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Speaker 1: Let's go new fish Bites. It's the pre Thanksgiving episode

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Speaker 1: of our Miami Marlins podcast, and I Eli Sussman, am

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Speaker 1: always thankful for your support. Please subscribe to Fish Stripes

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Speaker 1: on any pod provider to be the first to hear

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Speaker 1: our new stuff and to browse all the audio coverage

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Speaker 1: from twenty nineteen. We're coming up on nearly one hundred

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Speaker 1: total episodes from my staff and contributors this year. A

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Speaker 1: lot of those interviews and analysis have aged really well,

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Speaker 1: even if you didn't catch them the first time around.

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Speaker 1: More cool plans on tap for the final month of

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Speaker 1: the year as well, Stay tuned for that. For the

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Speaker 1: second straight week, I'm spending most of this episode just

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Speaker 1: like you as a listener. That's because arm Layton landed

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Speaker 1: an interview with Blue Jay's outfield prospect in twenty nineteen

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Speaker 1: Midwest League home run champion Griffin Conine. That's right, Co nine.

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Speaker 1: He's the son of mister Marlin himself, Jeff Conine. You

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Speaker 1: will absolutely want to listen to his memories of growing

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Speaker 1: up in a Marlins family and the developments in his

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Speaker 1: own professional career. This guy is shit full season ball

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Speaker 1: this past year, but an early round pick who had

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Speaker 1: a standout career at Duke University. He's on a path

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Speaker 1: to eventually join his father as a future Big Gigger,

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Speaker 1: even if it's not with the Marlins. But he has

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Speaker 1: great rapport with arm and it's a really interesting interview.

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Speaker 1: I think that will give you a different side of

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Speaker 1: what could be of future impact player at the highest level.

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Speaker 1: But first I need to address the twenty two million

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Speaker 1: dollar elephant on the payroll way in Chen. On Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: the Marlins finally bit the bullet on Chen. I've been

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Speaker 1: asking for this for a number of months now, but

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Speaker 1: better late than never. He's not going to be on

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Speaker 1: the team for twenty twenty DFAD, and by the time

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Speaker 1: you listen to this, he might be already officially released

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Speaker 1: from the team and into free agency with one year

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Speaker 1: remaining on what was originally an eighty million dollars deal.

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Speaker 1: But they still owe him every cent that he was

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Speaker 1: guaranteed for twenty twenty. They had to do it now

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Speaker 1: to make room on their forty man roster to protect

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Speaker 1: some key prospects from the upcoming Rule five Draft, so

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Speaker 1: they finally got it done. All told, in his four

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Speaker 1: seasons with the Marlins, a five point ten earned run average,

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Speaker 1: a four point five to four fielder independent pitching, contributing

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Speaker 1: two point two wins above replacement according to Fangrafts, and

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Speaker 1: that's in three hundred and fifty eight innings pitched. This

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Speaker 1: I thought would be the appropriate time to rewind and

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Speaker 1: look at why he joined the Marlins in the first place,

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Speaker 1: and to wonder what his legacy is going to be

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Speaker 1: with the team, because I don't want to over to

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Speaker 1: that final twenty nineteen season that wasn't representative of who

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Speaker 1: he was. This is a guy that had originally been

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Speaker 1: pitching in Korea and had had a lot of success there,

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Speaker 1: signed by the Baltimore Orioles and pitched there for four

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Speaker 1: seasons as a really steady mid rotation pitcher, a guy

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Speaker 1: that's a really good number three or maybe even a

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Speaker 1: decent number two on some teams. He was that good.

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Speaker 1: He had a three point seven to two eer, a

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Speaker 1: four point one four fifth with the Orioles, averaging about

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Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy seven innings per season. That's really solid.

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Speaker 1: So the projection was coming over to the National League

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Speaker 1: he may even improve on those a little bit. He

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Speaker 1: was thirty years old, which is a number that I

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Speaker 1: guess a lot of people circle as the beginning of

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Speaker 1: a player's decline, but that's not always accurate. Chen was

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Speaker 1: not someone that ever really relied all that much on

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Speaker 1: his physical talent and extraordinary raw stuff. Had an average

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Speaker 1: fastball about ninety two ninety two and a half with

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Speaker 1: the Orioles, which was at that time pretty much exactly

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Speaker 1: average for a starting pitcher, a couple of breaking balls,

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Speaker 1: but nothing too filthy about a league average strikeout rate

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Speaker 1: for a starting pitcher. He got by by throwing a

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Speaker 1: lot of strikes. He movement on his fastball. As for Seemer,

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Speaker 1: it was in terms of both the vertical movement going

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Speaker 1: up and down and the horizontal from side to side.

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Speaker 1: He had above average movement on his four Seemer that

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Speaker 1: made it difficult to square up, and I think that

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Speaker 1: was a big key for him in being as successful

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Speaker 1: as he was with the Orioles the Marlins. In order

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Speaker 1: to outbid other teams that gave him a five year deal,

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Speaker 1: which if you look at all the pitchers since then,

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Speaker 1: that is pretty much unheard of for someone that is

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Speaker 1: not a true top of the rotation swing and misguy.

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Speaker 1: So teams have learned from that mistake since then to

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Speaker 1: commit too long to this player. But that thing said,

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Speaker 1: I mean, he projected as somebody that you could see

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Speaker 1: a aging somewhat gracefully because he never relied on the

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Speaker 1: fastball velocity all that much, and as it would turn out,

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Speaker 1: even with an injury in the middle of his Marlins

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Speaker 1: tenure to his elbow, his velocity did not drop off

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Speaker 1: all that much after changing teams, average about ninety one

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Speaker 1: miles per hour. Some adjustments that he did make. He

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Speaker 1: did cut back on his sinker, but that was already

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Speaker 1: like the weakest pitch in his repertoire if you look

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Speaker 1: back at his final Oriole season. So he cut out

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Speaker 1: something that was already holding him back and I mean

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Speaker 1: everything else though it just did not click the same way.

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Speaker 1: One particular thing that I've noticed now in hindsight is

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Speaker 1: that the movement on that fastball and made his four

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Speaker 1: seamer really effective. For whatever reason, he was not throwing

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Speaker 1: that pitch quite the same with the Marlins. It did

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Speaker 1: not move as much as it used to in either direction.

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Speaker 1: Perhaps that made it easier for hitters to get their

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Speaker 1: bat on. That may be a reason why hitters did

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Speaker 1: not chase outside the strike zone as often as they

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Speaker 1: used to when he was with the Orioles earlier in

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Speaker 1: his career. He had a handful of really amazing starts,

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Speaker 1: and I actually put together an article you can find

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Speaker 1: it on fish stripes dot com that has the highlights

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Speaker 1: from what are his seven strongest Marlins games according to

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Speaker 1: game score, one of those being seven no hit innings

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Speaker 1: against the Mariners that he was only removed from the

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Speaker 1: game due to an inefficient pitch count.

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Speaker 2: Three two to matter in the air back grind, third

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Speaker 2: d trick is there and he's got it. And way

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Speaker 2: In Chen has thrown seven no hit innings here in Seattle.

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Speaker 1: When he was at his best. Though for those other

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Speaker 1: top performances and even ones where the results in quite

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Speaker 1: measure up, he was relatively efficient with his pitches and

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Speaker 1: that did spare the bullpen somewhat. The tune changed a

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Speaker 1: little bit in twenty eighteen. Is managed differently coming back

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Speaker 1: from those elbow inch issues in twenty eighteen, and Don

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Speaker 1: manningly did not trust him to go as deep intive games.

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Speaker 1: He was rarely allowed to pitch the third time through

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Speaker 1: a lineup, so that removed what I thought was the

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Speaker 1: perhaps like the biggest asset that he had to offer

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Speaker 1: was his ability to eat innings. That injury really changed

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Speaker 1: all of that, and to the state he still has

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Speaker 1: not had surgery on the elbow. I'll be curious to

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Speaker 1: see if that happens moving forward and if that would

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Speaker 1: change anything for him. Realistically, that Marlins core was probably

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Speaker 1: never going to reach a true contender status because they

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Speaker 1: did not have those impact players waiting in the wings.

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Speaker 1: But that has nothing to do with Chen. It's not

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Speaker 1: his fault that they had shortcomings on the player development side.

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Speaker 1: As I look back on it, the best theory that

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Speaker 1: I have really for why Chen didn't work out for

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Speaker 1: the Marlins, aside from the obvious the injury and injuries

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Speaker 1: happened to starting pitchers after a certain amount of work

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Speaker 1: that's often inevitable. Aside from the injury excuse, I would

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Speaker 1: say that he was impacted more by the changing baseballs

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Speaker 1: than most other pitchers were. What I mean by that

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Speaker 1: is we've seen him now more than ever this past season.

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Speaker 1: How evidence showing that baseballs are produced differently for MLB

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Speaker 1: than they used to be in such a way that's

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Speaker 1: allowing the ball to travel farther, It's changing the way

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Speaker 1: the seams on the baseball are stitched and how pitchers

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Speaker 1: can grip those balls, and the difference in his fastball

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Speaker 1: movement may have something to do with that. Where I

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Speaker 1: think it was in twenty sixteen, in the second half

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Speaker 1: of the season. That data suggests that's when the consistency

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Speaker 1: of the baseballs and some of their characteristics started to change.

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Speaker 1: So maybe he for whatever reason him in particular, that

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Speaker 1: new baseball affected the way that his pitch was moving

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Speaker 1: and made it more easier to square up warrantly about

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Speaker 1: the impact of the bat on the ball now that

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Speaker 1: baseballs are traveling further. Chen was never a guy that

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Speaker 1: missed a whole lot of bats and got strikeouts. He

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Speaker 1: utilized balls in play, and he always skewed more towards

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Speaker 1: being a fly ball pitcher than a ground ball pitcher.

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Speaker 1: So for years he had this perception of what it

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Speaker 1: meant to allow safe contact, contact that would stay in

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Speaker 1: the ballpark and was playable for his teammates. But as

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Speaker 1: the ball changed and it's traveling further, all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: it makes him have to reassess his entire strategy in

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Speaker 1: pitch mix because the ball that used to be an

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Speaker 1: out to the warning track or to the wall is

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Speaker 1: now going over the wall and costing his team. My

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Speaker 1: biggest takeaway from the Chance situation is that it should

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Speaker 1: not deter the Marlins for making big free agent investments

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Speaker 1: in the near future. He was the wrong guy at

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Speaker 1: the wrong time, given the wrong contract. But generally speaking,

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Speaker 1: you need outside hell to put together a championship team.

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Speaker 1: It's not going to be one hundred percent homegrown. It

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Speaker 1: never has been. The most recent World Series champion the

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Speaker 1: Nationals are a great example of that, but as several

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Speaker 1: champions right before then and the key contenders as we

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Speaker 1: head into twenty twenty, you need to invest to put

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Speaker 1: together a great team. The Marlins are in a situation

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Speaker 1: where their revenue should be going up in the near

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Speaker 1: future to justify those type of expenditures, and I think

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Speaker 1: most importantly, the fans should still be demanding that this

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Speaker 1: team try to put together the best product possible. You

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Speaker 1: need to take risks, and nobody gets them all right

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Speaker 1: in this situation. The Marlins under this new ownership in

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Speaker 1: front office haven't been fully tested in these situations. Be prepared.

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Speaker 1: There will be other Chens in the Marlins future, and

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Speaker 1: that's not necessarily a bad thing and now a Fish

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Speaker 1: Stripes exclusive. Here is arm Leyden interviewing Blue Jays outfield prospect,

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Speaker 1: a Duke University product with mister Marlin Bloodlines Griffin Conine.

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Speaker 3: Fish Fights Podcast. It's arm Leyton. I'm back. I got

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Speaker 3: Griffin Conine with me. Griffin, we've talked about this for

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Speaker 3: a while about doing this second round pick for the

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Speaker 3: Blue Jays, Son of Jeff co nine. If you didn't know,

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Speaker 3: I know you love hearing that all the time. I'm

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Speaker 3: sure you're not sick of that one. But Griff, thanks

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Speaker 3: for taking the time to hop on.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely.

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Speaker 5: Man, it's been a long time in the works, never

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Speaker 5: could find a time, but finally finally made the time.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for taking the time out of your busy schedule.

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Speaker 3: Son of Jeff, I have to start there. That literally

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Speaker 3: was your nickname?

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Speaker 4: It Duke right, Yeah, it.

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Speaker 5: Still is in the group me that we still have

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Speaker 5: going from from last year for my junior YEARI, son

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Speaker 5: of is it?

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Speaker 3: Are you sick of it yet?

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Speaker 4: I've been embracing it lately.

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Speaker 5: I think I got sick of it for the first

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Speaker 5: couple of years in college and then finally, you know,

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Speaker 5: I was just like, let's just roll with it. Let's

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Speaker 5: make it the let's make it the group me nickname.

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Speaker 5: Let's just embrace it.

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Speaker 3: I had to mention it though, of course, because this

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Speaker 3: is a Marlins podcast, Marlins site, and of course your

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Speaker 3: dad is a Marlins legend. Unfortunately, you did not get

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Speaker 3: drafted to the Fish. You went second round to the

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Speaker 3: Jays a couple of years ago. And now you just

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Speaker 3: finished your first full season sort of full season, uh

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Speaker 3: in the minor leagues. You tore it up, absolutely tore

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Speaker 3: it up, knocked it, led the league in home runs

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Speaker 3: with everybody else getting a fifty game head start. What

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Speaker 3: was this season like for you so far? You know,

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Speaker 3: you started in instructs, which you said you can talk

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Speaker 3: about a little bit, was pretty crazy. And then you

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Speaker 3: get to single A and absolutely mash the ball and

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Speaker 3: lead the league in home runs with starting fifty games

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Speaker 3: late leading into it. How was instructs and what kind

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Speaker 3: of experience was that for you?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, so it was.

