Bless You Boys: for Detroit Tigers fans

Welcome back folks, and thanks for joining us. This is another combination pod with Brandon Day of the Bless You Boys podcast, and Mark Gorosh of the Don't Call it a Rebuild, it's a Team Build podcast. The Detroit Tigers beat writer for the Athletic Detroit, Cody Stavenhagen, joins us for a lengthy chat after a week of Summer Camp.

In part one, we'll talk about some early impressions made, particularly by players on the cut-line and fighting for a roster spot. We'll talk Riley Greene and Spencer Torkelson. We'll talk about the catching group. And we'll size up where Casey Mize and Matt Manning are respectively, in their quest to earn a major league debut this summer. All that, and a look at constructing the starting rotation are on the docket for part one.

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One of the early managing editors of Bless You Boys, the lovely Ian Casselberry joins host Brandon Day and the host of the Don't Call it a Rebuild, it's a Team Build podcast, Mark Gorosh, for a wide-ranging conversation.

You can find Ian these days writer for Awful Announcing, and links to his myriad podcasts can be found at his Twitter handle, @iancass.

We'll talk about the early history of the Bless You Boys blog, and the Wild West days of the Tigers' nascent blogosphere in the mid-00's. Social media has radically changed the landscape over the years, while the analytics era has radically changed how the game is covered. We'll talk about that and the history of the Tigers in the intervening timespan, and contemplate sports in the year of COVID-19.

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There was quite a bit of news on Tuesday, and blessedly little of the unexpected variety. We'll take it after the past four months. However, it wasn't all good. On the positive side, Spencer Torkelson is now officially a Tiger, and headed to the taxi squad (why isn't Uber in on the branding there?). Unfortunately, MLB also announced as expected that the minor league season would be cancelled.

It's hard not to have a split perspective right now. One can't realistically consider any potential outcomes in this strange short season without considering the chances that playing games just isn't realistic without increasing the likelihood of serious illness and even death for many of the participants. Hosts Brandon Day and Ashley MacLennan will have to speak out of both sides of our mouths a bit. We'll discuss possibilities for a really interesting season if the Tigers were to, you know, try to win and stuff. But in the end, this may be best viewed as nothing more than exhibition baseball, and we'll have to take whatever we get until the pandemic is under control.

Intro: “Let’s Save Tony Orlando’s House” -Yo La Tengo

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In the wake of their strange and ultimately futile renegotiation of this season of COVID-19, and with the looming CBA negotiations next year, we brought in a heavy hitter for this one. Jon Pessah is one of the founding editors of ESPN the Magazine, and the acclaimed author of two books on baseball which will frame our discussion.

The first, is The Game: Inside the Secret World of Major League Baseball’s Power Brokers. A behind-the-scenes history of the business of baseball from the tenure of early MLBPA chief, Marvin Miller, to the Rob Manfred/Tony Clark era, The Game focuses particularly on the 1994-1995 lockout and strike through the lens of Commissioner Bud Selig, Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner, and MLBPA chief Don Fehr. The book is comprehensively researched and sourced, the product of hundreds of interviews with all the major players, and a tour de force exploration of the games behind the game.

As a result, Pessah is uniquely situated to understand the power structure and dynamics behind major league baseball, and their evolution to the present day. We talked about the current strife, how all of this is a product of relatively recent history, and look ahead warily to next year’s expiring collective bargaining agreement.

Second, is the biography, Yogi: Life Behind the Mask, which was just released in April. Again the product of hundreds of interviews and years of research, the biography unpacks the man behind the myth and places one of the greatest players of all-time in his rightful context as the true hero and force behind the classic Yankees’ teams of the 50’s and 60’s.

For the final 20 minutes or so, we chatted about the life and times of one of the more enigmatic players in baseball history. Circumstances dictated we do this by phone, so please forgive the sound quality and occasional car passing in the background.

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Well, that was something! The Detroit Tigers, the team we know and love so well, had quite a night for themselves on day two of the draft. Somehow, they took not one pitcher, spent a high pick on a catcher, and still manage to procure a nice array of position players without reaching an inch. Instead, Al Avila and company just lay in the cut while interesting players dropped into their laps over and over.

Vinnie Cervino and Brian Sakowski, the top evaluators for Perfect Game USA, were gracious enough to join hosts Brandon Day of the BYB Podcast, and Mark Gorosh of the Don't Call it a Rebuild, it's a Team Build Podcast, for another podcast summit.

Together, as our two intrepid guests covered the final five round picks, (you're going to hear some rustling and typing in the background, sorry), we reflected on the overall picture from the past two days. In particular, we were broke down a wild day for the Tigers, and our generally positive impressions of the results.

1. IF Spencer Torkelson (Arizona State)

38. C Dillon Dingler (Ohio State)

62. OF Daniel Cabrera (LSU)

73. IF Trei Cruz (Rice)

102. IF Gage Workman (Arizona State)

132. IF Colt Keith (Biloxi HS)

Intro: “Suzie Thundertussy” -Junie Morrison

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With the draft under 48 hours away, host Brandon Day spoke to Keanan Lamb, Senior Draft Writer & Amateur Scouting Coordinator for Baseball Prospectus. Schedules are frantic between work and other media engagements, so we kept it to a tight half hour or so.

