Speaker 1: What is up?
Speaker 2: Mets fans, Welcome back to a special episode of the
Speaker 2: metsa Podcast. If you're listening to us, I suggest you
Speaker 2: hop on over to YouTube because you will see we
Speaker 2: are joined by a special guest today, former New York
Speaker 2: Met World Series All NLCS hero Daniel Murphy joins us. Daniel,
Speaker 2: thank you so much, man, appreciate it. How you been.
Speaker 1: What's going on doing well? Mark? Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: James you as well. Well. It's Sandlot season and we
Speaker 1: get to start a little earlier down here in Florida
Speaker 1: then in the Northeast, which is why all the lads
Speaker 1: are down in spring training. So we've been bawling. My
Speaker 1: two boys they bowl played baseball ten Noah and then
Speaker 1: seven Drew. And then my daughter's been doing some ice
Speaker 1: skating which keeps us a bit cool. And then we
Speaker 1: got a little one, Jake, who's two years old, and
Speaker 1: he just bosses us around without using much words, like
Speaker 1: a few words as possible. So we're doing good. Thank
Speaker 1: you for asking. I'm in my wife's her office right
Speaker 1: now that she has for her charity prom series, so
Speaker 1: she let me, she let me steal it to hang
Speaker 1: out with you guys.
Speaker 3: That sounds like a lot of fun. What was your
Speaker 3: wife's charity do?
Speaker 1: So its main focus is girls who are in the
Speaker 1: foster care system middle school to high school age, and
Speaker 1: she throws events for him. So the first one was
Speaker 1: in Denver where she brought all the girls who were
Speaker 1: in foster care in, got the wives, girlfriends, and fiancees
Speaker 1: to come and help as well, got prom dresses for them, all,
Speaker 1: got their hair and makeup, done it a suite for
Speaker 1: a ball game. And now she's probably done that, I
Speaker 1: think in maybe fifty like twenty stadiums like an event
Speaker 1: like that where she's been there, and she's been able
Speaker 1: to host an event in every major league stadium like
Speaker 1: it's been she's been really well received. And you know
Speaker 1: baseball and you know the wives of our guys who
Speaker 1: have you know, we leave for the ballpark one o'clock.
Speaker 1: You know, you kind of can end up having a
Speaker 1: lot of free time and something to sink your teeth into.
Speaker 1: So they've really rallied around my wife, Tory and her
Speaker 1: heart for children in the foster care system. So thank
Speaker 1: you for asking.
Speaker 2: That's that's awesome to hear. That's that's amazing stuff. To
Speaker 2: switch the conversation a little bit, just to go back
Speaker 2: to baseball now, talk about you. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 2: the Mets. We're gonna talk about twenty twenty five Mets.
Speaker 2: But I think for me and James's lifelong Mets fans,
Speaker 2: there's a few things that we got to know about
Speaker 2: and that we want to ask you specifically about that
Speaker 2: twenty fifteen season. We were texting before we got on
Speaker 2: the show, and we were talking about a lot of
Speaker 2: the moves that the Mets made this offseason. But during
Speaker 2: the twenty fifteen season, the Mets made a particularly big
Speaker 2: move bringing in you an assessments at the trade deadline
Speaker 2: as a player on that team, especially because that season
Speaker 2: was super up and down to begin with, What was
Speaker 2: it like bringing in a guy like Yo.
Speaker 1: Well, the roller coaster ride of how we got there,
Speaker 1: of kind of thinking it was Carlos Gomez and then
Speaker 1: you know flow, you know, just revealing that we're human beings.
Speaker 1: He just happened to do it in front of, you know,
Speaker 1: the entire city and world to a certain respect. But
Speaker 1: when Yo came in, like he just is also in
Speaker 1: conjunction with getting Kelly Johnson in your rebay, it's like
Speaker 1: all these guys came in, but when you came in,
Speaker 1: you could feel like Sandy, you know, just like telling
Speaker 1: the ball color, we're going for it. And then we
Speaker 1: added those other guys as well too, and so that
Speaker 1: was like just to be in the clubhouse and to
Speaker 1: get that confidence from the front office that like we're
Speaker 1: we're in this and we're going to go for it,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna we're gonna sacrifice some of ourselves in
Speaker 1: the future, which was I think, Michael foellmore, if I'm
Speaker 1: not mistaken, you know, to make a move right now
Speaker 1: to try to win in the present, and it was
Speaker 1: it was really a huge lift. And then to add in,
Speaker 1: you know, the guys I talked about like those are
Speaker 1: I kind of those are like sand Lauders, Like they
Speaker 1: know how to ball, and they know how to win
Speaker 1: games and get in position to win games. And I
Speaker 1: learned so much from Kelly Johnson, like I love of
Speaker 1: Kelly and so I had a treat playing with him.
Speaker 1: And it was a wonderful run that we were able
Speaker 1: to go on.
Speaker 3: What was that feeling like in the first half of
Speaker 3: that season when you guys had a veteran team, a
Speaker 3: lot of talent. You guys probably knew that you should
Speaker 3: have been playing better, but we weren't playing up to
Speaker 3: your own standards. How do you stay motivated? And what
Speaker 3: was kind of like if there was one a galvanizing
Speaker 3: moment during that first half that kept everyone locked in
Speaker 3: with the goal in mind.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think looking back on it, we made a
Speaker 1: really I think we had like we go like eleven
Speaker 1: and like we won like eleven in a row or something.
Speaker 1: I think that was like we just kind of came
Speaker 1: out of the gates really hot. And I think selfishly,
Speaker 1: I remember I wasn't playing very good. I was pumped
Speaker 1: we were winning, and I feel like I was doing
Speaker 1: some things to help us win. But like I didn't
Speaker 1: feel like I was playing nearly as well as I wanted.
Speaker 1: But we were. But no, we were winning, which was
Speaker 1: the best part. We kind of rode that eleven game
Speaker 1: winning streak in some of those ups and downs and
Speaker 1: kind of were able to cling to that. And then
Speaker 1: also you could say maybe at the same time that
Speaker 1: the Nationals were under performing to what they thought were
Speaker 1: going to do for their standards, So you know, we
Speaker 1: just remained in it the whole year, even though it
Speaker 1: would have felt like we were kind of trying to
Speaker 1: keep our head above water other than that real, real
Speaker 1: good stretch of a week and a half or two
Speaker 1: weeks we had. So I think what maybe Galvinizers was
Speaker 1: being in the hunt deeper into the season than we
Speaker 1: had been in what eight I mean we're talking. I
Speaker 1: think that that's the last Pennant race I had remembered,
Speaker 1: and I was, you know, I was up for that one,
Speaker 1: but like you know, David had been through those wars.
