Bill, what a difference a year makes. I mean,
where were we this time last year after the first
series of the year? After leaving Chavez and
Chet, the sandbox, San Diego treated us a heck
of a lot better. We're now two and one heading
to Arizona. Let's go Tigers. You're listening
to The Litterbox, a Detroit Tigers podcast with
your hosts, Chet West and Bill Patterson. Litterbox
listeners, we got a first series under our belt
We got some highlights. We got some low lights
We got a couple guys that kind of wonder how
long they'll be Tigers and a couple other guys
I hope are Tigers for a really long time based
on what we saw in a very small sample size bill
What was your take? Who'd you like? Well, I mean,
let's not bury the lead here chat Kevin McGonagall
was nothing short of sensational I am shocked
you got you got him out of the gates first. Come
on. I mean, I got to give the people what they
want and that's more people what they want. It's
more KMAC. It's more KMAC. He was four for five
in opening day. It was all the buzz around baseball.
You know, the Buster onlys and Jeff Pathsons
of the world that have been touting how great
of a prospect Kevin McGonagall is. Their prophecies
came true. And will he revert to the norm at
some point in this year? Of course, you know,
second time, third time through the lineups are
going to, you know, when he sees the twins, you
know, the third time it's going to get tougher.
However, he's off to a magnificent start. And
I do have to give props to Dylan Dingler behind
the plate. Also carrying a very mean bat after
picking up where he left off after his little
procedure that had me more worried than you.
And I have to say, Chet, the Tigers and Scott
Harris are building a young nucleus that could
be very feared in the American League for the
long term. What are your thoughts? I buy that.
I buy that. There are a couple guys I do worry
about. Well, let's talk about them. I needed
to see a little more in the first series of the
season. You want to see guys get off to a good
start. I know. that Kerry Carpenter is going
to find something at some point. But watching
him go, oh, for the world this past weekend.
I mean, the guy hasn't had a hit. I think he's
had a walk or maybe two. I worry the strikeouts,
you know, you get Riley Green out there with
I think Riley had one hit all weekend long and
a walk. We need these guys. We need the Riley
Greens and the Kerry Carpenter's to step it up
and. Torek, up until yesterday, had a couple
of hits under his belt. We just need those guys
to be good. Colt Keith, he pulled his weight.
He did fine. Matt Vierling, we're going to need
some hits out of Matt Vierling if he's going
to play. Zach McKinstry, he did fine. You know,
there's a couple of guys on this team are going
to have to find some consistency. So first series,
I don't want to get too worked up, but I really
wanted to see Cary Carpenter and Riley Green
get off to a fast start. And I just they didn't.
So. I'm going to pick on them a little bit. McGonagall
is great. And you're right. We're going to see
how he adjusts. That's the real catch here. Right.
It's you can come out and shock some people.
How do you adjust when they adjust to you and
your strengths? Absolutely. Going back to like
just the core group. I stand corrected. I know
Colt Keith when he has his slumps draws my ire
and I know you tried to talk me off the ledge.
I owe an olive branch to you and Mr. Keith on
this because He is pulling more than his weight.
He's playing third base now, which is another
position change. He has just been so versatile
and it just makes me dislike the Gley bar Gley
bar tender, if you would, that he accepted because
who else wanted Gley bar? And I'll let you do
your Gley bar story right now. And then we'll
circle back to my concerns with both carp and
Riley Green and why I think it's a duplicate,
meaning they're basically the same type of hitter.
And I think for the Tigers own sanity and lineup
sake, they need to get rid of one trade. I'm
not ready to go quite that route yet. And if
I'm keeping one of them, I'm keeping Riley just
because I think he's the, his health is a little
more stable than, than Carrie. Carrie is so streaky.
I mean, when Carrie's hot, he's hot. He's one
of the better hitters in the game for power,
especially from the left side. But when he's
not, he just sort of disappears and then an injury
will creep up. It just kind of gets to the point
where maybe Kerry, maybe we've seen the ceiling
there and we're not going to get too much more.
I don't know. Again, early don't want to pick
on him too much. Love to see Dingler. Do you
think Dingler is a top five catcher? In my opinion,
yes. I don't think he baseball recognizes him
quite is not quite yet. Right. But I think you
and I are paying closer attention to it as most
Tigers fans are. And I think he will be if this
continues throughout this season. We have to
remember it's only truly his year two season.
And typically local fans, local podcasters like
ourselves are a little bit ahead of the curve
of the national media on that. He will also get
overshadowed this season because of Kevin McGonigal.
