Speaker 1: Let's talk guardians with rookie Parker Messik joining us right now.
Speaker 1: What a ride man. Great to have you on, Thanks
Speaker 1: for the time, and yeah I'll just start here too.
Speaker 1: Did you see where you'd be right now in spring
Speaker 1: training when you were fighting for a spot.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, not really. I mean I just try
Speaker 2: to take it one, one day at a time in
Speaker 2: spring training because the more you think ahead it kind
Speaker 2: of send you into the spirals. So just try to
Speaker 2: take it like one outing at a time. And you know,
Speaker 2: now I'm here.
Speaker 3: Wait wait, wait, wait, what come on? Everybody thinks ahead
Speaker 3: in spring training. You're trying to duck I'm trying to think.
Speaker 3: I don't even know who would be the person, because
Speaker 3: you know, now that Craig's gone, you're trying to duck
Speaker 3: the dude that's tapping on the shoulder at the end
Speaker 3: of spring training and being like voter wants to see you,
Speaker 3: and you're like.
Speaker 4: No, no, no, no no.
Speaker 3: So that has to be a little bit part of it.
Speaker 3: Wasn't relieving once the season started to not have to
Speaker 3: like be in that constant Maybe you're not maybe you're
Speaker 3: not in a fight or flight mode in spring training,
Speaker 3: and I'm totally wrong on this.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I was pretty I mean I was pretty calmly.
Speaker 2: You know, I had faith whatever happened was meant to happen.
Speaker 2: So I just trust the Lord that you know, wherever
Speaker 2: I was going it was meant to be. And I
Speaker 2: was kind of at peace with it, and you know,
Speaker 2: it just ended up working out and had a good
Speaker 2: start of the year, So it just worked out.
Speaker 4: I was never worried, Parker. I knew you were making
Speaker 4: the team the whole time, man. And let's uh, you know,
Speaker 4: let's fast forward now one hundred innings later of work
Speaker 4: and you know, just kind of going through your minor
Speaker 4: league career one hundred and thirty innings, one hundred and
Speaker 4: thirty innings, you're getting to that threshold, and now almost
Speaker 4: two of the first All Star breaking your first full season.
Speaker 4: You know, how's how's the body hanging in there? Are
Speaker 4: you going to make any adjustments moving forward? Are you
Speaker 4: just kind of status quo this thing's going well. I
Speaker 4: don't want to mess with anything right now and feeling good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we actually made a couple delivery adjustments the last
Speaker 2: couple of weeks. It kind of helped the v low
Speaker 2: peak through through the hardest couple of bullets I have
Speaker 2: ever thrown the last couple of weeks. So I'm still
Speaker 2: making adjustments. Nothing nothing really with the pitches or anything
Speaker 2: like that. It's just me trying to figure out, you know,
Speaker 2: what routines work best for me week to week, and
Speaker 2: you know, what what should the bullpens look like? And
Speaker 2: you know, I'm figuring all that out and I'm kind
Speaker 2: of getting into a spot where I feel pretty comfortable
Speaker 2: and you know, hopefully I can just carry that into
Speaker 2: the rest of the year.
Speaker 3: Who's the biggest help when you talk about those adjustments.
Speaker 2: We have I mean an entire our entire pitching staff,
Speaker 2: I mean along along with a lot of the players.
Speaker 2: The players honestly helped me a lot with you know,
Speaker 2: learning the right routines. And then you know, our pitching
Speaker 2: staff all the way, you know, Klueber, Joe Torres, Beg
Speaker 2: Carl everyone. You know, they're they're all awesome at just
Speaker 2: helping me in different ways, whether it's mechanically, you know,
Speaker 2: pitch sequencing, different pitch gripts. You know, they're all great.
Speaker 2: So it's been a combination of everyone, all.
Speaker 3: Right, So you have a lot of good people around you.
Speaker 3: But you have a lot of good facilities around you.
Speaker 3: Obviously you don't know what it used to look like. Well,
Speaker 3: I guess you did know what the old weight room
Speaker 3: and everything used to look like. I got a tour
Speaker 3: of Progressive Field like four weeks ago when you guys
Speaker 3: weren't there. Does that help? And the reason I asked
Speaker 3: that because you guys have this massive new facility inside,
Speaker 3: But does that help in creating value for a player
Speaker 3: like you that you're like, Okay, I'm trying to figure
Speaker 3: out how to stay healthy. We already had a really
Speaker 3: good training staff, but now we have this beautiful, immaculate
Speaker 3: facility to use too, and maybe this is what keeps
Speaker 3: me healthy through the year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no doubt. I mean, you can ever go wrong
Speaker 2: with having enough recovery stuff. It's super important to the game,
Speaker 2: and you know, Cleveland does a great job of making
Speaker 2: sure that we have everything that we need to feel
Speaker 2: good every day on the field. So yeah, I definitely
Speaker 2: take advantage of the times that I'm at home. You know,
Speaker 2: it is a huge plus to be here.
