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and thank you. You're listening to the litter
box a Detroit Tigers podcast with your hosts
Chet West and Bill Patterson Tiger fans welcome
to the litter box with your host Billy P and
chat for those of you that watched the Tigers
Lose two out of three to the Chicago White Sox
at home this past weekend I'm sure you're losing
your appetite for Tigers baseball. That's why
we at the litter box are gonna open today With
one of our favorite foods, and that is pizza.
And the question I have for you, Chet West, is
pizza a good ballpark food? We know it's a great
food. Yes, it's never a bad food anywhere. Okay,
even at a ballpark? Because I feel like because
it's not necessarily handheld. Unless it's like
a floppy New York slice served on a, well, not
one, you need to serve it on like five paper
plates so the grease can soak up. And I feel
like it's a food that you can't really eat in
your seat without, you know, like a metal railing
or a tray or something in front of you. I feel
like it's too much. But I'm going to tell you
why this works for me at a ballpark and you're
going to die when you hear this because I don't
think you know this about me. I love. cheap garbage
pizza, pizza that other people look at and say,
oh, this was done in a microwave or, oh, this
is terrible. I love it. I don't know why. I think
I grew up on it. I think there was something
from my childhood where I would make these pizzas
in the microwave or in the toaster oven like
type, and I was fine with it. Like home run in,
give me more of that. I mean, the stuff that
people look at and they're like, oh, it's like
cardboard. I throw that in the oven, cook it
up for dinner at night and it It is. It's like
cardboard, but I love it because it's the crust
being like cardboard makes it so much easier
to eat because I just pick it up, jam it in the
old pie hole. When I'm sitting in my seat at
the ballpark, I barely need a plate. I mean,
sometimes I have the plate there just to be sort
of civilized. But as long as that thing is as
rigid as a as as plywood, of course, I'm good.
So I like the ballpark pizza because it usually
is fairly on a On a pizza lover scale, it's garbage
pizza. Nobody likes ballpark pizza. Okay. But
I love it because it's easy to eat and I still
love that taste and the texture of the firm crust.
So part of this could be a little PTSD from the
fact that Wrigley Field used to have DiAgostino's,
which is, I'm not going to say the best pizza
in Chicago. It's the best slice in Chicago served
on four paper plates or five paper plates. And
it was perfect ballpark pizza. The problem is
they didn't re -up or they didn't give the Cubs
enough money and the Cubs have they've served
Connie's home run in. Home run in. I remember
it well. They both have very lackluster sausage.
The pepperoni is not real beef or plentiful.
It's not like the real pepperoni that you want.
I love all that trash I love all that trash and
I don't know why I love that. So I will say this
small caveat Don't do deep dish trash Deep dish
trash is a different ballgame. I don't want it's
just way too much really bad crust And it gets
kind of gross. It's just solid and overbaked.
It's just bad stuff. So deep dish bad pizza is
bad pizza Thin crust bad pizza is actually good
pizza. Got it. Go figure that so you'll throw
like the I think it's like Hungry Jacks or Tombstone
and yes, just house that tombstone is gold Stone
is gold. No, I'm not trying to impress anybody
with that But if daddy wants a quick snack, a
tombstone pizza in the freezer isn't the worst
thing in the world I can think of at all. It's
actually, I get kind of excited for it. I usually
sather it in a bunch of ranch or barbecue sauce
or something like that to kind of soften it up.
I was going to ask about your, yeah. Now, how
do you feel? I'm a big red pepper flake and Parmesan
pack guy. Don't care for it. Don't need it. OK.
Got it. Don't need it. Never. I just always wondered
why it was on the table, to be honest with you.
Interesting. Alright. Just never been on it.
So a little bit of differing opinions there.
Let's talk about it. What do you do? Do you like
the ballpark pizza? Where are you at on this
stuff? Like the Connie's? Would you grab a Connie's
slice on a bench? No, but last time I went to
Tiger's White Sox with some neighbors, I don't
know, a month ago or so. I don't know, sometime
in, I believe, August. And we all got Beggar's
Pizza. And their tagline is they lay it on thick.