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Speaker 5: So you go to spring training and then everyone breaks

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Speaker 5: on April, you know, April first or whatever. They go

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Speaker 5: to their teams, whether it's you know, the big league club,

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Speaker 5: triple A, double A. Everyone kind of gets sent off

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Speaker 5: wherever they're going, and then you got this group that's

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Speaker 5: left back at the complex and they go to extended

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Speaker 5: spring training. So these are I mean, it's a mixed bag, man.

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Speaker 5: It's it's everyone from you know, a guy that's rehabbing,

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Speaker 5: a lot of big league guys where there just rehabbing.

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Speaker 5: There's you know, Triple A guys, Double A guys, a

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Speaker 5: lot of young you know Dominican Latin guys that are

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Speaker 5: either they're just not ready for a full season team

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Speaker 5: or they're a lot of them are being prepped to

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Speaker 5: go to like the short season, which is Bluefield or

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Speaker 5: vanouver where I was last year. So you got I mean,

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Speaker 5: you just got all kinds of people talent wise, that

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Speaker 5: just a huge range. So we're I mean, there was

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Speaker 5: only I think five or six uh, English speaking guys

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Speaker 5: as far as you know, non big league or rehap

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Speaker 5: guys that were just so it was you know, there's

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Speaker 5: sixty fifty sixty Spanish speakers, and then you got this

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Speaker 5: group of like six or seven of us that was uh,

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Speaker 5: it was me, and then there was like four or

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Speaker 5: five other guys that were either ended up going to

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Speaker 5: Vancouver or Bluefield that we just had this little group that, Uh,

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Speaker 5: you know, we're all English speakers, and then we were

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Speaker 5: just crazily outnumbered.

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Speaker 3: And that must have been a very like unique circumstance

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Speaker 3: for you because you were going into the season expecting

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Speaker 3: to you know, probably start in low A ball and

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Speaker 3: go from there, and uh, having to start your season

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Speaker 3: there in such a unique situation. Did that kind of

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Speaker 3: give you a chip on your shoulder? Did you kind

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Speaker 3: of have a little bit were you hungry or going

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Speaker 3: into that base all season? Now once you finally were

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Speaker 3: able to go and get after it. Obviously you came

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Speaker 3: out swinging and had a lot of success, But were

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Speaker 3: you chomping at the bit to finally get your season

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Speaker 3: started after having to serve those fifty games in uh

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Speaker 3: extended spring training?

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Speaker 6: Oh?

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Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, you know, I think it was at the

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Speaker 5: same time, you know, it was as bad as it was,

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Speaker 5: it was equally as good, just because I was able

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Speaker 5: to There was definitely some swing surgery.

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Speaker 4: So to speak, that needed to go down. You know.

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Speaker 5: Obviously disappointing first year in Vancouver kind of really the

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Speaker 5: only adversity I had felt since freshman year in college,

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Speaker 5: you know, not playing well, and they really stressed your

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Speaker 5: first year in pro ball not They don't stress you.

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Speaker 4: I could say, it's not that important.

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Speaker 5: You know, you're adjusting, you have the wood bats now

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Speaker 5: from college, a lot of factors going into it. You know,

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Speaker 5: you're playing every day, so they kind of don't you know,

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Speaker 5: they take it with a grain of salt. But you know,

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Speaker 5: the second there's kind of no excuses. You know you're adjusted,

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Speaker 5: Hopefully you got your bats figured out. So second year,

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Speaker 5: you know, is an important one as far as making

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Speaker 5: a statement, and I think definitely I was. I was

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Speaker 5: a little nervous and glad I had this kind of

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Speaker 5: chunk of time to just focus on some things I

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Speaker 5: wanted to change in the swing and kind of getting ready,

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Speaker 5: have an extra period of time to just, uh, really

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Speaker 5: individualize because you know, spring training there's so many guys

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Speaker 5: there that there's just not enough coaches to to really

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Speaker 5: have individual work getting done. So it's more of a

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Speaker 5: you know, hopefully you worked in the offseason, you got

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Speaker 5: yourself ready because spring training is more just kind of

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Speaker 5: fine tuning.

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Speaker 4: You know, there's no real adjustments that can be made

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Speaker 4: at that point.

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Speaker 5: You know, you're kind of just rolling with whatever you

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Speaker 5: got for the upcoming season and hopefully you're in a

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Speaker 5: good spot.

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Speaker 3: And I'm starting here. Sorry to interrupt you, I let

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Speaker 3: you go back, but I wanted to make sure, like

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Speaker 3: we're going to talk about all the crazy things that

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Speaker 3: led up into your baseball career. I kind of want

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Speaker 3: to start from now and go backwards because of everything

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Speaker 3: that's happened recently and how good of a season you

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Speaker 3: had and all the drama from getting drafted to where

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Speaker 3: you are now. But I obviously want to talk to

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Speaker 3: you about experiencing your dad being in the locker room

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Speaker 3: during those times and your whole experience with baseball. But

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Speaker 3: still focusing on this season. Now, you're hoping to start

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Speaker 3: the season now in high A ball and dunneden and

316
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Speaker 3: how are you expecting that? We know, the Florida State

317
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Speaker 3: League is probably the most loaded pitching league in the

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Speaker 3: entire minor leagues probably, and if you can hit high

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Speaker 3: A ball there, then that's pretty much the big learning curve.

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Speaker 3: So are you geared up? Are you a little nervous?

321
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Speaker 3: A little bit of both getting ready for high A ball?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 5: For sure, you know, I mean this is the first

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Speaker 5: this would be the first year that kind of I

325
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Speaker 5: can experience that all the excitement that comes with it,

326
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Speaker 5: you know, breaking on April first.

327
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Speaker 4: You know, that's something I haven't really gotten to do yet.

328
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Speaker 5: You know, I've started the middle of year in Vancouver,

329
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Speaker 5: and then last year kind of started in the same

330
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Speaker 5: around the same time, you know, in June. So this

331
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Speaker 5: is the first time that you know, I'll be rolling

332
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Speaker 5: straight from spring training uh into the season. And you know,

333
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Speaker 5: like you said, high as uh ridiculous, ridiculous pitching league.

334
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Speaker 4: And it's just you know in every way too.

335
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Speaker 5: It's just the the prospects, but also for my buddies

336
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Speaker 5: that have played there, apparently the fields are just ridiculous

337
00:18:25,040 --> 00:18:28,040
Speaker 5: as far as ballflight for hitters's just terrible. You know,

338
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Speaker 5: I'm hearing that, you know, we have all this track

339
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Speaker 5: man stuff, and they're saying, you know, I hit this

340
00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:35,800
Speaker 5: this exit vlow with this launch angle, which we normally

341
00:18:35,840 --> 00:18:38,760
Speaker 5: equate to an easy homer, and my buddies are saying, yeah,

342
00:18:38,800 --> 00:18:41,960
Speaker 5: the outfielder went back two steps and made an easy catch.

343
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Speaker 4: So you never never like to hear that stuff.

344
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Speaker 5: But at the same time, you know, I feel like

345
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Speaker 5: once you it's weird because it's it's it's single aye still,

346
00:18:50,480 --> 00:18:52,080
Speaker 5: But at the same time, you know, once you get

347
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Speaker 5: past this level of advanced day, it's kind of like

348
00:18:55,920 --> 00:18:57,840
Speaker 5: you're on a fast track if you have success there

349
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Speaker 5: early on. So definitely a cited, definitely, you know, a

350
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Speaker 5: bit anxious to get started.

351
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Speaker 3: And now you're going to have your first full season,

352
00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:09,000
Speaker 3: which is exciting too. And do you have is it

353
00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:11,320
Speaker 3: within the realm of possibility? Are you hoping to finish

354
00:19:11,320 --> 00:19:13,120
Speaker 3: out this year in Double A?

355
00:19:13,119 --> 00:19:16,679
Speaker 5: Absolutely, you know, I think, uh hopefully, you know, in

356
00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:19,160
Speaker 5: my mind, I really would love to get up there,

357
00:19:19,240 --> 00:19:21,879
Speaker 5: you know, by the by summertime, you know, which is

358
00:19:22,680 --> 00:19:25,879
Speaker 5: definitely There's a lot of factors that go into that.

359
00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:29,000
Speaker 5: But as far as you know, if you come out

360
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:32,560
Speaker 5: well and play well early on, and especially in a

361
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Speaker 5: league like that, if you can make a statement early,

362
00:19:34,440 --> 00:19:37,120
Speaker 5: I think, especially with being in the in the Blue

363
00:19:37,160 --> 00:19:39,640
Speaker 5: Jays organization, they got no problems you know, moving guys,

364
00:19:39,720 --> 00:19:43,600
Speaker 5: especially outfielders at this time. So definitely hoping to get

365
00:19:43,600 --> 00:19:45,480
Speaker 5: to New Hampshire as soon as I can and and

366
00:19:45,600 --> 00:19:46,360
Speaker 5: kind of go from there.

367
00:19:47,440 --> 00:19:49,920
Speaker 3: So I want to talk about getting to the Blue

368
00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:54,480
Speaker 3: Jays right, getting drafted, that whole process there. You talked

369
00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:58,800
Speaker 3: about struggling your freshman year and you struggled to see

370
00:19:58,840 --> 00:20:02,080
Speaker 3: some consistent playing time, didn't hit too well, and then

371
00:20:02,119 --> 00:20:05,320
Speaker 3: you broke out your sophomore year, really put yourself on

372
00:20:05,400 --> 00:20:07,879
Speaker 3: the map, and then you go to kutu it in

373
00:20:07,920 --> 00:20:10,760
Speaker 3: the Cape Cod League and you win pro Prospect of

374
00:20:10,800 --> 00:20:13,600
Speaker 3: the Year and tore it up there where I actually

375
00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:17,280
Speaker 3: broadcasted this past summer and great place. Love the Kettle Eiders.

376
00:20:17,359 --> 00:20:21,040
Speaker 3: Can't talk about them enough. And you really use that

377
00:20:21,119 --> 00:20:24,520
Speaker 3: as a springboard, right to just put yourself on the

378
00:20:24,560 --> 00:20:28,480
Speaker 3: map and could to it. Obviously a great place to play.

379
00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:31,360
Speaker 3: The Cape Cod League is they say, pretty much almost

380
00:20:31,440 --> 00:20:35,400
Speaker 3: like a minor league type of competition. It's as close

381
00:20:35,400 --> 00:20:37,520
Speaker 3: as you're gonna get to anything like that in college.

382
00:20:37,560 --> 00:20:41,239
Speaker 3: And how did you really shift gears from freshman year

383
00:20:41,320 --> 00:20:44,200
Speaker 3: you really struggled and sophomore year just breaking out and

384
00:20:44,280 --> 00:20:47,440
Speaker 3: keeping it rolling into the Cape Uh.

385
00:20:47,400 --> 00:20:50,159
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's that's easy right there is just the Northwoods League,

386
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,399
Speaker 5: you know, that was it? That was I go up

387
00:20:52,400 --> 00:20:54,480
Speaker 5: to this league in Wisconsin kind of in the middle

388
00:20:54,480 --> 00:20:56,120
Speaker 5: of the nowhere, in middle of nowhere.

389
00:20:57,240 --> 00:20:58,880
Speaker 4: And it's just it was real laid back.

390
00:20:58,920 --> 00:21:01,359
Speaker 5: You know, Cape is just their scouts everywhere, and you

391
00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:02,520
Speaker 5: know it could be it could have a lot of

392
00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:03,440
Speaker 5: pressure coming with.

393
00:21:03,359 --> 00:21:05,240
Speaker 4: It, just knowing that, you know, it's the Cape.

394
00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:07,360
Speaker 5: You know, it's a lot a lot of a lot

395
00:21:07,359 --> 00:21:09,800
Speaker 5: of anxiety comes with just the name of the league

396
00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:12,320
Speaker 5: itself and knowing that, you know, it's kind of the

397
00:21:12,480 --> 00:21:12,920
Speaker 5: goat of.

398
00:21:12,880 --> 00:21:14,439
Speaker 4: All college baseball leagues.

399
00:21:15,880 --> 00:21:17,760
Speaker 5: And then Northwoods is kind of like the second tier

400
00:21:17,880 --> 00:21:20,360
Speaker 5: league that, uh it's just you know, there's good players,

401
00:21:20,359 --> 00:21:23,880
Speaker 5: but definitely a gap in between the Northwoods and the Cape.

402
00:21:23,920 --> 00:21:26,399
Speaker 4: And it was really just a time where the coaches

403
00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:27,240
Speaker 4: were super chill.

404
00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:30,479
Speaker 5: I played, you know, pretty much every day, and they

405
00:21:30,560 --> 00:21:31,400
Speaker 5: kind of just let me go.

406
00:21:31,440 --> 00:21:32,879
Speaker 4: They let all their players go.

407
00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:35,119
Speaker 5: Really, it's it's it's about just kind of finding u

408
00:21:36,040 --> 00:21:37,760
Speaker 5: It's a lot of guys that just need reps, you know.

409
00:21:37,800 --> 00:21:39,399
Speaker 5: That's that's why I got sent there. It's it's the

410
00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:42,959
Speaker 5: longest summer league that you know, Cape is forty forty

411
00:21:42,960 --> 00:21:45,919
Speaker 5: five or fifty games and this one's eighty or seventy

412
00:21:45,920 --> 00:21:48,480
Speaker 5: two or something like that. So I got there a

413
00:21:48,480 --> 00:21:52,159
Speaker 5: little late because we had a good run in the

414
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:55,720
Speaker 5: postseason at Duke. But uh yeah, I guess just once

415
00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:57,280
Speaker 5: I got up there. By that time, I wasn't playing

416
00:21:57,280 --> 00:21:59,639
Speaker 5: at all. At Duke, I sucked. So I was just

417
00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:03,280
Speaker 5: I was kind of just already pumped, you know. Obviously

418
00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:05,000
Speaker 5: it was cool to be a part of the regional

419
00:22:05,080 --> 00:22:09,040
Speaker 5: and see, you know, the things we could do. But

420
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:11,440
Speaker 5: at the same time, you know, I wasn't playing, wasn't

421
00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:12,919
Speaker 5: really a part of it because I wasn't you know,

422
00:22:12,960 --> 00:22:15,320
Speaker 5: contributing at all. So I was in my mind kind

423
00:22:15,320 --> 00:22:17,399
Speaker 5: of gearing up for this summer that I thought, you know,

424
00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:20,520
Speaker 5: would kind of change things for me, and definitely was

425
00:22:20,560 --> 00:22:23,800
Speaker 5: excited to get up there and start making some adjustments.

