Speaker 1: I want to be in the field. I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm too young to know just DH right now.
Speaker 1: I want to use my athleticism to play defense wherever
Speaker 1: that's in left or catching or first or another corner spot.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, let's talk about the Athletics for just
Speaker 2: a second. This is a team that I have to say,
Speaker 2: despite all of the stuff that this club has to
Speaker 2: go through, I never hear the players themselves complain about anything.
Speaker 2: It just seems like a strong group of guys that
Speaker 2: is willing to do what they can with they have.
Speaker 2: And nobody knows that better than Tyler Soda Strong. Welcome
Speaker 2: my friend to the program. We appreciate you being here
Speaker 2: on Foul Territory. Thanks for coming on. And Tyler, I
Speaker 2: was just talking to these guys about the fact that
Speaker 2: regardless of the situation that the Athletics are in front of, you,
Speaker 2: guys are a very tight knit group, it seems like anyway,
Speaker 2: and you don't complain. Why is that?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, thanks for having me on first and foremost.
Speaker 1: But I think Cott's kind of sent the message last
Speaker 1: year at the end of the season that no one's
Speaker 1: going to really feel bad for us. They're just still
Speaker 1: going to come into Sacramento and try and and try
Speaker 1: and beat us. So we just kind of went in
Speaker 1: with the mentality that you know, nobody cares. The situation
Speaker 1: may not be the best, but you know, we we're
Speaker 1: gonna make the best of it and make it our home.
Speaker 3: So it's been good so far.
Speaker 4: Ty You were in Triple A last year for part
Speaker 4: of the season. Now you're in a Triple A stadium.
Speaker 4: Come on, there's there's not even like any like good
Speaker 4: Triple A Big League jokes that you guys have heard it.
Speaker 4: You're like, I kind of feel like that one's a
Speaker 4: good one.
Speaker 1: We definitely joke around like internally and stuff. But you know,
Speaker 1: they they did a pretty good job. Everything's brand new.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure the visiting the visiting teams have
Speaker 1: it worse than us, for sure, but you know, we've
Speaker 1: made the most of it. We're enjoying sacks so far.
Speaker 1: So I mean, it's definitely definitely good as a hitter,
Speaker 1: you know, the balls flying, so we're enjoying it.
Speaker 5: Hey, Tyler, I want to talk a little bit about
Speaker 5: some some things that dove into since your third time around. Now,
Speaker 5: very short sample size and a lot of people coming
Speaker 5: into the season, nobody was talking about you, right, but
Speaker 5: here you.
Speaker 6: Come on the scene.
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, not looking back, and when I
Speaker 5: dove into the mechanics of it, a couple of things
Speaker 5: that I'm noticing a lot more balls elevated. You're barreling
Speaker 5: up a lot of balls at a much higher percentage
Speaker 5: the the uh you know, bat speed is essentially the same.
Speaker 5: But and I'm not saying it's because Alana's on here today,
Speaker 5: but when I really dive even deeper, you have some
Speaker 5: O tiny esque things in your swing.
Speaker 6: Is he somebody that you looked at?
Speaker 5: What were some of the things that you went into
Speaker 5: the off season saying that if I can lock in here,
Speaker 5: I can turn this power in my tools into something
Speaker 5: special at the big league level.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, I mean I in the minor leagues.
Speaker 1: You know, I didn't really struggle, and you know, I
Speaker 1: kind of flew through the minors, power hit for average,
Speaker 1: drove guys in and I got to the big leagues
Speaker 1: and really, uh, you know, I just didn't work out
Speaker 1: from her in the beginning, and I was still pretty young.
Speaker 1: But you know, they're just pitching, pitching the corners, throwing
Speaker 1: us off, and I just really wasn't able to adjust,
Speaker 1: and I was missing the pitches in the zone because
Speaker 1: I was so kind of tied up. But I think
Speaker 1: I just needed something that was pretty repeatable, pretty easy.
Speaker 1: I've I've mentioned JJ Blade, you know, he kind of
Speaker 1: went through the same thing as me. He kind of struggled,
Speaker 1: came up and kind of put the foot down early
Speaker 1: and kind of really helped him take off. So kind
Speaker 1: of mentored after him a little bit, started playing around
Speaker 1: with it kind of halfway through the season last year
Speaker 1: and really kind of opened up his own for me.
Speaker 1: I felt like I could see everything be on time
Speaker 1: for everything kind of adjust. So yeah, it's been good
Speaker 1: so far.