Sure, it was served on the requisite paper plates
other there were only two so it soaked right
through and Given my injury status with my foot.
It wasn't super easy to find a railing What I
like to do and I'm trying to give a visual here
is to get two elbows down on a metal railing
And I don't care how dirty it is I just want
a support mechanism so that I can eat over that
filthy piece of stainless steel and make sure
that it's not getting all over my tiger skier.
Yeah, and that's I do love it. I'm a huge red
pepper flake. I'm a huge parm guy. Caveat number
two goes along with that paper plate issue, though.
Sure. Never set that plate on your thigh or something.
Well, that's with the slices that it's going
to bleed through. You're going to end up with
a nice little little little patty of pizza grease
on your thigh there. It's it's no bueno. And
if it's fresh out of the oven, you can also burn
your thigh. I've never had that issue so much.
I think my leg hair is like a protectant layer.
Ah, you've got resilient leg hair. I have resilient
leg hair, but I think that, I think that, you
know, I've definitely stained a pair of shorts
with some pizza grease before by just setting
that plate on the leg and it bleeds right through.
Stained on the front, stained on the back. Just
another day at the ballpark. Just another day
at the ballpark. I mean, it's, I got stains all
over by the time I come to the ballpark. All
right, moving on to the Tigers. So I think we
both agree it's delicious food. It just needs
to be consumed properly to avoid accidents. I'm
glad we're on agreement on that. Yeah, I looked
at the series and thought the Tigers, this is
about the easiest or worst team they would play
for the rest of the season. It was at home and
I had really high hopes. Chet, I was not feeling
it at all. The White Sox have become very pesky.
as the season has rolled on. But they're not
this pesky. They're not pesky to where we should
be losing two games. They have a better winning
percentage than the Tigers do since the All -Star
break, which is dumbfounding. If they weren't
coming in out of such a hole, they could have
been this year's Tigers and been resurgent at
the end of the season, but they were in such
a hole going in. So the Tigers lost game one,
seven to five. They allowed 11 hits. They committed
an error. They did score five runs, so the offense
wasn't necessarily the problem. But boy, Chet,
let's just go down this box score. Jack Flaherty
made it four and a third. He had four earned
runs, six hits. Locked 2, only struck out 2,
and his ERA is at 4 .85. It has been a solid
5 -plus ERA post -all -star break. Bailey Horn
took the loss, an inning pitched, one hit, one
run, one earned run, one K, allowed a dinger.
And then Kenton Montero did have a sighting.
Kyder? Kyder Montero. Also known as Kenton Montero.
Is this a new name? Are you coming up with new
names now? No, did I con - Is that the Javi Baez?
The Javier Baez of the - No, I - These gun bads,
we're calling them Kenton - I think what I did
is combined Montero and Maeda. Isn't that awesome?
Beautiful. That's beautiful. Yeah. Just think
about the picture that guy would be. Go through
the pitching stats Bill there. It's a broken
record at this point every game for the last
I feel like the last couple weeks We had that
nice little winning stretch there for a while
where our starters actually looked like maybe
they'd get us through some games in the playoffs
Every game has looked like this that's Google
isn't pitching in or maybe the one little Mize
resurgence But Flaherty back to bad Flaherty
horn giving up runs Kenta Montero Kiter, welcome
back to the majors. Thanks for giving up two
more runs and losing the game for us, basically.
I mean, it's seven, five game. We get the runs
across our offenses doing their job and our pitching
is falling apart down the stretch. With the exception
of game two, six, nothing win because Tarek Scoobal
took the mound and then. The Tigers scored six
runs on six hits. They allowed three hits. One
error was committed by the White Sox. And Scubal
goes to 13 and four. His ERA is stellar at 2
.10. That's great. He's Cy Young right now. If
you looked at it, it didn't even look like he
was leaving it all out there. He looked like
he was 70, 75 % there, which is just, he is so
master class and so wonderful. Well, only 90
pitches, too. I think Hinch is doing something
smart here by saving a little. in his tank for
the end of the season. Yeah. Tommy Canley pitched
a clean inning. Good for you, Tommy Canley. By
the way, do you want to know what his pitch mix
was, Bill? 100 % change -ups. He didn't throw
one fastball. He threw 10 pitches and they were
all change -ups. I was going to say if Tommy
Canley made a salad at his house for you, it
would just be lettuce. Just lettuce. Just lettuce.