Lamb weighed in on the positive developments in the Tigers' farm system over the past two years and the new hires last fall. Then it's into draft talk. This is such a peculiar and compelling draft, and we're so starved for real baseball news, that we can't help feeling like it's almost Christmas morning waiting for draft day to arrive. Without amateur baseball to watch for much of this spring, many of the usual cues prospect writers and scouts look for were absent, lending even greater uncertainty to the coverage. We can expect the unexpected, but then the draft never fails to hold some big surprises.

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Hey we're back with another podcast summit between BYB and the Don't Call it a Rebuild, it's a Team Build podcast. Hosts Brandon Day and Mark Gorosh spoke to Brian Sakowski, National Scouting Supervisor for Perfect Game USA about the Tigers, the draft, and the challenges of evaluation in a fast-changing game. Unfortunately, Cody Stavenhagen of the Athletic Detroit wasn't able to join us on this one as planned, but we'll hope to have him back on soon as well.

Open- Introductions and setting the stage with a look at the Tigers rebuilding effort, then we'll take a look at Spencer Torkelson and the other top guys on the board.

33:00 - A look at Perfect Game's recent mock draft for the Tigers

52:00 - The undrafted, and how to lure them to sign for a measly $20K

1:10:00 - Dealing with the unmeasurables in player evaluation.

1:32:00 - Quick snapshot of the developing 2021 draft class.

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We've been gently easing our way toward draft season in recent podcasts and we'll continue on with the theme here. On this episode, we have a first timer on as we talk Tigers and start sussing out an overview of their draft options. BYB writer Trevor Hooth joins host Brandon Day for a little getting to know you conversation, an assessment of the Tigers current state, and the opportunities and pitfalls available in the 2020 MLB draft.

In the first half, we discuss Trevor's path into baseball writing and sports journalism at large. We then get into discussion of the Tigers current assets and the trajectory of the organization as they attempt to transition into a more modern, data driven approach to drafting and player development.

Draft conversation starts right around the (52:00) mark. This is a long one folks, but as this is Trevor's first appearance, we figured some introduction was in order. We discussed the Tork/Martin decision with the first overall pick, consider the draft class overall, and speculated on other higher round options the Tigers seem likely to consider.

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Welcome back folks. We don't usually begin our draft coverage for a few more weeks, but then again, we're usually two weeks into a baseball season and covering the opening of the minor league season by this point. With tentative plans for a partial season still very much in the early stages, the draft is the one thing we've got to look forward to for certain, so let's start getting into it.

Joining host Brandon Day are a pair of strong guests. First we have Joe Doyle, who writes for Lookout Landing, our Seattle sister site on the SB Nation platform. He covers amateur players and the draft for Prospects Live and Baseball America. Secondly, we have former BYB prospects writer Jay Markle. He's now with Motor City Bengals on the Fansided platform.

We'll talk about the strange new rules that will govern the revised 2020 draft, the bonus pools, and how the draft class sets up for this five round free-for-all.

The Tigers number one pick still has folks divided between Vanderbilt's Austin Martin, and Arizona's Spencer Torkleson, along with a few Asa Lacy believers to spice the mix. We'll talk about each of them, and look into the heart of the draft for the Tigers, who will hold picks 38, 63, and 74. Getting those picks right is going to be the key, and in a pitcher-rich draft class, finding a good arm or two without neglecting the dire need for good positional talent may influence the Tigers approach here.

Along the way we'll talk about the Tigers farm system, their strengths and weaknesses, and whether they can close the gap between them and the top farms any time soon.

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Welcome back! It's been tough finding topics to talk about that aren't completely up in the air along with the rest of the game right now. So, to alleviate the issue, we've got a pair of special guests on tap for this one. We recorded on Sunday night, before the full release of MLB's new tentative plans for a partial season based in Arizona on Monday the sixth of April, but as it turns out we anticipated a lot of the potential issues in advance.

Cody Stavenhagen, Tigers beat writer for the Athletic Detroit joins us on the podcast to talk about his impressions of spring training and hopes for the season prior to the COVID-19 delay.

We're also joined by friend of the pod Mark Gorosh, host of the Don't Call it a Rebuild, It's a Team Build podcast (we need to shorten this moniker btw) over on the Tigers Minor League Report network of pods.

Discussion started with MLB's contingency plans for a partial season and the problems and possible opportunities at hand as a result. We looked into the potential impact of the Tigers revamped player development department, though it's still going to be some time until their impact, for good or ill, becomes tangible. Stavenhagen also gives us his impressions of Casey Mize and some of the other standouts he observed down in Lakeland a few weeks ago, though it now feels like it's been months since we saw any action.

Finally, the last half hour or so is largely a quick discussion of some of the music, books, movies, and tv shows getting us through the lockdown.

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