00:00simply an argument that will take place later maybe if we get to it we don't know some tensions
00:07in the studio this morning uh but uh no like gator what you just did is good form what you
00:14just did is good protocol and and how many times does that not happen right you're uh you're sitting
00:20there you get a drive-by shot you didn't even know it was coming gator just warned the morning show
00:26that he's coming for them on the show today did that say that it's something we may not even get
00:31to today because we spent a lot of time on it yesterday and i believe i even said something
00:36to somebody yesterday about it was the same thing so i heard yesterday going into the afternoon show
00:42and i heard it this morning on the morning show and i understand where they're coming from i just
00:46disagree with it that's all i'm not mad it's just a simple disagreement about how to negotiate
00:52something um but that's okay we'll get to that coming up a little later sorry i'm a little
00:57disheveled here because we had that discussion i didn't have time to set up my computer before we
01:00uh came on the air here but uh how are you mark ryan i'm fantastic good to be back with
01:07you again today
01:07man um like a lot of excitement that we didn't expect to be here at this time right like we
01:15it looked
01:16like a few weeks ago we were entering a summer lull especially after the world cup right credit the
01:22united states for giving us some excitement before a disappointing end to their world cup run
01:27and this this kind of seemed like it was going to be the lull where the conversation is centering
01:33around scoobles a topic that has become nauseating to each and every one of us but lo and behold you
01:40look up this team has won eight out of nine games this team today gator is exactly where i said
01:49they
01:50needed to be as of july 31st for me not to sell they are three games back in the loss
01:57column
01:58of the final playoff berth they're there you said it yesterday do you have tomorrow's lottery numbers
02:04for a few i do not okay like i'd love to see them because yesterday you said mark they could
02:09be within
02:10three games tomorrow well and here they are technically it's three and a half but it's lost column
02:14well lost sure lost column i gotcha uh but technically they are three and a half games
02:19back of the uh final wild card spot they continue to move up up the ladder and look there's a
02:26lot of
02:26teams right and then a lot of people will talk about well there's so many teams to leapfrog right
02:33when you get into a season it's not just in baseball irrelevant it happens in maybe not so much in
02:38the
02:38nba but it happens in any nhl we watch it a lot with the red wings right hey they're only
02:43a couple
02:43points back of the wild card but they're like oh then you start looking at games in hand and yeah
02:48but there's six teams and they have to get past irrelevant and i've always maintained that it's
02:53it's it's up to the team to keep their focus and not worry about who they have to pass correct
02:59you
02:59worry about one team yourselves the other stuff's going to happen you can't control what goes on
03:05between you know the minnesota twins taking on the houston astros don't care right i mean yeah i care but
03:12i'm not going to sit there and and pour over every pitch in that game and sit there and hope
03:16really
03:16really hard that they win the game that doesn't matter what matters is can the tigers keep winning
03:21the other stuff's going to fall into place right the what matters to me is games back and what matters
03:27to me is the historical precedent of what you need to make the playoffs which has been 86 wins now
03:34this
03:34year it could be worse than this but number of games under 500 when you look at the rest of
03:39this league
03:39is not all that important number of teams you have to pass is the dumbest thing we do
03:45to to look at it that's totally irrelevant focus on you focus on playing winning baseball the rest of
03:52that stuff will all take care of itself yeah so i mean as this team sits 93 games into the
03:57season
03:58you know there's still i don't be uh 69 games left uh in the year um so i'm not i'm
04:08not scoreboard
04:09watching just yet now i may have peaked a little bit i'm not gonna lie because that's just how i
04:12am
04:13how i'm constructed oh i did last night texas won that ticked me off but then right yeah i mean
04:19maybe a little bit i'm looking ahead but um that's just part of my nature but i am i uh
04:24i am adamant
04:26that the team just needs to focus on themselves and keep winning and keep playing great baseball and
04:30that's what they what they've done they've won what eight of the last nine or seven out of last eight
04:35whatever the last nine games have been wins they've got three sweeps in their last six series
04:41uh best record in the american league uh by win percentage since june 1st uh they're playing great
04:48there's no question they're playing great and then it finally happened yesterday it finally
04:56happened with the tigers they finally said enough is enough with jami jones and i'm not standing and
05:05cheering about it because i i feel bad for the young man that he wasn't able to put it together
05:09yeah i appreciate everything he did last year but clearly it wasn't working this year um i mean
05:14the average was pathetic the they had a longer rope for him than most would they did and they they
05:21had
05:21an opportunity to really capitalize on a situation they have here i don't know if eduardo valencia is
05:29going to be on this team after the all-star break i don't know uh maybe they want to go
05:33a different
05:34direction at that point when they know how how much dylan dingler has healed if he's ready to go
05:39i thought the move was smart because if you think that dylan dingler is going to be back
05:46for let's say the first game after the all-star game then why would you risk losing him for say
05:52three games waiting for those 10 days to tick off may as well keep him on the roster and find
05:58another way
05:59to get a catcher up which here it is jami jones dfa'd because he wasn't even playing at this point
06:05right they had ben maljiri had become the right the right-handed hitter against left-handed pitching
06:09coming off the bench that was the one they would go to over the last week and a half because
06:15jami jones
06:16hasn't gotten it done and this isn't you know to kill jami jones this is about i think this is
