Latest / Foul Territory / Joe Girardi talks 2025 Yankees, 2017 Astros, Judge’s rise + new Houston pitcher Nate Pearson joins CCT

Transcript

Joe Girardi talks 2025 Yankees, 2017 Astros, Judge’s rise + new Houston pitcher Nate Pearson joins CCT · Foul Territory

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about some other stuff other than Game seven,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: because Game seven obviously is dominating everyone's mind.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: But there's managerial openings. Are you are you on the list?
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: Are you are you doing some interviews? Are you flying
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: around getting some interviews out there?
• 0:16
  Speaker 3: Joe, No, Aja, I have been home or traveling to
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: Oklahoma to see my daughter. She's at Oklahoma State playing basketball.
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: So I've been there or here. I have not done
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: any interviews. You know, there's also a lot of college
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: football openings too.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Let's do one of those together.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Hey, let's let's you and I do what we could
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: be co head coaches and we both get the buyouts, right.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's amazing to me for the likely I
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: don't understand why other coaches can leave in the middle
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: of their contract and go coach someone else. I hate
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: college football's got to figure that out and say, hey,
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: if you sign a five year deal here, you're here
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: for five years. That's the bottom line. You can't leave
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: if a job opens. And you know, it's great for
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: the coaches, but it puts these universities in a bad situation.
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: But there are a lot of job openings. Aj I
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: have not done anything.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: No, got it. Okay, so you almost were me. What
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: have I done? No one, Joe. You know everyone hates me.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: Nobody gonna call me and hire me. You no better, Joe.
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: Come on, we know how it goes.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: You know how that goes, Joe. But here's my question.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: You were close to being the UCF University of Central Florida.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: You were all in the job right well now.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: In San Francisco, Tony Vaytello is allegedly supposed to be
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to get the job, how hard would it be?
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, I can I think it'd be easier.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Maybe going from big leagues to the colleges, maybe it's
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: harder because the difference in everything you get. But going
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: from college to the big leagues, do you run a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: risk of trying to run it? Because if you ever
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: watched Tennessee play, I mean, they talk a lot of
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: trash and they do a lot of stuff that I don't.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, I guess it's a little bit different in
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: today's game, but it's gonna piss some people off at
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: some point.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Well, the game is different in college than it is
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: in the pro. And that's an adjustment. If he takes
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: a job he's going to have to make and I
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: don't really know how he ran his program at Tennessee,
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: but like I've seen in college, the number three hitters
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: lay down sack bonds, and I'm like, he's your number
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: three hitter, isn't He's supposed to be hitting and swinging
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: the back. So that will change. And obviously treating a
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: college kid is different than treating a professional player. I
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: believe AJ he'll have to make that adjustment. But again,
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: the game is the game, right, I mean, you still
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: have to hit it, you have to catch it, you
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: have to pitch it. I mean, you have to throw it.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: There's a lot of things, and he's done a really
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: good job at Tennessee, so I think he'll adjust. But
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: there are adjustments that you have to make now. Going
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: the other way, the adjustments I think are in the recruiting.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: I mean, we don't really do that as big league managers.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: You might to a free agent the different time, you know,
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: where you can't practice as much as you want. It's
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: just totally different, and I think it would be an
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: adjustment that way as well.
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: What's better winning a World Series as a manager as
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: a player, because no managers spend more time at the field,
• 3:04
  Speaker 5: but players are the ones that are out there on
• 3:06
  Speaker 5: the field.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's I mean, they're so there's both of them
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: are so enjoyable. I mean it's I never dreamed of
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: winning a World Series as a coach or a manager.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: I didn't think myself of ever getting you know, beyond
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: like forty years old. You know when I'm when you're
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: a kid. So i'd have to say as a player,
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: it's it's more enjoyable. As a manager, it's more enjoyable
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: for everybody else. And that brings a lot of like
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: pleasure to you. Watching the players celebrate. That brought a
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: lot of joy to my life.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: It should bring a lot of joy to your life.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: But now let's let's go back to since you were twenty,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: you were twenty seventh. You were the twenty seventh right,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: you won the twenty seventh World Series for the right.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: They haven't got to twenty eight yet. Maybe it's because
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: you didn't you change your jersey number because you were twenty.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: Seven, and then yeah, you're you know what, it's now
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: the curse of Joe Girardi. It used to be the
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: curse of Babor. Now it's a curse to Joe. So
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: you need to go back to twenty seven on your
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: Baseball Reference page.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: But did you I mean, obviously, I know you watch
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: the Yankees, and I know you do some broadcasts, and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: obviously if we work together, and you're great at what
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: you do, and I loved working with you because you
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: were so prepared and.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: Just awesome at it.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: But when you watch the Yankees, now, what do you
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: see and what do you think is going to happen
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: down the road? Because it's a team kind of stuck
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: in the I get the analytics and all that, but they're.
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: Really home runner bus. There's nothing else going on there.
• 4:31
  Speaker 6: You know, I would argue a little bit against that
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: AJ because they ran a lot. They pushed the envelope
• 4:38
  Speaker 6: a lot on the basis more than the Yankee teams
• 4:40
  Speaker 6: that I have seen in the past. Yes, they rely
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: on the home run, and so do a lot of
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: other teams, you know, I you know, I think LA
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: to a certain extent, does I think you know the
• 4:50
  Speaker 6: Phillies did to a certain extent. I just think the
• 4:54
  Speaker 6: playoffs today are harder to win than any time before
• 4:57
  Speaker 6: in our lifetime because of all the rounds that you
• 4:59
  Speaker 6: have to go through. And I think there's a decent
• 5:04
  Speaker 6: competitive balance now and for the Yankees, they're not the
• 5:10
  Speaker 6: highest payroll like they used to be, so they're fighting
• 5:13
  Speaker 6: against some other teams that are throwing a lot of
• 5:15
  Speaker 6: money at people, and it makes them that much more competitive.
• 5:18
  Speaker 6: So you know they've fallen short for whatever reason. You know,
• 5:24
  Speaker 6: Toronto has hit the ball extremely well during the course
• 5:27
  Speaker 6: of the year and during the playoffs. Toronto was successful
• 5:31
  Speaker 6: against them during the year. I think it was a
• 5:33
  Speaker 6: bad matchup for them, and I think Toronto's a bad
• 5:36
  Speaker 6: matchup for a lot of people. Even though I thought
• 5:38
  Speaker 6: Seattle would get them, I've changed my mind. I think
• 5:40
  Speaker 6: Toronto's going to win tonight. And I could be wrong.
