Detroit Tigers vs Cleveland Guardians Wild Card Preview

Detroit Tigers vs Cleveland Guardians Wild Card Preview

Let’s preview the Tigers and the Guardians who are going to play some early action coming up in these wild card games. I feel like they knew that was coming. Oh, they’re getting the one o’clock East Coast time game in the slot when you have, you know what, a one, a three, a six, and a eight, I think. Eight or nine. Yeah. So, hey, this is gonna be fun. The games that we’ve seen from these two teams in the last couple weeks have been really good. Yeah, game one, Scooball against Williams, I’m assuming. Again, we just saw it. Just saw it and they did what you said. Twice the last couple weeks in that matchup. They haven’t exactly beat Scooball. Well, first one they just outlasted him. The second one they short they smallalled him to death. What do they I mean, if Listen, if I’m the Guardians, I go into this saying, man, we rattled the best pitcher in baseball by bunting and stealing and doing all kinds of goofiness. Guess what? First batter of the game, Stephen Quan. Boop. Bunt. I mean, maybe I think some of the other guys should be bunting. Well, true. Get Quan on base trying to cause havoc. That’s what I’m saying. Ken Rosenthal had fair territory and he did all of his previews. So, check that out after our show if you’d like. He said this is one of the worst offenses of all time to make the postseason. Right. You have more postseason slots nowadays. That’s part of it. But their ranks in terms of offense are really, really bad. Now we look at ranks for the entire season. Things do change. They’ve been better. Yes. But that’s where the Tigers have an edge, right? They should have a little bit of a better lineup. They haven’t been swinging the battle. They talk about a team that strikes out too much. Gesh, I just said the Reds strike out a lot. Look at the Tigers. Tiger strike, especially against Gavin Williams. Oh boy. Cuz he throws a curveball. They can’t hit a curveball and they’re not going to be able to hit it in that day sunlight when the shadows start creeping in. It’s going to be the pillow fight in the Spongebob game. Whenever we play a 12:00 game in the minor leagues, it was always a Spongebob game because there’s a bunch of kids there and they were like always playing Spongebob Squarepants song. And these two teams aren’t hitting. Like they aren’t hitting and they have to face two legit pitchers. It just it it doesn’t it doesn’t make for must-see TV except for the fact that Derk Scoo’s gone. A pillow fight in the Spongebob game. Yeah, but here’s the thing. Listen, that’s good. The the the the Guardians have actually swung the bat a lot better. They have. I mean, you got to you got to look at their numbers lately. They’ve been a lot better. Um the Tigers are the the We all talk about the Mets. The the Tigers are thanking the Mets because they blew the largest lead of all time to not win the division. Now, they got in because of the extra wild card, but they had a 15 and a half game lead over the Guardians and blew it. They had like a 10-ame lead at the beginning of September and lost. It’s they had the worst record of all time in September of a team to make the postseason. Like, they’re not going in with any momentum. Their momentum is all right. We have Terrick Scoo and then Casey Mai and Jack Flity and a bullpen that’s been getting whacked around the yard for the last month and a half. They the Guardians have all the momentum. You got Austin Hedges up there doing all kind of cheerleading stuff on the rail and I mean Cleveland show up. Cleveland show up for these three games. Oh, they will show up. I’m just saying please because you guys could be great and show up. Detroit punted on the Sunday game for Scooble to pitch in this series because maybe Scoo wins on Sunday and then the series is at home. But we did that question of the week last week that you brought up. You cannot pitch school. You need Scooble. Scooble is he might be the most impactful player on a team in the playoffs. No, he’s the one he’s the probably the Well, I won’t say the most important, but he’s for his team. He’s probably the most important player on his team. Yeah. MVP. Wait, wait. Shouldn’t he get MVP votes then if he’s the most valuable player? He should get MVP show. He’s not gonna win MVP. I know. I mean I mean the fans I’m talking I’m not talking about the players. I’m talking about the fans. Fans can’t show up. They have to take a longer lunch break. It’s a lunchtime game. Not everybody can take off work for a one:00, but somebody’s got to do it. Not every game is going to be prime time. And if you keep advancing, you’ll eventually get to prime time. Guardians took on the Yankees last year. Then you get a little prime time. We didn’t go to that prime time then. Yeah. So, the Tigers lost 12 of 13 through the middle of July. Remember that tough stretch out of the All-Star break. And then 11 of 12 through the middle of last week. I mean, those are some really, really bad times. And meanwhile, the Guardians this month, 20 and seven. They’re hot. Now, statistically, like I was talking about with the offense, guess how many players with at least 20 games played this season have an above average offensive performance for the year. That means over 100 ops plus 100 being guess how many? Yeah, three. Two. That’s it. Only two. Only two. Lizardo didn’t make it. I mean, it’s I don’t have the names, but I think Yeah, Ramirez and and Quan. Yeah, I think so. Did Quan finish above it? Who’s the other one? No, I don’t. I only had the number, not the names. I should have Quan finished at 96. Who’s the other one? Probably Menzardo is my