00:00A couple quick texts, then we're going to work in the Tigers sweep over the weekend,
00:04maybe calming people down if you're on the ledge.
00:08Two things I saw, super encouraging.
00:11Beyond the obvious, winning is good.
00:13Two things stuck out to me.
00:15Text on the Pistons.
00:17Guys, my biggest concern is not who they play.
00:20It's our coach, the guy who was fired in Cleveland because he couldn't win in the playoffs
00:25with a better roster than what we have now.
00:27I'm worried JB will hold us back.
00:31I'm not worried about that until we see it.
00:33It's a weird text about a guy who might win coach of the year.
00:36Right.
00:39I think has enabled a lot of these guys to play to their strengths.
00:42And despite the fact they're not a great shooting team, they cave you in.
00:45They defend.
00:46They crash the paint.
00:48Cade has grown under JB.
00:50And the fact that with a much lesser roster, without Cade Cunningham,
00:57he found a formula to motivate, to get these guys to play and only come away with three losses.
01:07It's your point.
01:08Look, if he gets outcoached in the postseason, we'll discuss it.
01:12Yeah, absolutely.
01:13And I do think that's why the Heat would be a team that would have a coaching edge
01:17if they met in that opening round.
01:19I don't think there's really many other coaches I view as having that coaching edge.
01:23You could say Boston and Missoula, they've done it.
01:25They've won the NBA title.
01:30Cleveland will be the ultimate test, right?
01:31They moved on from him.
01:33Right.
01:33Yeah.
01:34Don't think he won't be extra motivated to win that series.
01:37There are so many storylines.
01:38I get it.
01:39You got to get through the first round.
01:40The Harden storyline.
01:41It's the coaching storyline.
01:42It's all of those.
01:45I'm curious if we'll get some texts on what you give Dan Campbell for his 50th birthday.
01:48Yeah.
01:49Your comment about the edge.
01:50I didn't have time to get to the smarm alarm in time.
01:53You and Dan, same age.
01:56Yes.
01:56Yes.
01:56I'm a senior by about, what, six months?
01:59No.
02:00Three months.
02:01Yeah.
02:01I'll hear.
02:01Yeah.
02:03But yes.
02:04Yes.
02:05To me, I don't care who the Pistons play.
02:06Texter says, to beat the best, you got to be able to beat anybody.
02:11And says, I love how you guys have covered the good and the bad equally this morning.
02:14As equally as bad as the Wings annual meltdowns have been, the Pistons' two-year turnaround
02:17is unparalleled in league history.
02:20Bickerstaff should be revered as much as Campbell for taking us to the verge of the Super Bowl.
02:26Well, JB's got to get us to the verge of the NBA Finals.
02:31But I don't mean to take away from it.
02:33I mean, you had the stat, and I think I heard Brendan had the stat.
02:35No team in the NBA has gone from 60-plus losses to 60-plus wins in a two-year span.
02:41No.
02:42It's not an accident.
02:43What they're doing is remarkable.
02:44It's not an accident.
02:45What would that be?
02:45Blowing a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals?
02:49You're saying what the Lions did?
02:50Yeah.
02:51What would be comparable to being up 17 in the NFC title game?
02:552-0?
02:56You're halfway there?
02:58Somebody tipping in a shot for the other team?
03:01Off their face?
03:03Yeah.
03:05What's the Gibbs fumble?
03:06What's the Reynolds drop?
03:08Let's not go there.
03:09I am excited for this NBA playoff season, especially having the Pistons in as favorable position as they are.
03:17We see an increased, just a notch or two higher level of intensity in the playoffs.
03:25And we especially see it in this city where kind of last year we had a reintroduction to Pistons playoff
03:33basketball and what that environment is like.
03:35And so I'm excited to see that again.
03:38Yeah.
03:39We got a taste of it last year.
03:41And those crowds were really good.
03:43And now the expectation is there.
03:46Well, and for this entire week, because we don't know who the Pistons are playing, the excitement will also be,
03:53all right, Heat Hornets play tomorrow night.
