Speaker 1: Howard, my dad was tebowed by an utility vehicle and
Speaker 1: isn't surgery. Now what should I do?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to hear about that. It's really great that
Speaker 2: you're getting him the medical care and treatment that he
Speaker 2: needs right now. These are three important things that I
Speaker 2: think you need to know. Injuries are unexpected and turn
Speaker 2: lives upside down. I'm Howard Ankin, and I'm here to
Speaker 2: help if you are a loved one. I have been
Speaker 2: heard at work for in a car truck to write
Speaker 2: your accident called three one two six million injury law
Speaker 2: made personal. That's aken law.
Speaker 3: From your favorite source for Chicago White Sox Talk, delivering news, interviews,
Speaker 3: analysis and more. This is The Sox Machine Podcast with
Speaker 3: your hosts Jim Margolis, James Vegan, and Josh Nelson.
Speaker 4: Hey, White Sox director, you're hitting Ryan Puller, who was
Speaker 4: in Arizona, as are most of the recent twenty twenty
Speaker 4: six White Sox draftees. I know you just said that
Speaker 4: it's better to talk about now than at the draft,
Speaker 4: but let's rewind to the draft just as kind of
Speaker 4: for the sake of like an intro. Like you get
Speaker 4: referenced a lot by Mike Shirley. When we're doing these calls,
Speaker 4: can you kind of describe like what type of where
Speaker 4: you try to fit in role wise between like making
Speaker 4: your own evaluations, providing view of like how these guys
Speaker 4: might develop, you know, trying to facilitate scouts, Like I
Speaker 4: imagine it's like a lot of different you know, complexities
Speaker 4: or competencies that you're trying to apply here and not
Speaker 4: necessarily like, hey, I like this guy, so when yours
Speaker 4: kind of how you how would you describe it?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Man, I love the draft. It's one of the
Speaker 1: most comprehensive but fun parts of the year. And it
Speaker 1: really starts months before we get to that room where
Speaker 1: Matt Grabowski, our R and D team is going through
Speaker 1: sending names my way, and what I'll then do is
Speaker 1: try not to read any reports about them, look at
Speaker 1: the swings, all the information we have, and I'll go
Speaker 1: through kind of make my own notes of what I see,
Speaker 1: what we could work on based off their skill set,
Speaker 1: and then all kind of go through and rank the
Speaker 1: guys without knowing outside what people are ranking them as,
Speaker 1: and then go through filter it with what our scouts
Speaker 1: are seeing, go through all the reports, and then kind
Speaker 1: of make my tiers of the guys that we want
Speaker 1: to go after, and from there really good conversations with
Speaker 1: any everybody who's seen them before, but suls our scouts,
Speaker 1: they do such a good job of preffing these guys
Speaker 1: out ahead of time to make sure that we're not
Speaker 1: going through just numbers on numbers. It's really targeted the
Speaker 1: guys we want to attract and then go after. And
Speaker 1: then once we get in the room for draft week,
Speaker 1: it's a ton of fun to debate, go through what
Speaker 1: the scouts have seen, what we may be missing from
Speaker 1: the information we have, and then we get into the
Speaker 1: room whittle it down to the guys we really want
Speaker 1: to target, and then you see how it unfolds and
Speaker 1: it's a ton of fun.
Speaker 4: What makes it fun for someone like you? It seems
Speaker 4: like it could be, you know, enormously stressful. Something scouts
Speaker 4: evaluate themselves their entire year based off how three days go.
Speaker 4: What wom makes it enjoyable?
Speaker 1: And you want to be incredibly respectful of what the
Speaker 1: scouts do. This is years upon years. A lot of
Speaker 1: these scouts have relationships with these guys dating back to
Speaker 1: when they were in middle school, freshmen in high school,
Speaker 1: so making sure that you're getting the full picture. But
Speaker 1: what's so fun is at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: we get to bring in twelve hitters to our organization
Speaker 1: to make it even better. So really want to be
Speaker 1: diligent about who we target and then try and go
Speaker 1: after to make sure that they're lining up with the
Speaker 1: values we have and the people we want to bring
Speaker 1: into So not just the skill sets, but also we've
Speaker 1: talked about the culture that Will has created, the type
Speaker 1: of guys that gets you in the front office go after.
Speaker 1: We want to make sure that they're going to come
Speaker 1: in and fit the type of people we want to attract.
Speaker 1: So more than anything else, you get to look at
Speaker 1: these are really skillful players that we get to bring
Speaker 1: in the organization and just continue to rise that tide.
Speaker 4: Maybe this winds up bleeding into your anecdotes, but you know,
Speaker 4: at least for you know, the top candidates, with the
Speaker 4: three candidates for the top pick, you know, with the chelawski, Emerson,
Speaker 4: and Lackey, you know, you're able to kind of bring
Speaker 4: them in to the you know, stadium for workouts, assessments
Speaker 4: and also just like other you know, targets, you have
Speaker 4: what sort of measurements whether it's like maybe something qualitative
Speaker 4: you're looking for in those instances or objective stuff. Do
Speaker 4: you really try to like value a lot or really
Speaker 4: key in on you know, when you have a chance,
Speaker 4: like have these guys you know in houses targets before it.
