- 16 hours ago
Detroit Tigers manager AJ Hinch called into Costa and Jansen Thursday morning to talk mounting injuries and Valdez's suspension.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Kind enough to join us on an off day. AJ, good morning.
00:03Good morning, how are you doing?
00:05How weird was yesterday? Like, what's the setup when you're watching a game you're suspended from?
00:12It's an awful feeling. I mean, you feel like you're somewhere you shouldn't be.
00:17You know, just given I don't watch the game from the sweet level in street clothes,
00:23far away from the team, and it's a different perspective.
00:26I mean, obviously, I'm locked into the game just like I would be if I'm in the dugout.
00:31But that experience is not a game off, or it's an uncomfortable feeling just because of the whole circumstance.
00:41But I kind of tuned in from my own suite and watched the game and tried to kind of hide
00:48from the public.
00:49I didn't want to be on the broadcast or anything like that.
00:51Like, I don't want to be even noticed.
00:55But, yeah, I found myself in a weird spot.
00:58Did you wake up this morning and see what was on your calendar and think,
01:02oh, man, not the perfect time to have to go on and talk to these guys?
01:07No, it's fine.
01:09I came out of the sun's out, if that helps anybody.
01:13I think warmer days are ahead, better days are ahead.
01:16But we're not leaving until late tonight.
01:21We're going to spend our off day at home and then travel to Kansas City.
01:25So happy to talk to you guys.
01:28So you mentioned warmer days ahead, brighter days ahead.
01:32When things look bleak with all the injuries and swept by the socks,
01:39how do you get from where you are right now to those brighter days, those warmer days ahead?
01:46Well, we would start by playing more consistently.
01:48You know, I think the baseball season tests you all the time.
01:52Like, Sunday we felt great with the big win, you know, against Leiter and Texas.
01:58And then we come into Boston and we get beat by Boston.
02:02We can quickly sort of feel better about ourselves by going in division and taking care of Kansas City.
02:08And it's the methodical nature of our sport can test that resolve a little bit.
02:13But, you know, we can talk about everything that's going wrong.
02:17We can talk about some bright things that are ahead and looking forward to getting this roster back together
02:23and playing a little bit better.
02:25But you can't get caught up in the roller coaster as a participant, right, as a manager, as a coach,
02:31as a player.
02:32And it's hard because there's a lot of things that we can point to right now to play victim that's
02:39not right.
02:41So get back at it and get to the competition on Friday.
02:44And, you know, wins always probably feel a lot better, you know, in times like right now.
02:50And losses feel extremely worse.
02:52And that's the nature of sports.
02:54And we know we're going to kind of run this roller coaster ride no matter what our record is
02:59or where we are in the standings or what the circumstance is and just be better.
03:04What do you think has been the reason for the defensive struggles that you guys have had this season?
03:10That's a great question.
03:11I'm a little surprised at just the up and down nature of the defense.
03:18There are some things you can point to that I feel like are a little bit, you know, unjustified in
03:25talking about our defense.
03:26But at the same time, the reality is, is like we have to play a little bit faster.
03:31We have to play a little bit cleaner and just handle balls that we're supposed to.
03:36I know guys are putting in the work.
03:38But it's not just errors.
03:40There's some miscues that within the play that are creating more stress on ourselves.
03:46And it's not a lack of effort.
03:49It's not a lack of attention to detail.
03:51It's, you know, I think our guys are, we certainly miss some of the higher end defenders that we have
03:57that would probably make our team defense feel a little bit better.
04:01But, you know, it's more of an execution issue.
04:04And I, we're going to continue to, you know, we probably preach playing clean baseball and we play our best.
04:10It's a pretty sharp team when, when we're, when we're executing, but little small things, whether it's a pre-pitch
04:19or whether it's attacking a ball at a certain angle on the ground or that, you know, I watched last
04:24night from the one benefit of the sweet levels.
04:27When you're up above the field, you can, you can see the formation and kind of where guys are playing
04:31and who's getting off the ball better.
