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