Speaker 1: The beautiful part of the draft each year is the
Speaker 1: information that not trust the White Sox are collecting, but
Speaker 1: when guys go to the combine and you're able to
Speaker 1: get Hawkeye data, so the information that we have to
Speaker 1: make really intelligent decisions off of is just totally different
Speaker 1: than what it was in the past. Or rather than
Speaker 1: looking at a swing and saying, nah, there might be
Speaker 1: bat speed, we're now able to know exactly what percentile
Speaker 1: they're going to be in in college, what's that relative
Speaker 1: to the big league. So we're making much better, more
Speaker 1: informed decisions. But each workout that guys come to rate
Speaker 1: Field is a little bit different. So Rock was more
Speaker 1: of sitting down at launch the conversation we have with
Speaker 1: him rather than the workout. But other guys, Land and
Speaker 1: Tony last year we had them for a workout at
Speaker 1: rate We're able to collect all the information using Hawkeye,
Speaker 1: so we're able to literally get every piece of information
Speaker 1: from the on field workouts, and that's been an unbelievable
Speaker 1: resource the last two years for us to have and
Speaker 1: make really good decisions off of. But yeah, the Von
Speaker 1: Lackey unbelievable, Grady Emerson, the type of interview he gave
Speaker 1: an Arizona at the combine. These guys, all three of
Speaker 1: them quality quality people who are going to be really
Speaker 1: good big leaguers.
Speaker 4: So there's that awesome you know, Jesse Rodgers, P's and
Speaker 4: ESPN about kind of your guys process and you know
Speaker 4: how it kind of went down to the wire, just
Speaker 4: you know, from your suspective, well and how close a
Speaker 4: bit was a call at top one or how much
Speaker 4: you know, how close were they kind of all bunched
Speaker 4: together and what ultimately kind of was you know, some
Speaker 4: separating skills that you know, Rock brought to the table
Speaker 4: for you that really, you know, is kind of top
Speaker 4: of mind.
Speaker 1: Extremely difficult decision, and you look back just that history
Speaker 1: of the college guy versus the high school guy and
Speaker 1: how it's played out over the years, and obviously each
Speaker 1: decision is going to be a little bit different, but
Speaker 1: you want to make sure that you're looking at the
Speaker 1: high school guy the right way. You're looking at the
Speaker 1: college guy. Okay, what's it going to look like in
Speaker 1: three years if it were Apple's taples here? But more
Speaker 1: than anything else, trying to treat it as both these
Speaker 1: guys are incredibly talented, what do we think we can
Speaker 1: do with them? And the thing we talked about, especially
Speaker 1: on the hitting side, is there's a training age for
Speaker 1: each guy. So one hitter maybe twenty one, another guy
Speaker 1: might be eighteen. But when it comes to how much
Speaker 1: they've trained, how much information they have, what adjustments are
Speaker 1: they able to make. We really thought that Rock had
Speaker 1: so much upside where it's obviously he's been one of
Speaker 1: the best college performers there has been, but we felt
Speaker 1: like talking with him, like, man, there's a lot more
Speaker 1: that we could build on with Rock here. So we
Speaker 1: felt like although he was older age wise, the training
Speaker 1: age was a little bit lower in the resources that
Speaker 1: were able to provide for him, give him a little
Speaker 1: bit more feedback, target an instruction. We feel like the
Speaker 1: sky is really the limit for him and he already
Speaker 1: has a really high floor.
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Speaker 4: So I think it's I was equipping about it a
Speaker 4: little bit, and I think it's a lot of it's
Speaker 4: kind of reflective, like maybe the age of like how
Speaker 4: paramount player development is now and how essential we think
Speaker 4: of it as you know, whenever you're acquiring anybody trade
Speaker 4: or a draft, it's like, well, what is the plan
Speaker 4: of the or for him? But it did strike me,
Speaker 4: I have I've never covered one one before, but this
Speaker 4: seems like probably more than past years of how much
Speaker 4: you hear we can get this guy better on the
Speaker 4: day one coming in as opposed to like this is
Speaker 4: a finished product. This is you know, how quick he's
Speaker 4: going to get the majors. It's something certainly it's been
Speaker 4: tagged to Rock as well. So what was kind of
Speaker 4: what's kind of what you really like when you talk
Speaker 4: about like we really think there's a lot upside. What's
Speaker 4: kind of the tools that are present here that you
Speaker 4: know you really like, you know right off the bat,
Speaker 4: but also kind of where you see that there's a
Speaker 4: lot of runway for him to get better.
Speaker 1: It's a huge credit to Getsy for getting Rock to
Speaker 1: Chicago for that visit too, that's been well publicized now,
Speaker 1: but for him to spend a ton of time with Chris,
Speaker 1: which Josh Barfield with myself getting launch and then getting
Speaker 1: to talk with him asking him, how do you train,
Speaker 1: what resources have you had, who are the people you
Speaker 1: really rely on in your life when it comes to hitting.
Speaker 1: So got a really good idea of what he valued,
Speaker 1: what we could do, and then talk about it together.