• 5:43
  Speaker 6: I've been wrong a lot, but I just think.
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: It's a bad matchup and I think it's they're young
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: in a lot of situations, and I think some of
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: those young kids need to continue to develop. I don't
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: think they're that far off. Aj. I mean, I look
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: at their year and people are upset. But you tell
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: me you're gonna lose Eric Cole, You're gonna lose Clark Schmidt,
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: You're not gonna have Louise Hill back until about August,
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: and your bullpen Luke Weaver's gonna go down for a
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: couple of weeks. You don't have Stanton for the first
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: three months. What would you have thought they would have done?
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: And they found a way to get to the playoffs
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: and they lost to Toronto, who might be going to
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: the World Series. It's it's not the year as the
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: Yankee that you consider a success. But I think they
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: overcame a lot.
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: Do you feel like the comments by a Rod and
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: Jeter were more cherry picking in the moment of ah,
• 6:38
  Speaker 5: you know, they didn't win and it was time to,
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: you know, say these things. And do you feel like
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: it's fair when guys that are not technically in the
• 6:47
  Speaker 5: organization currently make comments like that about Aaron Boone or
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: even the Yankees organization.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: I've always felt eric, unless you're in the clubhouse, you
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: really don't know what goes on from day to day.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: You don't And people would always ask me, like, do
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: you listen talk radio? I'm like, no, why not? Because
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: I know what's going on inside of my clubhouse because
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: I'm every day. I know why I made decisions because
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: of I was in there every day, and a lot
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: of decisions are made on factors that the outside does
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: not know about, and sometimes you just have to bite
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: the bullet as the manager of the GM a player
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: just because of those things that people don't know about
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: and you want to kind of keep them under wraps.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: And I think it can be unfair to comment on
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: what goes on in an organization if you're not there
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: every day. Now, if you have inside or information, that's
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: a different story. But I'm not so sure that they did.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: And you know, it's the one thing that I try
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: to do as a broadcaster is never forget how hard
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: it is to play the game, how hard it was
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: for me, how hard it was to manage from the
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: day to day. It's difficult. And the game moves really fast.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: And I know a lot of people think our game
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: moves slow, but you guys can attest to it when
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: you're playing it. It moves fast. The decisions that we
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: have to make it moves fast. That the determination if
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: you're going to swing or if you're going to come
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: in on a ground ball that's in one hundred and
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: fifteen miles an hour, you're gonna take a step back.
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: All these things happened really fast, and it looks easy
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: on TV, but our game is very hard. So I
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: tend not to be very judgmental.
• 8:22
  Speaker 5: All right, Well, what about the what about the lineups
• 8:25
  Speaker 5: and the involvement in front offices and lineups when you
• 8:28
  Speaker 5: first started managing to when you were done, How did
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: that change and how much should they be involved?
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: I had the lineup every day where I was at
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: every day, whether it was Miami, New York or Philly.
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: Now there were times I would go to the front
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: office and ask you got any lineup ideas because maybe
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: we were struggling scoring runs and maybe there was something
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: that they could print out that might work. But I
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: was never told what the lineup was going to be.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: I made the lineup every day. I would ask my coaches.
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: We would sit down and we would talk about would
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: thinking about it the night before when I was in bed,
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: you know, trying to fall asleep. So and one of
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: the things that I realized was what I was trying
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: to put together the Phillies lineup the first year that
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: we had Swarbur with Harper. I said, give me three
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: different scenarios where I split them up. I don't split
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: them up, you know where I have two writings in
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: between them, and give me some different lineups. So I
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: can look at him to see which one I think
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: is you know best. So I got like three different
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: lineups and the amount of runs scored difference during the
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: course of the year was like a total of one
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: to one and a half, not per game per year.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: So I said, so you're telling me I'm racking my
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: brains over this for one run. I mean, this is crazy,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: and I think that you know, we talk about moving
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: players all the time, and this guy's scuffling, so let's
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: move him down. And there were times I would say, Okay,
• 9:56
  Speaker 3: who do you want me to move up there? And
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: no one would have an answer. I said, well, that's
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: why I'm not moving him. I don't really have an
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: answer to put there. If I did, I might think
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: about it. But ineviably, when you shake up your lineup
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: and you move your lineup around and the guy's struggling,
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: you drop to seven. Guess what the first inning comes
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: up with the bases loaded, two outs in the first inning.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: You're like, man, I was trying to get him some
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: easier situations, maybe to get it, and look, he's in
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: this situation again. So I think we make too much
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: of the lineups. I think you want to get your
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: best pairs up the most and then you go from
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: there and you try to make it harder for the
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: manager to navigate his bullpen through your life.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Makes sense? It makes sense, Joe.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Do you still eat like two eggs every Do you
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: still eat like two the same breakfast every morning?
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: Five eggs, ive egg whites with a little ham and
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: dry wheat toes? Absolutely? Ag I make a sandwich every day.
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: The dogs get a little bit of ham, they get
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: a little bit of toast with me and I go
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: to work.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Okay, So I just asked that because you're very steeped
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: in like I don't want to say you know, You're
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: just you just have.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: A routine, right, You're very heaped in a routine. You
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: don't seem to let things go very easily.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: And the reason I ask is because twenty seventeen you
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: were you were the Yankees. That was the Astros year
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: with the trash can and all that. Have you let
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: that go yet? Because the fans have it.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Bragman gets booedw too vegats, looted, Carrier gets.
• 11:17
  Speaker 7: I mean, they're super in this series in Seattle.
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: They boo them more than anyone else. What I'm saying,
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: So I was on a text chain the other day
• 11:25
  Speaker 3: and someone on the text chain wrote something about that
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: twenty and seventeen, and the person didn't realize I was
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: on the text chain, and I said, hey, man, you
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: gotta let that go. I've let that go. That's in
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: the past. Let it go. It is what it is.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: And yeah, you gotta let it go. I mean that
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: that's a long time ago, you know. Aj I could
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: say every team is always looking for every advantage. You
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: just when you find the advantages, you have to do
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: it the right way.
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: Well, that's one way to put it.
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's definitely.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: I mean you're seeing teams given you know, the bird flapping,
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: you know, and.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: Judge judges out there going like this, judges out there
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: going like this something.
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: And then I wonder, like, are they just trying to
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: mess with the pitcher's head? Like so, I mean, I think.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: I mean, I can remember catching. We used to worry
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: about the first and third base coaches, right, and we'd
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: have to protect our signs and protect how late we
• 12:21
  Speaker 3: moved and all that. You had to you know, you
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: had to change your signs with runners on second. That's
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: just the game. I mean, it's in every game. You
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: always look for tendencies that people do to tell you
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: maybe you can predict what the play is in basketball, football, everything.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, it's what we do. We're looking for every advantage.
