00:00Season starts this week. It's Tiger. Fact or fiction? Names like Scooble, McGonagall,
00:06Job. Words like World Series. We'll get to it. Tom?
00:10All right. Well, let's start with the big name here. Tarek Scooble will win a third straight
00:15Cy Young. Fact. And look, this is history. No American League pitcher has ever won three
00:22straight Cy Young awards. It's only happened a couple times in baseball. Maddox and Randy
00:27Johnson, but Scooble looked even better last year than his first Cy Young, and he's got
00:31plenty to prove going into a contract year. He does. All those things are in his favor.
00:38He's certainly the favorite. He's the betting favorite going in. But when you have Garrett
00:43Crochet, Jacob deGrom, a lot of the guys that were in the mix last year as well, I'm going
00:48to take the field and say, no, he doesn't win a third in a row. And I also think to
00:52get into
00:53that category with Maddox and Johnson, he has to be better than the other two seasons.
00:57It gets stale for these voters to keep voting the same thing. You see that with NBA MVP quite
01:03a bit. All right. Jackson, Joe will appear in at least one game this season. One of 162.
01:08Right. I'd say yes. I think by the end of the year, and here's why I say it is we
01:16talked about
01:16all of the different rotations that they had last year, all the different starts, all the
01:21ones that had starts throughout the course of the last couple of years. I think at some
01:26point, and not that he's even going to be a starter, but I do think that by the end
01:30of the season, he'll be healthy enough. I believe he'll be pitching well enough. They
01:35may need an innings eater. And by that, I'm saying, you know, maybe two innings here, an
01:41inning there. I do think he performs in a game.
01:43Just a clarifying question. This is at any point this season, regular and post, because
01:48if I'm talking about going into mid-October, his timeline is supposed to have him back
01:52by September. Fact. He'll pitch for the Tigers.
01:56Framber Valdez, not Frambler, will win 15 plus games.
02:01Fact. He's done it twice in his career, including in 2024 when the Astros only won
02:0688 games. I think he gets it done for Detroit this year.
02:10I'm going to say fiction. And I, how long pitchers go, the bullpen, there's so many
02:18different factors in this. Scooble, who's two-time reigning Cy Young Award winner, has
02:21only won over 15 games once. That was 18. That was two years ago. I don't, I don't, I
02:28just don't know if the opportunities are going to be there.
02:30Riley Green will strike out less than 175 times.
02:35Yes. He, he had to realize as a bat that this team is counting on, you can't be striking
02:43out as much. It just in terms of, Hey, what he means to this team, what he can do. And
02:50it
02:50doesn't have to be, Hey, 25 more hits, 25 less strikeouts. No, it needs to be at least
02:54Hey, bat on ball, get sack flies, anything. This is a fact. And there's some really good
03:02quotes from Riley Green in the last 24 hours quote. I can do better. I need to cut down
03:07on the strikeouts. This is him acknowledging it. Not last year when who cares about strikeouts,
03:11John, he went as far as to say, I wasn't really focused, which is scary, but at least he's
03:16admitting and acknowledging it. And he specifically talked about his two strike approach in those
03:21moments. You got to choke up, put the ball in play. He last year was way out of whack
03:27for him. I don't believe he's had a season over one 75 strikeouts until last year. Yeah.
03:32I kind of split the difference from the year before last year was two Oh one. And I think
03:35it was like one 56 the year before he gets back to more of who he's been. Yeah. I thought
03:39those comments were really like he owned it, you know, in terms of saying that he's saying
03:44you're not focused. Well, if you realize you're not focused, that's a, that's a big thing
03:48to take on ownership in terms of changing what you were doing. Uh, Spencer Torkelson will
03:53hit 35 plus home runs fiction. He's done 30 twice, 35 at Comerica park fiction. Yeah,
04:01I think it's fiction. Um, I mean, he's been over 30 twice. I think it was 31 both years.
04:06It was, it was three years ago. And then last year, and I don't think there's this, you
04:10know, roller coaster. I think he's found a nice rhythm. I think he'll be, you know, 25 plus
04:16maybe 30, uh, but I don't see him going over 35. Yeah. At some point in his career,
04:21I believe he will. I just don't think it's this year. Kyle Finnegan will lead the Tigers
04:25and saves. No, I think it'll be Will Vest. And I mean, I'm not really sure what we have
04:34to go off of. It's really Jansen. Huh? No, but I think there are, there's a lot of options.
04:40And as we know, AJ is not going to say there's a closer. Yeah. I mean, you're playing the field
04:46in a way because they have a three headed monster. I also think it's going to help these
04:49guys get wins when the bullpen is strong seven, eight and nine. And depending on the matchup,
04:53it could be a different guy. Vest is the guy with the best strikeout stuff. And Jansen's
04:58the guy who's pitched in the most high leverage moments. I love it when you say it like that.