Speaker 4: Parker kind of looking through what you do well man,
Speaker 4: and one thing I'm jealous of is you keep the
Speaker 4: ball in the yard. You know, major league gaverage one
Speaker 4: point three home runs per nine, you're chilling around zero
Speaker 4: point eight as someone that frequently let the ball go
Speaker 4: over the fence more than I would have liked. You know,
Speaker 4: That's what I struggled with, and something that I was
Speaker 4: aware of, right Like I would think of like my
Speaker 4: pitches that give up slug and kind of like really
Speaker 4: be picky about when I use those to certain guys
Speaker 4: that accel against those pitches, et cetera, et cetera. Is
Speaker 4: that something you're thinking about at all? Or is it
Speaker 4: just my arsenal gets the ball on the ground or
Speaker 4: keeps the ball in the yard or you kind of
Speaker 4: actively I guess we all do, but like, are you
Speaker 4: actively looking at ways to avoid slug?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think I think it's a little bit of both.
Speaker 2: There's times where, you know, I know, when I'm facing
Speaker 2: this certain all star hitter, if I have a pitch
Speaker 2: that is probably on the lower end of tiers of
Speaker 2: my pitches and it's definitely something that he hits, you know,
Speaker 2: really hard a lot of the time, then probably going
Speaker 2: to avoid that pitch as much as much as possible,
Speaker 2: or at least avoid it being in Z and then
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of times for me on the
Speaker 2: other side of things, I just like to lean on
Speaker 2: my strengths and you know, I'm gonna pitch how I
Speaker 2: like to pitch, because the most important, you know, thang
Speaker 2: for me is just getting ahead of guys. And when
Speaker 2: I'm ahead that I'm in the driver's seat and then
Speaker 2: I can kind of play around a little bit. So
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of times it's just me throwing
Speaker 2: my strengths. But at the same time, you got to
Speaker 2: you gotta pitch smart. I mean, hitters are really good
Speaker 2: in this league, so you can't be you can't be
Speaker 2: throwing your best stuff if it's something that you know
Speaker 2: they're they're gonna be able to tee off on a sea.
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Speaker 3: How much do you get into those scattering reports? Do
Speaker 3: you just take what everybody gives you or do you
Speaker 3: create your own scattering report and then look at what
Speaker 3: the team gives you That.
Speaker 2: We get a lot of information on other teams from
Speaker 2: our team, So I think it's just a combination of
Speaker 2: me knowing watching the game and seeing swings along with
Speaker 2: our catchers and pitching coaches, and then also like going
Speaker 2: into the data side of things and seeing what pitches
Speaker 2: they slug, what do they take? You know, what are
Speaker 2: they hitting hard? What are they hitting saw just a
Speaker 2: combination of both.
Speaker 3: Is there a certain picture that you watch? The reason
Speaker 3: I ask is like, I watch I watched a certain
Speaker 3: hitter when I was hitting, how pitchers faced him. When
Speaker 3: you're pitching, when you're about to face a team, do
Speaker 3: you go to someone else in your division that you're like, oh,
Speaker 3: I want to watch how he threw against the White
Speaker 3: Sox when they come in town.
Speaker 2: Not really. I think for me it's it's more identifying
Speaker 2: what pitches I think are going to play to certain
Speaker 2: hitters because I think you know every picture you can,
Speaker 2: you can try and compare picture to pitcher, but everyone's
Speaker 2: going to have their own delivery. It's going to come
Speaker 2: out of a different slot, different angle, different tempo, different
Speaker 2: body movements, So I think every picture is different. So
Speaker 2: for me, I just try and figure out what my
Speaker 2: own pitches would would play the specific specific hitters in
Speaker 2: certain parts of the zone.
Speaker 4: Parker, I did zero research on this, but I'm just
Speaker 4: assuming you guys are the only team that has run
Speaker 4: out the same five star from the start. Maybe not,
Speaker 4: but I bet it's it's in the single digits, you know,
Speaker 4: between you Tanner, Gavin, Joey and Slade making all seventeen
Speaker 4: now some of all eighteen starts? What are you guys
Speaker 4: bouncing off each other? You know, I look back at
Speaker 4: some of the times when like Kershawn Buehler and Yurius
Speaker 4: and rich Hill, we're really dialed in, and I was
Speaker 4: kind of along for the ride with them and making
Speaker 4: some starts, and we were like sitting next to each
Speaker 4: other in the dugout while the other was pitching and
Speaker 4: hyping them up. And you know, he went six shutty tomorrow,
Speaker 4: I want to go seven shuddy or whatever. You know,
Speaker 4: how you guys bouncing off each other, learning from each other.
