Speaker 1: A lot to get to about the Tigers, the hottest
Speaker 1: team in baseball right now. Andy Dirks has done a
Speaker 1: fantastic job on radio and TV while moonlighting as a
Speaker 1: real estate agent his own company. How he balances it
Speaker 1: is still a mystery to many, but he joins us
Speaker 1: here on exus and bros. Andy, how are you, my friend?
Speaker 2: What's up?
Speaker 3: Chap Man?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, great work.
Speaker 1: Yeah, great work. Many Yeah, Yeah, You've done a wonderful job.
Speaker 1: It doesn't surprise me at all. You've done a great job.
Speaker 1: We're well aware of the numbers for this team since
Speaker 1: August eleventh. But what I want to know is why
Speaker 1: you think they've taken off more than anything else.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question, you know, And this is
Speaker 3: something I think the whole world right now is trying
Speaker 3: to figure out, Like what is going on in Detroit?
Speaker 3: How do you have so many young guys and not
Speaker 3: just like winning a few ball games, but winning a
Speaker 3: ton of ball games?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 3: I think it started originally with the vision that Scott
Speaker 3: Harris kind of had for the team when he when
Speaker 3: he took over, and then him and AJ kind of
Speaker 3: getting on the same page, and that common drum beat
Speaker 3: was we're gonna get younger, We're gonna get more athletic.
Speaker 3: AJ has voiced said, I can build a bullpen and
Speaker 3: then let's figure out some starters. So we've seen the
Speaker 3: progression kind of as those young guys developed in the
Speaker 3: minor leagues, and then at the trade deadline, I think
Speaker 3: when most people thought the Tigers were just kind of
Speaker 3: conceding the year and giving up, obviously that wasn't the
Speaker 3: case because the moves that they made were to do
Speaker 3: exactly what the vision of this team has been from
Speaker 3: Jump Street is, let's get younger, we need to get
Speaker 3: more athletic, and we need to find guys that can
Speaker 3: produce in a multitude of ways, not just hey we
Speaker 3: just want one big power bat, or hey we just
Speaker 3: want one guy that can still be is they have
Speaker 3: a lot of good athletes that can do a lot
Speaker 3: of different things well, and I think when you put
Speaker 3: all those together and then kind of get them out
Speaker 3: on the field to perform and then have that culture
Speaker 3: of like we're taken first to third, we're gonna put
Speaker 3: pressure on the defense constantly. On the offensive side, that's
Speaker 3: where we've seen the biggest improvement. The pitching has been
Speaker 3: pretty good all year. Now with some of these guys
Speaker 3: coming up from Triple A and producing the way they are,
Speaker 3: here's another question, right, I mean, but I would say
Speaker 3: the first thing is they had a vision. They haven't
Speaker 3: wavered from that vision, and we're starting to see some
Speaker 3: results from it.
Speaker 1: You know what it's like to win, because you were
Speaker 1: on a team that won ninety five games, eighty eight games,
Speaker 1: ninety three games, went to the playoffs all three years
Speaker 1: here in Detroit. What are the similar characteristics not physical attributes,
Speaker 1: but characteristics mentally with this team that you recognize from
Speaker 1: the teams on which you played and had such success.
Speaker 3: Man, we won a lot of games, didn't we Yeah,
Speaker 3: a lot a lot of games. Yeah, I think you know.
Speaker 3: The first thing is you've got to have a winning mindset.
Speaker 3: And sometimes organizations, teams, players, individuals, it's a it's a
Speaker 3: collective group of individuals going out to try to perform, right.
Speaker 3: And what I noticed, and I've noticed this in my
Speaker 3: life and every different aspect, is there's certain organizations and
Speaker 3: teams that bring people up. Right. Like when I came
Speaker 3: to the big leagues, Man, there was no if and
Speaker 3: or bus you have to produce, There was no like, hey,
Speaker 3: you know, what we're going to do is give you
Speaker 3: two months to kind of develop take your time. It
Speaker 3: was like, if you don't come in and put up numbers,
Speaker 3: you're useless, right, and and there's pressure with that. But
Speaker 3: at the same time, when you see the guys around
Speaker 3: you performing at a level that you didn't know was
Speaker 3: obtainable until you see it with your own eyes, then
Speaker 3: it kind of opens your mind up to man, there's
Speaker 3: more here. I can perform better than I thought I could.
