Speaker 1: Joining us now on Bucco Banter is a new picture
Speaker 1: for the Pittsburgh Pires. Ron Mare Nacchio, Ron, Welcome to
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaker 3: Sure.
Speaker 1: How's the past couple of days been a little bit
Speaker 1: of a role win.
Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit of whirlwind. Spent a couple of
Speaker 2: days down in Florida, you know, wait.
Speaker 4: And waiting to see what happens, and super excited these
Speaker 4: guys called me and.
Speaker 2: You know, right in the playoff, right back in the
Speaker 2: playoff race. So I'm excited to be here, Bron.
Speaker 5: Let's take it back to your upbringing.
Speaker 3: You grew up on the Jersey Shore in Tom's River,
Speaker 3: a notorious location for Little league baseball. Did you was
Speaker 3: it at a very young age that you thought you
Speaker 3: might have a future in Major league baseball?
Speaker 4: I wouldn't say, like, you know, I was hopeful for it, definitely,
Speaker 4: But it was just fun back then, Like you said,
Speaker 4: a lot of baseball around there, watching you know, Todd
Speaker 4: Frazier play to go to the Little League World Series.
Speaker 4: My brother played on a team in twenty ten that
Speaker 4: made it to the Little League World Series, didn't win
Speaker 4: at all, but just a good baseball culture, sports culture
Speaker 4: in general around there.
Speaker 2: So just enjoyed playing the game.
Speaker 1: After college. I know you suffered an injury and then
Speaker 1: you started coming out of the pen a little bit more.
Speaker 1: What's the mentality switch up with that like? And then
Speaker 1: how do you feel yourself progressing throughout your career coming
Speaker 1: out of the bullpen.
Speaker 4: It was the last year of college where my coaches
Speaker 4: figured it might be best with the team if I
Speaker 4: worked out of the bullpen a little bit. We were just,
Speaker 4: you know, a mid major school, so we weren't stacked
Speaker 4: with a ton of arms, and we had, you know,
Speaker 4: enough serviceable starters.
Speaker 2: So he said, try out the bullpen.
Speaker 4: And that's where I started to see velocity take up
Speaker 4: a little bit and just was comfortable throwing more often
Speaker 4: arm with Johnson back better than it was as a starter.
Speaker 4: I just like being a part of or feeling like
Speaker 4: I could be a part of every game rather than
Speaker 4: having those four or five days off in between. I
Speaker 4: like to feel like I could impact the game every night.
Speaker 3: Ron, let's talk about the mental side of the game.
Speaker 3: I love talking about the mental side game, especially as
Speaker 3: a former pitcher of myself. You're out there on an island,
Speaker 3: the spotlights on you, but as a guy that's also
Speaker 3: coming back from injury, especially after college, talk about how
Speaker 3: you work through the mental side of the game and
Speaker 3: how important that is for you every day.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I mean mental side is probably a lot
Speaker 4: more than the physical side. Obviously, you know, you have
Speaker 4: to keep your body in shape, keep your arm in shape.
Speaker 4: But I feel like I've seen here over my first
Speaker 4: four or five seasons that the best of the best
Speaker 4: are just they're absolutely nails up top.
Speaker 2: You know, they do the same thing every day.
Speaker 4: They're over four four for four, you know, seven pitch
Speaker 4: no run or seven inch no runs or a tough
Speaker 4: outing the show up the next day, do the same things,
Speaker 4: bring the same mentality, and you just see over time
Speaker 4: how important that is to be in that mental state,
Speaker 4: because you could feel the hitter kind of sends out
Speaker 4: a picture if he's not feeling confident in his stuff.
Speaker 4: And you could feel the other way too, if you're
Speaker 4: on the mountain and you can tell that a hitter
Speaker 4: is kind of like kind his tail between his legs
Speaker 4: a little bit, You kind of smell blood in the
Speaker 4: water a little bit. And that's just the small things
Speaker 4: at this level, like a big web.
Speaker 1: How do you prep throughout the season in terms of
Speaker 1: your pitch arsenal and pitch shape and design. Is that
Speaker 1: more of an off season routine or throughout the season.
