00:01Boy, that first inning is just about perfect for the Tigers.
00:05And how about perfect for a guy to make his major league debut
00:08with the bases loaded and rope a double first pitch he sees
00:14in the big leagues. So he one of the things I think that is fun
00:17about him is he walks up to the plate anytime even in the field
00:20like he looks cool, calm, collected, like unflappable. I
00:24wonder what the inside voices were telling him. Don't have
00:29this up or I mean, as a competitor, you're probably thinking
00:32about this is this is a perfect situation and he he attacks the
00:37first pitch when he came up. We were both thinking the same
00:40thing. Two words. Grand slam. Yep. Because it was just how
00:44disappointing to only get a double. There you go. These negative
00:48radio guys. It was as great a first inning as you could expect
00:52because you're up for nothing. Everybody's involved. They're
00:55taking pitches. Hell, even Riley Green drew a walk. He drew 46
00:58walks all year last season. Yeah. And he draws one in his first
01:02at bat of the season. And yeah, you kick your feet up. Baseball's
01:07back. Eight to Tigers win. Scoble six innings. I was gonna
01:12say shut up baseball. No earned runs. Yeah. No walks. And he struck
01:16out six. Yep. So look, there's a lot to be excited about. That's a
01:19dream debut. It sure was fun. And I don't care if you were listening
01:26on the radio. If you were watching on TV, I had to watch. I had
01:30to listen to the first couple of innings. Uh, and I let Greg
01:33gain you. Hey, tip of the cap. Nice job. Uh, start the season
01:37off. But then I got home and I, that's when it really got real
01:40because I heard Dan Dickerson and it just, it felt, it felt good
01:45just to hear his voice. Um, and then to, to see the Tigers close
01:51things out. Now the bullpen could have been a little bit better.
01:54You're not using your, your power three arms at the back end.
01:57Right. Yeah. You're using a, I get it. Anderson's a new face, but
02:01he's in mop up duty at that's at that point. Correct. And
02:04really quick for McGonagall, if his only hit was the first hit of
02:08the game, we would celebrate and go, that is a hell of a debut. We're
02:11excited for this guy. What could be his day? Didn't even end
02:15there because his second at bat was a near Homer. The exit velo was
02:20106 off the bat, nearly pulled it out of the yard. And you go,
02:25okay, back to back doubles. Yeah. A two hit day for your
02:28debut. This guy's going to be a stud, but it's like they're
02:31playing the mountain climber game with us. Like, no, it's not
02:34enough. We're going to go one rung higher three for three with a
02:37single. And then John, he ends the day for good measure with a
02:40fourth hit. By the way, his single. Yeah. Liked it out. Liked it
02:45out. He's super fast. Yeah. People were telling us he can run. Yeah.
02:49I know. I know that I was, I, what I was hoping at that point
02:51was, can we get a stolen base? Like, can we, you start to get
02:55greedy and think about all the things that, that he can do. And
03:00again, he gets on first base or, you know, okay, they run the
03:03double or he gets the double and they always, everybody does the
03:06celebration of the double now, whatever they're doing. And it
03:10just feels like, honestly, after the game, it felt like he'd been
03:15here forever. Like, like there was a certain confidence when he
03:19gets to the plate, when he is at third base, you know, any, and he
03:23throws a bullet across the infield, the torque, like it just felt
03:27like, I don't, why was there a doubt that he would be up? He feels
03:32like he's a machine up there. Like there have to be nerves. But to
03:35AJ's point, if this is the nervous McGonagall, yeah, wait till he gets
03:38comfortable.
03:59Yep. There you go. It's instant validation is what it is. Like
04:04you're told he's going to be special, right? Generational skip
04:07triple a number two prospect in baseball, a unicorn. Cause he
04:11combines power and plate discipline doesn't strike out and walks and
04:15he's owned the zone. And as big as you built him up in your head, he
04:18was somehow better. Right. And it was an AJ said before the game,
04:23um, because again, I was listening on the radio. Um, you know, they
04:28asked him why at six and okay, it was clear. He shouldn't have been
04:33eight or nine. And it was a little bit of a protection. Hey, let's get
04:36his feet wet. Let's put them at six. He's good enough. And, and then
04:39he said, you know, at some point he'll, he'll work his way into the,
04:42the, you know, top of the lineup. All right. Well, Hey, why wait,
04:49it's the same thing of why brain when we were talking about bringing
04:53him up, why wait? And if he's going to be here, will he be an
04:56everyday guy? Well, of course, why is he here? Well, yeah, he's, it's the
05:00same logic. If he's going to be here and he's going to hit like
05:02this, why wait, why wait, get a more ABs. So how would the lineup
05:06ideally look if John Jansen was setting it, where would he hit? And
05:11where would the other guys be around him? Honestly, I would put, I
05:15would just let McGonagall lead off. Okay. Like the moment wasn't too
05:19big bases loaded. And you know, you heard AJ there, like if that's
05:22his nervous and okay to start things off, right? Hey, you want to get the
05:26team going to blah, blah, blah, blah. But if that's what he's going
05:31to do and his approach at the plate, don't you want your lead off
05:36hitter to be your best bat? And I'm not going to sit here and say
05:40right now, okay, he's the best bet because there are times where
05:42you'd put Glaber Torres at first because of the plate discipline,
05:44because all the things that we have talked about over the last
05:46year, baseball has changed. It's not just put the really fast guy
05:50in the lead off spot. Like McGonagall showed speed on his third
05:53hit, but it's about getting on base. Well, that's his whole thing
05:57is money ball movie. He gets on base. If he's a guy that's going
06:03to draw a ton of walks, see a bunch of pitches, do damage. That's
06:05a guy you want to get as many at bats. I mean, Kyle Schwarber's a
06:08lead off hitter in Philly and it's not because he's fast and he
06:12strikes out. It's because they want to give him as many at bats
06:14as possible. Right. They want to get maximum home runs, but he's
06:16an all power guy. Right. But I'm saying that the thought is just
06:19as many at bats for my best hitter. If McGonagall's the extra
06:23base hit guy, you know, with some power, you got people on base
06:27in front of them. To me, that's hitting two or three, not first.