04:33It's little small things that will lead to, to better team defense, but it, it hasn't been great so, so
04:39far.
04:41We always get asked the question that we've talked about it a lot is if you're going to pull out
04:47of this and eventually you guys will, but what, what is one thing, or maybe a couple of things that,
04:52you know, Hey, this is what we do.
04:54Well, we've got to be able to count on this when maybe our, Hey, we don't have some of our
04:58starting pitching.
04:59We don't have a full compliment of relievers and we've got some injuries in the, in the, in the lineup.
05:04Like, what is it that you could hang your hat on and say, this is what we do.
05:08Well, we should throw strikes at the end of the day.
05:11The walks are probably the things that, the, the thing that, that really just creates innings.
05:17I mean, last night was a good example.
05:18We missed a ton of bats.
05:20They got four hits.
05:22You know, we didn't play clean defense.
05:25I thought we only got bank and dinged for one, one run.
05:28I mean, one error, but it was probably a couple that we, that we should have made, but there are
05:33a ton of walks in there and, and out of the bullpen last night, some of our primary relievers had
05:39a hard time finding the strike zone.
05:41Jack did a better job of throwing strikes yesterday than he has in his previous few outings, but we need
05:47to be a strike throwing team and, and trust that we're going to convert those into outs.
05:52It's always easy to point to the defense, but the play starts by, by controlling the strike zone and throwing
05:57strikes.
05:58And, and that, that to me is our identity.
06:00It's something that we, in this ballpark, we, we need to be dominant at and the competitions over the plate
06:07more today than ever before.
06:09And, and, and we can do it.
06:11We've done it a ton of first pitch strikes, getting the leverage, creating, making them create their own innings, as
06:17opposed to passing the baton.
06:18And you find yourself first and second, nobody out because of a walk or first and third, and then they
06:23can steal second because of a walk.
06:25And that stress that we're putting on ourselves is, is probably the single thing that's, that's opposite of what our
06:32identity generally is.
06:34How does the rotation lay out here in the next week with Noah Valdez?
06:39Yeah, that's, well, we're, we're probably lucky.
06:41I mean, we are lucky that, that you never want this to happen.
06:45Like, I'm obviously you guys saw my comments the other night and, and I was frustrated as much as anybody.
06:50And, but we have the two off days, which, which is, is again, not nothing that we would brag about,
06:57but it's something that we need to recognize so that we can have the, the off day to reset things.
07:02So, uh, Montero will pitch on, on Friday.
07:06Madden will pitch on Saturday.
07:07We'll piece together Sunday in a bullpen game.
07:10We have the off day Monday.
07:12Jack can come back because of those two off days.
07:15He can pitch again before Frambois pitches.
07:17And, um, I'd expect to see Frambois back in the, in the Mets series, either on Wednesday or Thursday, depending
07:24on how, how we lay it out.
07:26That's when he's first eligible, I believe is on Wednesday next week.
07:29So we can absorb it the best we can with the rest days, but it's obviously not ideal.
07:35We debated it with Valdez.
07:37Did you consider pulling him earlier or is it just, Hey, we need him to eat innings and kind of
07:42wear it because we don't have as many arms.
07:45Yeah, no, he, he was, he was going out for his, the duration of what he could physically do that
07:50day.
07:50And he knew it, um, you know, going, going, coming out of the Atlanta game, um, he and I talked
07:56about the value of, of innings.
07:58And so, um, going, the way we had the bullpen game and then the, you know, the scoogle scratch the
08:04night before his outing, um, was tough timing on the bullpen.
08:09And, and we had, I think three available guys after Farmer, you saw them, um, with Hanafee and Bert Smith
08:16and DeHazers wasn't even really available, but he, he took the last inning.
08:20Um, I'd be the only time in my career that I would have wished for one extra run that, that
08:27would have allowed me to pitch a position player and just ease off the bullpen.
08:31And, you know, we were down by seven, you can't pitch until you're down by eight.