Speaker 4: Tonight's starter, Sean Burke, You've had a dinger against him
Speaker 4: in the show. Does that make your comp Do you
Speaker 4: feel a difference in your confidence when you're facing a
Speaker 4: dude that you've already hit a dinger against that you're like, okay,
Speaker 4: And can you take that confidence into a dude like
Speaker 4: the entire Mariners pitching starting rote where you're like okay,
Speaker 4: like I gotta get after some of these guys. Or
Speaker 4: does that, like this past, this past success not affect
Speaker 4: your psyche going into a game.
Speaker 3: That definitely helps.
Speaker 1: I mean I feel like just overall, like seeing guys
Speaker 1: the first time for the first time can be difficult,
Speaker 1: but once you kind of see guys more and more,
Speaker 1: you know, you get more comfortable in the box. And
Speaker 1: even I mean just having success against some even adds
Speaker 1: to that. So yeah, I mean, we we just saw
Speaker 1: these White Sox guys. We're gonna face the same three
Speaker 1: starters that we did in Chicago coming off a sweep there,
Speaker 1: so we're excited to just kind of build off that
Speaker 1: and keep going.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I want to follow up right there.
Speaker 5: Uh, you talk about Cots and one thing I stand
Speaker 5: on I always say the leader is the manager. We
Speaker 5: always look at players as the guys who lead the clubhouse.
Speaker 5: But you have to have a guy that you wake
Speaker 5: up and you're excited to go play for him. How
Speaker 5: big is Cots been? He was a veteran when I
Speaker 5: was younger in my career. I know what he did
Speaker 5: for me. Even though he's the manager, he's not the
Speaker 5: heat and guy. He has so much knowledge. How how
Speaker 5: big has he been for your growth this year? And
Speaker 5: what are the athletics and COT's telling you your role
Speaker 5: is going to be moving forward.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: You know, Cotts has been a big part of our success.
Speaker 1: You know, he came into a pretty tough situation when
Speaker 1: you first kind of started managing, so he's done a
Speaker 1: great job of you know, dealing with that and getting
Speaker 1: to us to this point. I mean, we're a young
Speaker 1: group of guys that you know, kind of need that guidance.
Speaker 1: We didn't really know how to be big leaguers. So
Speaker 1: he's really helped me in that aspect of kind of
Speaker 1: learning to be a big leaguer and how to go
Speaker 1: about my business. And you know, like you said, they've
Speaker 1: kind of communicated to me that I'm probably going to
Speaker 1: be playing more and left you know, Kurch has debut,
Speaker 1: so looking to get him in the lineup, to get
Speaker 1: another lefty bat in there and kind of help us
Speaker 1: against Rice for sure.
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Speaker 4: All right, I gotta ask this. Do you miss catching
Speaker 4: because they're moving you out of the position. I kind
Speaker 4: of transition to it. You caught thirty to forty games
Speaker 4: a year in the minor leagues. Normally we have two
Speaker 4: catchers on here, but we allow an outfielder on here
Speaker 4: and Cam because we'll bring the athleticism down a little
Speaker 4: bit when we bring outfielders. I think, is Shay gonna
Speaker 4: let you catch it all? Like let the man get
Speaker 4: back there, all these dangers a catcher who.
Speaker 2: It's a little extra cash.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I mean I'm open to anything. Man Like,
Speaker 1: I just want to I want to be in the field.
Speaker 1: I mean, I feel like i'm too young to you know,
Speaker 1: just dh right now. I want to use my athleticism
Speaker 1: to play defense wherever that's in left or catching or
Speaker 1: first or another corner spot. And I feel like it
Speaker 1: can handle all of it. So but yeah, like you said,
Speaker 1: we've got Shay So, I mean, he's a he's a
Speaker 1: horseback there. He's back there every night, and he's got
Speaker 1: power too. So we're just trying to figure out where
Speaker 1: we can get all these bats and where we can
Speaker 1: fit them all on the line up.
Speaker 2: For sure, you seem very disciplined in all of your
Speaker 2: answers there. I don't know if you had media's training
Speaker 2: or if you just feel like you're too young. What
Speaker 2: makes you smile, what makes you relax?
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I'm just pretty laid back, lay back guy, you know,
Speaker 1: early in the morning, just drinking my coffee here and
Speaker 1: so I'm just waking up.