Speaker 3: And then all of a sudden, you have a coach
Speaker 3: that just is like, yeah, you're you can do X,
Speaker 3: Y and Z, and you start believing more in yourself
Speaker 3: and your confidence level goes up, and pretty soon when
Speaker 3: you step out on the field against the Yankees in
Speaker 3: an ALCS, you're like, we're winning. There's no doubt about it,
Speaker 3: Like there's no ifans or butt. We just know we're
Speaker 3: going to win and it doesn't matter if we make
Speaker 3: a mistake or we get down early in the game.
Speaker 3: And that's what I see in this team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think a pretty good example of that as
Speaker 1: a guy like like bow Brisky last night yet or yesterday,
Speaker 1: it's got twenty three pitches he throws twenty for strikes.
Speaker 1: I mean just supreme confidence. He just looks like a
Speaker 1: different pitcher than earlier this year. Andy Dirks, Tiger's analyst,
Speaker 1: joining his follow on Twitter at Andy Dirk's twelve here
Speaker 1: on exues and Bros. ESPN plus came out with an
Speaker 1: interesting article and they said, the success and failures of
Speaker 1: each baseball team this year. And the success I think
Speaker 1: is low hanging Fruit's easy, Terrek Skuble. The failure again,
Speaker 1: low hanging fruit, easy to say, Javi or Bias. Let's
Speaker 1: just talk about the success with you. I think it's
Speaker 1: a j. Hinch and the coaching staff. I think what
Speaker 1: they've done with Tyler Holton starting nine games, Reese Olsen
Speaker 1: getting hurt, Casey mai is getting hurt, Jack flaerty getting traded,
Speaker 1: Kent to Maieta, forced to the bullpen starting Kider Montero, right.
Speaker 1: I think what he and Chris Fetder have done with
Speaker 1: that bullpen to have the best era in all of
Speaker 1: baseball since August eleventh is the biggest biggest success. How
Speaker 1: would you answer that question?
Speaker 3: I would agree, And because without without pitching man your toast,
Speaker 3: you're not going to go deep. You're not gonna win
Speaker 3: a lot of games, you gotta have pitching, and it's
Speaker 3: either got to be like I got a lot of
Speaker 3: horses up front, kind of like the teams that I
Speaker 3: was on, man, we had rotations that were a nightmare
Speaker 3: for other squads. Right, little lighter in the bullpen. We
Speaker 3: still had some good bullpen arms. But this is like
Speaker 3: really heavy in the bullpen, so kind of one or
Speaker 3: the other can work. You see remember Kansas City, like
Speaker 3: circa twenty fourteen fifteen, kind of that area era. This
Speaker 3: is what this bullpen's like. But it started with understanding
Speaker 3: that they're not going to run it in a traditional manner.
Speaker 3: So the vision for the bullpen was never well, we're
Speaker 3: going to get a setup guy, we're going to get
Speaker 3: a closer, we're going to get a mid relief guy.
Speaker 3: We're going to have these different roles established. It was
Speaker 3: how can we put guys in positions to have all
Speaker 3: the best chance at success. And when AJ runs matchups,
Speaker 3: he does it better than anybody in the big leagues
Speaker 3: in my opinion. Now you know that's just an opinion,
Speaker 3: but I think it's a very good opinion. He does
Speaker 3: it better than anybody in the big league. So when
Speaker 3: he brings in a guy out of the bullpen, there
Speaker 3: is a rhyme and a reason for what he's doing.
Speaker 3: So when when the trade deadline hits, and now all
Speaker 3: of a sudden, the Tigers have two starters, rees Olsen
Speaker 3: gets hurt literally, Cater Montero and Trek Scubel are the
Speaker 3: two starting pitchers. They bring guys in from TRIPAA. You know,
Speaker 3: you think of Herder Sammons, you think of some of
Speaker 3: these guys. Now, they could have easily just kind of
Speaker 3: cashed it in and just let those guys start see
Speaker 3: how they do. But they knew that both of them,
Speaker 3: like in the minor league, kind of struggled in that
Speaker 3: first inning. You take those first inning stats out, they
Speaker 3: have solid numbers, so what can we do? And they've
Speaker 3: done this early in the year because they have the
Speaker 3: personnel to achieve it. They have a Tyler Holton of
Speaker 3: bow Briski who have started, have been starters in their
Speaker 3: career and can go out and run through a first inning.