But I'd like you to share your Glabar quip that
you texted. Our tiger screw up yesterday. It's
one of these Gley bar Torres things, right? Like
we're in a zero zero game at them at the time
and you've got a guy on first and third I Believe
if I'm not mistaken, there were two outs There
might have only been one I my memory is not great
as I was coming in and out watching the game
But Jake Rogers throws a seed to second. There's
a guy stealing from first Gleyber moves over
to the bag to catch the ball coming down and
kind of Alligator arms just short arms the thing.
I think he saw the runner coming in But it wasn't
there wasn't gonna be a vicious collision I mean
it would have been a perfect throw and a tag
would have got the runner easy And he just kind
of alligator armed it and it tipped off his glove
went into centerfield It was just one of those
things really came at like have some hard here.
You're in a tight game I know it's game three
of the season It's not a playoff game. It's not
a postseason game. Again, we're ranting a little
and we're only a series into this deal. But these
are the things I look at him like 24 million
for this guy. Like, and I know it's him picking
up an option. But, man, we're spending 50 mil
on him and Baez right now, which is just I just
don't it doesn't add up in the productivity.
Like he's a vet. He should make that play. Jake
Rogers kind of look on his face like, what more
do I have to do? Can I give you a couple thoughts
on this? It wasn't like Ty Cobb was there. We
all know the infamous Cobb story that he would
sharpen his spikes on the bench and just stare
at the opposing team short stops. And a guy from
third scored when he missed it. So it gave up
a run and put another guy in scoring position.
It was just a mess. Yeah. And so my second question
for you on this is we had really good outings.
Game one from Tarek Scoobal. The only complaint
I heard local media say or local fans. It wasn't
media Stating like oh he didn't he wanted to
be pulled like he didn't want to go out for the
seventh and it's What was the point they were
dominating and rolling at that? Yeah, you only
have to save him He only has so many and I'd
say and so just save him the game was in hand
I don't have a problem with that early in the
season like this we get to that playoffs and
you start pulling them after five I'm gonna be
I'm gonna be a little more sour That'll happen
at then he's too much. I don't either I don't
think it will but he has been known To get pulled
early in games and that's been kind of the knock
on him And so he's gonna have to you know That's
part of what got to live with is hearing that
knock and he doesn't throw that many innings
He's not one of those guys that goes past six
innings very often So he went six innings three
hits and a run six K's. That's a very workman
like outing for Tarek scubal. That's a You know,
that's a that's a patented terror school pitching
effort there. I will say you start on the pitching.
We can fade over to pitching now. Well, we have
our school was so solid. Yeah, go. We're on it.
Well, one more point about this is when fans
say, like, why doesn't he do complete games?
He doesn't pitch like Greg Maddux. He's not pitching
for ground ball contact. A high effort guy. Yeah.
Meaning that he's going to get strikeouts, but
he's going to wear hitters down. Sure. So it
takes. Six pitches seven pitches Greg Maddox
was okay. Hey, it's Greg Maddox different Yeah,
you're talking about a unicorn here to a degree
I mean two unicorns 90 and on the paints the
corners, but it's look look I I'll take what
scubal offers. He's obviously a great pitcher
It's just that is his one knock as he's a five
six inning guy typically We'll watch that as
the season goes on and we'll take it. I what
I would like to call out our starting staff was
great. Was great all weekend. Flaherty did not
have a bad outing yesterday. No, I would have
liked to seen him go a little bit longer than
4 .1. Yeah, but I don't want to skip over. Framber
was Every member was everything he's built to
be he got into trouble and he got out of it and
that is the difference between him being like
the Professional the true professional he is
very good in a guy like it's Reese Olsen that
might have not been able to get it And I'm not
picking on Reese. I'm just saying experience
just there's an experience and I know we're paying
him a lot of money It's not our money. It's Chris,
which is money And I think it's going to be a
solid investment. Flaherty wasn't terrible yesterday.
And I have one for you. Flaherty didn't give
up any homers. Usually he gives up a go for ball
or two. And it was, it's, you know, it's Petco.
So it's a deep park. Yeah. His problem though,
he did walk. They did hit him hard. Well, they
hit him hard when they made contact and he walked
four, which is concerning. Four walks isn't going
to cut it. We never said that we were going to
live and die this season. Nope. By Jack Flaherty.
