You're listening to the litter box a Detroit
Tigers podcast with your hosts Chet West and
Bill Patterson Here's what's on deck for this
episode we didn't plate a ton of runs in this
series this point I am fairly certain he will
not be on The 40 man, was it the pork chop sandwich?
Did you go for the pork? Byron Buxton might be
my favorite player of all time because he dropped
like Litterbox listeners, welcome to the Tigers
edition and Boy, oh boy. We've had a road trip
and I don't know that we have a whole lot of
Awesomeness to report even though the Tigers
won the series in Chicago over the White Sox
They won Monday, August 11th, 2 to 1. They lost
in dismal fashion yesterday, 9 to 6. And then
today they eked out a 1 -0 win against the White
Sox. And I've got a host of thoughts, but I also
know my co -host does as well. So Chet, just
give me a couple thoughts off the top of your
head on this. I think we were fortunate, first
and foremost. We didn't plate a ton of runs in
this series except in the game we lost. I mean
the two games that we won we scored a total of
three runs. That typically won't even get you
a win if you score that across one game. So first
game 2 -1 victory. Chris Paddock. We got the
decent Chris Paddock in this one. Not bad, right?
5 .2 innings, three hits, a run, a walk, four
K's. I can get with that. That's fine. That's
what you expect out of a number five guy, which
is basically what he is, or a 5B, or a 5C, or
however we want to list it. Can I call him a
six at this point? Yeah, you totally can. I mean,
can we swing guy in most rotations, maybe? Can
we circle back to that later, please? Yeah. Yeah.
Well, let's circle back to the concept of the
sixth starter, shall we? Put a little... Little
footnote there. We'll put a pin in it. Your guy,
Tyler Holton, had a nice little game in game
one, though. One and a third. Gave up a hit.
Got a K. No runs again. Maybe he's trending in
the right direction. Feeling better about him
lately? Yeah, he knew that he was in my town,
so he needed to represent because... Like, my
guy. My guy is down the road. I mean, he's like,
Billy P's my biggest supporter. He's the only
guy that ordered my jersey. You don't burn your
biggest supporter. No. Kyle Finnegan. Gave us
an inning. It seems like Finnegan is now taking
that hold position, that set up position and
vest is keeping the closing position. Or are
they just going to flip flop? I I'll be curious
to see how that works out. I can only talk about
what happened today and we are broadcasting on
the 13th. And it seemed that they resumed the
setup for Finnegan, the closer for Vest. And
it works really well. It does. Chet, I'm not
going to say that you and I are Nostradamus or
really good at this baseball analysis. That being
said. We were spot on about Kyle Finnegan. He
makes a very good setup guy, good high leverage
guy. I mean, he's efficient, 11 pitches, one
strikeout, got his inning at work done. Gave
it to Vest, got his inning at work done, one
strikeout, 12 pitches. Both those guys at the
back end make me feel a little better, at least
for the time being. They have not, and Holton,
Holton, obviously. Had to hold his own in this
one, too, as we said. 2 -1 game. Pitching matters
because the bats certainly did not do it. They
got a lot of hits. They got eight hits. They
just could only scratch across the two runs.
I would like to bring something up real quick.
Your guy, Trey Sweeney, is back up with the big
league squad. Much to my chagrin. Yes. I knew
I wanted to get that in there. He had his net
bat in game one there. Looked like he came on
as a pinch hitter. And I think he I don't I don't
need him really on the squad right now. I'll
be looking for him to be replaced at some point.
I just don't see him being, there are a ton of
upside with him and I think he's only up there
because a couple guys are down. So we'll see
what happens. You want to do game two? How do
you feel? Or do you want to talk a little bit
about game one still? No, I don't really want
to talk about game one. But before we go to game
two, let's talk a little bit about Trey Sweeney.
Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. And let's talk about the
injuries. And his 200 average. Yeah, and this
is part of what you and I discussed basically
the month of June and maybe even, you know, leading
up to Memorial Day is that you've got a lot of
chips to play with in terms of you finally have
a good farm system. You have depth. You can do
things to upgrade this. And the Dodgers knew
that they were selling us a turd. When we got
Trey, by the way, was sold to them by the Yankees.
