00:00going four for five in the opener does nothing but give encouraging signs
00:05that this team might have found a bat.
00:07And how does that change their outlook for the season?
00:10In the meantime, the potential breaking news here,
00:13and its potential, is that a court injunction is allowing Aiden Holloway,
00:21the Alabama Crimson Tide guard, to travel out of state
00:26while he awaits charges on having two pounds of marijuana,
00:34which was believed to be potentially distributed.
00:38And he didn't initially travel with the team to Chicago.
00:43He can now travel out of state, and he still has hurdles to clear
00:48to get cleared for tonight's game because he has been officially removed
00:52from campus, and I guess Alabama has to reinstate him.
00:55Wow.
00:57Oh, is that all that has to happen?
00:59Guess what's going to happen?
01:01I think Alabama might go ahead and bend some rules to try to advance in sports.
01:06They might.
01:07The NCAA availability report released Thursday night listed him as out for the game,
01:11and when you list a player as out, then they can't play.
01:15Well, it happens, and then you get fined.
01:18I'm sure they'd pay the fine.
01:19Oh, a fine.
01:20He needs to be cleared by Alabama's Office of Student Conduct,
01:22which removed him from campus, according to AL.com.
01:26That might have already happened.
01:28The office does not make the rulings public.
01:31Does the NCAA have any say in a player getting busted?
01:34It's not an NCAA issue.
01:36It's a legal issue.
01:38It is a legal issue.
01:39Yeah, and I don't think the NCAA has any authority over legal issues.
01:44Doug, is there a world where he gets cleared by everything,
01:47but they still don't play him?
01:49I think there is, and there's a couple reasons why.
01:53Nate Oates might take the moral stand.
01:55That's what I'm asking.
01:56Would he actually do that?
01:57He played a player that was an accessory to murder charge against him last year
02:01or two years ago, but he may decide not to.
02:07The other thing is coaches care about missing practice,
02:09and it's not that they, but if you've missed practice
02:12and haven't prepared for a team, he might choose not to play him
02:16because they might not think it's in the best interest of Alabama,
02:19but he might play tonight.
02:22We'll get into March Madness, Michigan and Michigan State
02:25in the 11 o'clock hour, but right now, Detroit is abuzz about Kevin McGonigal.
02:30From Scott, if he hits, if he says, if he hits, say, 280 with 14 bombs, 100 RBIs,
02:36it will mean a whole lot to this lineup.
02:37All of a sudden, we could have a top one-third offense in the American League,
02:41which when you combine with our arms, that would be pretty hard to beat for anyone.
02:46Yeah.
02:47Yep.
02:49Kevin McGonigal is the natural replacement for Chuck Norris.
02:53Timely.
02:54Wow.
02:54Yep.
02:56I don't know if I go there.
02:57Next text, even if it's only one game, it's giving me Bryce Harper vibes.
03:01You know, I don't think that's out of bounds, and I'm not saying,
03:03because you're not saying he's the next Bryce Harper.
03:06You're saying, I'm one day in five plate appearances, and in the field,
03:09you got Bryce Harper vibes.
03:11And that's okay for one day.
03:13We're all responsible here.
03:17We're not going to take people's comments out of context.
03:22No.
03:23Let's just enjoy the one day.
03:27Remember Charles Rogers' first game.
03:29Everyone thought he was amazing.
03:30We all know what happened after that.
03:31That's from Sean in San Diego.
03:34From an unnamed texture, good morning, gentlemen.
03:37I would like to revise my season win total from 87 to 117.
03:41New major league record.
03:43When they go on a two-game, when they go on a two-game losing,
03:47I don't know what this, I cut off right there.
03:51McGonigal is gigantical.
03:53That's from Kendall in Washington.
03:56I mean, right there on the scouting report, it says,
03:59has potential for multiple batting titles.
04:01That's from an unnamed texter.
04:02Kevin in a van says, the amount of times I said, oh my, yesterday,
04:07was indeed funness.
04:09And Kevin had some nice fielding as well.
04:11LFG.
04:12It was gigantical too.
04:13Mm-hmm.
04:15Jordan in a shower writes in, McGonigal is so good,
04:18they hit a single, and his OPS went down 400 points to 2.666.
04:25Got to rash people in the shower lately.
04:27Yeah.
04:29Didn't realize how popular we were with those.
04:32Showering.
04:33Look, get excited.
04:36Sure.
04:38Everybody has been telling us he's going to be a great bat.
04:45Then the first time we see him in a major league game with our own eyes,
04:49he's a great bat.
04:52So the scouting report and the performance align.
04:57I mean, you mentioned Andy Van Hecken, right?
05:00And he had a great debut.
05:01Yeah.
05:01He was a moderate prospect.
05:03I remember his name in the organization,
05:06but he wasn't showing up as the top prospect in the game.
05:10Oh.
05:11You know what?
05:11Think about how many times we saw this with other teams, right?
05:17Where we're like, why couldn't we have Wyatt Lankford, right?
05:21Where we see somebody else's.
05:23Don't say that.
05:23Sorry.
05:24Yeah.
05:25Bad name.