Speaker 4: A lot of you guys are young, and I gotta
Speaker 4: imagine that's been a lot of fun so far.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's awesome for me, especially going in my rookie
Speaker 2: ear to have a group of guys that are pretty
Speaker 2: close and all, you know, click well together. You know,
Speaker 2: we do a lot of stuff off field together as well.
Speaker 2: So it's just a good group of our five guys
Speaker 2: that you know, we were always communicating, always, you know,
Speaker 2: pushing each other and learning from each other. And you know,
Speaker 2: I think we talked about it earlier, like the fact
Speaker 2: that all five of us have been able to make
Speaker 2: every start, it just shows, you know, how diligent everyone
Speaker 2: one of the pitchers are with their routines and how
Speaker 2: well the training staff and strength conditioning and everyone you
Speaker 2: know works with us to make sure that we're healthy
Speaker 2: and can be on the field all the time. But
Speaker 2: it's been a lot of fun. You know, hopefully we
Speaker 2: can keep it going the rest of the year.
Speaker 3: All right, what would an All Star Game mean to you?
Speaker 3: What would what would that mean? Or would it be
Speaker 3: something that's like, well, that's kind of surreal, Like I
Speaker 3: never really imagined something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it would be surreal for sure. I
Speaker 2: you know, I didn't think at the start of this
Speaker 2: year that I'd be in a position to you know,
Speaker 2: be in the talks for it. So it's it's just
Speaker 2: really cool. I'm thankful for the Lord that I'm in
Speaker 2: this position, and you know, if if it happens, it
Speaker 2: would mean the world. And if not, then I'm gonna
Speaker 2: keep trying to get the Guardians wins. So I mean
Speaker 2: it doesn't really matter. But you know, I know how
Speaker 2: big of an honor that would be, and you know
Speaker 2: it would be a huge accomplishment, and you know I'd
Speaker 2: be it would be super grateful.
Speaker 4: Along those lines, Man, I can tell you're a humble kid.
Speaker 4: So this is gonna be a tough question, but I'm
Speaker 4: gonna put you on the spot. You're kind of flirting
Speaker 4: with all these things this year All Star, you're on
Speaker 4: the ballot for like a Rookie of the Year. You're
Speaker 4: off to a great start, and you almost threw the
Speaker 4: no hitter. Man, let's say you know the year's over,
Speaker 4: it's now Christmas time. You're looking back at my rookie year. Man,
Speaker 4: it's like I could have been an All Star. I
Speaker 4: could have been Rookie of the Year. I could have
Speaker 4: thrown a no hitter. Which one of those three you
Speaker 4: think you're choosing?
Speaker 2: Oh, Man, that one's tough, Uh, I can I don't know.
Speaker 2: It'd probably be between I'll say I'll say Rookie of the Year,
Speaker 2: just because that's the only one you can do once.
Speaker 2: I can you I can be an All Star later
Speaker 2: in my career, and I can throw another no hitter
Speaker 2: later in my career. So I'll go with that option.
Speaker 2: But you know, all three would be super special. That's
Speaker 2: a good ansa.
Speaker 5: Right.
Speaker 3: Well, then that leads right into my question. Right now,
Speaker 3: you're you're in, You're in the mix for Rookie of
Speaker 3: the Year, but the rookie of the year most likely
Speaker 3: is gonna come out of the American League Central. Of
Speaker 3: the guys that you've seen, you know, the guys from
Speaker 3: your own teammate Travis to to uh Akamoto up in Toronto,
Speaker 3: to Moricamedi and m freaking from from the Tigers. McGonagall,
Speaker 3: thank you McGonagall. Who do you feel like most impressed
Speaker 3: you throughout this season when you've seen them?
Speaker 2: I have seen, uh every I mean, I've seen everyone
Speaker 2: play at different levels. You know, I've seen you know,
Speaker 2: each one have really good games really and you know,
Speaker 2: not so great games, And that's the part of being
Speaker 2: a rookie in the in in the big league. So
Speaker 2: I mean, I honestly don't know. Everyone's been super talented,
Speaker 2: and it's it's really cool to have so many talented
Speaker 2: young guys in the AL Central and to be able
Speaker 2: to compete compete against them all the time. So maybe
Speaker 2: I'll have a better, more specific answer by the end
Speaker 2: of the year. But I mean, everyone's super impressive. So far,
Speaker 2: and it's really fun for me to be able to
Speaker 2: compete against all of those guys.
