00:00Doug Karsh, Scott Anderson, 97.1.
00:04Okay.
00:06Kevin McGonigal.
00:10Who's the last Detroit prospect in any sport
00:14that you are fired up to see as Kevin McGonigal?
00:24He, I mean, let me just tell you,
00:26there's a story today by Cody Stavenhagen in The Athletic
00:31about the buzz that's kind of going through the clubhouse
00:34about Kevin McGonigal,
00:35how they have started to make fun of him.
00:38Like one of the guys make fun of him.
00:41Because yesterday he was doing an interview
00:44and he was at a locker and he didn't have a shirt on.
00:46Jake Rogers yelled across the clubhouse,
00:48put on a shirt, dude.
00:51Verlander said, I haven't done an interview shirtless in 21 years.
00:56And then Rogers started mimicking him.
00:58I hit one 463 off Severino.
01:01Is he all jacked or something?
01:03I guess.
01:05I mean, if you hit one 463 off Severino,
01:07you probably are jacked.
01:09Anyway, there's a lot of questions still to be answered.
01:14And baseball prospects moving your way up the food chain
01:17is filled with trap doors.
01:21Like every level they're looking for your weakness
01:25and they can find one and you can be done.
01:28You can be done.
01:30But when's the last time you were as fired up
01:33about any up and coming Detroit athlete as you are?
01:37Kevin McGonigal.
01:42He's obviously really fired up on McGonigal
01:45and I'm very confident he's going to make the team
01:47out of spring training.
01:50My first thought went to Justin Verlander.
01:55Coming up in 2005,
01:57he was able to make that start
01:58on a 4th of July weekend in Cleveland.
02:01He didn't pitch all that well, but I was excited.
02:06And I believe I had a party that I had to go to that day,
02:09so I kind of missed the start.
02:11I don't know if it was on TV or not,
02:12but I know I didn't watch it
02:14because it was at this party.
02:16And I was kind of bummed about that.
02:18But then knowing that he was part of the rotation in 2006,
02:20that was really cool.
02:22I was really excited about that.
02:24But I had to think, okay,
02:24so it's got to be more recent than 2006 or 2005.
02:29And the answer is going to be easy.
02:31It's Matthew Stafford.
02:33Okay.
02:34First overall pick against my prognosticating powers.
02:41And, yeah, was really fired up to see his first game,
02:46see or hear his first game.
02:49It's funny because in the sport of football,
02:53it can work like a quarterback,
02:56but baseball and hockey in particular lend themselves to draft picks needing to be seasoned.
03:05And they build almost this sort of mythical reputation in the minors where nobody's seeing them.
03:11Kevin McGonigal can walk down the street of Detroit right now and not get stopped.
03:16Kevin McGonigal is unrecognizable,
03:20but he's created such a buzz that it builds in hockey and in baseball more
03:31because you don't see it right away.
03:34Like Jack Campbell.
03:34I was fired up about the Jack Campbell draft pick, right?
03:37And he started playing right away.
03:39It wasn't like there was a buildup.
03:41An anticipation, I guess, is what I'm looking for.
03:45Hockey and baseball,
03:47your draft picks go to the minors,
03:49and the anticipation builds.
03:51So it's not really an apples-to-apples comparison.
03:54You typically don't draft high-level basketball players
04:00and put them in the G League.
04:02They're on your roster.
04:04Now, I was fired up about Cade Cunningham, too.
04:06I thought I was thrilled when they won that lottery,
04:09and I got so excited,
04:10but there was no anticipation.
04:12Bang, he was here.
04:14I can't remember being as excited about a baseball or hockey player
04:19as I am Kevin McGonigal.
04:22Yeah.
04:22I mean, if I kept the baseball, it probably is.
04:24Verlander, I'm going to go back to that.
04:26Yeah.
04:27Just waiting, waiting, waiting.
04:28Because remember, he signed so late.
04:31It was on the eve of when it was going to expire.
04:33He had to sign a contract, and his dad convinced him,
04:35just sign the damn deal.
04:37And then he was a Tiger, pitching as a Tiger a year and a half later
04:40was really awesome.
04:43Looking at hockey is interesting because I love the hockey players,
04:49but I don't know if there's one guy that I've been more excited about
04:52than Kevin McGonigal.
04:53As a Red Wing, he finally gets his chance to debut.
04:57I remember I was excited about Sider and Lucas Raymond,
04:59but not like Kevin McGonigal excited.
05:03So it's been a minute when I think back to this.
05:07Even like Torkelson was, you know, Torkel was 1-1, right?
05:10Right.
05:10Casey Mize with top of the draft.
05:12And yet, nowhere near the anticipation of Kevin McGonigal.
05:15And it's because McGonigal was drafted as a high school kid
05:20and had to make his way up through the minors,
05:23and then you start to hear more and more about him.
05:26Murmurs, you know, whispers became murmurs, murmurs became words,
05:28words became just glowing reviews of how good this guy is,
05:32where he's the second prospect in all of baseball by most publications.
05:38And he has done spectacularly well so far in spring training this year.
05:45I love what he's done.
05:46It's only two home runs, but technically he's got three
05:48because they don't count the scrimmage that they had
05:52against Team Dominican Republic where he hit the home run off of Severino,
05:57459 feet.
05:58So, yeah, I'm really excited about McGonigal.
06:02So, if you start thinking about, he wasn't even, I mean,
06:07he was behind Max Clark in terms of excitement, right?
06:13Yeah.
06:14Initially.
06:15Yeah, initially, yeah.
06:15Both in the same draft.
06:16McGonigal was a sandwich pick.
06:18Yeah.
06:19The story, Cody Stavenhagen wrote it.
06:21We've tweeted it out.
06:22You can check it out and comment on Twitter at Dungator971.
06:26But is this the most excited you've been about a Detroit prospect ever?
06:31If not, who did you hear that was on the way
06:33and you couldn't wait to see them with the big club?
06:36And this is all sports in Detroit.
06:38All right, 248-539-9797.
06:41Carson Anderson, 97.1.
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