00:00Hi, everybody. It's a Wednesday afternoon. That's Mike Stone. I am privileged not only
00:07to be here on a night where clearly Stoney is dressed up to go to the bar, but two, it's
00:13bachelor Stoney, but two. I'm wearing a Michigan State golf shirt. Listen, you look like you're
00:19just off the course. You're ready to hold court, bar seat. Listen to me. You look great.
00:24Thank you. This is exciting because Stoney spent the entire 78-minute postgame.
00:30And he has what we are affectionately going to call Stoney stats. As the Tigers dropped
00:36the series in Pittsburgh, they've lost five out of six. But the Stoney stats are interesting.
00:43And Lord knows, he worked all postgame on these. All postgame. There's not that many of them,
00:48and they're pretty obvious that, first of all, they are a game and a half out of the wild card.
00:53So to quote the great Boz Skaggs, why can't you just get it through your head? It's over.
00:59It's over. Because it's not. It's over. And here's why. Except it's not. I know. I know the
01:05math says, today might have been the final nail. I don't know. I know. They play the Royals,
01:11but then they have the Rays and the Dodgers. Just do the Stoney stats because yesterday and
01:16Friday, you get a couple of callers all bent out of shape. They're mad. Yeah, where's Dylan? He can
01:20call today. No, you're not saying the team's good enough. You're mean because you're staying
01:24neutral about it. Right. I said they were good, not really good. The point is, when you want to
01:28understand why I don't believe they're going to the World Series, well, the Stoney stats are a big
01:33part of this, but please. Well, the Tigers today, as you heard, with the two home runs that they were
01:40leading, you know, three to two heading into the ninth inning. And I did say to Evan Jenkins,
01:45I think it was either the fifth or the sixth inning. I said, this has Kenley Jansen blown
01:50save written all over it. And I didn't think he would give up two dongs, as Rieger would say,
01:57to lose the game. But anyway, I digress. It's the fifth ninth inning home run Kenley Jansen
02:04has given up. They lead the majors, 28 blown saves. Wait a minute. That can't be right.
02:1128 blown saves. That can't be right. Bobby Bungalow told me that the bullpen don't give
02:18up leads. 28 blown save? What? That can't be true. The all-time record, Michael? 36. It's 37.
02:28Okay, there you go. So they have time. They won't break it. I'm trying to be positive. And the
02:35other stat is, it's the 19th game this season. They've given up and lost the lead that they've
02:40had seventh in the seventh inning or later. All right. I mean, I, you know, I feel sorry
02:44for Jackson Jobe. It's a pretty good game. Not great, but he was, he was good. Jobe's
02:49doing exactly what he needs to do off Tommy John. Yeah. I'm encouraged. Just go out.
02:53Give me five, six quality innings. Let's get you right for next year when I'm going to need
02:57150 innings on you. But no, Stoney, look, it's just, here's the other side of it though.
03:02And the stats are fantastic and I'm appreciative. I think the other side is, okay, you want to
03:09write them off? You can't. I know the math suggests. Because here comes the newly divorced
03:15slump buster who's willing to jump on any pogo stick. It's the Royals. I know. Like, this
03:20is Evan in his mid-20s. A wounded deer is coming to the bar and Evan is willing to provide
03:26the
03:26medicine. This is, it's the Royals. You want to write them off? You can't. This, but it's
03:33also why I can't get emotionally into it. I know. Because the only thing keeping you
03:39in it is this cavalcade of God awful teams. So, okay. Friday, I get yelled at. People
03:47are mad. I wasn't excited enough. Now you lose five out of six. Yeah. Five out of six.
