Bless You Boys: for Detroit Tigers fans

The Tigers are still hanging around .500, but the quality of baseball is a rollercoaster. Some days they look good. Others they look like a lock to lose 100 games. Ashley and Brandon investigate the Jekyll and Hyde nature of the 2019 Detroit Tigers, fearing that Mr. Hyde is near to setting up permanent shop in the dugout.

-The Tigers keep hanging in, but it all depends who is starting.

-Help for the offense is on the way, but help for the pitching staff is going to be hard to come by.

-Brad Ausmus and the Angels are in town, and everything is still his fault.

-The Rays are winning and have an absolutely stacked farm system. How about we poach Chaim Bloom as Tigers GM, and he and Yzerman can lead the Ilitch sports ventures into a bold new era of success.

-Drew VerHagen DFA'd, which is fine, but who do we have to rescue the bullpen and rotation?

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're back with another weekend edition of the BYB Podcast. The Tigers continue to look good some days, and terrible on others, and it all comes back to the starting rotation. We'll look at some rather unnecessary comments from Miguel Cabrera on his lack of home run power and who is to blame. Finally, it's best a very nice opening month for a lot of the Tigers' top prospects. We'll talk Mize, Manning, and Alex Faedo, talk some sleepers, and process the current state of the rebuild.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After a rough stretch in which the Tigers lost 4 straight to plunge below .500, they rebounded with a win in Philly on Tuesday. But that doesn't erase some ugly memories from their weekend in Chicago. On the plus side, Matt Boyd and several other younger players have continued to impress.

20:00 We get into Casey Mize's no-hitter, and his poise and polish in the aftermath. We also consider the pace of the rebuild, how to bring these arms along, and consider where the bats are supposed to come from.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The 2019 Tigers keep figuring out how to win ballgames. It's been a fun ride and we are here for it as long as it lasts. The news with the biggest potential fallout this week, was the change in representation by Nick Castellanos. The Tigers right-fielder switched agencies, and will now be represented by Scott Boras, bringing an end to any hopes of an extension, and potentially positioning Castellanos at the center of what will be another interesting offseason for free agents. We're kind of sad about this, but more importantly, it's hard not to feel the Tigers rebuild timetable slipping further away.

-We look back at another successful week for the Tigers, enjoy Matt Boyd and Chris Sale's pre-game run-in, and marvel at the fact that they're winning with Nick Castellanos and Miguel Cabrera still searching for their first home runs.

-Daniel Norris made his first start of the year and it went quite well. Be patient with Daniel Norris, Tigers fans. He's worth it.

-Nick Castellanos is now a Scott Boras client and that move has many potential repercussions.

-We take some listener questions, look at a few stories from the week in baseball, and preview Ashley's YouTube channel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Of course, there are plenty of good reasons to suspect they won't hang around .500 too much longer. Still, it's great to see that even a team without major ambitions this year is bringing out a passionate response from the fanbase. Some of that response, particularly in regard to the offense through 16 games, has been decidedly negative. It's bound to improve, but the question is whether or not we've already seen the best of the pitching staff. Ashley and Brandon dive into these, and many other topics, at the 10 percent mark of the 2019 season.

The Tigers are a .500 team and the fanbase is PUMPED! Huh, they’re not pumped? Oh.Should be play role reversal with Niko Goodrum and JaCoby Jones?Brandon rolls his eyes at the Tigers handling of Daniel Norris briefly, but here we go so hang onto your butts.Matt Boyd has turned himself into quite a good starting pitcher, and we believe.A Zach Greinke story, and the possibility that a Trevor Bauer, Greinke summit would either destroy the universe or save it.MLB is cracking down on minor league video now, and seems dedicated to getting its sticky little paws into every nook and cranny of baseball fandom.So, you wanna be a baseball writer?We didn’t know we needed this many guinea pig avatars of Shane Greene, but it turns out that we did. https://twitter.com/ComericaEric/status/1118329109250285569

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

While the Minor League Tracker podcast is on a brief hiatus, BYB Podcast host Brandon Day pinch hits with a way too early look at the Tigers farm system. Today we are joined by friend of BYB, Chris Brown. He writes about prospects and the Tigers farm system for the long-running site, Tigstown. He is the co-host of the Tigers SRD podcast alongside Roger Martin, and has recently launched the Locked On Tigers Podcast, a compact daily podcast hitting on all the Tigers news of the day.

It is, of course, too early to draw even vague conclusions about the Tigers farm system this year. But, we take the early temperature of the team's starting pitching prospects. We check in on a night of blown saves throughout the system and some of the better relief prospects the Tigers have. Finally, we look at some of the position players, and consider the Tigers efforts to improve in player development versus how much of improvement is simply on the players themselves.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're back with another weekend edition, to tamp down your enthusiasm for the starting rotation, and your fears about the offense. Topics under consideration include...

A look back at the Tigers road series victory over the Yankees.The incredible transformation of Matt BoydOpening Day in Detroit is more special with a win.Just how good is Spencer Turnbull?Our first looks at Casey Mize, Matt Manning and the best of the Tigers farm system.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Tigers have pitched and scrapped their way out to a 3-3 start, despite rather weak efforts at the plate. Brandon and Ashley discuss the merits of the Tigers rotation through their first six turns. Niko Goodrum gets his usual dose of love, and we very much enjoyed Bryce Harper's return to Washington. This was recorded on the night of taco and margarita Tuesday, in the small sample size glow of the season's first week, and with regard to these conditions we refuse to be held responsible for any claims, suggestions or arguments put forth in the recording of this podcast.  Dustin Peterson came up big, and all you can talk about is Niko Goodrum.This rotation, eh? Ok, let's just hold onto our butts because it's six games.Bryce Harper returned to Washington like a boss. It was a fun first week of baseball around the league.The David Hess situationCheck out Ashley's YouTube channel.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're going to try a little something extra with the BYB Podcast this year. The normal full length episodes featuring Brandon Day and Ashley MacLennan will continue as usual, and will generally drop on Wednesday. But we'll also be adding in a weekend edition. This is the first of that series. Generally they'll come out on Saturday or Sunday, and allow a quick rundown of the Tigers' results for the week, who had the standout performances (both good and bad), and touching on any other major news around the franchise. Hopefully this allows the full podcast to breathe without having to catch up on the full week's news, and allows us to touch on the major stories, both from the Tigers organization, and around the wider MLB landscape, and also to digress at length and at will. 

Four starts, and the Tigers rotation looks great. However, the Blue Jays lineup is bad, so don't get too excited.Jeimer Candelario broke out on Sunday, but it was a rough go for the offense against a pretty good-looking Blue Jays rotation in the Rogers Centre.The bullpen was a little shaky in the backend, but got several strong performances as well.The Toledo Mud Hens kick things off on Thursday of this week, so let's run down some of the arms in Toledo that are likely to make an impact in the majors this season.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With Opening Day just a day away, Bless You Boys staff writer Brandon Day, and deputy editor Ashley MacLennan look over the final roster and look ahead to the 2019 season.

Spencer Turnbull wins the final rotation spot.What the heck are the Tigers doing with Daniel Norris?So, who is playing CF again?A look over the Tigers final roster, and some bold predictions.AL Central/NL Central PreviewExtension ManiaThe usual blend of history and true crime ephemera.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices