00:00On open lines, 2, 4, 8, 5, 3, 9, 97, 97.
00:03All right, let's talk some Tigers.
00:04They lose 3-1 yesterday, and they lose Parker Meadows
00:07in an outfield collision with Riley Green.
00:09Another frustrating game, only conjuring up the one run in the first.
00:14They had first and second, but nobody out.
00:16Strikeout, strikeout, and then Torque hit it hard,
00:19which was a little bit of a trend that I want to get to in a minute,
00:22but it was tracked down in left center field.
00:24Bottom of the second, they got the first two on again,
00:26then strikeout, strikeout, ground ball.
00:28And that was kind of the story of the day was this was a game
00:31where their RISP, as they say, runners in scoring position,
00:35the batting average runners in scoring position,
00:36their ability to get guys in, it was not at its finest.
00:41Did it just not feel like that whole series that Tigers would hit moonshots
00:44that died in the air?
00:46It did.
00:46It felt like that all series long.
00:50Was it Colt Keith or Riley Green that earlier in the series
00:52hit would just straightaway center field, and it went.
00:55The bag and double off the top of that monster they had out there.
00:58Yeah, it has.
01:00It has felt like that.
01:02And it also feels like it might be factually true as well.
01:06From the moment they posted this stat, this is like four games ago,
01:10four or five games ago, where they talked about the numbers that Tigers had
01:14with runners in scoring position, runners on base,
01:17and runners in scoring position with two outs,
01:19and how great the Tigers were to that point in those three categories.
01:23Since then, I think they've had like one hit in those situations.
01:28And I want to make something clear.
01:29I'm not making excuses for them, right?
01:30I'm not saying there was something with the ballpark or anything like that.
01:33The number of times that I got fooled as a viewer
01:37where it looked like that ball got barreled,
01:40and it's going to go, that either got tracked down
01:43or came up well short of a home run.
01:46As a viewer, I got fooled more in this series
01:48than I can remember in my entire life.
01:50Yeah, I agree with you.
01:52And I think there were three players, the three aforementioned Torkelson,
01:55Green, and Colt Keith, I think were the three guys
01:57that I thought for sure had home runs, and they did not have home runs.
02:01And look, everybody plays in the same conditions.
02:04Hats off to Minnesota for sweeping the Tigers.
02:06But I think the positive out of that is that, okay,
02:09knowing that when things warm up, those do become home runs.
02:13I hope so.
02:13This team will be better off for it.
02:16Minnesota got, they were able to crush one through the win,
02:18but they crushed one through the win,
02:21and they end up getting a big hit with bases loaded in a couple outs
02:24and to go up 3-1 late in that game.
02:28This is one where you have to say, yuck, throw it in the garbage.
02:31The tough part to say, yuck, too, is losing Parker Meadows
02:35and seeing how long he's going to be out.
02:37He clearly looked like he was concussed,
02:40bleeding from the mouth profusely from either biting inside his cheek
02:45or lip or tongue or whatever it is.
02:49That didn't look good.
02:50His arm looked like it was hurt as well.
02:52They kept him overnight for observation,
02:54I'm assuming because of the concussion part.
02:56What that means long-term, I don't know.
02:59But my guess is that we're going to hear that
03:00Wenzel Perez has been called up any minute for this series this weekend.
03:05We'll get into that in more detail coming up.
03:08All right, where are you at with this team?
03:10They go to Minnesota, not expected to be a particularly good team,
03:13and they get swept in a four-game series.
03:16They went to Arizona, not expected to be a particularly good team.
03:20They got swept in a three-game series.
03:23And they come home at 4-9.
03:27Where are you at with this team overall?
03:31I'm horribly disappointed right now.
03:33I don't have a ton of faith in the bullpen,
03:36and I need to see this team start to hit the ball with regularity.
03:41I feel much better about the lineup that that's going to turn around
03:45than I do the bullpen.