426
00:22:24,320 --> 00:22:27,280
Speaker 3: So there were two times in college you said you sucked.

427
00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:30,680
Speaker 3: I think that might be a little extreme, but if anyone,

428
00:22:30,920 --> 00:22:32,359
Speaker 3: as someone who played with you and has known you

429
00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:34,919
Speaker 3: for a long time, you're as hard on yourself as

430
00:22:35,280 --> 00:22:37,280
Speaker 3: anybody I've ever met. But I was the same way.

431
00:22:38,800 --> 00:22:42,600
Speaker 3: But the thing with freshman year, you hit about two hundred. Yeah,

432
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:45,920
Speaker 3: you struggled, And then maybe the only other time you

433
00:22:46,000 --> 00:22:50,679
Speaker 3: really struggled was after the Cape, right, yeah, the beginning

434
00:22:50,680 --> 00:22:52,639
Speaker 3: of your junior year, Which is the funny thing because

435
00:22:52,840 --> 00:22:56,560
Speaker 3: everyone's expecting you to come out and be this this superstar,

436
00:22:57,119 --> 00:22:58,720
Speaker 3: right like you were in the Cape and like you

437
00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:01,960
Speaker 3: were your sophomore year, and you really struggled in the

438
00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:05,439
Speaker 3: beginning of your junior year. Do you think any of

439
00:23:05,480 --> 00:23:08,239
Speaker 3: that had to do with the pressure you had? I think, like,

440
00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:09,880
Speaker 3: after you tore it up on the Cape, your name

441
00:23:09,920 --> 00:23:13,480
Speaker 3: starts popping up everywhere. I remember I was. I was

442
00:23:13,520 --> 00:23:15,879
Speaker 3: with you, I think, and we were bowling, and all

443
00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:17,720
Speaker 3: of a sudden it pops up on my phone, like

444
00:23:17,800 --> 00:23:20,720
Speaker 3: top ten college prospects for the drafts, and there's a

445
00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:22,480
Speaker 3: picture of you, and I'm like, oh shit, Griff, look

446
00:23:22,520 --> 00:23:26,480
Speaker 3: there you are. And you know, you're popping up everywhere.

447
00:23:26,520 --> 00:23:28,399
Speaker 3: You went from this guy that's not even playing a

448
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:32,359
Speaker 3: duke to now you're on MLB dot com and you're

449
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 3: getting tweeted about, and you search your name and there's

450
00:23:34,960 --> 00:23:37,400
Speaker 3: tweets all about you, all that kind of stuff. Did

451
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:39,600
Speaker 3: that affect you at all? How did you handle that?

452
00:23:39,760 --> 00:23:43,359
Speaker 3: And did that play into a little bit of the

453
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,080
Speaker 3: pressing in the beginning of the junior year.

454
00:23:47,400 --> 00:23:50,360
Speaker 4: It's hard to say, you know, I think I don't

455
00:23:50,400 --> 00:23:51,000
Speaker 4: really think it, did.

456
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:51,240
Speaker 6: You know?

457
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:52,439
Speaker 4: The easy answer was to be like.

458
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 5: Yeah, man, I was just crumbling from the pressure and

459
00:23:55,000 --> 00:23:57,720
Speaker 5: all that. And that's just the easy answer, I think,

460
00:23:57,720 --> 00:24:00,359
Speaker 5: because you know, it's that happens to people. But I

461
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:02,439
Speaker 5: really honestly don't think that was it. I think it

462
00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:05,320
Speaker 5: was just, you know, like you said, I'm hard on myself,

463
00:24:05,320 --> 00:24:08,440
Speaker 5: and I think I was just trying to not even

464
00:24:08,480 --> 00:24:11,040
Speaker 5: play to impress others, but just kind of play up

465
00:24:11,040 --> 00:24:14,840
Speaker 5: to my own expectations of myself. And what came with

466
00:24:14,920 --> 00:24:19,240
Speaker 5: that was just these ridiculous, out of control swings that

467
00:24:19,359 --> 00:24:22,560
Speaker 5: like this approach that that just didn't work. You know,

468
00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:25,080
Speaker 5: it could never be sustainable. There'd be games where you know,

469
00:24:25,160 --> 00:24:27,840
Speaker 5: it would all link up and yeah, I crushed, crush

470
00:24:27,880 --> 00:24:29,359
Speaker 5: a couple of balls, but then you know, I'd go

471
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:32,199
Speaker 5: a week before I hit the ball hard again. And

472
00:24:32,280 --> 00:24:34,800
Speaker 5: I think it was just, uh, it got out of control, man.

473
00:24:34,840 --> 00:24:36,160
Speaker 5: I think I was I was trying to hit balls

474
00:24:36,160 --> 00:24:39,600
Speaker 5: five hundred feet and and you know, just kind of

475
00:24:40,080 --> 00:24:43,160
Speaker 5: do these crazy impressive things that uh, that just don't

476
00:24:43,160 --> 00:24:45,960
Speaker 5: go along with a consistent approach, and uh that led

477
00:24:45,960 --> 00:24:48,760
Speaker 5: to you know, a big struggle and a ton of strikeouts.

478
00:24:49,320 --> 00:24:51,199
Speaker 3: Do you think there was like a pressure to be

479
00:24:51,320 --> 00:24:54,720
Speaker 3: the power guy because you're obviously you hit seven was

480
00:24:54,720 --> 00:24:55,679
Speaker 3: it seven home runs in.

481
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:59,320
Speaker 4: The Cape eleven including playoffs.

482
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:03,160
Speaker 3: Holy crap, I'm sorry for sure. Changing you eleven home

483
00:25:03,240 --> 00:25:04,840
Speaker 3: runs in the Cape, right, and you hit a lot

484
00:25:04,880 --> 00:25:07,960
Speaker 3: your sophomore year and most of them are tape measure shots.

485
00:25:08,280 --> 00:25:10,720
Speaker 6: Took a runner off the base, Paz, there he goes there,

486
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:14,399
Speaker 6: it goes low, per feto, it will be a moot point.

487
00:25:14,880 --> 00:25:21,840
Speaker 6: This a moon shot from ConA majestic first round power

488
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:24,880
Speaker 6: on display from the Duke Rand fielder.

489
00:25:25,680 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 3: Was there a little bit of a pressure on you

490
00:25:27,480 --> 00:25:29,880
Speaker 3: to like be that power guy? Do you think that's

491
00:25:29,880 --> 00:25:32,200
Speaker 3: why you were swinging out of your shoes all this time?

492
00:25:32,240 --> 00:25:33,879
Speaker 3: And do you feel like you had to live up

493
00:25:33,880 --> 00:25:36,199
Speaker 3: to this like expectation of just hitting nukes?

494
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:39,399
Speaker 4: Yeah, in a way, you know. And also I just

495
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 4: I freaking love hitting nukes. You know who doesn't. That's

496
00:25:42,320 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 4: That's who I am.

497
00:25:43,160 --> 00:25:46,320
Speaker 5: That's who I've always been after after that freshman year,

498
00:25:47,440 --> 00:25:49,359
Speaker 5: and it's just like, you know, that's the most fun

499
00:25:49,359 --> 00:25:52,520
Speaker 5: thing to do, in my opinion in baseball when some guys,

500
00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:55,040
Speaker 5: you know, some guys there nukes are some guys love

501
00:25:55,080 --> 00:25:57,120
Speaker 5: stealing bags. And I played with those guys in pro

502
00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:59,840
Speaker 5: ball that are just like that's like that's where they

503
00:25:59,840 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 5: get their rush, you know, is from? Is there are

504
00:26:02,840 --> 00:26:04,679
Speaker 5: speed guys, and they love stealing back, and that's kind

505
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:06,920
Speaker 5: of where I get my rush from. Its just is

506
00:26:07,000 --> 00:26:09,760
Speaker 5: hitting bombs, and uh, I think I just, you know,

507
00:26:09,800 --> 00:26:11,679
Speaker 5: I was chasing that more than I should have, you know,

508
00:26:11,720 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 5: because because hits are good too, man, hits are good.

509
00:26:15,119 --> 00:26:17,159
Speaker 5: Singles are fine, and I think I just kind of

510
00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:21,520
Speaker 5: overlook that and just was kind of chasing this extreme

511
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:24,800
Speaker 5: high when there's plenty of other good things that can

512
00:26:24,840 --> 00:26:28,040
Speaker 5: come from just you know, making contact consistently and hitting

513
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 5: balls hard.

514
00:26:28,560 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 4: And I think I kind of was immature in that sense,

515
00:26:31,680 --> 00:26:32,960
Speaker 4: you know, definitely that junior year.

516
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 3: Yeah, because the singles and the doubles those translate, and

517
00:26:37,920 --> 00:26:40,239
Speaker 3: so you felt like, I think that's a I want

518
00:26:40,280 --> 00:26:41,760
Speaker 3: to see your take on this too. As a power

519
00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:44,840
Speaker 3: hitter yourself in baseball, you know, the big I feel

520
00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:47,879
Speaker 3: like the old guy criticism is like, oh, there's no

521
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,840
Speaker 3: pure hitters anymore. They're all all or nothing, you know,

522
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:54,639
Speaker 3: big swings and all that stuff. And you kind of

523
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:57,239
Speaker 3: confess to having that approach a little bit too. But

524
00:26:57,560 --> 00:27:00,199
Speaker 3: when you look at the major leagues now, I mean,

525
00:27:00,240 --> 00:27:02,159
Speaker 3: you still have some guys that will hit for average

526
00:27:02,200 --> 00:27:05,840
Speaker 3: and power, but strikeouts are at an all time high.

527
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:08,000
Speaker 3: Home runs are also at an all time high. Do

528
00:27:08,080 --> 00:27:10,760
Speaker 3: you think that's become kind of the approach of the

529
00:27:10,800 --> 00:27:11,919
Speaker 3: modern day Big leaguer?

530
00:27:13,640 --> 00:27:16,480
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think what comes with, uh, with these freak

531
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:18,439
Speaker 5: pictures that are starting to become the norm now that

532
00:27:18,720 --> 00:27:20,840
Speaker 5: all these guys that are just you know, starters now

533
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:23,600
Speaker 5: that are that are sitting you know, ninety eight, ninety nine, uh,

534
00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:24,359
Speaker 5: into the into.

535
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:25,440
Speaker 4: The sixth, seventh, eighth inning.

536
00:27:26,119 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 5: You gotta swing hard, man, you do You just you

537
00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:32,240
Speaker 5: can't have a have a contact kind of over into

538
00:27:32,240 --> 00:27:34,760
Speaker 5: an approach. You definitely, you know, a short swing is

539
00:27:34,880 --> 00:27:37,159
Speaker 5: uh what's gonna work. But as far as you know,

540
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 5: you you gotta you gotta swing hard if you want

541
00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:41,919
Speaker 5: to hit hard. And that's just uh kind of the

542
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,480
Speaker 5: way the game's going. And all these prospects that are

543
00:27:44,480 --> 00:27:46,560
Speaker 5: coming up now that are just uh it seems like

544
00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,920
Speaker 5: they get better every year. So I think not even

545
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,200
Speaker 5: it doesn't even necessarily boil down to approach or guys

546
00:27:53,240 --> 00:27:56,840
Speaker 5: trying to hit homers as far as just the pictures, man,

547
00:27:56,880 --> 00:28:00,280
Speaker 5: are just they have such wipeout stuff that the seeing

548
00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:02,879
Speaker 5: the strikeouts go way up and then obviously you know,

549
00:28:03,800 --> 00:28:06,760
Speaker 5: homers are definitely becoming more of a more of a

550
00:28:06,760 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 5: factor just because there's there's you know, it's easier to

551
00:28:12,840 --> 00:28:15,080
Speaker 5: kind of score runs on one swing rather than trying

552
00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:17,200
Speaker 5: to string together, you know, four or five hits against

553
00:28:17,240 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 5: a guy like Garrett Cole, you know, you can get

554
00:28:19,280 --> 00:28:22,399
Speaker 5: three runs on one swing, and that's kind of become

555
00:28:22,720 --> 00:28:24,119
Speaker 5: the biggest factor these days.

556
00:28:24,640 --> 00:28:28,040
Speaker 3: Well, another factor is the juice baseballs, right, I mean,

557
00:28:28,240 --> 00:28:30,760
Speaker 3: we've seen a lot talk, a lot of talk about that.

558
00:28:31,440 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 3: At first, the MLB denied it. Now they're saying, Okay,

559
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:36,399
Speaker 3: there might be some differences to the baseballs, but like

560
00:28:36,400 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 3: it's pretty obvious that there's some differences with the baseball's

561
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:44,000
Speaker 3: Justin Verlander pretty much was willing to stake his life

562
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:46,080
Speaker 3: on the fact that there's a difference with the baseballs

563
00:28:46,480 --> 00:28:49,400
Speaker 3: you have an experience with because the minor league baseballs

564
00:28:49,400 --> 00:28:53,480
Speaker 3: are different, so you're you're not using those professional MLB baseballs,

565
00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:56,560
Speaker 3: and you had an experience going from the minor league

566
00:28:56,560 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 3: balls to the big league balls, right, and you were

567
00:28:58,200 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 3: able to tell a little bit of a difference there.

568
00:29:01,080 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 5: Yeah, absolutely, I mean I think, uh yeah, the minor

569
00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:06,200
Speaker 5: league ball is always different. It's been Triple A and

570
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:08,600
Speaker 5: Big leagues have the same one. They used the big

571
00:29:08,640 --> 00:29:11,000
Speaker 5: league ball in Triple A, and I hear I think

572
00:29:11,040 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 5: this next year they're moving it down to Double A.