Rafael Montero, the other Montero, came in and
gave up a hit but closed it out. 13 pitches,
got it all done. He had a nice six run lead.
Go figure. Only three hits total in the game
for the Sox. Scubal makes the Sox look like the
Sox that we know and love for this season. Yeah,
a couple of plugs that I want to give hitting
wise. Yeah. Wenzel Perez had a great series over
the weekend and so did Jemai Jones, who I've
always considered Nothing more than a career
minor leaguer, but I I am wrong about that this
season his OPS I told you in spring training
He looked good and I couldn't figure out why
we didn't bring off to start the season And and
for those of you that aren't watching because
we don't broadcast this on YouTube chat is pointing
his finger I am pointing and wagging. Yeah, he
is giving me a big old finger wagging 929 OPS
Jemima Jones is sporting right now when seal
800 OPS. Those are your guys Yes, cause for concern
batting. Torkelson's been on a really cold streak
and his OPS is now dipping below 800, which is
concerning. But run scoring wasn't the problem
this weekend. It was, again, broken record. Bad
pitching. Sunday's game, 6 -4 loss for the Tigers.
I am getting so frustrated with this. Tigers
gave up two in the first, retaliated by scoring
three in the bottom of the first. It was tied
up in the third, went ahead in the fourth, and
then bats went cold. Well, Charlie Morton. I
mean, three innings, four hits, three runs. I
think we got everything we're going to get out
of Chuck. And Paddock. And so my rant right now
is this. This front office for our Detroit Tigers
said this team was good enough that they thought
they had magic still or upside. you know, in
the players that we saw the first 60 games of
this season or, you know, first 60 days, 60 games.
And I agree, the ceiling is still high for this
team. You have 11 guys that are above major league
average hitters. You have the best pitcher in
baseball and win healthy, will vest, and Kyle
Finnegan can be a lethal one -two punch in the
pen. Outside of that, that's the ceiling, Chet.
The floor is, you don't have another starting
pitcher until somebody steps up. And shame on
you, Scott Harris. Shame on you, Chris Illich,
for not being more aggressive at the trade deadline.
Need to be a little more aggressive. Because
this, if the Tigers don't get one of the two
American League buys, This season is going to
end very quickly up against either the Yankees,
the Red Sox, the Blue Jays, the Mariners, the
Astros. It doesn't matter who they play. I would
favor any team in a three game series against
the Tigers right now, even if the series is at
Co -America. So just to just to call a few things
out here to Chuckie Morton wasn't the only one
who threw this game away. Holton had a nice appearance.
Melton had four walks. I don't know how Melton
had four walk. He had four walks, one K four
walks. He went two innings. He'd give us two
innings, still waiting to see him as a starter
at some point, but that's a little shaky. Tommy
Canley blew up again. Two -thirds of an inning
gave up two runs, three hits, and a walk. So
he's back to being bad Tommy. You know what?
He didn't throw all change -ups this time. So
maybe it was because he mixed a few fastballs
in there. Maybe that was the weakness. He added
tomatoes to the salad. Yeah. Will Vest went an
inning, two hits, had a K. He was fine. Rafael
Montero. Rafael Montero went an inning, gave
up a walk, had a K. I mean, you know, too many
runs up front. Too many runs in the middle there
from Melton and Canley. Canley really was probably
the one who threw this thing away. It just doesn't,
uh... Yeah, but they were already in a hole,
because of... They were, well, they were up...
