- 5 days ago
Just when you thought the Tigers would start to make a run they lose back-to-back games with the Royals.
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00:00Ready to start a new week. Good morning, 97.1. Jim Costa, John Jansen, Heather Park, Gov and Greg behind
00:07the glass.
00:09Final week before the deadline, Lions training camp getting going. John, good morning.
00:14Good morning. It is. It feels like football season is right here.
00:19And this is the last full week without an NFL production where we'll have the Hall of Fame game, which
00:29is a week from Thursday.
00:31And I know it's spring training or it's spring training. It's preseason games, but it will be viewable football.
00:38The last week without some viewable football. Almost there. So close.
00:44Yeah. And we'll be out at Lions training camp next Monday, so it'll feel even better.
00:49On the day of the deadline. Yes. More on the deadline itself later this hour.
00:53An update on Kirby Joseph. But let's just start with the Tigers themselves.
00:58Split with the Royals. Yeah. Makes me really want to go to training camp today.
01:03Well, it's just, okay, we know that the Royals are going into the season.
01:07I thought Detroit and Kansas City were going to be the ones battling for the division.
01:12And instead, they're the ones battling to stay out of last place.
01:16Boy, were we wrong.
01:19It's just painful to get to the seventh inning with a lead.
01:27And there's been 17 times this year.
01:30They have gotten to the seventh inning with the lead.
01:33And we're not even talking blown saves.
01:35It's just, hey, you got the lead in the seventh.
01:38And they find a way to lose it because the bullpen is atrocious.
01:44Yeah. Take that for data. Right? 17 leads blown seventh inning or later.
01:49And honestly, it's the back end of the bullpen. Yeah.
01:52It's those guys that are coming in to put it away, the quote-unquote closers.
01:57And I know AJ doesn't like to use the term closer.
02:00We don't have one.
02:03Birchie also had the stat they have the most blown saves in the American League.
02:0824. That's more than they have saves this season.
02:11And that's been an ongoing issue.
02:13They had leads on Saturday. They had leads on Sunday.
02:15And it's not like the Royals had Bobby Witt Jr. to kick off a rally.
02:20They didn't have Michael Garcia, who's another quality bat for them.
02:23And the Royals are, they're beat up, they're battered, they're a bad baseball team.
02:28And you let them back into games on both Saturday and Sunday.
02:31Yeah.
02:33It's just, and it's not to let off the offense.
02:37Because the offense wasn't great, even with the Scoobles start.
02:42You know, they win two to one.
02:43Okay, you gave them a two-run support.
02:45But at least Scoobles was able to keep it to one run, one solo shot.
02:51Yeah.
02:52I'm just smirking because pre-show, I can't believe this is still happening with this team.
02:56They had us yelling and screaming, Tom and I.
02:58It's the bullpen! It's the bats! Let me talk!
03:03That's before the mics came on.
03:05It's both. I felt stupid.
03:06And I don't know if, Tom, you felt stupid too.
03:07It's both. Both are, it's the same issues we've been talking about for well over a year.
03:12Of course the bullpen's part of it, but so are the bats.
03:15When you talk about bullpens, the Royals are 29th in bullpen ERA.
03:19Why couldn't we score against their bullpen on Saturday or Sunday?
03:21They're worse than us.
03:23For the series, the Tigers hit 6 of 32 runners in scoring position.
03:27They scored three runs per game.
03:28You know where that would rank for the season?
03:30Dead last if they scored three runs per game.
03:32That's what they do against Kansas City?
03:34Forget about it.
03:36Well, and I know they probably haven't had as many opportunities,
03:38but they're better off with a lead in the 7th than the Tigers are.
03:44They've got 13 of those games where they've gone to the 7th with a lead.
03:48But yeah, it's when you are playing a team like Kansas City
03:52and you are in the position that the Tigers are,
03:56must win, gotta have it, game 7, and you split?
04:04Yeah, it's brutal.
04:05And now you are, I mean, what are they?
04:08They're six games away from the trade deadline.
04:12And they're six back of 500.
04:14They're going to have to sweep Baltimore and sweep the A's to get to 500
04:19just simply at the trade deadline.
04:21You want to spoiler?
04:23They're not going to do it.
04:24No, I don't believe they're going to get a sweep of either team.
04:29They may win both series, but it doesn't get them to 500 at that point.
04:32The weekend itself, it sets up with, hey, they have that Thursday night win,
04:37kind of improbable James Outman, right?
04:40Friday night, everybody goes to the ballpark to see Scooble.
04:43Could it be his last start in a Tiger uniform?
04:45He's phenomenal.
04:46Seven plus innings, comes out for the eighth.
04:49He has 12 strikeouts, gets a curtain call, standing ovation.
04:53Hey, man, they've won the first two of this series.
