Speaker 1: Aj Hinch is so logical and strategic and like high
Speaker 1: level poker player with his roster and with the way
Speaker 1: he manages.
Speaker 2: Hey, we've got Tiger's broadcaster Fox broadcaster Jason Benetti joining
Speaker 2: us right now. Good to see you, Bud. Been listening
Speaker 2: to you a lot lately. You're crushing it, and I
Speaker 2: have to start here. What the heck's going on? You're
Speaker 2: calling to the most unique plays I think I've ever seen,
Speaker 2: and it happens in the last few weeks.
Speaker 3: What are you doing?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I have no idea. The Tiger's season
Speaker 1: has been overserved, like there's something something has happened to
Speaker 1: the Tigers season. There's insanity every night. There was insanity
Speaker 1: every night from August on last year. I have no idea,
Speaker 1: and I like, we had just seen a couple innings
Speaker 1: before the replay of the Abray you won, which was crazy,
Speaker 1: like great job a Bray you and Rafaela. Zach McKinstry
Speaker 1: was even shocked. Like if you look at the reactions
Speaker 1: of Dingler and McKinstry, they're like, what what was that?
Speaker 1: I did that happen? And they're the ones who did it.
Speaker 1: So I mean, I think that's pretty much a microcosm
Speaker 1: of what the Tigers have been the last calendar year.
Speaker 3: All right. By the way, we had this argument because
Speaker 3: when I text you to come on our show today,
Speaker 3: I said, and you said, you might be in your Uber.
Speaker 3: I'm happy that you're not in your Uber. But do
Speaker 3: you take an Uber Excel, do you take an Uber
Speaker 3: black or do you take a different Uber that I
Speaker 3: never heard of, like an Uber van or something. I
Speaker 3: don't know.
Speaker 1: I never get black or practice do you think I
Speaker 1: go to I never practiced alack. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Because we had this with Matthew Boyd and he's like,
Speaker 3: I might crowds ask if he takes an uber or
Speaker 3: a taxi. I'm like, nobody takes taxis as the big.
Speaker 1: Leagues now, so uh, you know, just regular Uber, Like
Speaker 1: I don't need Uber black. I do, like if there's
Speaker 1: the extra two dollars for like, uh lift, like preferred
Speaker 1: or whatever, because the cars are supposed to be cleaner,
Speaker 1: and like, I don't like my big pet peeve is
Speaker 1: getting into an uber or lyft and the person has
Speaker 1: just recently smoked, like I don't want to smell, like
Speaker 1: I just left Blackjack at the Flamingo. When I get
Speaker 1: in a car and then out of a car, I'm
Speaker 1: out for that.
Speaker 3: Hey, I've been in cars with you. That is such
Speaker 3: a lie, dude. That is the that is like the
Speaker 3: that is like the biggest line, like you don't want
Speaker 3: a special car like that is such crap because we
Speaker 3: go what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Where?
Speaker 3: Escalate XL please because that.
Speaker 1: Is not true.
Speaker 3: When the shows up in there in their car. Where
Speaker 3: were you a Baltimore? We were at Botam. Don't tell
Speaker 3: me to complain, no at all.
Speaker 1: Okay, here's the deal. Here's the deal in Baltimore. I
Speaker 1: said to AJ after we got out of the car.
Speaker 1: In Baltimore, I said, first time driving for this guy,
Speaker 1: because that was not an uber. That was the guy
Speaker 1: that picked us up. Because we were going like six
Speaker 1: miles an hour. The one time up a hill, we
Speaker 1: were literally almost stopped. So it has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with the size of the car. It had everything to
Speaker 1: do with the idea that the person probably would have
Speaker 1: been better off starting in a go cart.
Speaker 3: It was a player. I thought we might have to
Speaker 3: get out and push because we were Yes, guy, I
Speaker 3: don't know if we're gonna make it up. This ill
Speaker 3: that's what he said.
Speaker 1: He said, I don't know if we're going to make it.
Speaker 1: It was like Glynnstone was driving us. He was using
Speaker 1: his feet first and then the pedal.
Speaker 3: Uh, by the way, what's lyft? I don't know what
Speaker 3: lift is?
Speaker 1: Sorry, lift is an over competitor. Sorry a sponsor. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: We don't.
Speaker 3: We don't.
Speaker 1: Actually now we want now, you definitely want.