573
00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:14,960
Speaker 5: So now the Double A will use the big league

574
00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 5: balls as well, I think is what's gonna happen. But

575
00:29:18,280 --> 00:29:21,160
Speaker 5: uh yeah, I mean you expect you know that, we

576
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:24,520
Speaker 5: we knew they used different balls. Obviously, everything's just worse

577
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:26,400
Speaker 5: than the minor leagues. That's just the fact of it.

578
00:29:26,720 --> 00:29:29,200
Speaker 5: The balls are you know, not as finely tuned. They're

579
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:32,360
Speaker 5: they're not as good. But yet I don't think we expected,

580
00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:35,760
Speaker 5: uh as drastic as a change as we experienced in

581
00:29:35,800 --> 00:29:37,720
Speaker 5: Bowling Green. You know, they had these big league balls

582
00:29:37,720 --> 00:29:40,480
Speaker 5: out there for batting practice. Uh for whatever reason, that

583
00:29:40,560 --> 00:29:43,120
Speaker 5: was the only only team that did that, the Tampa

584
00:29:43,160 --> 00:29:46,680
Speaker 5: Bay Rays ORG And uh yeah, you saw these you

585
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:49,520
Speaker 5: know these uh this five six second baseman you know

586
00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 5: out of Venezuela that's got one homer on the air,

587
00:29:53,120 --> 00:29:55,200
Speaker 5: and he was putting balls, you know, fifty feet over

588
00:29:55,280 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 5: the fence. And then you got other guys that are

589
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:00,000
Speaker 5: you know a little bit bigger, that are hitting balls

590
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:01,880
Speaker 5: you know, off the end. They're getting jammed and they're

591
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:06,120
Speaker 5: going twenty feet over the fence. So it was pretty crazy, man,

592
00:30:06,160 --> 00:30:07,600
Speaker 5: it was. It was probably the most fun we had

593
00:30:07,680 --> 00:30:10,400
Speaker 5: during VP all year because I mean we must have

594
00:30:10,480 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 5: hit fifty sixty balls out.

595
00:30:12,400 --> 00:30:14,440
Speaker 4: As a team, which is just ridiculous.

596
00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:19,360
Speaker 3: Which what's your take on that? Like, I'm very torn

597
00:30:19,400 --> 00:30:22,360
Speaker 3: on it, because you know, people like to see offense

598
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,880
Speaker 3: baseball and you know, needs the viewership and what's better

599
00:30:25,920 --> 00:30:28,880
Speaker 3: than seeing a home run. But at the same time,

600
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,239
Speaker 3: a guy like you, you could probably hit like a

601
00:30:32,280 --> 00:30:34,640
Speaker 3: plastic baseball out of the yard, and now you're having

602
00:30:34,680 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 3: guys that are not really home run hitters having opportunities

603
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,280
Speaker 3: to put the ball out just as frequently as you.

604
00:30:42,400 --> 00:30:43,960
Speaker 3: Because at the end of the day, you put a

605
00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:46,680
Speaker 3: fifty rows back and the five foot six guy puts

606
00:30:46,680 --> 00:30:49,560
Speaker 3: a ten rows back, they still count the same. So

607
00:30:49,840 --> 00:30:52,880
Speaker 3: what's your take on that? And you would you prefer

608
00:30:52,960 --> 00:30:54,760
Speaker 3: the baseballs to go back to how they were?

609
00:30:56,080 --> 00:31:01,160
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's interesting because you know, the the juice, you'd think, oh, like,

610
00:31:01,240 --> 00:31:02,880
Speaker 5: you know, power guys are gonna have a field day,

611
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:05,040
Speaker 5: but they actually, you know, they favor if you think

612
00:31:05,080 --> 00:31:07,440
Speaker 5: about it, they favor the contact guys even more because

613
00:31:07,440 --> 00:31:09,440
Speaker 5: these are guys that you know, they might hit a

614
00:31:09,480 --> 00:31:11,920
Speaker 5: fly a deep fly ball that they square up, you know,

615
00:31:11,920 --> 00:31:14,240
Speaker 5: because these guys are generally they're better at getting the

616
00:31:14,240 --> 00:31:16,239
Speaker 5: ball in the barrel, you know, more consistently than than

617
00:31:16,760 --> 00:31:19,760
Speaker 5: raw power guys are. So now these guys that are

618
00:31:19,880 --> 00:31:21,840
Speaker 5: you know, used to hitting ten fifteen a year are

619
00:31:21,880 --> 00:31:25,440
Speaker 5: now putting out thirty just because because of their barrel control,

620
00:31:25,480 --> 00:31:27,880
Speaker 5: their barrel awareness, their ability to hit fly balls and

621
00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:31,600
Speaker 5: kind of just hit these juice balls in the barrel

622
00:31:31,640 --> 00:31:34,840
Speaker 5: that are going thirty feet farther than they should. Whereas me,

623
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 5: you know, I'm finding less barrel maybe than than the

624
00:31:37,800 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 5: average contact guy. But when I do, you know, it's

625
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:43,400
Speaker 5: it's going way out. And even that's even true with

626
00:31:43,440 --> 00:31:46,680
Speaker 5: the with the crappy Minor League balls. So I think

627
00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:50,000
Speaker 5: it would affect me not really at all, as far

628
00:31:50,040 --> 00:31:52,160
Speaker 5: as you know, they'll they'll you definitely will see some

629
00:31:52,240 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 5: balls that are you know, I could get jammed on

630
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,000
Speaker 5: and it'll end up going out, but I think that's minimal,

631
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:01,080
Speaker 5: and I think it'd be as far as like me personally,

632
00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:04,360
Speaker 5: I'd rather go back to the crappy balls where it's like,

633
00:32:04,520 --> 00:32:07,000
Speaker 5: you know, I stand out a little bit more instead

634
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:09,000
Speaker 5: of all these guys that are now able to hit,

635
00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:12,000
Speaker 5: you know, thirty thirty five homers that aren't supposed to

636
00:32:12,200 --> 00:32:13,760
Speaker 5: you know, you.

637
00:32:13,840 --> 00:32:16,200
Speaker 3: And all the pitchers probably agree on that one. I

638
00:32:16,200 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 3: know Verlander was furious at the All Star Game and

639
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:23,040
Speaker 3: just going right at the MLB for how they've handled

640
00:32:23,040 --> 00:32:25,520
Speaker 3: that whole situation. But it'll be interesting to see how

641
00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:28,960
Speaker 3: they do it going forward, and I'm sure there'll be

642
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:31,360
Speaker 3: more studies about how it affects everything. But when you

643
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:34,600
Speaker 3: got guys like au Heinio Suarez hitting over fifty home runs,

644
00:32:34,600 --> 00:32:37,480
Speaker 3: it just it really makes me rethink what a good

645
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:40,440
Speaker 3: season is. You know, it's twenty home runs impressive anymore?

646
00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:43,360
Speaker 3: Is thirty home runs impressive anymore? It's all that kind

647
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:47,120
Speaker 3: of stuff that really adjusts the way we look at

648
00:32:47,200 --> 00:32:49,520
Speaker 3: all of the statistics and stuff like that. But for

649
00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:54,280
Speaker 3: you now going into a ball, what are your goals

650
00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 3: this year? And then after this I want to get

651
00:32:56,440 --> 00:32:59,520
Speaker 3: back into like childhood with your dad and all that stuff,

652
00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 3: because some really funny stories back in there. But to

653
00:33:02,320 --> 00:33:05,760
Speaker 3: wrap up the recent stuff, what's in the future stuff,

654
00:33:05,800 --> 00:33:08,120
Speaker 3: what's your goal going into a ball this year? Obviously

655
00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:10,640
Speaker 3: cut down on the strikeouts. That shouldn't be too hard

656
00:33:10,640 --> 00:33:13,600
Speaker 3: he struck out a lot this year, But what else, Like,

657
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:15,560
Speaker 3: what else do you are you focusing on?

658
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:21,920
Speaker 5: Yeah, man, I had ridiculous amount of strikeouts. Wow, it

659
00:33:21,960 --> 00:33:24,160
Speaker 5: was like I don't even know last time.

660
00:33:24,200 --> 00:33:25,000
Speaker 4: It was that crazy.

661
00:33:25,120 --> 00:33:27,600
Speaker 3: I used to divide it. I used to like check

662
00:33:27,640 --> 00:33:30,840
Speaker 3: the percentage like every couple of weeks and just hope

663
00:33:30,840 --> 00:33:32,320
Speaker 3: it would go down. But I think at one point

664
00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:33,719
Speaker 3: you were at like forty percent.

665
00:33:34,920 --> 00:33:37,200
Speaker 5: Yeah, let's see it finished. It was like one twenty

666
00:33:37,240 --> 00:33:40,520
Speaker 5: and three hundred around there. So whatever that that's so,

667
00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:43,520
Speaker 5: that's so forty right there, So step one improve that?

668
00:33:43,720 --> 00:33:47,480
Speaker 3: What else? Dude?

669
00:33:47,560 --> 00:33:50,400
Speaker 5: You know, that's really that's one of the good things,

670
00:33:50,440 --> 00:33:53,240
Speaker 5: is uh ah, that's kind of the biggest thing. You know,

671
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 5: I think everything else will I you know. I love

672
00:33:54,880 --> 00:33:57,440
Speaker 5: the way that my home run splits were kind of

673
00:33:57,520 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 5: like left field.

674
00:33:58,200 --> 00:33:59,840
Speaker 4: They're all even. It was like seven, seven and eight

675
00:34:00,080 --> 00:34:00,600
Speaker 4: something like that.

676
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:04,560
Speaker 5: But the lettern right and yeah, not not really any

677
00:34:04,880 --> 00:34:07,080
Speaker 5: real problems with lefties, you know. The probably the biggest

678
00:34:07,080 --> 00:34:10,200
Speaker 5: thing is just uh the righty change up, man, righty

679
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,560
Speaker 5: changeups is one of the biggest things that's difficult.

680
00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:14,800
Speaker 4: I mean, that's that's for everyone.

681
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:16,520
Speaker 5: That's not just you. Know, it's not unique to me.

682
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:21,520
Speaker 5: Lefties never have hit righty changeups. Well, yeah, but it

683
00:34:21,600 --> 00:34:25,239
Speaker 5: just goes into an approach and definitely some swing thing.

684
00:34:25,280 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 5: I had, such like a big swing last year, which

685
00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:30,600
Speaker 5: is uh, I always have, you know, I always have,

686
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:33,040
Speaker 5: and I think I'm never gonna never gonna be a

687
00:34:33,040 --> 00:34:37,839
Speaker 5: low strikeout guy. That's ridiculous. But yeah, I mean forty Yeah,

688
00:34:37,880 --> 00:34:40,560
Speaker 5: that's just uh well, I guess if you include the walks,

689
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:43,279
Speaker 5: there's like forty walks, so it was probably close to

690
00:34:43,320 --> 00:34:47,520
Speaker 5: like thirty thirty five or whatever. But that's that's just

691
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:49,760
Speaker 5: you know, that's not going to give you success, especially

692
00:34:49,800 --> 00:34:53,160
Speaker 5: going into a league where you know, Midwest League was

693
00:34:53,200 --> 00:34:55,719
Speaker 5: pretty good pitching, you know, I think it was there

694
00:34:55,760 --> 00:34:57,719
Speaker 5: was only like five or six guys that finished above

695
00:34:57,760 --> 00:35:00,000
Speaker 5: three hundred in that league, which which was crazy because

696
00:35:00,080 --> 00:35:03,520
Speaker 5: I thought it was like a hitters league and the

697
00:35:03,560 --> 00:35:04,759
Speaker 5: parks were definitely the bait.

698
00:35:04,880 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 4: The parks were definitely hitters parks for the most part.

699
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:11,879
Speaker 5: But yeah, going into this next this next league where

700
00:35:12,040 --> 00:35:16,920
Speaker 5: these pitchers are elite, that thirty five percent could easily

701
00:35:16,960 --> 00:35:19,000
Speaker 5: turn into fifty or something crazy if I don't make

702
00:35:19,080 --> 00:35:19,640
Speaker 5: some changes.

703
00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:22,359
Speaker 4: So that's that's the biggest thing.

704
00:35:22,719 --> 00:35:24,640
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was talking about it with you the other

705
00:35:24,719 --> 00:35:28,000
Speaker 3: day about how good the pitching is in High A

706
00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:30,320
Speaker 3: ball in the Florida State League. With the Marlins alone,

707
00:35:30,360 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 3: I mean, they've had just they had just such an

708
00:35:32,040 --> 00:35:37,040
Speaker 3: exciting rotation of guys with Edward Cabrera and Braxton Garrett

709
00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,320
Speaker 3: and Trevor Rodgers, just three guys. It's a three headed

710
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:44,359
Speaker 3: monster that there's no escaping. And they all had, you know,

711
00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:48,600
Speaker 3: crazy k rates and striking out about twelve to thirteen

712
00:35:48,680 --> 00:35:51,040
Speaker 3: batters per nine innings. So like, if you're running into

713
00:35:51,040 --> 00:35:53,520
Speaker 3: teams like that, it's three straight games in a series,

714
00:35:53,560 --> 00:35:57,400
Speaker 3: you're not avoiding an ACE caliber guy. So that's the

715
00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:00,680
Speaker 3: crazy thing. I think you're gonna start appreciating a little

716
00:36:00,719 --> 00:36:03,640
Speaker 3: bit more, which is probably a good thing for you.

717
00:36:04,120 --> 00:36:06,799
Speaker 3: But I want to talk about now getting to where

718
00:36:06,800 --> 00:36:09,279
Speaker 3: you are now. You know, most people would expect that

719
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:13,200
Speaker 3: you were like this baseball kid out of the womb

720
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:15,239
Speaker 3: and you just loved it from the get go, and

721
00:36:15,880 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 3: it really isn't the case. Your journey to baseball and

722
00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,919
Speaker 3: through baseball was pretty unique, and your dad's is too.

