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Speaker 1: I'm your host, Katie will Hear with a very special guest.

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Speaker 1: Super excited about this episode. It's something I've been wanting

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Speaker 1: to do for a while. Cardinals assistant general manager Rob

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Speaker 1: Stortfolio joins the show.

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Speaker 2: Surf.

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Speaker 1: Welcome, longtime listener, hopefully first time partaker, Welcome to the show.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's like the old Francesca Collins first, first time,

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Speaker 3: long time. Yes, I appreciate you having me, so be

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Speaker 3: It'll be fun. Glad to talk with you and then

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Speaker 3: all the listeners, so beget I hope.

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Speaker 2: So pressures on me to deliver some good questions here.

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Speaker 1: I think when we look at this twenty twenty five

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Speaker 1: transition season, the main focus was on player development, and

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Speaker 1: while you were brought in after the twenty twenty four

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Speaker 1: season to kind of oversee what him and Bloom would

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Speaker 1: like to do with the minor league system. I mean,

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Speaker 1: this is something that's going to impact both the minor

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Speaker 1: league and major league teams.

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Speaker 2: And levels for multiple seasons.

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Speaker 1: That's just kind of the nature of where the organization

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Speaker 1: is trending. I think we'll just go right into it.

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Speaker 1: For Cardinals fans, who most of them, the wide majority,

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Speaker 1: have not had to experience an era like this, or

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Speaker 1: a transition season or a revamping of a payer development system.

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Speaker 1: What can you tell fans about what the minor league

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Speaker 1: system currently looks like so that they can understand the

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Speaker 1: changes that have been made over the last year.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, there's there's a lot of layers to that question, right,

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Speaker 3: you know. I think the one of the big things

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Speaker 3: is is it takes time and patience. And you know,

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Speaker 3: I think one of the things for me as a

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Speaker 3: as a new guy coming over here, going all the

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Speaker 3: way back to my own interview, is like, there's a

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Speaker 3: lot of pieces of this organization that's worked well for

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Speaker 3: a long time, and all those banners that are flying

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Speaker 3: around Bush Stadium, like, that's not by luck. And so

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Speaker 3: I think as a new person and with all the

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Speaker 3: new people that came in here, it was like really

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Speaker 3: trying to understand what are those things that have worked

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Speaker 3: really well for a long time. And that's not just performance, right,

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Speaker 3: That can be values, can be ways in which the

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Speaker 3: game has been taught being great at base running, defense, offense,

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Speaker 3: not really taking concessions in any one area, the cardinal way,

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Speaker 3: which as a as a new guy, has been really

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Speaker 3: fun to just try and learn what that actually means

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Speaker 3: to every person that's here, and so it takes patience

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Speaker 3: because you need to uncover what those things are. You

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Speaker 3: have a lot of new people bringing other ideas into

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Speaker 3: the organization, and now like the whole system is learning,

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Speaker 3: both players and staff. Okay, like, what's the new version

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Speaker 3: of this of this Cardinal's way call it that we

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Speaker 3: want to really scale and hopefully produce a lot of

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Speaker 3: great outcomes over time. And and you know it kind

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Speaker 3: of goes to like, especially with young players, just developments

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Speaker 3: not linear. You don't always see immediate results of what

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Speaker 3: you did yesterday. You're kind of like a farmer that's planting,

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Speaker 3: watering crops and doing that well over a long period

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Speaker 3: of time and always asking yourself, like in the middle

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Speaker 3: of that, is this process working? Are there things we

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Speaker 3: need to adjust? Are there holes that we're missing? Who

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Speaker 3: from the outside can come in and help us think

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Speaker 3: about this problem better. But it does take a little

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Speaker 3: bit of time. And that's not because things were so

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Speaker 3: far away from being good. Like, there's a lot of

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Speaker 3: players that were products of this minor league system that

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Speaker 3: have impacted the major leagues this year, which is awesome.

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Speaker 3: And now it's just trying to continue to make those

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Speaker 3: guys even better that have debuted and put other great

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Speaker 3: pieces around that, both with staff and player acquisition streams.

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Speaker 1: So that was the main focal focus point of when

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Speaker 1: you were first hired, and you worked with him about

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Speaker 1: expanding the staff first of the entire farm system as

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Speaker 1: a whole, added more coordinators, added more positions, and then

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Speaker 1: you both work to modernize technology. And both of those

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Speaker 1: phrases sound a little vague, especially to a fan base

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Speaker 1: that hasn't really had to really see the modernization of

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Speaker 1: a farm system. Can you expand on why adding both

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Speaker 1: staff and technology was important before you've been started the

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty five season.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we can start with the staff. I

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Speaker 3: mean I think, like, really, you're only as good as

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Speaker 3: your team. And the analogy I like to make is

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Speaker 3: because you know, this resonates I think with a lot

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Speaker 3: of people, especially anybody that has kids, is every person

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Speaker 3: wants to put their kids in the best school possible.