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: You just you can't. You got to do it the
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: right way. And unfortunately it wasn't done. People paid for
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: their you know, sins. If you want to call it
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: and you move on, it's it.
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: That's over with.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: It's totally over And I think MLB dropped the ball
• 12:53
  Speaker 5: because you guys as a team actually told them in
• 12:56
  Speaker 5: July that something crazy was going on, but MLB never listens.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: You don't need to comment on that.
• 13:00
  Speaker 4: That was my comment.
• 13:02
  Speaker 5: But in that season in seventeen, there was a there
• 13:05
  Speaker 5: was a rookie on your team, Rookie of the Year,
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: Aaron Judge. I want to ask you if you saw
• 13:12
  Speaker 5: his swing as being something that he could turn into
• 13:15
  Speaker 5: what he did this year in twenty twenty five. And
• 13:18
  Speaker 5: I also want you to comment on leading into is
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: he the MVP or is one of your catcher fellow
• 13:25
  Speaker 5: Brotherren the MVP.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, in twenty and seventeen, obviously he had the big year,
• 13:31
  Speaker 3: and I don't think any of us ever would have
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: predicted he was going to hit fifty sixty home runs.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: I don't think you predict that about anybody. I mean,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: I think that's you're asking for someone to fail when
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: you do that. But the one thing that I could
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: say was he truly believed in himself and was physically
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: gifted like most players aren't. I mean, how many players
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: do we see this side six seven, two hundred and
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: seventy five pounds. So his swing necessarily wasn't going to
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: be what Ronald Terres's swing was at five to six
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: and one hundred and forty pounds. It was going to
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: be different, and he made it work, and he believed
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: in himself. Even after his twenty seventeen season, some of
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: the people believed that it wasn't going to work, but
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: he said, yes, it is. And I think it's his
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: work ethic that allows him to do it. And as
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: far as being the MVP, cal Rowley has had one
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: of the greatest years of any player in the history
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: of the game as a catcher. But I still think
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: when you look at the numbers and today it seems
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: that's exactly what we analyze the war. The ops, the
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: ops plus Aaron Judge should win the MVP. And I
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: think it's going to come down to and I want
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: to take nothing away from Cal because the kid played
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: every day. What an incredible season. I don't know if
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: you'll ever see him repeat that or any catcher have
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: that type of season in the game of baseball. And
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: it's unfortunate there can't be two MVPs. But I still
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: think with how we base it, Aaron Judge should be
• 15:04
  Speaker 3: the favorite.
• 15:06
  Speaker 8: Hello.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: Oh hell hell, yes, Joe. Yes, he did say Judge
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: would be the MVP. Oh you want him to keep
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: doing jobs on Yes Network?
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Oh sure, Yes, he says thank you, because otherwise he's
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: completely off base and way wrong.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: Because Cal Rawly is the MVP. There's no other reason
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: why a fellow catcher.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: Would say that. Thanks Al, We'll call player bye. Yes,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Oh sorry, sorry, I'll called me because he wanted to
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: let you know that you still need a job at
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: Yes Nework.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: So yeah, all right.
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: So before we let you go, I want to know
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: when you go to Stillwater, do you get a discount
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: at Eskimo Joe's on the cups and the drinks there
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: when you go see your daughter to play basketball when
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: you walk in.
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: Since your name is Joe, do they give you a
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: discount at Eskimo.
• 15:46
  Speaker 3: Joe, no discounts. They don't need discounts. It's a it's
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: a fan favorite there. They don't need discounts, So that's okay.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: But obviously it's it's been a fun run for my daughter.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: She's a freshman. We're excited with he's the starting officially
• 16:01
  Speaker 3: November third, and we can't wait.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: Good Luck.
• 16:04
  Speaker 7: Yeah, we're excited to watch Joe.
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna have to tune into girls basketball.
• 16:08
  Speaker 7: We're gonna watch. Yeah, we will definitely check it out.
• 16:10
  Speaker 7: That's gonna be fun. Well, good luck. You're gonna be
• 16:12
  Speaker 7: at most games or as many as you can, right, Yes.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: And you could tell with my height that the basketball
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: skills did not come for me.
• 16:21
  Speaker 7: Athleticism though.
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: Cats are the best athletes, come on, brains all that.
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: No, she got her athleticism from her mother, because Joe,
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: in twenty twenty two or yeah, twenty twenty two, when
• 16:35
  Speaker 5: you were the manager of the Phillies, we would sit
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: in the manager meeting before the game and you would
• 16:39
  Speaker 5: show me videos and I told the guys beforehand, I said,
• 16:43
  Speaker 5: that's the best high school female basketball player I've ever seen.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: And you were just constant video.
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: You're like, one more, one more. This is her crossing
• 16:50
  Speaker 5: over a guy that's on the varsity high school team,
• 16:54
  Speaker 5: and so she was young at that point.
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Really, she really loves the game and it's been
• 16:59
  Speaker 3: fun for us to watch her. And she's got that
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: work ethic that any parents would be proud of them.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: That's what we'd love also.
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: But also Chrotch.
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: You have to remember he started a school called Grandview Prep,
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: which I've never even heard of. I've lived in Florida
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: my whole life, and it was the same people that
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: arch Manning played against in high school that were all
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: like this much shorter than him.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: And they all wait on it. So she's out there
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: breaking these dudes down. He's on the varsity team. He's
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: also fight for two who.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: Were gonna Hey a J I do know that you
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: know Florida, you've heard of d M E. Right, Yeah,
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: they beat Okay, so they played some really good competitions.
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: It's just when they got to their division, the competition
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: wasn't as great.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair. I'll give you credit for that one.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: And by the way, Alan Counckle says I too.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: By the way, do counk I said, hello, I.
• 17:48
  Speaker 7: Will Joey got to jump. This was awesome though, thanks
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: for stopping by. Great to see it was long overdue.
• 17:54
  Speaker 7: Hope you enjoyed it.
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: Have a great night. Hein Snatcher's don't second guess the catcher.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: That's right, see you job.
• 18:06
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• 18:09
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• 19:08
  Speaker 8: Is what's up? Everybody? Welcome into another edition of Crush
• 19:12
  Speaker 8: City territory. I'm chandeler Rome, joined by Tyler Stafford and
• 19:16
  Speaker 8: the first major league free agent to sign this winter
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: Nate Pierson. Nate, you didn't waste any time here, man?
