00:00I just saw something, and it's, I think one of our Detroit athletes is getting stonied.
00:08What?
00:09I'll get to it in a second.
00:11Tom, you had something interesting you wanted to present?
00:13Yeah, so you're talking about the Tigers and making a run here, and this email comes in
00:18to me from betonline.org, and they're constantly updating numbers, and a lot of it's been
00:24happening with baseball two months in.
00:25They need to adjust preseason numbers.
00:27So the Tigers were 85.5 win total going in, according to these guys.
00:32I want you to both take a guess at what they're at right now.
00:35What the projected win total is?
00:37Yes.
00:38I'm going to guess 75.5.
00:4178.
00:42You guessed, Jim, what Greg did, but that was wrong.
00:45They still have the Tigers at 81.5 wins.
00:49On what planet?
00:50So yesterday, they sent odds for a division, and the Tigers were still only 10-1.
00:58I found that interesting, especially when the Royals were pretty much farther down.
01:02I don't know the exact number, but there was a gap.
01:04And they have the same exact record.
01:06Yes.
01:06Yes.
01:07So there is a belief from the odds makers that they could salvage this season.
01:11That they are better than their record is by far, I would say.
01:15They're 1,200 or 500 right now.
01:16Well, our question is...
01:17Who wouldn't take that to the bank right now, unless they're right.
01:22And you know what?
01:23Mike was brilliant in the NBA playoffs in terms of following the odds during the Magic Series,
01:29and that the Pistons were still barely dogs down 3-1.
01:33I would see this in the reverse of that, almost.
01:36And this is also them thinking, I don't think Scooble gets traded in a world where they win
01:4081.5 games.
01:41Well, that's what I was just going to say.
01:42If they sell at the deadline, no way they're winning 80 games.
01:44No way.
01:45Yeah.
01:45Wouldn't you go running to the hills?
01:47Right now...
01:47It's about the under, you're saying?
01:48Yes.
01:48Yeah.
01:49But doesn't that tell you something?
01:51That's a...
01:51It's an eyebrow razor.
01:53So then, okay.
01:54It fits into the question we ask people, then.
01:57Nobody likes to do math on the radio, because we all end up looking like fools.
02:00But solve for X.
02:03Who is the guy that salvages this?
02:05How would they make up the gap to get back into this?
02:08Who has to be, I guess, their savior?
02:12Tork makes a lot of sense as a right-handed bat.
02:14You saw what he did last night.
02:15Going to need a whole hell of a lot more of it.
02:16We're in that weird cycle where everybody dumps on him.
02:18He gets hot for a couple days, and then falls apart again.
02:21It has to be consistent.
02:22Can I give you another name?
02:23Yeah, please.
02:24Who's injured right now?
02:26He was actually playing pretty well before he got hurt.
02:29Parker Meadows.
02:31What's his timeline?
02:32I don't know.
02:33Weren't we thinking All-Star break?
02:35Yeah.
02:35So we're still more than a month away.
02:37He broke a bone, didn't he?
02:40Tom, you had a name.
02:42A couple.
02:43I think people get mad at this name, because I think people are sick of him.
02:48But Matt Veerling is a part of this team.
02:50He plays most days defensively as much as offensively.
02:55If he can return to just career numbers offensively, but he's got to hold down fort and center.
03:00I mean, Baez got bad news yesterday.
03:03He's going to be longer.
03:04Meadows, you just mentioned, is going to be a while.
03:06Playing center in Comerica is huge.
03:08And I think, you know, after that play he had a couple nights ago, he knows he needs to be
03:13better.
03:14Yeah.
03:14I'm pretty sure.
03:15And AJ danced around it.
03:16But another name to me, and this team has a lot of mixed numbers.
03:19Like you just mentioned about Keith and Torque and the difference in who Torque has a 40 point better OPS
03:25roughly.
03:26I mean, who would have thought that?
03:27But if you look at his average 295, they've got another mixed up player right now on their team.
03:32And I think he's crucial because I still think the number one reason why this team is so far under
03:35500 is actually the bullpen.
03:37The back end of it.
03:38I totally agree.
03:39Kyle Finnegan's been the best of them.
03:42But has he really been as good as you think he is?
03:45No, Dickerson was talking last night.
03:46The guy's got more walks than strikeouts.
03:49Right.
03:49And with a great ERA.
03:51So it's a great listen of old school versus like new school baseball stats.
03:54The new schools are OPS and whip.
03:56The old school are average and ERA.