Speaker 1: So that's the really cool part when we were sitting
Speaker 1: down of like, let's throw it out there. Here's what
Speaker 1: we see, and especially what we talked about a lot
Speaker 1: is okay, people are going to talk about mechanics. We
Speaker 1: feel confident that just from the training we do, different
Speaker 1: positions we could put you in, that stuff is going
Speaker 1: to clean up on its own with a lot of
Speaker 1: the guys that we have acquired or drafted. Putting a
Speaker 1: plan in place, that stuff kind of irons itself out.
Speaker 1: But more than anything, the thing we talked about with
Speaker 1: him is the before two strikes. And with two strikes,
Speaker 1: a lot of college guys have that two strike position
Speaker 1: they'll get into and they don't know that literally half
Speaker 1: they're at bats is going to be in two strike counts.
Speaker 1: So making sure that looked at the numbers, here's what
Speaker 1: we saw before two strikes. Like most hitters, those are
Speaker 1: the most productive spots in terms accounts and then with
Speaker 1: two strikes here where you were at and it was
Speaker 1: probably lower than he thought he was. So rather than
Speaker 1: going pre two k and then with two strikes a
Speaker 1: whole different setup loading pattern, let's just go before two
Speaker 1: strikes and that is your swing. We want you taking
Speaker 1: it before two strikes, with two strikes and then, more
Speaker 1: than anything else, just talking about approach with rock. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's what they're going to try and do to you.
Speaker 1: Here's what they did at the end of the year.
Speaker 1: How do we keep it in a spot where do
Speaker 1: the pitches have to start for you to then maximize
Speaker 1: the spots you do damage on. So more than anything else,
Speaker 1: it's the same plan we talk about with guys. Put
Speaker 1: a plan in place for you to move efficiently, approach
Speaker 1: that maximizes where you do damage and lets you take
Speaker 1: the spots you need to and then let's go train it.
Speaker 1: And it's been awesome even this past week in Charlotte
Speaker 1: for four days and now in Arizona, putting that plan
Speaker 1: into place and you see really good progress already.
Speaker 4: What jumps out of you and seeing him kind of
Speaker 4: put that in place.
Speaker 1: He is all these guys at draft camp, how quickly
Speaker 1: they're able to make adjustments, and to their credit, we've
Speaker 1: kind of thrown them in the deep end here. So
Speaker 1: rather than Okay, we're going to spend draft camp getting
Speaker 1: to know you, we spend a lot of time watching
Speaker 1: a ton of video collecting hawkeye information. So when they
Speaker 1: came here, they got a card and it was here's
Speaker 1: your plan. Here are the drills we want to see.
Speaker 1: Give us feedback as we go through, and we talk
Speaker 1: about leveling up. So they go through their flips, their darts,
Speaker 1: and then it's okay, after fifteen minutes, we're going to
Speaker 1: do something very challenging and let's see where it breaks down.
Speaker 1: And these guys have been awesome, but like all the
Speaker 1: guys here rock you give a quick fix. Okay, here's
Speaker 1: why that happened, here's the adjustments to make, and boom,
Speaker 1: he's able to make those adjustments really quickly. And the
Speaker 1: big league guys, we call it calibrating, like we always
Speaker 1: want to be calibrating in here, constantly calibrating, like the
Speaker 1: game is going to have you make adjustments constantly. So
Speaker 1: that's the thing we got to be able to do.
Speaker 4: There's I feel like a line of like baseball hardcore
Speaker 4: data argument that like all two strike approaches aren't worth it,
Speaker 4: that the diminished amount of impact isn't worth the improved contact.
Speaker 4: I imagine you are less maybe extremist, but you know
Speaker 4: also are probably aware of kind of like that those
Speaker 4: type of uh, you know, what's data studies that have
Speaker 4: been done or stuff like that. Are you more if
Speaker 4: it's case by case, are you more? Maybe it's less
Speaker 4: making physical adjustments that dampen the impact your swing and
Speaker 4: more about approach adjustments that you can kind of do
Speaker 4: to get what you were trying to get out of
Speaker 4: a two strike approach without less than an impact. What's
Speaker 4: what's your overwriting philosophy on you know, two strike approach
Speaker 4: which probably you know has a lot of exceptions because
Speaker 4: you individualize everything exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, each case is going to be different, but you
Speaker 1: alluded to it perfectly. It's not just one thing, right.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of options we have when it comes
Speaker 1: to two strikes. A lot of guys will just go
Speaker 1: to the physical one, where it's takeaway movement, widen out,
Speaker 1: understand the idea there. For the guys who do do that,
Speaker 1: we say, if that is fifty percent of your plate
Speaker 1: appearances with two strikes you need to be training at
Speaker 1: fifty percent of the time too, And usually there's a
Speaker 1: disconnect there where they take their normal pre two k
Speaker 1: swing ninety nine percent of the time in the cage
Speaker 1: and then when it comes game time in the most
Speaker 1: pressure situation with two strikes, when you're back is up
Speaker 1: against the wall anyways, then they're testing it out. So
Speaker 1: we want to make sure if it is a physical adjustment,
Speaker 1: we're stress testing it and training. But more than anything else,
Speaker 1: what we talk about with the guys is before two strikes,
Speaker 1: that's plan A. That is, when we are on the hunt,
Speaker 1: we are looking to get a pitch over the middle
Speaker 1: to hit hard on a line. But when we do
Speaker 1: get to two strikes, and that's going to happen at
Speaker 1: least forty to fifty sixty percent of the time, we
Speaker 1: want to make sure that those adjustments are present. So
Speaker 1: now it could be the thought of let the ball
Speaker 1: travel a little bit deeper. Our ball flight rather than
Speaker 1: high through the gaps is going to be now lower,
Speaker 1: we're able to have more barrel control. So for each guy,
Speaker 1: it's a conversation of is it a physical adjustment is
Speaker 1: a mental adjustment? Approach? And then being able to stress
Speaker 1: testing and training is what we want to do before
Speaker 1: we get out into the game, and it's a two
Speaker 1: strike count where we're trying to do something new.