Speaker 1: I hadn't been through that. Like I was only up
Speaker 1: for two months, you know, Nick Evans and I coming up.
Speaker 1: So I think maybe as I think about it, and
Speaker 1: you asked the question, and kind of the the energy
Speaker 1: came from being in it, you know, like really being
Speaker 1: in it, and then you get the bolt from the
Speaker 1: front office and then we start playing well. And also TC, sorry,
Speaker 1: TC brought us in when we made the trades for
Speaker 1: Kelly Johnson and your eBay and these guys coming in,
Speaker 1: and he brought me and Flores and Tahada, and due
Speaker 1: to on the infielders, David must have been busy. I'm kidding,
Speaker 1: because what TC was telling us that this is a meritocracy.
Speaker 1: Now you know. I mean we got like, there's like
Speaker 1: four you in here, we got two come in and
Speaker 1: you know number five is going to be on the menu.
Speaker 1: So whoever plays best gets to play. And that was unique,
Speaker 1: not that we weren't playing the best players, but that
Speaker 1: we kind of had that many options of good ball players.
Speaker 1: And so, yeah, how was.
Speaker 2: It playing around David Wright? Us Mets fans have such
Speaker 2: like a he had such an aura for us. He
Speaker 2: was so much bigger than life. What was it like
Speaker 2: to be his teammate?
Speaker 1: Well? I got to know him kind of in the
Speaker 1: intimate settings where he lets his guard a little bit,
Speaker 1: so he would be bigger than life at times. But
Speaker 1: also like you could get in there and you'd be
Speaker 1: needling him and back and forth and have like just
Speaker 1: that locker room banter where you're just you're just getting
Speaker 1: on each other. But David's willingness I thought to take on.
Speaker 1: So he's already the most recognizable player we have because
Speaker 1: he's the best, and he plays every day. So he's
Speaker 1: taking on like that responsibility of posting and showing the
Speaker 1: whole club and the organization what it looks like to
Speaker 1: go out and play hard every day. Also trying to
Speaker 1: be the best teammate he could, which is a choice.
Speaker 1: You don't have to choose to do that. I've chosen
Speaker 1: not to do it enough times to know you you
Speaker 1: can choose not to. So now he's taken on that
Speaker 1: that like he's looking around to help those around him, right,
Speaker 1: And then you add in the fact that like for
Speaker 1: the stretch of mostly what I remember, we weren't as
Speaker 1: good as we wanted to be. We weren't very good,
Speaker 1: and they ain't come talk to me after ball games.
Speaker 1: They went and talked to David. And so now he's
Speaker 1: representing us in the organization again through the media, and
Speaker 1: you just see, like it's a lot of weight to
Speaker 1: take on that he did voluntarily, and so I was
Speaker 1: always so impressed at how he could do that and
Speaker 1: still be so good on the field because it was
Speaker 1: a long season and you could you could not see
Speaker 1: it where you could just see that's a lot, that's
Speaker 1: a lot to take on. It was a it was
Speaker 1: a it was a heavy burden for him to advocate
Speaker 1: for us as much as he did because he was
Speaker 1: good and I really wasn't, but he was still standing
Speaker 1: up for me.
Speaker 3: I think you found your shry at some point that season,
Speaker 3: But do you stay in touch with any guys from
Speaker 3: that team.
Speaker 1: I reach out to de Grom a little bit, so
Speaker 1: and then so Jake, and then you know, David, and
Speaker 1: then so Saton wasn't on the fifteen club, but I
Speaker 1: still we end up golfing together. So David, myself, Zimmerman,
Speaker 1: and Josh Shatton have been able to go on to
Speaker 1: like a golf trip the last two years, and so
Speaker 1: we're hoping to keep that going. Let's see who else, Harvey. I.
Speaker 1: You know, I've been able to reach out to Matt.
Speaker 1: My wife actually ran into him Game four of the NLDS, Yeah,
Speaker 1: and the team store, and Matt was in there spending
Speaker 1: some of his shekels for the for the Metropolitans. Then
Speaker 1: I ran into Ruben Tahta and Long Island when I
Speaker 1: went and played in twenty three, so he was coming
Speaker 1: in to play with walking with Wally. He had had
Speaker 1: some visa troubles and I was just leaving to head
Speaker 1: to Salt Lake City and so we just missed each other.
Speaker 1: But we got to see each other again and it
Speaker 1: had been oh man, that'd been the first time I'd
Speaker 1: seen him in a while, and I like I remember
Speaker 1: Ruben we were an instructional league together when he was sixteen,
Speaker 1: Like he's running around at short, stopped making every play.
Speaker 1: So like I know in Ruby Tuesday Forever, it was
Speaker 1: a good group.
Speaker 2: You had a pretty good look at the slide from
Speaker 2: Chase Hutley going into Ruben Tata as a player, because
Speaker 2: I mean as a fan, we all went Berzurik as
Speaker 2: a player. What are the initial emotions going on when
Speaker 2: you see something like that happen.
Speaker 1: Well, there's there's immediate anger and then there was also
Speaker 1: some how do I want to describe it on my part,
Speaker 1: Like I'd say responsibility. I didn't get Ruben a very
Speaker 1: good feed at all, Like I didn't really want the
Speaker 1: ball and I kind of gave it to him like
Speaker 1: I didn't want it. Now, I wish that Ruben would
Speaker 1: have taken the out and secured it and got the
Speaker 1: hell out of there, you know what I mean, and
Speaker 1: protected himself. But my boy wanted to play. I've seen
Speaker 1: him do it since he was sixteen. He wanted to
Speaker 1: make a play out on the other end, at least
Speaker 1: coming in and Chase's goal is to make sure that
Speaker 1: the guy on deck gets to turn it back. I
Speaker 1: think that's the only goal he has. Now. Can you
Speaker 1: say was it dirty? Did he go in there like
Speaker 1: like he whacked him? He could have gotten him without
Speaker 1: getting him like that, without a doubt. It was high,
Speaker 1: it was late, and he went in to make sure
Speaker 1: that you know, the on deck batter hit like pretty ferociously.
Speaker 1: And I say this but after playing against Chase Chase,
Speaker 1: if you were to talk to him about it, and
Speaker 1: I've you know, not talked to him about it, but
Speaker 1: I've seen him. We did the home run derby last year.
Speaker 1: We were part of the old London you know performance,
Speaker 1: and so what Chase would say, though, if you were say,
Speaker 1: is like I'll be out at second base tomorrow night
Speaker 1: and if you want to get me, you can come
Speaker 1: and get me. And that's the way Chase played his ball.