Speaker 3: Gets you through one through five. Now you can bring
Speaker 3: in these bolt guys who now they're facing six, seven, eight, nine,
Speaker 3: which is a much better chance for them to survive
Speaker 3: through that first inning. Or that first time out. The
Speaker 3: inning on the board doesn't matter, it's when they pitch right.
Speaker 3: And AJ saw it on that, like, I don't care
Speaker 3: if it's the fifth, I don't care if it's the first,
Speaker 3: I don't care if it's the ninth. What's gonna give
Speaker 3: us the best chance to win? And who's the best
Speaker 3: guy in that spot? That's what I'm going with. You've
Speaker 3: seen him throw Fully in the seventh inning, yep. Like
Speaker 3: Fully is probably our back end guy, right, He's not
Speaker 3: afraid to throw him in the seventh. Tyler Holton's the
Speaker 3: best shutdown man in the Big league's eighty five innings
Speaker 3: the last two years. He'll throw him in the fourth
Speaker 3: inning if he has to, like, because the lineup dictates that,
Speaker 3: and he wants to create pockets of right handed hitters
Speaker 3: for later in the game. So when the other coach
Speaker 3: brings the other managers bringing in his righties. Now, Foley's
Speaker 3: got a spot. When Fully comes in, he's gonna face
Speaker 3: three or four ritis. And it's the work that goes
Speaker 3: into that's tremendous. And kudos to AJ and Feeder and
Speaker 3: the just that whole staff man. They've been unbelievable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, That's why he doesn't use the word closer, and
Speaker 1: I think it's brilliant. Riley Green, I think has been
Speaker 1: so consistent. I think he's really come into his own
Speaker 1: not just because of the power, but because of the
Speaker 1: game's played too. What's impressing most about his growth this year?
Speaker 3: I think Riley every year he matures and just gets better.
Speaker 3: I forget sometimes how young Riley is because he plays
Speaker 3: at such a high level, even like last year, two
Speaker 3: years ago. You know, this is a guy that's like
Speaker 3: twenty two years old and he's putting together some pretty
Speaker 3: solid bats. I think for Riley it's he's got a
Speaker 3: pretty good demeanor. You know, he'll get into a funk,
Speaker 3: but he doesn't let it affect him to the degree
Speaker 3: that it doesn't help the team win games. So whenever
Speaker 3: you're facing big league pitching every day, and Riley's got pop,
Speaker 3: and we're seeing it more and more, like Ridley's got
Speaker 3: big time power, and I think he's going to develop
Speaker 3: into that more. It's I think him understanding that he
Speaker 3: doesn't have to hit the home run every time, that
Speaker 3: he can move the ball around a little bit. And
Speaker 3: he's done that since he's came to the big leagues.
Speaker 3: Just ability in the box. He can string together a
Speaker 3: great bat. He never lets like there be like two
Speaker 3: or three bat at bats in a row. If he
Speaker 3: has a bat at bat, usually he'll come back next
Speaker 3: he'll battle and follow it up with something pretty productive.
Speaker 3: So those are all signs of all stars, which he is. Yeah, amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it probably shouldn't surprise us that much that this
Speaker 1: team really found its offensive groove two when Carrie Carpenter
Speaker 1: came back to a lineup and got healthy. How important
Speaker 1: has his impact been in your mind?
Speaker 3: I mean, he's got a nine hundred ops. He hits
Speaker 3: big home runs in big moments, he can hit a
Speaker 3: multitude of pitches. I think it's just another anchor in
Speaker 3: the middle of the order. The issue that the Tigers
Speaker 3: offense has had earlier in the year was depth in
Speaker 3: the lineup, all right, And what I mean by that
Speaker 3: is how many quality at bats can we have one
Speaker 3: time through the order one through nine? You know we
Speaker 3: would string together you know, two, three good at bats
Speaker 3: through nine. That's not enough. You have to have like
Speaker 3: seven eight quality at bats through those first nine hitters
Speaker 3: to score lots of runs, you know, to put up
Speaker 3: crooked numbers, because what you're doing is you're putting so
Speaker 3: much pressure on the starting pitcher or the reliever whoever's
Speaker 3: in that they're bound to make a mistake. You don't
Speaker 3: let guys get into a groove. And we've seen earlier
Speaker 3: in the year without the depth and the lineup, and
Speaker 3: you look at the lineup now and you say, man,
Speaker 3: these guys are young. But Matt Berling will put a
Speaker 3: good at bat on your Parker Metals will put a
Speaker 3: good at bat on your tray. Sweeney's been tremendous, Yeah,
Speaker 3: huge pickup, putting good at bats on you. Porkilson's been
Speaker 3: putting good at bats on people since he came back
Speaker 3: from Toledo, for sure. Justin Henry molloy can put a
Speaker 3: good bat on you. Jace Young can't like guys off
Speaker 3: the bench. Think about Winsel Perez, Like see how the
Speaker 3: list just got really long on guys that he can
Speaker 3: roll out and put together a really competitive at bat.