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Speaker 3: So how do you know if a school's great? Well

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Speaker 3: you look at well, if it's a high school, what

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Speaker 3: college do they send people to? What average sat at

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Speaker 3: or act scores? The does the school produce? And so

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Speaker 3: there's measurables right for that with a minor league baseball

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Speaker 3: system of how well is this group continuously producing major

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Speaker 3: league players that are winning major league players, not just

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Speaker 3: guys that get there, but stay there and help a

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Speaker 3: team actually achieve results at the big league level. And

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Speaker 3: so in order to have really good outputs, like the

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Speaker 3: best schools on Earth hire the best teachers and they

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Speaker 3: have the best curriculum, and that's how they scale their

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Speaker 3: product to every student. And it's really no different for

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Speaker 3: a baseball organization. It's you have to have a math chair,

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Speaker 3: you have to have an English chair, you have to

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Speaker 3: have multiple people in all of the spaces that impact

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Speaker 3: players getting to the big leagues and then staying there

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Speaker 3: and hopefully being winning players for a long time. You

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Speaker 3: need that same approach in the minor league so that

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Speaker 3: there's great communication between the big leagues and the minor

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Speaker 3: leagues and everybody's kind of reading off the same sheet

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Speaker 3: of music. They're solving for the same outcomes they're aligned towards.

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Speaker 3: When that TRIAA player walks into the major leagues for

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Speaker 3: the first time, that coaching staff knows that and had

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Speaker 3: input on the things that that player was coached towards

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Speaker 3: so that it's a seamless transition, or as seamless as

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Speaker 3: it can be given some of the factors that these

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Speaker 3: guys go through, you know, emotionally and just being in

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Speaker 3: a new physical location. So we really tried to attack

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Speaker 3: that off of you know, that's a really broad analogy,

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Speaker 3: but I think it's maybe something that the average person

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Speaker 3: can can resonate with because it's the same way that

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Speaker 3: you would try and in place your child in the

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Speaker 3: best school possible, and you just want those curriculums to

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Speaker 3: be really good and the people that are leading them

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Speaker 3: to be really skilled and great leaders and influencers of

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Speaker 3: both players and staff that when that coordinator is not there,

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Speaker 3: the actual programming and the curriculum is really sound, and

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Speaker 3: the players understand it, and the coaches of the affiliate

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Speaker 3: understand it, and they know exactly what they need to

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Speaker 3: do to carry that action out.

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Speaker 4: And if we do that.

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Speaker 3: Every friggin day, it's monotonous. But if we win the

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Speaker 3: one to five o'clock period with our process and how

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Speaker 3: we're working on those skills, then the game is just

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Speaker 3: a barometer of how well our work is translating. And so,

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Speaker 3: you know, that was really the whole thought, and I'd

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Speaker 3: spend a lot of years in Cleveland kind of helping

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Speaker 3: lead like the hiring process over there. So for me,

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Speaker 3: it was a cool opportunity to really action a lot

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Speaker 3: of the names that I had either hired in the

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Speaker 3: or interviewed in the past and not hired in Cleveland

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Speaker 3: and had an opportunity to bring over here to Saint Louis.

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Speaker 3: So I'm pretty excited about the group that we've got.

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Speaker 3: We've got more to come in the upcoming off season,

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Speaker 3: which would be really fun. Even though it's a lot

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Speaker 3: of laborious work, but it's it's really important to get

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Speaker 3: those people in.

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Speaker 4: Programs, right.

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Speaker 5: Good Father, you and me grew up in Jersey. We

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Speaker 5: liked to collect cards, but the way the process got

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Speaker 5: was ridiculous. You open up a pack, there's a bunch

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Speaker 5: of cards you don't care about. Then you want to

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Speaker 5: get certain ones grade. It takes forever, right, then you

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Speaker 5: want to maybe sell one. It's such a to do.

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Speaker 5: Arena club has been the solution for us.

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Speaker 6: Arena club has been a solution for everybody. You go online,

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Speaker 6: go to arena club and you check out what they have,

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Speaker 6: put a little cash down, you might one of the

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Speaker 6: best cards that you've ever seen in your life and

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Speaker 6: autograph card and guess what, if you don't like the card,

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Speaker 6: easily you could sell it back and make a little cash.

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Speaker 6: You never know what to expect. It's a cool way

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Speaker 6: of doing it. You're going to get a surprise every time.

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Speaker 6: And if you're in the cards, this is something you

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Speaker 6: really need to get into right now.

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Speaker 5: You can get twenty percent off your first slab pack

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Speaker 5: or card purchase by going to arenaclub dot com, slash

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Speaker 5: foul and use code foul like Todd Father is talking

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Speaker 5: about with those slap packs. Every pack is a grail

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Speaker 5: that's at least twenty x the price of the pack.

