Speaker 1: We know our own team, but certain teams, if they
Speaker 1: don't have a face, who's the pirate's face?
Speaker 2: Cabrian Hayes, Oh, you'll probably Paul Skeens. To your point,
Speaker 2: he's not an everyday player.
Speaker 3: Right, O'Neil Cruz.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this, when you and your buddies
Speaker 1: talk about Trek Skooble, has anyone ever described him as
Speaker 1: the Tigers' best player or do they describe him as
Speaker 1: the league's best pitcher.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's more so a big picture thing.
Speaker 2: And yeah, when you're talking about everyday players, obviously he's
Speaker 2: not even eligible for that. So he comes up in
Speaker 2: conversation a lot. But when you talk about best player,
Speaker 2: it's usually Riley Green is what people say.
Speaker 1: Yeah, can a guy be I've asked this question of
Speaker 1: pictures in the past, and you know the answer you're
Speaker 1: going to be you're going to get. I should say,
Speaker 1: if a guy only does one thing, but he does
Speaker 1: it at the highest level, compared to a guy who
Speaker 1: does a lot of different things, well the guy who
Speaker 1: is just singularly great at one thing be your team's
Speaker 1: best player.
Speaker 2: I don't know that's a good question, because in football
Speaker 2: you'd say maybe the quarterback can be your best player.
Speaker 2: Like who's the Chief's best player. It's probably Patrick Mahomes, right,
Speaker 2: And he's one thing though, Yeah he's a dual threat quarterback.
Speaker 2: But I guess my point is just he's he plays
Speaker 2: one position. He does, he has one responsibility.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think, yeah, it's a good point. I think
Speaker 1: in football, everybody's playing just one position except Travis Hunter. Okay,
Speaker 1: I mean maybe you'll have a special teams guy, but
Speaker 1: let's be honest, quarterbacks, they're not. No one's George Blanda
Speaker 1: who also kicked and was a quarterback, So no one's
Speaker 1: doing that stuff anymore. So let's be careful there. But
Speaker 1: when it comes to football, I mean, look, Penny Suwle
Speaker 1: is ranked as the best player on the team. He
Speaker 1: run blocks, he pass protects, I know, he runs over
Speaker 1: bassorship It's funny, can you be your best player? I
Speaker 1: think in football because everybody does basically does the one thing,
Speaker 1: unless it's a punter or a kicker. Because if you're
Speaker 1: a defensive player, you're you're tackling, you're intercepting, you're stripping
Speaker 1: the ball. There's a lot of different things that you're doing.
Speaker 1: You may play one position that doesn't mean you only
Speaker 1: do one thing. In baseball, you play the one position pitching,
Speaker 1: You're only doing the one thing. Now, you may be
Speaker 1: fielding your position, granted, but you're doing the one thing,
Speaker 1: and that's pitching.
Speaker 4: Same with a d H on the other side, right.
Speaker 1: You're only hitting. On the other hand, when you when
Speaker 1: you see certain other sports or certain other if a
Speaker 1: team stinks and their best player is the pitcher, how
Speaker 1: do you deny that? Like I've told you the story
Speaker 1: about Steve Carleton. Remember Steve Carleton arguably the best lefty
Speaker 1: of my youth. It's a phenomenal player, all right. The
Speaker 1: Hall of Famer won four cy Youngs. All right, he
Speaker 1: won twenty seven games in nineteen seventy two. He won
Speaker 1: the Cy Young in nineteen seventy two. He was twenty
Speaker 1: seven and ten. His team that year was awful. They
Speaker 1: won like fifty plus games. So can he be their
Speaker 1: best player on a crappy team like that? Can he
Speaker 1: be their best player? Who else would it be?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 2: And that the modern example of that is Paul Skins
Speaker 2: for the Pirates.
Speaker 1: That's that's the long way around where I'm getting, Okay,
Speaker 1: team won fifty nine games in nineteen seventy two. That
Speaker 1: dude won twenty seven of them.
Speaker 3: Think about that for a minute.
Speaker 4: He's doing his fair share.
Speaker 1: Yeah, can Paul Skeens be part of that? I mean
Speaker 1: that team had Larry Boa, Greg Lozinski. They had a
Speaker 1: couple of good players on their team, but they weren't
Speaker 1: good enough. Tim McCarver was the catcher on that team,
Speaker 1: the same guy who won a World Series in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight with the Saint Lewis Cardinals.
Speaker 3: You know what, Mike Schmidt was on that team. He
Speaker 3: was a rookie.
Speaker 1: I think he only had a handful of games. But
Speaker 1: Mike Schmidt was on that team. So would you say
Speaker 1: now later on in life, you'd take Mike Schmid, of course,
Speaker 1: because Hall of Fame third basement one of the best
Speaker 1: third basement of all time, arguably the best third basement
Speaker 1: of all of them. But that year he was the
Speaker 1: best player for the Philadelphia Phillies. To your point, Paul Skeens, Yes,
Speaker 1: Trek Schoolbell. Pretty hard to say that on a team
Speaker 1: that is the best has the best record in baseball,
Speaker 1: don't you think.
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Okay, you could say the most dominant player, but that
Speaker 2: might be more of pitcher centric.
Speaker 4: Does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Like, if you are one of the best teams in baseball,
Speaker 2: possibly the best team in baseball, you got the best record,
Speaker 2: then of course you're gonna have some great players in
Speaker 2: the field.
Speaker 3: At what he does. He's the best at what he does.