03:52And again, you want to write them off. I can't based on the American league. I know. I mean,
03:59do I believe they're going to make it? No, I still view them. It's coin flip, which means
04:02obviously I had a 50% shot of doing it. You got 50% shot of not. Um, but no,
04:09I mean, it's
04:09not like, even if they got in, the whole problem is this bullpen in playoff baseball, you can
04:15see how taxed they are. They're tired. Even, even guys who actually have not been that
04:19bad. Waga spec. He gave up a home run and made it what? Three to two summers who's been
04:25their, probably their best reliever the last three weeks. He only pitched a third of an
04:29inning. He was fine. And then Finnegan who didn't give up anything. He got himself in
04:34trouble. Yes, he did. As he always does. Cause he has no, uh, hit swing and miss. Although
04:39he did have one, but see, that's, that's a larger conversation and it's, it's not one
04:43we, man, well, I don't, you're right. No, no, no. I'm saying like, we don't, we don't
04:46have to do a lot on this. It's just out of respect for the game. Just ending. Here's
04:50what I would tell you. I go back to this all the time is I can put whether it's
04:55Scott Harris or coaches or players, you can kind of silo things. I can say
05:01that in the same breath that Scott Harris has done a very nice job drafting and
05:04clearly has helped modernize this organization and player development. Okay.
05:08He's very good at that. Yes. He's absolutely garbage at MLB free agency and
05:13trades. Yeah. Because again, this pen, it's a by-product of yes. I hated the
05:19Jansen signing from day one. I know. So you sign a 38 year old reliever off an
05:24outlier year. All right, cool. Here he is. Oh, but he hasn't given a bunch of
05:28run. Right. But guys, you're not closing out pen and chase games with this guy. He
05:32doesn't have the stuff anymore. Kyle Finnegan. Did you really need to bring
05:36him back when he doesn't have the swing and miss modern baseball? No. Then you
05:42factor in, it's another year that we're looking at bullpen pieces and we go, who is
05:48this guy? Wagon Sacker, whoever the hell his name is. Wagon Speck. You know, Drew
05:52Summers, we'll get him from Tampa. Right. Hey, it's De La Jesus. It's just, look, I'll
05:59never, I'll never be able to say it's as bad as the Dombrowski era bullpens because
06:04Dombrowski had elite payroll flexibility. Right. By Mr. I. And they just couldn't put
06:10it together. Correct. Harris, this is the first year they really spent. But Stoney, the
06:14MLB acquisitions, it over the winter, do you know what priority one is? They're
06:19going to have to rebuild this entire pen. Absolutely. And the problem is, and I'm
06:24going to give Scott Harris a little bit of slack on this. You look around the
06:28league, most of the teams, bullpens just blow. I mean, sure. Phillies is hard. They
06:34have a good closer in Duran, but the rest of them stink. Who runs that place? Yeah, I
06:38know. It's the same story. I know. It's a Browski. He just has a, he's got a bullpen
06:43thing. I mean, you know, talk to a lot of teams and they can't get guys who can
06:49throw an inning. It's, it's, it's nuts. I know. Look, I'm not telling you. And
06:53pitching dominates the sport. I'm not telling you any of this is easy, mind
06:57you, because people get offended, but that's what the money's for. Like, what
07:00do you want me to say? Yeah. But no, this is, this is why I just stay pretty
07:04neutral with this team. This is who they are. And at this stage of the season, as I
07:10said, even before, they were never 16 under and they were never going to be the
07:14team that we thought could be 16 over. There's somewhere in that just below, or
07:18maybe at 500. And now I know you want to write them off. Am I mad at you for it?
