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Hinch believes the Tigers will have four All-Stars this season.
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00:03fresh off a couple wins in the bronx got a lot of baseball to talk with tiger manager
00:07aj hinch aj good morning good morning how you guys doing good and i guess uh congrats you're
00:14over the thousand win mark as a major league baseball manager what's uh what's that like
00:19yeah no that was a cool night i um i've joked with a lot of people i should just apologize
00:24it's taken so long because that's kind of life as a manager you always feel
00:29like you should get it earlier but man that was a special night for me the players did an incredible
00:33job of making me feel good about it um and we had a good win i mean this is we
00:38won the series in the
00:39last two days you know we're a hard team to figure out sometimes but i i loved that night because
00:45it
00:45it allowed me to reflect back on a lot of things my wife was emotional about it my people that
00:51have
00:51been in my path on previous teams reached out tigers astros dbacks um so i knew that it was
00:58you know a cool milestone to get to and i'm very proud just to to be in this chair be
01:02in this
01:03organization and and uh and do my thing it uh we want to talk about the team here in just
01:08a moment
01:08but i will ask you this when you sit there and you do have the chance to reflect back on
01:14your career to this point as a manager what are some of the things that do come to the surface
01:20really the players you know i said this and you know they did a nice toast for me and i
01:24i
01:25i got the floor and i was like telling them the game is about the players the game
01:29is about the staff around you and then obviously us as managers that get to stay in the game and
01:35lead
01:35and and the things that reflect back like you know it's it's being in the trenches it's you know being
01:41empowered to be a leader uh for multiple organizations on the field and and then the
01:47games like the games are the best part of the day because you get to see the players and try
01:51to you
01:51know put the players in a position to be successful and at the end of the night you're reminded whether
01:55you did a good job or not like that that's kind of that that feeling of being a manager is
02:00is unlike
02:01any other role that i've ever had so i'm i'm super grateful super thankful uh these are hard jobs to
02:07to to get and keep and and i've been doing it a long time and i i do want to
02:12honor you know my family
02:14for for for sticking in it for so long and and continuing to push me and it's you know it's
02:19great the
02:19managers that reached out um you know within the league you know leland reached out some some
02:26really recognizable managers that understand the job is it's uh it's cool to realize that you know
02:32that you're that you're noticed this has been a really weird team as you said to figure out it's
02:37been a tough season especially on fans nearly as tough as it on you guys because you're living it
02:41every single day but what gives you the belief that you can dig out of the hole that you guys
02:49dug in
02:49the month of may and what is the number one thing that may hold you back or is holding you
02:54back
02:55yeah i i i know um this has been you know a difficult season on a lot of people and
03:02and namely
03:03the players i mean this these guys are grinding i gave riley green his first day off in the entire
03:07season and that's mainly a result from from us not playing great in the month of may i just didn't
03:14feel like i could give anybody a day off at that point he responds with a couple of homers which
03:19was awesome and now i got guys lobbying for off days left and right so um it's you know the
03:25thing
03:25that that i that i believe in is the players i believe in the in the starting pitching is that
03:29if you look at june you know the way that we threw the ball out of the gate and hit
03:34the ball out of the
03:34ballpark and and created some advantages with platoons and things like that those that's how we're built
03:39and that's you know our run differential is fine our record is not and so the record is really what
03:44counts and so when you get good starting pitching and you come in you have i think we were winning
03:48record against teams above 500 and that to me that those are signs that that we do have a good
03:55team
03:55we have a bad record and so trying to win the series is always what i'm what i'm about we
04:00win the series
04:01can we get greedy today and put together a string of of games we go to texas get a couple
04:06off days have
04:07a nice home stay and get into the all-star break you know feeling good about ourselves because of the
04:12way
04:12that we played in june and not continually drag may into it as part of the story because we were
04:17we were pretty bad in may getting to the finish line and being able to find any wins and that