05:25But an example, you know, the Bryce Harper or Shohei Otani or whomever.
05:31I mean, Nick Kurtz last year for Oakland was unreal.
05:35And we said, okay, if we have a rookie of the year candidate here,
05:39what difference would that make?
05:41Because this is what the rookie of the year did last year.
05:44And even we tamped down expectations and sort of settled in on 250 batting average,
05:49double digit home runs.
05:52And 350 on base.
05:53Yeah.
05:54350 on base percentage.
05:55And maybe that's what he is.
05:57And that actually be a pretty damn good rookie year.
06:00But man, he can be better than that.
06:02He could be.
06:04And look, I don't want to heap too much praise on it, but I want to have fun with it
06:08too,
06:08because that was a lot of fun to watch him play.
06:10And I can't wait to see his at-bats tonight.
06:12Sure.
06:13This is what's great about baseball with 162 games.
06:15It's a long season.
06:16Hell, yes, it's a long season.
06:18But it's also fun when you get stuff like last night and you want to see the next one right
06:24away.
06:24Like, let's keep playing.
06:25What's up?
06:26Oh, we got to wait till nine o'clock?
06:27Damn it.
06:30Okay, here we go.
06:31This is from an unnamed texter.
06:32I understand the hype of the new kid, but let's stop all this Detroit stuff we always do with a
06:37shiny new toy
06:38and always expect it to be the next best thing without any substance in the big leagues.
06:44Well, look, I mean, I think we've put up the appropriate guardrails over the first 23 minutes of the show
06:51to try and not get carried away, just talk about the context of the one game, talk about the challenges
06:56moving forward.
06:57But we've simply asked the question, if this kid can rake, how does it change your outlook for the season?
07:03The word if was there.
07:04You did say if.
07:05I've used the word if.
07:06You said if.
07:06Maybe a dozen times.
07:08And, you know, whoever sent this, we can keep putting up guardrails, and we will do so.
07:14We will have, you know, the fine print warnings throughout the day about it's so early.
07:20We know that.
07:21Everybody knows it.
07:23Everybody knows it.
07:25But when everybody's telling you a kid's going to be good, Detroit-based reporters, national reporters, rankings of minor leaguers,
07:35done by non-Detroit, nobody with Detroit ties, right?
07:39Nobody.
07:39This isn't the Homer evaluation.
07:41This is everyone's evaluation.
07:42There's plenty of Homer evaluation.
07:44Plenty of it.
07:45But look beyond that, and you'll see, you know, the Jim Cowleses of the world and the Jeff Passans of
07:51the world.
07:51Yep.
07:52All the John Moroses or whatever.
07:53Everybody is just, they're really enamored with what Kevin McGonigal can be and what he has been in the first
07:59game.
08:00Yeah, this isn't Chris Shelton.
08:01This is like, we saw this as a real possibility of him being a star in this league.
08:06You know, this is Brennan.
08:07It's not Brennan Bosch or something like that.
08:10This is a guy that's been hyped up, and he's delivered, by the way, in the minors, and he comes
08:14up and delivers in the first game out.
08:16And you talked, Doug, about the question, how does it change your expectations?
08:20If McGonigal is a real player, like a real hitter, World Series is not out of the question.
08:26Like, they were in the second round of playoffs last year, and everyone hated the lineup.
08:30You had a real bat, and hopefully the other guys that you hope to get better, like Riley Green cut
08:34down on strikeouts, Torque gets better.
08:36Yeah.
08:37I think they got enough in the lineup, especially with the pitching and what we believe the bullpen ceiling could
08:41be.
08:42World Series is not out of the question at all.
08:44No, I mean, they already have World Series aspirations.
08:46Yes, and then you add a real bat?
08:49248-539-9797.
08:51Jay in Redford.
08:52Hi, Jay.
08:53Hey, how you guys doing?
08:55We're good, Jay.
08:56Hey, I think he's the truth.
08:58I think he's going to turn out to be a really great hitter.
09:01He's not Brennan Bosch.
09:03It doesn't look like he has any holes in his swing.
09:07I mean, his swing is, it's just different.
09:11I mean, it's just different.
09:14And the way he makes contact, that ball comes off, it comes off the bat differently.
09:19He makes solid contact.
09:20He's squaring that ball up nicely.
09:22He's, it's a compact swing.
09:24It is, it's designed to hit and find gaps and hit line drives.
09:30And look, if he's able to put the ball over the fence, great.
09:35I don't know how many times I expect him to do it, but you know, he can, he clearly can.
09:39He's, he's got all the hit tools you want.
09:42I think, I think the home runs will come, but he's a solid hitter and he's going to help
09:46the Tigers out tremendously.
09:48I know he's going to go through slumps.
09:49It's a long season.
09:50Like you guys said, he's going to have ups and downs, but I think he's going to be consistently
09:54good.
09:55Well, we're along for the ride.
09:57Can't wait to see it play itself out.
09:59If this kid is, it really can hit.
10:02How does it change your outlook on this season?
10:052, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97.
10:07It's Carson Anderson, 97.
10:10One.
10:10One.
10:10Four.
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