Speaker 1: And what David would do was he would try to
Speaker 1: get his ass, you know what I mean. And so
Speaker 1: that's the kind of ball we played. But it hurts
Speaker 1: your heart to see it turned out that way for
Speaker 1: you know, for Reuben getting hit so hard and high.
Speaker 1: But then the like the honestly, the Sandlauder in me
Speaker 1: understands where Chase is coming from. It's like we want
Speaker 1: to get one more turn it back, and so that
Speaker 1: part I get, But it just I wish it didn't
Speaker 1: take my boy's leg to get there without a doubt.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just that's a moment that sticks with every
Speaker 3: Mets fan, least of our age, forever, because like the
Speaker 3: watching your short SUPs leg get broken on a field,
Speaker 3: It's like, not how many baseball fans but we'll ever
Speaker 3: see that in their lives. It was crazy. You also
Speaker 3: had a pretty first hand view of the Wolmer floors
Speaker 3: night you mentioned it before. At what point did you
Speaker 3: guys know what was going on and when you initially
Speaker 3: saw your shortstop in tears, what did you think was happening.
Speaker 1: I think we sorted out that there was like a
Speaker 1: move and flow was involved in it. But every other
Speaker 1: time there's a move like that, you get hooked out
Speaker 1: of the ballgame and the flow was still out there,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, So obviously it wasn't something
Speaker 1: was going on. I don't know. I'm I tried. I
Speaker 1: was excited when I was in the lineup and tried
Speaker 1: to play. I was oblivious to all sorts of stuff.
Speaker 1: David would have to tell me what was going on.
Speaker 1: He'd be telling me, I didn't know what was going on.
Speaker 1: I was just like a little puppy dog chasing a ball.
Speaker 1: Then you look out there and you just see the
Speaker 1: real humanity of like we're people like with families. And
Speaker 1: again I go back, like flow, Flow is an instructional
Speaker 1: league too. I remember him when he was sixteen. He
Speaker 1: was taller than Reuben, but they was about as skinny
Speaker 1: as each other, and so all he knew was the
Speaker 1: Mets And to kind of have all this swirling around
Speaker 1: with you, like and you're on display. I think that's
Speaker 1: what we saw. We saw a human being put on
Speaker 1: display in a way that that that most of us
Speaker 1: get to do, you know, and in a more private
Speaker 1: setting like his, Like if you get you get traded,
Speaker 1: or you get moved on from your line of work
Speaker 1: or to another company, like you don't, you're not, it's
Speaker 1: not on us. And why you don't run the highlights
Speaker 1: on the ESPN for Sports Center and so the humanity
Speaker 1: aspect it it made my heart hurt for him, you know.
Speaker 1: But then I got we got to see his courage
Speaker 1: and stand up in the face of that, and we
Speaker 1: really like we really rode flow, you know, obviously through
Speaker 1: the series with the Nationals, but even kind of more
Speaker 1: in the long term. He ended up being the shortstop
Speaker 1: after Ruben got hurt, and you know, you could say
Speaker 1: maybe be and Flow could have caught the ball better
Speaker 1: in the middle, but you know, we was out there
Speaker 1: trying trying to go and so yeah, that's kind of
Speaker 1: the way I think about it when I look back
Speaker 1: at Wilbur and that set up going.
Speaker 2: To the twenty fifteen playoff run again, you were so
Speaker 2: insane in the zone. I mean, something that we really
Speaker 2: haven't seen from many players ever in the history of
Speaker 2: the playoffs in the World Series. What is it like
Speaker 2: to be that locked in for that period of time
Speaker 2: in the biggest games of the entire year. How are
Speaker 2: you feeling?
Speaker 1: Well, somewhat I'd say, first, somewhat nervous to not touch it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, I don't want to
Speaker 1: mess with this. I don't want to this cocktail is
Speaker 1: really good, you know what I mean, And we're playing
Speaker 1: well and I don't want to mess with it. But
Speaker 1: the next way I've thought about is like when my
Speaker 1: eyes would tell my body to do something, like it
Speaker 1: would just do it, and it kind of did it fast,
Speaker 1: and it was doing it dangerously, and my eyes were
Speaker 1: telling me to swing at like good balls. We were
Speaker 1: picking good balls. Well, like I kind of dug into
Speaker 1: like I've been going back into the past. I've been
Speaker 1: consuming my baseball lately, from like nineteen hundred to like
Speaker 1: nineteen forty. This is the baseball. And Ted Williams used
Speaker 1: to ask every great hitter he'd run into, what's it
Speaker 1: take to be a great hitter? And Roger Hornsby told him,
Speaker 1: get you a good ball to hit. You'll hear me
Speaker 1: say it one hundred times at our eleven U game.
Speaker 1: We played a tournament all year. Get you a good
Speaker 1: ball to hit? You know what I mean? Well, I
Speaker 1: was choosing good balls and my body was doing what
Speaker 1: I wanted. And then at that point there's kind of
Speaker 1: this scuffle between the pitcher and the batsman at who's
Speaker 1: going to push you back? You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Because like the pitchers want they want you to retreat,
Speaker 1: they want to push you back. But if you can
Speaker 1: get into attack mode as the batsmen we are on offense,
Speaker 1: and you can start anticipating where you think the pitcher's
Speaker 1: going to go and where he's going to be there
Speaker 1: are less places for the pitcher to go, then the batsman.
Speaker 1: Then the batter gets to go. We get the whole outfield.
Speaker 1: He gets the strike zone, and so if I pick
Speaker 1: make him make a good ball, that gets even smaller
Speaker 1: and you can kind of anticipate when you come here,
Speaker 1: we're gonna let you know that we was looking right there.
Speaker 1: If that makes sense. Yeah, and so you just kind
Speaker 1: of start riding it, and that's that would be the
Speaker 1: way to describe it. I think when I got, you know,
Speaker 1: personally to the World Series, the Royals were able to
Speaker 1: push me back a little bit and I got defensive
Speaker 1: and I wasn't as attacking, and I started swinging it
Speaker 1: at bad pitches and then you could just feel this
Speaker 1: ebb and flow between the twirler and the batter. It's
Speaker 1: like they get to go first, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: They initiate and they're trying to push you back. But
Speaker 1: the price for going first is they don't get to
Speaker 1: go last, and they're further away from the fight, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, we're fighting over this straight It's
Speaker 1: one thing Sandy Alders seems to talk about the strike
Speaker 1: zone like I think he nailed it. It's a fight
Speaker 1: over the strike zone. You can feel it in the postseason,
Speaker 1: like when Francisco Lindor gets one to zero with a
Speaker 1: runner on first, You're like, he's going to score him.
