00:07and welcome back let's get to the phones 248-539-9797 anything you want to talk about
00:13where we mentioned the uh the tigers and what's going on there want to get to the some bullpen
00:16discussion as well but the lion's top of mind with the injury uh news about kate mays the starting
00:22center he's out eight to ten weeks with a wrist injury that's no good let's go to the phones
00:29first and talk with matt matt welcome to 97.1 how are you matt matt hey good afternoon good morning
00:36gator and mark uh champ and chump uh champ will be lions uh signing gibbs bolstering the backup qb
00:46position chump is going to be scoobal because even when he's gone he's still running his mouth
00:52about oh i want to i want to you know play for the tigers like no you don't or you
00:58would have signed
00:58the contract here uh it's well as far as yeah they did his his agent wasn't going to hear any
01:05talk of an extension uh i i think both things can be right here when it comes to to scoobal
01:09i think
01:10he does i think he would love to stay here in detroit but i think he also wants to be
01:13the highest
01:14paid player so they just the two things don't necessarily line up what i love about this
01:19situation that what he had said over the week or at the end of the week um i love that
01:24it that it
01:24pisses off the dodgers that i love yeah and the dodgers the dodger fans are going nuts about this
01:30it's disrespectful it is quite honestly that's why i love it i think it's hysterical hey i love the
01:36audio from the dodgers um and you know as far as the tigers mark what you pointed out bull fan
01:41is
01:42doing really good so you know they're not that far off from a wild card spot i believe i do
01:46think
01:46they'll you know get to the playoffs i don't know how far they'll go but my question for you guys
01:52is
01:52in the playoffs you know it's going to be football season so are more people really going to be
01:58watching not because of they don't you know like the tigers but because of football like are people
02:04really going to be watching baseball because once football starts baseball takes a back seat
02:10yeah and thanks for the call we appreciate it um yeah i think people are going to be watching
02:14baseball because even though we're we're curious about football we're i mean it's pre-season
02:19so it's uh we're only three pre-season games um you know the first regular season game isn't until
02:27it's the second week it's september um you know after labor day so we got a while here and if
02:32the
02:33tigers do what they're supposed to do this week they could be in first place in the division by
02:36the end of the week they've been the ultimate cockroach this year that just when everyone is
02:41ready to write them off kill them they they can't be killed what percentage of your audience would
02:46you say thought the season was done at least multiple times already this year right 80 percent
02:51oh more than that i think you're up to 95 i mean you've always got the diehards that are gonna
02:55you
02:55know live and die by the team no matter what and and hold on to the last breath but um
03:00yeah i think
03:01it's like 95 percent of the people had written them off myself i i would say about may i'm like
03:08give them a chance to dig out of it they started to dig out of it um but i i'm
03:12not gonna lie i mean
03:13i'm surprised the position that they're in particularly after they've traded scoogle and
03:18mize they didn't add bullpen arms um still dealing with different injuries on this team i'm stunned
03:24where they're at right now and i'm loving it too you talked about the bullpen how about this
03:29since the moment where i said i had enough of them which which was after they split the games with
03:34kansas city i said to myself if they're going to split with kansas city when they don't have bobby
03:40witt junior playing then this team has no business competing for a division championship you've got
03:44to sell and it was actually the same moment that i had was the same epiphany that doug had and
03:50we
03:50were on opposite sides of the country i was in las vegas at the time flying back when i when
03:55i came to
03:55that moment um but since that time the tigers are eight and three five of those eight wins have come
04:03by shutout and the sixth was the one we had last night that came with one unearned run they've
04:11effectively thrown six shutouts in their last nine games which is last 11 games i should say
04:17and six of the eight wins have effectively come by shutout that is wildly impressive all while having
04:25this offense continue to click now i got it all right seattle uh sacramento and the giants aren't
04:33exactly a juggernaut and in your schedule but you know what kansas city and baltimore well right
04:37exactly and and so it's like it's kind of mixed signals here and for people who will say well look
04:44all the things happened against the giants they lost the ball in the sun they misplayed a ball third
04:47base all these weird things that happen i don't care you know what that is that's just a payback for
04:53what happened in may when all of those things were happening to the tigers that allowed other
04:58teams to beat detroit instead of the other way around so finally it's evening out and here we are