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Speaker 5: Check it out.

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Speaker 1: And I think something that you have talked about saying,

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Speaker 1: that Jim has talked about or alluded to in his

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Speaker 1: end of season press conference last year, is the ability

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Speaker 1: where you're not necessarily losing the cardinal way. There's many

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Speaker 1: many things that this organization has done well. I mean

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Speaker 1: they were pioneers in player development. When you're adding new coordinators,

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Speaker 1: you're adding new staff members, you're adding new technology. The

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Speaker 1: goal isn't to just replace the what was already here

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Speaker 1: in the cardinal system, it's to expand it, right, And

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Speaker 1: when you're telling that, how to do that with bringing

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Speaker 1: in a new group of people but keeping a majority

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Speaker 1: of the same because it really hasn't been that much

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Speaker 1: turnover in terms of people leading positions. Why is that

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Speaker 1: important to have a balance of the tradition of this

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Speaker 1: organization and also modernizing it so you're not completely losing

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Speaker 1: the identity of the franchise, You're just kind of making

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Speaker 1: it better.

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Speaker 3: That's it, And you nailed the dynamic right there. And

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Speaker 3: the first thing we challenged myself any new person is

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Speaker 3: like to really spend time on, like what are the

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Speaker 3: parts of this organization that people that have been here

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Speaker 3: for a long time would take a bullet for and

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Speaker 3: things that are producing results, like really have an actual

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Speaker 3: understanding of what those things are.

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Speaker 4: Those were some, honestly the most.

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Speaker 3: Fun conversations during the off season was really once we

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Speaker 3: kind of finished that first wave of hiring, was then

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Speaker 3: getting all those new people with the people that have

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Speaker 3: been here for a long time, including the major league staff,

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Speaker 3: into We did a lot of it virtually but in

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Speaker 3: the same virtual room, to like ask the hard questions

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Speaker 3: of who do we want to be about like what

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Speaker 3: are the values that have been here for forever that

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Speaker 3: we feel really strongly about, and then how have other

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Speaker 3: people from new places thought about that same challenge, whether

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Speaker 3: it's infield development or hitting development, Like what are some

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Speaker 3: other like the diversity of thought piece of that to

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Speaker 3: then ultimately just and we'll continue to stress test what

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Speaker 3: we believe in and make sure that it's producing results.

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Speaker 3: And we feel really good about that process. So that

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Speaker 3: that was the way that we started that. I'm sure

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Speaker 3: there's probably one hundred ways that we could do that

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Speaker 3: better and hopefully, you know, this time of year is

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Speaker 3: always a great time year where we're asking staff for

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Speaker 3: feedback and like what does year two's worth of growth

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Speaker 3: look like for all of us? And that'll be a

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Speaker 3: huge part of it. But you're exactly right, it's the

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Speaker 3: what are the parts of this organization? I spoke to

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Speaker 3: the banners that are flying around Bush Stadium, like, that's

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Speaker 3: not by luck. That's because this word, like the word

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Speaker 3: you said, was a pioneer in a lot of different

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Speaker 3: ways with the way they thought about the draft, player development,

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Speaker 3: having a minor league system of great teaching, and let's

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Speaker 3: never lose track of any of that and let's find

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Speaker 3: new ways on the margins to even make that better.

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Speaker 1: All right, So, player development around baseball is a vague term,

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Speaker 1: and most it's usually kind of relegated to the minor

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Speaker 1: league system or prospects because that is where you're essentially

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Speaker 1: developing players. But for the case of the Cardinals, at

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Speaker 1: least this season and probably for the next couple of

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Speaker 1: years going forward, player development is going to take place

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Speaker 1: across the board, at both the minor league levels and

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Speaker 1: the major league level. We spent an entire season this

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Speaker 1: year talking about transition, runway, use your favorite buzzword, and

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Speaker 1: the primary emphasis of these buzzwords were to emphasize that

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Speaker 1: players are going to develop at the major league level

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Speaker 1: this year.

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Speaker 2: For years, that was not the case. In Saint Louis.

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Speaker 1: You were either a major league player and you are

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Speaker 1: ready to contribute to a postseason run, or you were back.

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Speaker 2: To Triple A.

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Speaker 1: But this is not a phenom that's necessarily specific to

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Speaker 1: just the Cardinals. You're seeing this across major League baseball,

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Speaker 1: depending on team market size and payroll. Your specialty surf

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Speaker 1: is player development. Why is this important across the board?

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Speaker 3: Well, first off, specialty is probably a strong word, but

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Speaker 3: I'll take it. Yeah, I think the first part's mindset.