So Trey was aware his third stop on the list
here. So he's a turd three times. He's a turd
three times. We're being rough on him I just
don't see him No, I don't know that the abilities
there at the plate. We'll see but it's not that
Chet and he's also a little bit He's gotten a
little rusty on the old fielding side of things
too. He's so and he's been this way all season
He is so slow to turn a double play. It's like
he waits for the ball. He never approaches it
I mean we're talking literally shortstop stuff,
you know? So that being said, the fact that Veerling's
down, that Meadows is down, I already said my
piece on that last pod, in that now we've got
our guy, my guy, the Trey Boy up. I'm not happy.
And I'm not happy as well for the fact that this
organization, who I am going to rip Scott Harris
later, just cannot seemingly figure out how to
get the right nine guys up or 13 guys up at any
given time. It's kind of bizarre. The talent
seems to be out there to some degree or another.
We just can't seem to get the combo quite right
on who needs to be up and who doesn't. Then again,
it comes down to the guy's plan. I mean, when
you bring them up, they got to play too. And
they're expected to. They've had a history of
playing at times. You want to see them carry
that over. They're just a couple guys just kind
of coming out flat this year after what they
did at the end of last season. Whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa. Can we take a step back on that? Yeah.
Just because Trey Sweeney is no one that has
ever had a history of performing. He doesn't
have much of a history at all. I mean, last season
was his only history and he showed a little promise
there down the... down the stretch when we needed
a guy to do so. But he was not, he didn't even
get the Parker Meadows level last season is what
I say. He just showed some problems. He showed
some, you know, as a young player looked like
he had his, had the ability to be up there. In
note to listeners, I was at today's game, so
I might be a step behind Chad on a couple of
these topics. No, no, no. That's, I'm never ahead.
So don't worry. We're probably going to be on
the same speed. But. that of Meadows and Veerling,
you would think it would be addition by subtraction,
and it doesn't seem to be that just yet. So let's
move to game two, which might have been the worst
loss the Tigers have had all season. So we're
going to combo a couple themes here. One of them
is the inconsistency of Jack Flaherty. The helter
-skelter we don't know what we're ever gonna
get from him pitching in this game after he had
a few Decent starts over his last couple outings
and we were saying hey you said some good start
Let's let's give it to Jack Flaherty comes out
goes four and a third eight hits five runs a
walk six case so wasn't Wild they just hit him
and hit him hard to a lot of hard -hit balls
by the Sox in this game, and he didn't even make
it through the the fifth And you bring Herger
in. Herger gives up a run. Heuer, the trade acquisition
Heuer, who was just brought up recently, gave
up two hits and a run. You got the two Ks. You
also give up a walk in an inning and two thirds.
And then your guy, my guy, Mr. Change -Up, Tommy
Kenley. One and a third, two hits, two runs,
two walks, two Ks. I mean, he is sprinkling it
all over the place. I don't know. I don't know
what to do with him at this point. Completely
lost as to why he keeps getting rolled out there.
But here's what's problematic. This was a 9 -6
game. The offense actually came back and started
pounding the ball a little bit on their pen.
Tyler Gilbert and Mike Vassel gave up runs later
in the game. We had a chance to be in this game
and our pen gave up three down the stretch. I
just don't understand why we're rolling people
like Canley out there who give us an inning of
work and almost automatically give up a run these
days. I don't know what we're waiting on him
to get right with. I think it's over. The change
up has to be located, and he can't, and that's
really it. So I'm baffled by how often and how
many chances he gets. Now, like we said, took
two out of three from the Sox, won the series,
but... We'd like a sweep against the Sox, being
that they're in last place, right? And we need
to catch up some games that we've lost ground
on. Anyway, maybe that's a ridiculous request.
Your thoughts on game two? I echo what you're
saying. And for the life of me, I cannot figure
out what's going on with Canalee or Canalee,
however you want to pronounce it. He just cannot
locate either fastball or change up, which he
only has two pitches. And at this point, I am
fairly certain he will not be on the 40 man.
I'm wondering if he would be. Game 160, let alone
game 162. I think he is in serious danger of
being designated for assignment. And the only
reason I can figure, which I'm sure is what you're
thinking as well, is because he's a 35 year old
man. He is A vested MLB veteran. He's out of
options. There's nothing they can do with him.
They being the Tigers. Outside of keep him up
unless he gets hurt or this is a, come on, just
let's have a little fun with it. Nick nicks himself
in an inappropriate spot shaving. Dating for
hairs to shave off. Shave something off that
hasn't happened in. Here we are. So that being
said, last night might have been as bad as it
could possibly be. As far as Flaherty goes, at
this point, I wish we had never resigned him.
