baseball.
03:41So what they did last year, ending right at 85 wins, I'm going to say they could have been over
03:46this,
03:47vastly over this number, Craig, going to 80, 88, 90 wins, whatever it might have been,
03:50if they just didn't collapse in September.
03:52So the urgency and the kind of randomness that we saw last year,
03:55those things will combine with the offseason moves and a great hitting lineup
03:58to push them to closer to 90 wins this year.
04:01Yeah, definitely. So 59 wins and had a big lead.
04:03And then all of a sudden, things sort of fell apart.
04:06But with this rotation now of Scooble, who is back, Valdez, who's been added,
04:11Verlander, who's been added to the rotation, would slot into the four spot.
04:15Looks great on paper. We know paper doesn't win anything these days,
04:18especially with starting pitching, but they certainly look a lot better,
04:21you would say, at the start of spring training as well.
04:24All right, their season win total, by the way, 85.5 to win the Central,
04:28plus 115 to win the American League.
04:30Detroit is at 9 to 1, and the World Series odds are 12 to 1.
04:35So before we pivot over and do the Texas Rangers here for a minute, Tom,
04:39another team that you like, which of those four are the ones that you've played
04:43or are considering playing?
04:45It would be the win total, over 85.5.
04:47Again, I think this is the spot where they could go over this and, you know,
04:51not win the AL Central if the Guardians have another strong year,
04:53if the Royals have a little bit more consistency.
04:55They can go over 85.5 and still not win the American League.
04:58But, again, I think the urgency from the Tigers needs to be paramount to push them
05:02over this and acquire more pieces at the deadline to really show that they're serious
05:06and Scuba wants to stay there.
05:09Let's get to the Texas Rangers here.
05:11The Rangers definitely going through some changes, Tom, in the offseason,
05:14making some big trades and getting a new manager.
05:17Skip Schumacher is the new skipper there.
05:19Took a year off and is back after a nice little run with Miami making the postseason.
05:24Marcus Simeon is out.
05:25Brandon Nimmo is in.
05:26They also added Mackenzie Gore to the top of their lineup.
05:30And so their rotation, one through three, veteran and solid.
05:36Brom, Valdi, Gore.
05:37And then who knows if they get anything from Leiter and Rocker at the back end of the rotation.
05:41I think they just signed Jordan Montgomery, right?
05:43Didn't they just sign him, I think, if I'm not mistaken, too?
05:45All right.
05:45So they got six or seven starters.
05:47They're going to need a lot more.
05:49But the Rangers, definitely, Tom, the big news for them this week was losing their top prospect, Sebastian Walcott.
05:57They're going to have to replace him.
05:59Do you like this team enough to go over on this number as well, 83 and a half?
06:03I do.
06:04And I think the lineup is good.
06:06It's not great.
06:07I think most people would agree with that.
06:09We know how good the Mariners are in that division.
06:11The Astros, I'm not super sold on them this year.
06:14But it really comes down to the pitching for me.
06:16And DeGrom's not the number one pitcher that he once was.
06:19I'm very high on Mackenzie Gore, as I have been for years since he was traded from the Padres to
06:24the Nationals in the Soto deal.
06:26But to me, it comes to stability.
06:28If you can get DeGrom and Nathan Evaldi to bring you a solid kind of one-two combo, Gore takes
06:33a step forward because he was fantastic in the first half of the season last year.
06:36And then if we see a small step forward for both Leiter and Kumar Rocker, now we're dealing with a
06:41rotation that there's no pure number one.
06:43There's no guy that's a number five.
06:45But they're all like a two, three, four.
06:47And as long as we have stability, that will push them over.
06:50That will bring us where you don't need to push DeGrom.
06:52We actually ease off him because the other guys have taken that step forward.
06:55And that just brings a sense of confidence and trust for the entire team.
06:59And that was what will help push them over the 83 and a half.
07:03What is pro baseball today getting fired up here on SportsGrid?
07:06We start this Sunday, 10 to 12, every Sunday from now until the end of August.
07:10We're doing previews.
07:11We'll touch on the World Baseball Classic as we lead into that over the next month.
07:14And then talking everything, awards, team win totals, you name it.
07:18Can't wait to catch it, Tom Vecchio.
07:20Thanks again.
07:20Have a good weekend.
07:21Same to you.
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