03:59So Finnegan, just like, I totally forgot, Torque with the mixed message numbers.
04:05And Keith with the mixed message numbers.
04:08Finnegan's ERA is 182.
04:10Oh, who wouldn't want that as a closer?
04:12Right?
04:13Yeah.
04:13Right.
04:14But guess what is whip is?
04:16What?
04:17Give it 162.
04:18Yeah.
04:18It's just playing with fire.
04:19Highest of his career.
04:21Right.
04:21You're almost you're putting on more than one and a half base runners per inning that you pitch.
04:24I mean, you got these players that are all jumbled up, disjointed.
04:29It's very weird.
04:30So then it's just an easy question.
04:32I don't know if there's an easy answer.
04:35Who from this group are you looking to fix this?
04:38I mean, we talked about lack of leadership, someone stepping up.
04:40It's also got to be on the on the field.
04:42248-539-9797.
04:44Before we get the phones in the text, I did tell you there's an athlete in Detroit that
04:48is being stonied or getting stonied.
04:51It's from Will Birchfield.
04:53He has a video up of Kevin McGonigal wearing a Red Wings hat.
04:57I saw that.
04:59And the question was, would your boys in Philly approve of the Red Wings hat?
05:02Quote, probably not.
05:04But I fell in love with this city.
05:07Kid from your area.
05:08Absolutely.
05:09Goes to Detroit.
05:10Adopts the hockey team.
05:11It will take him a while before he does the Lions-Eagles switch, though.
05:16You think so?
05:17Yeah.
05:18He's going to be here for a while.
05:19Oh, I know.
05:21Was that the hardest one?
05:24Yeah.
05:25Yeah.
05:25The Flyers was hard, too, because that was my favorite team when I was a kid.
05:29But I don't know.
05:30The Lions-Eagles are part of life in Philly.
05:37This is obviously something you dealt with, but other people may be, too.
05:40When you move away and you end up putting roots down somewhere, do you hold on to the
05:46old team?
05:46I hold on a lot, but not as much as I thought I would.
05:51And my friends give me crap.
05:53My family gives me crap.
05:55People here even give me crap.
05:56But, you know, Lenny's still a giant fan number.
05:58I understand that.
06:01The way sports was covered when I moved here and things, getting to know a lot of the players,
06:06I just found it.
06:07And liking a lot of the players.
06:08And we had more access to them, like during the Bad Boys days.
06:12And they were fun to be around, and I was single.
06:16They'd come to our house for parties and things like that.
06:19That's not happening anymore.
06:20No.
06:20It was very difficult for me to root against people that I liked.
06:25What's up, Perez?
06:26It's not inviting me over.
06:29So that's different.
06:30I still, look, if Philly's in any situation, the Eagles are still very important to me.
06:37But, like, when they won their first Super Bowl, I was happier more for my family and my friends than
06:43I was for me.
06:44Yeah, it's nothing I've ever had to deal with.
06:46And I think—
06:47And it's a lot easier to do what I did in this job.
06:52And people say, well, you do it on purpose for radio.
06:54No, it would be better radio if I didn't.
06:56So it's just whatever came naturally to me.
06:59But if you have a normal job, not like ours, I don't see anybody ever making the switch.
07:06Because that's what I would say.
07:07Your hometown team, your new hometown would be your B team.
07:10Yeah, I've never had to deal with it.
07:13You know, I went to college at Central, didn't leave the state for college.
07:16My career started in Grand Rapids from Livonia.
07:19So it's always been the local teams.
07:20I've always wondered, like, how would I handle it?
07:23And I would say on paper, I'd never switch.
07:24Like, these are my teams.
07:25And it was never a big Detroit-Philly rivalry, so to speak.
07:31I mean, you had your—
07:31Well, I played in the cup final.
07:32Yeah, but I mean, when I moved here in 1986, there was nothing really—
07:36I mean, they had the playoff game with the Lions and all that stuff.
07:39But there was never—as opposed to, like, let's say I moved to Dallas.
07:43Yeah.
07:44There's no way I'm rooting for the Cowboys.
07:47It's impossible.
07:49Right.
07:49There's just some non-negotiables.
07:51I guess let me just full circle land the plane.
07:53I don't expect an athlete like McGonagall to adopt our teams.
07:56I think it's cool that he's rocking the Red Wing hat.
07:58Right.
07:58But, like, people got mad.
08:00I think Cade was wearing some Dallas gear back.
08:02No.
08:03If that's the team you grew up with, I'm not forcing you to adopt our teams.
08:06It's cool if you do.
