First Impressions of the Tigers after Game 1

WXYT-FM / 97.1 The Ticket

Costa and Jansen give their thoughts on what they saw from the Tigers in their season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday night.

Transcript

00:00Tiger's first impressions. Open phone lines. You got your first taste. We'll see him in

00:05person a week from today. What stood out? 248-539-9797.

00:12The bats seem to be a little bit more active than I anticipated they would be against Blake

00:20Snell to start with, honestly. And just to be able to get on base, be a threat in the

00:27first couple of innings. And I know there wasn't much action in that first inning,

00:31but then Spencer Torkelson starts off, he walks, and then he gets pushed over. Okay.

00:36Base running error. It was maddening. I can't remember if that was the first bat or the

00:41second time he was on base. But frustrated by that. But I was happy with some of the

00:50bats. Just to be able to put bat on ball. You see the home run by Spencer Torkelson.

00:57Four runs against that pitching staff. There are some positives to take away from it. Obviously

01:05they lost the game. But Spencer Torkelson, Gleyber Torres, Manuel Margot, excited to

01:13see those guys put bat on ball. And maybe it's just the first game. I was excited to

01:20see a couple of hits that mattered. We're all sitting around excited and you have the

01:24Gibby Freeman moment before the game. And I thought that was a cool moment. That was

01:28awesome. And you're just excited. How good did Gibby look though? Yeah, he looked great.

01:32He jogged out there throughout the first pitch. Jogged back. He looked. Hats off to him. He

01:38looked great. But the anticipation. We're like, let's get to the game. I'm excited.

01:41Baseball's back. And John, they lost to the Dodgers. What am I going to do? Make a big

01:46deal about losing to the best team in baseball? To me, it's looking a little deeper than just

01:49wins and losses. They're going to lose a lot of games. They're going to win a lot of games.

01:52They're going to play a lot of games. Torkelson's the biggest takeaway I had. If this offense

01:56is going to be as anemic as we believe them to be, they're going to rely on Torkelson

02:01more now than ever before. And he looked composed. He wasn't in a hurry. He looked disciplined.

02:08And yeah, if you give him something to hit the power still in that bat and he launched

02:13it to left field. I think there is clearly 30 home run power in that bat and they're

02:19going to need every one of them. Every single one and some, if this team's going to be in

02:24the thick of this race, because the other part of the story was they're running back

02:28the offense from last year that couldn't score with runners in scoring position. So here's

02:32what I liked about Tork. If we're just going to talk about him for just a moment, is he's

02:39obviously super aware of what's at stake, the risk. And is it, is it, is it just, Hey,

02:47because of the injuries he's up because of what he did in spring training, allowed them

02:51to make that decision for him to be up because of the injuries. Did the injuries simply save

02:56his career? And we don't know this one game and it is one home run. It's five at bats.

03:01We don't know. We get to wonder, we get to wonder, but having said all that, I, we've

03:08seen him press before and chase pitches or just, you know, try and make something happen

03:16that wasn't there. What I really liked was the four walks because he wasn't, he wasn't

03:22trying to swing at everything because I've got to make, I've got to make contact. I've

03:26got to hit a home run this time. I've got to hit a home run. Every time I'm up at the

03:29plate, I've got to do this. I've got to do that. I liked his discipline of not swinging

03:35and not trying to force something that wasn't there.

03:39I wonder too, if the fact that the injuries happened and he's not pressing for a roster

03:42spot mentally helps him out a little bit here knowing, Hey, I got a spot. I'm going

03:46to get a chance. If I do damage, I can resurrect my career. He's making the most of the opportunity

03:52to your point about the four walks. How about this step? Torkelson is the first player since

03:56at least 1901. Oh, okay. Going back a few years since 1901 to draw at least four walks

04:03and at a home run in his team's first game of the season. Last one to do that was what

04:08Ty Cobb, the last Tigers batter to do it in any game for walks in a home run was J.D.

04:15Martinez in 2017. It's a great sign. The backdrop was, Oh, a 15 with runners in scoring position.

04:23He's going to have to lift an offense. That's going to struggle a lot this season. Last

04:27year when they lost games four and five in the ALDS, they went two of 23 runners in scoring

04:34we shouted to the heavens, please add a bat and maybe trying to find the silver lining.

04:43The bat was here the whole time and it's Spencer Torkelson. Now I still would like to put Torkelson

04:47with another bat and another bat and another bat, but he can really lift this team up if

04:52this is real and it's only one game, but, but that was the discipline at the plate that

04:57should translate over the course of the season. Yes. And when you look at all the numbers

05:04again, it's, it's five at bats, but it was opening up on the road. It, and I don't necessarily

05:11think, Hey, it's, you know, there's no pressure. I think the pressure is there because if he

05:17doesn't perform as soon as anyone else is healthy, they're up, he's down. Well, let

05:22me ask you a question. Oh, okay. Why would it be torque? And are we anointing Keith too

05:28soon? Mr. Oh, for five on opening day, is there a world where Keith who doesn't have

05:32a home defensively, if he doesn't hit, I mean, why is torque the only one under pressure

05:39here?