guess, right? Let me double check real quick. Love doing stats on the fly here, but I set myself up for that one. Yeah, Manardo. Oh, okay. So, those are the two. That’s it. And then I get to see the winner. So, gonna be interesting. Winner faces the Mariners. Winner faces the Mariners. Got to travel to Seattle. Mhm. which is going to be unbelievable atmosphere. Who do you think wins this? Who do you Do you think that the Guardians have the edge because of what they’re doing? Everything in my head and my everything in my heart says the Tigers should win this series just because if you look at all the stats and everything, but then they just you go back to they just played each other twice and the Guardians won I think five out of six in those in playoff worthy games. Playoff games. The Guardians won five out of six. The Guardians beat them last year. Again, everything says the Tigers should win, but there’s also a big part of my heart that’s like the Guardians are going to win because they just know how to win. Yeah. I also just think for me, Gratz, my head thinks Guardians, which is why I’ll probably go with Tigers because that’s just how these kind of wild card matchups go where you’re like, Tigers have no momentum. They haven’t beat Cleveland and do you really think they’re going to keep losing school games? What? They’ve lost like three or four of his last start. I’m like, eventually he’s just going to have one where it’s like there’s no duck snorts and he pitches seven or eight shutty and he gets a homer or two and then they’re up one in the series and they got to win one more. I mean, he’s kind of dominated the Guardians. I know they’ve beaten him the last two times. I’m trying to think the other time, the la the third start this year against him. You think that first start, I mean, he’s gone 13 strikeouts, eight strikeouts, nine strikeouts, 10 strikeouts against him. To me, I think, and I guess I’m putting too much weight on the first game. I’m thinking the Tigers take the series. I I really I really think that I think there’s somebody on their offense is going to step up or the matchup is favorable to a Tigers hitter like a like a Carrie Carpenter like a like a Parker Meadows because they can’t just keep matching up and winning those battles if you’re the Guardians. They have though. Yeah, they have. I message he’s like that was that his big thing is fresh season. Fresh season. We have We have to say that. Yeah. Every team says that that that gets in kind of back doors their way in. Oh, it’s a new season. Let’s go, guys. The teams that are hot down the stretch, the Guardians are like, “Oh, it’s a new season.” They’re like, “Let’s keep it going.” But the Rangers like, “Let’s keep it going.” Dude, two years ago, the Rangers had a bad last week and then that made them have to not win the division and go to Tampa Bay and were like, “Ah, they’re probably going to do nothing.” And then they got hot as hell. remember they were not hot. No, they kind of fell in and then they won the World Series. I’m not saying that’s happening here. I’m just saying I don’t buy a lot of momentum. Maybe we’ll do a momentum momentum in October. Yes, momentum from regular season. I think that’s a different season. That’s me. And there’s some research to back that up, which we can talk about tomorrow. I I talked to somebody with the Tigers and they said, “I I truly had a 100% belief that we were going to get in until the Nacho Alvarez game. Then I thought we were cursed.” Is exactly I just went back and read his text and he was like, “I thought the Nacho Alvarez game was cursed.” If you’re not a Tigers fan, Nacho Alvarez had zero home runs on the season and he hit two against them and it looked like that was the game that was going to knock the Tigers out of it and it was like just a bad stretch. So, they’re being honest. They’re a real team like and it’s played by human beings. The Tigers I think the Tigers on paper are a better team. That’s it. Not paper Tigers. Tigers. If you know, you know. If you know, you know. Okay, AJ, our slab pack ripping continues. Now, you just ripped a card that I think you’re actually going to keep. I am. I’m going to keep it. It’s a Ken Griffy Jr. rookie card. The old isn’t this the famous upper deck one, I believe it is. And yeah, heck yeah, I’m going to keep it because I’m going to get Griffy to sign it. I’m going to get him to send it to me, which you can do. And I’m going to get Griffy to sign it and it’s only going to make it worth more. So, I am all in on this card. I’m keeping it. And it is one of the coolest cards with the highest turtleneck you’ve ever seen and the gold chain around his neck. Graded nine 1989 upper deck. You get the offer for 179. It’s valued at around $1.99. And you’re like, “Nah, I’m keeping it.” But if you wanted to sell it back instantly, you can. It’s the beauty of Arena Club. AJ’s going to send in and get the physical card sent to him. And you could do the same. 20% off your first slab pack or card purchase can happen for you if you go to arenaub.com/foul and use the code fo u Help.

The Detroit Tigers and Cleveland Guardians face off in an early Wild Card matchup, and we break down every angle. Tarik Skubal vs Gavin Williams headlines Game 1, but can Cleveland’s small-ball attack keep rattling one of MLB’s best pitchers? The crew debates the Tigers’ collapse down the stretch, the Guardians’ late surge, and which offense can actually produce in October. We also look at X-factors like Kerry Carpenter, Steven Kwan, and José Ramírez.

Get 20% off your first Slab Pack or card purchase by going to https://ArenaClub.com/FOUL and use code FOUL

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