Yeah, you know, it's we had to play our a game. It's
you know, it was this or we go on vacation. So I thought
the group did a great job of not pressing, letting the game happen.
The flow was there. We've done this in the first three games. It's
just we haven't been able to capitalize. We've made the mistakes and they've capitalized
on that. They shot the three well. We tried to keep them off
the free throw line tonight and not giving them second opportunity. So I thought
they did a really good job of being able to execute the game plan and
let the game come to us. We made some shots. Finally, you
know, our role players stepped up and made some threes, and that's what
we needed tonight. That's Jason Kidd, the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks,
who will try and bring the series back to Dallas with a five win
tonight. In Boston, three games to one, the Celtics lead the series.
I was talking with my oldest son yesterday and he said something along the
lines of, you know, Boston completely owning the series. I know,
the final scores don't necessarily indicate that the last Boston win was by seven points.
Game two was a difference of seven points. Game one was a blowout,
right one twenty four to one oh three. So I guess I don't
think it's fair to always look at the final score, because sometimes teams do
stage comebacks, and sometimes teams do have certain moments where they either struggle or
they're really successful toward the end. How competitive do you think this has been?
Has it lived up to what you thought it might? I thought Boston
was clearly the better team going in. I didn't think there was any question
about that, not just based on regular season, but look at the postseason
two and I think, trust me, I'm no Celtics apologize or anything like
that, but I think what happens a lot of times is we get caught
up in our personal feelings and we want to take something away from a team
that maybe took something away from us. And some of us who are a
little bit older and remember what happened to the Pistons in the mid eighties against
Boston still hold it against the Celtics, or may say, you know what,
They've won seventeen championships. I don't want them to win another one.
I've seen them enough through the history of a BA basketball Okay, fair enough,
But what you cannot deny is how good they have been all season long.
And when people saw what they did in the postseason, what they saw
what they did against Miami without Jimmy Butler and Cleveland with without you know,
a star player there for the most part, and what they did against Indiana
without a star player there tyres Helberton, then Donovan Mitchell and Cleveland is what
I'm referring to. Then you want to say, well, they had an
easy path. It's kind of like it's kind of like what happened in the
US Open yesterday if you watched any of that coverage. And I'm not a
big Bryson or Shamblee fan, he's the guy who's on the Golf Network and
he was part of the NBC broadcast yesterday, and he was almost you could
make the case. I hate to put this on somebody and not know who
they are or truly know their personal feelings, but you could make the case
that he was openly rooting for Rory McElroy. Just some of his comments,
you know, the good fortune of Bryce and Deshambeau instead of giving him credit.
Just little things like that, that make you a little leery of his
objectivity. But you have to you have to take everything under consideration, but
without taking things away from a team accomplishment. And even though I don't necessarily
like the Celtics, I do give them credit for being able to do what
they've done. So beating teams like Miami and beating Indiana and beating leveland not
in that order. You'll you'll sit there and say, well, they those
teams were without their superstar player. Okay, but Boston can't do anything about
that. But what they can do is beat them, and they did,
and they beat them decisively, right, Okay, there, There's there's nothing
you could say about them about the Dallas situation. Dallas has been healthy,
They've got their players, and as good as Luka Doncic has been scoring wise
and Kyrie irving in the last game, Boston has withstood everything that Doncic could
provide to them or for them or throw at them. And they're up three
games to one, and I expect them to close them out tonight in Boston.