07:23Absolutely not. But the Royals are now your, your opponent and you'll win three in a
07:28row and then everybody will be, I don't know. They played them at home last, uh, what
07:32four games and they split that and Bobby Wood Jr. Didn't even play. I am Mike. I
07:37understand it. I hear you. I'm just telling you. I know. I haven't written them off all
07:41year. I'm Mr. Negative, Mike. I know. No, no. I'm saying why you, where you go, damn,
07:45Mike is normally the first to get after it. And it's like, guys, I can't write this team
07:50off because of who they play. I get it. It's an absurd American league. All of this. It's
07:57a complete absurdity. I know. I mean, David, you tell me, am I, am I the bad guy here,
08:02David? Bad guy. No, we just watched what we saw. Kelly Jensen did it again. The bullpen
08:10set it up to where the top of the lineup for the pirates came back around because of walks
08:16in the eighth. Yes. So no, it's the bullpens problem. Right. I agree. And that's why I'm
08:21writing them off. Cause they have no bullpen. What do the texters have to say? I mean, I
08:25know it's early, but like, are they rifling in? What do they want to say about it? I like
08:29the stony stats. I mean, I don't like them, but I like it. It's reality. I mean,
08:34well, compared to reality, compared to what you are delivered from some other media in
08:38this town where it's either not reality or honestly, I think it's a lie. Oh, the bullpen
08:45doesn't give up leads. What? That's like saying the sky's purple. This guy's blue. I'm looking
08:49at it right now. Today's loss hurts, but the next six games will really tell the story that
08:56a sign from John from Michigan stadium. If John gets on the radio tomorrow and says
09:02the next six games, he's not, I am you're on with him. Yeah. I'm on with Costa for
09:07the next two days. So John, all right. Cause if he did, I got to tell you, it might be
09:11time
09:11for him to have a vacation. He did himself a service. If he got on the air and did that
09:16next six games routine after this, you got to stop. I heard Dan Dickerson calling the
09:23walk off Homer and I was confused when I didn't hear the chair throwing drop. It was
09:27so predictable. Can't hold a lead to save known as life. Another one says, good thing
09:33Harris didn't think we needed bullpen help at the deadline. WTF? No. And again, here's
09:39the other thing you'll be served, which I consider gruel in this town is when you want
09:43to do like selective stats. Well, since June 15th, right? Yes. Stop. Baseball has always
09:49been a game that's in the aggregate. You are what you are at 130 games in. Here's
09:55the data. You don't get to just parse out the good stuff. Look, the good stuff they
10:00have is the future of this team. They got a great core. It's the best core in my 25
10:04years in this town. And they're starting pitching. Even young guys seem to be pretty
10:08good. Yeah. I don't want to go get carried away with the pitching because there's a
10:12lot of hope that we're seeing a Dylan Dingler, a Riley Green, a McGonagall. I'm not even
10:16putting Clark in there yet. Right. Way too early. But it's the first time in my life
10:20they have a young core, homegrown. And if Clark is the real McCoy, that's a core
10:25four. Yes. I can be very excited about that. Yes. But for the here and now, this
10:30is the other part. And I know it's easy to do it today, but we're just talking
10:36sports. It shouldn't be a stressful thing. No. I don't even know why Kenley Jansen's
10:39here. How the hell wasn't he traded? Because they want to do this little daiquiri
10:44money, piggy bank fund, thread a needle thing. See, I agree with you on like
10:49Glaber, but on Kenley Jansen, who wanted him? It is a desperate market. And if
10:56you picked up some of that money, you could have traded him. Stoney, you know
11:01it. That's true. But you know it. Teams don't have guys who can throw an inning.
11:05That's M. Stone. Yeah. Seven minutes ago. I know. But this is the problem.
11:09Kenley Jansen. Okay. Sometimes. Yes, I know. And look, it's just, this is kind of who they
11:17are. So I'm not going to sit here yelling and screaming about it. They'll probably destroy
11:22the Royals this weekend. And Jeremy Otto's ball bag will be swelled up. And then we're
11:27going to do all this crap again. I mean, it's just what happens in this town.
11:32That's not something you need to say to someone who's actually going to be seeing a urologist
11:35tomorrow, but that's a whole different story. And I may have stepped in it. Yes, you may have.
11:39I'd like to apologize for that. It's okay. David, anything else? Or can we get to things
11:44that don't make us sad? Let's get to things that don't make us sad. Okay. We'll get to
11:48business next, 97.1.