I just don't know what we're getting. Like, again,
we go to the A, five B, five C, six, seven starter.
I mean, we've got a bunch of guys that probably
would struggle to stay in anybody's five man
rotation. And it's troublesome because clarity
can be good. Yeah, competitive teams, sorry.
Teams playing for the postseason. And we saw
some good stuff at the plate in this game. I
mean, Colt Keith goes two for five with three
RBIs a home run. Riley Green two for four, two
doubles on a walk. No Ks for Riley in this game.
I mean, an epic. An epic accomplishment for him
this season. Spencer Torkelson did K four times,
got the old golden sombrero, but he didn't get
a walk. So he did get the walk though. He threw
a walk in there. So I don't know. You know, I
have this theory on the four run deal. If your
team plates four runs or more, the hitters did
their job. If your team allows more than four
runs, then the pitching defense did not do their
job. That four run line for me is a big one.
And if you look at stats, wins and losses, I
think I brought this up earlier in the season,
the percentages sway massively when you score
over four runs versus when you score below four
runs. So I look at the 9 -6 score here, this
is a pitching failure. Okay, the offense did
what the offense needed to do, and they didn't
exactly do it. Late, I know they got three runs
in the ninth, but either way they were going
in a six three game at one point seven three
game at one point They're still in striking distance
and then the relievers just kind of threw it
away in the final innings You ready to get to
game three or did you have any more on that debacle?
I've got nothing on the debacle. Okay now for
the fun one Nothing better in baseball than a
one -nothing ballgame. It tells you so much So
I did not go last night, although I was invited
by a loyal listener, Adam P., and neglected to
do it because the weather looked crazy for us.
And we just didn't really want to go and have
a seven hour outing where a game may or may not
be played. Gotcha. Therefore, I punted and went
down this afternoon with some neighbors and it
was amazing. I love a one -nothing pitchers duel.
If and only if Chet, it was that. It was not
that Chet. It was no, it was no. And here's,
you know how I like doing my stars kind of like
National Hockey League does. Troy Melton was
nothing short of frigging amazing today. I really
like him. I am enjoying watching him. He is great.
And I really, really, really would prefer him
to be a starting pitcher going forward. Told
the postseason if he's got a little swing and
miss to happens five innings. He only allowed
one hit He had six K's and then this is where
the wrinkle that I didn't see coming today Sawyer
Gibson long comes in Yeah came off the IL didn't
he got him back two innings only a lot or two
K's again one hit no runs And then they turn
it over to what I am going to start calling the
dynamic duo. Yeah. Batman and Robin. Finnegan
goes in inning, allows a walk. And then Vest
pitches an inning, gets a K, and here we are.
And here we are with a 1 -0 win. Finnegan and
Vest. Yep. So all my accolades go towards that
side of the Tigers, meaning the pitching staff.
I got to be honest with you, Chet. most of these
batters look befuddled, if not lost at the plate
right now. And I'm just going to go through some
of this just for today. Keith was 0 for 2. He
did walk once, applaud. He was replaced as a
pinch hitter by a Báñez who went 1 for 2. Whereas,
who I We touched on this the other day. I think
the biggest problem right now with the Tigers
is that Torres used to take 10 pitches, eight
at a minimum, but between eight and 12 pitches,
his first at bat, if not his second at bat, if
not his third at bat, and he swung at the second
pitch today or the third pitch on all four of
his at -bats. In the immortal words of Axl Rose,
just a little patience. Yeah, we do need just
a little patience. Just a little patience at
the plate. Man, I, I do, I do love some pints
and roses. Mm -hmm. Mm -hmm. Carp had a good
game. Yeah, he was two for four, had his K's,
had his K's, but nah. Torque kind of did what
he did. One for four, yep. Riley Green was missing
in action yet again. Yeah, he got a walk. It
doesn't seem to work for him when he's a DH.
And I know we need to do a deeper dive in the
stats. I wonder if he needs to be an involved
player. The one kudo I would give today is that
the Tigers walked five times today, which is
amazing. The other kudo comes from my section
where a girl on a date was explaining to her
boyfriend, I don't know, Tinder date, whatever.
I don't think they were actually boyfriend, girlfriend.