03:46I think the bullpen has a couple of really good pitchers in it,
03:49and then there's a lot of, I'm not so sure.
03:53We had the caller yesterday who thought that Jack Flaherty
03:55was one of the worst pitchers in baseball.
03:58His words, not mine.
03:59And Flaherty goes out and throws five and two-thirds innings last night.
04:03Gives up just the solo home run.
04:05He looked great last night.
04:06And like I said, that's what you get with Flaherty.
04:08He's Jekyll and Hyde.
04:09You hope he's more Jekyll than he is Hyde.
04:13They've got Cater Montero on the hill tonight because Verlander's out.
04:17There's a lot of questions about this team
04:19that you didn't think these were questions a couple weeks ago
04:22heading into the season.
04:24But where I stand with it is I still have confidence
04:27that this is the best team in the division.
04:29They'll figure it out.
04:30They're going to get together, they're going to go on a run
04:31where they win like 10 out of 12 games.
04:34Not going to be surprised when that happens.
04:36And we're going to feel a lot better about this team
04:38because you've got the table setters at the top
04:40and you've got the run producers that are supposed to be run producers
04:42actually doing their job.
04:44And I think it's going to end up being formidable
04:46to have Riley Green, Kerry Carpenter, and Dylan Dingler,
04:50and hopefully Torkelson in the middle part of that lineup.
04:53They're going to drive in guys like Gleyber Torres
04:55and Colt Keith and Kevin McGonigal.
04:58I highly encourage every listener out there
05:02and every Tiger fan out there,
05:04you go ahead and you lean into your feelings
05:07about how you feel about a 4-9 start.
05:09They're genuine, they're authentic, and they are your feelings.
05:14And I am going to lean into mine
05:17because they have looked terrible.
05:20They've looked terrible.
05:22And we're getting a lot of I told you so's, okay?
05:26And that's fine.
05:27It's part of doing the job.
05:30And if this is who you think they are,
05:32I want you to ask yourself,
05:33is this really who you think they are?
05:36Because if this is really who you think they are
05:38and you can't wait to tell us that you told us
05:40that they were this bad,
05:42then remember what you're saying
05:43is you think they are authentically the worst team in baseball
05:47because that's where they're 4-9.
05:49They have the worst record in baseball.
05:51And if you believe that that's who the real Tigers are,
05:54you think they're the worst team in Major League Baseball,
05:57then fine.
05:59There are some obvious guys underperforming.
06:02In this series,
06:03you might have had the two worst innings
06:05we're going to see from Skubel and Frambert all year.
06:07And Frambert was the worst outing of his career.
06:12You've got guys that have long track records of hitting,
06:16not hitting at all.
06:18And if you think they're the worst team in baseball,
06:20that's fine.
06:21But I think even the critics or even the,
06:22I told you,
06:23so people go,
06:23well,
06:23I didn't think they were this bad.
06:25And there's,
06:26so there's going to be a correction that comes,
06:28but why am I not panicked?
06:31Okay.
06:31I'm not encouraged.
06:33I see what you see.
06:35This is terrible.
06:37This is a 13 game stretch.
06:39They went four and nine.
06:40It started circulating on social media out there about teams that started four and nine.
06:45Only five of the last 93 have made the playoffs or whatever,
06:48whatever.
06:49You know who went four and nine for a stretch last year?
06:54Seattle,
06:54Cleveland,
06:55Boston,
06:55the Yankees,
06:56Toronto,
06:56Detroit,
06:57Cincinnati,
06:57LA,
06:58San Diego,
06:58and Philly.
06:59That is 10 of the 12 playoff teams went four for nine and a stretch.
07:04The other two Milwaukee didn't.
07:06They had two,
07:07four and seven stretches.
07:10And the Cubs had a four and eight stretch.
07:1310 of the 12 playoff teams did this.
07:15The best time to do it is at the beginning of the year,
07:17because you have the most time to make up for it.