04:57You come in on Monday, they lost the ground from the two games previously.
05:02Right.
05:03And they're right back where they started when they entered the Kansas City series.
05:08And it was on the heels of beating a good Chicago Cubs team and winning two of three.
05:14They're 6-6 since July 10th.
05:16Wow.
05:17Making up ground, right?
05:20Well, they didn't lose any.
05:22Yeah, well.
05:23I'm trying to give you the glass half full.
05:25Come on, we don't need it.
05:25I saw, but Birchie had an article up, 971theticket.com, and he said for the players who have been trying
05:31to send a message, make a tough decision, they sent the wrong message this weekend.
05:37Well, it's just, and I think Tigers fans are all in the same boat.
05:42It's so damn frustrating because you see the good.
05:45You want to see what this team can do.
05:50And then it's just like, as soon as you start to get a little bit excited, hey, they win the
05:55first two games against Kansas City.
05:56I mentioned they win the series against the Cubs.
05:59Okay, here we go.
06:00Make this decision really hard.
06:03And it's just so damn frustrating.
06:07You said earlier, they don't have a closer.
06:08They don't really have these reliable arms in their bullpen.
06:11They also, I mean, are regularly playing McKinstry and Outman and Veerling.
06:15Like, this is not what a playoff team does.
06:17So we can say, it's June 1st since June.
06:20I don't care.
06:21They're not good enough.
06:22My thing is, when you go to the hitting versus the bullpen, Jim, I would love to know, like, if
06:26the Lions continuously did this in the fourth quarter, how you would react.
06:31It's the same thing.
06:32The team is set up in a position to win the game, and this back-end bullpen continually blows games.
06:39The hitting sucks.
06:41Riley Green can't do anything in the clutch.
06:43Yesterday, he could have saved the series.
06:45Okay, all these other talking points that Detroit Tiger fans have are true, but they can't close a game.
06:50This would be like blowing seven-point leads in the fourth quarter continuously.
06:54One-fourth of the season.
06:56So I like what he's doing.
06:57He's switching our brains to football mode, which I can get on board with.
07:00But the comparison would be the Tigers, excuse me, the comparison would be the Lions are sitting there with 10
07:06points in the fourth quarter and blowing these leads.
07:09So you'd say, yeah, man, they're blowing leads, but I'd go, have they been putzing around for three quarters?
07:14What do you mean you only have 10 points?
07:16What do you mean you can't score more than a touchdown?
07:18What do you mean you can't finish drives hit with runners in scoring position?
07:22We'd be bitching about the offense if they had 10 points in the fourth quarter and kept blowing leads.
07:27Yeah, I mean, you're going to get the ball in the fourth quarter.
07:29Why can't you run out the clock?
07:31Are you not able to run the football and control the tempo of the game so that they don't even
07:35have the opportunity that the opponent did to score those, you know, 11 points plus that they would need to
07:42win that game?
07:43How about this?
07:43You got a runner on third base.
07:45Can Matt Verling get a bunt down?
07:47Why is he on the team?
07:48How about the, you don't trust him to hit and he can't lay a bunt down.
07:51How about those disco days in late 23 and then most of 24 when the team would get the ball
07:57and they would run out seven minutes and close the deal?
08:01The offensive line.
08:02They don't, the Tigers are the complete opposite on the back end of their bullpen.
08:07No matter who they put out there.
08:09It's like Vest, I know, had that stat where he was awful in the eighth inning.
08:12Like a 14 ERA at one point.
08:16They don't have some people that can close it out.
08:19They don't have, in fact, I'm curious to why some of these pitchers perform in the earlier innings but can't
08:25later.
08:27Pressure.
08:28That's what it is.
08:30It's got to have a moment.
08:31And right now they can't handle the pressure.
08:34It's like, you know, you accept Saturday's loss in baseball.
08:38You only scored two runs.
08:40Yesterday you scored four runs.
08:42Yesterday was later in the game.
08:43Yeah.
08:44Your tone is completely different in here this morning if they do that one thing at the end.
08:50Can we unpack the four runs?
08:52Didn't they get all of them in one inning aided by a blunder down the middle of the defense for
08:56the Royals?
08:57No.
08:59I don't think they got them all in one inning.
09:01No, I think it was yesterday, yeah.
09:03No, it wasn't yesterday.
09:04They got two in the first.
09:06What was the fifth inning?
09:08Oh, the fifth inning is when they busted it open, though.
09:10Oh, are you talking about the Tigers?
09:11Yeah.
09:12Oh, I'm sorry.
09:12I thought you were talking about Kansas City.
09:13No, no, no.
09:14I'm talking the Tigers.
09:14Their only offense came in the fifth inning.
09:17And there was a tailor-made double play ball that Kansas City boots up the middle.