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Speaker 3: And I think that's one of the things that I've

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Speaker 3: really enjoyed working with Ali and his staff, Like goes

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Speaker 3: all the way back to the second I showed up

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Speaker 3: and had you know, he was part of my own

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Speaker 3: interview process and we got into the weeds, the weeds

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Speaker 3: on this and whether it's player combos, right, whether it's

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Speaker 3: like Nado or Donnie or really any of our players

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Speaker 3: guys that have had success at the major league level,

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Speaker 3: the second you stop getting better, whether it's baseball, whether

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Speaker 3: it's sudoku puzzles, whether it's ping pong in the basement,

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Speaker 3: Like it really just doesn't matter when you stop getting

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Speaker 3: better at a thing, like especially in our world of

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Speaker 3: sports where we're we're performing at the highest level in

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Speaker 3: high competitive environments, Like when you stop developing, you're in trouble.

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Speaker 3: And I think that just mindset wise, is like we

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Speaker 3: have a lot of players that already think that way,

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Speaker 3: which is phenomenal, and now like scaling that across the

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Speaker 3: entire organization I think is hopefully something that can be

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Speaker 3: a competitive advantage for us and especially you know, if

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Speaker 3: you spoke to like the market right of there are

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Speaker 3: teams that the bigger market teams like, they'll go out

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Speaker 3: and pay for players that the entire industry knows is

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Speaker 3: really good, and that's certainly a way of doing it.

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Speaker 3: And the other way for teams that maybe don't have

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Speaker 3: that same luxury is what are you doing with your

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Speaker 3: own players every year to not necessarily reinvent.

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Speaker 4: Who they are, but really ensure that their.

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Speaker 3: Superpowers are never lost and the things on the margins

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Speaker 3: that will help them take the next step forward are

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Speaker 3: intentionally getting better, not just hoping by luck, but having

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Speaker 3: a real process. Whether it's a guy that has won

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Speaker 3: five MVPs in the big leagues or a guy that's

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Speaker 3: played five games in rookie ball. Kind of the overall

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Speaker 3: framework of the ideology is the same. It's just a

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Speaker 3: different strategy and set of tactics on how you bring

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Speaker 3: that to life and the types of things that you're

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Speaker 3: focusing on for each player.

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Speaker 4: But I do think this.

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Speaker 3: Mindset is really important for just this organization, especially the

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Speaker 3: types of players and kind of the we've seen this

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Speaker 3: with some of the younger guys this year, and making

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Speaker 3: sure that we're never wasting a day for those guys

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Speaker 3: that continuously get better. When your best players own that mindset,

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Speaker 3: it really just becomes the fabric of how your organization

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Speaker 3: goes about its business.

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Speaker 2: And you can see that. Even I thought Nolan Arnotta

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Speaker 2: was a great example here.

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Speaker 1: He's one of the best defensive third basemen of all

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Speaker 1: time and he's out there every day trying to take

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Speaker 1: extra reps and get better. Brendan Donovan has really emerged

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Speaker 1: as a winning kind of player, has that kind of

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Speaker 1: grittiness that fans saw in the twenty tens when the

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Speaker 1: Cardinals were in their last legitimate true run. You can

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Speaker 1: kind of see this now with the way that players

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Speaker 1: have stepped forward, whether it's Mason Win solidifying himself defensively

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Speaker 1: as shortstop, Alec Burlison.

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Speaker 2: As an all around hitter, of Von Herrera as a

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Speaker 2: true bat.

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Speaker 1: These are going to take times for some of these

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Speaker 1: young players to really develop into their careers, but you

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Speaker 1: do see this. I mean, I think Burlison is a

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Speaker 1: great example here in terms of someone who was challenged

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Speaker 1: to become better defensively because they needed him to. You

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Speaker 1: know what you have in Burlison as a bat, high

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Speaker 1: contact rate, He can put a lot of balls in play,

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Speaker 1: he needed to refine his approach a little bit so

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Speaker 1: he wasn't getting out as much, and he did. But

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Speaker 1: in order for him to stick, he had to be

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Speaker 1: better defensively and he did that and it took some time,

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Speaker 1: but he was able to develop in games and now

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Speaker 1: he's an all around better player. Is that kind of

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Speaker 1: the example that you're looking at when you evaluate these

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Speaker 1: guys at the major league level?

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Speaker 4: That's it?