Speaker 4: So we talked earlier this year about Cale Vannomer and
Speaker 4: about how this year is kind of interesting for him
Speaker 4: because I haven't looked at the numbers recently, but he's
Speaker 4: getting like thrown more sliders in fastballs. He's basically being
Speaker 4: pitched like he's a you know, a middle of the
Speaker 4: order major leaguer in a playoff series almost, And if
Speaker 4: he was a draft prospect, he'd probably be like, oh,
Speaker 4: the contacts really backed up this year after like his
Speaker 4: breakout season. So in that context, how did you kind
Speaker 4: of view Rock's junior year versus sophomore year, Because obviously
Speaker 4: he has the great sophomore season and everyone kind of
Speaker 4: pegs him as a number one overall prospect, and then
Speaker 4: the junior numbers are extremely good, but they don't they're
Speaker 4: not quite as good as the previous year. But he's
Speaker 4: obviously getting pitched like a guy who just was to
Speaker 4: look like the best player in the country year before.
Speaker 4: How did you what were your takeaways from, you know,
Speaker 4: viewing those years side by side, and you know, maybe
Speaker 4: with the view of the player that you came out
Speaker 4: with as a result.
Speaker 1: You said it really well, like still an unbelievable year
Speaker 1: that he put together. And obviously it would be amazing
Speaker 1: if every year year one is better than your two
Speaker 1: when you just keep stacking. But obviously, like there's learning
Speaker 1: that it's going on, and for all these guys, it's
Speaker 1: new pitchers that you're facing, more travel, just a lot
Speaker 1: of new things are thrown at you, and we want
Speaker 1: these guys to be able to make adjustments. But the
Speaker 1: cool part, and especially when you look at like Caleb
Speaker 1: Bonnamer last year at a lower level, he did show
Speaker 1: really great contact skills. He's moving up levels, he's being
Speaker 1: pitched two differently where we see that comes down, but man,
Speaker 1: another skill shines even more with that damage this year
Speaker 1: where he's able to hit balls incredibly hard on a line.
Speaker 1: So we have obviously, James, we've talked about decisions, contact damage.
Speaker 1: Each guy has a different flavor. Most big leaguers have
Speaker 1: two out of three above average skills. So making sure
Speaker 1: that we see with these guys and Rock obviously shows
Speaker 1: like really strong decision making. You see, Okay does have
Speaker 1: the ability of when they throw it in the zone
Speaker 1: over the middle, puts the ball forward and hits it
Speaker 1: really hard on a line. So looking at those years,
Speaker 1: rather than just looking at the raw numbers, being able
Speaker 1: to look at the skills and seeing how they held
Speaker 1: up to And obviously he's going to be one to one.
Speaker 1: Everybody's going to know him as he goes through. He's
Speaker 1: going to be pitched to a little bit differently, kind
Speaker 1: of what Bonhamer is going through now that he's a
Speaker 1: top prospect hitting over twenty home runs right now at
Speaker 1: this point of the year. So again, helping them understand
Speaker 1: it's a two zero count, You're probably not going to
Speaker 1: get a fastball right down the middle. How do we
Speaker 1: prepare for that and still stay in our zone. So,
Speaker 1: more than anything else, that's a fun part of these
Speaker 1: guys learning and helping them make adjustments.
Speaker 4: He obviously faced a lot of like try to bust
Speaker 4: him in his hand, like not let him get his
Speaker 4: arms extended. You know, as a junior year, what kind
Speaker 4: of adjustability do you see in the swing that gives
Speaker 4: you kind of optimism of him to kind of getting
Speaker 4: better at handling that as he progresses.
Speaker 1: Man, everybody talked about, you know the arm bar that's there,
Speaker 1: feel really good about where he is. The really cool
Speaker 1: part that Rock has is a lot of guys who
Speaker 1: do have arm bars that are it's detrimental to them
Speaker 1: because the arm stays stuck back. But what Rock is
Speaker 1: so good He's able to have some lead arm adjustability
Speaker 1: to suck the hands in when the ball is running
Speaker 1: out of space inside. But then he also has length
Speaker 1: to stay through. But more than anything else, you see
Speaker 1: a guy who's at his best turning the bat from
Speaker 1: back of the zone and it stays through the zone
Speaker 1: all the way through. And we've talked about the home
Speaker 1: run he hit at Globe Life too. We had hawkeye
Speaker 1: from that too, and we're able to kind of put
Speaker 1: skeletal overlays of here's a really good swing and he's
Speaker 1: looking at it like, man, that's one of my favorite swings.