Speaker 1: He's gonna score him right here on this good ball
Speaker 1: he's gonna hit, gonna split this gap. And that's what
Speaker 1: I tell the boys in our baseball for the Blue
Speaker 1: Claws over the weekend, Like we get somebody on first,
Speaker 1: I go score him. Well, the only way you're going
Speaker 1: to score him is you better beat the infielders. You
Speaker 1: got to beat the first line of defense most of
Speaker 1: the time. And so you kind of start talking ball
Speaker 1: like this, and so I would say that fortunately for
Speaker 1: fifteen and that stretch run, I just kind of gotten
Speaker 1: a moment, and you know, I was never going to
Speaker 1: take over a baseball game or two defensively, so needed
Speaker 1: to be on offense.
Speaker 3: Does that Does that ever affect your playgause? Earlier in
Speaker 3: your career, you were moving a lot between the infield
Speaker 3: the outfield. There were some good times, there were some
Speaker 3: bad times. What's it like getting into the box when
Speaker 3: you know you're going through struggles in the field to
Speaker 3: the second anyway.
Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly, because there's more pressure on it, like you
Speaker 1: can feel when you're a one dimensional play. Were trying
Speaker 1: to win ball games around here, like I want to
Speaker 1: score more runs than the other guys, and if I'm
Speaker 1: not catching it on defense, that's not helpful. And and
Speaker 1: so as we you know when you're when you get
Speaker 1: in there and you know you're not going good on defense.
Speaker 1: It was Damien easily said something. When I was a rookie.
Speaker 1: He would say, and I haven't I got my hat
Speaker 1: back where someone would do that, but he would. He
Speaker 1: would pick his hat up when it was time to
Speaker 1: play defense, and he after it a bad and even
Speaker 1: if it was a crabb he goes, this is my
Speaker 1: defensive hat. Now it's time to defend, and he'd put
Speaker 1: it on boom and he'd be like, okay. So it's
Speaker 1: a way to separate the two. So what I learned
Speaker 1: it was easier for me to separate a bad play
Speaker 1: on defense from offense because I knew if I didn't
Speaker 1: go on offense, I wasn't gonna get to play, and
Speaker 1: so I would I would like I would have coaches
Speaker 1: sometimes and they would want to talk about a play
Speaker 1: on defense, and I might be hitting first or second
Speaker 1: and I was easy for me to say, like it's
Speaker 1: time to put my helmet on, like you know, Easy
Speaker 1: was talking about put his hat on, and so with
Speaker 1: that it would be like I want to talk to
Speaker 1: you about that. Boo boo. I just made I promise,
Speaker 1: But I gotta go hit right now, and I'm hitting third,
Speaker 1: and it could be first and third, no outs, It
Speaker 1: could be nobody on two outs. It could be runner
Speaker 1: on second with one out, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I got some situations I got to run through. We'll
Speaker 1: talk about the defense without a doubt, but I'm telling
Speaker 1: you know that if I don't go and hit, we
Speaker 1: didn't got to worry about the defense because y'all won't
Speaker 1: run me out there. So I kind of separated it
Speaker 1: like that, you know, separate, try to separate the defense
Speaker 1: from the offense.
Speaker 2: After the twenty fifteen season hit, the free agent market
Speaker 2: didn't come back with the Mets, went with the Washington Nationals.
Speaker 2: What was that whole experience, like negotiating contracts with with
Speaker 2: both teams? Were the Mets pushing harder? What was that
Speaker 2: like in the offseason?
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think that, Yeah, the offseason that one will
Speaker 1: had the qualifying offer where we get like a week
Speaker 1: after the World Series, and like there was serious consideration
Speaker 1: to take in that. Well, I can say it this way,
Speaker 1: never in my life that I think that I turned
Speaker 1: down fifteen point eight million dollars for one year, Like ever,
Speaker 1: I just what the day the day that we did it,
Speaker 1: I looked at my wife, I was like, what are
Speaker 1: you talking about? But it's in the hopes of hoping
Speaker 1: to get multiple years. But so we gave serious consideration
Speaker 1: of that because, you know, the idea is I love
Speaker 1: k Long, I loved all the guys, I loved Pat
Speaker 1: Rossler and TC. And it's like we just got done
Speaker 1: winning a pennant and I was able to finish the
Speaker 1: year kind of August, you know, through the end of
Speaker 1: the postseason minus the World Series, playing really well offensively,
Speaker 1: and so the idea of you know, running it back
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I think so, but multiple years is
Speaker 1: what is what we were looking for, and and then
Speaker 1: the off season unfolds and it ends up you know,
Speaker 1: the market, the second base market at that time was
Speaker 1: kind of Ben's Obris was was the one who made
Speaker 1: that one go, you know what I mean? And who
Speaker 1: was where was he going to end up? I believe
Speaker 1: the Mets were interested, the Cubs were interested, and then
Speaker 1: you also had the trade market as well, and as
Speaker 1: Drubil was available and Neil Walker, so you know, the
Speaker 1: Mets end up going is drouble and Neil kind of
Speaker 1: back to back days almost as a free agent. I
Speaker 1: was like, and then I looked at my wife and thought,
Speaker 1: it looks it looks really unlikely, like we're going to
Speaker 1: be able to find a way back to New York,
Speaker 1: which isn't anything personal. And he could have taken the
Speaker 1: qualifying offer as well too, And so to be honest,
Speaker 1: the market, our market was kind of cold, like we
Speaker 1: didn't you know, there wasn't a ton in interest. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say interest the qualifying offer that was attached to
Speaker 1: me for the draft pick. Teams were not They don't
Speaker 1: like giving up draft picks. And I don't blame them,
Speaker 1: because that bonus pool money allows you to go and
Speaker 1: just add talent to your system, and talent to your
Speaker 1: system can help you in the big leagues themselves, or
Speaker 1: they can help you acquire talent talent at the deadline,
Speaker 1: and so this thing was kind of weighing me down.
Speaker 1: And so teams they were little what they just didn't
Speaker 1: didn't have a ton of offers, but the Nationals made
Speaker 1: one that that that that we wanted and took about
Speaker 1: Christmas Eve, and you know, then stayed in the NL East.
Speaker 1: And you know, when fight for a division.
Speaker 2: You stayed in the NL East. You're aware that your
Speaker 2: best numbers against like any team are against the Mets.
Speaker 2: What's that like to own the team that you used
Speaker 2: to play for?
Speaker 1: Like and I wouldn't call it owned, played well, played.