Somebody swiped somewhere. And she said, Well,
he got her good seats. I do know that. And it
was, you know, making sure that she was well
fed. Well played. Yeah. And she goes, this guy
has a world class mustache. Was she referring
to Riley Green? No. Rogers. Jake. And then she
goes, and not a whole lot else. That's fantastic.
And then the what? Not a whole lot else. Then
the guaranteed rate scoreboard carries a 180
batting average. But this is the best part. She
drops that bomb. And then, you know, they have
like stats and I do have to give, I have to give
serious kudos because the statistics in what
they put up on the scoreboard is so much better
at guaranteed rate than, than it really feels.
Oh my God. Okay. I learned a ton today. Probably
more real estate, but yeah. Well, cheaper real
estate. Yeah. Anyhow, yeah, all they're doing
is blocking out. More scoreboard real estate,
but by the foot, I'm sure it's cheaper. Blocking
out government housing, which they should just
allow those folks a free view of the bad product.
Anyhow, where I was going with it is the next
thing that came up was, did you know Jake Rogers
caught every one of 2024 Cy Young winner Tarek
Scoobel's games? And her date looked at her and
he was like, He has some redeeming qualities
outside of the mustache. Well, I like that. And
by the way, Finnegan Invest, I was going to say
it sounds like a law firm. Finnegan Invest actually
sounds like a liquor distributor or something.
That's that's more along those lines. Maybe it's
I don't know if it's the names. Sawyer Gypsum
Long was having a terrible time in AAA. in his
rehab starts, I was actually getting pretty afraid.
I was like, oh boy, he's getting hit hard down
in triple A. He's going to come back to us. He's
going to be all broken. We aren't going to be
able to do anything with him. He goes, two innings,
one hit, two Ks. That looks good so far. Keep
that up, Sawyer. Anything else to say about this
wonderful one -nothing ball game or this wonderful
series that the Tigers ended up taking? We didn't
get a sweep, but we took it. Yeah, I mean, nothing
other than that. Did I have a question? Did you
get a shower? I did not Well, here's the reason
why the PA announcer when we came in said By
the way, did you know that we have a shower?
Got in center field showed up at the shower out
there. So And I'm on the knee scooter still foot.
That's we have okay No, no, I scoot out there
with my boys and they're like we need to see
the shower We need to see the shower We go and
there is a line not 80 but now like deep too
deep for that 1215 deep where people are just
hosing themselves down in very Inglorious fashion
like do it. Well, hold on man Yeah, a lot of
skin shown and a lot of white t -shirt that Didn't
think I would ever see or want to see. Okay.
Okay. Let's just say that I'm both sexes. Sure
Okay, so you got to see the shower or you didn't
get in the shower to popular of an attraction
this time around. It wasn't that. I really can't
get the cast wet. And I would have gone in, but
when we approached, two of the fairer sex wanted
to join me in the shower and I wasn't really
comfortable with that being posted. Let's just
say that. Interesting. Yeah. That's interesting.
For those of you who do not know, my partner
is playing injured over the last month or so
and doing a remarkable job. At times medicated,
at times not. We're going on a little surgery.
It'll be eight weeks, not just a little. Eight
weeks? Has it been eight weeks? It'll be eight
weeks next Thursday. I can't believe that I hadn't
taken in that it's been eight weeks and not one
month. This is something my wife would lecture
me for. Like, you don't pay attention to me.
No, it's not that. I would still say I'm batting
like... I don't know, at least 280. 280. You're
betting 295 right now. Whoa, that's high. 295.
You're almost 300 hitter at this point. So at
any rate, you had a good time at guaranteed rate.
You didn't do the shower. Did you eat anything?
Of course I did. How much did you stuff in your
pie hole? This is cumulative, okay? So I've got
neighbors with me. Come on. I've got all sorts
of stories to tell and I just kind of want you
to dictate this. Today's attendance was 13 ,647
according to what I'm reading right now on MLB.
Okay of that I would guess easily four to five
thousand of those were tiger fans And that is
not an uncommon occurrence quarter tiger fans
at the cell guaranteed rate Yeah, yeah a solid
that's about right. That sounds a lot of Detroiters
in Chicago And a lot of people making the road
trip because it's an easy it's an easy, you know
right off 94 Anyhow where I was gonna go with
this food and I've got glorious things to share
with you. Please do. People next to us said you
have to try the chicken. Okay, hold on. They're
bar or a buffalo wing, but like no wing. It's
like those boneless wings. Yeah, like a boneless
wing. Over waffle fries drizzled in either blue
cheese or ranch. I feel like ballparks are trying
to give people a heart attack. It's like the
guy is pulling together the culinary experience
of saying, how do we clog an artery? Exactly.
