00:00Good morning. 97.1 Tuesdays mean two grand slam talking Lions bright future.
00:07Dan Campbell change your plans and could you forgive? Would you forgive this Detroit sports
00:12athlete? We'll start with the Tigers at a win. Good morning. Jim Costa, John Jansen,
00:16Heather Park, Gov and Greg behind the. Oh, sorry. Gov and Paul Sarah behind the glass.
00:22Paul, have you returned yet from from Hollywood, Florida and and explore the new restaurant?
00:27I mean, it was a great time. Yes. Good for you. Good for you. I'm glad that you feel confident
00:37and
00:38and willing to do that. Glad to have you with us this morning. Yeah. And as we had mentioned
00:44yesterday, this is going to be a roller coaster of what? 40 games, 38 games. Now it's 37 games.
00:52As we wake up this morning, the Tigers are now in playoff position. Bit of a roller coaster in and
00:59of itself last night. Yes, there's no question. It was a roller coaster and the roller coaster was
01:07it was exciting because, hey, you're out to a four nothing lead. And yes, you did need some
01:14add on runs. Some of the pile on runs because this is a team that you just have no idea.
01:23There's going to be it feels like there's one at least one inning every game where there's an
01:28implosion. And yesterday it was the sixth. And it was Frambois Valdez who still gets the win,
01:37but gave up five runs. Yeah, didn't eat two outs and had back-to-back walks.
01:42Couldn't get out of that inning. I mean, he just went right off the cliff.
01:46And but fortunately, they had all the add-on runs and eight was going to be enough.
01:53Yeah. And Kenley Jansen doing the job in the ninth. Yeah. And that's only two earned runs since the
01:59start of July. Now 13 appearances. And that was a one, two, three, no stress ninth. Yeah.
02:04Yeah. Um, don't look now, but do we have a closer?
02:13So this is what I'm talking about. It's a roller coaster and you want to, you want to buy into
02:19so
02:19many things about this team. And yesterday it was all, it was a full buy-in. Like we kind of
02:24had
02:24everything and they, we were disappointed about the weekend. Oh, for three against the Sox. You're out
02:31of a playoff position. Now all of a sudden Tuesday morning, you're in playoff position. You feel
02:37pretty good about the backs. McDonough McGonigal hits that two run bomb and Dingler had a hit.
02:42I know it's only one yesterday, but maybe he's starting to pull out of the slump that he had
02:49and Hey, and it's contributions up and down the line of 14 hits as a team effort, eight runs.
02:54You mentioned they need all the runs they can get today. You look at the wild card race and you're
02:58going to see seven teams within two games. Yeah. And the 14 hits that's, we go back to the Sox
03:05series.
03:06We talked about the runners in scoring position. They got out hit 34 for the white Sox, 24 for the
03:11tigers. They averaged eight hits per game. When you get 14 hits per game. Now it, you can't spread
03:18them out through, you know, through every single inning. You've got to get some in bunches. They
03:23were able to do all of that yesterday. Keep your hands and feet inside the ride at all times. Yes.
03:30It's going to be exciting, which it is. Absolutely is. So yeah, yesterday's game went exactly kind of
03:37how it should have. The pirates have the third best offense in all of baseball. It's kind of a wild
03:42stat. They said they score a bunch of runs start of the game. Yeah. And, but the tigers are slightly
03:46better record wise, and they should be able to score on them because their pitching is not that
03:50good. And so Valdez kind of held down the four early and then, you know, one humongous hit gets
03:57them back into the game. But I kind of just felt like it played out like it should like for
04:02once
04:03the, there was a little normalcy to the tigers yesterday. Yeah. Nothing was surprising about
04:08yesterday's game. It just was eventful is all it was. There's a lot that happened. It was
04:13eventful is one way to put it. Um, and like, yeah, they should win this series against Pittsburgh.
04:19They should win the series in Kansas city. They should lose to Tampa and LA next week. Who the hell
04:24knows with his baseball team? Yeah. But for a night of normalcy, sure. I saw her night where they
04:30win. Sure. I heard rigor before the game last night, labeling the three shows. So we were labeled as
04:36kind of back and forth. We're not sure, but we're not buying in. We need more evidence. Yeah.