So I'll tell you. Hold on. Okay, go on. No, no,
tell me tell me I want to hear I'm gonna tell
you had a good outing yesterday was her guy Connor
Siebold We gave him a lot of guff in the first
episode figure out why we signed the guy he two
and a third Gave up a hit in three K's through
50 pitches. The guy was in there for you know,
a third of the ball games Hats off Connor Siebold
way to start the season off years and if we had
to throw a little shade towards the pitching
staff, which there isn't a whole lot to throw.
Not a lot. Jerry Anderson was not magnificent
opening day. No, but to no damage. OK, so let's
let's see. He gets a get out of jail free card.
We won the game. I'm not too darn worried about
it. You know who was actually quite good on opening
day was your boy. Anytime, anywhere, any day.
Jesus was quite good. on a uh well actually sorry
game two he pitched he gave us an inning a hit
two k's that's what you want from him i'm happy
to see that uh kyle finnegan did his job walked
one guy but got two k's got out of the inning
kenley jansen everything he was billed to be
closed it out one inning three k's struck out
the side kenley jansen still got it so i'm happy
with our pitching i think our pitching is that
bullpen might be one of the single Most improved
aspects of this team right now. I think it yes,
and I think if we can get the young hitting Namely
Dingler McGonagall get either green or carp.
I don't even expect both with Keith I think we're
off to good things this year. I think our starting
staff looks good. I think our pen looks better
So next up we've got a trip to Phoenix in the
Arizona Diamondbacks Who just came off a three
game series against the Dodgers? So of course
they are oh and three And the Tigers are now
facing them. We've got JV up against Soroka.
Game one. Game two is going to be Casey Mize
against, I'm going to mispronounce it, but I
think it's Fad. Fad? Fad. Brendan Fad. Fat. Fat.
Fat. Fat. Fat. Okay. Fat. Brendan Fat. F -A -A
-D -T. That's, that's a tough one. It's a tough
one. My apologies. Brendan Fat. Fat. And then
we do not know it's to be determined. It's Zach
Galin pitching for Arizona. It's going to be
the only day game. Everything else is a 9 -10,
9 -10 central time start. These are late games.
Arizona does not. That's the Wednesday game.
Yeah, yeah, that's Wednesday. And that's the
to be determined question chat. Yep. It should
be scubal scheduled start. Might the Tigers do
something like hold him for their home opener
Friday against the Cardinals? And if so, why?
So my my only concern with that is it was billed
that Verlander's first start was going to be
Sunday night baseball at home against the Cardinals.
If you do that and you bump Scubal when do you
and you start him on Friday? Okay for the home
opener Where does verlander pitch do we just
slot him in the three? Instead of Flaherty all
the sudden just so we can have him pitch that
weekend I mean, this is kind of you get into
the marketing of things, right? I don't know.
I think scubal is gonna pitch on schedule I don't
think they're gonna mess with schedules this
early I hope you're right, and I think you're
right. Pitch Wednesday, you're going to get Verlander
on Sunday night. I just found it just kind of
odd. Totally early in the year. Totally good.
I mean, barring injuries, I see where you're
going. I see how you're trying to think through
it. I don't think we're going to get off schedule
quite yet unless something happens health wise.
God hope it doesn't this early. But yeah, I see
where you're going, though. That's your brain's
working. It's just, I don't know that's going
to happen. Yeah. All right. I think it would
throw things off a little too much and bring
questions where they're not necessary. Who are
you looking for in this series? Who do you want
to see click? I think we've already talked about
it. I'm going to go with Riley green and or carp.
We need one of the two. Yeah. I'm going to throw
the question back at you. I think the natural
answer you're probably going to give me is Torkelson,
right? I know. I actually, Torque is fine. Torque
is doing what Torque kind of does, right? He's
gonna hit like 240. He's had a couple hits, had
a couple good key hits over the last couple days.
I think... I need to see Riley Green step it
up. I'm not going to hold out for Carrie, and
I don't think they're both going to just start
raging at the same time. So I'd like to see Riley
Green get it going. I need to see him be the
superstar that everybody thinks he's going to
be. Another another guy to call out to maybe
like, where are we going to get to see more Parker
Meadows? Will we get to see more Parker Meadows
in this series? He's taken up a spot. Chet, his
time appears to be dwindling. You think so? We
will have to see. I don't know. I mean, Viraline
played center field yesterday, and I just don't
know what to tell you. All right, Tiger fans,
it's great being back. Baseball's back. It's
the best time of the year. Chet, it's great talking
to you. Litterbox listeners, thank you. And we'll
be back with a food preview for Chase Field and
the Arizona Diamondbacks. 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
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leave us a quick review. Until next time, go
Tigers.