How do we do this? So I said, buy one, I'll pay
for the other six of us, meaning the people next
to us, you know, we'll share two of them. Is
that cool? And he was like, Hondo. And he was
like, do you want to just give me your card?
And I was like, Sure. And then I was like, I
thought better of it. And I was like, how about
this? I'll just get drinks. And he was like,
perfect. We couldn't finish both of them. It
was just a greasy. Couldn't finish both. Over
six people. You got two portions of this. It
was a greasy, nasty mess. So picture boneless
wings from like a BW3 or Buffalo Wild Wings or
whatever you call that place. Or Wing Stop. Some
mass produced wing joint, basically. Gordon food
service. I'm sure okay sitting in just marinating
its own its own oil vile juices and oils and
then slapping it on top of some waffle fries
that are also marinating and just festering in
their own juices Chet was each bite was just
like a sodium bomb in no flavor. No nothing.
It was terrible. So we At one point, were you
eating and you just felt like you're coating
your mouth with baby oil or something all around
it, just cooking grease? Just dripping off of
your mouth. No, on the baby oil, but that's a
great visual for the listeners. Thank you. Yeah.
No, I had two bites. That's why I eat stuff like
that. I feel like I'm just lacquering my face
in oils. I had two bites and said, peace out,
and excused myself to use the men's room and
came back with what was a big winner, beggars
pizza. Their, their, their tagline is they lay
it even more healthy. They lay it on thick chat
chat. It was, they lay it on thick. It was, I'm
telling you if, if the, I don't know what we
call it. Only rivaled by Olympia beer. It's the
water. It's the only other tagline that I could
think of. You know what we need to call the previous
thing is south side poutine. Side poutine, is
that what it is? Is that what the boneless wings
on waffles are? So south side poutine. Side poutine.
Okay. All right. The south side poutine, if that
won't get you, guess what will? Beggar's banquet
pizza or whatever? Beggar's pizza or a Polish.
I mean, I, so I brought back four slices, which
should be a whole pie, right? I mean, $32, no
big deal. And I had them, I asked if you could
kind of cut them into eighths, you know, just
so we could share. And I got cheese, pepperoni,
sausage, sassage, as they say on the South side.
It was fine. When they say they lay it on thick.
Is it just the cheese? Imagine ordering, and
you might, this is a Detroit reference for us
all. Do you remember like, ordering Little Caesar's
when we were little and you could get extra cheese
and it was like really like a cheese bomb. I
mean, it was like almost the bread was hiding
basically. It just wasn't even. Yeah. Okay. That
is what a standard slice is from beggars pizza.
I'm going to say that you're lucky. Your arteries
are still pumping blood through them and functioning
as they should be. Thank you. I'm glad you didn't
need any more of the South side poutine. That
would have been bad. I have one more item for
you. You had another item? I'm sweating thinking
about this. Go on. Well, and you accused me of
sweating down there. Was it the pork chop sandwich?
Did you go for the pork chop sandwich? No, no,
no, no, no, no. Come on. We were going to get
a pork chop sandwich. We already talked about
that. They've got this Korean mashup or... Why
wouldn't they? And it's like a waffle, but not
like chicken and waffle. It's more like a...
savory waffle, which I've never had a savory
waffle. I've had savory pancakes, I've never
had a savory waffle. Interesting. With, again,
more fried nuggets between it. Either shrimp
or chicken. You don't eat shrimp at the ballpark,
not at guaranteed rate. You're not getting shellfish
at guaranteed rate. You don't eat shrimp south
of Chinatown in Chicago. I wouldn't eat shrimp
at guaranteed rate field if you paid me to eat
the shrimp. Well, no offense to the chef and
the culinary staff at guaranteed rate, but I'm
not putting any, no, no seafood from you guys
in my mouth. I'm sorry. So I have two that was
disgusting. I literally tore a piece of the savory
waffle, had a piece of chicken that tasted almost
identical, even though it was a Korean Kapow
sauce or something like that. Okay. It tasted
virtually identical to what we got on the waffle
fries. So a big zero for food today, except for
I have one really, really interesting nugget,
no pun intended. Guess what's on draft at Beggar's
Pizza? What's that? That you would associate
with Chicago, but never with the South Side.