I'm not necessarily rooting for it. I would like to see more games
in this series, if for no other reason gives you and I something to
talk about. I don't have a dog in this proverbial fight, but it
does keep more sports involved for you and I to discuss. That's another reason
I want the Stanley Cup to continue. You're going to see Game five of
that series tomorrow night in Florida after Edmonton blew out the Panthers in the last
game, and you wonder where that's been. But that's been. I think
that's been a little bit closer series, I think than the NBA Finals has
been. But I mean, when so many people want to just burn the
Celtics, and I'm not even speaking nationwide, I'm talking more locally in Michigan
based, they can't. They can't pull themselves to give them credit because of
past experiences. There's a part of me that has done the same thing with
teams of the past. And you know what, it may happen even later
on this year. You may be watching up San Francisco. You may you
may be watching the San Francisco forty nine ers later on this season, and
you might be looking for every possible you know, deficiency that that team has
and try to take it away from him. So what makes your team look
a little bit better that may be the case because they broke your heart last
year, frustrated you to no end. Same with me, absolutely, but
in the end you do have to give them credit. I would hope you're
you understand that, and I would hope the same thing for this This Boston
team again, not that I was a huge fan of any of those Boston
teams in the past. Couldn't stand Danny Ainge, didn't like Robert Parrish,
right, just like Boston didn't like any of the Piston teams. Don't I
don't like any of those Boston teams. I respected certain players Larry Bird,
Kevin McHale, Dennis Johnson for a period of time, you know, Cornbread
Maxwell for a period of time, respected how good they were, but couldn't
stand them. This Boston team, and maybe it's again it goes back to
personal experience. It's not like they've denied the Pistons of anything. I think
it's hard not to like a guy like Jaylen Brown and Jason Tatum. I
think they're really good players. And Drew Holliday for what he does and brings
to a team. Something to be said for that. Phone number in the
Meyer hotline is eight six six eight three eight forty eight forty three. You
could text the program sports Radio to twenty one thousand. There was an interesting,
what I considered an interesting article through the New York Times and The Athletic
the other day, and it will go back to baseball. They wanted to
redraft the twoth and fourteen draft. Here's the reason why it takes in baseball
a little bit longer to recognize, you know, what a player is going
to be. I'll give you who the Tigers drafted that year, who they
should have drafted, and who this article suggests the Tigers should have drafted.
They're all different, and I don't agree with it, but I'll give it
to you because it did affect this team long term. There's no doubt about
it. It's another example of what the hell was wrong with this team's inability
to draft the right player and develop them. We'll get to that when we
come back on X's and Bros. On a Monday morning throughout the Great State
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confert of rerules and details. As of late, the Tigers have been ridiculed
for a lot of their draft, and my argument to that has always been,
it's not that I necessarily disagree with it. My issue is that,
well, quite honestly, you haven't really you haven't been paying attention. It's
it's not recently, It's been happening for a while now. The athlete,
excuse me. The alphletic came out and they redid a draft of twenty and
fourteen, and that is the year. This is a good example here,
folks. That is the year that the Tigers drafted won Derreck Hill out of
Elk Grove High School in Sacramento, California, twenty third. Overall. They
could have had Matt Chapman, a third baseman out of California State Fullerton,
Derek Hill, and he had. You know, people raved about his athleticism,
Okay, his speed, all right, the tools that he could have
provided, so never had more than forty nine games played in the majors.
He's in the Texas organization. Now. He went from the Tigers organization and
he only played three years in Detroit and ninety five total games, and then
went to Washington for a year where he only played thirteen games in the Nationals.
And now he's in the Texas organization. And I'm not suggested at the
age of twenty eight he hang it up, keep that dream alive. But
the thing that Tigers and a lot of teams I think fail to recognize when
drafting players or drafting in general, is the heart of players. We look
at strength of arm, speed, ability to hit, maybe a hit for
power, you know, the five tools that we constantly bring up when it
comes associated with baseball. And I think the other quality you would like to
have in a player is the heart, the want to, the desire.
How you measure that is really up to each individual team, I suppose,
But those are the kinds of things I've talked with many of X player who
were tough as nails, and that's what they would like to see, They
would like to almost be in on a lot of those conversations with players.
You know how you before you draft somebody, you're not just looking at tape
and then saying, you know what, I'm gonna take this guy without really
talking to them. I'm not saying every situation is like the NFL draft,
where you're bringing Jack Campbell into a room and asking them to go over various
film. What do you see here, what's your responsibility, what are you
calling out? So on and so forth. But when you're drafting a guy
in the first round, like the Tigers did with Derrek Hill in twenty fourteen,
you better know that person. You better get to know them quickly.
It's a massive investment. It can't be just hey, you know what,
I watched you play in high school and you dominated. Well, no kidding,
you should dominate. You're going to be a first round pick in the
Major League Baseball draft. You should be dominant. I want to know what's
going to make you want to be dominant at the next level and then the
level after that. You've got to get to know the player. Anybody who
had seen this guy play, yes, was impressed to a certain extent with
his ability, but what about the ability to fight through injuries or fight through
adversity. That's the kind of player you want to It's always it's not always
easy to find that combination. Tigers do think, in fairness, they do
think they have that in a guy like Max Clark, who they drafted in
the first round, third overall year ago. They feel like that's the makeup
of him now. Wyatt Langford had the same makeup when he was playing in
Florida and is doing it there in Texas right now. I think it was
Friday or Thursday night had a couple of RBIs. Friday had an RBI.
He's not going to win Rookie of the Year, but he's playing pretty regularly
and that's going to be the measuring stick. With Max Clark, He's always
going to be compared to Wyat Langford because so many people wanted him there.