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Speaker 3: And then you ask yourself that question year over year,

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Speaker 3: and it's like, Okay, Burley, what a great season this

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Speaker 3: was for you? You talked about the approach stuff, you know,

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Speaker 3: digg into some of the the behind the scenes numbers

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Speaker 3: there and his chase rates and just the amount of

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Speaker 3: times that he's getting himself in more favorable, more favorable

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Speaker 3: counts to do it. He do to do what he

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Speaker 3: does best with hitting the ball hard frequently. That's there,

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Speaker 3: and that is directly tied to some of the ways

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Speaker 3: that he challenged himself to train. And you know, Burley

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Speaker 3: and Brownie and all those guys like his teammates that

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Speaker 3: helped that process deserve a ton of credit for being

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Speaker 3: willing to get their hands dirty in season and just

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Speaker 3: like you know, we talked about that mindset and mentality

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Speaker 3: of just the whole organization always thinking that way is

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Speaker 3: is really important. But he's such a great example, like

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Speaker 3: the work that he's done with JJ and the outfield

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Speaker 3: to really elevate his game to be like not just

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Speaker 3: a guy that has to play the corner outfield, but

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Speaker 3: somebody that you're excited about playing the corner outfield. And now, like,

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Speaker 3: what's the next step for that of being you know,

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Speaker 3: wherever he is in terms of the excuse me, the

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Speaker 3: metrics of a corner outfielder, Like what's the even better

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Speaker 3: version of that?

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Speaker 4: How can we tie.

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Speaker 3: That to how he prepares in the senc nutrition space,

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Speaker 3: Like all those things matter, and I think his willingness

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Speaker 3: to attack those things in season in like a very

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Speaker 3: interesting transition year speaks a lot to the type of

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Speaker 3: mindset that you want your best players to have.

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Speaker 1: And I think when you're looking at the Cardinals fan base,

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Speaker 1: I mean, they're a very loyal fan base, as you know,

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Speaker 1: and they really know their baseball. So when you're able

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Speaker 1: to see a player in real time like Burleston adjust

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Speaker 1: and adapt, like that's tangible evidence that they can see,

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Speaker 1: they may not realize it in real time. I know

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Speaker 1: sometimes I don't either. Where you look up and after

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Speaker 1: a month you say, wow, this player has really expedited

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Speaker 1: his growth or has really made these adjustments, because when

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Speaker 1: you're playing every like a game a day for almost

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Speaker 1: two hundred days, including spring training, it can be hard

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Speaker 1: to really see that on a day to day basis.

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Speaker 1: But listen to your point as an example, Herrera offensively

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Speaker 1: as an example.

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Speaker 2: We can go down the list. Kyle Lahey, Mike McGreevey.

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Speaker 4: Yea.

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Speaker 2: In terms of the minor.

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Speaker 1: League system though, something that isn't as a parent or

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Speaker 1: easy to access as the major league team on TV

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Speaker 1: every day, what changes can fans expect to see because

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Speaker 1: we have made whether it's the organization or media, we

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Speaker 1: made such a big idea about the revamping of the

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Speaker 1: Cardinals minor league system, and there hasn't really been a

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Speaker 1: lot of clarity as to what exactly these fans can

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Speaker 1: look like other than adding staff members and adding technology.

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Speaker 1: What can you point to fans where they can look

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Speaker 1: and identify and see, Okay, this is different and here's

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Speaker 1: why it's being done.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a great question, and it's in some ways

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Speaker 3: it's a hard question. To have like a real black

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Speaker 3: and white answer to because you know, I said this

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Speaker 3: comment earlier of like, developments never linear, and there's no

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Speaker 3: better example of that than minor league baseball, where you're

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Speaker 3: working with a bunch of eighteen twenty one year olds

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Speaker 3: and not only are they developing as human beings and adults,

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Speaker 3: but you're asking them to develop skills and knowing that

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Speaker 3: those skills take time to see real change towards. But

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Speaker 3: I think there's a whole bunch of things behind the scenes, right,

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Speaker 3: a process. You talked about technology, right, Like that's such

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Speaker 3: a broad thing, but there's real specificity to like.

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Speaker 4: Examples of that.

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Speaker 3: So I think everybody knows, like major league stadiums they

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Speaker 3: have hawkeye technology, and that allows you to do so

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Speaker 3: many things in terms of performance. Can be a lagging indicator,

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Speaker 3: like you talked about sometimes you have to actually wait

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Speaker 3: a month for to have a big enough sample size

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Speaker 3: or just enough confidence that.

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Speaker 4: Okay, this change was real.

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Speaker 3: And some of this technology allows you to really like

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Speaker 3: shrink the amount of time that you need to feel

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Speaker 3: confident that a change is happening. And a change is

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Speaker 3: happens there's guesswork there, right, It's a hypothesis. We think

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Speaker 3: if this player does this movement differently, that it'll allow

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Speaker 3: them to perform better in this way. But if you

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Speaker 3: do that for a long enough time and you mess

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Speaker 3: up a lot of them like I have, you can

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Speaker 3: figure out which ones have some proof of the putting

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Speaker 3: to it. And so you know, I think hawkeye is

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Speaker 3: like an example of something that we are expanding to

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Speaker 3: all levels of our minor leagues, and you kind of

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Speaker 3: work backwards from here. Are things that we know, like

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Speaker 3: evidence based approach. We know that these things work at