• 19:23
  Speaker 9: How are you?
• 19:23
  Speaker 8: And what was this kind of a weird free agency process,
• 19:28
  Speaker 8: like signing during the playoffs before really free agency even begins.
• 19:33
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I guess I didn't have to wait till the
• 19:35
  Speaker 10: World Series over since I ended up getting defaed by
• 19:39
  Speaker 10: the Cubs and like the last week, so it kind
• 19:42
  Speaker 10: of just kickstarted everything a lot sooner, which is I'm
• 19:46
  Speaker 10: kind of thankful that I already have my next opportunity
• 19:49
  Speaker 10: and lucky for it to be the Astros.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: Can't wait.
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: I mean, for those that don't know, Nate Pearson, you know,
• 19:57
  Speaker 8: signed a one year, one point three five million dollars
• 20:00
  Speaker 8: deal with the Astros. Last week it became official. I
• 20:03
  Speaker 8: believe on Tuesday. You took your physical in Houston on Monday,
• 20:06
  Speaker 8: now officially an Astra. I wonder how much did how
• 20:09
  Speaker 8: much do you get involved in like teams that were
• 20:12
  Speaker 8: after you, teams that wanted you? Do you leave that
• 20:14
  Speaker 8: all to your agent? And kind of what made the
• 20:16
  Speaker 8: Astros the the place that you wanted to to spend
• 20:20
  Speaker 8: this season.
• 20:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah. No, definitely.
• 20:22
  Speaker 10: My my agent definitely Spearheads and he kind of like
• 20:25
  Speaker 10: fills me in on like what team teams are saying
• 20:29
  Speaker 10: and like what their ballpark, their offering and everything. But uh,
• 20:33
  Speaker 10: what made me choose Houston is there. You know, they're
• 20:35
  Speaker 10: giving me the opportunity to start again, and I thought
• 20:37
  Speaker 10: that was very interesting.
• 20:38
  Speaker 4: I've always wanted to get another opportunity because I.
• 20:41
  Speaker 10: Feel like with the Jays I kind of battled through
• 20:44
  Speaker 10: some injuries and it kind of just they went out
• 20:46
  Speaker 10: and signed guys and filled the rotation and it kind
• 20:49
  Speaker 10: of just you know, had to be in the bullpen.
• 20:51
  Speaker 10: So I was looking for that another opportunity to start,
• 20:54
  Speaker 10: and I think the Astros were going to be a
• 20:57
  Speaker 10: perfect fit.
• 20:58
  Speaker 9: So is that something that you put out there that like, hey,
• 21:02
  Speaker 9: I'm interested in starting. Did the Astros come to you
• 21:05
  Speaker 9: and and make that, uh an offer?
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: Or yeah? How does that work? Yeah?
• 21:09
  Speaker 10: So the Astros came to me and offered it, and
• 21:12
  Speaker 10: I had a couple of the offers, but they were
• 21:13
  Speaker 10: just relievers, and uh, just for relief and the ass
• 21:19
  Speaker 10: they offered first, and it was kind of just like,
• 21:22
  Speaker 10: they want to give you the opportunity to start, and
• 21:24
  Speaker 10: they still see me as a starter, and so I
• 21:28
  Speaker 10: kind of just ran with it, and I was like,
• 21:29
  Speaker 10: this is this is a team that that sees the
• 21:31
  Speaker 10: opportunity and the potential.
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: So kind of made it pretty easy.
• 21:37
  Speaker 8: You obviously, I mean, you get you get drafted out
• 21:40
  Speaker 8: of Juco, your first couple of years in the minor leagues,
• 21:42
  Speaker 8: you do function like a traditional starter. And then kind
• 21:46
  Speaker 8: of you mentioned there were some injuries, you dealt with
• 21:48
  Speaker 8: some injuries. The Blue Jays were obviously at a point
• 21:51
  Speaker 8: then where they were kind of in win now. They
• 21:53
  Speaker 8: had good teams, they were they were trying to win
• 21:56
  Speaker 8: in the present. Kind of what happened with going from
• 22:01
  Speaker 8: starting to relieving? Was it just the injuries? Was it
• 22:04
  Speaker 8: Toronto's plan? And kind of what do you relish the
• 22:07
  Speaker 8: most now about getting that chance to start again?
• 22:11
  Speaker 10: Yeah, no, I think it was just because I debuted
• 22:13
  Speaker 10: during COVID and it was like super weird, you know,
• 22:16
  Speaker 10: just not having any fans in the stadium and only
• 22:19
  Speaker 10: playing sixty games, and I made like I made like
• 22:23
  Speaker 10: five starts or yeah, four starts, and then had a
• 22:27
  Speaker 10: little bit of an elbow issue, had to miss like
• 22:29
  Speaker 10: a week and two weeks. But it was only six
• 22:31
  Speaker 10: game seasons, so I didn't have enough time to build
• 22:34
  Speaker 10: back up. And then so I just they just stuck
• 22:37
  Speaker 10: me in the pen. Towards the end of the year,
• 22:38
  Speaker 10: we ended up going to the wild Card. I pitched
• 22:40
  Speaker 10: out of the bullpen and threw really well, and I
• 22:42
  Speaker 10: think it kind of opened their eyes like, Okay, this
• 22:43
  Speaker 10: guy might just be a reliever. And then coming into
• 22:46
  Speaker 10: the next spring train, the plan was to be built
• 22:49
  Speaker 10: up as a starter, and I just started getting a
• 22:52
  Speaker 10: bunch of different random injuries and I kind of just
• 22:55
  Speaker 10: missed out on that development. And I kind of just
• 22:57
  Speaker 10: got to the point where they had to move on
• 22:59
  Speaker 10: and signed and Kevin Gosman, you say, Kakuci and all
• 23:03
  Speaker 10: those like big time guys, and he kind of just
• 23:06
  Speaker 10: kind of left me into the being out of the bullpen,
• 23:09
  Speaker 10: which you know, I still thankful for the opportunity and
• 23:11
  Speaker 10: still keep close tabs with those guys there that are
• 23:14
  Speaker 10: still there and being able to see what they're doing
• 23:16
  Speaker 10: this year is pretty amazing.
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: Definitely root for him.
• 23:20
  Speaker 8: Since you mentioned Kokuchi, I wonder how much of how
• 23:24
  Speaker 8: much do you or did you know about the Astros
• 23:27
  Speaker 8: kind of pitching infrastructure and the way they developed pitchers,
• 23:31
  Speaker 8: because Kokuchi is a very good example of a guy
• 23:34
  Speaker 8: that was struggling in Toronto, came over at the deadline
• 23:37
  Speaker 8: a couple of years ago, and they turned him into
• 23:40
  Speaker 8: a very one of the best starters in baseball down
• 23:42
  Speaker 8: the stretch. They've done that with a lot of different pitchers.