Speaker 1: So we already had kind of a swing signature of
Speaker 1: what it looked like when he thought he was at
Speaker 1: his best, which was really cool. And then to show
Speaker 1: him like here are the things that we really value.
Speaker 1: You're able to do this consistently, get into those spots man,
Speaker 1: like the rest takes care of it. So so more
Speaker 1: than anything else, they're going to try the four quadrants,
Speaker 1: the ride fastballs at the top of the zone, death
Speaker 1: breaking balls down, and then two seam running in, sweepers
Speaker 1: running away, and more than anything, making sure that they're
Speaker 1: starting in spots that you can handle and with rock
Speaker 1: they'll go inside a little bit and then try and
Speaker 1: pull you off the plate later. Making sure you have
Speaker 1: a plan going in because we're not going to be
Speaker 1: able to cover everything.
Speaker 6: Howard, my Land was keypoing by an utility vehicle on
Speaker 6: the surgery.
Speaker 4: Now what should I do?
Speaker 2: I'm sorry to hear about that. It's really great that
Speaker 2: you're getting in the medical care and treatment that he
Speaker 2: needs right now. These are three important things that I
Speaker 2: think you need to know. Injuries are unexpected, in turn
Speaker 2: lives upside down. I'm Howard Akin, and I'm here to
Speaker 2: help if you are a loved one. I haven't heard
Speaker 2: at work for a car truck to rite your accident
Speaker 2: called three one two six million, Andrey law made personal
Speaker 2: that's aken law.
Speaker 4: So you referenced Land and Tomy earlier and getting kind
Speaker 4: of objective measurements, you know, the whole rundown. What what
Speaker 4: kind of stood out to you from that process, and
Speaker 4: you know, how is it kind of compared to now
Speaker 4: being up faced with the real thing, you know, both
Speaker 4: in Charlie and Arizona about you know what kind of
Speaker 4: maybe what maturation we've seen since then.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Landon came in young, a year younger than everybody
Speaker 1: that we had last year at the workout. So you
Speaker 1: saw immediately that the guys are getting ready to get drafted.
Speaker 1: He's still got a year ahead. But the hit tool
Speaker 1: man is really there, like the bat path is special.
Speaker 1: The ability to hit breaking balls, to hit fastballs, like
Speaker 1: this is a really advanced hitter. And when you look
Speaker 1: at him and say, this guy puts a lot bit
Speaker 1: more weight on, get stronger, like the normal development for
Speaker 1: a high school player. We already have a really strong
Speaker 1: hit ability. And then you project out what's it going
Speaker 1: to look like a year from now after he's crushing
Speaker 1: it in the weight room, two years from now when
Speaker 1: he's getting more experience under his belt. And what we
Speaker 1: talked about with Landin too, thinking about, Okay, the guys
Speaker 1: that you're at draft camp with, there's three high school guys,
Speaker 1: the rest are college. He's able to hit with them.
Speaker 1: And now think of three years of us training at
Speaker 1: this level, like we are here, three years of you
Speaker 1: crushing the weight realm, Like, it's going to be really
Speaker 1: exciting when you put the innate skills he already has
Speaker 1: with the development physically, he's going to be a really
Speaker 1: special one.
Speaker 4: This is probably only the first, probably of many amateur
Speaker 4: scouting takes I'll throw at you, But like something in
Speaker 4: watching land and video today is like seeing like his
Speaker 4: upper half and lower half he kind of like coils
Speaker 4: in a way that's pretty in sync with each other
Speaker 4: and also pretty compact already. And you know, given you're
Speaker 4: talking about him adding strength, it seems like there's you know,
Speaker 4: pretty good stability there, you know, even without that at
Speaker 4: this point, what kind of about whether it's that or
Speaker 4: you know, something that's actually you know makes sense. What
Speaker 4: about his operation gives you optimism? You know when you
Speaker 4: mentioned like not just the performance of the hitability, but
Speaker 4: kind of like the way it works making it look sustainable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you talk about the lower body in the upper body,
Speaker 1: those are always areas you're looking at and how do
Speaker 1: they work together? Like are there reciprocal movements? We see
Speaker 1: a lot of young guys they might be looking for power,
Speaker 1: and they have a humongous leg kick, but their upper
Speaker 1: bodies very static. And still there's two different parts there.
Speaker 1: There can be easy disconnection with land in it is
Speaker 1: a SYNCD up move, like the lower half complements the
Speaker 1: upper half really well. He gets to a strong base
Speaker 1: position at launch where he's able to be adjustable and
Speaker 1: he's rarely off balance. So like those things right there,
Speaker 1: you look at good decision maker. When they throw it
Speaker 1: over the heart, he's able to put it forward, and
Speaker 1: then as he gets stronger, those are naturally going to
Speaker 1: be those doubles in the gaps and the home runs
Speaker 1: that find a way out. But really really advanced hit
Speaker 1: or the hit ability understanding of Okay, fastball at the top,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to flatten out a little bit. Okay,
Speaker 1: depth breaking ball, I'm gonna have to get under it,
Speaker 1: keep it on a line to the outfield.
