Early in the season, but what's going on with
the bats, Bill? What are we seeing here? This
is kind of crazy. Chet, it's not even March and
I'm really worried about the Tigers ability to
hit. I mean, in me, you send me some notes. This
doesn't look good based on what we've seen so
far. No, it really doesn't. You're listening
to The Litterbox, a Detroit Tigers podcast with
your hosts. Chet West and Bill Patterson. Welcome
back litter box listeners to litter box Detroit
Tigers podcast. I am your host Chet West with
my co -host Billy P from the D and we're six
games. We're six games into the season. We're
going to cover a little of what we've seen in
spring training so far. The good. The bad and
maybe what to look for on the next couple of
games next five games who may Who we may see
a little more the plate who we may see a little
more on the mound And that'll cover us for our
Tigers coverage today bill. We're six games in
We're betting sub 200 so far. What are your thoughts?
What are you seeing out there from these guys
young and old? So chat it's not even the fact
that they just can't generate runs or get base
hits, it's they can't even hit the ball hard
most games. And Chet, they're seeing a wide variety
of pitchers as you're going to see in early spring
training. And it was interesting today, Chet,
they did a split squad and the young guys were
up against the Fills. The old guys were up against
the Blue Jays or the veterans, let's say. And
the young guys hit better than than the old guys
did. I do have some positives, so I don't want
it to all be negative. Sure, go ahead. Here's
an interesting one for you. We always have room
for positives on this show, Bill. Yeah, here's
one for you. Go. Our guy Riley Green walked three
times today and it didn't look like he was supposed
to hit. It looked like literally he is trying
to become... more discerning with his eye. So
I would say that's a really good thing. Thus
far, Matt Veerling looks healthy, which I think
is another good thing. Well, what I would I would
like to call out, Bill, is the fact that we're
seeing Javi playing better baseball in spring
training, which Javi is a slow starter, typically.
Yeah, he's soaring while many others are swooning
I still have lots of concerns though about some
young guys that needed to perform and we called
this out in a previous episode Yeah, let's talk
about the biggest concerns if Parker Meadows
and Jace Young can't get it together I would
say in the next week if not ten days I don't
expect either of them to be on the opening day
roster and I'm starting to think that there's
quite a few guys. Those two in particular, Jemai
Jones might be another that either could be trade
date or just roster casualties. You know, I'm
looking at Parker Meadows. I don't know if there's
a spot for him on the major league team right
now playing the way he is. I just don't know
if there is. I think you could put Veerling in
center. I think you could put this Trey Cruz
kid out there. I think you could put Wensil out
there. I don't care who you put out there. You
gotta be somebody that isn't striking out that
is hitting better than Parker Meadows. So question
for you. One of the goods is McGonagall thus
far. So far. As in Kevin. Yeah. Who is a natural
shortstop. So might it be premature? But hey,
that's what we're doing. A spring training Tigers
litter box podcast. Yep. To see our guy, Javier
Baez. out there in center field in the months
of April and May. I'm going to tell you, okay,
hot start. He's starting off hot. Last year,
last year we saw a spark from Javi out in center
field. I am not going to take that away from
him this year. If he can play center the way
he did last year and hit along with it, I'm in.
I want to see more Javi in center field. I mean,
is it such a bad thing to think he and Veerling
platooning out there? To some degree. Is that
terrible? Do you think Javi's the kind of guy
that has to play every day? Not at this point
in his career, I would say, you know, earlier
on, yes. Are we getting to the point where we're
going to start calling Javi old? I think we're
probably at that point. We're on the precipice,
right? Yeah, I think we are. I mean, he's in
the back half of this deal right now, too, so.
Yeah. One other bad, but, you know, he's young,
but he's just proving that he's not ready yet.
Yeah. Max Clark had an abysmal day yesterday
in the field. I didn't get to watch this game,
but I did follow social media around it and I
was kind of flipping through. Man, people, they
really let him have it. He struggled massively.
I don't think that was the funny part. I think
the funnier part was that I was giving you a
text play by play while you were in a meeting
at work. I was in a meeting and I'm getting a
text play by play about how bad Max Clark is
at the moment. I was like, man, you're really
hitting on them all right now. I And when I went
back and saw what he did, I mean, it was, you
know, the comment, I think the article in MLB
.com was like, Max Clark learns he can't move
the sun. I was like, yeah, Max Clark needs to
learn how to play in the elements, maybe. I heard
it was a bit windy. My understanding is that
the wind was blowing a bit. We were having one
of those, you know, March Florida days. No? No,
he the day before he made a comment that the
wind you can prepare for, but the sun never moves.
There was no wind yesterday and the sun got him
twice. I see. Okay. And hence the humor in that
title. Yes. And to make matters worse, Chet,
he clearly has been busy spending his seven points,
whatever $8 million signing bonus on diamond
chains that he decided to wear. Many of the commentary
on social media may have come from some folks
that did not take well to his jewelry and the
amount of it around his neck while he was making
these errors. It wasn't that, but you know, diamonds
are reflective surfaces and it was brilliantly
sunny without a cloud in the sky yesterday. They
are. He looked like Justin Jefferson in terms
of the amount of roped accessories he had on.