Speaker 3: It wasn't like that earlier.
Speaker 1: No, you're right, I'm glad you brought up Perez because
Speaker 1: I thought, yeah, I started our show this morning, everybody
Speaker 1: wants to talk about school, and rightfully, so you know,
Speaker 1: he's gonna win the triple Crown, He's going to be
Speaker 1: the site An Award winner. But I thought the person
Speaker 1: we should first be talking about is Perez. And it's
Speaker 1: not just because of the two run double in the fifth,
Speaker 1: but because he had an eleven pitch at bat in
Speaker 1: the first time and a six pitch walk and then
Speaker 1: he hit that double on the ninth pitch. I believe
Speaker 1: that he saw to me therein lies a big difference.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you brought that up. It's a huge plus. Look,
Speaker 1: you've been on teams that have reached the ALCS and
Speaker 1: lost unfortunately, reached the World Series against San Francisco and
Speaker 1: lost unfortunately, and reached the ALCS and unfortunately lost too.
Speaker 1: It takes a certain type of character togetherness to get there.
Speaker 1: There has to be a reason why you got there
Speaker 1: and why you didn't win it all. What's the reason
Speaker 1: this team can win more than just the wildcard. I'm
Speaker 1: not just talking about the number two wildcard. I think
Speaker 1: they're a threat. I think other teams look at it
Speaker 1: and go, holy crap, something's going on there. What's the
Speaker 1: reason they can win and what prevents them possibly from winning?
Speaker 3: In your mind, yeah, I don't think anybody wants to
Speaker 3: face them in a three game series. No, I mean
Speaker 3: that that seems like a nightmare because now you've got
Speaker 3: way too many arms the way AJ can use it.
Speaker 3: I think what will allow them to win is to
Speaker 3: continue to do what they've done the last month month
Speaker 3: and a half, which is played very high pressure baseball
Speaker 3: where they're putting pressure on the other team constantly. I
Speaker 3: mean that that's tough. Like if every inning that there's
Speaker 3: pressure on a pitcher, there's pressure on defense. Now in
Speaker 3: the postseason, what generally happens is and they kind of
Speaker 3: have run into it with like a Corbyn Burns in Baltimore,
Speaker 3: is you're going to face some stud starters, right. That's
Speaker 3: why as teams are there, I think if they can
Speaker 3: scrap together quality at bats and wear down a great
Speaker 3: starting pitcher and get to the bullpen sooner than later,
Speaker 3: they'll win. I think if they can't get to some
Speaker 3: of the like a better store and figure out a
Speaker 3: way to either get him out of the game in
Speaker 3: five or because in the postseason they'll throw one hundred
Speaker 3: and twenty pitches, nobody cares, right, so, or how do
Speaker 3: we scrap three runs off this guy, and it's usually
Speaker 3: not via the long ball. You know you're gonna hit
Speaker 3: some home runs, but like some of these guys are
Speaker 3: going to minimize the damage done, and that's going to
Speaker 3: come from really good at bats, getting a few hits
Speaker 3: and then going first to third and doing the athletic
Speaker 3: things on the basis that they've shown.
Speaker 1: They can do.
Speaker 3: If they can do that, I think they got a
Speaker 3: good shot. If they get shut down by some good
Speaker 3: starting pitching, they it.
Speaker 1: Could be rough. I want to bring up two guys
Speaker 1: with you, and I'm interested to get your insight on
Speaker 1: this because I think it's easy to jump on bandwagons
Speaker 1: when guys are doing really well. But I really respect
Speaker 1: the hell a lot of guys who struggle and fight
Speaker 1: their way back. Parker Medows Spencer Torkleson, who you've already
Speaker 1: talked about. Those two guys that they go down to
Speaker 1: Toledo and they work man to get their way back
Speaker 1: up after struggling early. How have they changed and how
Speaker 1: much do you admire that type of sticktuitiveness.