06:21a smart
06:22move that the tigers have made because not only do they keep the option open to have ding dingler
06:28return within 10 days because he's not off the roster but it gives them another catcher who doesn't
06:34necessarily have to catch during this time maybe he will maybe he'll catch a game this weekend against
06:40philadelphia maybe he doesn't maybe dingler's a healthy enough where hey jake you got the next two
06:46starts and dingler gonna gonna catch on sunday or dingler catches saturday we'll see it's a day-to-day
06:51situation with him but what valencia brings is a bat he has been a hitter in the minor leagues uh
06:57his
06:58has matriculated up the last few years and he's really matured as a hitter what he needs to do is
07:04mature now as a true catcher uh who calls a game that the the starters enjoy and plays well enough
07:13defensively that you can justify him being with this club this is a great opportunity because it may be
07:19just a few games with this opportunity um but if if nothing else if dingler heals up in a couple
07:27days and he's ready to go at least you've got a competent right-handed hitting bat right now at
07:32least and i'm not just saying because he hit a 425 foot homer on the first at bat right that
07:36was
07:36fantastic and then he gets drilled on the next at bat by the pitcher not on purpose not on purpose
07:42probably not but nonetheless he was drilled showed a lot of emotion rounding the bases which was i mean
07:46you would expect your first bat in the major leagues you hit it out you got to get excited
07:49about it uh i don't know if he's going to be the answer is a right-handed hitter way too
07:55early to say
07:55that i'm just saying in the minor leagues if you've tracked valencia at all he has a little bit of
08:01a
08:02track record being able to hit the ball and hit the ball hard and he was leading to lead on
08:06home runs
08:07we discussed it yesterday not knowing that that this was going to be the goal we both thought
08:11tomas nito he's the backup but we were both hoping for this move but we both hoped it was going
08:17to be
08:17valencia we both wanted it to be valencia because i just want the bat you know i figured if dingler's
08:22got to sit out for a while let's have jake be the everyday catcher i'm just looking for the backup
08:27catcher it doesn't matter and you know these guys go up and down um they're on the 40 man roster
08:32so you
08:32can have the flexibility to do that i'm thrilled with how it's worked out i'm thrilled how it worked out
08:38last night i mean that was just uh that was something i didn't expect i was just something
08:42out of a movie yeah hearing the announcement was great it really really was and how about jake
08:48rogers not going down without a fight oh you think this is your new backup catcher how about this i'm
08:54gonna make base i'm gonna reach base for multiple times for the second consecutive game i'm gonna hit
09:00another home run out jake rogers not going down without a fight either you see jake rogers numbers
09:06as a backup versus as a starter what he's starting this year yeah granted very very small sample size
09:11but it's great to see jake raking producing how many games this year have you seen the tigers they
09:17don't scratch and when they don't scratch early you get to the sixth or seventh inning you're still
09:21staring at a goose egg on the board jake rogers got them off to schneid last night really got the
09:27offense going now we're 13 games in the last 13 games this team is averaging over five runs a game
09:34all without glaber torres right now and how about this as a little feather in the cap the tigers were
09:4116 games under 500 on may 31st after a 6 and 22 may they were 22 and 38 the greatest
09:50number of games
09:50any team has ever been under 500 and made the playoffs the boston braves in 2014 were also 16 games
09:58under
09:58500 in night in 2014 how about latest in a season a team was under 500 and won a world
10:07series boston
10:08braves under 500 until august 3rd 2021 atlanta braves not above 500 until august 6th so you know all all
10:19this all this racing to hey we're seven games under 500 there's a precedent for this there's a precedent
10:26for scuffling around and being kind of both below the mendoza line and winning things have happened
10:32i mean right you know you can dig deep enough you'll find something has happened at some point
10:36in history and it doesn't mean it's the norm and this is not the norm but we have seen some
10:42crazy
10:42things happen the tigers a couple years ago had no business getting on a run and making the playoffs
10:47but they did and they're doing it again this time it hopefully they make the playoffs uh what cleveland did
10:52last year it was horrible and all of a sudden they go on a tear uh and then it helped
10:57coincide
10:58with the tigers going in the tank last year these things have happened i mean remember what at the
11:02end of the season in 2007 maybe probably 2007 uh the the padres made it was the padres of the
11:12rock i
11:12think it was padres made it no i'm gonna do the rockies made a crazy run at the end of
11:15the end of
11:16the season like they won like 22 out of 24 games something insane to make that run to get into
11:20the
11:20postseason things happen now the tigers aren't even on one of these crazy 22 and two runs they're just
11:27playing good baseball again now they're winning seven out of their last eight games that's trending
11:32in the right direction and they're in a really good uh space uh since june is turned on the calendar
11:38but you know we we asked the question 248-539-9797 is the telephone number are the tigers going to
11:47do it
11:48are they going to do it do you think this team has playoff dna in them for this season i
11:56mean and
11:57you're going to have to base that off of you know being are you going to able to shut down
12:01what happened
12:02in may and chalk it up to injuries or do you think that okay that was just a god-awful
12:06may and it didn't
12:08need to be god-awful it could have been bad and to be a better than 500 team if it
12:11was just a bad
12:12may do you think this team is playing above their heads right now or are you thinking this team is
12:18just fortunate to take on the teams when they're taking on the teams because they don't have some
12:22of their star power but if you say that careful because look what the tigers are playing without
12:27all of me 248-539-9797 this is 971
12:31you