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Speaker 3: the highest level in the big leagues, and now how

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Speaker 3: do we bring that to a player that's in a

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Speaker 3: ball And you might not see that player in a

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Speaker 3: ball necessarily throw harder that next month, but we are

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Speaker 3: then able to connect things about how they move and

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Speaker 3: their delivery, how we build a great like throwing program

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Speaker 3: and plyocare routine. Same thing for a hit or we

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Speaker 3: can see the speeds that they create with their bat

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Speaker 3: and the angles which they're back like by way of

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Speaker 3: how their body moves works through the zone, and we

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Speaker 3: can see if that's what great major league hitters do

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Speaker 3: or don't do, and then we can help that player

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Speaker 3: in the immediacy, So it really allows you to shrink

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Speaker 3: the amount of time that you need to wait for

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Speaker 3: performance to stabilize or you don't get tripped up by Okay,

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Speaker 3: well this guy was an A ball All Stars. That

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Speaker 3: actually mean he's going to be a major league All Star?

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Speaker 3: Definitely not. There's players that are really good in the

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Speaker 3: minor leagues that just don't have the skills to even

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Speaker 3: get to the big league. So it really allows you

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Speaker 3: to like isolate the skills that major leaguers have. And

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Speaker 3: then there's a bunch of things around that of like

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Speaker 3: being winning baseball mentality and running the bases and knowing

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Speaker 3: game awareness and all those things like on the margins, Yes,

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Speaker 3: but it allows us to have it allows us to

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Speaker 3: miss less of those big rock skills that major leaguers

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Speaker 3: just have more.

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Speaker 4: Times than minor leaguers have.

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Speaker 3: So that hopefully is a little bit of like a

440
00:22:02,119 --> 00:22:06,840
Speaker 3: window into that answer, but it's really complicated, and ultimately

441
00:22:07,119 --> 00:22:09,720
Speaker 3: you're just trying to have the most evidence based process

442
00:22:09,760 --> 00:22:13,240
Speaker 3: that you possibly can have and use a bunch of

443
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:15,720
Speaker 3: people that are experts and information that give you as

444
00:22:15,800 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 3: much data as possible to just make great decisions to

445
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:19,960
Speaker 3: help our players.

446
00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:21,080
Speaker 1: All right, No, we have just a couple of minutes

447
00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:22,840
Speaker 1: left because you are a very busy man and have

448
00:22:22,880 --> 00:22:25,399
Speaker 1: lots of things to do. We've had a lot of

449
00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:29,479
Speaker 1: discourse about JJ Wetherholt this season, obviously for rifle reasons.

450
00:22:29,480 --> 00:22:33,199
Speaker 1: He just I think has really seized an opportunity this

451
00:22:33,280 --> 00:22:35,640
Speaker 1: year and we'll come into spring training next year as

452
00:22:35,680 --> 00:22:39,240
Speaker 1: someone with a lot of eyes on him. And then

453
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,320
Speaker 1: you look at someone like Quinn Matthews, who came into

454
00:22:41,359 --> 00:22:43,200
Speaker 1: spring this year with a lot of eyes on him

455
00:22:43,320 --> 00:22:47,320
Speaker 1: after a stellar season in twenty twenty four. As fans,

456
00:22:47,880 --> 00:22:49,480
Speaker 1: all they really want to know is like one of

457
00:22:49,480 --> 00:22:50,879
Speaker 1: these guys going to be at the majors and one

458
00:22:50,880 --> 00:22:53,040
Speaker 1: of they can to impact this club and just how well.

459
00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:55,760
Speaker 1: And that I understand because I want to know that too.

460
00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:59,600
Speaker 1: But the priority for these guys especially, you'll throw on

461
00:22:59,640 --> 00:23:02,040
Speaker 1: someone like a Liam Doyle and I know to co

462
00:23:02,240 --> 00:23:04,000
Speaker 1: Rob we had Tommy John but up until that he

463
00:23:04,080 --> 00:23:04,639
Speaker 1: was very much a.

464
00:23:04,640 --> 00:23:07,840
Speaker 2: Part of this group. For a young core that should

465
00:23:07,880 --> 00:23:11,960
Speaker 2: impact the major league level, how important is it, surf

466
00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:14,119
Speaker 2: to really make sure that they are ready to be

467
00:23:14,119 --> 00:23:16,920
Speaker 2: promoted to the majors and ready to contribute rather than

468
00:23:16,960 --> 00:23:18,720
Speaker 2: just rush them up out of need or maybe a

469
00:23:18,720 --> 00:23:20,560
Speaker 2: desire to see them at the big league level.