05:40Well, they're, they're all under a measure of pressure. The only one that might not be

05:43as hobby by is because he's going to get paid no matter what. And honestly, I mean, I think

05:48Cole Keith is kind of in that category as well because of the deal he signed before

05:52he was even a major leaguer, but it pales in comparison to hobbies, 100%. And he's performing

05:57for that next contract. They're all performing for the next contract or roster spots. So

06:01I don't, I'm not going to go that far with Cole Keith, but as, as far as I'm not going

06:05to go with Spencer Torkelson in one direction, I'm not going to go the other way with Cole

06:11Keith, hobby bias. Okay. Yeah. That's about exactly what we expected. And to be fair with

06:15Keith Jim, half the team doesn't have a spot to play. That's true. Well, good roster construction.

06:22One guy that I want to see more of Ryan Cridler. I mean, a gold glove, silver slugger after

06:27one game, you were on fire last night. Guy gets a single and makes an admittedly really

06:31nice play in the outfield. And John's fitting him for the MVP trophy. Move over Bobby. No,

06:38I want to see Carpenter against righties and lefties. He had the sack fly against a really

06:42good lefty out of the bullpen. And, and, and was it Tanner Scott? Yeah. Kerry Carpenter.

06:47I understand if his team was fully healthy and you had proper platoon options and you

06:52were just going to play match-ups, Kerry Carpenter mashes. They showed the graphic pitches in

06:56the zone. He was better than Shohei and Aaron judge last year. Some of that is the cookie

07:01cutter match-ups, but given the injuries, he should play every single day, right? Both

07:06in the corner and at the plate, they need him right now. I got to imagine in the off

07:10season, that would have been a focus of Kerry Carpenter. Like if, if I want to be a real

07:17big time major league hitter, then I need to be able to play against righties and lefties.

07:23Now, okay. He bats lefty. You're going to face more right-handed pitchers. We've talked

07:26about this before. He's going to get plenty of at bats, but if you want to be a guy that

07:31absolutely mashes, then you have to do it against both right and left handers. I got

07:36to imagine he worked on that a ton and I don't know. It's sort of how you, how many left-hand

07:40pitcher batting BP pitchers do you? Yeah. But so he's a guy that brings them immense

07:46power. He was my pick to lead the team at home runs this year. You too, right? Yeah.

07:51And it's the idea that they need that bad in the lineup. Most teams aren't sitting their

07:55best batter for match-ups, right? He's not show. Hey, but they're not going, well, sorry,

08:01show. Hey, I left. He's on the mound. So you get the day off. He's our version, right?

08:05He's our masher in the middle. Could be, you don't go, Hey, we're all, we're going to platoon

08:09our, our number one slugger, especially when you look around the lineup and go, right.

08:16These guys. Well, and that, I mean, so the, the number four hitter, they have that nickname

08:20for a reason, right? The cleanup hitter. If Spencer Torkelson can be a reliable bat with

08:26power at that four spot. Now, AJ Hinch can be much more creative with the lineup because

08:31then he says, okay, well if Margo following him, Spencer Torkelson wipes the bases clean.

08:37All right. Every walk around, touch them all. Margo, we got to get you on Cole Keith. If

08:42he doesn't get on, you got to get on. And then at some point in the bottom of that lineup,

08:46there's Kerry Carpenter to clean the bases again. It's it, it gives him options. If Kerry

08:54Carpenter can be a guy that can bat against both left and right handed pitchers. So if

08:59Carpenter is every day or he'd be in the corner, Margo is going to be in the corner. Some,

09:05you know, who played center field was Riley green last night. He, he switched over to

09:10center field when they made their, their lineup tinkering, which is something I said,

09:14I want to see a little more of. So, Hey, that's a nice sign. Yeah. Hey, one game,

09:17one opportunity to see O'Reilly and center field. But the thing with Kerry Carpenter is to me,

09:23I know Tork was the DH and this is where it's going to be. How do you manufacture or how do

09:28you, where do you put Cole Keith? If you put Spencer Torkelson at first base,

09:33Kerry Carpenter do is, is, is he a guy that you want to be your DH? You don't want to see him

09:38in the field because of injury issues, especially Torkelson hasn't had that injury issue.

09:43But I think what we saw, you're going to get this team that finds themselves trailing in some

09:47baseball games because they don't capitalize and they're, they're down and late in games,

09:51you're going to need your best bats, which means Carpenter's play in the field. Riley's in center

09:56field Torkelson's the DH. If you put Kerry Carpenter at DH, you got to play lesser

10:01bats in other areas. And this team doesn't have that luxury.

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