04:22that's going to cost us for a while but the direction is going in the right way it's just
04:27it's just a matter of of linking some wins with good starting pitching and our and our primary guys
04:33producing at the plate that's that's proved to be more wins for us in june and that's a good sign
04:38going into july i don't think there's any doubt the strength of the team is the rotation right now
04:42and you're you're overflowing with starters now montero to the bullpen versus jack flarity who whose
04:48numbers have been the ugliest of the bunch what was the decision to put montero to the pen
04:54yeah i mean to defend jack i mean the month the overall numbers yes the the what he did in
04:59the
04:59meantime he was one of the one of the better guys at missing bats and not walking guys for a
05:04stretch
05:04of time after those bad starts and so obviously we're going to rely on him cater is probably the
05:10most versatile arm on our team you know troy melton's probably right up there and we didn't
05:14want to do that to troy again so cater when we say move to the pen probably means move to
05:20the pen for
05:20today or maybe tomorrow and then next week we have six games we can get a start for all these
05:26guys so
05:27he'll pick us up as a an outing in the pen more than a move to the pen we're probably
05:32going to maintain
05:33that cadence of six starters you know once we get out of the break or at least you know consider
05:38that with the long stretch of games we have at the at the after the break but i so i
05:43don't i don't
05:43think it's a move but i think it's mostly built out of versatility routines the ability to get up get
05:49hot get in the game we've seen that with cater uh jack's been primarily a starter and and we're
05:54going to ask him to continue to do that and i can mix and match when i want to use
05:58cater um whether it's
06:00to to be the back end of the game he may finish the game today after troy goes five or
06:04six innings
06:05or he might throw one inning in the bullpen in the eighth inning setting up kenley um just i think
06:10cater is probably more equipped to do it there's no secret that there have to be some tough decisions
06:16made around the trade deadline you're a month away does it add with less games in the month of july
06:22i know
06:22you got to run but there's the all-star break that is there added pressure to make a big move
06:28in the month of july so that this continues so that you get the same roster everything stays the
06:35same so that you can make a run for the postseason that was a nice way of trying to work
06:39your way
06:40around like hey can we can we win enough games right that's we know we know that right we know
06:44where we're at we're very um realistic with where we're at and and we feel like we have a good
06:50team
06:50you know i've had multiple players and other teams come up to me and ask me like what the hell
06:55happen because they don't they don't see us as a team at the bottom of the division or bottom of
07:01the league or or towards the back tier of teams and so the answer is like yeah there's urgency and
07:07there's a ton of things we need to do well and we have a small margin for error i think
07:10that's why
07:11when the game flips against houston um you know that those games really really hurt now compared to like
07:18you know what the yankees have gone through they've lost six straight and they've just sort of
07:22absorbed it because of how well they played in the first two months of the season so
07:25the stories of seasons are built by by being able to kind of maintain you know the the season when
07:33you have turbulence our turbulence was pretty bad in may so our our run needs to need to be pretty
07:38urgent in order to like you said continue with this team that we believed in from the beginning we
07:43finally got healthy for the most part um yet we still have 10 guys on the 60 day il so
07:49i i think we we
07:51know exactly where we're at and that that we need to uh not just put together series wins but get
07:56greedy on a day like today and sweep a team or two so the position you're in it's less so
08:01than with
08:02scott harris but august 3rd is going to be here are you like and you don't make decisions on august
08:083rd
08:08are those conversations where you're like hey we got to win or else we know we're going to be sellers
08:12is that is that part of the discussion behind the scenes between scott and i yeah not not really that
08:19that sort of um that tone or that those words i mean i think the the the idea of getting
08:26ourselves
08:27healthy and getting ourselves to to put our best team forward i mean i it's a little more unspoken
08:32we try to keep that that noise and that and those conversations out of the clubhouse like the players
08:37are aware the players understand the coaches understand we've all been in the league like
08:42that doesn't really need to be sort of stated in order for everybody to know