Speaker 5: Here.
Speaker 1: So, in terms of how to combat different pitches coming
Speaker 1: at him, has a really great idea of how to
Speaker 1: do that.
Speaker 4: He like what's kind of the difference between maybe what
Speaker 4: his initial intake camp is going to look like versus
Speaker 4: rock you know both obviously the physical component of what
Speaker 4: you want to develop is different. But even when you're
Speaker 4: talking about like prescribing, you know, the drills that you
Speaker 4: want guys to do, is that is that vary a
Speaker 4: lot between the college and you know, high school hitters,
Speaker 4: or is it something kind of as tailored to you know,
Speaker 4: every individual.
Speaker 1: Love Draft Camp in Charlotte, you get them for the force.
Speaker 1: Four days we fly out to Arizona. We continue building.
Speaker 1: The main priority here is creating habits that are going
Speaker 1: to help them once the bridge camp games start or
Speaker 1: they go to an affiliate. So more than anything, these
Speaker 1: guys schedule schedule wise, have the same setup daily. Now
Speaker 1: within that schedule, they have their own cards of here
Speaker 1: are the drills you're working on based off the movement
Speaker 1: solutions we're trying to build upon. So Rock's card is
Speaker 1: going to be different than Landon's is going to be
Speaker 1: different than Brandon Holcomb's. But all these guys are going in.
Speaker 1: It's fifteen minutes of drill work, fifteen minutes of something
Speaker 1: very challenging, and all these guys are going through. But
Speaker 1: the way we're able to individualize with the cards, the
Speaker 1: drill sets, the different bats and balls that these guys
Speaker 1: are using, makes it really cool. Within the half an
Speaker 1: hour they are in the cage before we go to
Speaker 1: the field. They're doing the same type of environments and setups,
Speaker 1: but how they're going about it is totally different. So
Speaker 1: it's really cool to have them all together, whether you're
Speaker 1: a high school guy or college guy, but still having
Speaker 1: it the everyone together, but your work is very individualized.
Speaker 4: Col Proseek you guys obviously valued them very highly based
Speaker 4: off you know, he's a rich young man, but he
Speaker 4: looks like some maybe somewhat some of the land and
Speaker 4: probably more older and filled out, but similar in the
Speaker 4: sense that like it doesn't seem like there's a big
Speaker 4: move to get to you know, the impact that he's
Speaker 4: already showing what kind of stood out about you about
Speaker 4: you know, kind of very exciting, you know, present tools
Speaker 4: for such a young inn, but also kind of the
Speaker 4: room to where there's still some ceiling to unlock.
Speaker 1: Yeah, with Cole, this is one that the scouts were
Speaker 1: really excited about. I was really excited about the swinging
Speaker 1: Sherman Johnson as well, and then Phil Nevin, knowing him
Speaker 1: pretty well, was really excited about Cole. So we were
Speaker 1: watching him the whole time. We really feel like between
Speaker 1: he and Landon. We got two of the best high
Speaker 1: school bats in the draft here and another advanced lefty swing,
Speaker 1: really cool batpath with him, like has the ability to
Speaker 1: get vertical and stay through the zone so long, and
Speaker 1: we're seeing that out here with his ability, especially in
Speaker 1: Arizona to go pull the pole on a line where
Speaker 1: it's not a lazy flyball getting out of the Arizona
Speaker 1: fan air is hard line drives that are going to
Speaker 1: almost go through the wall. So he's been incredibly impressive.
Speaker 1: A really mature kid that wants to be challenged, wants feedback,
Speaker 1: wants to be coached, so he's going to fit in
Speaker 1: really well. But yeah, he is a physical one with
Speaker 1: an advanced bat path and getting those challenging reps, he's
Speaker 1: able to make adjustments quickly.
Speaker 4: He's at least I think the ding on him was
Speaker 4: supposed to be, you know, having a bit more expansion
Speaker 4: than others or at least like showing a little bit
Speaker 4: in some you know, showcase environments. Just what I know,
Speaker 4: we've talked so much about kind of what the you know,
Speaker 4: different swing decision tools you guys have for training, but
Speaker 4: what maybe stands out about where you guys can make
Speaker 4: progress with with Cole, and you know what k you
Speaker 4: can offer him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you hit it well. So contact and damage, we're
Speaker 1: definitely on Cole's side. So when we looked and what
Speaker 1: we've already talked about with him is that his ability
Speaker 1: to touch the baseball sometimes leads to expansion out of
Speaker 1: the zone. His main focus is improving the decision making, Like, man,
Speaker 1: take a pitch on the edge, you're going to force
Speaker 1: them over to the middle more and that's where you
Speaker 1: do your damage. So we have the med ball back
Speaker 1: there to be able to make good decisions. If it's
Speaker 1: not going to hit the med ball, don't swing. If
Speaker 1: it's going to hit the med ball, swing, They're going
Speaker 1: to get reports after every game. So, more than anything else,
Speaker 1: letting him know that, man, your superpower is you can
Speaker 1: make contact all over and hit it really hard on
Speaker 1: a line, but as you go up levels, that's going
Speaker 1: to become harder and harder to do on pitches that
Speaker 1: are on the black to off the plate. So making
Speaker 1: sure that we stay within the strike zone. But more
Speaker 1: than anything else, helping him understand of you already got
Speaker 1: really good skills, We're going to build on top of
Speaker 1: that with really good decision making.