470
00:23:21,560 --> 00:23:26,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a it's a great question, and it's this

471
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:28,720
Speaker 3: is a hard question when, like people ask all the time,

472
00:23:28,760 --> 00:23:31,440
Speaker 3: it's like, well, why isn't this player promoted. It's there's

473
00:23:31,440 --> 00:23:33,960
Speaker 3: so much that goes into it. It's always not just

474
00:23:34,280 --> 00:23:37,880
Speaker 3: the well what's their box score, what's their stat line?

475
00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:42,440
Speaker 3: Like I think, first off, the gap between the major

476
00:23:42,520 --> 00:23:47,159
Speaker 3: leagues in Triple A has probably never been wider. And

477
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 3: some of that's just like straight out of the player's control, right,

478
00:23:50,240 --> 00:23:52,480
Speaker 3: Like there's over the last couple of years, like the

479
00:23:52,520 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 3: minor league shrunk, you know, there's less total players that

480
00:23:56,280 --> 00:23:59,399
Speaker 3: you have, So as a result of that, players have

481
00:23:59,480 --> 00:24:04,680
Speaker 3: really moved faster. And so when you have the opportunities

482
00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:09,879
Speaker 3: to expose these guys to to just do everything that

483
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:11,520
Speaker 3: they would be asked to do in the big leagues

484
00:24:11,520 --> 00:24:14,639
Speaker 3: before they get there. I've always thought of it as like,

485
00:24:15,280 --> 00:24:17,840
Speaker 3: you know, you're the farm director's job is to ensure

486
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:20,960
Speaker 3: that we're not asking a player to do something for

487
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:24,040
Speaker 3: the first time in the big leagues, and we spend

488
00:24:24,119 --> 00:24:26,840
Speaker 3: so much time like Larry Day and his crew, that's

489
00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:30,800
Speaker 3: really managing the day to day. They're spending hours trying

490
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:33,720
Speaker 3: to answer that question, and that's one of the fun

491
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:35,480
Speaker 3: parts of it. But it you know, makes it less

492
00:24:35,520 --> 00:24:39,600
Speaker 3: black and white. But if you have that mentality to

493
00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:43,000
Speaker 3: everything right, it's like how they go about their pregame routine,

494
00:24:43,840 --> 00:24:46,520
Speaker 3: how they're studying film. You look at like a guy

495
00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 3: like Jimmy Crooks that comes up to the big leagues.

496
00:24:48,760 --> 00:24:50,959
Speaker 3: And by the way, catching is really hard to do,

497
00:24:51,119 --> 00:24:53,280
Speaker 3: much less harder to do when you're a rookie and

498
00:24:53,800 --> 00:24:56,199
Speaker 3: you don't have relationships with all of the pictures that

499
00:24:56,240 --> 00:25:00,719
Speaker 3: you're catching or and so how we tried to use

500
00:25:00,760 --> 00:25:03,080
Speaker 3: the clock with him this year in the mind and

501
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:06,680
Speaker 3: in his time in TRIAA to here's exactly what they're

502
00:25:06,720 --> 00:25:09,879
Speaker 3: going to ask from you in a pregame meeting with

503
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:12,960
Speaker 3: your staff, and let's really make sure that not only

504
00:25:12,960 --> 00:25:15,879
Speaker 3: can you run that play well, but that you understand

505
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:16,919
Speaker 3: the why behind that.

506
00:25:17,400 --> 00:25:19,200
Speaker 4: And we coached.

507
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:20,760
Speaker 3: Jimmy pretty hard on that, and it goes all the

508
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:23,000
Speaker 3: way back to like April May, and to his credit,

509
00:25:23,760 --> 00:25:26,160
Speaker 3: he leaned into that even though and he probably thought

510
00:25:26,280 --> 00:25:29,679
Speaker 3: we weren't very nice about coaching him pretty directly, but

511
00:25:29,800 --> 00:25:32,440
Speaker 3: hopefully he now feels like, you know what, those guys

512
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 3: were kind of a holes back then, but they set

513
00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 3: me up for walking into that first pregame meeting and

514
00:25:37,840 --> 00:25:41,320
Speaker 3: having the skills that I need to excel. And so

515
00:25:41,880 --> 00:25:44,639
Speaker 3: it's a hard question to answer, like when is a

516
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:49,919
Speaker 3: player ready? But ultimately the performance on field matters and

517
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:52,280
Speaker 3: the process around that, who they are as a teammate,

518
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 3: how they go about their business from a preparation standpoint,

519
00:25:56,480 --> 00:25:59,600
Speaker 3: how they go about reflecting the next day from whether

520
00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,439
Speaker 3: they had results or not, and how well are they

521
00:26:02,520 --> 00:26:06,240
Speaker 3: learning and responding to that. All of those things really matter.

522
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:10,440
Speaker 3: And you know, there's not a it's not a math equation.