05:02So I actually think Finnegan will finish third, but it's kind of a crapshoot. I'll go fiction.
05:07I think this one's fact. I, in the end, I think he's going to end up being the most reliable.
05:11This is the first time a team has entered a season with three guys in their bullpen that
05:15had 20 plus saves a year before. Now they did it on different teams. Some of them, but
05:19Vest did it here. Kevin McGonagall. This is the biggie. We'll make the opening day roster
05:26fact. And here's the thing that sticks out to me. It's not a big home run in the Dominican.
05:32It's not even a play. He made a third base the other day. That was a web gem. Yeah. He's
05:36the only tiger in the spring with more walks than strikeouts. Who do you want to be as
05:41a baseball team? It's Kevin McGonagall. Start it game one. Yeah, I agree. I mean, and I
05:47don't care about service time. I don't care about any of that stuff. And it all goes away
05:51if he wins rookie of the year and or top two in voting. So yeah, he's the bat that they
05:57need and he's the eye at the plate that they need. I think that's a great point about the
06:02walks. Justin Verlander will win 10 plus games. Now, if I'm not going to say Framber
06:08Valdez and Scooble are going to struggle to get to 15, I don't think JV gets over 10.
06:17Fiction. And I'd hate to predict injuries. I just would go with father time at 43 years
06:22old. Is there a stretch where he gets out of whack or has to miss a few starts? I'm going
06:26to go fiction here. You guys aren't going with any Kenny Rogers magic here. I'd love to see
06:29it, dude. I'll tell you this. If it's fact that Verlander wins 10 plus games, I think
06:34the next one's definitely fact. The Tigers will win 90 plus games. Fiction. Look, they've
06:40only done it four times since 1988. And the last time they did it was in 2014 with a
06:44rotation of JV, Scherzer, Sanchez, Porcello, and they won exactly 90 games. I think
06:51they'll be in the upper 80s. This is fiction. Yeah, I think I'm going to sit there at
06:5589. And what were they, 87 last year? I think they're more consistent throughout the course
07:02of the season. I don't think they have that drop off at the end of the year, but I think
07:05I'm going to go with, it's fiction. I think they go 89. I think it's fact. I do think they're
07:10going to win 90 plus games. Remember I said about Pistons, 50 plus. I'm the positive guy
07:14around here. Yeah, you sure are. Yeah. So we always go for our positivity, especially at
07:18five in the morning. He's our ray of sunshine. You guys give me such a tough time.
07:24Come in here. I don't see Mr. Jolly all the time. How do you? All right. Finally, the
07:28Tigers will make the World Series. Yes, I believe they do. And I believe they play the
07:35Yankees in the ALCS to go to the World Series. I think it goes seven games and it's JV on
07:43the
07:44mound that takes them there. I'm going full Cinderella story. Let's go. John tugging at
07:51people's heartstrings this morning. I'm going to say fiction. Oh, boo hoo. What are you
07:56doing? Yeah. Okay. Let's bring it all on. Fine. They are better positioned for seven
08:01game series because of this rotation, but pressure at bats in the postseason. I just
08:06don't trust him yet. So I'm going to say fiction. I actually think it's going to be
08:11Scooble starts game seven, but we know he's not going to go past what 80 pitches. So
08:16it's Verlander that comes in out of the bullpen. I want to say yes on this fact, but I want
08:23to see what the Yankees are, you know, with Cole being there, that pitching staff is dynamic
08:29as far as pitching staffs go. Yankees have a damn good one. Red Sox may have the best
08:34one in that division. Yeah. And we know the Mariners rotations legit too. I'm just saying
08:39having a great rotation in Detroit should have one is not an automatic. You're winning the
08:44American league. Correct. Just one note here going into the season. I'm, I think a wild
08:49card that could affect the tigers that I just don't know how it's going to play out
08:52is what are the Royals going to be? I think they're going to be their, their toughest competition
08:57in division. I think they're going to have a really good rotation too. And they of course
09:00got Bobby Witt who's going to find their hitting. They couldn't hit last year. I know
09:04they've got it's it's there. Can it come together? That could greatly affect what happens
09:09with the tigers. You want to talk another wild card? I think a big wild card for the
09:12tigers this season might be the guy who's actually hit the best in spring training guy. They didn't
09:15really have it all last year guy who can play third base and center field. If there's any
09:19issues with 162 and are they getting enough offense? Well, could this be a big year for
09:25Matt Veerling to play a role for the tigers? Sure. I think he's a big wild card. That's
09:29why I didn't go over 89 and the 90 plus wins. Cause I think the Royals are going to be
09:35much better in division this year. It's a good call. I think they're the biggest threat
09:39there's your factor fiction seasons right around the corner. It's 97 one
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