08:47so i don't we don't we don't talk that way we we're very really like how do we squeeze more
08:52out
08:52of this roster and and and get you know carrie carpenter into the swing decisions he's making
08:58now and get riley green to elevate the ball in the air a little bit without conceding the big swing
09:02and miss you know how do we get cole keith i mean there's those are those are the discussions and
09:07the reality is kind of in the background of of where we're at during the season one of the
09:13things that we've talked about is the bullpen i know montero's going there but it's especially
09:18late in games eighth ninth inning how do you squeeze more out of your bullpen is it just
09:23matchups how do you get those guys to perform better um yeah you know i i think the month of
09:29june was better i think i think the last week was was rough right we had a couple of games
09:35we
09:35couldn't get to the finish line so i i try to stay positive with those guys they're only noticed
09:39whenever they're dominating or when they stink and it's not necessarily a great job to have for
09:45them but getting getting them in the strike zone is is really key you know we we gave up some
09:51damage
09:51against the astros and the games flipped a little bit where we probably should have won three out of
09:55four we lose three out of four in a in a season where we're at right now that feels devastating
10:00in
10:00it and it should the back end of the bullpen is um is something i'm always looking at you know
10:05we
10:05got to get kenley going to where he um is a little bit more automatic finnegan getting in the strike
10:11zone is super key i thought drew summers had a really good june i know he gave up the homer
10:16to
10:16rosario the other day you know when i brought him in to kind of challenge him to face some righties
10:20because the league's going to adjust and start pinch hitting against him a ton i had a seven nothing
10:26lead so i'm able to give him a few right-handed hitters for him to get some feel against them
10:30um so his numbers with that one outing are going to be a little bit different so i think pushing
10:36being consistent with them and trying to um to keep instilling confidence in them you know while we do
10:44have that urgency and i'm kind of all hands on deck game seven of the playoffs type mentality um is
10:51the
10:51challenge and they're equipped to do it and more than capable um but we can't have many many blow-ups
10:57for sure tiger manager aj hinch get you out of here with this all-star game around the corner
11:02how many all-stars you think you guys are going to have um how many do i think we're going
11:08to have
11:09um if i was going to be pinned down to a number uh i would think four i think i
11:15think dylan dingler
11:16like i said this yesterday on a different show like we we don't think it was not an all-star
11:20then
11:20we should cancel the game like yeah i really i really believe that he's the best catcher in the
11:26game right now or if it's not the best then it's just somebody like somebody other you know somebody
11:30different um kevin mcgonigal i think has in a rookie in his rookie year um never want to say
11:35shoo-in but we don't keep the worst out for for no reason like he's been terrific um riley green
11:43terrick scuble you know he doesn't have enough time he does have enough cachet i know that and then
11:47you pop into the bronx and pitch pretty well uh and then casey mize i you know again like somebody
11:53who's missed time but um he he has a huge argument to be one of the pitchers um whether it's
11:59named on
11:59the front end or maybe there's some replacements and things like that but those guys are pretty
12:04my own thing i forgot anybody but those guys are pretty much the guys that i would um would say
12:09have the best case and can you can you squeeze four of those then that'd be awesome you said we
12:14don't keep the war stat for nothing is there like a go-to stat that you use not that one
12:18stat can
12:18encompass a player but i'm curious now i'm interested like the tiger manager what's one like a quick
12:22hitter stat that you use to hey this guy's playing well um i don't know that it's like
12:28one stat that he's but if he's playing well like i'm you know i love the complete players so like
12:33ops is still one i mean the number one you know goal for me as a hitter or wrc plus
12:37is a fine stat
12:39um statistically like it's funny pitching wise i i know that there's a lot of ways to measure things
12:45like honestly like if you get zone miss you're you're pretty dominant so there's like little small
12:50subtle things um that that i look at to keep in perspective especially with the league when you
12:56look around at what somebody's doing sometimes we get caught up in the scoreboard numbers and how
13:00they impress us you got to keep it in perspective on how they're doing amongst their peers he's tiger
13:05manager aj hinch thanks aj you got it it's 97 one
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