Speaker 2: Did you grow up? I know that your dad played
Speaker 2: Speaking of coffee, a cup of coffee in the big leagues.
Speaker 2: But did you have like, did you grow up in
Speaker 2: a baseball family? I mean, were you always surrounded by it?
Speaker 2: And was there ever a part of you that you
Speaker 2: didn't want to play this game or was it just
Speaker 2: ingrained in you that you were doing it now?
Speaker 1: I was just ingrained to me, you know, ever since
Speaker 1: I figured out my dad played, That's all I wanted
Speaker 1: to do growing up. So you know, he he played,
Speaker 1: got two cups of coffee in ninety six and ninety
Speaker 1: eight with the Giants and he was a first rounder
Speaker 1: out of Francis State, So you know, he's been through
Speaker 1: it all. He's taught me what I know, and you know,
Speaker 1: just growing up with my brother, just training with him,
Speaker 1: and yeah, he's been in a big part of my
Speaker 1: success for sure.
Speaker 4: How did your dad talk about his career? Because AJ
Speaker 4: and I and Cam we had careers that lasted longer
Speaker 4: than your dad's. Mine could have never been a big
Speaker 4: league career. Cam and AJ they were definitely gonna be
Speaker 4: big leaguers like they were first rounders. How did he
Speaker 4: talk about his career?
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, he felt like he maybe left a
Speaker 1: little bit on the table, but he you know, he
Speaker 1: had a shoulder aneurism right when he got into pro
Speaker 1: ball that kind of hindered his success rate. You know,
Speaker 1: he just couldn't really stay healthy. So you know, he
Speaker 1: just always taught me to, you know, put in the
Speaker 1: extra work and just never leave anything on the table
Speaker 1: because you know, this game can end quickly.
Speaker 3: So I think you kind of instilled that in me
Speaker 3: for sure.
Speaker 6: Let's talk teammates real quick.
Speaker 5: Now, you guys have a pretty young roster, right other
Speaker 5: than the old head Luis Savarino over there, my teammate.
Speaker 5: What I've never been to a clubhouse that young, right,
Speaker 5: Usually it's cards on the plane, it's some type something competitive.
Speaker 5: But when you have a group that young, I know,
Speaker 5: some competitive stuff going on. One who's the most competitive
Speaker 5: guy in the clubhouse? And two what do you guys
Speaker 5: do I mean to kill time? When you talk about
Speaker 5: having such a young group, like the fans need to note.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, it's definitely a good, really good mix
Speaker 1: of really young guys and some older, you know, veteran guys.
Speaker 1: We we actually call ourselves YC, which is a young crew,
Speaker 1: and then we refer to the older guys as OC.
Speaker 1: So TJ McFarland is kind of the head of that.
Speaker 1: And then we got Lawrence Butler, who's you know, chirping
Speaker 1: a lot. So it's a good friendly banter back and forth.
Speaker 1: It's a good mix. Mean, we play cards, a lot
Speaker 1: of cards. I mean yeah, I mean we got two
Speaker 1: card tables on the plane, so yeah, you know, we
Speaker 1: make we make them, We make the most of it.
Speaker 3: We have fun, for sure.
Speaker 4: I guess Lulldog is Swaggy, right, He's the head swag
Speaker 4: Isn't there a second place? Is there somebody that's like
Speaker 4: trying to catch him?
Speaker 1: That's a tough one. I mean, he's just so out
Speaker 1: there with everything. I mean he has two lockers. I
Speaker 1: mean he has about six or seven different belts hanging
Speaker 1: in the second locker, So I mean he's definitely the
Speaker 1: leader in that department for sure. Seve's got a good
Speaker 1: shoe game going for sure. A lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of Jordan's in there. So I'd say Saevie's close second
Speaker 1: with the shoes. But I think overall, you know, it
Speaker 1: takes the takes number one easy.
Speaker 4: And I guess since law just got his contract so
Speaker 4: he can he can spend it and flow on it
Speaker 4: a little bit more too. What about we talk about
Speaker 4: money and maybe there's no there's no gambling in baseball,
Speaker 4: not saying you guys were gambling, but did you guys
Speaker 4: have a pool of when Jacob Wilson was actually going
Speaker 4: to get to a three ball count, let.
Speaker 6: Alone a walk, Because I saw the.
Speaker 4: Reaction in the dugout and everyone was like, yeah, so
Speaker 4: you guys were clearly paying attention.