Speaker 4: Something that you know, Mike Shirley said, you know, it's
Speaker 4: kind of a different department as far as like, you know,
Speaker 4: defensive position and all that, but saying that, like they
Speaker 4: felt that Bat was mature enough that you know, if
Speaker 4: they wanted a defensive assignment that would match that, you know,
Speaker 4: in terms of like catching the longer path. So from
Speaker 4: your perspective, just like how advanced, Like do you see
Speaker 4: this as like a more you know, quick rising profile
Speaker 4: than like maybe the typical, you know, nineteen year old
Speaker 4: guy coming out of high school.
Speaker 1: You see it with the Bat, He's very advanced already.
Speaker 1: The fun part about this is we're going to be
Speaker 1: able to see and what we talk about with the
Speaker 1: guys is like video games, like we've talked about before, James, like,
Speaker 1: each level is a challenge. You want to go to
Speaker 1: that level and meet the challenge and show that I'm
Speaker 1: ready for that next level. So all these guys know,
Speaker 1: it's not hey, get out of Arizona, go to Cannapolis.
Speaker 1: It's get to Kannapolis, beat that level, and on and
Speaker 1: on we go until we get to Chicago. Helping the team.
Speaker 1: But given where he's starting is really exciting for a
Speaker 1: high school guy, and we've thrown a lot at him
Speaker 1: and challenge the heck out of him so far, and
Speaker 1: he's responded really well. So looking forward to seeing him
Speaker 1: meet those challenges.
Speaker 4: I wanted to ask you about Wine Gardner because I
Speaker 4: saw him at Super sixty in January, and you know,
Speaker 4: Combine is a very tantalizing place to see this guy.
Speaker 4: He kind of just does everything physically well that they
Speaker 4: test out further there. But obviously him being a two
Speaker 4: way player, it's probably a little less polished on the
Speaker 4: on the hitting side, and you know, you can see
Speaker 4: the potential for big time impact, but you know, watching
Speaker 4: video like the Hit Tool, seems like maybe there's still
Speaker 4: room to take advantage of you know how much athleticism
Speaker 4: he really has in the box, more than he's even
Speaker 4: got to But what what what kind of excites you
Speaker 4: about this project? What made you like a big advocate
Speaker 4: for you know, someone who's you know, obviously come out
Speaker 4: of high school. There's there's a bigger link there. But
Speaker 4: maybe you know isn't as you know, polish as a
Speaker 4: hitter as the other two guys are talking about.
Speaker 1: Man, we are so excited to have Alex Wine Gardner.
Speaker 1: A huge credit to Matt Grabowski and the acquisition team.
Speaker 1: Really high on him. The decisions to contact the damage
Speaker 1: really in a strong spot, especially for a guy from
Speaker 1: the Northeast like man, we get some really good reps
Speaker 1: on him. This guy is going to be a stud.
Speaker 1: You talked about the athleticism he flies. The plays he's
Speaker 1: making in center field, even just in practice is so impressive.
Speaker 1: And if you were to bring him in have no
Speaker 1: idea who he was, you would think this guy went
Speaker 1: through three years of college. I mean just how physical
Speaker 1: he is already, So like all high school guys, going
Speaker 1: to have to make adjustments, but from the skill set
Speaker 1: that we're starting from, the athleticism, the ability to make
Speaker 1: quake adjustments this guy to get him where we did
Speaker 1: in the draft just so exciting. So yeah, huge credit
Speaker 1: to Schryl's forgetting that done where it did, because this guy,
Speaker 1: you look at him and it could easily be an
Speaker 1: early round pick.
Speaker 4: Is you know things like how much especially at like
Speaker 4: this stage, do you feel like there's still especially with
Speaker 4: the athleticism president is there adjustability and like figuring out
Speaker 4: what his move is going to be? Is it some
Speaker 4: how much like is there you know, this is how
Speaker 4: he swings. It's intrinsity to it versus like, hey, if
Speaker 4: we feel like this load is a little late, we
Speaker 4: have a lot of room or we have a lot
Speaker 4: of physical ability to to adjust it, like is it
Speaker 4: is it easier to move the clay around at this stage.
Speaker 6: Of the development.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And that is the fun part of draft camp
Speaker 1: is that we have educational time each day, so we're
Speaker 1: giving presentations and at this point, now a year and
Speaker 1: a half into the program being in place, we have
Speaker 1: plenty of guys to point to, not in the minor leagues,
Speaker 1: but in the big leagues of Miguel Vargas made this change.