Speaker 1: Yes, Like Riley Green may not be the best home
Speaker 1: run hitter, may not be the best hitter, may not
Speaker 1: be the best fielder, but all together he is.
Speaker 4: He's their best all.
Speaker 1: Those Yeah, he's your best all around player. Tarrek Scouoble
Speaker 1: is the best Tiger at what he does, Which does
Speaker 1: that mean he's the best player on the team. To me,
Speaker 1: that does not compute well.
Speaker 2: So, Chef, I like to think about it does make sense,
Speaker 2: And I like to think about this in video game terms,
Speaker 2: because you play these video games and they have certain
Speaker 2: ratings for everyone's ability at every given thing. Right, So
Speaker 2: Riley Green might have the best well rounded overall score.
Speaker 2: But Tarrek scouble is a plus at throwing strikes, He's
Speaker 2: a plus with armed velocity and all this kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: And so to your point, he's the best at what
Speaker 2: he does. But Riley Green across the board probably has
Speaker 2: the better score. Obviously, Sterrek School's not hitting. Yeah, he's
Speaker 2: not hitting. He's not fielding as well, all that stuff, right,
Speaker 2: it all comes into play.
Speaker 1: I don't know if wins above replacement is the great
Speaker 1: equalizer in this conversation.
Speaker 3: It could be Terrek Schooble's War is.
Speaker 1: Three point nine, Riley Green's is two point seven.
Speaker 2: I do think war is a fair stat to look at, yeah,
Speaker 2: because that doesn't matter what your position is for war, right.
Speaker 1: That's right, absolutely right, So that therein lies right there,
Speaker 1: probably the end of the argument that he can be.
Speaker 1: I mean, if you look at War for the Pirates
Speaker 1: Paul's I mean, I don't know if people realize that
Speaker 1: Paul Skean's got a better war than Terrek Schouble. Paul
Speaker 1: Skeens's War is four point one to Terrek School is
Speaker 1: three point nine. We're splitting hairs here, Okay, Paul skeins
Speaker 1: is four and seven. Terrek School just won his tenth
Speaker 1: consecutive decision. So that's why wins oftentimes in baseball.
Speaker 4: For misleading, very misleading.
Speaker 2: We talked about it, Paul Skeens, I think it was
Speaker 2: three or four starts ago for him. But the Pirates
Speaker 2: lost one. Nothing great.
Speaker 1: We talked about the number of times his team has
Speaker 1: he's had to deal with in his career. We talked
Speaker 1: about this two weeks ago, in his career, how many
Speaker 1: times he's been supported by one run or less, how
Speaker 1: he's walked off the mound giving up just one run
Speaker 1: and he ends up taking a loss or a no decision.
Speaker 1: That to me is the amount, the percentage is. It's
Speaker 1: super high. I forget the exact number right now, but
Speaker 1: that's I mean, it's super high. Paul Skeins with that
Speaker 1: war at four point one, so put it in perspective.
Speaker 1: I'll put it in perspective for you, okay. Aaron Judge's
Speaker 1: war is five point nine. Paul Skeenes's war is the
Speaker 1: equivalent to that of Kyle Tucker, and Kyle Tucker right
Speaker 1: now is fifth in all of baseball in wins above replacement.
Speaker 1: The only players better Aaron Judge, Jeremy Pania, who just
Speaker 1: got hurt, Cal Rally, who's got thirty two homers. Only
Speaker 1: Ken Griffy Junior has more in Seattle history prior to
Speaker 1: the All Star Break, and Pete Crow Armstrong. Those are
Speaker 1: the only players with a higher war than Paul Skeens,
Speaker 1: who are every day play years now, and if you
Speaker 1: look at it from a pitching perspective, he has the
Speaker 1: highest war then it's terrorist school and Max Freed. So
Speaker 1: here's the only thing I would ask you, And I
Speaker 1: think you bring up a really good point, and I
Speaker 1: think it's legitimate if we think he's the best pitcher
Speaker 1: in baseball. I think a lot of people feel that way.
Speaker 1: I feel that way, if we feel like we can
Speaker 1: use that number to prove that he's the best player
Speaker 1: on the Tigers.
Speaker 3: Are you with me so far?
Speaker 4: Yes? I know where you're going with this.
Speaker 2: Yes, Then why can he Why is he the best
Speaker 2: pitcher in baseball when his number is not as high
Speaker 2: as Paul.
Speaker 3: Skins exactly exactly.
Speaker 4: And it's a great question, and it's a great point,
Speaker 4: and a lot.
Speaker 1: Of it is probably because he leads the league in
Speaker 1: strikeouts and strikeouts per nine and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2: And he wins games, and a lot of that has
Speaker 2: to do with how good your team is.
Speaker 1: But right or wrong, ill, my apologies, he doesn't lead
Speaker 1: the league in strikeouts per nine. Mackenzie Gordon, All Nice,
Speaker 1: Dylan Cees, Chris Saals, Zach Wheeler all higher strikeouts per
Speaker 1: night doesn't make them better. I'm just saying, I'm just
Speaker 1: trying to give you facts here, but that's what we do.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of it, too, is the walk factor,
Speaker 1: the strikeout to walk. He's got one hundred and thirty
Speaker 1: eight strikeouts, he's got fourteen walks. He walked his fourteenth
Speaker 1: batter of the year last night. No one's really close.
Speaker 1: It's crazy how he is around the zone, challenging batters
Speaker 1: and just saying, I dare you because I don't think
Speaker 1: you can. And we can all understand that. It's just
Speaker 1: a different way to look at it, and I think
Speaker 1: it's an important way to look at it.