723
00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:25,680
Speaker 3: I mean, your dad wasn't even a baseball guy through

724
00:36:25,719 --> 00:36:29,320
Speaker 3: and through his entire life and he ended up pretty

725
00:36:29,400 --> 00:36:32,239
Speaker 3: late and deciding to play baseball. I had him on

726
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,280
Speaker 3: the podcast about a year ago too, and he told

727
00:36:35,280 --> 00:36:38,600
Speaker 3: that story. Yours is pretty unique because you had a

728
00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:40,640
Speaker 3: father that was in the bigs. Grown Wow, you were

729
00:36:40,680 --> 00:36:44,839
Speaker 3: growing up and you still weren't that into it. I

730
00:36:44,880 --> 00:36:48,840
Speaker 3: think you were at one point into skateboarding, I'm pretty sure,

731
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:51,640
Speaker 3: and you had like the long hair on your forehead

732
00:36:51,680 --> 00:36:54,799
Speaker 3: and all that stuff. But what was it like for

733
00:36:54,840 --> 00:36:57,279
Speaker 3: you going into the clubhouse, Like were you not You

734
00:36:57,320 --> 00:36:59,400
Speaker 3: didn't have that moment as a kid like man, I

735
00:36:59,440 --> 00:36:59,920
Speaker 3: want to do this.

736
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:03,600
Speaker 4: Yeah. Man.

737
00:37:03,680 --> 00:37:06,759
Speaker 5: I think that moment didn't really come until late, like,

738
00:37:06,800 --> 00:37:08,440
Speaker 5: you know, almost high school, when when.

739
00:37:08,320 --> 00:37:12,000
Speaker 4: Baseball started to get serious as far as school goes.

740
00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:15,600
Speaker 5: Uh but yeah, I mean travel ball and all that,

741
00:37:15,880 --> 00:37:19,320
Speaker 5: uh whatever. Cooper's Town. I mean, I was never super

742
00:37:19,320 --> 00:37:20,920
Speaker 5: into it. It was kind of just something to do.

743
00:37:21,680 --> 00:37:23,759
Speaker 5: And it wasn't like my dad was like, oh, you're

744
00:37:23,800 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 5: playing this year, like you're you're gonna do this, You're

745
00:37:26,160 --> 00:37:27,640
Speaker 5: gonna do that. He'd always be like you want you

746
00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:29,640
Speaker 5: want to play? And I'll be like like yeah sure.

747
00:37:29,800 --> 00:37:31,479
Speaker 5: It was kind of more like a yeah, I'll play

748
00:37:31,520 --> 00:37:34,200
Speaker 5: you know, not like hell yeah, like love this sport,

749
00:37:34,320 --> 00:37:35,200
Speaker 5: like this is my life.

750
00:37:35,320 --> 00:37:35,920
Speaker 4: Nothing like that.

751
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:37,880
Speaker 5: You know, It's just kind of like something to do.

752
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,040
Speaker 5: And I always liked it, you know. I think that

753
00:37:40,120 --> 00:37:42,040
Speaker 5: was where it stopped. Was like it was just like

754
00:37:42,080 --> 00:37:44,880
Speaker 5: something I like to do, like a hobby, almost until

755
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,040
Speaker 5: uh until probably until ninth grade when I started to

756
00:37:49,080 --> 00:37:52,080
Speaker 5: take it more seriously and the skateboard.

757
00:37:51,680 --> 00:37:53,160
Speaker 4: Kind of fell out of my life.

758
00:37:53,680 --> 00:37:55,960
Speaker 5: That was that was like a middle school That was

759
00:37:55,960 --> 00:37:58,759
Speaker 5: like a three year peak phase from like fifth grade

760
00:37:58,800 --> 00:38:01,200
Speaker 5: to eighth grade where I was just uh, non stop

761
00:38:01,239 --> 00:38:01,840
Speaker 5: with that stuff.

762
00:38:02,560 --> 00:38:06,000
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the skateboarding phase came with like the skateboarder's hair.

763
00:38:06,560 --> 00:38:09,319
Speaker 3: And you have a pretty funny story about being in

764
00:38:09,360 --> 00:38:12,040
Speaker 3: the clubhouse with that haircut when your dad was on

765
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 3: the Cincinnati Reds And I'll let you tell it, but

766
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:17,279
Speaker 3: somebody offered to cut that hair for you.

767
00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:20,319
Speaker 5: What's the story there. Yeah, I've actually heard it a

768
00:38:20,320 --> 00:38:22,840
Speaker 5: couple of times recently. My dad loves telling everyone he

769
00:38:22,920 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 5: can about that, So I've heard it like two.

770
00:38:25,480 --> 00:38:27,720
Speaker 4: Times the past month alone, just through randomly.

771
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:30,560
Speaker 5: I think I think it's because my hair is now

772
00:38:30,560 --> 00:38:33,080
Speaker 5: starting to get long again, and he's like and people

773
00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,040
Speaker 5: are comment on it. He's like, oh, you know, it's

774
00:38:35,080 --> 00:38:36,759
Speaker 5: a funny story about long hair, and then I'll just

775
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:38,759
Speaker 5: go right into it. But yeah, it was he was

776
00:38:38,760 --> 00:38:41,319
Speaker 5: with the Reds and O seven, so I was ten,

777
00:38:41,400 --> 00:38:43,920
Speaker 5: so I was just starting to just threw out the flow.

778
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:44,319
Speaker 4: You know.

779
00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 5: It was decked out and skate gear and the cargo

780
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:50,879
Speaker 5: shorts and whatever it was. And we were we spent

781
00:38:50,880 --> 00:38:52,800
Speaker 5: the summer in Cincinnati, so I would get up to

782
00:38:52,840 --> 00:38:55,879
Speaker 5: the field, yeah, every now and then in shag VP

783
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:59,000
Speaker 5: and whatever, go in the clubhouse. And then it was

784
00:38:59,040 --> 00:39:02,640
Speaker 5: actually Adam Dunn was the first guy that made a comment.

785
00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:05,839
Speaker 5: I was just sitting in the clubhouse and he was

786
00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:08,879
Speaker 5: He was just like, uh, you know, he's big, big dude,

787
00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:12,160
Speaker 5: big country dude too. He was just like, hey man,

788
00:39:12,960 --> 00:39:15,040
Speaker 5: you gotta cut that hair. That's too long. And he

789
00:39:15,160 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 5: kind of just like barked at me, and I was

790
00:39:16,520 --> 00:39:18,799
Speaker 5: just like this wide eyed ten year old kid, and

791
00:39:18,880 --> 00:39:20,440
Speaker 5: I just like kind of shook my head and I

792
00:39:20,440 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 5: was like, I was like frightened because at this point,

793
00:39:22,640 --> 00:39:24,200
Speaker 5: you know, if you're if you're a skateboarder, if you

794
00:39:24,200 --> 00:39:26,719
Speaker 5: know the community, your hair is your life. It's kind

795
00:39:26,719 --> 00:39:28,759
Speaker 5: of like this is your image. You know, it's how

796
00:39:28,760 --> 00:39:31,560
Speaker 5: people know that guy skates. He's got the flow. It's

797
00:39:31,560 --> 00:39:34,000
Speaker 5: like it's like it's like hair and lacrosse players. Now,

798
00:39:34,160 --> 00:39:38,000
Speaker 5: you know, the flow is everything. So I was like, no, shot, man,

799
00:39:38,040 --> 00:39:40,360
Speaker 5: it's not happening. And he and he's like, he's like,

800
00:39:40,400 --> 00:39:42,520
Speaker 5: i'll give you one thousand dollars if you let me

801
00:39:42,560 --> 00:39:45,040
Speaker 5: cut that hair right now. And he had like he

802
00:39:45,080 --> 00:39:46,800
Speaker 5: had his hair clippers and he had like his razor

803
00:39:46,800 --> 00:39:47,839
Speaker 5: and everything right in his locker.

804
00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:49,920
Speaker 4: I guess he cuts his own hair. And uh.

805
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,000
Speaker 5: And then Griffy was like a few lockers down and uh,

806
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:55,719
Speaker 5: and he heard it. He's like, yeah, I'll go in

807
00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:58,480
Speaker 5: on that with you. Uh. So it's two thousand dollars

808
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:01,319
Speaker 5: if you let us cut your hair right now. And

809
00:40:01,600 --> 00:40:04,160
Speaker 5: I didn't consider it. It was not even a thought. I

810
00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:06,200
Speaker 5: was like, no, shot, get him away from my hair,

811
00:40:06,280 --> 00:40:08,240
Speaker 5: Get him away from my head. This is not happening.

812
00:40:08,320 --> 00:40:10,600
Speaker 5: And my dad was like, I don't think he really

813
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:13,239
Speaker 5: tried to like reason with me. He was just like

814
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:15,280
Speaker 5: he looked at him. He was just like, yeah, guys,

815
00:40:15,280 --> 00:40:16,719
Speaker 5: it's not gonna happen because.

816
00:40:16,440 --> 00:40:16,960
Speaker 4: He knew that.

817
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:19,080
Speaker 5: Like this is like I was deep into the phase

818
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:21,319
Speaker 5: at that point where I was like, this is just

819
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:24,400
Speaker 5: like who I am, and like there's no price, and

820
00:40:24,480 --> 00:40:26,960
Speaker 5: I mean, you're ten years old. If I got that

821
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:29,920
Speaker 5: offer today, I'd probably do it in a heartbeat, because

822
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:31,839
Speaker 5: with two thousand dollars means a lot more when you're

823
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:34,680
Speaker 5: twenty two than when you're ten. You know, I don't

824
00:40:34,680 --> 00:40:37,840
Speaker 5: think I realized. Also, I didn't realize these two guys

825
00:40:37,840 --> 00:40:40,719
Speaker 5: that were asking me, like with a thousand career homers combined,

826
00:40:41,560 --> 00:40:43,520
Speaker 5: like if they ask me anything, I'd do it whatever

827
00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 5: they say.

828
00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:46,239
Speaker 3: That's what I said. I was thinking the same thing.

829
00:40:46,280 --> 00:40:48,239
Speaker 3: I think I would let Ken Griffy shave my head

830
00:40:48,239 --> 00:40:51,480
Speaker 3: for free. Literally right above me right now is a

831
00:40:51,600 --> 00:40:55,200
Speaker 3: sign Griffy jersey on my wall from his Marriner's day

832
00:40:55,239 --> 00:40:57,799
Speaker 3: is one of my favorite all time players. But that

833
00:40:57,920 --> 00:41:00,919
Speaker 3: still are he always blows my mind because I, yeah,

834
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:02,719
Speaker 3: how do you expect a ten year old to understand

835
00:41:02,760 --> 00:41:05,200
Speaker 3: like the gravity of two thousand dollars?

836
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:08,319
Speaker 5: But yeah, that's my dad. But he's still he still

837
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:09,239
Speaker 5: gives me shit for it.

838
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:11,720
Speaker 3: You can't take away from the story, but that so,

839
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:14,480
Speaker 3: so you're in the clubhouse, then obviously you're turning down

840
00:41:14,520 --> 00:41:19,880
Speaker 3: haircuts from Hall of Famers, and you're not at that

841
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:22,720
Speaker 3: moment like I want to play baseball. You're still pretty

842
00:41:22,719 --> 00:41:25,760
Speaker 3: set on the on the skateboarding. And it wasn't until

843
00:41:26,040 --> 00:41:28,920
Speaker 3: freshman year of high school where you start to come around.

844
00:41:28,960 --> 00:41:31,719
Speaker 3: And that's that's finally when you realize you wanted to

845
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:33,799
Speaker 3: play baseball. So before that, you were just going through

846
00:41:33,800 --> 00:41:36,319
Speaker 3: the motions like going in the clubhouse. Didn't do it

847
00:41:36,360 --> 00:41:36,680
Speaker 3: for you?

848
00:41:37,960 --> 00:41:40,080
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, not really. You know, I didn't because I

849
00:41:40,080 --> 00:41:41,080
Speaker 4: didn't I didn't watch it.

850
00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:43,399
Speaker 5: I watch it way more now than than I did

851
00:41:43,440 --> 00:41:45,840
Speaker 5: ever when I was you know, ten to ten to thirteen,

852
00:41:46,000 --> 00:41:49,520
Speaker 5: I never really watched I watched my dad's games and obviously,

853
00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:51,640
Speaker 5: but I didn't watch it like in my free time.

854
00:41:51,640 --> 00:41:52,759
Speaker 4: I mean, I wasn't a fan like that.

855
00:41:52,840 --> 00:41:56,400
Speaker 5: So all these superstars I was around weren't really superstars

856
00:41:56,400 --> 00:41:57,240
Speaker 5: in my mind because.

857
00:41:57,120 --> 00:41:57,799
Speaker 4: I just I knew.

858
00:41:58,239 --> 00:42:00,600
Speaker 5: I knew they're a big deal obviously, you know player,

859
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:03,560
Speaker 5: But as far as like the emotional connection that like

860
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,719
Speaker 5: these kids have to these players nowadays, I never had

861
00:42:06,719 --> 00:42:09,600
Speaker 5: that just because I didn't didn't watch, you know, didn't

862
00:42:09,600 --> 00:42:12,440
Speaker 5: watch enough to to have that. So there were just

863
00:42:12,480 --> 00:42:15,600
Speaker 5: people to me and I I wasn't uh wasn't super

864
00:42:15,640 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 5: starstruck and didn't really give it a second thought.

865
00:42:20,560 --> 00:42:23,080
Speaker 3: What if Tony Hawk had come into that clubhouse.

866
00:42:24,760 --> 00:42:27,319
Speaker 5: Well, Tony Hawk was a little not not my type

867
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 5: of skater, you know, okay, but uh but for sure

868
00:42:30,160 --> 00:42:32,279
Speaker 5: that would have garnered more more attention for me at

869
00:42:32,280 --> 00:42:35,040
Speaker 5: that time, which is weird to think about now.