Speaker 1: Are you constantly tweaking?
Speaker 4: Yeah, constantly tweaking. You know, if you show up in
Speaker 4: the season and you can go the whole way with
Speaker 4: without tweaking, you're you're probably in a really good spot.
Speaker 4: But I would say most guys are trying to tweak
Speaker 4: adjust to the game. They you know, you're hearing a
Speaker 4: lot for veterans in this game that you're gonna have
Speaker 4: to the league's gonna adjust you.
Speaker 2: You're gonna have to adjust back to the league. And
Speaker 2: I've been in.
Speaker 4: That process of trying to add a cutter and what's
Speaker 4: the best shape with my cutter.
Speaker 2: And we've been working on that here now, trying to
Speaker 2: sweak with that shape a little bit.
Speaker 4: So we're always tinkering, trying to playing what pitch mix
Speaker 4: is working with what you're doing right now?
Speaker 3: Ron you your change up has been a signature pitch
Speaker 3: for you. When did that become a weapon for you?
Speaker 3: Because I know as myself, for myself, I was I
Speaker 3: never had a feel for a changeup like That's definitely
Speaker 3: a field pitch, I'd feel for a breaking ball. But
Speaker 3: what's what's the secret behind getting a feel for a
Speaker 3: change up?
Speaker 4: For me, it was my rookie ball coach Gerardo Cosa
Speaker 4: Diego in Pulaski, Virginia. You just suck, yeah, suck that
Speaker 4: grip in my hand one day and it was it
Speaker 4: was coming out good.
Speaker 2: I've always had feel for a change up.
Speaker 4: I was a fastball changeup guy mostly in college too,
Speaker 4: but it's more of a front to back and then
Speaker 4: you know, the changing the grip around. You learn more
Speaker 4: about the grips and pro ball and even just like
Speaker 4: as as the game's developed a little bit, we've learned
Speaker 4: a lot more about the seams and what the seams
Speaker 4: do to the ball. So yeah, for me, it was,
Speaker 4: you know, always a comfortable pitch, and then the grip
Speaker 4: change really is what made the change of takeoff for me.
Speaker 1: You mentioned that you've come here and you're working on
Speaker 1: the cutter a little bit more. What have the initial
Speaker 1: conversations with the pirates been like in the past couple
Speaker 1: of days.
Speaker 4: I believe the way I throw the ball from the
Speaker 4: slot that I'm throwing it, that there is room for
Speaker 4: improvement on the cutter, and.
Speaker 2: We could, you know, get it a little bit verdier.
Speaker 4: Right now, it's probably a little bit of a blend
Speaker 4: of the slider, So we're trying to get a little
Speaker 4: bit more of a true cutter, just to compliment my
Speaker 4: other things a little bit better coming ou the pen.
Speaker 5: Is there a position that you feel more comfortable in?
Speaker 3: Because I remember watching you with the Yankees we were
Speaker 3: using some high leverage positions, maybe in some middle relief too.
Speaker 5: Is there a role that you feel more comfortable.
Speaker 2: Coming out of the pen in? Not so much.
Speaker 4: I mean with New York, I faced a lot of
Speaker 4: lefties because of the change up, and also just because
Speaker 4: of the Rosser construction what we had down there, we
Speaker 4: didn't have too many lefties. I like to throw often,
Speaker 4: like more often I throw, the better i'm feeling.
Speaker 2: But I've done a little bit of everything. Now. With
Speaker 2: San Diego, we had.
Speaker 4: A veteran we're established bullpen, so I was doing some longer,
Speaker 4: longer outing, So I got a little bit more comfortable
Speaker 4: doing that and had some experience doing just about everything.
Speaker 4: I would say I like to throw more often, but
Speaker 4: I'm here and willing to, you know.
Speaker 2: Chuck it whenever they need.
Speaker 1: Any relationships with the guys and the team being new here.
Speaker 4: Played with Ryan a bit last year when he came
Speaker 4: over to San Diego at the deadline, but this is
Speaker 4: a this is a new faith lit a new face
Speaker 4: for me, and you know, grateful that the team has
Speaker 4: been super welcoming to me.