523
00:26:10,600 --> 00:26:12,639
Speaker 3: There's not one right answer if when a player is

524
00:26:12,760 --> 00:26:15,320
Speaker 3: right or ready or when he is not ready. But

525
00:26:15,400 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 3: if you really have a way to try and uncover

526
00:26:17,880 --> 00:26:21,239
Speaker 3: the answers to those series of items, at least in

527
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:25,199
Speaker 3: my experience, you feel more confident about when that answer

528
00:26:25,359 --> 00:26:26,160
Speaker 3: is is yes.

529
00:26:27,080 --> 00:26:28,720
Speaker 1: That's such a good point about Jimmy Crooks in his

530
00:26:28,800 --> 00:26:33,480
Speaker 1: short time in the majors. Olie Marble has praised his professionalism, how.

531
00:26:33,320 --> 00:26:34,920
Speaker 2: He comes in and he leads the meetings.

532
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,000
Speaker 1: To your point, he has less than thirty days of

533
00:26:37,040 --> 00:26:39,359
Speaker 1: major league service time, and here he is with you know,

534
00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:42,080
Speaker 1: a couple veterans on that pitching staff, and he's able

535
00:26:42,119 --> 00:26:44,919
Speaker 1: to identify exactly what the game plan should be. And

536
00:26:44,920 --> 00:26:47,520
Speaker 1: he's able to say something that really impressed Ben Johnson

537
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 1: down in Triple A was you know, they'd come up

538
00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,040
Speaker 1: with the scouting report and Jimmy would say, I, actually

539
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:54,560
Speaker 1: I disagree and here's why. And he's not afraid to

540
00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,879
Speaker 1: have that discourse. That's the kind of player that you

541
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,960
Speaker 1: need at the major league level because, yeah, he's coming up,

542
00:27:00,160 --> 00:27:01,920
Speaker 1: he's young, he's a rookie. There are things he's going

543
00:27:01,920 --> 00:27:03,840
Speaker 1: to learn on his own. But being able to have

544
00:27:03,880 --> 00:27:06,960
Speaker 1: that skill set for preparation and that confidence to know, hey,

545
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:08,879
Speaker 1: this is a different level. I still have things to learn,

546
00:27:09,080 --> 00:27:11,439
Speaker 1: but this is my job and I know this that

547
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:14,399
Speaker 1: is going to be key in bringing winning players and

548
00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:15,120
Speaker 1: sparking them.

549
00:27:15,040 --> 00:27:15,760
Speaker 2: Through this rebuild.

550
00:27:16,119 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 4: Yep.

551
00:27:16,680 --> 00:27:19,320
Speaker 1: Well, so all right, Surf, I know you've got a

552
00:27:19,359 --> 00:27:20,560
Speaker 1: ton of things going on. I want to thank you

553
00:27:20,600 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 1: so much for making time to do this. I think

554
00:27:22,640 --> 00:27:24,840
Speaker 1: hopefully fans can take a lot away from this. We'll

555
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:27,680
Speaker 1: be seeing you and hearing you a lot more once

556
00:27:27,720 --> 00:27:28,960
Speaker 1: this season comes to an end.

557
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:32,800
Speaker 2: Just nine more. Well, I guess when this episode airs,

558
00:27:33,040 --> 00:27:33,480
Speaker 2: a week.

559
00:27:33,359 --> 00:27:36,159
Speaker 1: Of games left, anything that you want to communicate to

560
00:27:36,160 --> 00:27:37,880
Speaker 1: fans that they don't know or where they can become

561
00:27:37,920 --> 00:27:38,760
Speaker 1: more familiar.

562
00:27:38,440 --> 00:27:39,880
Speaker 2: With your work and what you guys are doing down

563
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:40,720
Speaker 2: in the minor leagues.

564
00:27:41,880 --> 00:27:43,960
Speaker 3: Well, I appreciate you having me on first off, and

565
00:27:44,200 --> 00:27:46,960
Speaker 3: maybe apologies in advance if it's true, he said of

566
00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:50,480
Speaker 3: people having to hear my voice more freely. So, but no,

567
00:27:50,560 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 3: I appreciate you you having me on anytime we can

568
00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:58,720
Speaker 3: speak to just the work that you don't see, the

569
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:04,760
Speaker 3: necessary the immediate results of tomorrow is always really fun

570
00:28:04,840 --> 00:28:07,120
Speaker 3: to to top through and that's why I enjoy doing

571
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,560
Speaker 3: these is as much as I can with with not

572
00:28:09,840 --> 00:28:12,240
Speaker 3: you yourself, but you know the rest of the group

573
00:28:12,280 --> 00:28:15,960
Speaker 3: that's really doing a great job covering all the things

574
00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:18,399
Speaker 3: major league development, minor league development. It's all in an

575
00:28:18,440 --> 00:28:21,560
Speaker 3: effort to try and help us have future success. So

576
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:23,679
Speaker 3: appreciating what you do to to cover all that