Speaker 3: And I gotta ask you before we before we dig
Speaker 3: into the Tigers, as you're the Michigan sportscaster of the year,
Speaker 3: reigning champion.
Speaker 1: Are you happy?
Speaker 3: Are you happy to be the Tigers broadcaster? He still
Speaker 3: wish you were maybe the Rockies or the White Sox broadcaster,
Speaker 3: because I mean, you know they're they're having equally good
Speaker 3: seasons the last couple of years. You know, it's very
Speaker 3: very similar.
Speaker 1: I don't know what that motion is. Yes, I'm very
Speaker 1: very happy as the Tigers announcer. I will tell you
Speaker 1: that when I walked into rate Field yet, the security
Speaker 1: guard outside said to me, I was like, hey, White
Speaker 1: Sox are better. He goes, at least we're not the Rockies.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, I get after it.
Speaker 3: Man, that is true.
Speaker 2: Hey, hey, it is tough though, I mean, you can
Speaker 2: tell us about this, right because you've been a team
Speaker 2: broadcaster for quite a while now. How much easier is
Speaker 2: it to do your job when the games are competitive
Speaker 2: and fun versus I'm sure I don't know which years
Speaker 2: you've been through and how tough they are, but I
Speaker 2: know some friends of mine I won't name them in
Speaker 2: the industry who have been part of, you know, teams
Speaker 2: that went through long tanks, rebuild, whatever, and they're like,
Speaker 2: I love calling games, but this gets tough. One hundred
Speaker 2: and ten plus losses.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the you know, honestly, Like, I did a bunch
Speaker 1: of minor league seasons that were like rough win seasons two,
Speaker 1: and everybody on this show, no, it was like the miners,
Speaker 1: there's even less to play for, So like, I'm kind
Speaker 1: of used to doing seasons that go south. That happened
Speaker 1: a bunch of the miners for me. The one thing
Speaker 1: that I would say I think is really cool about
Speaker 1: this Tigers team as a narrator is that aj Hinch
Speaker 1: is so logical and strategic and like high level poker
Speaker 1: player with his roster and with the way he manages
Speaker 1: that I can see after watching him for a while,
Speaker 1: like patterns, but I know that there's there's always a
Speaker 1: point to what he's doing, so I can search out
Speaker 1: the point of what he's doing and try to get there.
Speaker 1: In terms of personnel, like why is this batter up?
Speaker 1: Why did Andy Ibanyas hit here? Why didn't he hit there?
Speaker 1: What is it about the pitchers? Stuff? Because there's always
Speaker 1: a why and a pretty distinct specific why. So to me,
Speaker 1: it's about more having the logic of somebody in charge
Speaker 1: that like really does specifically want certain matchups. That makes
Speaker 1: it a lot easier than when you're guessing.
Speaker 4: Sometimes all right, let's go to this roster. Let's go
Speaker 4: to this roster that has been winning the whole year.
Speaker 4: And then Wenzel Perez comes back. Oh, and he just
Speaker 4: comes out banging. Parker Meadows plays in his first game,
Speaker 4: and what does he do? Oh, it gets a few hits,
Speaker 4: but he also makes a diving play in the third
Speaker 4: most important position on the field in center field. Like
Speaker 4: you would never look at the Tigers and go they
Speaker 4: have tons of depth because in the offseason it was
Speaker 4: like their neck and neck for the Alex Bregman.
Speaker 3: All they got it. They didn't get bragmant.
Speaker 4: Oh it almost seems like the Tigers are like, piss off.
Speaker 3: We didn't even need bragman. We don't need extra depth
Speaker 3: because we've been winning and.
Speaker 4: Some of these players who have just come back are
Speaker 4: adding to the team that's already been winning.
Speaker 1: And they've already played a really tough stretches schedule too. Eric,
Speaker 1: Like you look, they have like the fourth easiest schedule
Speaker 1: remaining in baseball by win percentage. Maybe it's like sixth
Speaker 1: as of today, but it's definitely in the bottom third
Speaker 1: to the league. And you know, Parker Meadows coming back
Speaker 1: improves one thing the Tigers just have not done a
Speaker 1: whole lot of this year. They've been number one in
Speaker 1: baseball and extra bases taken so like first to third,
Speaker 1: second to home. We've seen Joey Kora just spinning the
Speaker 1: wheel and waving people around. Coming into yesterday, they were
Speaker 1: dead last in stolen bases. Parker Meadows immediately in Game
Speaker 1: one steals a base since coming back from injury. And
Speaker 1: then also the outfield defense just got so much better.
Speaker 1: You mentioned when Seal Perez Riley Green moves to the corner,
Speaker 1: you get Meadows and center. Even though Hobby was great
Speaker 1: in center field, Parker Meadows is like state of the
Speaker 1: art in center field, So now you can run out
Speaker 1: configurations where there are three center fielders. I think that's
Speaker 1: a huge part of this thing too. So yeah, this
Speaker 1: is a really scary team that I think probably until
Speaker 1: like ten days ago, still was kind of lurking nationally.
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Speaker 2: talking about them all season long. But I do want
Speaker 2: to focus on the slab pack experience scrats. Since you've
Speaker 2: been ripping some slab packs digitally and what happens.
Speaker 3: I mean, as a kid, you wanted to rip open
Speaker 3: the packs. How can they do this digitally?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, they send that to you from the vault if
Speaker 2: you want it. But if you look at it and
Speaker 2: you're like, it's not the card for me, I want
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Speaker 3: This team was young, had a young lineup.
Speaker 4: Anytime you have hobby buyers in your lineup, you're not
Speaker 4: really working too many counts. Have you seen the change
Speaker 4: that having a glabor torres who has more walks than
Speaker 4: strikeouts in the lineup? Have you seen how the lineup
Speaker 4: maybe navigates at bats differently from last year where it
Speaker 4: was chaos in the bullpen and if our pitching doesn't
Speaker 4: do anything, you know, we're not going to win. To
Speaker 4: now a lineup that, to me, I see a difference
Speaker 4: in how they attack at bats.
Speaker 1: I agree, and I think like I think that playoff
Speaker 1: experience last year showed the young guys what it takes
Speaker 1: to succeed, even specifically offensively in the playoffs. I think
Speaker 1: probably they really believe that their hitters meetings are as
Speaker 1: detailed as can possibly be. I love that picture, by
Speaker 1: the way, that is like the grainiest, most hilarious black
Speaker 1: and white picture ever. That's amazing. That's going to be
Speaker 1: Tiger of the Day today on our telecast. I have
Speaker 1: to imagine. But Glabor Torres. AJ Hinch was talking about
Speaker 1: this when we were in Houston. Josh Reddick had stopped by.
Speaker 1: He's doing some print posts for the Astros, and AJ
Speaker 1: was like, man, when we added a guy like Reddick
Speaker 1: or like other quote unquote professional at bats in Houston,
Speaker 1: you could see the impact on the lineup and you
Speaker 1: all know that like you see it. But anecdotally it's true.
Speaker 1: Glaber Torres is a really difficult specifically first inning at
Speaker 1: bat generally, and the Tigers for the balance of this
Speaker 1: season have been at the top of the league in
Speaker 1: pitches seen in the first inning. They made life really
Speaker 1: difficult last night on Jonathan Cannon and then bounced him
Speaker 1: very early from that game. And it's in part because
Speaker 1: of Glaber's patience and willingness to put together a really
Speaker 1: strong at bat. I'm totally with you Kratz.
Speaker 2: So Jason, what's the kryptonite, what's the fear right now?
Speaker 2: And what will we be talking about over the next
Speaker 2: month and a half come trade deadline time, because yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, this team's clicking, they've got a great record,
Speaker 2: they're in a great spot. But of course they're going
Speaker 2: work on things at the trade deadline and try and
Speaker 2: go all further than they did last year.
Speaker 1: What would you do? What's on the wish list? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think you know, kryptonite and wish list probably, I
Speaker 1: would say are a little bit. The fear is injury, right,
Speaker 1: They've they've handled the injury very well so far this year,
Speaker 1: with three center fielders on the ais ale to start
Speaker 1: the year. I think the thing that they would go
Speaker 1: get if I'm just looking at the numbers and overall
Speaker 1: picture of the roster, would be swinging miss in the bullpen. Right.
Speaker 1: The bullpen has had a very nice era this year,
Speaker 1: top five. The strikeout rate is not fantastic, So I
Speaker 1: think we have seen enough in the past couple of
Speaker 1: weeks in tiger Land where Cage Smith comes in out
Speaker 1: of the Cleveland bullpen and strikes out the side, or
Speaker 1: like Randy Rodriguez's stuff, or you know whoever, out of
Speaker 1: that San Francisco bullpen that we just saw in Detroit.