Speaker 2: The staff has been awesome just verbializing me.
Speaker 4: They believe in me, and that's just big coming into
Speaker 4: a new spot, especially in the middle of the race,
Speaker 4: Like this big stretch for the team right now is
Speaker 4: just knowing they've got confidence in me.
Speaker 2: Feels good.
Speaker 3: What's the first impression meeting this clubhouse here, Ron, because
Speaker 3: like this is a this has been a younger clubhouse,
Speaker 3: but we added some veterans this year and this is
Speaker 3: a team that's looking to compete.
Speaker 5: What is what has been your initial impression here?
Speaker 4: It's been awesome. You know, it's everybody's excited in the clubhouse.
Speaker 4: Like I said, big stretch here, so boys are boys
Speaker 4: are hungry in there, and it is a change for
Speaker 4: me with the you know, you said you added veteran guys,
Speaker 4: but for me, this is a super young team.
Speaker 2: Being with New York and San Diego.
Speaker 4: I've been with two extremely veteran teams, and even in
Speaker 4: my fifth season, I've been one of the younger guys
Speaker 4: on the team my whole time, and it's different. You know,
Speaker 4: we got a lot of young guys that are, you know,
Speaker 4: big pieces of this team, and I haven't.
Speaker 2: Been a part of that.
Speaker 4: So it's cool to see these young guys carry themselves
Speaker 4: and what like what Jones said yesterday, going out there
Speaker 4: giving us a big star and you know, it's fun.
Speaker 2: It's fun to watch these guys.
Speaker 1: What compired to just to learn a little bit more
Speaker 1: about you. What are we going to hear coming out
Speaker 1: of the bullpen? What's the walkout music this year? And
Speaker 1: anything off the field that you like to do that
Speaker 1: might interest people.
Speaker 4: Walk out song, I just changed it to one of
Speaker 4: one of Drake's news songs, So that's gonna be a
Speaker 4: new one for me.
Speaker 2: I was.
Speaker 4: I was going with an Italian song back in San Diego.
Speaker 5: That I used and speaking of my heart right now,
Speaker 5: I was.
Speaker 2: I was using that through the WBC this year.
Speaker 4: They all Passo team just gave it to me as
Speaker 4: ass cool songs. I rolled with that last year, but
Speaker 4: switching it out now. But a couple of things off
Speaker 4: the field I like to do. I love the golf,
Speaker 4: I love to I love to play poker. I grew
Speaker 4: up playing poker. My grandfather was a big poker player.
Speaker 4: I watched him play poker a bunch, so just me
Speaker 4: and my brother, it was used to play games at home.
Speaker 4: I like playing cards in general, but golf and cards
Speaker 4: I like to do that in my off time.
Speaker 3: I have to ask, as a fellow Italian American myself,
Speaker 3: what does it mean to represent Italian Americans in Major
Speaker 3: League Baseball?
Speaker 4: I mean, it's awesome getting a chance to play on
Speaker 4: that team earlier this year was It's up there with
Speaker 4: one of the best experiences I've I've had playing baseball,
Speaker 4: and just an Italian American.
Speaker 2: Community and family, Like.
Speaker 4: We bonded super quickly, and I think that's just the
Speaker 4: roots of being Italian.
Speaker 2: We have so much in common.
Speaker 4: It's such a big, like family environment, so we're quick
Speaker 4: within those first two weeks to really feel like family
Speaker 4: and it feels good to represent awesome.
Speaker 1: Any favorite homemade dish.
Speaker 4: I'm a I'm a big vodka sauce guy, so like
Speaker 4: a field parm with some vodka sauce on it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Oh, absolutely, absolutely love that.
Speaker 1: Well, hey man, we appreciate you joining the show and
Speaker 1: welcome to Pittsburgh and you can't wait to see a
Speaker 1: deal out there.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Thanks man, be the
Speaker 3: Parents can let me run the Yeah, my time is
Speaker 3: like my money because I can't afford to waste uh
Speaker 3: whyee years the lawyer take my date to my dates
Speaker 3: or the stick by the plates in the