Speaker 3: Well fifteen fifty games.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe I was comfortable in that batter's box. I'd
Speaker 1: been in it since two thousand and nine. It was
Speaker 1: interesting to pull in on the dark side, to go
Speaker 1: into the Visiting Clubhouse because the only there the time
Speaker 1: I'd been over there was for David's got a fantasy
Speaker 1: football league that I've been fortunate enough to be in
Speaker 1: for probably now when is it twenty twenty five, like
Speaker 1: fifteen years now, So he hosted that one year. We
Speaker 1: all got together in the visiting clubhouse. So it was
Speaker 1: interesting to kind of walk in like the back way
Speaker 1: into the dark side. But it like I I was more,
Speaker 1: I was motivated, like to do well, to try to
Speaker 1: live up to the value the contract and then also
Speaker 1: like you see your former ball club, it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't mind getting you guys too, And we're in
Speaker 1: the same division. We're going to hook up nineteen times,
Speaker 1: like all right, And I think fortunately, like the we
Speaker 1: didn't play each other until like May that year, if
Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken. It was like deep and it's deeper
Speaker 1: in the season, maybe six weeks now swinging the bat
Speaker 1: pretty well, and then I swing the bat well like
Speaker 1: the first game or two to kind of like settle in,
Speaker 1: because again it's that fight back and forth, like the
Speaker 1: pitching staff like Harvey and Jake are trying to knock
Speaker 1: me through the backstop and I'm I'm trying to go
Speaker 1: that way. I'm not. I would charge you to my
Speaker 1: weapons bigger, you know what I mean. So yeah, that
Speaker 1: was kind of it was. It was it was nice
Speaker 1: to have a good start if if I wanted to
Speaker 1: play well in.
Speaker 3: DC started to transition more to this current Mets team.
Speaker 3: While you were playing on Nationals, you did have a
Speaker 3: little bit of overlap with one. So though, what was
Speaker 3: he like as a very very very young player and
Speaker 3: did you ever could you ever feel or foresee that
Speaker 3: he'd become the player he's now become.
Speaker 1: Okay, so it would probably probably be difficult for me
Speaker 1: to predict that he would be you know, Rogers hornsby
Speaker 1: like ops plus and one seventy. But I guess what
Speaker 1: I could say with that is that I was I
Speaker 1: was rehabbing and trying to get healthy because I'd had
Speaker 1: knee surgery in the off season of seventeen, and like,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I'm running crooked circles, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: I'm not moving worth the crap, and so I'm kind
Speaker 1: of focused on that when one comes up. So I'm
Speaker 1: watching the games but not attending to them, kind of
Speaker 1: as closely as a rehab player. But I still remember
Speaker 1: Kevin Long. I go, what's up with one? Because he
Speaker 1: had a whole run the other way like one of
Speaker 1: his first games or two, and I was like, man,
Speaker 1: this guy took on the big carry as a nineteen
Speaker 1: year old. I was like, what is going on? And
Speaker 1: so I asked k Long, I go, what's up with
Speaker 1: What's up with one? He goes, He'll never go back down.
Speaker 1: He goes this one's special, like this one's special. I
Speaker 1: was like, okay, and then I got back. I think
Speaker 1: one of my first series back was in Yankee Stadium
Speaker 1: and one hit a home run the other way, and
Speaker 1: it's like you're just there in that box. Nothing was
Speaker 1: ever ever felt like it was moving too fast for him.
Speaker 1: And I think watching him part of that was his
Speaker 1: his choice and his willingness to not ever give away
Speaker 1: a pitch. He never gives away pitches, And that's a
Speaker 1: choice because I've thrown enough in the trash where I
Speaker 1: wasn't paying attention to know it like, and so it
Speaker 1: and what it ends up being contagious, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like if Wan's in there looking for a
Speaker 1: good ball every single pitch from the moment he wakes
Speaker 1: up in the morning, then what excuses do I have.
Speaker 1: It's like watching David, you know what I mean, Like
Speaker 1: what am I gonna do complain about not playing well
Speaker 1: or getting something from the crowd. Like David's out there
Speaker 1: every day standing up for us at the end of
Speaker 1: it and taking it. Not that the fans are giving
Speaker 1: it to him, but you know he said with Jeter
Speaker 1: got booed in New York, so like you're gonna get
Speaker 1: it from time to time, and so it just like
Speaker 1: that sort of stuff builds a momentum on itself over
Speaker 1: the course of a long campaign, and you could see it.
Speaker 1: You know, his Wan's in camp right now, like home
Speaker 1: run is first at bat and you see him in
Speaker 1: his work and how he goes about it. It's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: got like he's almost Ted Williams, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: Like this is fun to watch.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's awesome. Also to bring him into a team
Speaker 2: that made to the NLCS last year. Has Francisco Indoor
Speaker 2: brought back, Pete Alonzo, Viento's The list goes on on
Speaker 2: the team's loaded. How do you feel about the Mets
Speaker 2: going into the twenty twenty five season.
Speaker 1: Well, I think that without a doubt, as you talk
Speaker 1: about the momentum of getting into the NLCS and you know,
Speaker 1: really you know, stand in toe to toe. I think
Speaker 1: with the Dodgers, you know, Charlie Dodgers last year, I
Speaker 1: think that offensively it's as deep a lineup, like it's
Speaker 1: really deep. Of course you have the Dodgers, but I
Speaker 1: think the depth of the Mets stands up with with
Speaker 1: any other team in the National League, probably in the
Speaker 1: big leagues. It unfortunate news with Francisco Alvarez, which I'm
Speaker 1: sure we'll probably be able to talk about a bit.
Speaker 1: But again, the depth and the ability to go kind
Speaker 1: of switch, you know, left right, left right with protection
Speaker 1: and not anybody be able to get the platoon advantage
Speaker 1: on you for too long. It's not I'm not breaking
Speaker 1: ground to say that. Like the pitching in general, there's
Speaker 1: a couple of hints like to I think mentors coming back,
Speaker 1: you know, easing back into it. And then is it
Speaker 1: Suarez I'm playing like, is he a little banged up
Speaker 1: in camp if I'm not mistaken or no, is there
Speaker 1: a relief pitcher noun? Yez forgive me, thank you very sorry.
Speaker 1: I'm doing two games at the end of spring training,
Speaker 1: so I'll like get locked in for that, but I'm
Speaker 1: more globally watching my baseball and then Manaya and oh,
Speaker 1: forgive me, we're just talking about yeah, montass as well too,
Speaker 1: So like we're kind of talking to you guys like
Speaker 1: there's there's work that has to be done, like you know,
Speaker 1: the start and pitching. You're kind of hoping to get
Speaker 1: eight hundred innings at them out of the staff, and
Speaker 1: so you know it'll be it'll be the internal options
Speaker 1: that they're working through in spring training. To try and
Speaker 1: to get to the return the health of Manaia and
Speaker 1: Mantas and then kind of see what happens at the deadline.