Uncle Charlie did. They were up 4 -3, going into
the seventh. Okay? And, you know, it's... So
Melton probably provided a lot of the damage
with all his walks there. Oh, yeah. But Canley,
I mean, Canley still didn't shut the door in
the eighth. It was tied 4 -4. Canley gives up
two. I don't know. Maybe it's a, maybe it is
what it is. I mean, you can't expect good outings
from Canley every time. No, and this again comes
back to, I'm mixed on, was the front office?
Did they miss evaluate or were they overconfident?
I think they were overconfident. I think a lot
of these guys had a really good first half and
they did everything on a first half. You know,
we all sat there and looked and said, all these
guys are just treeing off their butts right now.
They're just, this is as good as it gets. They're,
you know, we're seeing like career bests for
some of these guys. You're going, there is going
to be some regression to the norm here. And it
was like, they just said, no, we'll never regress
to the norm. We're not going to have to go out
and get, you know, do anything major. We saw
this coming. I mean, this was, we saw this coming
from a mile away and nobody wanted to admit it.
We did. And so now. the Tigers go to one of the
hallowed grounds of New York baseball the Bronx
South Bronx to play the Yankees and we've got
Casey Mize up tomorrow against Will Warren which
I would say right now is the Tigers best chance
in a game in the series because game two is gonna
be absolutely brutal you've got bad Jack Flaherty
going up against Carlos Rondon I don't see Any
way the Tigers pulled that game out unless Jack
Flaherty throws a no -hitter or something, a
one -hitter. I just, yeah. And then what's even
going to be uglier is it's to be determined who
the starter is on Thursday, September 11th. And
I know the Yankees are planning a really grand
celebration to honor those that lost their lives
in the terrorist attacks on 9 -11. I'm a fan
of baseball, I'm a fan of the Tigers, but if
New Yorkers... They deserve a win that day. If
we get one game in this series, I'll be elated.
I think it could be a sweep, and I think it could
put us in, and I know you're going to love to
hear this because I did debate this with you
a little bit this morning over a quick text exchange,
but I think it could put us in jeopardy here
a little bit. If KC catches fire, if, it's a
big if, we could be in trouble. We could be looking
at a wild card situation if we don't start collecting
ourselves pretty soon. So you're starting to
we're eight and a half. I mean we got an eight
and a half lead on them on the Royals That is
yeah on the Royals I'm still not there yet a
week from now if the Tigers go let's say one
and five against the Yankees and Marlins who
have been playing much better baseball on this
road trip I'll a hundred percent be there. I'm
just not there yet, but both the Royals and the
guardians are playing well. So Bill, on all fronts,
this looks a little difficult pitching wise.
We're going to get lucky to get one game out
of this series coming up. What do you need to
see in our after season here? What do you need
to see in these final couple of weeks? We only
got about two and a half weeks left here. Yeah.
That's a great question, Chet. And what I would
like to see that would put me at ease is the
Tigers inch towards the finish line here is another
pitcher to step up and be a pitcher. that can
get to six innings with one run or fewer, two
runs or fewer, and put the Tigers in position
to win. And what I mean by that as a starting
pitcher, somebody stepped up in the bullpen outside
of these three individuals. Finnegan, Vest, and
sometimes Holton. That would be wonderful as
well. The bats don't concern me. When clicking,
this is an above major league. baseball average
lineup for OPS. They run the bases well, they
do the little things well. My concern is we have
to have at least one more starting pitcher going
into these short series that can not allow four
runs in the first two innings and put us in a
deficit. That is my, that's my ask. What else
am I missing? It doesn't seem like a big ask.
You're asking the equivalent of a Connie's pizza
probably. or a home run in pizza is all you're
asking for from these pictures. So we're not
asking for Cy Young's here. We've got one. We're
just not asking for beggars where they lay it.
I'm for a kill of the road toaster oven pizza
that tastes like cardboard. We can't even get
that tombstone on that note tombstone. Cut us
the check. Connie's in home run. We just publicize
all your product. We're going to wrap this up,
Bill. Best of luck to these tides down the stretch.
All right. That's going to 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
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Go Tigers!