• 23:46
  Speaker 8: How much were you aware of that and how much
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: of that maybe impact you, know, you choosing to come
• 23:50
  Speaker 8: to Houston.
• 23:51
  Speaker 10: I definitely remember like when he when he got traded,
• 23:54
  Speaker 10: because I got traded around the same time, and I
• 23:57
  Speaker 10: remember watching his whole year that year and then him
• 24:01
  Speaker 10: going to the Astros and then kind of just turning
• 24:03
  Speaker 10: it around and then, you know, put himself in a
• 24:05
  Speaker 10: grape position be a free agent, sign a nice deal.
• 24:09
  Speaker 10: But that was like one of the things I talked
• 24:11
  Speaker 10: about with Dane Brown, just like how they were able
• 24:14
  Speaker 10: to what they're able to do with Kakuchi, and like
• 24:16
  Speaker 10: how they they believe that they have some ideas for
• 24:18
  Speaker 10: me coming into the year that could help me out
• 24:21
  Speaker 10: and help me smooth that transition back to starting.
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: And so I thought it was very interesting.
• 24:28
  Speaker 9: So how soon did they say, hey, here's how to
• 24:31
  Speaker 9: throw a sinker, because I feel like that's that's the
• 24:35
  Speaker 9: trick for everyone. How soon does that happen?
• 24:38
  Speaker 10: I mean I already started throwing a sinker. I started
• 24:41
  Speaker 10: learning a little bit, not this last season of the
• 24:44
  Speaker 10: season before and when I got traded over the Cubs
• 24:46
  Speaker 10: and I started throwing it. Mainly did rities just to
• 24:47
  Speaker 10: get it inside open up the slider away because that
• 24:51
  Speaker 10: was my main two pitches, you know, fastball and slider,
• 24:54
  Speaker 10: and so I think it just helped the slider play up.
• 24:56
  Speaker 10: I get definitely to righties. So I've already I've already
• 25:00
  Speaker 10: kind of have that in the arsenal. Whether we lean
• 25:04
  Speaker 10: on a little bit more, I'm waiting to, you know,
• 25:07
  Speaker 10: dive in with the pitching guys here in Houston and
• 25:10
  Speaker 10: see what they what they think, and see what their
• 25:12
  Speaker 10: ideas are.
• 25:13
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I don't know how much of this makes it
• 25:15
  Speaker 9: out of you know, the the bubble of the Astros.
• 25:19
  Speaker 9: Like obviously Hunter Brown has become one of the best
• 25:21
  Speaker 9: starters in baseball? Is it common knowledge outside of like
• 25:26
  Speaker 9: Astros fans and and here kind of what kickstarted that?
• 25:30
  Speaker 9: Because you know, at the beginning of last year, he
• 25:33
  Speaker 9: you know, was almost a you know, minor league candidate.
• 25:36
  Speaker 9: He really wasn't doing anything. And then introduce that sinker.
• 25:40
  Speaker 9: And then literally since throwing that sinker has been you know,
• 25:44
  Speaker 9: one of the best pitchers in baseball. Is that a
• 25:46
  Speaker 9: thing that other people are aware of?
• 25:48
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean, I think it's just like for guys
• 25:51
  Speaker 10: that have a good four scene, I think it just
• 25:53
  Speaker 10: it just changes the game a little bit when you're
• 25:55
  Speaker 10: able to have two fastballs that are just one even
• 25:58
  Speaker 10: if even if it's not like an elite sinker, it
• 26:00
  Speaker 10: doesn't even have to be that. It just has to
• 26:02
  Speaker 10: be something that's different than your four seam, and all
• 26:04
  Speaker 10: of a sudden, it just opens up.
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: Different areas for hitters to adapt to.
• 26:09
  Speaker 10: You know, they can't just like, all right, look at
• 26:10
  Speaker 10: the force seam at the top of the zone and
• 26:12
  Speaker 10: then anything down is going to be off speed, whether
• 26:15
  Speaker 10: like now you're throwing a sinker, you throw that down
• 26:17
  Speaker 10: and in, or you can even throw it up and in.
• 26:19
  Speaker 10: You know, I think it just opens up the arsenal
• 26:22
  Speaker 10: a little bit more and everything. I think everything just
• 26:24
  Speaker 10: plays up. And you saw it with Hunter Brown. I
• 26:27
  Speaker 10: remember watching one of the starts I was in Toronto
• 26:29
  Speaker 10: and they came into town, and I watched one of
• 26:32
  Speaker 10: the starts and it was just like we heard the
• 26:33
  Speaker 10: story about him introducing the sinker and how it's kind
• 26:37
  Speaker 10: of like taking off. He threw pretty well against us,
• 26:39
  Speaker 10: and I was watching just about every pitch that outing
• 26:43
  Speaker 10: of his because his stuff's electric, and I was able
• 26:47
  Speaker 10: to see how everything just kind of just played up
• 26:49
  Speaker 10: a little bit more, even when he was able to
• 26:51
  Speaker 10: run that in against rieties and even you know, front door.
• 26:54
  Speaker 4: To to lefties. So I thought it was pretty impressive.
• 26:58
  Speaker 8: Yeah, you hit on something there that I don't think
• 27:00
  Speaker 8: a lot of people, a lot of maybe outside fans appreciate.
• 27:03
  Speaker 8: Like you said, something like the sinker doesn't even have
• 27:05
  Speaker 8: to be like a metrically like well performing pitch like
• 27:08
  Speaker 8: last year and twenty twenty four for Hunter, Like if
• 27:11
  Speaker 8: you look at all the publicly available metrics like run value,
• 27:14
  Speaker 8: things like that, Like the sinker wasn't great, it wasn't
• 27:18
  Speaker 8: a good but what it did was it stopped hitters
• 27:21
  Speaker 8: from leaning out over the plate. It stopped you know,
• 27:24
  Speaker 8: tendencies of just hunting everything away, everything away, like it
• 27:27
  Speaker 8: gave him a presence on the other half of the
• 27:29
  Speaker 8: plate and just doing that, just having that mere presence
• 27:33
  Speaker 8: changes entirely kind of how hitters approach you. You mentioned Nate,
• 27:38
  Speaker 8: you mentioned your your arsenal. Obviously you've been predominantly fastball, slider,
• 27:43
  Speaker 8: forcing slider, that is, you know, forcing you can get
• 27:46
  Speaker 8: it up to one hundred ninety seven ninety eight. Where
• 27:50
  Speaker 8: do you think and to be a starter, and if
• 27:52
  Speaker 8: you want to stick in a rotation, obviously you're going
• 27:55
  Speaker 8: to need maybe a couple more pitches. Kind Of where
• 27:58
  Speaker 8: do you think maybe your other pitches are and what
• 28:00
  Speaker 8: are you looking forward most to maybe refining in your
• 28:03
  Speaker 8: arsenal as you transition back to being a starter.
