00:01open the show talking about the Tigers offense your phone calls your feedback opening day eve
00:07we've got some Tom Izzo audio we'll play for you but first let's get to Les in Port Huron Les
00:12good
00:12morning good morning in my opinion we are missing that one or two if that's a possibility world
00:20baseball classic players the only one we have won't be here after this season because they will
00:27never pay that kind of money for those players who can carry a team and that's just my opinion
00:37your litmus test is guys who make the world baseball classic rosters
00:42well yeah I mean I feel they're the the best of the best and and we have some great players
00:48but
00:48none of them made that roster well I'm not sure that is the ultimate litmus
00:57test because there's a lot of guys that were on that roster that wouldn't have been if other
01:01guys decided that they wanted to play in it I'll give you that wasn't Riley Green supposed to play
01:08for Puerto Rico but then Puerto Rico didn't have a team that I didn't know well and I do believe
01:14and and and he may not ultimately be that this year but I I think that Kevin McGonigal will be
01:21one of those guys that could be on that roster yeah yeah yeah I can I can agree with that
01:28too
01:28he sure could be yeah look there's a lot of talking about the Bobby Bobby Witt oh yeah and
01:34there's other I mean you know well I mean my guess my whole point is we're we're just never going
01:39to
01:39pay the money we're never going to write the check ever I mean they did this ownership they just
01:43they just paid for Amber Valdez like 38 million bucks a year well well you know okay and I'm
01:51talking about player in players outfielders infielders catchers guys who who are out there
01:57playing every day that position players yeah I share your desire to get more of those guys I mean
02:03people listen to the show no I mean I wish we had eight all-stars no but I think he's
02:08fair to say
02:08like you do have to target some bats and free agency as this thing goes along I mean the idea
02:13that you will do it exclusively homegrown is very lions not to take us down that rabbit hole come on
02:21you can also add some impact guys outside the organization from from the plate yes yeah and I
02:27think that was a complaint people had the last couple off seasons now I can't say they won't spend it
02:32all
02:32when you go out and pay from Brevaldez 38 million bucks a season right make him unbelievably the highest
02:37paid player on the team I mean even more than I mean I know scoobal has set a record at
02:4131 you're
02:42paying damn near 80 million bucks in two pitchers right yeah your pitching staff is is a hundred
02:48billion dollar pitching stuff they have like a borderline or top 10 payroll yes they do okay
02:54so in terms of we're keeping score here right in terms of of you know the the metrics of you
03:01got to
03:01spend it to be able to get into the postseason and and we had this this number and you probably
03:07maybe
03:07you know off the top of your head you got to be in that top 10 in terms of payroll
03:12to even have a
03:13shot at competing for a world series yeah I haven't updated it but it was at one point like 13
03:20of the
03:20last 15 world series were top 10 payrolls right is an exception here exception there but good players
03:27cost money and you have to have a lot of good players I think the caller would agree with that
03:31now do I think if Kevin McGonigal is everything as advertised they're not going to pay him
03:35no I think they'll pay him yeah I he's everything they want to be as a baseball team but I
03:41was going
03:41to say is they're putting a lot of eggs in the McGonigal basket right now and he has shown he
03:45can
03:45handle it through all of six games but that is a key piece of making this offense go this year
03:50is
03:51he needs to be and he looks to be the best hitter on the team yeah I mean it's it's
03:57professional at
03:57bats it's it's it's the lack of strikeouts it's making contact and you know sometimes you can hit a
04:03ball hard and how many times have we hey they're making hard contact you know you know velo speed
04:09off the bat all of these different things but hey it's it's glaber torres when kevin mcgonigal is on
04:14third like he he hits a hot shot but it's right at the first baseman yeah all right if it's
04:20just if
04:20it's if it's three feet one way or the other you may be talking about a tie ball game like
04:25it's
04:26baseball colt keith off the the yellow paddock difference in a double and another run on the
04:30board and we're not like every team could do this with every game we're not making excuses for a two
04:34and four start we're also just using that to tell people hey you don't have to panic
