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Bless You Boys Podcast 117 was recorded June 27, 2014, has a running time of 56 minutes, and features Al Beaton and HookSlide.
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One week later: Things were looking dire last week. The Tigers had lost 3 straight to the Royals, dropping 1 ½ games back and appeared well on their way to 3rd place. Seven days later, the Tigers have 7 wins in a row, and are back to 4 1/2 games up in the Central. Suddenly, the Tigers look like the team which steamrolled the AL in the first 39 games of the season. But what's changed in one week?
Rick Porcello: Kid Rick is off to the best start of his career, and may on his way to the breakout season fans have hoped for since his excellent rookie season. Thursday night Porcello tossed his first career shutout and second complete game, raising his record to 10-4 and lowering his ERA to 3.41.
Weekly bullpen topic: Dave Dombrowski tells MLB Network Radio the team is confident Joe Nathan has turned the corner, and that if the Tigers do add bullpen help ahead of the trade deadline, it'll likely be for a seventh or eighth inning arm.
J.D. Martinez: Named AL Player of the Week, and continues to bash the living Hell out of the ball. It appears the Tigers may have found a player who can fill the badly needed role of a power hitting corner outfielder. Martinez will not be the next coming of Miguel Cabrera, and the jury is still out if the .300 hitting..600 slugging version of the 26-year-old is for real.
Torii Hunter is willing to take a reduced role: The Tigers' corner outfield positions are getting crowded with the breakout of Martinez, the pending return of Andy Dirks and Rajai Davis serving as a solid role player. Hunter sees the writing on the wall and tells the media he is willing to take a part-time role if that's best for the team.
Ian Kinsler's wave: Kinsler homered in his first at-bat in his return to Arlington, then waved to the Texas bench when running to first (with a huge smile on his face). To everyone's surprise, there was no on-field retaliation. Flying under the radar is Kinsler's bat, which has been just as hot as the bats used by Tigers named Martinez.
Tigers reacquire Daniel Schlereth, assign him to Toledo: Really? Schlereth? WHY?
All that, and more!
Find the BYB staff on Twitter: @BlessYouBoys, @BigAlBYB, @BYBKurt, @HookSlideBYB, @BYBRob, @Tigerdog_1, @JGoro8, @MelissaHeyboer, @CSlonksnis, @NoRunSupport, @Yooper_IA, @GregEno, @SBNationMLB.
HookSlide's Detroit Tigers audio clips archive at Chirbit.com and Facebook page.
Kurt's Detroit News columns can be found by clicking here.
For more MLB news, check out SBNation's MLB page. For the latest rumors, head to SBNation's MLB Daily Dish.
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