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: I mean I still throw a curveball.
• 28:08
  Speaker 10: It's kind of like a knuckle curve, and then I
• 28:11
  Speaker 10: have a change up as well. You know, over the
• 28:14
  Speaker 10: years it's been mainly I've been leaning on the fastball,
• 28:17
  Speaker 10: slider and curveball occasionally kind of just haven't thrown a
• 28:20
  Speaker 10: change up in a couple of years, but I do
• 28:23
  Speaker 10: throw it in catch play. Just still working on it.
• 28:25
  Speaker 10: Just coming out of the pen when you're trying to
• 28:27
  Speaker 10: just get three quick outs and leverage, you know, you're
• 28:29
  Speaker 10: not really looking to set guys up for the you know,
• 28:32
  Speaker 10: the turnaround of the lineup. You know, you're just trying
• 28:34
  Speaker 10: to go at these guys with your best stuff, and
• 28:37
  Speaker 10: so I kind of just fit into that mold. But
• 28:39
  Speaker 10: now that I'm going back to starting, I was still
• 28:42
  Speaker 10: able to work on my pitches and when warm ups
• 28:45
  Speaker 10: and stuff, so just be able to knock off the
• 28:49
  Speaker 10: rest of those in spring training and hopefully get a
• 28:52
  Speaker 10: good mix going.
• 28:53
  Speaker 9: What does the off season look like for you? Like,
• 28:55
  Speaker 9: how is it different knowing that you're coming into spring
• 28:58
  Speaker 9: training as a starter. What like you know, you always
• 29:03
  Speaker 9: hear like, oh you got to stretch out, you know,
• 29:05
  Speaker 9: these types of things. What is the difference between an
• 29:08
  Speaker 9: off season going in as a reliever versus as a starter.
• 29:11
  Speaker 10: I think it's just volume, Like when you're when you're
• 29:14
  Speaker 10: when you're a reliever, of the off season is a
• 29:16
  Speaker 10: little bit different. Just the volumes of throws you know
• 29:20
  Speaker 10: you got to get when you're building up. I feel
• 29:22
  Speaker 10: like as a reliever, you're not throwing as many just
• 29:24
  Speaker 10: make it as many throws and just like catch player
• 29:26
  Speaker 10: or long toss or whatever. But now that the focus
• 29:30
  Speaker 10: is being prepared to start, I think those throwing sessions
• 29:33
  Speaker 10: get up a little bit longer, not like throwing harder longer,
• 29:37
  Speaker 10: just more just more throws, more movements, just conditioning that
• 29:42
  Speaker 10: body to take on more pitches, just just to be
• 29:45
  Speaker 10: able to prepare for a higher pitch.
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: Count in games.
• 29:48
  Speaker 8: How would you describe your force eamer like, does it
• 29:51
  Speaker 8: have kind of some natural hop? Does it have some run?
• 29:53
  Speaker 8: Do you do you do you like to play with
• 29:56
  Speaker 8: it at the top of the zone, leave it top
• 29:57
  Speaker 8: rail or do you maybe need to work on maybe
• 29:59
  Speaker 8: the movement getting a little more movement on the four seamer?
• 30:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah, no, I have I have good ride on my
• 30:05
  Speaker 4: four team.
• 30:06
  Speaker 10: Sometimes it'll it'll kind of run on me a little bit, uh,
• 30:10
  Speaker 10: But I try to keep it at the top of
• 30:12
  Speaker 10: the zone and just let it ride and occasionally just
• 30:14
  Speaker 10: let it sometimes it will cut. And so I really
• 30:16
  Speaker 10: like the the cut ride aspect is very popular nowadays
• 30:20
  Speaker 10: in today's game. But yeah, I kind of just let
• 30:23
  Speaker 10: that eat at the top of the zone and then
• 30:25
  Speaker 10: if I if I need to go down and freeze
• 30:26
  Speaker 10: a guy, I do think it down and away a
• 30:30
  Speaker 10: well located down and away heater is you know, very
• 30:33
  Speaker 10: hard to hit, and so I think it still is
• 30:36
  Speaker 10: and so obviously keep that keep that in mind as well.
• 30:40
  Speaker 8: Everything's hard to hit from my advantage. But it doesn't
• 30:43
  Speaker 8: matter where you located. This may be this may I'm
• 30:47
  Speaker 8: sure you've gotten some version of this question before. But
• 30:50
  Speaker 8: for those that don't know, as we're talking to you,
• 30:52
  Speaker 8: when you were drafted, obviously first round draft pick with
• 30:54
  Speaker 8: the J's really rocketed up. Prospect rankings played in the
• 30:59
  Speaker 8: Futures Game in twenty nineteen was up, you know, in
• 31:02
  Speaker 8: the top ten of not only just pitcher prospects in baseball,
• 31:05
  Speaker 8: but in the top ten prospects in baseball by a
• 31:08
  Speaker 8: lot of outside publications. You know, in Houston, you know,
• 31:13
  Speaker 8: they've had a bunch of guys that have had similar
• 31:15
  Speaker 8: pedigrees that have come up to the clubhouse that I mean,
• 31:17
  Speaker 8: you know, one of them, and Kyle Tucker obviously, guys
• 31:21
  Speaker 8: that are very heralded, guys that get a lot of
• 31:23
  Speaker 8: praise put on them, you know, before they get there,
• 31:26
  Speaker 8: and that can sometimes be difficult to manage guys manage
• 31:28
  Speaker 8: those expectations very differently. How has that been for you?
• 31:32
  Speaker 8: How was that to have all those expectations on you
• 31:35
  Speaker 8: kind of before you even got to pro ball? And
• 31:38
  Speaker 8: is it something now. I want to be careful how
• 31:40
  Speaker 8: I phrased this, like coming to Houston, coming to maybe
• 31:43
  Speaker 8: a different place and a fresh start. Is that refreshing
• 31:46
  Speaker 8: in any way?
• 31:48
  Speaker 10: Yeah, No, it definitely is, because I mean looking back
• 31:51
  Speaker 10: at my my time with Toronto, like coming up, I
• 31:54
  Speaker 10: was like, before I even debut, I was like, he's
• 31:57
  Speaker 10: the ace, you know, all this stuff. I'm just like, dude,
• 31:59
  Speaker 10: I just want to pitch, man, I don't want to
• 32:02
  Speaker 10: you know, all the the pressure is good and all,
• 32:05
  Speaker 10: you know, but I thought it was a little excessive there.
• 32:09
  Speaker 4: You know. I was twenty two at the time.
• 32:12
  Speaker 10: You know, It's just it was it could be overbearing
• 32:15
  Speaker 10: if you aren't able to take a step back and
• 32:17
  Speaker 10: sit down and be like, all right, why am I here?
• 32:19
  Speaker 10: Why why do I want to be in the big leagues?
• 32:22
  Speaker 10: Like why did I have this dream? And it all
• 32:23
  Speaker 10: comes down and just t ball or back backyard playing
• 32:27
  Speaker 10: catch with your dad and everything, and so it's easy
• 32:30
  Speaker 10: to get carried away with all the hype and everything,
• 32:32
  Speaker 10: but you really just kind of got to lean on
• 32:35
  Speaker 10: your your uh, your family, and you know, keep you
• 32:38
  Speaker 10: humble and focus on what needs to happen into the
• 32:43
  Speaker 10: day to day not like looking three years from now
• 32:46
  Speaker 10: and all this stuff looking too far in the future.
• 32:48
  Speaker 10: So stuff is definitely refreshing to be with a new organ,
• 32:53
  Speaker 10: get back to the have an opportunity to start again,
• 32:56
  Speaker 10: just get back to that routine and everything.
• 32:59
  Speaker 8: But yeah, he mentioned that you've talked to Dana Dana
• 33:03
  Speaker 8: Brown or the Astros GM Coincidentally, he was working for
• 33:06
  Speaker 8: the Blue Jays when they drafted you in twenty seventeen.
• 33:10
  Speaker 8: Any what was kind of his message to you. Dana
• 33:14
  Speaker 8: is a pretty optimistic, pretty positive person that likes to
• 33:17
  Speaker 8: pump a lot of people up. I guess what was
• 33:19
  Speaker 8: what was his message to you? And would you take
• 33:20
  Speaker 8: away from that conversation you had with him?
• 33:23
  Speaker 10: No, he was just he was just really excited that
• 33:25
  Speaker 10: we were able to get this done early in the
• 33:26
  Speaker 10: offseason so he can stay connected through throughout the whole
• 33:29
  Speaker 10: offseason and be prepared and be able to hit the
• 33:32
  Speaker 10: ground running when I come into camp.
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: But yeah, he was.
• 33:34
  Speaker 10: He was just very uh open and explaining like how
• 33:38
  Speaker 10: they're able to like turn pictures into uh reaching their potential.
• 33:43
  Speaker 4: You know. He said he has a.
• 33:44
  Speaker 10: Good eye for identifying starters and he listed a couple
• 33:48
  Speaker 10: of guys like Blanco, how he was a reliever and
• 33:52
  Speaker 10: there they he thought that they he could start, and
• 33:55
  Speaker 10: so they they switched him over into a different role.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: And I actually remember his no hitter. It was again
• 34:00
  Speaker 4: the Jays. I was there.
• 34:01
  Speaker 10: I was there watching it early in the season in
• 34:04
  Speaker 10: uh in twenty four, and it was it was pretty
• 34:07
  Speaker 10: crazy to see. So I was thinking about that as
• 34:09
  Speaker 10: he was explaining it, and I was like, yeah, they
• 34:12
  Speaker 10: seems like they got something figured out. And you know,
• 34:16
  Speaker 10: whether he's the main guy in charge with that or what.
• 34:19
  Speaker 10: But I mean, I think it starts from the top
• 34:20
  Speaker 10: and goes all the way down when it comes to
• 34:22
  Speaker 10: development like that.
• 34:23
  Speaker 4: So I was just very encouraging.
• 34:28
  Speaker 8: Before we get you out of here, you have mentioned
• 34:30
  Speaker 8: the Jay's a couple of times. Obviously, they have won
• 34:33
  Speaker 8: the American League pennant. They're gonna play the Dodgers in
• 34:35
  Speaker 8: the World Series. I'd imagine that you grew close to
• 34:40
  Speaker 8: to Vlad and Bow and maybe even George over there.
• 34:43
  Speaker 8: What's what was it like for you are watching the
• 34:46
  Speaker 8: Alcs and watching them go through the playoffs, and how
• 34:49
  Speaker 8: do you think this World Series is gonna go? Knowing, uh,
• 34:51
  Speaker 8: knowing the guys in that clubhouse, knowing kind of what
• 34:54
  Speaker 8: they're made of. How do you think they're equipped to
• 34:56
  Speaker 8: go against the Dodgers.
• 34:58
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I think they're They got to goodest chances anyone,
• 35:01
  Speaker 10: you know, to take down the Dodgers. What's crazy to
• 35:05
  Speaker 10: me is like I look look at their roster, at
• 35:07
  Speaker 10: the position players, and it's not like a crazy drastic
• 35:11
  Speaker 10: change from the team I knew and we last year
• 35:15
  Speaker 10: we sold it the deadline. I was one of the
• 35:16
  Speaker 10: guys traded and traded probably like what nine guys or
• 35:20
  Speaker 10: something like it was.
• 35:21
  Speaker 4: It was insane.
• 35:22
  Speaker 10: And to see the turnaround how drastic it is while
• 35:26
  Speaker 10: they know. I know they got some new coaches, they
• 35:27
  Speaker 10: got like a new hitting coach and all that stuff,
• 35:30
  Speaker 10: but I don't know, I feel like they just like
• 35:33
  Speaker 10: flipped the switch, and those guys everyone's just raking, even
• 35:36
  Speaker 10: like one through nine, everyone's getting clutch knocks and uh
• 35:40
  Speaker 10: like Nathan Lucas, uh seeing him, I was up and
• 35:44
  Speaker 10: down with him, riding the option train with him and
• 35:46
  Speaker 10: just seeing how how how he's doing. Ardy Clement played
• 35:49
  Speaker 10: with him in Triple A two. Just seeing all those
• 35:52
  Speaker 10: guys come in to form, and obviously Vlattie, I think
• 35:55
  Speaker 10: just getting Lattie into the postseason and letting him do
• 35:58
  Speaker 10: his thing was like the biggest thing, you know, when
• 36:00
  Speaker 10: I was there, we never made it past the wild card,
• 36:03
  Speaker 10: and so it's hard to hard to put, you know,
• 36:06
  Speaker 10: really good effort into three games, and two of them
• 36:08
  Speaker 10: we went to and out. So it's you know, just
• 36:11
  Speaker 10: getting Blatty into the platform for him to shine. And
• 36:14
  Speaker 10: then George is going back to vintage you know, Houston,
• 36:18
  Speaker 10: George Springer with the with the Homers. You know, I
• 36:20
  Speaker 10: remember watching in twenty seventeen him doing all that stuff.