09:20I'm not trying to take it away from the Tigers, but that's the only offense they had all day?
09:25Yes, it's four runs.
09:26Should four runs win you the game?
09:29I don't know.
09:30Four runs is still bad offense.
09:32Four runs was the most runs they scored all weekend in any particular baseball game, right?
09:35And so let me take you back, because I text you guys immediately.
09:40First hitter up.
09:41On the heels of Valdez having that start, that horrific start that he had the last time out.
09:52First batter, Thomas.
09:53Boom.
09:54See it.
09:55Home run.
09:56And then the next one, single.
09:58So you're thinking to yourself, how many batters is he going to face this time?
10:04Yeah.
10:05Now, fortunately, he ended up going five innings and started to settle down.
10:09But Valdez, he gets behind the count in so many at-bats.
10:19Can he just throw a strike to start off?
10:26Yeah, he gave up a homer, he had a walk, hit batter, just off the gate, out of the gate,
10:32the disaster.
10:33A few texts.
10:34McKinstry with the most little league slide ever in the eighth.
10:36Hey, bold strategy.
10:39Yesterday, it wasn't necessarily a bullpen blow.
10:41It felt like that happens every once in a while.
10:43The offense allowed it to happen.
10:46This team can't hit back-end rotations.
10:48They won't hit playoff rotations.
10:49That's Jody.
10:52Is there anything funnier than this team losing a game and Dingler being left on deck
10:56because he inexplicably bats fifth and not in the top three?
11:01Reports are Harris is looking for late innings relief.
11:03Okay, but what about a bat, all caps?
11:07See, that's the other thing.
11:09It's been a bullpen and bats since last year's deadline.
11:13And remember, we were doing those debates.
11:14What should they add?
11:15They're a good team.
11:16They need to add.
11:17We're still having the same conversations.
11:19The difference is they tried to add to the bullpen in the offseason.
11:22Yeah.
11:23And at the deadline last year.
11:24And their bats are better this year than they were last year because they've got McGonagall
11:29in there.
11:30Green's hitting better than he was last year.
11:32Torres, when he's healthy, he's been able to put bat on ball.
11:36Dingler is much better this year than he was last year.
11:38And he wasn't bad last year.
11:39Right, but I guess what I'm setting up is, why is the offense a blind spot?
11:44It's not even a thought to address it with external players.
11:48We've got to pay starting pitching.
11:50We've got to pay bullpen arms.
11:51We've got to trade for bullpen arms.
11:52If they do a tepid addition in the next week, it's going to be a bullpen arm.
11:57I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.
11:58They don't think the offense is an issue at all.
12:00And maybe, Tom, that's why I harp on it so much.
12:03Because I feel like it needs to be shoved in their face.
12:05Why do you ignore this?
12:06Why is this not being a bigger issue that's addressed?
12:11I'm not the GM.
12:11I know.
12:12You preach to me.
12:13You get so angry.
12:14I'm telling you, from an old-school perspective in baseball,
12:17the fact that you've blown that many saves,
12:20you've blown more saves than saves you have,
12:23you can't win doing that, no matter what everything else is.
12:27You can't close.
12:28You're chokers.
12:30Which bullpen is worse, the Tigers or the Royals?
12:34Jim, I don't care about the Cancini Royals.
12:36And it's the series we're talking about.
12:37The Royals' bullpen's worse, and we can't hit them.
12:39Who's the worst-hitting team?
12:41On a season?
12:42It's them.
12:43Yeah.
12:46And you can't get out a worst-hitting team.
12:48Bulls suck.
12:49How about that?
12:50But if you want to say what's suckiest, to me, it's the bullpen.
12:53The fact that you're in position to win games,
12:56and you continually suck at doing that,
12:59I think AJ off the record would tell you that.
13:02The reason we're under .500
13:03is because we haven't been able to close out enough saves.
13:06We'd probably be a .500 team if even we were 16th, 17th in the bullpen.
13:12Their bullpen stats will lie to you, though,
13:14because the Montero 3-4 inning bullpen days that are good
13:18blind you to their bullpen stats.
13:21Somebody said some stat this week,
13:22and their bullpen is 10th in baseball.
13:24That's the biggest bunch of BS ever.
13:27That's a stupid stat.
13:28Their saves, they can't.
13:30Think about that.
13:31Can't close it out.
13:32You've blown more saves than saves you have.
13:35It's July 27th, for God's sake.
13:38Hey, well, the good news, Tom, the team agrees with you.
13:40If they shop for anything, it's going to be a bullpen piece.
13:43Updated stat, the Tigers actually have scored fewer runs per game
13:46than Kansas City.
13:47The Tigers ranked 23rd in runs scored per game.
13:49Not a peep about bats.
13:52Cool.
13:53Cool.
13:53Cool.
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