05:04what two games below 500 one game out wild card and just three and a half back of the white
05:12socks for
05:12the division lead whom they will face starting on friday starting tomorrow they've got cleveland
05:18who they're right behind actually no they're just ahead of now in the standings the tigers are
05:23literally now in second place in the division we got a log jam here with the tigers the twins
05:28and the guardians but this is incredible what's happened with this team and the position that
05:34they're in right now and we can talk about the offense and we have talked about how the offense
05:38is perked up but the reality is the pitching is starting to get really really good kenley jansen is
05:44no longer someone that you're going when he comes in the game tyler holton has been outstanding
05:50lately it's the tyler holton we saw from a couple years like the closer of this team yeah both of
05:55those guys are looking great and then you've got other pitchers like waga spock has done a really
05:59nice job and somers has done a great job and ty madden whether he's pitching one inning or four
06:04innings whatever he's going to have to do he gets the job done and this is now getting to be
06:09a
06:09competent bullpen and yet i still wanted them to add at the trade deadline with the bullpen they didn't do
06:15that do they have enough this is a massive week mark a massive week for this team so if this
06:21team
06:21makes the playoffs they will join the 1914 boston braves as the only in mlb history to qualify for
06:27the postseason despite finding themselves 16 games under 500 at any point during the season they were
06:3422 and 38 so you're asking yourself what's the why behind what they're doing and that's really
06:41confounding but i will tell you that the whole scoobal situation maybe some generated by him
06:48but the situation itself was toxic energy and it's kind of like i can see clearly now the rain is
06:54gone
06:55now that this is over we saw this management group punt on this team in 2024 and we saw what
07:02happened
07:02thereafter are we watching part two of the oh you're going to punt on us we'll show you this is
07:08a
07:09phenomenon you see often in the nba like cade cunningham goes down oh they think we're a one
07:13man team we'll show you they go out they stun somebody oh we got no chance without tarik scoobal
07:19oh the cloud the scoobal cloud has lifted look at what this team is capable of by themselves for a
07:26team you know for all of us oh without scoobal they don't have a chance but they're better right now
07:32without scoobal scott well they got a bunch of guys are stepping up their game and this is not the
07:37same team that we saw in may by a long shot it's not the same team you look at the
07:41guys that were
07:42playing in may and the guys that are playing now they're not the same roster you know they're getting
07:46different contributions and now you've got this influx of young talent which is so much fun to
07:52watch they bring up max clark and hits the ground running and you know look i think to expect him
07:58to
07:58be as good as mcgonagall has been all season long i think is is unfair but he's off to a
08:03pretty
08:03good start and defensively he's already saved some runs out there in in center field what an
08:08infusion of injury i thought the chains were supposed to be a problem that the you know the
08:11necklaces i i thought that was supposed to impact the team and the ability to play yeah not so much
08:17and it's not just max clark i mean you got eduardo valenci who was brought up and he has done
08:21nothing
08:22but hit the ball extraordinarily hard every time he's at the plate he makes contact and he hits it
08:27hard he finally drew a walk i was glad to see that because i'm like dude you got to draw
08:31some walks if
08:32you want to get more at bats otherwise it's just not going to happen um but those two guys really
08:37injecting some energy with this team and the youth same thing with how you lee he's done a nice job
08:41colt keith has made a an adjustment to his swing and and his plate discipline which is
08:47some real benefits for him he's he's brought his average up significantly and then you're seeing some
08:52corrections from guys like torkelson and mckinstry who were not as bad as what we saw in may
08:57uh but they're they're both hitting very well right now and torque we want to see some more
09:03power from a more consistent power but in the meantime picking up two and three hits a game is
09:07pretty good too i'll take it this team is uh it's it's strange but this is the week this is
09:14the tough
09:14week you start with cleveland and you finish with the white socks both these teams are thought of as
09:20the is the the cream of the crop in the in the central division based on what's happened this year
09:24but the tigers have earned their way to get right back up into the discussion and we're going to
09:28find out just how good they actually are and very much looking forward to it troy melton has been
09:33absolutely incredible the true ace of the staff lowering his era down to 1.46 he's thrown 80 innings
09:40his earn run average is 1.46 that is incredible 97-1
09:46now
09:46you
09:46you
09:46you
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