• 36:25
  Speaker 10: It was it's just it's just cool to watch and
• 36:27
  Speaker 10: really rooin for those guys. Hope they can take down
• 36:29
  Speaker 10: the Dodgers.
• 36:31
  Speaker 4: You said it.
• 36:32
  Speaker 8: They have as good a shot as anyone, and it'll
• 36:34
  Speaker 8: be fascinating to watch play out one more before we
• 36:37
  Speaker 8: get you added to no Astros fans are going to
• 36:38
  Speaker 8: want to hear about this. You and Kyle Tucker are
• 36:42
  Speaker 8: pretty close from the I don't know if the same
• 36:44
  Speaker 8: area in Florida, but from around kind of the same place.
• 36:47
  Speaker 8: I know you guys have trained together in some off seasons.
• 36:51
  Speaker 8: The public probably doesn't get to see, you know, the
• 36:54
  Speaker 8: real Kyle Tucker. He keeps himself pretty reserved, doesn't say much.
• 36:58
  Speaker 8: Is probably the most nonchalance superstar I've been. I've really
• 37:01
  Speaker 8: ever been around. What's he like off the field, what's
• 37:05
  Speaker 8: he like to train with, and what was he like
• 37:06
  Speaker 8: to maybe come up with in the off seasons? Being
• 37:09
  Speaker 8: someone that you trained with and and became friends with
• 37:12
  Speaker 8: it and someone that has you've kind of grown up
• 37:15
  Speaker 8: in pro ball with.
• 37:16
  Speaker 10: No I mean, he's what you see on TV is
• 37:19
  Speaker 10: kind of exactly what you get, and he doesn't change.
• 37:22
  Speaker 10: He's very quiet, reserved, goes about his business. We trained
• 37:27
  Speaker 10: together in the off season. Uh, he always starts a
• 37:30
  Speaker 10: little bit later, which is pretty impressive. Like I don't
• 37:33
  Speaker 10: know how he just strolls in, you know, mid November
• 37:37
  Speaker 10: and December. I don't think he picks up a bat
• 37:38
  Speaker 10: till like January, but he just just rakes. He just
• 37:42
  Speaker 10: picks it up and just like riding a bike. Just
• 37:45
  Speaker 10: being able to watch him comeing to, you know, be
• 37:49
  Speaker 10: a massive superstar. It was just pretty amazing because I
• 37:51
  Speaker 10: remember we were working out when we're both in them
• 37:53
  Speaker 10: and the miners coming up, and it's just it's awesome
• 37:56
  Speaker 10: to see all the work he's put in and him
• 37:59
  Speaker 10: just take off and get a World Series under his belt,
• 38:02
  Speaker 10: and it's it's pretty cool.
• 38:05
  Speaker 9: Was he was he digging in the dirt on the
• 38:07
  Speaker 9: backfields too before?
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah? I remember, I remember facing him.
• 38:12
  Speaker 10: We were like young in like high school and stuff
• 38:14
  Speaker 10: because we're both around the Tampa area. And he just
• 38:16
  Speaker 10: never wore batting gloves and where it's like, that's kind
• 38:18
  Speaker 10: of crazy, and then he still kind of did it.
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: I mean he switches on and off.
• 38:21
  Speaker 10: I think he uses them a little bit more now,
• 38:23
  Speaker 10: but he just never used batting gloves and that was
• 38:26
  Speaker 10: just like the same, just vintage Kyle Tucker.
• 38:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's pretty cool.
• 38:30
  Speaker 8: Well, you know why he has to, you know why
• 38:32
  Speaker 8: he wears them all the time now? Right, it's because
• 38:34
  Speaker 8: of the pitch clock. He didn't have he didn't have
• 38:36
  Speaker 8: enough time. He didn't have enough time to do his
• 38:38
  Speaker 8: dig in the h all that he was he was
• 38:44
  Speaker 8: never getting in the box by eight seconds. So like
• 38:47
  Speaker 8: he switched over the first year of the pitch clock.
• 38:49
  Speaker 8: I think he did the first month without batting gloves
• 38:51
  Speaker 8: and he realized how rushed he was getting, so that
• 38:53
  Speaker 8: the only reason he's wearing batting gloves is because of
• 38:56
  Speaker 8: the pitch clock. So yeah, who knows where he'll end
• 39:00
  Speaker 8: up this all. Have you teased him yet that you
• 39:02
  Speaker 8: signed before him?
• 39:03
  Speaker 4: No, I haven't.
• 39:04
  Speaker 10: Uh No, I haven't talked to him yet, but uh,
• 39:07
  Speaker 10: I'm sure I'll Okay, I'll talk to him. You know,
• 39:10
  Speaker 10: he's such a high profile, like uh free agent.
• 39:14
  Speaker 7: You know.
• 39:14
  Speaker 10: I feel like those guys take a little bit to
• 39:16
  Speaker 10: to sign and probably after the winter meetings, you know,
• 39:18
  Speaker 10: til they get the right fit. But it's definitely gonna
• 39:21
  Speaker 10: be exciting to see where he goes. I know he's
• 39:23
  Speaker 10: gonna have a bunch of bunch of teams wanting them,
• 39:25
  Speaker 10: so it's gonna be fun for him.
• 39:27
  Speaker 8: So he definitely will and maybe maybe there's a reality
• 39:30
  Speaker 8: where you'll, uh you'll face him in the big leagues
• 39:33
  Speaker 8: as a as a starter in the Astros rotation. Nate
• 39:35
  Speaker 8: told you we wouldn't keep you very long. This was great.
• 39:37
  Speaker 8: I really appreciate you taking some time to join us
• 39:40
  Speaker 8: and introduce yourself to your new team and your new
• 39:43
  Speaker 8: fan base, and we appreciate it, and we will see
• 39:47
  Speaker 8: you in West Palm Beach in February until.
• 39:49
  Speaker 4: The sounds good. Thank you guys, thanks for having me
• 39:51
  Speaker 4: on