04:41But yeah, that's fair. Middle. I think that's fair. We're, uh, they're all in, they're making
04:45the playoffs and then afternoons where this is not happening. If it does, it's by default.
04:50Interesting. I'm comfortable with our position in that. I know something. We got a text. Yes.
04:56You guys are fickle. I think we're fair. You know, I think we're going to see where this
05:01team goes. And in terms of might even say we're balanced. There you go. No, they came home
05:06against a team that competing with, with the wild card and potentially the division. And
05:10you went two and four. Yeah. Look, yesterday's show should have reflected a team that squandered
05:14a homestand at the same time. It doesn't mean it's over. Right. And, and we, I think we've
05:21been very adamant of this is a team that is, they're going to be, I think they'll probably
05:28create like a half game buffer and then there'll be down a game and a half. They'll be back to
05:34even. And they'll, we'll wake up one morning. It'd be like, Hey, we're in the playoffs. Hey,
05:39we're, we got a little bit of a buffer. Now we're out of the playoffs. Like that's what this
05:43entire season is going to be. And it really just depends on, Hey, when you get to one 62,
05:49are you playing that final three games? Are you able to put together a three game stretch? It might
05:55be what it takes, or you've got to win that final game to secure a playoff spot. I'm pretty
06:01convinced it's going to remain a yo-yo all the way until the middle of September. I
06:05am starting to zero in on this. They go to Toronto and they go to Chicago seven game road
06:10trip, easily the hardest part of their schedule in September. I think Toronto is the only team
06:16capable of maybe getting a little hot and getting the 83, 84 wins. I don't think they
06:22will. I don't think I really believe 82 is going to get this done at the most. So you're
06:28saying that's when things will sort themselves out. Is that stretch? That's also the first
06:3610 days of the NFL season where the lions will play twice. Yeah. It's all going to come to
06:41a head. Yeah. They play a 13th in the 17th and during that stretch, so tigers will hit
06:46their, their big final test. As you said yesterday, they'd have to go to Chicago and probably sweep
06:50them to have a chance to win the division. Yeah. I'm not really putting much stock in the
06:54division. I know they gained a game. I know they gained a game last night. I'm looking
06:58at the wild card because of that tiebreaker because of what the White Sox offense can
07:02do and the fact that they only have to win one head to head the rest of the way to
07:07hold
07:07the tiebreaker. And I'll, I'm going to stick with what I've said. There are three back of,
07:13of being 500 until they get to 500. I'm not willing to, to say that this is a postseason
07:20team. I just think that's a fair way of looking at it. Like if a fan on the street who
07:24hasn't
07:24paid attention came up to you and you said they have a losing record, they'd go, Oh,
07:28they're out of the playoffs. Okay. They got work to do. Right. Yeah. And, and, and how
07:32many years of baseball history do we have to back up that single stat? All of it. And,
07:39and no team in 162 game season has ever made the postseason with a below 500 record, but
07:45it eventually happened in the NFL and those teams actually, I think the Seahawks did it
07:53when they had Marshawn Lynch, they played against Drew Brees in Seattle and that was the famous
07:57run by Lynch and they won the game. Yeah, I guess. Okay. And so it's a little bit apples
08:07to oranges, but with the expanded playoffs in major league baseball, it's going to happen
08:12at some point. I'm not just going to bet that this is the year that it happens because we
08:19have so much history to say it doesn't, it's not going to happen. I guess what it is to
08:24me is I don't want to be reduced to a beggar. I'm not going to grovel. If my team can't
08:28get
08:28to 500, then I mean, just be done with them at that point. You know what I'm saying? Like
08:31earn your way in. And I think someone of this group of seven teams within two games of a
08:36playoff spot, I think one of those seven teams is going to go on a run and they're going
08:41to earn their way in. I think it's two years ago with the wings where we said it's a soft
08:45bubble. You could say this is a weak American league. Someone they're going to play games.