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe you don't need much. I'm I'm curious to
Speaker 1: see how much the pin gets used early in the
Speaker 1: season to make up maybe for some innings that aren't
Speaker 1: being provided that you thought you might get from the
Speaker 1: starting pitching. So well, these campaigns are fun. You know,
Speaker 1: you still remember to you know, Carlos's first what five
Speaker 1: ball games last year, you know, like the sky was falling,
Speaker 1: like it goes every direction, uh and twice on Sunday,
Speaker 1: and so yeah, I think that, you know, it would
Speaker 1: be like the Crosstown right now, they're dealing with you know,
Speaker 1: starting pitching health as well, and so it just kind
Speaker 1: of unfortunately that time of year where you're hoping to
Speaker 1: dodge the rain drops and if not between Jeremy Hefner
Speaker 1: and the training staff with you know, Brian Chiciclow who
Speaker 1: I had in Triple A and Joe Golie and Double A,
Speaker 1: like they'll get him back and as strong as ever.
Speaker 1: Just you want to you don't. You don't want to
Speaker 1: get too far behind too early, you know what I
Speaker 1: mean like it, you know, you don't want to have
Speaker 1: to thread the needle. I think that even David Stern's
Speaker 1: kind of alluded to that last year that you're kind
Speaker 1: of we're kind of on the edge there, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, and like we we got we know,
Speaker 1: we believe in the ball club we have, but we
Speaker 1: got to go. At a certain point, you run out
Speaker 1: of games.
Speaker 3: So you mentioned that you'll be doing some games toward
Speaker 3: the end of the month on S and Y. You
Speaker 3: made your S and Y debut last year. I think,
Speaker 3: speaking for Mark and I speaking for Mets fans, you
Speaker 3: did an amazing job. What's it been like that transition
Speaker 3: trying to be the color guy in a broadcast and
Speaker 3: trying to add that to your repertoire.
Speaker 1: Well, I thank you for that. Thank you. That's humbling.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Out nervous like like this is nerve
Speaker 1: wracking stuff. I can't say enough about Gary Cohen and
Speaker 1: just how just goy like he just lays it out
Speaker 1: for you, you know what I mean, and just provide
Speaker 1: such a such an environment to talk baseball. And then
Speaker 1: you know Ron as well too, but I mean he
Speaker 1: does S and Y. He is the reason he gets
Speaker 1: national games like they're the best, and then got to
Speaker 1: work with Keith as well too. But I'd say one
Speaker 1: of the biggest adjustments, honestly was was being the different
Speaker 1: viewpoint of the strike zone and being so far away
Speaker 1: from it. I like to be close to the strike zone,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. I like to be real
Speaker 1: close to it. That's what we're fighting over. I like
Speaker 1: to tuck in there as close as I can. So
Speaker 1: it took me from getting used to that.
Speaker 3: So I said, yeah, you got your weapon.
Speaker 1: And it's a big one too. It's bigger than this thing,
Speaker 1: and so had I had to catch myself. I started
Speaker 1: watching the game on the monitor to see what happened
Speaker 1: in the strike zone to see if it was a
Speaker 1: curve or a fastball or like a change of pace,
Speaker 1: and then I would pick the ball up live. So
Speaker 1: that way, if there was a highlight or a replay
Speaker 1: for me to do or some color to do on,
Speaker 1: I knew what pitch it was. I knew what part
Speaker 1: of the strike zone it was in or not in
Speaker 1: is a bad ball, And then I could kind of
Speaker 1: because the first time I did it on which was
Speaker 1: good to do, I was kind of trying to decipher
Speaker 1: what had happened in the zone and the coming together
Speaker 1: at the same time, I was trying to like say
Speaker 1: something that was you know, people wanted to hear, and
Speaker 1: so I was like, I was, ah, I'm just so
Speaker 1: I watched it on the monitor and then pick up
Speaker 1: the ball, and so I've enjoyed that because I like,
Speaker 1: I want to be close to that strike.
Speaker 2: Zone watching the game from afar as well.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: There's been so many changes that have gone on with
Speaker 2: how the game is being played and the philosophies, especially
Speaker 2: on the hitting and pitching side of things. What's your
Speaker 2: take on the I guess movement forward right now in
Speaker 2: baseball at least, it seems like in the public eye
Speaker 2: that we're very much more analytical focused and rather it's
Speaker 2: not as much performance based every single day.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think we end up being like from a
Speaker 1: performance standpoint, once you get to the big leagues, it's
Speaker 1: a pretty darn good meritocracy. It seems that maybe there's
Speaker 1: a level of data that may give guys opportunities in
Speaker 1: the minor leagues that they might not have gotten previously
Speaker 1: if they weren't being productive. Like we like, we like
Speaker 1: the way that your curve performs, it spends at this
Speaker 1: you know RPMs, which we have learned that you know
Speaker 1: that has success. So if we can learn to get
Speaker 1: you to throw, it will kind of keep giving you chances.
Speaker 1: I think that I'm not I don't overly love machines personally.
Speaker 1: Like I think part of the reason that I had
Speaker 1: the fortunate and be so fortunate to be accurate, that
Speaker 1: was kind of my unique skill is my dad threw
Speaker 1: to me as a child all the time. If I asked,
Speaker 1: he was throwing, and so I got good at dancing.
Speaker 1: I think this is a dance between the pitcher and
Speaker 1: the battery with my father, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And I got accurate, and then I was going to
Speaker 1: actually ask you guys, like I remember my baseball growing up,
Speaker 1: not as much cheering for a specific team like Atlanta
Speaker 1: would have been the closest one to us because they
Speaker 1: were on TV. But I remember it as playing like
Speaker 1: I just remember playing like all the time. That's all
Speaker 1: I wanted to do. I wanted to play with my peers.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get at bats and hit. And so
Speaker 1: I think that the machine pitch, while you can probably
Speaker 1: get more reps. You know what, I mean in a
Speaker 1: shorter amount of time. There's something about seeing that ball
Speaker 1: come out of somebody's hand. And when I think back
Speaker 1: to like who I would consider the two greatest hitters
Speaker 1: of all time, like Babe Ruth and Ted Williams, all
Speaker 1: they did was play with their peers unsupervised. They didn't
Speaker 1: have no coaches out there. They had the scoreboard, and
Speaker 1: you had to learn how to problem solve. So like,
Speaker 1: if you like to run the bases, you better learn
Speaker 1: how to be accurate because you only get three swipes
Speaker 1: at this thing unless they throw a stripe, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. And so I think that there's an
Speaker 1: opportunity for the youth and kind of baseball to problem
Speaker 1: solve better if we're not so on top of them,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like let them have their style.
Speaker 1: When's the last time you saw somebody with some Mellot
Speaker 1: sort of style, you know what I mean, Like like
Speaker 1: Josh Hamilton had a nice little battip to them, but
Speaker 1: like we like Teddley's, like, don't don't mess with their style.