Speaker 1: I think swing and miss stuff in the bullpen probably
Speaker 1: would be on the list, and then I think the
Speaker 1: injury thing would be the kryptonite. But you can also,
Speaker 1: you know, before the last day of lie if you
Speaker 1: have an injury, you can settle that at the trade deadline,
Speaker 1: So you know, I would say number one would be
Speaker 1: swing and miss out of the bullpen that I would
Speaker 1: think that they would really start to think about.
Speaker 2: Okay, I want to take us back to the top
Speaker 2: of the conversation because we didn't really dive in too much.
Speaker 2: Did you talk to any of the guys that had
Speaker 2: the pinball place right, because you've called two now, so
Speaker 2: did you talk to McKinstry or Dingler? And then I
Speaker 2: guess the other side was two Red Sox players, so
Speaker 2: maybe less likely, but I mean any aftermath from that,
Speaker 2: and also how rare it is. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you can even look that up. I know, I think
Speaker 2: on the call yesterday you mentioned, you know, is this
Speaker 2: the first time ever we got a what two five
Speaker 2: play to play in foul ground to make an out.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that was looked up, but anything
Speaker 2: after the fact that you learned about.
Speaker 1: Just a very quick text with McKinstry last night. But
Speaker 1: like I once we're in the clubhouse today. I'll get
Speaker 1: you some answers on that, but I like I think
Speaker 1: they were both for sure, for sure, that was my takeaway.
Speaker 1: We tried to look it up, but I don't know
Speaker 1: that that has ever happened. There were a couple two threes, though,
Speaker 1: like the nineteen eighty World Series. It happened twenty sixteen,
Speaker 1: David Ross to Anthony Rizzo. They both happened on the
Speaker 1: other side of the diamond, catcher to first base. I
Speaker 1: haven't seen any catcher to third base. But we did
Speaker 1: get a substantial amount of tweets of people telling on
Speaker 1: folks who said in their replies, I did it in
Speaker 1: Little league. So I'm certain it's happened and people have
Speaker 1: done it, but not in Major League Baseball according to
Speaker 1: what we saw. But no, I haven't talked to him
Speaker 1: at any length. I'm gonna do that today.
Speaker 3: There's a very famous one of me running over Gordon
Speaker 3: Beckham in the Metrodome when he tried to play third
Speaker 3: base catching the ball. Actually, Jason, you'll love this. Gordon's
Speaker 3: grandmother had a picture painted of it of me crippling
Speaker 3: Gordon Beckham. Why would she have a picture, I don't know,
Speaker 3: but she made. She it was like a painted picture.
Speaker 3: It was like a portrait of me, like running Beckham
Speaker 3: and I running into each other in the metro. She
Speaker 3: he had to over. He had to hang it over
Speaker 3: like his fireplace in his house because it was a
Speaker 3: grandmother bought of worms. He's like, what am I supposed
Speaker 3: to do with this thing?
Speaker 1: Did? What did he say to you? Have to Did
Speaker 1: he say the boys are grinding? Aj the boys are
Speaker 1: grinding grinding.
Speaker 3: I said, Gordon, get off the tracks when the train's
Speaker 3: coming through. Okay, should have caught that, called me off.
Speaker 1: I guarantee you he got the worst of that right
Speaker 1: like he was. Did he get flatten into what happened?
Speaker 3: He might have missed a week. I don't know. I
Speaker 3: don't remember he retired now. Wow, God, I didn't say that.
Speaker 3: I love Gordon. I love you.
Speaker 2: I'm kidding too. Uh, all right, I got one more
Speaker 2: for you on these two plays. I'll do the nerdy
Speaker 2: broadcasters side of me, because we do, of course have
Speaker 2: some aspiring broadcasters that watch and listen. How does that
Speaker 2: play out in your brain? I feel like things happened
Speaker 2: differently for different broadcasters. I know there's some broadcasters right
Speaker 2: who try to visualize certain moments, games, playoff, games, whatever,
Speaker 2: and what kind of calls they want to make. Most
Speaker 2: I think don't and they just kind of flow. In
Speaker 2: this case, you don't know what's happening at all to
Speaker 2: any extent. So how does that play out in your brain?
Speaker 2: If you can try to give me play by play of.