07:20To try to put into context,
07:22we just got done watching March madness.
07:24And again,
07:24another reason why I'm not panicked and I'm not,
07:27I'm not thinking,
07:28well,
07:28this is,
07:29we're in real trouble here.
07:30We're in real trouble here.
07:31If they don't play better than this.
07:33But another reason why I'm not panicked is you think of a,
07:36like a basketball game.
07:37We just got done watching March madness when,
07:39you know,
07:40there's going to be 150,
07:41160,
07:42160 points scored in a game.
07:44There's 162 baseball games or in a year for a team in a basketball game.
07:50Do you panic when your team falls behind nine to four at the first TV timeout?
07:55No,
07:56that's what this is.
07:58Now,
07:58the problem is look at the,
08:00look at that Corley you get.
08:01Well,
08:02because I'm trying to put a context.
08:05So why I'm not panicked.
08:07Now the,
08:09the difference in a basketball game is you give up that layup to go down nine to
08:13four.
08:13You get the ball right back and go down the court and launch a three.
08:18It completely changes things.
08:20When the Tigers lose and get swept at Minnesota,
08:22we have to sit on it until the next game and you can't hit a three pointer.
08:27You can't hit three games at once.
08:29You can't win three games at once,
08:31but in the context of the season and you look at all the best teams in baseball
08:36last year,
08:37went through something like this,
08:38if not exactly this,
08:40something very similar to this.
08:42So it can happen.
08:45It feels more authentic because it's really the only feedback we've got from them this
08:49year is two weeks.
08:51They're four and nine.
08:54We have no stretch where they've won nine of 13.
08:57We've just got a stretch where they've lost nine of 13.
09:01Yeah.
09:01Long season.
09:03And these are the reasons why I'm not panicked.
09:05We've seen some,
09:06some really good,
09:07like we've seen for the six starts from Scooble and Valdez have been great.
09:14The other two were terrible.
09:17Casey Mize's starts.
09:18Not so much.
09:20Montero was okay.
09:22And in his starts and,
09:23and,
09:24and Flaherty has been,
09:25you know,
09:25hit and miss there that,
09:27but the,
09:27the lineup has done very little throughout the season.
09:31They have a couple of games where they put up some,
09:33some big runs,
09:34but it feels like they've come only in a couple of innings.
09:37Literally.
09:38That's concerning to me that it's taken a while,
09:42but you know,
09:43I,
09:43I always go to the weather for it and I know it's not a popular thing to do
09:47because it sounds like an excuse because everybody has to play in the
09:49weather.
09:50But after Saturday,
09:51there's no more excuses.
09:52It's going to be cold tonight.
09:55It's going to be chilly tomorrow afternoon.
09:58And then it's going to be seventies.
10:01So we'll see.
10:02We'll see.
10:03You got Miami coming up.
10:05All right.
10:05Take,
10:05get,
10:06get the first step out of the way and win the game tonight.
10:08Get some confidence back.
10:10Let's,
10:10let's,
10:11you know,
10:11have a 12 hit performance and feel better.
10:15Easier said than done.
10:17Let's also call up Max Clark.
10:20Oh,
10:21F it.
10:22Jamai Jones designated for assignment.
10:24You talked about the Wenzel Perez is the one that makes sense.
10:27Somebody's going to have to replace Parker Meadows.
10:29He would get reps in center field here now,
10:32and he would add some juice.
10:34And I,
10:34I'm sorry right now.
10:36It's a team that feels like maybe just a little injection of,
10:41Hey,
10:42looky here will help.
10:43Now I realize it's a bull move.
10:46Max is on a nine game.
10:47I think it's a nine game hitting streak.
10:49He had a,
10:49the bases loaded double last night.
10:50Another double.
10:51It's got,
10:52I think eight on the season now.
10:54It's Carson Anderson.
10:55We'll get to your phone calls and feedback next here on 97 one.
Comments