08:49They're going to keep scoring. Someone's going to win them. And the team that wins enough
08:51of them is going to have a winning record and they're going to be in the playoffs. I just
08:55don't want to be reduced to, well, we don't even have to have a winning record to make the
08:58playoffs. What losers are we at that point? Like, let's go get a winning record and get
09:01a playoff spot. See, I think it's just like looking at the DNA of the team right now. We
09:06know that this offense is better than it used to be. And I don't think it's going
09:10anywhere. I think they're going to be slightly more inconsistent without Green. Looks like
09:15Carpenter's going to be a while maybe now. He's getting an opinion from a specialist.
09:20Yeah. Oh boy. But I think we know what we've got with the offense. I think we know what we
09:24have with the bullpen. That it's going to be really messy in the middle. And I actually
09:30think the unknown is a starting pitching because of the two young guys. Melton throwing as many
09:35innings maybe as in his career. And Joe, but you know, I know John, you didn't like
09:40yesterday that he got, when I said he got exposed, he's been very inconsistent as a starter
09:46in his short career. Well, in his short career, but also it's not like he was lighting it on
09:51fire in minor league baseball. Like he was moved along because they ended up selling a couple
09:58arms. They needed another starter to come up. I do think it's as funny as it sounds. They
10:05need Flaherty to get healthy and eat some innings. I don't disagree with that, but what can we
10:13rely on from him? It's like Drew Anderson. It's are we only counting on four, which I think
10:22is his max. What's the max for Jack Flaherty? Five? That's not eating innings. Okay. It gets
10:27you five. It starts a game, but then you're still going to tax the bullpen. Well, and that
10:32was some of the story of Sunday was asking guys to pitch an extra inning. You can argue
10:36Valdez pitched an extra inning yesterday because he didn't look great in the fifth. And then
10:39the six is when things got ugly at the same time. He was nowhere near what you'd think
10:43is, is his limit. But if you're pulling a guy an inning early, you're going to ask more
10:47of the bullpen, right? So I think that's the dance that AJ walks as well. If I got a decent
10:51matchup coming out the next inning, I'm going to let it eat a little bit. And sometimes
10:55that's where you get burned. Right. But you also are thinking from AJ's perspective. All
11:00right. You've got an eight, one lead. Yeah. You can, can we, can we let him go and eat
11:05another inning? Yeah. Even if he gets destroyed, you just yank him and you're still sitting
11:09on a lead, right? Which is the philosophy that AJ went with. Yeah. I mean, a good note
11:14on Melton, by the way, a hundred innings, I believe is the most he's thrown in a professional
11:18season. He is now up to 84. He will end up with more than that. More than that. I do
11:23maintain
11:24that I believe if they could get Flaherty healthy, that I think what they would like
11:29to do in a September pennant chase, try to get into playoffs is to move Montero into
11:34the pen and pitch him lengthy games two times a week. So like piggybacks? Yes. Probably
11:41on the Flaherty and Anderson starts. Look, I know it'll be interesting when, when, when
11:46Flaherty does come back. If that's the, if that's the theory, where does AJ put Flaherty
11:53in the lineup and in the rotation? And where is that in relation to Drew Anderson? Right.
11:59Does he replace Anderson or do they start them both and then move Montero to the pen
12:03to eat middle innings for both their starts? They'd have to be multiple big outings though,
12:08because he's the one guy that I think can actually get you to the seventh inning. Like
12:12on this team, it's, it's Melton and it's Montero are the guys I think you trust to get
12:16you to the seventh inning. Most, if I'm going to take Montero out of the rotation for any
12:19reason, it's gotta be because I think he can go three innings on Tuesday and another
12:24three innings on Thursday. Right. Otherwise I'm better off keeping him in the rotation
12:28and eating as many innings to help this team as possible. Agree to four, eight, five, three,
12:32nine, 97, 97. We opened the show with the tigers tied for a wildcard spot. Roller coaster
12:37continues coming up next. The AP poll is out college football right around the corner.
12:42Tell you about the Wolverines and then we'll get to the lions. Dan Campbell pivoting six 35.
12:47It's 97 one.
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