Speaker 1: Like I think that children, because I'm in the youth
Speaker 1: kind of right now watching my boys play, children are
Speaker 1: the best movers you know what I mean, they'd move,
Speaker 1: They moved beautifully. What they lack is accuracy, But they
Speaker 1: spend thirty hours a week in school. So why do
Speaker 1: would I expect you to be accurate with this? I
Speaker 1: wasn't accurate with it on defense, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So why would I expect you to be? And so
Speaker 1: I think that there's, yeah, there's kind of that opportunity.
Speaker 1: And so I know you guys ever been on a
Speaker 1: machine before and never hit against one?
Speaker 2: Like yeah, uh, James likes makes fun of me because
Speaker 2: I talk about my high school baseball days like very
Speaker 2: fondly on the podcast and it's it's always roading joke.
Speaker 2: But yeah, like there's there is nothing like hitting off
Speaker 2: of a live arm. Like the live arm is always better.
Speaker 2: It's always you get a much better read on it.
Speaker 2: Like my dad through VP to me, same thing, whenever
Speaker 2: I wanted, he was ready to go. But yeah, hitting
Speaker 2: off the machine, I've I've hit off of one of
Speaker 2: the new machines recently where you can literally like copy
Speaker 2: Jacob de Grom's slide.
Speaker 1: That that trajec thing, yes, totect.
Speaker 2: One, and then on top of that, hitting with like
Speaker 2: a rap Sodo machine and seeing how hard you're hitting
Speaker 2: it in launch angle, it's like very overwhelming if that's
Speaker 2: not something you were used to. But at the same
Speaker 2: time it's like, wow, I kind of wish I had
Speaker 2: some more at least.
Speaker 1: The choice of it. Yeah, maybe the choice of it.
Speaker 1: All right. So here's been my explanation of hitting off
Speaker 1: a machine. And the traject may be different because I
Speaker 1: haven't done like the newest one. I've done one before,
Speaker 1: but which is like some run of the mill guy,
Speaker 1: not like the grom out there. Yes, but I equate
Speaker 1: the pitching machine like a straight fast one out of
Speaker 1: the pitching machine, like go into the eye doctor and
Speaker 1: when they put that puff air in your eye and
Speaker 1: you kind of go like this, that's what it feels
Speaker 1: like when the ball comes out, Like when somebody, Yeah,
Speaker 1: when somebody kind of comes into me and gets their
Speaker 1: wind up going to their stretch, it's like I can
Speaker 1: get in the rhythm with you and kind of get
Speaker 1: in the style. It's more difficult to do in my
Speaker 1: experience with that. So that's been my machine one. And
Speaker 1: I agree with you, you know, as far as like
Speaker 1: to have the access to it, for sure, But I
Speaker 1: do think that still as best as if you can
Speaker 1: get someone to throw to you. I just think of
Speaker 1: the number of bats that like these old school guys had,
Speaker 1: Like when they got done playing a season, they went
Speaker 1: and barnstormed. If I had to do it again, I
Speaker 1: would play more winter ball. Really, I would do less
Speaker 1: weight room and play more winter ball. If I want
Speaker 1: to get better at baseball, I think if I play
Speaker 1: more baseball, I'll get better at it.
Speaker 2: Do you think that a lot of the injuries right
Speaker 2: now in general that are coming up are because players
Speaker 2: are focused a lot more on weightlifting rather than like
Speaker 2: saying loose type of thing and playing more baseball.
Speaker 1: I think that. I think that if you can, if
Speaker 1: you throw and hit more and learn how to I
Speaker 1: think this is a punch. You're throwing a punch from
Speaker 1: the mound. You got two of them always, And then
Speaker 1: I tell my boys too, I got you got two punchers,
Speaker 1: and you've got two kickers. You know what I mean?
Speaker 1: So you what those old school guys kind of learn
Speaker 1: how to do, is they learn how to throw a
Speaker 1: punch they could throw over and over again, all right.
Speaker 1: I think that also that if someone else is teaching you,
Speaker 1: like what to do with the ball, and how to
Speaker 1: hold it and how to throw it, and how to
Speaker 1: shape it specifically. That's not necessarily your punch in your style,
Speaker 1: that's theirs. Now you don't know if this coaching what
Speaker 1: it's doing to you. So I more prefer like I
Speaker 1: have my son, he throws curve balls. You know, he's
Speaker 1: eleven years old, he's about to be and I'll go,
Speaker 1: he goes, Dad, am I allowed to throw curves? And
Speaker 1: all the kids I'll tell him. I go, absolutely, I go,
Speaker 1: what kind of curve you want to throw? You can
Speaker 1: throw one side to side, you can throw one over
Speaker 1: the top, you can throw any kind of shape you
Speaker 1: want to go, Paint a picture of the of the
Speaker 1: want and send it like I don't. I don't think
Speaker 1: that Candy Cummings when he started throwing a curve with
Speaker 1: his rock, you know what I mean, like was gonna
Speaker 1: break that way? He just started curving it. Now you
Speaker 1: could say he's not doing it at the velocity, and
Speaker 1: that definitely plays a role. But I'd like to see
Speaker 1: kind of less specific coaching on like the positions you
Speaker 1: should get into, and more coaching on like what's the
Speaker 1: scoreboard telling us right now? And how can I teach
Speaker 1: you how to hunt in this situation because we got
Speaker 1: to score more runs than the other guys.
Speaker 3: Daniel has been great talking. I feel like we keep
Speaker 3: you here for hours. We can find stuff to talk
Speaker 3: about all day, Baseball, the Mets, whatever it is. But
Speaker 3: we're gonna have to wrap this up for a second.
Speaker 3: So just a couple of final kind of more random
Speaker 3: questions before we let you go. You've talked about facing
Speaker 3: guys like Jake. You were part of an era where
Speaker 3: there was probably the last true era of the starting
Speaker 3: picture Kershoff Orlander. These guys sure as are who've become
Speaker 3: masters of the game, future Hall of famers, who might
Speaker 3: have been the toughest picture you ever had to face
Speaker 3: in your career, someone who always had your number. That
Speaker 3: would be maybe a bit of a surprise.
Speaker 1: Defans, Oh snack, Okay, that's an interesting question because I
Speaker 1: think relief pitcher, nobody will be surprised. I I like
Speaker 1: my last at that or two off of Josh Hater,
Speaker 1: Like the last one looks like I'm from benchwarmers, Like yeah,
Speaker 1: like it's I called a hit and run on myself
Speaker 1: and still didn't have a chance, Like I had no chance,
Speaker 1: And then like whenever Cliff Lee would get in the
Speaker 1: spot because like Cliff, Cliff understood I think maybe first
Speaker 1: and foremost that his job was to get deep in
Speaker 1: the game. Like it feels like he was trying to
Speaker 1: finish what he started. So he would I wouldn't say,
Speaker 1: have the governor on, but he would know how to
Speaker 1: get through the lineup if there was nobody on base.