Speaker 4: Parker, how about just you know so far almost a
Speaker 4: year into your big league career. Here you talked about
Speaker 4: some i think mechanical changes earlier that you made. Have
Speaker 4: you noticed any arsenal changes that you you've deployed. Are
Speaker 4: you are you still kind of deploying your pitches as
Speaker 4: you were the first time you stepped on a big
Speaker 4: league mound, or are you already starting to make some
Speaker 4: adjustments as you've seen maybe your self change or the
Speaker 4: hitters adjust to you, or right now just kind of
Speaker 4: kind of you know, hanging with my strengths. I'm gonna
Speaker 4: go at you guys until you figure me out and
Speaker 4: then I'll adjust.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of came in with that approach, like
Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm a young guy, this this is what
Speaker 2: I got, This is what got me here, So I'm
Speaker 2: gonna lean on that and then I've I've had to
Speaker 2: make some adjustments as hitters have learned more about me
Speaker 2: and what I like to do. So, you know, I
Speaker 2: came into this year throwing a cutter along with with
Speaker 2: the other five pitches, which I didn't do last year,
Speaker 2: So that was an adjustment going in from this offseason
Speaker 2: into the season. And you know, I'm just kind of
Speaker 2: trying to be learn learning when to use certain pitches
Speaker 2: and you know what count buckets? Do I throw pitches
Speaker 2: that get me ahead? And what are my swinging mis pitches?
Speaker 2: And you know, these hitters are really good and that
Speaker 2: their swings are my biggest teacher, and it just helps me.
Speaker 2: I get the feedback immediately off of a pitch that
Speaker 2: I throw, whether it looked good or whether it didn't,
Speaker 2: you know, based off of their take or their swing
Speaker 2: or how hard they hit it. So I'm constantly learning
Speaker 2: and constantly adjusting based off of my arsenal and the
Speaker 2: things that the hitters like and the things that they don't.
Speaker 3: All Right, one of your rookie buddies on the team,
Speaker 3: real new rookie, So he's sitting way farther in the
Speaker 3: back than you are. Cooper Engle threw the ball into
Speaker 3: the stands accidentally with two outs instead of three. How
Speaker 3: is that handled in your dugout? Is that handled with?
Speaker 3: Oh man, nobody say anything? Is that somebody yelling at him?
Speaker 3: Or is it joked about later?
Speaker 2: No, it's something I think the older guys did a
Speaker 2: really good job handling that. I mean I did. I
Speaker 2: stayed out of that conversation other than me, you know,
Speaker 2: just hopping on the butt, like you know, that's that's
Speaker 2: a tough thing to have to go through. Is a
Speaker 2: couple of first days in the in the big league.
Speaker 2: So I think they handled it well. You know, I
Speaker 2: saw a bunch of the guys in the locker room
Speaker 2: laughing about it with them after the game, and you know,
Speaker 2: they did a phenomenal job of you know, everyone understands
Speaker 2: that it's a mistake and no one wants to be
Speaker 2: that person. So I think our older guys did a
Speaker 2: phenomenal job handling that. And you know, Cooper's been the
Speaker 2: same guy in the locker room every day and I
Speaker 2: have no doubt that not hopefully we really learned from that,
Speaker 2: but he's going to be a phenomenal player and the
Speaker 2: rest of the season for us.
Speaker 3: Who's that guy, who's the older guy that first steps
Speaker 3: up to like pat him on the button, like tell
Speaker 3: him it's okay.
Speaker 2: I mean, there's you have Austin Hedges, David Frye, Rees Hoskins,
Speaker 2: Stephen Kwan, It was a group effort, and you know,
Speaker 2: I'm probably leaving a couple of guys out, but those
Speaker 2: are just you know, some of the ones off the
Speaker 2: top of my head. And they were with him pretty
Speaker 2: much immediately after the game, and you know, it seemed
Speaker 2: pretty light and they handled it well.
Speaker 3: Is there somebody that you've seen, not necessarily played against,
Speaker 3: but when you saw him out in the field here
Speaker 3: in this first full season in the big leagues that
Speaker 3: you're like, well, I saw that guy, like, well, I
Speaker 3: struck out show or is there Are you not enamored
Speaker 3: by anybody in the game.
Speaker 2: No, I mean for sure. The first my first star
Speaker 2: was against the Dodgers and I had, you know, that
Speaker 2: star stutted lineup. And then immediately against the Cubs and
Speaker 2: I was facing Bregmant and then I think it was
Speaker 2: like Atlanta right after that and I had to face Acunya.
Speaker 2: So I mean every start that I have that the
Speaker 2: guy that I haven't faced. When you know you're a superstar,
Speaker 2: it feels feels like I was just yesterday. I was
Speaker 2: like in high school watching all these guys playing All
Speaker 2: Star games and you know, playing with them on MBI
Speaker 2: the Show. And now I'm having to face them. So
Speaker 2: it's definitely something super cool for me to be able
Speaker 2: to say that I'm doing and I'm just super grateful
Speaker 2: that I have this opportunity.
Speaker 1: Oh Parker, you got a good group. It's been fun
Speaker 1: to watch men. Keep it up. Hopefully we'll see in
Speaker 1: Philadelphia too. Great talking to you. Thanks for the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it.