00:01all right it's an interesting situation when you look at the four general managers in town
00:07they're all in kind of tough spots right now no job is easy even though you know we we joke
00:12on
00:12the show all the time people think they can do uh three all guys think they can do three things
00:17one they think they can grill two all guys think they can drive and three
00:24all guys think they can call plays or perhaps call the right moves as a general i'm glad you
00:29kept that rated g yes as much as i can uh so no i don't think every guy thinks they
00:35can do that but
00:37but they have fun trying but as far as the general managers in town are concerned they all have a
00:43very difficult task ahead of them they are different tasks some are similar but they're all kind of in
00:51this in this same grouping here when you look at the lions and brad holmes what does he have to
00:57do
00:57now well now he's got an almost entire secondary he's going to have to rebuild because you don't
01:03know the situation with kirby joseph you don't know when uh brian branch is going to come back from his
01:09achilles injury you've lost you already waived terry and arnold because of of his off-field situation
01:16you've got players that just haven't played a whole lot and you know you're expected to be one of the
01:23best teams in football and you have major questions in the secondary you look at steve eiserman with the
01:30detroit red wings it's obvious you've got the larkin situation and is there a domino effect with that
01:36uh is this going to be a total rebuild where after you deal dylan larkin that you're going to have
01:41to
01:42think about dealing uh alex to brinkett and who knows what you're going to do with simon edmondson
01:47who's a restricted free agent who's going to have to get paid and likely will be the highest paid
01:51player on this team after he signs this restricted free agent contract unless eiserman can work magic
01:57and some of that magic has been to get these guys under contract that are great for teams you know
02:02for the team like cider raymond and larkin's contract aside from the no trade clause grr uh the tigers
02:10scott harris obviously the terry scoobel situation is looming large and right now you're caught in between
02:18are you going to buy are you going to sell regardless of what i think you can buy and sell
02:22at the same
02:22time this is a team that the momentum has them going the way that you're what you're seeing now
02:27over the last five weeks uh almost six weeks now of winning baseball has you thinking what do you do
02:34do you buy or do you sell and he's got to make a definitive black and white decision with a
02:40really
02:40kind of a shades of gray environment and then you got trajan langdon who after the ousting in the
02:48second round of the playoffs albeit a game seven but they they got knocked out they were the number
02:53one seed in the east didn't live up to the expectation he has started to rebuild this team
03:00or add to this team but what he hasn't done yet is add what everybody wants them to add which
03:07is
03:07a number two scorer so mark of the four teams the four general managers the lions red wings pistons
03:14and tigers and when you look at holmes eisman harris and langton who's in the toughest spot who's got the
03:21toughest job to dig out of who's got the easiest job to dig out of and who are you most
03:25confident in
03:26getting it done oh boy and it's a lot it's a lot sir this is not a two minute you
03:32know segment here
03:33right i mean we this is this is a real question right so i i think all four of these
03:39have have
03:39issues these this this is not a summer in cabo for any of the four general managers and i was
03:47leaning eisman with larkin but i worry that it's the toughest job it's already too far gone
03:53in other words what does it matter really at this point he needs somebody to come in and give them
04:00exactly what dylan larkin does and that offer doesn't seem to be presenting itself i actually
04:05think it's langdon believe it or not um because of his philosophy to continue the toughest job i i
04:12believe so because the stars that were available are no longer out there he didn't take a swing for
04:18the jalen brown who was available yannis was never linked to detroit the the stars that were
04:25available have all been taken have all found new homes lebron is not linked to detroit correct
04:31in terms of you know a recent espn article had 10 teams and one of them wasn't i saw another
04:37one
04:37had six teams and one of them was not detroit right exactly so when you when you digest the fact
04:43that
04:44fans are not going to tolerate not having a second scoring option this year and unless
04:50abuco acori can become that guy overnight you're looking at entering this season and heading hit
04:57hitting the trade deadline with the precise problem you already had and i i think the patience is going
05:05to run out on that so i think you would say iserman because he's got mission impossible right now
05:10but i think fans are already teetering out indifference there which is the worst place a franchise could be
05:15so i'm i'm gonna go langdon who should have been far more aggressive in my opinion this offseason
05:21the one that bothers me the most is the jalen brown i thought he would have been a perfect fit
05:25what do you do what's the plan so when i look at the these four gms the one who i
05:32think has the
05:32toughest job and you make a compelling argument uh for langdon um and the reason i i'll start with why
05:38i don't look at langdon as having the toughest job because i think langdon might have the longest runway
05:43i think his runway extends all the way to the trade deadline next year with this team and i think
05:48likely that's where they're going to make a major move i think they've added to this team where this
05:53team is a better team we discussed a little bit yesterday i think they're a better team today than
05:56what they were after game seven against cleveland where they're not better is they're standing in
06:01the division because in the conference because so many teams have made the strong moves to make
06:07themselves appreciably better pistons have done exactly what langdon said he was going to do they
06:13wanted to add ball handlers and shooters and they've added a bunch of shooters on this team they're going
06:18to be a much better shooting team and they've added a couple ball handlers as well so i think he's
06:23got