Jackson Job will be compared to Marcella Mayer because so many of us wanted him
the shortstop to be a Tiger rather than the high school pitcher. It's just
every player shouldn't say every A lot of players have that link to them,
Okay, Dylan Cruz and Paul Skens. You can bring up baseball guys moving
forward and you can look back at it the same thing we're all well aware
of. You know, the Darko Milicic comparisons. It didn't happen right after
the first season. It happened going into that season because so many other people
wanted Carmelo Anthony, or maybe you were a Chris Bosh fan, or perhaps
it was Dwayne Wade any or all the above. I'm not saying you and
I would know Derek Hill was drafted head of Matt Chapman, and that's the
guy that Tigers should have and his career is going to be compared to him
for the rest. No, I'm not going to claim to know that Matt
Chapman was the guy back then, but we do know that there were questions
about Derrek Hill's how shall I put this commitment okay to being the best he
can be? Are you willing to put in the work to do it?
And how quickly? How quickly did the organization recognize that that was not there?
Really good organizations recognize certain things about certain players and cut bait if it's
not their kind of player. We made a mistake. Let's move on tough
to swallow, really difficult to swallow by the way, same topic or same
sport, different topic. Mookie Bets was hit on the hand yesterday. Did
you see that show here? Tani Yard twice? Freddie Freeman hit a bomb.
Mookie Betts was hit on the hand. Who knows how long he's going
to be out. I don't know the Dodgers farm system. I don't know
what they're going to do at shortstop. I doubt they bring Chris Taylor in
and play him at shortstop. He's had a really bad year. These are
situations that upset me even more about the Hobby or Baio situation, because that
might be a viable option. Had he been any halfway decent of a player
this year, had he been better than he is right now, a little
bit more than marginally better, you could possibly get out from underneath it with
a team that needs a player like that, and can go into a situation
where he's not the guy when there are so many other guys that people want
to talk to. Very similar to his Mets situation or Cub situation would have
been ideal. Keyword there would have been because he's it's impossible, because how
bad he's been all right. Quick time out and then we'll take your calls
on the Meyer hotline eight six six eight three eight forty eight forty three.
The text line is Sports Radio twenty one thousand. Here on Exes and Bros.
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What's up, Michigan. You're listening to my good friend Shep. The Huge
Show is coming up later today at three right here on the Michigan Sports Network.
All right, back with you on Exers and Bros. Glad you're with
us. Our poll question on our Twitter page or our X page. Did
Bryson Deshambo win the US Open or did Rory McElroy lose the US Open because
McElroy bow gave three of the last four holes he played. Either way,
however you choose to vote, I thought it was a phenomenal way to start
slash cap your day of Father's Day. The shot on eighteen. I don't
know if people saw this. I'm sure you have by now. The shot
that Dsham had on eighteen was simply incredible. Not the t shot because that
was brutal, not the second shot that wasn't a whole lot better, but
the third shot. Watching that play, I thought to myself, therein lies
the essence of golf. You could be it's what makes the sport great,
but it also makes it extremely frustrating. I mean, you could have on
a par four, you could have three really good shots and then screw up
the putt and you'd leave frustrated. You could have three bad shots but hit
something at the very end to salvage the hole, and you could walk away
feeling pretty good about yourself. De Shambo went way left on his drive.
The ball was in sand, but not in a trap near a tree.
Route he punches it out. I think he was trying to get it to
the center of the fairway could be wrong there ends up going pretty far and
into a bunker side trap or a green side trap, I should say.
And it's a long bunker shot, which is one of the more challenging in
all of golf, The long bunker shots, not those in the fairway.
Those guys don't mind that. It's the bunker shots that require you to that
are around the green, but require you to get it pretty deep to reach
the flag. Not one player from that bunker of that distance was able to
salvage par at the US Open until Bryce and Deshambo did it on eighteen on
Sunday for the Championship. He nestled it up within four feet, sank the
putt and one by one shot. That's a hell of a play. I
was watching him with some folks yesterday and somebody was complaining about Bryson Deshambo's putting
style. And this is after he had bogied one of the holes. See,
I don't like the way he putts. And I said, but what
I have you? Why do you wait until like the sixteenth hole to complain
about it when he's been knocking down putts all day an all tournament long.