That would be old style. I kind of feel like
it's still an old, I feel like it might still
be a South Side beer. I know that it's big for
the Cubs. on the north side, but I feel like
I've seen old style signs and whatnot on bars
on the south side before. So in my beer, right?
Yeah. I mean, they had to package this in a pizza
container for me. And then they gave me like
a little carrier case. They only sell you two
beers. So I put them over one of my handlebars
on my knee scooter and brought them back. And
my boys from the neighborhood were going nuts
over the fact. Where'd you get the old style?
Where do we get more old style? And then our
new neighbors and then the new new neighbors
on the other side, there's only eight people
in a row in the good seats. Well, there's 15
,000 people there. It makes it sound like you
guys had like your own little neighborhood out
there. I make friends. I try. Anyhow, we had
two old styles thereafter and everybody was real
happy with that. That is my food review. I've
got nothing more for you. You've done an incredible
job reporting from guaranteed rate field this
season. Yeah. I might add. Thank you. Very detailed
reports. It's been sensational. We've got the
twins coming to town. I am locked up for the
weekend plans wise. I want to go so bad tomorrow
night. I don't think I'm going to get to go see
Scoble pitch. I feel really down about it. I've
got all sorts of chaos going on and I cannot
just get away for that long to go down and see
a ball game at this point. I got four shots at
it and I'm not going to make it unless something
crazy happens in the last minute. Maybe never,
you know, I won't hold it. I'm not holding out
hope, but we'll see either way. This is kind
of an important four game set. I don't see if
your co -host just drops in out of the blue.
Well, you can if you want to knee scooter and
all we'll get you down there. get some sort of
seeding for you and everything. ADA seeding is
the way to go. I mean, if you make it all the
way from Chicago to Minneapolis, I'll make it
from my house to the ballpark. One way or the
other, I'll clip my other plans. But did you
see in the news this past week, Byron Buxton,
post -trade deadline, apparently told like six
teams, no go. Like people were coming after him
wanting to trade for him. He said no, he's got
a big no trade clause He's like I'm here. I want
to be in Minnesota He came out give a big speech
to the team had like a team dinner while they
were in Cleveland and basically said like guys
We got to get our horses and start playing with
some pride. Everybody's going crazy for Byron
right now. He's mr. Twin He's showing leadership
trying to pull the team together and rally him
Apparently they're gonna have like some standing
ovation for Byron Buxton I believe it's going
to be day after tomorrow, so it'll be Friday.
They're not going to do it during the school
game because school's probably going to shut
them down, but they'll do it Friday when they
go against somebody else, probably Mize or whoever.
And I think that's kind of cool, kind of cool
story. A guy that actually wants to be somewhere
playing, doesn't want to get traded away, wants
to make things right and get things better. Second
bit of news out of Minnesota, the pole ads are
not selling off the team, only giving away some
minority stake of it. I'm not shocked by that
at all. They get a little help cash wise. They
keep control of the squad. Now we'll see what
it does for the team going forward and if they're
going to provide any competition for the Tigers
in the division. Any thoughts, Bill, on the Twins
Tigers series coming up? Yeah, I have a lot of
thoughts on this just because I read the same
news that you did and I do have a Byron Buxton
story if I can share it either now or post. Please
do. Well, no, no, let me just do the business
news. I think they were smart to avoid the Justin
Nishbia money. Probably. And I think they still
want to be controlling owners. Attendance is
the worst it's been in, is it 12 years or 13
years since Target Field's opened? So they've
fallen into a rut and here's the deal. And I
know you've lived there. There are two cities
that I identify with. is sports deserts, meaning
championships that don't happen. One is the Twin
Cities, the other is Atlanta. Outside of that,
most other cities seem to have their day in the
sun with four or three major sports. I'm not
talking about like a Nashville that's like new
to it. You know what I'm saying? But most others
have had some type of something in the last 30
years is what you're saying. I mean, Atlanta,
the late nineties, obviously and baseball, but
yeah, they have the Falcons are the I mean, they're
a desert, you know, Hawks, Falcons, whatever.