870
00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:38,480
Speaker 3: So fast forward. You play, you play at high school,

871
00:42:38,640 --> 00:42:42,600
Speaker 3: you play at Pine Crest uh in Fort Wauterdale. You

872
00:42:42,680 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 3: do pretty well. You freshman year, you start doing well,

873
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:48,479
Speaker 3: and then you really break out your your junior year.

874
00:42:49,239 --> 00:42:52,080
Speaker 3: You start getting some college offers, but you didn't get

875
00:42:52,120 --> 00:42:55,560
Speaker 3: a ton of looks. You got looks, right, but like

876
00:42:55,880 --> 00:42:58,240
Speaker 3: really good looks though. You got like was it wake Forest,

877
00:42:58,360 --> 00:43:02,160
Speaker 3: Duke Christ a few others, but you didn't really get

878
00:43:02,160 --> 00:43:06,400
Speaker 3: those Florida schools right. And you end up taking a

879
00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:10,440
Speaker 3: visit to Rice and you were set on going there, right.

880
00:43:11,200 --> 00:43:12,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, so I was.

881
00:43:12,560 --> 00:43:15,120
Speaker 5: I was a bit later, Like this was August of

882
00:43:15,200 --> 00:43:17,719
Speaker 5: going into senior year. So all my buddies that I

883
00:43:17,800 --> 00:43:21,879
Speaker 5: played with, you know, uh from you know, travel ball,

884
00:43:21,920 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 5: they're all committed you know there at this point, you know,

885
00:43:23,719 --> 00:43:27,600
Speaker 5: the summer before senior year is pretty much your big summer.

886
00:43:27,640 --> 00:43:29,279
Speaker 5: And I played well, but I think I was just

887
00:43:29,280 --> 00:43:31,680
Speaker 5: like I was such a late bloomer, so like I

888
00:43:31,760 --> 00:43:33,640
Speaker 5: was getting late. I was a late addition to like

889
00:43:33,640 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 5: a lot of these guys' lists of like people to

890
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:38,080
Speaker 5: look at, and a lot of these guys recruiting classes

891
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:38,799
Speaker 5: are already done.

892
00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:39,560
Speaker 4: You know, they're finished.

893
00:43:40,080 --> 00:43:42,840
Speaker 5: That they recruiting goes back early and earlier nowadays, and

894
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:45,440
Speaker 5: so now they're you know, they're recruiting class class for

895
00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:48,400
Speaker 5: sophomores in high schools already filled as far as duke goes.

896
00:43:48,200 --> 00:43:50,320
Speaker 4: You know, that's how it goes. But so I was

897
00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:50,919
Speaker 4: super late.

898
00:43:51,040 --> 00:43:53,880
Speaker 5: So I was I was really itching to just you know,

899
00:43:53,960 --> 00:43:56,920
Speaker 5: put that put that committed thing in the bio on

900
00:43:57,000 --> 00:44:00,320
Speaker 5: Twitter and and get that tweet out that like everyone's

901
00:44:00,360 --> 00:44:03,600
Speaker 5: gonna favorite and retweet and just kind of get it

902
00:44:03,640 --> 00:44:05,840
Speaker 5: finished because there's a lot of anxiety it comes with it,

903
00:44:05,880 --> 00:44:08,719
Speaker 5: and I don't think I didn't really consider that, you know,

904
00:44:08,800 --> 00:44:10,880
Speaker 5: this is gonna be three years, four years of your life,

905
00:44:11,040 --> 00:44:12,959
Speaker 5: so you should probably give it some real thought.

906
00:44:13,200 --> 00:44:15,040
Speaker 4: And we got the offer from Rice, and I was

907
00:44:15,080 --> 00:44:17,560
Speaker 4: just like, that's it. It's over. I'm like I'm gonna go.

908
00:44:17,560 --> 00:44:20,319
Speaker 5: I'm gonna tweet it out right now. And I was

909
00:44:20,320 --> 00:44:22,239
Speaker 5: pumped because, I mean, Rice is it is great, It's

910
00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:25,480
Speaker 5: good school. Campus was all right. You know, it was

911
00:44:25,520 --> 00:44:28,279
Speaker 5: really small. It's just really small. We walked the whole

912
00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:30,360
Speaker 5: thing in like forty five but I mean it's you know,

913
00:44:30,360 --> 00:44:32,359
Speaker 5: it's a very good program, a lot of College World

914
00:44:32,400 --> 00:44:36,800
Speaker 5: series of appearances. But yeah, I didn't want to consider,

915
00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:39,040
Speaker 5: you know, the North Carolina trip that we were supposed

916
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:40,600
Speaker 5: to make the next couple days.

917
00:44:40,800 --> 00:44:43,480
Speaker 4: And my parents kind of forced me to. They're like, now, like,

918
00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:44,839
Speaker 4: you know you already. I don't think.

919
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:46,160
Speaker 5: I don't know if I agreed to it, but it

920
00:44:46,200 --> 00:44:48,000
Speaker 5: was like in the works, and they're like, you're gonna

921
00:44:48,000 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 5: follow through with this.

922
00:44:48,719 --> 00:44:50,160
Speaker 4: You gotta go see your options.

923
00:44:50,440 --> 00:44:52,880
Speaker 5: And I was pretty pissed about that because I just

924
00:44:52,880 --> 00:44:56,759
Speaker 5: wanted to be done and tell all my boys. But yeah,

925
00:44:56,800 --> 00:44:59,360
Speaker 5: so they forced me to go, and uh, you know,

926
00:44:59,600 --> 00:45:01,400
Speaker 5: went to You did the whole tour and it was

927
00:45:01,440 --> 00:45:04,520
Speaker 5: really well done and you just couldn't beat it. You

928
00:45:04,520 --> 00:45:09,000
Speaker 5: couldn't beat how everything you know, fell into place, and

929
00:45:09,040 --> 00:45:11,359
Speaker 5: how the campus looked and everything about it.

930
00:45:12,480 --> 00:45:15,120
Speaker 3: And so you were one game from the college World Series,

931
00:45:16,280 --> 00:45:19,600
Speaker 3: a pretty incredible run all the way through and you

932
00:45:19,719 --> 00:45:23,120
Speaker 3: end up falling to Texas Tech, right, and that that

933
00:45:23,200 --> 00:45:26,680
Speaker 3: was a crazy series in itself. You guys weren't expected

934
00:45:26,719 --> 00:45:29,200
Speaker 3: to beat Georgia. You do you come back? You weren't

935
00:45:29,200 --> 00:45:31,200
Speaker 3: even expected to make it to Georgia. You were losing

936
00:45:31,239 --> 00:45:33,840
Speaker 3: to Campbell right by Like what were you down? Almost

937
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:37,799
Speaker 3: eight runs? Seven runs and with only six outs to go.

938
00:45:38,200 --> 00:45:40,520
Speaker 3: I'm trying to remember, but it was something crazy to

939
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:42,360
Speaker 3: the point where I turned it off. I stopped watching.

940
00:45:42,560 --> 00:45:44,640
Speaker 3: I went to the grocery store. You guys had a

941
00:45:44,719 --> 00:45:47,719
Speaker 3: rain delay, right, and can you talking about that? Just

942
00:45:47,760 --> 00:45:50,959
Speaker 3: starting from there? Take take me through that in that

943
00:45:51,640 --> 00:45:55,040
Speaker 3: miracle comeback and then that whole just that whole run

944
00:45:55,200 --> 00:45:57,680
Speaker 3: was just an incredible stretch because you end up getting

945
00:45:57,760 --> 00:46:00,920
Speaker 3: drafted along that run too. And what was that whole

946
00:46:00,960 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 3: like two week span?

947
00:46:02,120 --> 00:46:06,400
Speaker 5: Like, yeah, man, that was the Campbell game. You know,

948
00:46:06,400 --> 00:46:08,440
Speaker 5: I'll never forget that. We had that rein too light

949
00:46:09,000 --> 00:46:11,480
Speaker 5: and we were down. I think it wasn't super It

950
00:46:11,480 --> 00:46:13,279
Speaker 5: wasn't like crazy like nine to eight or night. It

951
00:46:13,280 --> 00:46:14,960
Speaker 5: was like I think six to one and like the

952
00:46:15,000 --> 00:46:17,200
Speaker 5: seventh you know, this this starter they had was cruising.

953
00:46:17,239 --> 00:46:18,800
Speaker 4: He's a really good, really good pitcher.

954
00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:21,000
Speaker 5: And against you know, Campbell was a solid and you

955
00:46:21,000 --> 00:46:22,920
Speaker 5: know that they always could hit really well and they

956
00:46:22,920 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 5: had this one starter that they kind of rode and

957
00:46:24,760 --> 00:46:25,799
Speaker 5: he pitched really well.

958
00:46:25,800 --> 00:46:26,200
Speaker 4: That day.

959
00:46:27,800 --> 00:46:29,480
Speaker 5: We had, yeah, we had this long raindowlay and we

960
00:46:29,520 --> 00:46:31,239
Speaker 5: went kind of in the cages and we were just

961
00:46:31,239 --> 00:46:33,880
Speaker 5: sitting around and we were The energy in there was

962
00:46:33,960 --> 00:46:36,640
Speaker 5: just you know, it was like a funeral. It was

963
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:40,759
Speaker 5: so dead and it wasn't like, uh, there was no

964
00:46:40,920 --> 00:46:43,160
Speaker 5: kind of movie like moment where someone got up and

965
00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:46,040
Speaker 5: was like all right, like we're gonna get like we

966
00:46:46,040 --> 00:46:48,600
Speaker 5: were we almost given up, you know, as bad as

967
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:50,239
Speaker 5: it sounds, we were just kind of like we were

968
00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:53,400
Speaker 5: reminiscing upon the year and everything that went down and

969
00:46:53,440 --> 00:46:55,080
Speaker 5: just kind of like this might be our last game

970
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:58,560
Speaker 5: together and all this stuff, and and there wasn't really

971
00:46:58,560 --> 00:47:00,799
Speaker 5: any shift in the energy. It was like, all right,

972
00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:04,279
Speaker 5: like let's go, let's go beat these guys or come back.

973
00:47:04,400 --> 00:47:06,279
Speaker 5: It was kind of just like we started playing again

974
00:47:06,280 --> 00:47:08,719
Speaker 5: and we were just like we're gonna, you know, we're

975
00:47:08,719 --> 00:47:11,600
Speaker 5: gonna these are our last could be our last at

976
00:47:11,640 --> 00:47:14,480
Speaker 5: bats or whenever you get up in the lineup, so

977
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:16,319
Speaker 5: let's just make something of it, you know, let's just

978
00:47:17,680 --> 00:47:20,800
Speaker 5: let's just uh make our last game, you know, something

979
00:47:20,800 --> 00:47:22,560
Speaker 5: that we fought for, you know, and then we didn't

980
00:47:22,600 --> 00:47:24,240
Speaker 5: just roll over it. But there was no big speech

981
00:47:24,280 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 5: from anyone, and we had great leadership, but it was

982
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:29,719
Speaker 5: just kind of like the mood in there was just

983
00:47:29,880 --> 00:47:32,880
Speaker 5: you couldn't overcome it. And then just you know, it

984
00:47:32,920 --> 00:47:35,480
Speaker 5: happened so quick. It was just like we got three

985
00:47:35,560 --> 00:47:37,879
Speaker 5: or four guys on right right right out of the gate,

986
00:47:38,800 --> 00:47:40,640
Speaker 5: and we scored a few, and then we scored a

987
00:47:40,640 --> 00:47:42,080
Speaker 5: few the next inning. And then it came down of

988
00:47:42,080 --> 00:47:46,440
Speaker 5: the ninth and that kid, Chris Krabtree, this bodybuilder freshman,

989
00:47:47,800 --> 00:47:49,440
Speaker 5: came up and he had like ten at bats in

990
00:47:49,480 --> 00:47:51,400
Speaker 5: the year, and the bass is clearing double I think

991
00:47:51,440 --> 00:47:53,279
Speaker 5: gave us the lead in that ninth inning, and then

992
00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:54,919
Speaker 5: we ended up beating them by like five or six.

993
00:47:54,960 --> 00:47:58,120
Speaker 5: We scored like eight runs of that ninth It was crazy.

994
00:47:58,239 --> 00:48:01,520
Speaker 3: And then you move on to Georgia and you guys

995
00:48:01,560 --> 00:48:03,160
Speaker 3: lose the first one, right, and then you win two

996
00:48:03,200 --> 00:48:06,320
Speaker 3: in a row, and you went off in that series.

997
00:48:06,440 --> 00:48:08,279
Speaker 3: I think you would you have three home runs in

998
00:48:08,280 --> 00:48:08,800
Speaker 3: that series.

999
00:48:09,760 --> 00:48:12,880
Speaker 5: Well, I'm trying to think. No, yeah, so we it

1000
00:48:12,920 --> 00:48:15,000
Speaker 5: was it was double elimination. So we actually lost the

1001
00:48:15,040 --> 00:48:17,680
Speaker 5: first game to Troy and then we we we won

1002
00:48:17,760 --> 00:48:20,359
Speaker 5: out after that, we beat Campbell and then we beat Troy.

1003
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:23,359
Speaker 5: We played Troy again, beat them pretty easily, and then

1004
00:48:23,400 --> 00:48:25,200
Speaker 5: we had to beat Georgia twice. We won four in

1005
00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:29,680
Speaker 5: a row after losing that first one. Crazy and uh yeah.

1006
00:48:29,719 --> 00:48:31,680
Speaker 5: And as we got to Georgia and by that time,

1007
00:48:31,719 --> 00:48:34,120
Speaker 5: you know, the momentum had kind of completely shifted. You know,

1008
00:48:34,160 --> 00:48:37,200
Speaker 5: we went from losing to two crappy teams almost and

1009
00:48:37,239 --> 00:48:39,239
Speaker 5: then we kind of crushed Troy, I think in that

1010
00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:41,839
Speaker 5: second game, and then uh yeah, and then we got

1011
00:48:41,880 --> 00:48:44,360
Speaker 5: to Uga and it was just kind of all gas,

1012
00:48:44,400 --> 00:48:45,360
Speaker 5: no breaks at that point.