04:40i i think if we get to the midpoint of the season and mcgonigal has hit a rookie wall and
04:44this
04:45offense is flat yeah you could start to crow a little bit and then you're going to focus on that
04:50dreaded
04:50deadline but i'm not well i personally i do not have the belief we need to be having those
04:55conversations at this point and i mean brought up on twitch i wonder if pitchers will adjust and watch
05:00tape on him i'm assuming that you're talking about kevin mcgonigal already have the answer is yes
05:04and but pitchers will adjust how their approach to a good batter oh i'm not saying he's perfect
05:11i'm noting that they have it's been brought up he hardly sees fastballs now yeah teams are making
05:16him hit stuff with spin they're gonna force on him some big time major league adjustments we'll see
05:21how he handles them beyond this uh bob and troy you're on 97.1 hey good morning good morning people
05:28people who are panicking right now are in seattle their big three are seven for 79 with an ops of
05:34299 nailer raleigh and rodriguez nailer is one for 27 and rodriguez is two for 27 they have an on
05:43-base
05:44percentage of under 200 that's panic in six games if you want to panic silly to panic right but uh
05:52that's
05:52you know that's what's happening pitchers are doing their thing that strike zones it's doing
05:57something weird i don't know if it's good or bad i feel sort of bad for the rep of the
06:01umpires because
06:02some of those strikes you can put a car a credit card through and i think well you got to
06:08protect
06:08the plate and and then you they look sort of silly and and you know now they're looking goofy
06:13when they're you know i i don't know i don't i'm not sort of digging it as much as i
06:18thought i would
06:18if you're going to use the abs for the end all to be offers right then use it for the
06:23all oh i would
06:24love that i'd love that too it feels like we're in the in-between space though doesn't it bob like
06:29maybe in a couple years they'll have made that transition and we'll go what the hell are they
06:32doing in 2026 you're right jim and i'm telling you i'm old guy i'm 62 but i have a 23
06:38year old son so
06:39we take ideas and we feed off each other there you go and i'm like i'm like i dig this
06:43but it's making
06:44the umpires and the umpires will have plenty to do with the abs but they're not calling balls and
06:49strikes you know check swings and getting hit and at the plate but just sort of making them look
06:54stupid but the only thing i really call for a spencer he can't hit with guys on base that's the
07:01problem i mean i'm looking at nick i'm like people are laughing he signed nick 17 home runs 72 ribby
07:07one year he had 13 home runs with 62 last year spencer had what 31 with 78 and he had
07:15a guy ahead
07:16of him that had almost a 400 on base percentage until he got hurt and he's stranding him i mean
07:23he didn't do a double play to end an inning with man on first and third this week he just
07:28doesn't hit
07:28so he's more like spencer than torque to me i don't get the torque he has no torque
07:36he's a good fielder but hit with men on base guys it's just it's frustrating that's frustrating
07:43but people in seattle they're jumping in the pacific it's a good perspective that look it's
07:48not everybody's yeah slow down a little bit yeah and we'll give it we'll give torque more than six
07:53games to earn his last name yes yes but but i mean that's when aj's putting the lineup together that
07:59like that's one of the debates that we had about putting colt keith you know lead off or kevin
08:06mcgonigal lead off like you want the guys that are making contact to be the ones that are up when
08:12guys are in scoring position and right now if if if colt keith is on base and mcgonigal's on base
08:18then you're you're relying on torres who we think is going to be able to make good contact but then
08:23it's green it's torque it's carp those are the guys that just simply need to make contact right
08:29but the key is you can move the contact guys up because you want those at bats you want guys
08:33on
08:34base but if you only get two hits in an inning and none of them are extra bases it doesn't
08:37matter what
08:38order they're in they're not going to score runs that's why you need those guys in the middle to step
08:41up here all right we do have iso audio we can play it coming up next because iso did make
08:48a revelation
08:48and i'm wondering if spartan fans wish he would have done what he could have did oh i got a
08:54conspiracy theory for you too oh this will be fun next are we is it moon related no no no
08:59no come on
09:00man okay 97 one
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