Yeah, sure. They can't keep a NHL team. So kudos
to anyway, where I was going with this is It's
good that they're infusing new blood, new money
and new ideas. I think a lot of people were hoping
they'd sell because they haven't done anything.
So it's like, but the key thing is still a little
disappointed. The key thing I read was new ideas.
Yeah. And new ways to market the team, new ways
to approach it. I am one that it doesn't, it's
either five or six on my ballpark list. Okay.
Target field. Yeah. Meaning top. It's amazing.
It's a great experience. It's a great experience.
You and I went and I had a great time. And what
I was going to say to this is, or we had a great
time, is that there's no reason they should be
where they're at. And this is what's really more
frustrating coming back to the Tigers on the
fact that they just didn't go for the jugular
because you've got the White Sox in a place of
rebuilding. You've got the guardians who clearly
will only develop from within and not spend money.
The Royals are trying to seek a new stadium.
They were buyers, but they're not really that
close to anything. Right? Yeah. And so really
the division comes down to you and the twins.
And that's what frustrates me about the guess
who the Tigers trading partner, the first trading
partner was the twins. I know, I know. So Tiger's
twins. It's and it's going to kind of come. I
don't know. Cleveland's going to have a lot to
say about this, right? They're going to have
everything to say. Cleveland just Cleveland could
trade half their team and still somehow compete.
It's like a magical thing. Something coming out
of the Lake Erie. I have no idea. It's definitely
got to be Lake Erie water. I think it is. Yeah.
All right. Byron Buxton story. He spoke at the
kids. Montessori School when we lived in Cedar
Rapids, Iowa, when he was a single A Cedar Rapids
Colonel. Okay. And my son, who was four at the
time. Yeah. Grady raised his hand and was like,
do you like beer? To which Byron Buxton flummoxed,
said, sure. I do like beer. He's like, great.
My dad owns a brewery. You should go see it.
Did he ever show up? Yes. He showed up. Fantastic
Byron Buxton might be my favorite player of all
time because he dropped like and he showed up
Stupid money too. I mean meaning like he bought
shirts swag Great stuff to go and I literally
forwarded it all to my youngest. So that's it
Nothing more. Nothing less. He did the marketing
for you. All I can say is I hope The twins build
around him because I he's a keeper. He's a guy
to like, right? He's a player to like. Yeah.
And so he's got to stay healthy. Can I just one
last thought? I was looking at all the Riley
Green stats today and they did one that said
he was the Tigers rookie of the year in 2022.
He was also their MVP. And so I did a quick Google
search. Do you know the only other time that's
happened in Tiger's history? I'm gonna go with
either Al Kaline. You got it. Is that the one
I got on first guess? Yeah. Yeah. And I just,
because a lot of our listeners are like, hey,
I'm impatient with Green. Here's the deal with
Green. Right now, this should be his rookie season
by most metrics, or last year should have been
his rookie season. Okay. Right? He's 24 years
old. Yeah. Most guys aren't hitting the major
leagues at this point. And I just would say,
let's exhale on it. I'm not saying he's gonna...
I agree. I agree with you. I was trying to get
that out in the last pilot. Okay. He's working
on it. He's a guy I'm just, I'm starting to cheer
for. He's working on it. He'll get there. He's
going to come around. He's got an awkward swinging,
you know, he's got that angle. He's got the uppercut
swing and it's going to, that's going to... It's
gonna cause a few K's here and there, but I think
he's gonna be okay. Talented enough, and I'm
definitely pulling for him to pull it around.
I don't have anything else, but let's go Tigers.
Let's... Let's get some wins against the twins.
How's that? We gotta pay him back for that last
series. That's a good t -shirt slogan there.
Bumper sticker. I don't think I'll get very far
wearing around here, but... Yeah, we got to pay
him back for that last series. We got smoked
and it kind of took the wind out of the sails
a little bit there. So we owe him some games
here. Folks, we'll be back after the four game
set. Enjoy your weekends. Enjoy the Tigers twin
series or whatever you're getting into this weekend.
Thanks. We'll talk soon. All right. That's gonna
do it for this episode of the Litterbox, a Detroit
Tigers podcast. Thanks for hanging out with us.
We're Bill and Chet. We'll be back soon with
more Tigers Talk. If you're enjoying the show,
be sure to follow or subscribe on Spotify, Apple
Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
And hey, if you got a minute, leave us a quick
review. Till next time, go Tigers!