08:07Yeah.
08:08But I don't—I certainly get, like, sticking with—because I would expect Detroit athletes,
08:12if they end up playing somewhere else, to still love the teams they grew up, you know,
08:15watching and rooting for.
08:17Devin Booker wears Red Wings, Tigers, Pistons, stuff, wherever he goes.
08:21And we love it.
08:21We're not saying, why isn't he wearing Arizona Cardinals stuff?
08:23Right.
08:25Anyway, a little tangent.
08:27Let's get to John in Windsor.
08:28John, we're talking the big IF.
08:29If the Tigers get back in this, who has to step up?
08:33Good morning, guys.
08:35Great show.
08:36I just want to say, I did the math yesterday, and they're saying 86 wins gets them in.
08:40Well, to get 86 wins, they pretty much have to win two out of three the rest of the year.
08:45I know.
08:46So, come on.
08:47Well, no.
08:48Be real.
08:49The question was if.
08:51We don't think—
08:51Oh, I don't expect.
08:52We don't think they are.
08:54No, we were doing that math for them to get to 85, 86 wins, what their record would have
08:59to be the rest of the way.
09:00And it's like they can only lose like 41 or 42 games the whole season moving forward.
09:06It's a long shot.
09:07It's more than a long shot.
09:09Okay.
09:15My son said Cade owns what?
09:20The Texas Rangers.
09:21Yeah, he owns the minority owner of the Texas Rangers.
09:24Yeah, when they were in town, I was actually talking to some of their media guys about
09:27that, that him and a group, I guess, that he's a part of bought up a little bit of ownership
09:35in the Texas Rangers.
09:36Like Travis Kelsey, the big headline the other day is now he's a part owner of the Guardians,
09:39right?
09:40Yeah.
09:41Yeah.
09:42He grew up in Ohio.
09:43So doing a little bit more digging into these numbers, win totals that they've updated,
09:47betonline.org.
09:49Guess what the Royals' win total is?
09:50So they have the same record as a Tigers.
09:52Yeah, yeah.
09:53Okay.
09:5476.
09:5574 and a half.
09:56Whoa.
09:57So two teams with the same record are seven games apart.
10:00Where is that belief coming from?
10:01Something is telling them.
10:02I'm telling you.
10:03I know you're big into this.
10:04I'm not like fighting you on it.
10:05I'm just curious.
10:06How do you explain that?
10:07They think they're better than their record is, and they think Scooble's going to come
10:11back, and they think players will start performing to their career numbers?
10:20I mean, this is fascinating.
10:23I mean, even I would like to just point out, even in the world where they're right, and
10:28they get to eight was 80, 81, 81 and a half, probably not a playoff team, right?
10:34Even in the rosy Vegas no zone, where they somehow dig themselves out of the decrepit
10:40place they're in, we're still sitting on the couch in October.
10:43Yeah.
10:44So if this were to happen...
10:45The damage is done is what they're saying.
10:46If this were to happen, then it would be those bullpen games they blew that cost them.
10:50That's right.
10:51They're protecting themselves for some reason.
10:54We were talking about this off air.
10:55It's a little bit of everything.
10:56So two guys get hurt yesterday, and people are going to immediately say, it's the injuries.
11:00If this team was healthy, they'd be fine.
11:01One problem, they've played bottom feeders, bad teams, and they still can't win.
11:06Tork and Keith are healthy, and they're not contributing, right?
11:08I mean, Flaherty's been healthy, and he's not contributing.
11:10High-paid, everyday guys are also letting them down as much or...
11:14I don't want to say more than the injuries, but it's certainly part of it.
11:17If you're listing what went wrong with the Tigers in 2026, injuries has to be on the list,
11:23but it's not the top reason.
11:25They said last night, fine line.
11:27It's a fine line between excuses and reasons.
11:30Yes, there is.
11:31But I'll point out guys who are healthy, who are letting this team down, who are supposed
11:38to be key contributors, who are letting this team down.
11:40Is it a reason that Cal McCarr missed two games, McKinnon hobbled, didn't play much at
11:46all in the last two games?
11:48Of course.
11:49Is there a reason that they got swept?
11:51Yeah.
11:52Is it an excuse?
11:52No.
11:53See, I think that's a great way to put it.
11:55248-539-9797.
11:57If you'll join us in the conversation, Tom brings up some Vegas numbers.
12:00Can anybody explain how they would get back in this?
12:03If, if, if they do, who would have to step up?
12:06Deerstony at 935.
12:07It's 97.1.
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