I don't understand that, And I said to somebody else, you watch if
he doesn't win this tournament or if it goes to you know, extra holes,
if it's a playoff hole. I said, people are going to complain
left and right about his being a radical off the t changing the driver head
before the round, and his putting style because as they mentioned during the broadcast,
the margin for air the way he puts, the margin for air is
very small, just because the requirement of his style where he stands over it,
has his arms wide, has an extended putter in length, all that
stuff. Anyway, that's our poll question. You can go to follow us
on on X or on Twitter at x's and bros. Ben I know.
We got some more texts. Yeah, fire away. It says she now
that the DH is full time, is there a stereotype that an NL pitcher
can't come to the AL and pitch well, or an AL pitcher can go
to the NL and pitch great? Yeah, good question. What's the stereo?
Do you think the stereotype before was that National League pitchers could go to
the American League and have greater success than the other way around. I think
that's what people believed, because yeah, they didn't have to bat. I
would be interested to know how much it has helped Pictures, and I do
believe no longer are people. I don't know if it's the stereotype. Okay,
let me just say that, I don't know if it's shystereotype, but
I do believe there are more people thinking out there that there isn't the necessary
advantage that there used to be. The adjustment is a little bit easier.
So that's a good question. I'll have to ask Pictures that next time I'm
down there to see if indeed that is a thing with them. I know,
Look, I don't know how people feel about it. There's a purity
that people believed existed in the National League when a pitcher had hit. I
never liked it. There are certain things. This happens in every sport,
but there are certain things in baseball, especially that I never liked and I
still don't. And there are certain things I didn't think I would like and
I did with the new rules, for example, never thought I would like
the seven inning doubleheaders, but I did. Never liked the ghost runner at
second base in extra innings, and I still don't do not like the rules
of disengagement for pictures when there's a man on and I'm never going to like
that. I think it's an unfair advantage for the runner. I think it's
bs okay with the DH or pitchers hitting. Never liked pictures hitting, even
though Mickey Lulich was had one of the biggest hits in the nineteen sixty eight
World Series. Never never liked it. Just never thought. I mean,
it's not what I don't think it's what people pay to see. I think
people pay to see pictures pitch and hitters hit. It's it's not enjoyable watching
a pitcher stand in there and look completely overmatched on three or four pitches.
Yes, there is the exception to the rule where somebody may actually turn on
one, close their eyes and get a hold of it, and sure there
is a picture or two. Who thinks, you know what, I wasn't
that bad if people let me handle it, I wasn't that bad. You
know who? You know who was like that? If you look at Zach
Greenkey and that was That's always been the example used. You know, Zach
Greenkey was a really good hitter, and this then and the other thing.
Okay, that's fine. I think with Zach Greenke. If you took somebody
else and you said, all right, this is what this hitter. I
know he's a pitcher, but the argument had always been from a hitting perspective.
I want to see pictures hit. Why, well, look at Zach
Greenke. That's a guy who betted you know, two twenty five in his
career. Okay, i'd reiterate it's two twenty five. Anybody else who hits
two twenty five you don't want to watch. You don't want to watch him
hit. You look at two twenty five and you're thinking this isn't good enough.
He shouldn't be playing, And you're right, And I know Zach Greenki
brings something else to the table for whatever team he was playing with. I'm
just giving you the example of hitting because this is what people use as the
bar for pitchers. Cole Keith hitting better than two twenty five, and there's
a lot of people who think he should be sent down. So I was
never, and I never will be a proponent of pitchers hitting, just like
I don't want to see position players pitching. I don't want to be snobby
about baseball, but I feel like it's a mockery of the game. I
can't say that I ever remembers a game is so bad where managers brought in
a position player to pitch. I just, I just I can't remember.
I don't think Gene Mauck way back in the day ever thought, you know
what, I'm gonna have Rod Carew eventually pitched today if things get out of
hand. Wrong answer, not the way you want it to be. Anyway.
That's kind of how I feel about baseball. It's a it's a good
text, and I appreciate it. We get another one. Ben Yeah says,
would you consider these moves for the Tigers if Saint Louis and Colorado move
on from them? Charlie Blackman and Paul Goldschmid, that's from well, first
of all, really like them both. Okay, I think a lot so
much depends on that, ready, and here's here's what it is. Because
Charlie Blackman, who I think has been an outstanding hitter, but he's thirty
seven. I don't know his contractual situation. I just know he's up there
in age. I think he's about thirty seven. What you would have to
figure out, more than anything else. First of all, he's an outfielder,
so tell me where he fits. You're gonna play right field for you
at the age of thirty seven, on what type of contract and all that
other stuff. Right, then you got to figure out. Okay, when
he's at coors Field, he's a three thirty one hitter. I'm not trying
to take anything away from him. When he hits away from coors Field,
he's a two point fifty eight hitter. That's a big difference on base percentage.
