Kerry Carpenter Brings The Thunder
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00:00And you see, oh God, Scooble is so good.
00:03But Baltimore's lost, Tiger fans gained
00:06because you still get to root for Tarek Scooble
00:07and you see what he does last night.
00:10But he was a side note.
00:12Yes, because the return of Kerry Carpenter was last night
00:15and Kerry Carpenter had I think like six at-bats
00:19at Toledo in each of two games that he played down there
00:23and I think he had one hit.
00:24Didn't do nothing earth-shattering,
00:26but he was healthy, healthy enough to come back.
00:29Strikes out his first at-bat and then his second at-bat,
00:33he launched a ball to the opposite field for a home run
00:37and what a welcome back Kerry Carpenter.
00:39And then his third at-bat, the next inning,
00:41comes up and he smokes a ball in the right field
00:44for his second home run of the game.
00:46And then he has a base hit,
00:48has three hits when he comes back.
00:50Now this is a guy who's OPS going into the game
00:55before he got hurt was I think 917 or something like that.
00:58Correct, he hadn't played since May 26th.
01:01So after the game last night,
01:04because he still is just a small sample size of playing,
01:06he's only played for like six weeks of the year,
01:09whatever it is, but his batting average is 293.
01:13His OPS is 962.
01:18Now that would rank, and of course this is not,
01:20he hasn't played the full season like others have,
01:22but that would rank pretty highly
01:23among all of baseball players.
01:26They miss Kerry Carpenter.
01:29Doug is kind of reluctant to embrace Kerry Carpenter.
01:32Kang, is that safe to say?
01:34Yeah, fully embraced.
01:35That's all, he hasn't fully bought in,
01:36like it's not Jack Campbell or somebody like that.
01:38Well, no, it's definitely, I mean, what is with Doug?
01:40No one, not even his wife maybe, but.
01:42Right, exactly.
01:44You're talking about playing favorites.
01:46He's hesitant on Kerry Carpenter.
01:47He's very hesitant, he always leaves him out
01:49when he talks about the future of the Tigers,
01:51and I'm always bringing one about Kerry Carpenter.
01:53He's like, well, I'm not in on it yet.
01:54You know, he doesn't buy into it yet.
01:56And I've been in on him since watching him in the minors,
01:59looking through box scores every day,
02:01and I'm like, this guy's tearing it up at double A.
02:03He should get a chance at triple A.
02:04This guy's tearing it up, he needs to get,
02:06they need to bring him up.
02:07A couple years ago, I was like, come on, bring this guy up.
02:09So I'm invested in him because I feel like I got in early.
02:13And he's, at the major league level,
02:16he's played awfully well.
02:18He is missed.
02:20And when you see what he did last night
02:21with the three hits, the two home runs,
02:24team rallying around him and all that,
02:26you ask a question.
02:29It's two letters, it's two words, I should say.
02:32What if?
02:34Right?
02:35And he's not the only thing that you could say
02:37what if about with the Tigers when it comes to this season.
02:42You can go back to last offseason
02:43and look at stuff that you could say,
02:46what if, and then you fill it in, they had done this.
02:50What if Kerry Carpenter had been healthy the whole year?
02:53If Kerry Carpenter's healthy the whole season,
02:55are the Tigers six games below 500 right now?
02:59Not six, but they're probably still below 500.
03:02You think so?
03:03Yeah.
03:03Maybe, maybe not.
03:04Maybe they're at 500, somewhere around.
03:07But I had a similar thought, but it was weird.
03:09It's like, you know, you can always,
03:11every, maybe they played a team that didn't have a player
03:15that they would've, that they won a game
03:17that they wouldn't have.
03:17So that stuff evens out, but yeah.
03:20But mine was not what if now.
03:24Mine was, ooh, what if the future?
03:29What is the what if for the future?
03:31I mean.
03:31Like if you think Kerry Carpenter's a piece for the future.
03:33Yeah, and I'm looking at-
03:34Then what does the future look for this team?
03:36Yeah, I mean, you look at, you know, the outfield, okay?
03:39You'd have to be, you'd have to think, you know,
03:43Meadows, green, maybe Perez is your outfield, maybe.
03:48Or you could go sign a free agent.
03:50Right, that's guys they have right now.
03:52So your infield is the big question.
03:54You have Keith, you move him to third.