Speaker 3: If you will, Okay, no, that's a great question. So
Speaker 3: let's start with Spencer Torklesen, because I think that's the
Speaker 3: harder of the of the two, you know, because Parker
Speaker 3: came up a little bit late last year, but Tork's
Speaker 3: kind of been in the big leagues for a while,
Speaker 3: and to get sent down, I mean, you want to
Speaker 3: talk about an ego thump, I don't care who you are, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, you want to be in the big leagues.
Speaker 3: You've proven you can do things in the big leagues,
Speaker 3: and now you're getting sent down to Toledo and somebody
Speaker 3: else's playing your spot. And he didn't go down to
Speaker 3: Toledo for ten games, like it was. It was a
Speaker 3: decent amount of time, right, Yeah, So probably the biggest thing,
Speaker 3: the most the thing I'm most proud about for Torkosen
Speaker 3: is his willingness to keep working even though it's like,
Speaker 3: you know, take the ego hit. You can be calling
Speaker 3: your agent, like get me out of this situation. It's
Speaker 3: the situation, it's the organization. It's that you can make
Speaker 3: a million excuses, but the scoreboard doesn't lie, Like the
Speaker 3: numbers aren't great, right, So I think he had to,
Speaker 3: you know, come to that realization and start finding a
Speaker 3: new approach. It's not a new approach, it's the same approach.
Speaker 3: It's the way it worked, He's got to start hitting
Speaker 3: the ball the other way, working the big part of
Speaker 3: the field. Torklesin just kind of by nature gets pull
Speaker 3: happy right right, and he gets pull happy, he pulls
Speaker 3: off the ball. When you pull off the ball in
Speaker 3: the big leagues, now, I can't hit a multitude of pitches.
Speaker 3: They just worked me way away away, and I'm an
Speaker 3: easy out. So he went down the minor league and
Speaker 3: really started working hitting the ball the other way, and
Speaker 3: it showed when he came back. Now, does that mean
Speaker 3: that struggle is going to be over for the rest
Speaker 3: of his career. Of course not. That's just Torkleson knows
Speaker 3: that's gonna be. If he's got an issue, that's what
Speaker 3: it's gonna be. He's always going to have to fight
Speaker 3: that the rest of his career. H Parker Meadows. It
Speaker 3: was just he was just stressed out early in the year,
Speaker 3: kind of snowballed on him, got off to a rough start,
Speaker 3: couldn't get out of it. Wasn't having fun, wasn't letting
Speaker 3: this talent play. Went down, came back up and said,
Speaker 3: you know what, I'm just gonna play, go have fun
Speaker 3: and play baseball pretty and easy and that was his fix.
Speaker 2: That's good.
Speaker 1: It's great stuff. Man. I'm really proud of you. I mean,
Speaker 1: you do a hell of a job. You and I
Speaker 1: talked a long, long time ago about getting involved in television.
Speaker 1: You got a face for TV, you got a face
Speaker 1: for radio, you got a voice for both, and you
Speaker 1: got an analyst who works both at doing a great
Speaker 1: job with both of it. So Tiger fans are lucky
Speaker 1: to have you. Thanks for the time, but I appreciate
Speaker 1: it very much. Keep up the great work.
Speaker 3: I appreciate it yet.
Speaker 1: Thanks you bet Andy. Dirk's with us here on Exus
Speaker 1: and Bros. And really good insight, man, really really good insight.
Speaker 1: I get it, you know, and I hope you do too,
Speaker 1: because I think he gets it obviously. But he's been there,
Speaker 1: done that. He knows what it takes to be successful
Speaker 1: a team. Getting to think about that. Man played three
Speaker 1: years in Detroit, he made it to three American League
Speaker 1: Championship Series and one World Series. Never played a season
Speaker 1: in Major League Baseball without reaching the postseason. And now
Speaker 1: he recognizes some similar traits in this team. It's going
Speaker 1: to happen, and I hope people are buckled up and
Speaker 1: ready for it. Because it's going to be a fun ride.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Andy Dirks, Thanks to you for your calls
Speaker 1: and for your texts. Thanks to Trent Bally as our producer,
Speaker 1: Albert Dale our engineer. Engineer Rather, we'll be back with
Speaker 1: you tomorrow morning, six a m. Amongst our guests tomorrow
Speaker 1: on Thursday is Mike Grimm, friend of mine, played by
Speaker 1: Playvoye from Minnesota Golden Gophers football. We'll preview some college
Speaker 1: football tomorrow. Have a great rest of your Wednesday, everybody,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.
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