Speaker 1: It's time now for the Tony Vitello Show, our chance
Speaker 1: to talk with the Giants manager and Tony, you said
Speaker 1: on Friday that you had been to Fenway Park as
Speaker 1: a spectator, but obviously your first time as a manager
Speaker 1: a couple of games in. But tell us tell us
Speaker 1: your thoughts about Fenway because it really is a special place.
Speaker 2: No, it is. It's like time travel, and it's a
Speaker 2: little bit different, kind of like griglely, they got to
Speaker 2: update some things, and of course you want to maximize money.
Speaker 2: See you add seats above the monster and stuff like that,
Speaker 2: but it truly is like time travel and being a
Speaker 2: part of, you know, the grassroots of baseball. I guess
Speaker 2: you kind of feel like and you know then too
Speaker 2: your you're a little bit mesmerized because sitting in the
Speaker 2: stands is totally different than being on the field. So
Speaker 2: there is kind of an awe inspiring moment and the
Speaker 2: guys sign the back of the Green Monster, which is
Speaker 2: a tradition for players. But once the game starts, it's
Speaker 2: if you're winning, you love where you're playing at and
Speaker 2: then you get to a moment where the other team
Speaker 2: gets the bases loaded and you got to make a
Speaker 2: pitching change or something, then all of a sudden you
Speaker 2: hate it. But I think, like any park you go to,
Speaker 2: you got to embrace it and you got to enjoy
Speaker 2: it because it'll it'll bring out the kid and you
Speaker 2: to play a kid's game to the best of your level.
Speaker 1: And we're seeing a lot of young pitchers get opportunities
Speaker 1: for the Giants. Blade did well. We're getting a good
Speaker 1: look at him. He was terrific last night, shut out
Speaker 1: baseball into the sixth inning. What did you like most
Speaker 1: about Blade's performance last night?
Speaker 2: I think how he was on lefties. I mean, you know, Bray,
Speaker 2: you just wasn't seen it well. But to his defense,
Speaker 2: I mean Blade was suffocating the strike zone and he
Speaker 2: was doing it with a really good mix. So I
Speaker 2: think what got him off to a good start. They
Speaker 2: post here at Fenway what your strike percentage is. He
Speaker 2: was above seventy percent for the first few innings and
Speaker 2: that's the key for him, right yeah, I mean strike one.
Speaker 2: Of course, it's the key for anybody, but for him,
Speaker 2: it's really good stuff. But it's not stuff you want
Speaker 2: to dig yourself in a hole, you know, and just
Speaker 2: rely on. You know, you can go get one hundred
Speaker 2: miles an hour or something like that. So attacking the
Speaker 2: zone and then mixing. You know, from that point on
Speaker 2: going forward, maybe the strike percentage dips a little bit,
Speaker 2: but part of that is him making adjustments as he
Speaker 2: goes the second and third time through the order.
Speaker 1: And to be able to do this here, you know,
Speaker 1: with this crowd against a really good lineup, that's a
Speaker 1: huge confidence builder for really not just him but Dylan
Speaker 1: Smith who also came in and did a nice job.
Speaker 1: But what a confidence builder for young pitchers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and we be you know, mistaken if we didn't
Speaker 2: say Seymour in Cleveland here in tight games is going
Speaker 2: out there and has a total different look in his
Speaker 2: eye than his first go around with us, goes back
Speaker 2: to sack, comes back up and really says, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: be me, which I think every player if they can
Speaker 2: do that, which it sounds easy, but it's a hard decision.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be me on the mound or in the
Speaker 2: batter's box and just see what happens. And it's going
Speaker 2: very very well for him. We asked a lot of
Speaker 2: him and Smitty last night. We essentially used all the
Speaker 2: pitchers we had available, and those two guys should take
Speaker 2: confidence away from last night, not disappointment.
Speaker 1: Lots of opportunities for Giants' young pitchers. We'll have more
Speaker 1: of the Tony Vattello Show right after this. Welcome back
Speaker 1: to the Manager Show. We're talking with Tony Vattello, the
Speaker 1: manager of the San Francisco Giants. Another youngster gets a
Speaker 1: big opportunity today. It's Matt tug Bot Wilkinson and tell
Speaker 1: us what the plan is today, Tony with him because
Speaker 1: he went two innings in Cleveland that was on Wednesday,
Speaker 1: so really three days rest, how long will you go
Speaker 1: with him today?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'll be something we'll kind of reaffirm with a
Speaker 2: discussion right before the game with the whole group. But
Speaker 2: I think right now, you know, four innings is not unrealistic,
Speaker 2: you know so, but I think something beyond that would
Speaker 2: have to be a really low pitch count or you know,
Speaker 2: have all hands on deck ready to go in the
Speaker 2: fifth inning or something like that. So just trying to
Speaker 2: give a baseline. But for the most part, it's let
Speaker 2: him have the first inning and then kind of go
Speaker 2: from there. It is a shortened bullpen that we have,
Speaker 2: so it's affected some decisions I think we'd want to
Speaker 2: give him a longer leash, but at the same time
Speaker 2: be sensitive to the fact he did have a twenty
Speaker 2: five pitch outing as you said on Wednesday.
Speaker 1: And how do you explain his chance to succeed Because
Speaker 1: it's a ninety million hour fastball, but there seems to
Speaker 1: be some deception there. What do you see with that?
Speaker 1: And what is it that makes him potentially to be
Speaker 1: able to get people out with really maybe a below
Speaker 1: average fastball.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I do think it's deception, but overall it's his competitiveness.
Speaker 2: He's got extreme self belief. I really feel like when
Speaker 2: he gets out there, baseball is his outlet in life
Speaker 2: to shine through and be who he is. And then two,
Speaker 2: it's the conviction behind the fastball.
Speaker 1: On a lighter note, what does he go by? I mean,
Speaker 1: if he walks through the clubhouse and his teammates want
Speaker 1: to talk to him or you want to talk to him,
Speaker 1: is it Matt? Is it tug boat? What are we
Speaker 1: going with right now?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just tug or tug boat or variations of
Speaker 2: but very rarely is it Matt Wilkinson. And now I'm familiar.
Speaker 2: I had zero idea what his real name was. Buster
Speaker 2: brought it up. You know. I saw him pitch when
Speaker 2: he was a freshman in junior college, and Buster brought
Speaker 2: up his name in one meeting, and I had no
Speaker 2: idea who he was talking about, but I didn't want
Speaker 2: to interrupt the meeting. And then there's been a couple
Speaker 2: of times media has thrown it out out there, but
Speaker 2: now I'm familiar. But he is known nationwide and also
Speaker 2: to our neighbors to the north as Tugboat.
Speaker 1: Thanks Tony, good luck today.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: That's the manager of the San Francisco Giants, Tony Battello
Speaker 1: and the Tony Vattello Show. Thanks for joining us. We'll
Speaker 1: have more Giants baseball coming up.