08:34I never want to say that I want to be down by eight, except for that moment when I'm running
08:37out of pitching and I don't want to put somebody in harm's way.
08:41So he was getting us to the middle part of the game, no matter what competitively, of course, I would
08:47have pulled him had we not been in the, in the predicament that we was with our pitching.
08:52In terms of the lineup and consistency, I think the last time we talked, it was right before torque went
08:58on a, an absolute terror with hitting the home runs was a five and five games.
09:02Um, but how do you get more consistency out of guys like torque and carp that this lineup appears to
09:10need?
09:11Um, so the offense has been, you know, pretty okay.
09:15You know, I don't think it's obviously been the perfect, I don't think any offense is perfect nowadays, but I,
09:21you know, there, I think they're a little bit different.
09:23I think with carp, it's, it's about, um, controlling the strength.
09:27He's got to get better pitches.
09:29You know, I see him, um, sometime during the about expanding his zone quite a bit.
09:34Chase is pretty high that, that he, you know, I, he, when he's patient, it's usually balls down the middle.
09:39When he's a little bit too aggressive, they're, they're pitching them carefully, uh, torque, you know, I, I know the
09:45last week has been a little bit rough.
09:48It feels like it's a walk, you know, or a Homer.
09:51Um, and there's been a little bit of indecisiveness, at least what, from my angle, you know, he's, he has
09:56some deep and long at bats.
09:57That's going to create some walks and, and, and some swing and miss just because of the, the nature of
10:04the, of the sport.
10:05But I, I, we obviously getting the right approach is going to be key for those two guys, power hitters
10:10in general struggle with that.
10:12But, um, clearly when they are, they're missing a ton or they're chasing a ton or taking pitches that are
10:19hittable, that's the easiest solution.
10:21It's just way easier from my chair or your chair.
10:24Talking to Tiger manager, AJ Hinch, John Heyman said yesterday that Scooble had the surgery.
10:30Uh, do you have an update?
10:31Did it go well?
10:32He added the, the belief is a two month timeline.
10:34Does that jive kind of with where your head's at?
10:37So the surgery went, went great.
10:39I mean, the update I got, I talked to Tarek's, he, he, he, uh, timeline wise didn't work for us
10:45to connect, um, after the surgery.
10:48I mean, he's coming out as well.
10:49I talked to him today.
10:51Um, but all signs pointed towards a very, very successful invasive, which is all good signs to hear from the
10:58doctor who actually performed it.
11:00I think anybody's saying timeline is guessing.
11:03And I think it's, you know, nothing against John or anybody else, but it's just a guess.
11:07I think we have to get, he, he's a 12 hours out of surgery and people don't know when he's
11:12coming back.
11:13It's entirely like guesswork at this point until he gets back to the throwing program and then it progresses to
11:19how he does it.
11:21I know the, the infatuation with picking a date of when we're going to get him back.
11:26We want him back as soon as possible.
11:27He wants to be back as soon as possible.
11:29But the, I was getting timeline questions before I even had the surgery.
11:34Right.
11:34Like, I don't know what to do with that when I'm in, when I'm sitting there.
11:37And even now after surgery, I, we barely, he's barely out of it.
11:42You do expect him back at some point this year though, right?
11:45Oh, of course.
11:45Oh, of course.
11:46No, this is a, we, this is a procedure that, you know, again, like I just want our, the doctor
11:52and our doctor to, to really guide this and not sort of, you know, the web MD.
11:59Yeah, I get it.
12:00I mean, that these, that these, that these surgeries perform, he is going to pitch again.
12:04He's going to be throwing faster than people understand, but throwing out a month, two months, three months, like that's
12:12irresponsible.
12:13Yeah.
12:13We're all learning about loose bodies and admittedly not experts on it.
12:16AJ, appreciate your time and get back after it tomorrow night.
12:20All right.
12:20You got it.
12:21Take care.
12:22Tiger manager, AJ Hinch.
12:23It's 97 one.
12:24Video dinner, AJ, with one.quele
Comments