1013
00:48:45,560 --> 00:48:47,000
Speaker 4: We're just we're like, let's do it.

1014
00:48:47,880 --> 00:48:51,160
Speaker 3: And you you went off in the game like legeting

1015
00:48:51,239 --> 00:48:53,640
Speaker 3: up to the draft. Yeah, I think you hit did

1016
00:48:53,640 --> 00:48:56,120
Speaker 3: you hit two home runs that game, right right before

1017
00:48:56,160 --> 00:48:59,719
Speaker 3: the draft. And then you guys win the game and

1018
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:02,680
Speaker 3: then you go to watch the draft because several of

1019
00:49:02,719 --> 00:49:05,520
Speaker 3: your teammates, including yourself, were ready to get drafted, right.

1020
00:49:07,120 --> 00:49:08,840
Speaker 4: Yeah. It was uh, it was crazy.

1021
00:49:08,880 --> 00:49:12,920
Speaker 5: It was we we uh yeah, we had we had

1022
00:49:12,920 --> 00:49:14,879
Speaker 5: the double header we had we had to play Georgia twice.

1023
00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:16,400
Speaker 4: Aid that we had the first game at like twelve

1024
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:18,399
Speaker 4: or one or something like that beat them.

1025
00:49:18,400 --> 00:49:20,960
Speaker 5: We had like an hour to just like eat something

1026
00:49:21,040 --> 00:49:24,280
Speaker 5: and then we play again. So we won the first game, like, uh,

1027
00:49:24,800 --> 00:49:26,879
Speaker 5: it wasn't super close. It was like I think we

1028
00:49:26,880 --> 00:49:29,759
Speaker 5: were tied in the seven. Then we ended up going ahead. Yeah,

1029
00:49:29,800 --> 00:49:32,400
Speaker 5: and then the second game was by the time we

1030
00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:35,120
Speaker 5: got it was like five to four, and then it

1031
00:49:35,200 --> 00:49:36,759
Speaker 5: was pretty close most the way through, and then we

1032
00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:38,279
Speaker 5: ended up going up eight to four I think in

1033
00:49:38,320 --> 00:49:40,680
Speaker 5: the eighth or ninth, and then I mean, yeah, it

1034
00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:44,520
Speaker 5: was just what a rush of emotions to come from going.

1035
00:49:44,440 --> 00:49:45,399
Speaker 4: You know, we got that win.

1036
00:49:45,640 --> 00:49:47,960
Speaker 5: And then that was like you know, either the game

1037
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,200
Speaker 5: finished up at like seven or eight or something like that,

1038
00:49:50,440 --> 00:49:52,359
Speaker 5: and then the draft was starting, you know, like right

1039
00:49:52,600 --> 00:49:54,360
Speaker 5: the picks had already kind of started coming in. I

1040
00:49:54,360 --> 00:49:57,400
Speaker 5: think is as we were finishing up the celebration, and

1041
00:49:57,440 --> 00:49:58,800
Speaker 5: I knew. I knew, like I wasn't, you know, I

1042
00:49:58,800 --> 00:49:59,400
Speaker 5: wasn't gonna.

1043
00:49:59,200 --> 00:50:00,920
Speaker 4: Be a top ten. I was talking to my agent.

1044
00:50:01,000 --> 00:50:03,319
Speaker 5: He was like, we can expect between these kind of

1045
00:50:03,320 --> 00:50:05,279
Speaker 5: picks here, and so we had time to go back

1046
00:50:05,320 --> 00:50:05,720
Speaker 5: to hotel.

1047
00:50:05,760 --> 00:50:07,720
Speaker 4: And then yeah, we went to a mellow mushroom across

1048
00:50:07,760 --> 00:50:08,480
Speaker 4: the street.

1049
00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:11,520
Speaker 5: On the whole team kind of ended up rolling in around.

1050
00:50:12,080 --> 00:50:13,480
Speaker 4: You know. A coach was cool about it because it

1051
00:50:13,520 --> 00:50:14,520
Speaker 4: was like eleven at this point.

1052
00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:17,040
Speaker 5: It was getting like the pick forty or forty five,

1053
00:50:17,080 --> 00:50:19,040
Speaker 5: and it was like eleven thirty, so like curfew was

1054
00:50:19,760 --> 00:50:22,120
Speaker 5: passed for sure. But he was like, you know, everyone

1055
00:50:22,239 --> 00:50:24,520
Speaker 5: kind of get over there and let's just uh, let's

1056
00:50:24,560 --> 00:50:25,880
Speaker 5: just like have a good time, you know, at this

1057
00:50:25,960 --> 00:50:27,560
Speaker 5: mellow mushroom and see what happens.

1058
00:50:27,600 --> 00:50:29,760
Speaker 4: So it was, it was unbelievable.

1059
00:50:29,960 --> 00:50:32,400
Speaker 3: And so you went off the board. Was there anywhere

1060
00:50:32,440 --> 00:50:35,799
Speaker 3: you were like hoping to go and you ended up

1061
00:50:35,800 --> 00:50:38,799
Speaker 3: going I think right one pick before the Marlins ironically,

1062
00:50:39,320 --> 00:50:41,880
Speaker 3: But was there anywhere you were hoping to get drafted

1063
00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:43,520
Speaker 3: or was it just kind of take me as soon

1064
00:50:43,560 --> 00:50:46,240
Speaker 3: as possible. I can't wait to hear my name called.

1065
00:50:47,640 --> 00:50:49,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I don't think I had anything in mind.

1066
00:50:49,680 --> 00:50:51,880
Speaker 5: I just like, you know, definitely like a big, a

1067
00:50:51,880 --> 00:50:54,880
Speaker 5: big city, you know, a big market would be really cool.

1068
00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:56,680
Speaker 4: And Toronto I think fit the bill.

1069
00:50:56,800 --> 00:50:58,680
Speaker 5: You know, it's it's a it's a baseball team for

1070
00:50:58,680 --> 00:51:00,000
Speaker 5: a whole country, which is pretty cool.

1071
00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:01,719
Speaker 4: Yeah, the only the only one like that.

1072
00:51:01,880 --> 00:51:04,600
Speaker 5: So and you know, everything I've heard never been, but

1073
00:51:04,880 --> 00:51:07,319
Speaker 5: Toronto's just be unbelievable as far as the city goes.

1074
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:09,839
Speaker 5: So yeah, I mean it, there was no disappointments there.

1075
00:51:09,880 --> 00:51:11,239
Speaker 5: I mean it was everything I could have hoped for

1076
00:51:11,320 --> 00:51:15,279
Speaker 5: and very very cool to get that text and.

1077
00:51:15,239 --> 00:51:17,719
Speaker 3: Then you watch everybody else, all your other teammates go

1078
00:51:17,800 --> 00:51:20,279
Speaker 3: off the board. What was that like experience? Like you're

1079
00:51:20,320 --> 00:51:24,959
Speaker 3: riding the high of winning, beating Georgia and then yeah,

1080
00:51:25,280 --> 00:51:28,360
Speaker 3: almost like a fifth of your team is now getting

1081
00:51:28,440 --> 00:51:33,799
Speaker 3: drafted pretty high and now seeing an opportunity to play

1082
00:51:33,840 --> 00:51:34,800
Speaker 3: professional baseball.

1083
00:51:35,760 --> 00:51:37,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was awesome because it was it was we

1084
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:38,080
Speaker 4: had that long.

1085
00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:40,279
Speaker 5: We had to drive back the next day and then

1086
00:51:40,360 --> 00:51:42,040
Speaker 5: we'd drive back to Duke to get you know, in

1087
00:51:42,080 --> 00:51:45,080
Speaker 5: a week before Texas Tech. So on the drive, you

1088
00:51:45,080 --> 00:51:47,239
Speaker 5: know that the draft had started from round three the

1089
00:51:47,280 --> 00:51:49,680
Speaker 5: next day and then Haron, you know, Haron goes in

1090
00:51:49,719 --> 00:51:51,200
Speaker 5: the third round of the Cubs. We were at a

1091
00:51:51,200 --> 00:51:54,560
Speaker 5: gas station rest stop and I see like we're all

1092
00:51:54,640 --> 00:51:57,680
Speaker 5: just yeah, everyone's following it, but like e Din Harn

1093
00:51:57,719 --> 00:51:59,680
Speaker 5: didn't really know exactly what was you know, he didn't

1094
00:51:59,640 --> 00:52:02,440
Speaker 5: know it was going to take him or whatever, and

1095
00:52:02,480 --> 00:52:04,279
Speaker 5: we were just like everyone kind of gathering around him

1096
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:06,000
Speaker 5: and like hugging, and I was like in the bathroom,

1097
00:52:06,040 --> 00:52:08,160
Speaker 5: I got out and Aarons and everyone's like, yo, Jimmy

1098
00:52:08,400 --> 00:52:10,680
Speaker 5: went to the Cubs, which is awesome because the Cubs

1099
00:52:10,680 --> 00:52:14,560
Speaker 5: are you know, they're just a legendary franchise. And now

1100
00:52:14,600 --> 00:52:16,440
Speaker 5: of course he's with the Rockies now he got traded.

1101
00:52:16,480 --> 00:52:19,160
Speaker 5: But yeah, he was crazy pumped. I think he was

1102
00:52:19,160 --> 00:52:20,920
Speaker 5: a little teary eyed. I don't know if you'd admit it,

1103
00:52:21,000 --> 00:52:24,319
Speaker 5: but it was so cool. And then over the course

1104
00:52:24,320 --> 00:52:26,279
Speaker 5: of the next couple of days, you know, that day too,

1105
00:52:26,320 --> 00:52:29,440
Speaker 5: we had a couple guy, you know, trying to think

1106
00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:34,279
Speaker 5: he went next. I think the next was like tenth

1107
00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:38,000
Speaker 5: or eleventh, maybe Cone, and then Procter. Cone and Proctor

1108
00:52:38,040 --> 00:52:44,359
Speaker 5: went pretty close. And then yeah, then Jack the caster

1109
00:52:44,520 --> 00:52:47,080
Speaker 5: went like twelfth or thirteen, Yeah, him and him and

1110
00:52:47,120 --> 00:52:48,160
Speaker 5: Proctor went both.

1111
00:52:48,000 --> 00:52:50,239
Speaker 4: To the tigrazy. I was like right back to back.

1112
00:52:50,400 --> 00:52:53,080
Speaker 5: So and then Jack was probably the craziest one because

1113
00:52:53,080 --> 00:52:55,280
Speaker 5: he was like, you know, he just wanted to play,

1114
00:52:55,320 --> 00:52:57,600
Speaker 5: you know, the signing bonus wasn't a question. You know,

1115
00:52:57,600 --> 00:52:59,759
Speaker 5: he didn't care about it was his last year, you

1116
00:52:59,840 --> 00:53:01,719
Speaker 5: know for Duke, he didn't red shirt, so he's a

1117
00:53:01,840 --> 00:53:04,160
Speaker 5: senior and he was kinding.

1118
00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:05,560
Speaker 4: To get are you starting to sweat a little bit?

1119
00:53:05,600 --> 00:53:07,799
Speaker 5: We're in practice, you know, when he found out and

1120
00:53:07,840 --> 00:53:09,279
Speaker 5: he was starting to like kind of get he kept

1121
00:53:09,360 --> 00:53:10,880
Speaker 5: check in and he finally.

1122
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:12,120
Speaker 4: Got the call. Like he just broke down.

1123
00:53:12,160 --> 00:53:12,319
Speaker 6: Man.

1124
00:53:12,400 --> 00:53:13,240
Speaker 4: He was so happy.

1125
00:53:14,440 --> 00:53:18,000
Speaker 3: Jacoboski right the picture for the Rays organization. Yeah, you

1126
00:53:18,040 --> 00:53:19,400
Speaker 3: got the call, he told me in the middle of

1127
00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:21,719
Speaker 3: practice with his phone in his pocket. I think he

1128
00:53:21,760 --> 00:53:25,280
Speaker 3: actually missed the call, which is crazy. Uh. And that's

1129
00:53:25,400 --> 00:53:28,680
Speaker 3: just the craziest story too, where he turned a school

1130
00:53:28,680 --> 00:53:31,359
Speaker 3: bus into an RV because we talked about the lack

1131
00:53:31,400 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 3: of signing bonus there, which is just a crazy story

1132
00:53:34,920 --> 00:53:36,759
Speaker 3: for you guys to all have that and go through

1133
00:53:36,800 --> 00:53:39,560
Speaker 3: it together, which is unbelievable. What was it like having

1134
00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:41,920
Speaker 3: your dad through that process too, because most of these guys,

1135
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:44,440
Speaker 3: most of your teammates, didn't have a dad that played

1136
00:53:44,440 --> 00:53:47,640
Speaker 3: professional baseball. I know your dad had a very different

1137
00:53:47,719 --> 00:53:51,000
Speaker 3: draft experience, having gone like one of the like around

1138
00:53:51,000 --> 00:53:55,319
Speaker 3: that I don't think even exists anymore. Uh, but for you,

1139
00:53:55,400 --> 00:53:59,440
Speaker 3: now a blue Chipper, what advice was he able to

1140
00:53:59,480 --> 00:54:02,320
Speaker 3: give you in terms of just how to handle everything

1141
00:54:02,320 --> 00:54:04,520
Speaker 3: and how to handle yourself? Because I mean, your dad

1142
00:54:04,600 --> 00:54:08,200
Speaker 3: is known as one of the most pros pros in

1143
00:54:08,239 --> 00:54:11,600
Speaker 3: the last twenty years around the game and highly respected.

1144
00:54:11,640 --> 00:54:15,480
Speaker 3: And how much does he teach you off the field

1145
00:54:15,520 --> 00:54:17,560
Speaker 3: stuff and just how to how to conduct yourself.