Speaker 1: Yes, we were paying attention for sure. No no money
Speaker 1: pool put together for that. But we're giving him crap
Speaker 1: every day for sure. But you know, he's he's a
Speaker 1: great hitter man, He's We're constantly amazed if we're just
Speaker 1: sitting back watch him and dug out, just watch him
Speaker 1: bang balls with the right side and up the middle.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty special to watch. But yeah, well we
Speaker 1: were on him pretty good for sure, no doubt.
Speaker 4: No doubt. What about uh? What about his what about
Speaker 4: his the fact that he doesn't have as much power
Speaker 4: as you do? You give him a hard time? Like
Speaker 4: are you guys like does he even hit on the
Speaker 4: field because he watches he watches Rook, he watches you,
Speaker 4: he watches Wall He now now Kurts is up, Like
Speaker 4: do you give you guys give him a hard time
Speaker 4: and go, hey, the singles guys, they go hitting the
Speaker 4: cage for BP.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he's kind of done a good job
Speaker 1: of embracing that. We we definitely do give him a
Speaker 1: little slack for that. You know in BP, when he
Speaker 1: when he gets one out down the left field line,
Speaker 1: you know, everyone's putting their hands up cheering. So he
Speaker 1: gets it a little bit, but he embraces it. I mean,
Speaker 1: you watch his BP. He doesn't hit a ball on
Speaker 1: the left side of second base still about the third round.
Speaker 1: So uh, but he's got some power and then he'll
Speaker 1: sneak a couple a couple out down the left field
Speaker 1: line here and hopefully you can in about five or
Speaker 1: ten I think is his number.
Speaker 4: Okay, that's fair. A couple of power swings. Five to
Speaker 4: ten power swings. Maybe he just needs a torpedo bat
Speaker 4: or something like that, you know, something, some kind of gimmick. Anyway,
Speaker 4: he's hitting a million, so don't change it. Tell him
Speaker 4: not to change a thing. Every once in a while,
Speaker 4: actually all the time. There's a home run hit at
Speaker 4: Sacramento at Sutter Field, when it goes to left center,
Speaker 4: I see a batting cage out there. Do you guys
Speaker 4: have an outdoor batting cage at a big league stadium?
Speaker 4: And is that gonna be problematic when it's one hundred
Speaker 4: and ten in Sacramento.
Speaker 1: So we have two tunnels that are endoor, are actually
Speaker 1: pretty nice. I'm not sure what the visiting tunnel is.
Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure it's indoors. I haven't done a whole
Speaker 1: lot exploring over there, but you know, when it gets hot,
Speaker 1: I'm sure there'll be some problem that arise. But I
Speaker 1: haven't really been over there to check anything out. But
Speaker 1: our two tunnels have been I've actually been pretty nice.
Speaker 6: So nice.
Speaker 4: I'm glad that you guys have indoor tunnels. Last one
Speaker 4: for me and we'll let you go. I saw a
Speaker 4: big goose egg on the Baseball Reference page on stolen bases.
Speaker 4: I need you to get a back. I need you
Speaker 4: to get it back.
Speaker 1: Like I've got to to two attempts this year, both
Speaker 1: with Shay hitting, so he's fell off.
Speaker 3: He's fallen off twice. So I'm gonna okay, I'm going
Speaker 3: for ten. I'm going for.
Speaker 4: This year.
Speaker 6: I like big, I'm with crazy, you got you gotta.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna get I'm gonna get ten bags of yourn.
Speaker 5: You got half a step, and just remember they're not
Speaker 5: thinking about you over there, so get them.
Speaker 6: Get the sneak attack going early, right.
Speaker 5: Maybe even a little pool shuffle shuffle, get you a
Speaker 5: little early jump.
Speaker 6: Don't treat it like a hit and run, and you'll
Speaker 6: get you some bags.
Speaker 4: Take the pitch, Take the pitch one time.
Speaker 3: Let him.
Speaker 6: I admit.
Speaker 2: I love that you put it out here though. On
Speaker 2: Foult Territory. Ten backs this year for Tyler in.
Speaker 3: The twenty five one of my goals for sure.
Speaker 2: Well, great job so far, Great success to you Tyler
Speaker 2: the rest of the way. It's been fun watching you
Speaker 2: play so far. Thanks for taking a couple of minutes
Speaker 2: to be with us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks, guys, I appreciate it. Have a good one.