06:23the longest runway going through the the trade deadline so i don't think it's him i i think holmes's
06:29job is is is tough but it's concentrated on one position group really uh and then you're counting on
06:36the guy you hired to be the offensive coordinator to actually be a really good offensive coordinator
06:39he's got some other things he's got to worry about extensions for is going to give laporta an
06:44extension when are you going to end up paying uh jameer gibbs that's going to be a big one that
06:50you got to consider he's got some tough ones in the horizon there so it's not it's not like this
06:55is
06:55not an easy question this is you make the case for all four guys but for me the guy who's
07:00got the
07:00toughest job and it's not eiserman either kind of i kind of agree with what you have to say i
07:04mean it
07:05you know there's an edict he's got to trade dylan larkin doesn't have to but looks like he's going
07:11to have to uh otherwise it's going to be a really awkward time when you get to september and and
07:17part
07:17of it he has a working partner with who's not willing to work with him right now but at some
07:22point is going to have to say okay i'll work with you expanding the list of from three teams to
07:27four
07:27teams isn't really working with him he's going to dylan larkin is going to have to do some more
07:30and that makes that job just a little bit easier when he does expand the list even more
07:35but to me it's scott harris scott harris has the toughest job because he has to figure out
07:41what does he really think well what's his real opinion of this team does he really think this
07:46team can contend you know they're playing great right now and i'm sure he envisions some of this
07:52like hey we know we had we knew we had great starting pitching the talk after they signed for amber
07:56valdez on all the shows was that and i'm sure yours as well over the weekend was that the tigers
08:03had
08:04maybe the best rotation in all of baseball when you looked at it on paper with valdez and melton
08:10and mys and scoogle and then whoever the fifth one was whether it was justin verlander or whomever
08:16that looked like it was going to be the best and then all of a sudden injuries mount and you're
08:22like
08:22uh-oh but now they're all healthy reasonably healthy we're still waiting on on verlander but
08:27the rotation looks as good as advertised but the problem still persists about adding the bat
08:32and the the bullpen you cobbled together is not good enough he's got to make some real moves and
08:39it's a balancing act for him because does he really think this team is good enough to go for it
08:44were you giving up assets and maybe big assets uh that you were unwilling to part with last year
08:52the tigers could have added a bat last year in suarez they did not they chose not to and they
08:59certainly had resources to do it they didn't get it done they could have added other players they
09:03didn't get it done they could have added other better bullpen arms than what they did they didn't
09:06get it done they you talk about going through the margins what they added at the trade deadline last
09:11year kyle finnegan was a nice hat but outside of that it was you know guys who were the last
09:17legs
09:18as starting pitchers journeyman guys like morton and and whoever the other i forget the other guy
09:22they added they was paddock paddock thank you but neither was nobody expected those guys to be
09:28anything and they weren't they were they were not good well the thing was melton was demanded to be
09:34included in a lot of those trades and now that looks like a really good decision but i wonder if
09:39this series coming up do you think this series has the potential to swing the decision for scott harris
09:45one way or another uh against philadelphia yeah no in this series because you still have like if they
09:54if they lose this series let's let's not say swept let's say they lose two or three they just lose
10:00the series what does that mean for them afterwards well the the first series they have uh coming out
10:08of the all-star break there are three at the angels angels are terrible but again look at what they've
10:14done this year though they've performed so well against winning teams and they haven't fared as
10:18well against the teams they're supposed to beat up on but that was may correct so it's different you're
10:24right so i mean i i'd be surprised i guess if they lost the series to philadelphia and then laid
10:30an egg
10:31against the angels uh if you have extended for one series no i don't think one series is going to
10:36sway
10:36you one way or the other i think would have to be something over a 10 game stretch where if
10:41you lost
10:42seven out of 10 games and you just knocked off all this goodwill you built up then i think you
10:47have
10:47to think twice about it and it gives you pause of what you're going to do but this team's got
10:52the
10:52schedule ahead of them philadelphia then it's the angels after the all-star after the all-star break
10:59at the cubs is not going to be easy but then you've got four against kansas city three against
11:04baltimore three against the athletics that's a lot of ground you can make up against some bad
11:11baseball teams and even though the tigers record might be similar to the athletics they just swept
11:17them even the tigers record may be similar to baltimore baltimore is not playing good baseball
11:23and they're playing teams that they should beat so i i think this team is just poised to really make
11:29a
11:29run and be perhaps better than 500 before the trade deadline 248 wow that's that's the shot
11:35you're calling that's that's seven games back right now and they've got all these winnable
11:39games coming up in front of them and that's you know what are there 20 games left or 18 19
11:43games
11:44left before the uh the trade deadline yeah i think they're they're poised to be at 500 or better
11:50and remembered i mean look not putting the cart before the horse here but just look at world series
11:55champions 1914 boston braves not above 500 until august 3rd oh you're not doing this 2021 atlanta
12:02braves not above 500 until august 6th there's precedent there yeah but it's that's two teams
12:08no no i understand but two teams but one is very recent one is recent okay well then i certainly
12:14wouldn't cite 2014 but it's possible 248-539-9797 the telephone number same or the text we'll get to adam
12:23matt and others as we continue here at 97.1