1146
00:54:18,520 --> 00:54:21,279
Speaker 5: It's definitely more than I learned just from watching you

1147
00:54:21,320 --> 00:54:25,080
Speaker 5: know him and hearing guys talk about because you know,

1148
00:54:25,239 --> 00:54:27,000
Speaker 5: you know my dad pretty well, and he's not like

1149
00:54:27,040 --> 00:54:30,200
Speaker 5: he's not a super vocal guy so to speak. You know,

1150
00:54:30,239 --> 00:54:32,560
Speaker 5: he doesn't do uh it doesn't He's not a big

1151
00:54:32,600 --> 00:54:34,680
Speaker 5: he's more of a lead with how you act kind

1152
00:54:34,680 --> 00:54:37,400
Speaker 5: of guy I think than than more like a big

1153
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:40,600
Speaker 5: monologuer or big talker. And I think we're different in

1154
00:54:40,640 --> 00:54:42,800
Speaker 5: that way, you know, because I'm more of a talker.

1155
00:54:43,040 --> 00:54:47,040
Speaker 5: And but I think just you know, I get guys

1156
00:54:47,080 --> 00:54:47,919
Speaker 5: coming up with me all the time.

1157
00:54:47,920 --> 00:54:48,080
Speaker 4: You know.

1158
00:54:48,080 --> 00:54:50,720
Speaker 5: I had a random guy our last series in Lansting.

1159
00:54:50,800 --> 00:54:53,160
Speaker 5: He was the uh think you ended up being the

1160
00:54:53,200 --> 00:54:55,759
Speaker 5: general manager for the Fort Wayne TinCaps and he was

1161
00:54:55,800 --> 00:54:58,239
Speaker 5: a clubby for the Marlins in like nineteen ninety seven

1162
00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:00,440
Speaker 5: or something like that. And this guy came up to

1163
00:55:00,480 --> 00:55:02,120
Speaker 5: me in the dugout and he was like, shook my

1164
00:55:02,160 --> 00:55:03,719
Speaker 5: hand and I had no idea who he was. And

1165
00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:05,520
Speaker 5: he's like, hey man, like you don't He didn't. He

1166
00:55:05,560 --> 00:55:07,680
Speaker 5: wouldn't even tell me his name. He was like, hey, man, like,

1167
00:55:09,040 --> 00:55:11,600
Speaker 5: you don't know me. Your dad probably you know, wouldn't

1168
00:55:11,640 --> 00:55:13,759
Speaker 5: remember me. But uh, I just wanted to say, you

1169
00:55:13,760 --> 00:55:16,600
Speaker 5: know how great he treated like the Clubbi's and when

1170
00:55:16,600 --> 00:55:18,880
Speaker 5: we were in in Florida with him, and he was

1171
00:55:18,880 --> 00:55:22,440
Speaker 5: always the coolest guy and treated us like we were,

1172
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:23,960
Speaker 5: you know, part of the team. And I just want

1173
00:55:24,000 --> 00:55:25,360
Speaker 5: to say that. And I was like, what's your name? Man, Like,

1174
00:55:25,440 --> 00:55:27,400
Speaker 5: let me tell him that he said something. He's like

1175
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:29,120
Speaker 5: he wouldn't remember me, and he's like I was like

1176
00:55:29,200 --> 00:55:30,960
Speaker 5: no really and he's like, yeah, it's all good.

1177
00:55:30,960 --> 00:55:32,239
Speaker 4: Man. I just wanted to say what's up.

1178
00:55:33,239 --> 00:55:36,680
Speaker 5: So just stuff like that, man, Just like being as

1179
00:55:36,680 --> 00:55:39,319
Speaker 5: respectful as you can be to like people that you know,

1180
00:55:39,400 --> 00:55:43,799
Speaker 5: you never know what's gonna happen or uh, what's what

1181
00:55:43,840 --> 00:55:47,520
Speaker 5: they're gonna end up as, And just you know, being

1182
00:55:47,680 --> 00:55:49,680
Speaker 5: being as professional as you can be at all times

1183
00:55:50,880 --> 00:55:51,239
Speaker 5: and for.

1184
00:55:51,280 --> 00:55:57,080
Speaker 3: You now moving forward, you got hopefully now high A

1185
00:55:57,200 --> 00:55:59,840
Speaker 3: ball and moving up to double A and your hope

1186
00:55:59,840 --> 00:56:02,320
Speaker 3: to just get to the bigs in the next couple

1187
00:56:02,280 --> 00:56:06,359
Speaker 3: of years. Watching your dad in the bigs. Now when

1188
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:08,080
Speaker 3: you can reflect back, because I know at the time

1189
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:10,879
Speaker 3: you weren't really thinking about it, but reflecting back now,

1190
00:56:10,920 --> 00:56:13,160
Speaker 3: is there anything you took away from watching him at

1191
00:56:13,200 --> 00:56:16,320
Speaker 3: the time and how he carried himself on the field

1192
00:56:16,320 --> 00:56:19,160
Speaker 3: that now you can apply to yourself, almost in hindsight,

1193
00:56:19,239 --> 00:56:21,800
Speaker 3: since you weren't. You were so young when he was playing,

1194
00:56:21,800 --> 00:56:24,080
Speaker 3: it's hard to really at the time be able to

1195
00:56:24,360 --> 00:56:27,920
Speaker 3: appreciate the little things that he did. But now that

1196
00:56:28,000 --> 00:56:30,640
Speaker 3: you're moving forward and can look back on it, well,

1197
00:56:30,840 --> 00:56:33,200
Speaker 3: what kind of things are you trying to take away

1198
00:56:33,239 --> 00:56:35,720
Speaker 3: from what he did? Obviously you're two very different kinds

1199
00:56:35,719 --> 00:56:36,920
Speaker 3: of players.

1200
00:56:38,040 --> 00:56:39,880
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, for sure, I think, uh.

1201
00:56:40,160 --> 00:56:42,960
Speaker 5: I mean, the biggest thing, the most impressive thing is

1202
00:56:43,000 --> 00:56:46,000
Speaker 5: just mister consistency, you know. I think that's that's such

1203
00:56:46,000 --> 00:56:49,920
Speaker 5: an underrated, uh, such an underrated tool that someone can have,

1204
00:56:50,040 --> 00:56:51,719
Speaker 5: is just being the same guy every day, because it's

1205
00:56:51,719 --> 00:56:54,080
Speaker 5: really hard, you know, especially with all the ups and

1206
00:56:54,120 --> 00:56:56,560
Speaker 5: downs that come with a season and and a baseball

1207
00:56:56,560 --> 00:56:59,160
Speaker 5: career in general. But I think that was the biggest

1208
00:56:59,200 --> 00:57:00,680
Speaker 5: thing I saw just you can look at it with

1209
00:57:00,719 --> 00:57:04,280
Speaker 5: his numbers. I mean, he never had a huge fluctuating season.

1210
00:57:04,360 --> 00:57:06,360
Speaker 5: It was always you know, two seventy to two ninety.

1211
00:57:06,400 --> 00:57:09,560
Speaker 5: It seemed like same same kind of power output, same

1212
00:57:09,760 --> 00:57:12,759
Speaker 5: you know, RBI output, and he was always you know,

1213
00:57:12,760 --> 00:57:15,200
Speaker 5: he never missed a big chunk of time really, So

1214
00:57:15,280 --> 00:57:17,640
Speaker 5: I think the biggest thing is just kind of the longevity,

1215
00:57:17,800 --> 00:57:19,960
Speaker 5: you know, the of a of a career and the

1216
00:57:20,000 --> 00:57:22,280
Speaker 5: fact that he was he came to the field, you know,

1217
00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:24,200
Speaker 5: the same same guy every day. And that's something he

1218
00:57:24,240 --> 00:57:27,200
Speaker 5: tells me too, is just the season can get so

1219
00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:29,560
Speaker 5: you know, drag on so long, and it gets hard

1220
00:57:29,600 --> 00:57:32,640
Speaker 5: at sometimes. But the best thing you can do is

1221
00:57:32,680 --> 00:57:35,160
Speaker 5: just uh, show up to the field every day kind

1222
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:37,439
Speaker 5: of just ready to work, you know, happy to be there,

1223
00:57:37,440 --> 00:57:41,200
Speaker 5: and if you're still having fun doing it, then you know,

1224
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:45,200
Speaker 5: your life's pretty good. So that's probably the biggest, uh,

1225
00:57:45,240 --> 00:57:46,160
Speaker 5: the biggest takeaway.

1226
00:57:46,960 --> 00:57:49,960
Speaker 3: And before I let you go here, I want your

1227
00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:53,720
Speaker 3: favorite sports or your favorite career baseball moments so far,

1228
00:57:53,880 --> 00:57:56,440
Speaker 3: and then your favorite of your father's so fine, I

1229
00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:57,840
Speaker 3: think I know what your years is going to be

1230
00:57:57,880 --> 00:57:59,640
Speaker 3: for your father's but I honestly have no idea what

1231
00:57:59,720 --> 00:58:01,800
Speaker 3: yours is. For yourself, I.

1232
00:58:01,920 --> 00:58:05,240
Speaker 5: Gotta say probably just that entire day of the Georgia

1233
00:58:05,360 --> 00:58:07,680
Speaker 5: Regional win. You know that you can't beat that, just

1234
00:58:07,800 --> 00:58:11,160
Speaker 5: that that five hour period where you know, we clinched

1235
00:58:11,160 --> 00:58:13,840
Speaker 5: the win that no one thought we could and then

1236
00:58:14,000 --> 00:58:15,880
Speaker 5: you know, you fast forward three more hours and then

1237
00:58:15,920 --> 00:58:17,720
Speaker 5: you know, kind of my the next phase of my

1238
00:58:17,760 --> 00:58:21,120
Speaker 5: life starts with with pro ball. So that was probably

1239
00:58:21,160 --> 00:58:25,000
Speaker 5: just the craziest rush of emotions baseball related that you.

1240
00:58:24,960 --> 00:58:26,800
Speaker 4: Know, I'll ever feel, I'll ever feel.

1241
00:58:27,440 --> 00:58:33,800
Speaker 5: And I mean, yeah, Dad's Dad's greatest moment as probably.

1242
00:58:35,080 --> 00:58:36,439
Speaker 4: I would say, I would say there's two.

1243
00:58:36,600 --> 00:58:40,520
Speaker 5: I would say individually, the All Star Game, Homer was

1244
00:58:40,560 --> 00:58:42,440
Speaker 5: probably at the top, one of the top of his list.

1245
00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:44,560
Speaker 5: I don't think he'd say that because it's it's pretty

1246
00:58:45,320 --> 00:58:47,840
Speaker 5: you know, in individualistic. It was just him, you know,

1247
00:58:47,920 --> 00:58:50,040
Speaker 5: representing the Marlins and he got the one pinch it

1248
00:58:50,080 --> 00:58:51,800
Speaker 5: at that and ended up winning the m v P,

1249
00:58:52,000 --> 00:58:56,080
Speaker 5: which was which was awesome. Uh, But I think probably

1250
00:58:56,120 --> 00:58:59,720
Speaker 5: for him, uh the three O three run, the postseason

1251
00:58:59,800 --> 00:59:02,440
Speaker 5: run where we were just watching highlights from that the

1252
00:59:02,480 --> 00:59:03,160
Speaker 5: other night.

1253
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:06,480
Speaker 3: We the throat to Pudge. That's gotta be. That's gotta

1254
00:59:06,520 --> 00:59:07,080
Speaker 3: be all time.

1255
00:59:07,520 --> 00:59:09,560
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that too. I mean that was on the

1256
00:59:09,680 --> 00:59:12,240
Speaker 4: that was on the on the on the on.

1257
00:59:12,200 --> 00:59:15,600
Speaker 5: The highlight reel obviously, and that was you know, still

1258
00:59:15,920 --> 00:59:18,800
Speaker 5: still smiles about that entire play and Pudge with the

1259
00:59:19,360 --> 00:59:22,440
Speaker 5: with the legendary reaction to that, and just uh, I

1260
00:59:22,440 --> 00:59:24,240
Speaker 5: think beating the Yankees was the biggest thing.

1261
00:59:24,280 --> 00:59:25,920
Speaker 4: You know, it was the It was this David Versua

1262
00:59:26,000 --> 00:59:27,000
Speaker 4: live story here and.

1263
00:59:27,920 --> 00:59:30,080
Speaker 5: He never lets me forget that that they beat the

1264
00:59:30,160 --> 00:59:31,960
Speaker 5: Yankees at home to win the World Series.

1265
00:59:32,720 --> 00:59:35,360
Speaker 3: Well that's next for you. You're gonna have to beat the

1266
00:59:35,400 --> 00:59:38,520
Speaker 3: Yankees quite a bit in the coming years. So hopefully

1267
00:59:38,520 --> 00:59:41,800
Speaker 3: it'll be pretty soon. And I appreciate you coming on.

1268
00:59:42,240 --> 00:59:43,720
Speaker 3: We're gonna do this more. We got to do this

1269
00:59:43,840 --> 00:59:46,240
Speaker 3: again because there's so many questions. I didn't even get

1270
00:59:46,280 --> 00:59:49,360
Speaker 3: to get to with you within the hour. But we'll

1271
00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:51,320
Speaker 3: do this again soon because I got a lot more

1272
00:59:51,400 --> 00:59:53,400
Speaker 3: questions really with We didn't even let this one get

1273
00:59:53,400 --> 00:59:55,120
Speaker 3: too personal this time. You got lucky.

1274
00:59:55,400 --> 00:59:56,480
Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, man.

1275
00:59:56,640 --> 01:00:00,600
Speaker 5: You know, off season, off season schedules is pretty flexible,

1276
01:00:01,200 --> 01:00:03,720
Speaker 5: so you know, I'm always around and definitely down to

1277
01:00:03,720 --> 01:00:06,040
Speaker 5: to get get personal with it next time.

1278
01:00:06,800 --> 01:00:09,280
Speaker 3: Sounds good, sounds good, Keep working on those strikeouts.

1279
01:00:09,280 --> 01:00:21,160
Speaker 5: Grave Oh absolutely set