Speaker 1: But he was a different human, and when there was
Speaker 1: runners in scoring position, he would start throwing things it
Speaker 1: just hadn't seen until there are runners on. So he
Speaker 1: was he was difficult to face, like really difficult. And
Speaker 1: then someone that nobody I wouldn't say, wouldn't expect it
Speaker 1: have to be. It's definitely a lefty. I can't really
Speaker 1: yeah this. I'm trying to think if there was a
Speaker 1: lefty or two, like, uh, it's it'd be like left
Speaker 1: handers like I just I hit on the left side
Speaker 1: because I like having the platoon advantage. You know, I mean,
Speaker 1: most of the world's right handed, so only thing better
Speaker 1: would have been switched, but I couldn't do it.
Speaker 2: What do you think is the most underappreciated trait in
Speaker 2: Major League Baseball right now?
Speaker 1: Accuracy? All right?
Speaker 3: As in command for a picture.
Speaker 1: Accuracy when I booted a ball where you're like, oh
Speaker 1: my goodness, I can't. I love that Daniel is so
Speaker 1: accurate catching the ball. So it's like, you know, go ahead, please, I.
Speaker 3: Say, you got a call two years ago to come back,
Speaker 3: and you got a couple of coffee and triple A
Speaker 3: with the Angels? Are is it over? Is it officially
Speaker 3: over for Daniel Murphy?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Okay. So I came back because I started watching
Speaker 1: the way Babe Ruth hit and I was like, I
Speaker 1: didn't hit like that. I had a completely different move.
Speaker 1: But then I'll watch my boys if I give him
Speaker 1: a heavy enough bat getting the same exact positions that
Speaker 1: Babe Ruth gets into, and Ted Williams and Roger Hornsby
Speaker 1: and Griffy. Griffy took us back in time, in my opinion.
Speaker 1: So I got to thinking, what is it that that
Speaker 1: children have in relation to Babe Ruth at similar It's like, well,
Speaker 1: Ruth wasn't really coached how to hit, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, like specifically, and the child hasn't been coached.
Speaker 1: And then I don't really coach my boys on positions.
Speaker 1: I just tell him to nuke, you know, what I mean,
Speaker 1: and that's it just hit this thing to the sun,
Speaker 1: and I give him heavy bats and so like I
Speaker 1: got my seven year old, you know, I got videos
Speaker 1: of him swinging a thirty five inch, thirty five ounce
Speaker 1: lou Gary bat. But it's it's a store it's a sword,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, It's a stick. He likes stwords.
Speaker 1: It's just a bigger one. But he's smart. He likes
Speaker 1: to hit baseball, so he figured out he'll snap that
Speaker 1: thing right in there. He gets in the same positions
Speaker 1: as Ruth. Ruth's just more accurate because he's done it more.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just just a couple of for sure. Who's your
Speaker 2: favorite baseball player to watch right now in the league?
Speaker 1: M hm, So difficult to not say Mike Trout when
Speaker 1: he's healthy, because like Roger hornsby ops plus you know
Speaker 1: what I mean, one seventy two and now Judge is
Speaker 1: right there as well. And also I don't understand how
Speaker 1: right handers do it. I just don't get it. I
Speaker 1: know how you do it from that side of the plate.
Speaker 1: You got to stick your nose in there on curves
Speaker 1: like seventy five percent of the time. It looks miserable
Speaker 1: like they just I don't I don't know how they
Speaker 1: do it. So those those guys are are really impressive.
Speaker 1: I find myself like I'll watch Trout, like I'll go
Speaker 1: out of my way to watch Mike, so I pray
Speaker 1: that he's healthy because it's much better for our ball game.
Speaker 1: And then like Soto's at bats, like these guys that
Speaker 1: don't give away pitches, those are kind of the things
Speaker 1: I end up attending to. Specifically, this this.
Speaker 3: Is my last one. Mark if you got another one,
Speaker 3: we like to ask a lot of the ballplayers to
Speaker 3: come on here. When you signed that first big contract,
Speaker 3: was the first thing you bought?
Speaker 1: Well, what's your definition of big? Because I thought that,
Speaker 1: like arbitration year one was pretty big. Does that count? Yeah?
Speaker 3: You can tell us the most fun Yeah, the most
Speaker 3: fun thing I got?
Speaker 2: Got right?
Speaker 1: So, okay, I probably went I went to Total Wine
Speaker 1: because my dad's from Kentucky, so he likes bourbon. So
Speaker 1: I find myself kind of like a little bourbon, you know,
Speaker 1: a little little whiskey old Scotch, and so I went
Speaker 1: to Total Wine and probably got like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: like a twelve hundred dollars Battle of Scotch. And it
Speaker 1: was like, wow, nice, we'll celebrate this, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So that would have been, Yeah, that would.
Speaker 2: Have been I was gonna have no more questions. But
Speaker 2: now I got to know, go to whiskey or scotch.
Speaker 2: You said you like it? What do you what are
Speaker 2: you buying?
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's like if I could just if I could
Speaker 1: find it anytime I want. There's this It's called Tully
Speaker 1: bar Dyne. It's a Scotch. It's just kind of got
Speaker 1: some sweetness to it. And I think I've had like
Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe the twenty year or something like that.
Speaker 1: If I can find that kind of this Tully a
Speaker 1: little bit older Tolly bar Dyne, that's what I would do.
Speaker 1: I don't drink a ton, but if I am like
Speaker 1: it's that that tastes good.
Speaker 2: Nice all right, James, nothing else. I think we're good.
Speaker 2: To wrap us up, Murph, thank you so much for
Speaker 2: joining us. Hopefully we can have you on again a
Speaker 2: couple of times during the season would be great talking
Speaker 2: more baseball with you. If there's anything you want to
Speaker 2: plug again here at the end, this will be your shot,
Speaker 2: and we appreciate you coming on.
Speaker 1: Oh no, I think again, Thank you guys so much
Speaker 1: for having me, thank you for letting me talk about
Speaker 1: my wife's charity. She's really kind of poured her heart
Speaker 1: into that and it's gotten so well received by you know,
Speaker 1: our baseball community and just everyone. So no, thank you
Speaker 1: guys very much. And let's pray for salute and good
Speaker 1: health for everyone here out of camp and everybody can
Speaker 1: get out of here for opening Day.
Speaker 2: Couldn't agree more, everybody. Daniel Murphy, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: Tears four