03:57Or first.
03:59First, rather.
03:59Young plays second.
04:01Or Young, yeah, Young plays second.
04:03Jace Young plays second.
04:04Sweeney plays short,
04:07because hopefully Baez won't be there.
04:09Or at least if he's there, he's not starting.
04:12So you still have a question at third base.
04:15Your DH, to me, is a combination of Carpenter
04:20against righties, Molloy against lefties,
04:23or Abanez, and then you still have,
04:26Vierling can play every day in a different position
04:29with somebody getting a day off.
04:31Yeah, and you know what that does?
04:33And your catchers are Rodgers and Dingler,
04:34and then your pitching's pretty good.
04:37And that doesn't add anybody.
04:38No.
04:39And that's an interesting thing, and that's not,
04:42and when we go into the trade deadline,
04:44and we thought, okay, collectively I felt,
04:47we as Tiger Nation feel,
04:49if you didn't trade Tarek Skoobel,
04:51then that means you're gonna build
04:52around Tarek Skoobel, right?
04:54So what are you gonna bring to the table in the offseason?
04:56And the way you just laid it out there,
05:00you still need help.
05:01It's really just promoting Jace Young and Trey Sweeney.
05:03It's promotions, it's not going out and signing free agents.
05:06Well, of course, because they don't wanna block anybody.
05:09But yeah, I still think they need a third baseman,
05:11no matter.
05:13Well, Jace Young is trying to play third base
05:15at the AAA level, and he is not doing well
05:18from a fielding standpoint.
05:19I read something on Twitter yesterday
05:21that I don't remember who it was from,
05:23probably a fan, who said, and I'm paraphrasing,
05:27that Jace Young makes Nick Cassianos
05:29look like a gold-glove third baseman.
05:32I've always thought that if you can play
05:35an infield position like second base,
05:37and he's very good at second base,
05:39that it just takes a matter of time.
05:42It's just a matter of getting reps
05:43before you can learn how to play
05:44the other side of the field,
05:45being that it's footwork,
05:46and obviously there's a longer throw involved.
05:48I don't know if his issues are throwing the ball
05:50or fielding the ball.
05:52But when you've got someone like Alan Trammell
05:53in your system that you could latch somebody onto
05:57and say, go watch this guy and work with this guy
06:00for the next six months, field 500 grounders a day,
06:03whatever it's gonna take.
06:04Have the Amon Roy St. Brown work ethic
06:07of catching 202 balls after practice every day.
06:09Do that with fielding ground balls?
06:12You're gonna figure it out.
06:13But baseball seems like it's a sport so quick
06:16where they just move guys around.
06:17Like, you look at it and say, he can't play at third,
06:21we're gonna have to find another position.
06:22Right, move Keith at first, I mean, all that.
06:24Although Keith, he made a really good play last night
06:26at second.
06:27He has flashed at second base,
06:29and he'll get better again with more reps that he gets.
06:32But your scenario also lays out
06:34that there's no twerkles in there, which is interesting.
06:38Well, I don't think the organization's giving up on torque.
06:41No, but that answers your first question, for me.
06:44Which was, what if?
06:46Yes, so my tiger what if?
06:50Is it break time?
06:51What if was your tiger what if?
06:52My tiger what if is, what if Spencer Torkelson
06:56was just a below average player,
06:59as opposed to being somebody
07:00who absolutely just blew chunks all season?
07:02Wow.
07:04There, you know, he would average 23, 25 bombs or whatever,
07:09maybe hit 240 in whatever the hell he was hitting.
07:13Maybe he would've been a better,
07:15he turned into a butcher at first base, too,
07:18which we didn't expect.
07:19No.
07:20So what if Spencer Torkelson was basically just average?
07:23248-539-9797, same number to text as well.
07:27It's the big question, what if?
07:29What's your biggest what if with the Tigers?
07:32For Stoney, it's about Spencer Torkelson.
07:34What if Spencer Torkelson was just an average player?
07:37Where would the Tigers be now?
07:38For me, it is Kerry Carpenter.
07:40What if Kerry Carpenter was healthy the whole season?
07:43Would the Tigers be at 500?
07:46And would that have changed how they did things
07:48at the trade deadline?
07:49Would they have been buying rather than selling?
07:52Would that have had an effect?
07:53What is your biggest what if with the Tigers?