Speaker 1: Here are the things that Colson had to work on
Speaker 1: to find a new level of performance. So, whether you're
Speaker 1: nineteen or you're twenty four twenty five in the big leagues,
Speaker 1: or you're Randall Gritchick working with Derek Showman and Joel
Speaker 1: McKeith and making small approach changes, everyone in the organization
Speaker 1: is working on something. So if you're coming in thinking, hey,
Speaker 1: I got it all figured out, it's going to be
Speaker 1: a wake up call. But the credit to the Scouts
Speaker 1: of looking for guys who are going to fit in
Speaker 1: really well, who want to be challenged, who want to
Speaker 1: be coach. These guys have been awesome, but for Alex
Speaker 1: Weiningardner all the way to the big leagues. We preach
Speaker 1: being adjustable, being coachable, taking feedback from the game, and
Speaker 1: like all these guys are going to make adjustments at
Speaker 1: some point, and really bullish on what he's going to
Speaker 1: be able to do given where he's starting, and then
Speaker 1: what we're going to be able to build together.
Speaker 4: So you came out here saying that you had anecdotes
Speaker 4: from camp. What's what stood out who you're what's what's
Speaker 4: been either big moments they're kind of like, oh right,
Speaker 4: this is this is as exciting as we thought it was,
Speaker 4: or what's been kind of interesting to see so far
Speaker 4: or implement in the few days you had.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all these guys are going through the fun part
Speaker 1: that we do at the end of every round. So
Speaker 1: they'll take four rounds. The last round off something challenging,
Speaker 1: two machines side by side, a fastball slider we're alternating
Speaker 1: through or make saying these guys play an RBI game,
Speaker 1: so it's bases loaded, one out, how many RBIs can
Speaker 1: you score? We got Phil Nevin as our referee in
Speaker 1: the back awarding points. But the caveat is if you
Speaker 1: hit it up into the turtle where it would be
Speaker 1: pop out, you go back to zero. Or if you
Speaker 1: hit a ground ball that would be a double play,
Speaker 1: you go back to zero. So every day has been
Speaker 1: a different winner, but man, the guys when it's time
Speaker 1: to compete, you see a different level of these guys
Speaker 1: going to and it was the same thing last year
Speaker 1: with Billy Carlson. He won just about every day in there.
Speaker 1: But it's been so fun, and you see the guys
Speaker 1: start drawing at each other a little bit, but you'll
Speaker 1: see Rocks turn it on a little bit more when
Speaker 1: that competition goes on where he needs to get that point,
Speaker 1: he locks in gets it done. But all these guys
Speaker 1: have been really impressive, and especially the college guys. We
Speaker 1: have some really physical bats here, Claybor, Debt, Brandon Holcombe,
Speaker 1: fifth Water, some really really polished bats that are able
Speaker 1: to just kind of like muscle it around a little bit,
Speaker 1: which has been really fun to watch as well.
Speaker 4: You mentioned kind of having these examples to point too,
Speaker 4: was Bargas or you know, Colson, do you even with
Speaker 4: some of the college. You know guys who have hit
Speaker 4: for power, but maybe you know the the contact pieces
Speaker 4: what needs to grow here, Like do you point to
Speaker 4: or can you point some guys like Kolbe, Shelton or
Speaker 4: Topino a little bit like are the relevant kind of
Speaker 4: translations there that you you know, have have made connections with,
Speaker 4: you know and work with these guys the first couple
Speaker 4: of days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the cool part on their cards, we show them
Speaker 1: their grades that we had, So here's the grade we
Speaker 1: had for decisions for contact for damage and they could see, oh, man,
Speaker 1: I didn't realize the damage was going to be that high,
Speaker 1: or my decisions were that good, or contact was a
Speaker 1: little bit lower than I thought. And it leads to
Speaker 1: the conversations of Okay, that is why we're doing what
Speaker 1: we're doing in the cage, to make sure that we
Speaker 1: keep your strengths, your strengths, but then we're able to
Speaker 1: add on to whether it be just decisions, contact or
Speaker 1: damage what you need to So it's been really fun
Speaker 1: to see the guys lean into that and understand, here
Speaker 1: are the skills I need and then to be able
Speaker 1: to point to the guys. Last year, it was a
Speaker 1: year ago that Anthony DiPino was here getting into pro ball,
Speaker 1: and you fast forward a year and he is doing
Speaker 1: exceptionally well in DOUBLEA. So we want the guys to
Speaker 1: look up to the guys that came before them and
Speaker 1: then share the stories of Anthony Depino here man how
Speaker 1: much he leaned into I want to use the skinny
Speaker 1: bat on all of our phone ball challenging drills because
Speaker 1: I want to make sure my contact stays high. The
Speaker 1: more we can share that and give them, Hey, that guy,
Speaker 1: he's fighting to get to the big leagues in Chicago too.
Speaker 1: That's a really limited number. We got thirteen guys up there.
Speaker 1: Everybody's fighting for him as we make our way. We
Speaker 1: want that to really get the guys excited about it,
Speaker 1: but also understand that it's hard to get up there,
Speaker 1: and whatever we have available to us resource wise, we
Speaker 1: want to utilize.
Speaker 4: And this was awesome. As always, I really appreciate you
Speaker 4: coming on that. Unless you want to tell us where
Speaker 4: like Rock is playing affiliate wives or anything like that,
Speaker 4: that's all we had for today, but I really appreciate
Speaker 4: you coming on.
Speaker 1: He'll be playing in an affiliate can't wait to see.
Speaker 4: Thank you Ryan for that confirmation.
Speaker 6: Appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Thanks James,