06:31Okay. I have the same logic with Karp. Why is Karp leading off?
06:34Isn't he a clear the bases kind of guy? I would agree with you on
06:36that. I don't necessarily agree with him leading off.
06:41I didn't have a problem with it yesterday and maybe this is one
06:44of those situations because, okay, who else in this lineup gets
06:48on base the most? I think you're right. If you go McGonagall
06:53one, Torres two or flip flop, that's my point. Righty lefty. Yeah.
06:59Or if if Glaber is the one that gets on base because he does have
07:04plate discipline, he'll draw some walks, then put him on base and
07:08then put McGonagall at two. Either way, you could make an argument
07:11for either case. We're talking about one game here. Okay. I'll put it
07:15this way. If if a player is an RBI machine, they shouldn't lead
07:19off. You need to have people on base in front of him to bring
07:23them so he can bring them home. Right. You don't want wasted
07:25opportunities. How many times have we told in that? And last
07:28year, what was one of the big complaints about this offense is
07:32the runners left on scoring position. We would go through
07:36on a regular basis. Oh, they were, you know, 16 runners in
07:39scoring position, yet they scored one run or, you know, that that's
07:43an exaggeration. But if they had eight runners in scoring
07:46position and they can't knock anybody in, McGonagall is the
07:50one that you want at bat with other guys in scoring position
07:54because if he's following Parker Meadows or is Parker Meadows
07:59going to even be on base, even be on base or even in the
08:01lineup. Who knows? Yes. Remember, we need to get the guys on
08:03base to drive them in. Right. So yes, it is important to have
08:07RBI. It's not important who gets them. Correct. Right. Because
08:12it's a product of who you are and where you are in the batting
08:14order. Right. But if you're playing the analytic game, Tom's
08:16right. You want him to be up to bat with guys on base. Yeah. The
08:23analytics, though, have said, let's put Schwarber in the one
08:26hole. Right. Because he doesn't he scores without anybody on
08:29base. Correct. It's one swing and he scores. I think there is a
08:33world I would agree with you guys on him leading off and
08:35Torres a second and greens third and torques fourth and you're
08:38going lefty, righty, lefty, righty. And if that that's up to
08:41torque and green to provide the power. Yeah. And I know they
08:44both had two strikeouts yesterday, but if you look at the
08:46at-bats, I mean, look, the Tigers as a team, if we want to
08:49talk the biggest takeaway beyond McGonagall, they saw 40 more
08:53pitches than the Padres. Like Riley Green had a strikeout, but
08:57it was a six pitch battle for one of them. And the first at-bat,
09:01yeah, the pitches were all over the zone, but he didn't chase on a
09:03curveball in the dirt like that. They showed as a team, a
09:06collective more plate discipline, especially in that first inning
09:09to break things open. What was your biggest takeaway? Obviously
09:12the McGonagall stuff's there. You want to react to him and more
09:15two, four, eight, five, three, nine, 97, 97. John, you did go
09:20there. You mentioned the stranded runners last year in the
09:22postseason. Yeah. Did it cross your mind at all? What if they had
09:26him last year in the postseason? I'm not fair or unfair. It
09:29crossed my mind. It didn't cross my mind. I mean, that is that is
09:32you. That is so you. That is yeah. Smarm alarm. I didn't say they
09:37made a mistake. I just said it crossed my mind. Oh, come on,
09:40man. It's this guy, Superman mixed with Batman, Spider-Man. He's the
09:45whole damn Marvel universe together. I'm thinking what might have
09:49been. What if they had Kevin McGonagall in 2013? Right. Yeah. What
09:53if they did? Yeah. What if they had the 10 year old McGonagall? Yeah. I
09:58just asked if his mommy was on there talking about, Hey, it was, it was
10:01carrying his bat everywhere. Always had a baseball with
10:04him. So maybe he was ready at 10. Just asked if it crossed
10:07your mind and no, the answer is emphatically. No, no one else
10:11thought that, Jim. Just you.
10:13Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
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