03:56You got a reason to watch.
03:57You got a reason to watch.
03:58And a loser goes home and then they will, they'll get a chance to play against the loser of Wednesday
04:04night's game, which is Magic Sixers.
04:06Yep.
04:08Hey, Texter points out the Spurs lost 60 games and then won 60 games.
04:14The same time frame the Pistons just did.
04:17In two years?
04:18Yeah.
04:19So, and I just double checked it.
04:20They were 22 and 60 to close the 24 season.
04:23And now there's 62 and 20 to close the 26 season.
04:27Okay, so let's put a plus on the losses.
04:2960 plus.
04:31Because I think it was 68 losses.
04:32Okay.
04:33So you had to lose more than 60 and then win more than 60.
04:36Sorry, I left the plus off.
04:37Yeah.
04:37It's all good.
04:38You know how ticket texters work.
04:39I mean, they're on this.
04:40Yep.
04:41They're going to catch you in every word.
04:43I imagine the text at the end of last week and the calls at the end of last week were
04:48not kind to the Detroit Tigers.
04:50No, they were not.
04:53Have people calmed down?
04:55Is this weekend what you needed to see?
04:57Um, so one of the points that we made last week, and I think it was Tom that made the
05:02point, is when the pitching was good, you couldn't get hitting.
05:05When the hitting was there, you couldn't get pitching.
05:08Just had to put it all together.
05:09And this weekend, and specifically yesterday, coming off what we saw from Tarek Skubal, what we saw from Kevin McGonigal,
05:17Cole Keith, Dylan Dingler, Riley Green.
05:20Mm-hmm.
05:21Like, they finally put it all together.
05:23They didn't expect Skubal to go out there and win a 0-0 pitcher's duel.
05:30Right.
05:32Yeah, beyond the obvious, like, winning is good.
05:34Winning makes you feel good.
05:35There's two things that stuck out to me for the Tigers, and it's why I'm not panicked.
05:39Last week, I think my word was annoyed.
05:42Yeah.
05:42I'm not panicked.
05:43It's obviously early, but there's a couple things that jump out to me.
05:46One, Kevin McGonigal's the real deal.
05:49He had a three-hit day, had his first career home run on Sunday.
05:52He's hitting .322.
05:54You're going to mess around and flirt with a batting title.
05:56I mean, he's been everything that we could have hoped for and more.
05:59He's got an OPS over .900.
06:00He can play multiple positions defensively at a high level.
06:03He draws walks.
06:04He has more walks than strikeouts now.
06:06Mm-hmm.
06:06I mean, he's the real deal.
06:08He's their best bat.
06:09They didn't have this guy a year ago.
06:10So that's point number one of why I'm just not concerned, and I'm actually encouraged.
06:15The other one is more divisive.
06:18Riley Green.
06:20I don't know if there's a two-time All-Star that gets more flack than Riley, and I got
06:24it after last year.
06:25200 strikeouts is a problem, but he publicly said, I got to be better, and what do the
06:30numbers tell you?
06:31Well, he's reached base in all 16 games.
06:35His walk rate is up 5%.
06:39His strikeout rate is down 10%.
06:43He had his first home run of the season over the weekend, and it was in a 10-pitch battle
06:47where he fell down 0-2.
06:50Last year, he concedes.
06:53Yeah.
06:53This year, he gets his pitch, and he goes yard.
06:56So you tell me I get good Riley Green, and Kevin McGonigal is legit?
07:01You know, my offensive anxiety is fading away.
07:05Well, and Cole Keith has been really good.
07:07Sure.
07:08I know we're all excited about the 322 and the 920 OPS.
07:15Kevin, or sorry, Cole Keith is right now betting 340 with an 847 OPS.
07:20Yep.
07:21No, I don't mean to shortchange him.
07:25So you tell us.
07:26I mean, if you were concerned, maybe you still are because, hey, beating the Marlins just
07:31doesn't do it for you.
07:34But shy of them being, you know, 1-15 or something, I'm going to look a little deeper beyond the
07:40record and see, am I seeing the type of things I need to see for this team to be successful?
07:44And I'm seeing those things at the plate with the guys I need to see it from.
07:47You know, your leadoff hitter and your big slugger in the middle.
07:51I mean, hey, Kerry Carpenter hit a home run over the weekend, too.
07:54I know you were also talking about the power outage early in the year.
07:57You had three home runs yesterday.
07:58Yes, and so they're up to 12 home runs on the season, which right now is good enough
08:05for tied for 23rd in Major League Baseball.
08:09So as the bats get more active, they're starting to work their way back up to respectability in
08:16in regards to the home runs.
08:17They had five home runs in total this weekend.
08:19They only had seven going into the weekend.
08:22Yeah, I mean, that's incredible.
08:23And pitching-wise, it's something else we harped on when you were gone last week, Jim,
08:26but that they were 22nd in ERA.
08:29They've jumped to 11th just from the weekend.
08:31You know how you do it.
08:32It's a stat that was making the rounds.
08:34They had four starters in a row throw at least five and two-thirds, allowing no more than a
08:40single run.
08:41Team's longest stretch in a single season, since they did it five times in a row,
08:46back in 2013.
08:47Wow.
08:48The idea here is you have a better rotation than you've had since those teams that were
08:53making deep runs in the early 2000s.
08:55You're as good as your pitching is.
08:57Yeah.
08:57That's what kills losing streaks and builds winning streaks.
09:00Right.
09:00I mean, and that counts the Flaherty start last week.
09:04Right.
09:04He was good enough, and they blew it.
09:06Yeah.
09:07And mine's was really good.
09:08Yeah.
09:10By the way, the Ants have made their way over here, apparently.
09:12I got some...
09:13Oh, you got some crawling on the page there.
09:15There's one crawling on this deal.
09:17Heather's Ants.
09:18Hey.
09:19Heather's Ants.
09:25So we think we solved it.
09:27Someone left like an old coffee cup in here.
09:30Yeah.
09:30And we swapped out the trash can so they're no longer actually in the studio.
09:35They're still lingering, though.
09:37Well, it's like Stoney.
09:39Are we blaming Stoney for him?
09:40We got lingering Ants.
09:42We got lingering Stoney.
09:43Okay.
09:45By the way, with McGonagall's home run, I don't know if you saw this, but the guy who
09:50caught the ball ended up getting a bat, a signed bat, a signed ball, and a signed jersey
09:56in exchange for the home run.
09:58It's awesome.
10:00I mean, it's the first, hopefully first of, I don't know how many in a season or how many
10:05in a career, but for a guy that we think is going to have a tremendous career, I think
10:11that's a pretty good trade-off.
10:13Would you have held out for more or asked for something different if you caught the ball?
10:18Well, so it's tough.
10:21If this is like someone's 500th home run, I'm taking more than a bat and a ball, you
10:25know?
10:25I mean, the payout is hundreds of thousands of dollars.
10:28Right.
10:28So you get the signed ball, the signed bat, and the signed jersey.
10:31Like, there's going to be value in that if he is the player that he's shown so far.
10:36I don't know.
10:37Maybe a couple of tickets to a future game.
10:39Throw in a couple of those, and yeah, deal's done.
10:42Other than that, no, I think this is a good deal.
10:44I don't think you're driving too hard to bargain over a guy's first career home run.
10:47No.
10:48Could you imagine the guy's like, actually, see how bad he wants it?
10:53Still got that signing bonus left?
10:55No, I think he, well, it's going to be interesting to see how long he remains, quote unquote, on
11:00his rookie deal.
11:02Right.
11:03Just a question for Tiger fans.
11:05What would you want in return if you caught Kevin McGonigal's first career home run?
11:09What is a trade that you would make?
11:11Because they got to make these deals with people.
11:12Sure.
11:13They know it's important for the player to get the ball back.
11:15What would you ask for?
11:16248-539-9797.
11:19It's 97.1.
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