Three ninety one at home, three seventeen on the road. Slug's five
point fifty four at home, slugs four to ten on the road. Right,
he's more of a he's more of a hitter. He's not a power
hitter. I don't consider him a power hitter anyway, but he's been a
hell of a hitter. I would not. I don't think that's what they
need. Paul Goldschmidt is thirty six. He's got great pop. Does he
still have great pop? I mean twenty five homers a year ago? How
long are they going to sustain it again? So many other questions need to
be asked and cannot be answered, like how long are you going to keep
him? What do you have to give up? If anything, What is
the contract situation going to be? You know, those are the different things.
I've always liked Paul Goldschmidt. He's an incredible defensive player, four time
goal glover, and he's been a consistent offensive stick. This is the hard
thing I think about baseball, because you are under team control for so long,
it's hard to find that guy. That's why drafting and developing is so
vital for a team's success. You draft a guy and you develop him.
Now, Paul Goldschmidt was drafted by Arizona, actually drafted by the Dodgers first
and then Arizona, and he's a he was a late round pick. He
was an eighth round draft pick. And Kirk Gibson was part of Arizona when
Paul Goldschmidt was brought up, and Gibby and I have talked about him quite
a bit and give me his set on more than one occasion. He just
he loves everything about him. Everything about that guy reeks of professionalism and hard
work. He would be such a good example for the young players of the
Tigers. He'd be fantastic. This is his last year, This is his
last year in Saint Louis. He's maybe twenty six million bucks. So I
just found out this is his last contract. Contract is up at the end
of the year. Is he a guy you would want to go get?
Could serve as a first basement for you, could serve as the designated hitter
for you, But that would then force what Carrie Carpenter to play on a
regular basis, unless you want to have him as the DH Well Goldschmith plays
first base and Torklsen gets a day off. And yes, I'm still believing
that Tarkosen will be part of this franchise. I hope. So I think
it's important. He's got to prove himself. I'm not giving it to him,
but it's really important. We use Paul Goldschmidt as an example. Paul
Goldsmith twenty four. At the age of twenty four, he was in his
second season. He only hit twenty bombs. Spencer Torkolsen already has exceeded that.
I'm not saying Toorkosen is going to be as good as Paul Goldschmid.
I would love for that to be the case. That's asking an awful lot.
I don't think that will be the case, especially defensively, which has
been a little bit of a bummer because I thought Torklosen would be better defensively.
He has not been. Anyway, I digress. That's how you'd work
that in. You have to look at it in more ways than just one.
It can't be just well, he's going to be your first baseman and
we'll figure out what we're going to do with Torkolsen. Cause again we're talking
about drafting and developing guys for extended period of times. You're not going to
be able to just go out and pluck a guy who you think is going
to fit your franchise for an extended period of time. At the age of
twenty six. You want to make some trades. Okay, maybe you get
the next rendition of a Miguel Cabrera trade. Don't think that there's one out
there, but how great would that be? It'd be great. Remember this,
when you traded Cabrera, though you gave up a lot of your high
draft stock, cam Maybman was a high draft pick, right People viewed him
as a big deal within the organization. Same thing with Jacob Turner. Anyway.
Bottom line is I would say no to those I just don't see the
productivity. I would not want to get caught up in a lengthy, extended
contract not even sure they'd come here. Has nothing to do with the city
of Detroit. Has everything to do with whether or not you can win.
But I don't want to get caught up guys who are thirty six and thirty
seven years old, giving them a two year deal if they'd even take that,
and suddenly they're on the cusp of almost forty years old. Again,
No thanks. You've got to be your scouting staff. Your crew has to
be better at identifying players who can help you in different ways at a younger
age. This ballpark, because you're playing half your games is this ballpark?
I always talk about power, and I think they need it for sure,
you know that. But there's other ways to have power, not just home
runs. Can we get somebody who's a little bit more tailor made to the
ballpark in terms of finding gaps, hitting doubles and triples. They bring in
runs too, you know. But it's a good question. I like the
way you're thinking. Final hour of X's and Bros. Coming up. The
Meyer hotline is open for you six eight three, eight forty eight forty three,
or you can do what a lot of folks have already done this morning.
Text the program Sports Radio to twenty one thousand, stay with us.
What's up Michigan. I want to give some love to Ben Glaze producing another
great SHEP broadcast Superflies producer My show later today at three, The Huge Show
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