The difference being that JJ was an All -American
at LSU and is one of the top three receivers
in football. Max Clark is a top prospect, but
he's still very unproven. The other thing is
he's been spending most of his time when he's
not playing baseball and buying jewelry at the
tattoo parlor. Appears to be a very different
individual than the one that cut or excuse me
Tigers drafted Well, all right, so we've given
Max's do here and teed him up I don't think we're
gonna see him on the big big league roster until
September call which I guess we don't really
have September call -ups anymore But end of season
this year at best, you know I think you'll have
a real shot at making the club out of the gates
next season But I do not see him coming up in
the first half at all McGonagall. Let's talk
about some good things McGonagall As advertised,
there's the debate going around right now that,
you know, will he be with the team from day one
or is he going to have to wait? What are your
thoughts on all this? I know you want to see
him up with the team. Yeah, I want to see him
up just because given the potential for labor
strife, who knows about call up time and what
that's all going to mean on down the line. And
if he continues playing the way he's playing,
he deserves a spot because I just don't see the
other people in front of him blocking him. So
that's what I'd like to see. Do I think it's
going to happen? I tend to side with you and
think that the Tigers will wait, but let's see
how he plays. You know, he's, I would say what
we're looking for in the next. Let's say seven
to ten games. He would be exhibit 1a on the positive.
We'll see if Verling and Javier Baez can continue
these hot starts and then we'll see if a couple
guys can figure it out and that would be Parker
Meadows, Jace Young and then a couple guys I
want to give shoutouts to. Scoobs was back to
his, you know, last season form for his two innings
and then you know who had a really good two innings
thereafter was Anderson. Anderson. Really? He,
pitcher's clock was the only thing he did that
was bad. But aside from that, he had good command.
And, you know, at this point in the season chat,
they're only throwing like two, maybe three pitches.
They're just working on particular things. The
other thing would be, is Riley Green going to
continue this patience at the plate? Three walks
today was really impressive. I'm telling you,
I'm telling you. And this is the Riley Green
you wanted to see with the walks. I don't, you
know, his contact throughout spring training
fine, but the walks are a big piece. the strikeouts,
cut those down. Yeah. So I do have a food report.
You do? From Joker Marchant. Yes. No kidding.
Okay. Yeah. My folks went and - You're already
on it. Yeah. So let's walk through this. They
have a variety of different canned beverages,
both alcoholic and non -alcoholic. Okay. Per
Little Caesars, they serve Pepsi products. Not
that I think either Tom or Joanna imbibed in
that. I think they - Pursued maybe occurs light
or something to that flavor. They do have hot
dogs of many varieties including a two -footer
My dad said he was not so bold as to try it a
two -foot dog. Yes, you saw me right? Yeah, they
pursued the regulars Does your mate hold the
other end of the dog while you eat it? I don't
understand two feet of dog is a lot to just corral.
They've been married since 1967 that's a question
we might have to ask them on the pod, although
they didn't order it so We'll have to maybe save
that for someone else. Okay. Hey, I, you know,
it's probably a question for our better halves
as well. I mean, I do think it's a couple's dog,
but I don't know that that's - Do you lady and
the tramp that thing? Does one person eat one
and the other eats the other until you meet in
the middle? Yeah. The bunch of dog in your mouth.
That's crazy. Not during the brilliant sun that
is blinding our guy. Max Clark, uh, it's more
of a moonlight dog. Don't let him up for air.
Don't let the guy up for air. Per, you know,
the ownership, uh, there are Little Caesars stations
everywhere serving either a whole pie or slices,
cheese, sausage, and pepperoni. And you can also
get Flint -style, but not Detroit -style, Coney
dogs. Flint -style? Flint -style? I didn't know
there was a Flint -style Coney dog. Apparently
there's a big rivalry, although the Coney started
in Jackson, Michigan, between Detroit and Flint.
Flint uses a bad water. Do they use bad water?
Is that a bad? That's a good one. Hey, I believe
you got something. I believe it is a well, no,
they probably grill theirs, right? They don't
want it to touch water. That's true. They don't
want the chili is a more meaty, beefy, lumpy
concoction, more like the chili that you and
I might make at home, opposed to that's runnier.
Yeah. Yep. That makes sense. That makes a lot
of sense. Spring training. You don't want to
start off with anything fancy. The first six
games, just just hot dogs. We go hot dogs, maybe
a slice of pizza, a bread stick, whatever. That's
good stuff. I'm glad to hear about that. We're
going to bring you guys food all season long.
You know that Bill's takes on various cuisines
across all the ballparks. I will try to pitch
in with my own. I don't know how many twins games
I'm going to go to this year. Probably when the
Tigers come to down, come to town, I'll go see
one. But the local folk are a little down on
their Twinkies right now. This is we're only
five games in people. So this is kind of just
an update to let you know we're all still here
and breathing. the pot is going on you got your
you got your inside look at the first five or
six games we'll keep an eye on some of these
young guys i'll be curious to see how many of
them stay up with the big league club we'll see
if max clark can make it all the way through
spring training to the end at least i highly
doubt he's getting called up to the main the
main ball club there but i will see how long
before they send him down um and see if mcgonigal
can earn that position i think we need him in
this lineup this year. I think we need a bat
in this lineup because it does not look like
we're going out and getting anybody else at the
moment. We'll keep you posted. Thanks for listening.
So long and go Tigers. 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 you're enjoying the
show, be sure to follow or subscribe on Spotify,
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And hey, if you got a minute, leave us a quick
review. Till next time, Go Tigers!