Speaker 1: The brain while this is happening, Yeah, you know it's
Speaker 1: it's a good question. The first thing that I would
Speaker 1: say is, once you do a bunch of games, you
Speaker 1: know that you can call to play if it's routine, right,
Speaker 1: You know that, like if it's a pop up, he's
Speaker 1: either going to catch it or he isn't, so you're
Speaker 1: ready for that. So I think the thing that's changed
Speaker 1: for me over the last handful of years five six years,
Speaker 1: as I've done more and more major League baseball is
Speaker 1: I'm kind of waiting for the oddity and ready for it.
Speaker 1: Not that I'm like expecting it in any way, shape
Speaker 1: or form, because I'm certainly not. But he's either going
Speaker 1: to catch it or he's not. So like you have that,
Speaker 1: it's all about watching this play this moment, and so
Speaker 1: I think you just react as a human being, like
Speaker 1: my call last night. I don't know that anybody's gonna say,
Speaker 1: like in broadcasting school, be like no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: what waite what? But that's what ran through my head,
Speaker 1: is like not again, right, like we what are we
Speaker 1: going to keep having these sorts of plays? And he
Speaker 1: just pinned it to his leg and I was I
Speaker 1: was just shocked more than anything. And then it's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what did that look like to me? And you know,
Speaker 1: I try to analogize or like whatever pops in my mind.
Speaker 1: I don't really have an enormous filter, as people will know,
Speaker 1: so like if it pops in my mind, I'm probably
Speaker 1: gonna say it.
Speaker 3: Jason, by the way, you're pretty funny. I think you're funny.
Speaker 3: What I just want to know this, did you realize
Speaker 3: back in what was it? What year were you in
Speaker 3: double A with that Fox would hire Joe Davis, You
Speaker 3: and Adam, I mean all of you guys. One of
Speaker 3: you's in Montgomery, one of you was in wherever? I
Speaker 3: mean all three weren't you guys, all three in the
Speaker 3: Southern League at the same time doing or around the
Speaker 3: same time and something like that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we were in the miners altogether. I don't think
Speaker 1: ever in the same league. Joe was in the Southern League.
Speaker 1: Adam was doing like Indie or he was doing double
Speaker 1: A in the I think like the East Coast maybe
Speaker 1: or something like the Summerset Patriots that they were Indie Bough.
Speaker 1: And then I was in Salem, Virginia with an Astro's team.
Speaker 1: Uh you know, you ever seen Borat where Borat goes
Speaker 1: to the rodeo That was in our parking lot. So
Speaker 1: it was awesome. I love Salem, Virginia. It's a great place.
Speaker 1: The rodeo is actually in that parking lot. So that's
Speaker 1: actually true. Uh but yeah, no, it's it's nuts. It's
Speaker 1: honestly nuts. Like it's it's I wish more minor league
Speaker 1: announcers would get a chance in the majors because I
Speaker 1: think there is a lot to having called a bunch
Speaker 1: of games, like I will tell you I'm not nearly
Speaker 1: as ready for plays like that like we've seen if
Speaker 1: I haven't done a ton of games where I've made
Speaker 1: mistakes like you get to in the miners. Yeah, that's
Speaker 1: good call.
Speaker 3: Awesome. By the way, you eat more than any of
Speaker 3: those guys combined. Just so just throwing it out there.
Speaker 1: He throws down.
Speaker 3: Oh this hamster.
Speaker 1: Once this hamster stops running in the wheel, I'm going
Speaker 1: to be four hundred pounds. Oh my metabolism is saving
Speaker 1: my life right now.
Speaker 3: Hey, enjoy it while you got it.
Speaker 2: And by the way, props to whatever Fox executive is
Speaker 2: the scout that goes to those minor league games and
Speaker 2: he's like, I think we got a guy.
Speaker 1: We got a guy. Keep him on the radar.
Speaker 3: Seriously five years.
Speaker 1: That's what they do with analysts too. That's how they
Speaker 1: do it with analysts too. They go and why they
Speaker 1: look for the most irascible catcher they can find, and
Speaker 1: they're like, that guy's gonna be awesome. Yeah, I can
Speaker 1: confirm that's real.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: Like when I worked at MLB, we would talk to
Speaker 2: guys sometimes and be like maybe maybe future broadcaster. Yeah
Speaker 2: that was a big conversation. We'd be like, this guy
Speaker 2: might have it. Uh, Jason, great stuff man, Great to
Speaker 2: catch up. Good to see you. Enjoy the rest of
Speaker 2: the series.
Speaker 3: We'll catch you down the line.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys.