00:02Tigers dropped a day game yesterday
00:05to those Boston Red Sox.
00:09John, something about that game
00:10just didn't sit right with you.
00:12We had a conversation late in the show yesterday
00:14about Spencer Torkelson.
00:16And in fact, that AJ's moving him down in the lineup.
00:19He's yet to hit a home run.
00:21I think he's got three doubles.
00:24His walks are up.
00:26Strikeouts are still there.
00:27And he just has not been a reliable bat
00:31early in the season.
00:33And there's been a lot of angst
00:36around Spencer Torkelson.
00:39Yesterday, and we also know Kevin McGonigal,
00:42really good bat.
00:43Colt Keith, really good bat.
00:45Klaver Torres coming on as a good bat.
00:47Riley Green really starting to make a comeback.
00:50This lineup is starting to have some guys that
00:54maybe there's only a couple that strike fear
00:56into other pitchers, McGonigal being one of them.
00:59But they're coming alive.
01:00They're coming alive.
01:01Bats are waking up.
01:02And they're on the road in Boston.
01:06We're in the ninth inning.
01:07Ninth inning starts off 8-3.
01:10Top of the ninth.
01:11Hi-you-lee.
01:12All of a sudden comes through with a double
01:14to lead things off.
01:15All right, here we go.
01:17And then Jake Rogers grounds out the third.
01:21McGonigal comes up, and as we love to see,
01:24he doubles to right field.
01:26It moves how you leave over the third base.
01:28Damn near a home run.
01:29Right.
01:30And then all of a sudden,
01:31Gleyber Torres comes up.
01:32Hey, he singles to right.
01:33Hi-you-lee scores.
01:34McGonigal moves over to third.
01:36So you got runners on first and third.
01:38And one out.
01:39All right, because you had the out by Jake Rogers.
01:43Colt Keith is on deck.
01:45All right.
01:46It's kind of like this lining up like the other night
01:48where all of a sudden,
01:49hey, we got the top of the lineup.
01:50We got everything we want.
01:52And then AJ says,
01:54you know what?
01:54They're going to bring in Aroldis Chapman,
01:55known left-hander,
01:57really good relief pitcher.
01:59Let's take out one of our top two bats
02:02and let's put in one of our worst bats
02:05in Spencer Torkelson.
02:07And I'm sitting there going,
02:08and I text you guys right away.
02:09This sounds and seems like a really fine decision.
02:14And Spencer Torkelson right now,
02:16and I know everybody wants to look at batting average,
02:18but he's batting 189 against lefties.
02:20Oh, well, because we always talk about,
02:22hey, we want to get a right-handed bat
02:23against a left-handed pitcher, right?
02:25Colt Keith has only had two bats
02:27against the left-handed,
02:29you know, two registered at-bats
02:31against left-handed pitchers this week.
02:33We talked to AJ last week.
02:35Is there any chance Colt Keith
02:36gets some more run against left-handed pitchers?
02:40Well, yeah, I don't necessarily know my plan,
02:42but we've got all of that in the works.
02:47On the road,
02:48what do you think Spencer Torkelson is batting?
02:51That's probably not good.
02:52It doesn't matter right or left.
02:54He's batting 125.
02:56Is that the bat that you want up
02:58when you're down by four
03:00and one out,
03:02got runners on first and third?
03:04Yeah, let's go with Spencer Torkelson.
03:06This is going to be the time
03:07that he comes out of that slump
03:09and he hits his first home run of the year.
03:11No.
03:11What does he do?
03:12He strikes out.
03:13Now you've got two outs
03:15and then Riley Green,
03:17a bat that's been coming on,
03:19he doubles,
03:20and all of a sudden,
03:21now it's 6'8".
03:23But you've got two outs.
03:24Dylan Dingler's up.
03:25Another one of the really good bats
03:27that the Tigers have.
03:29He ends up grounding out the shortstop.
03:31Game over.
03:33And it just drives me crazy.
03:35Now, if Colt Keith is in there,
03:38maybe he does the same thing.
03:39Strikes out.
03:40But I would put my chips
03:42in the Colt Keith hat
03:44versus Spencer Torkelson hat
03:46at this point.
03:48Now, maybe Torke finds a way out of it
03:50in the month of May.
03:53I don't know when it happens.
03:55But right now,
03:56not a lot of confidence at the plate.
03:58I don't know.
03:59I'm not going to sit there
04:00and tell you the analytics
04:01about launch angle
04:04and hard hit balls.
04:05We don't need to do all that.
04:07And all these different things.
04:08But I could not believe,
04:12especially now of FC,
04:14no one's with the Tigers organization,
04:15at least that is the decision maker,
04:17is listening to us in the morning.
04:19But the numbers are what they are.
04:22Spencer Torkelson is struggling
04:25mightily at the beginning of the season.
04:26Colt Keith is not.
04:28But let me put a guy up there
04:30that I think could put a good bat together,
04:32a good trip to the plate together.
04:37There's a lot of play here.
04:39And it's just one at-bat
04:40in a game they lost in April.
04:42But on one hand,
04:43you have this Colt Keith thing
04:44where he's off to a great start.
04:46He hit 300 against lefties as a rookie.
04:49Not a lot of pop,
04:49but he showed he could stand in a box
04:51and give you quality at-bats
04:52as a rookie two years ago.
04:53And now, for whatever reason...
04:55They won't even love it to have a chance.
04:57And it was Friday night in a 0-0 game.
04:59They didn't use him as a pinch hitter
05:01off the bench against a lefty in Chapman.
05:04And then they just took him out of the game yesterday
05:06to get not some big bopper,
05:09a guy who's struggling.
05:10So there's a Keith over-managing question.
05:13And there's a Torque question.
05:15The guy's off to a terrible start this season.
05:17And we don't need to geek out.
05:19I'll just put it to you this way.
05:20We had a guy call yesterday,
05:21and I could see your eyes glaze over
05:23when we started talking percentiles of...
05:25Let me just put it this way.
05:26Baseball Savant's a great site.
05:27You don't have to geek out about it.
05:28Just look at the colors.
05:30There's a lot more blue than red.
05:31Yes.
05:32The red are, hey, he's drawing walks.
05:34Right.
05:34But look at exit velo, hard hit...
05:37Like, it's blue.
05:38It's cold.
05:39Right.
05:39It's not profiling as a guy
05:41who's just getting unlucky.
05:42He's got an eye.
05:44You could call him patient,
05:45or you could say,
05:47he's also letting good pitches go by, too,
05:49and he's not doing enough damage.
05:50You're a first baseman with little to no power.
05:53So why would you put that guy in
05:55over one of your best bats
05:56and be a slave to automatic righty-lefty?
05:59Right.
05:59Or lefty-lefty, I think,
06:00is what I texted you
06:01just to get a rise out of you.
06:02Oh, you did.
06:03I was in the supermarket,
06:04and I was listening to the game on my AirPod,
06:09and when it came across that
06:10that was going to happen,
06:11I'm like, this can't be right.
06:13Like, how is this possible?
06:15They're putting in Spencer Torkelson.
06:18Keith played first.
06:20He's still got to get better at the position,
06:21but we're talking about an at-bat
06:23while you're trailing in the ninth inning,
06:25and AJ, we have the audio.
06:27We asked AJ, I said, like,
06:28is the plan just to platoon the guy?
06:30Like, what's the thought
06:31with Colt Keith against lefties?
06:45What's the thought with Colt Keith against lefties?
06:50If you can.
06:52You don't have to test it.
06:53I think you kind of had to test it yesterday
06:55because all the momentum is in your favor.
06:58You're putting pressure on Boston
07:00in the top of the ninth inning.
07:02You went in with a five-run deficit.
07:05You got runners on first and third.
07:06You've already scored one
07:07to cut the deficit to four.
07:10One out.
07:13And you're a slave to,
07:15well, I've got to put a right-handed bat in there.
07:17Even if it's a bat who stinks.
07:18Even if it's a right-handed bat who's cold,
07:20who doesn't show a lot of ability to,
07:22look, maybe he draws a walk and he'll load the base,
07:24but I want someone who could do some damage
07:25if the pitch presents itself,
07:26and Tork is not doing that right now.
07:29No, he's not.
07:30And I don't know,
07:32is there anyone else out there
07:33that felt the same as me?
07:34Like, that same fury,
07:36that same ire,
07:36and I understand it's one game,
07:39but as we found out at the end of last year,
07:42every single game throughout the course of 162
07:46could weigh heavy at that time.
07:50Playing a lefty today,
07:51which means no Cole Keith probably.
07:54Oh, wow.
07:54Are we just going to take out?
07:55No Kerry Carpenter.
07:56Yeah.
07:56Maybe no Riley Green,
07:57depending on the day.
08:01I understand.
08:02Like, you got to use your whole bench
08:03and there are going to be games
08:05that like Jemai's going to play against lefties.
08:06That's why he's here.
08:08But I don't like taking out good bats
08:10and high leverage spots
08:11to put in bad bats
08:12just because they bat from the other side of the plate.
08:14Well, at least Jemai's shown
08:15that he can find the other side of the fence.
08:18No kidding.
08:20And I'm not going to sit here and say,
08:21well, 31 home runs last year.
08:23Wow.
08:23I mean, this is going to be the first
08:25of the next 30 to come.
08:28Right.
08:29Got text coming in.
08:30You want to know if people felt the same way you did
08:33and it's overmanaging,
08:34plus the torque part of this.
08:35Like, well, what do they do with torque?
08:36Is Keith more of an answer at first base?
08:39Text says torque lost power
08:40second half of last season.
08:42It's just continued.
08:43I'm so over the righty lefty crap
08:45that Hinch loves.
08:47Says because he's taking out good at bats
08:49for crap bats just for matchups.
08:52Says, and why is Drew Anderson
08:54coming into ballgames?
08:55That's still close.
08:56Hinch managed like he didn't want to win that game.
08:58That's from Roy and Clarkston.
09:01It's early.
09:02I think Hinch is just trying to get Torkelson going,
09:04show some confidence in him that he still believes in him.
09:06There's still some power in that bat.
09:08He says it's just a coaching decision
09:10because it's very early in the season.
09:12I get it.
09:12But why put him into one of the most high pressure,
09:15high leverage situations?
09:17John, I agree with you,
09:18both with the move that AJ made
09:19as well as Torkelson being there.
09:21Right now, he's a major liability.
09:23Jeff in Wixom.
09:26What do you guys think
09:27with Drew Anderson being terrible,
09:28Flaherty not looking that good either,
09:30and JV being hurt?
09:31Why didn't the Tigers bring in Lucas Giolito?
09:34Read a couple other teams were interested.
09:36Couldn't have been asking too much money.
09:37Says, I think the Tigers should have signed him
09:39unless it was crazy money.
09:42I don't know what the, you know,
09:44behind the scenes, like what he was asking for.
09:48I mean, Drew Anderson has not been at all
09:51what they had hoped he would be.
09:53I saw a stat comparison,
09:54and it's someone you don't want to be compared to.
09:57Oh.
09:59Please don't tell me it's Kenta Maeda.
10:01It was Kenta Maeda.
10:03Eerily similar numbers to Kenta Maeda.
10:05Well, at least he's not making as much
10:07as Kenta Maeda made.
10:08No.
10:09It's like half of what Kenta Maeda was making,
10:11but it's still,
10:11it's just not good.
10:15I can dig it up for you,
10:16but we don't need to go too far down that rabbit hole.
10:18We want you guys staying on topic here.
10:20We'll talk Pistons at 7.02,
10:22an uncomfortable conversation with them.
10:24Centers all around Jalen Duren
10:25and the Max conversation.
10:27We'll talk more about the Tigers next, 97.1.
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