Latest / The Layback Podcast / Miller Hogan, Professional Pitcher (Ep. 41)

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Miller Hogan, Professional Pitcher (Ep. 41) · The Layback Podcast

0:00
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Lay Back podcast.
0:03
Today we have our. 1st. Two time guest.
0:06
I was wondering about that. Yeah, you're number number one.
0:10
I, I guess #2 I don't know the right way to phrase that to make
0:13
it sound more fun. Or maybe this is a new guest.
0:16
Because as far as I'm concerned, we have Jesus Christo here or
0:20
Tarzan. I, I guess is your
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affectionately know now. But the Hogan joining the pod,
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he is the newest member officially of the 2024-2025
0:34
roster for the Gigantes de Carolina in the Puerto Rican
0:39
Winter league or the Roberto Clemente League, as it's known
0:42
now. But Miller just made his first
0:45
appearance back in a game ten months post op, so crushed his
0:51
return had TJ hybrid reconstruction.
0:55
So now that's gotten popularized like crazy, getting it called
0:59
like Tommy John three or something like that.
1:02
But Miller, Miller's surgeon down in Puerto Rico, did did
1:06
just the same thing. And he's back after 10 months
1:09
pitching in the Puerto Rican big leagues.
1:13
So we just want to check in with him, understand how rehab went
1:17
for him and what it felt like to tow the rubber again.
1:20
So Miller, I'm ecstatic to have you back.
1:23
I guess we can start with how does it feel to get back on the
1:26
mound? Then we'll step back, run the
1:30
run the timeline, and then finish with the game talk.
1:33
All right. So yeah, I mean, biggest thing
1:36
was it was awesome to just be excited about pitching again.
1:41
The biggest thing with the rehab process is like every day is so
1:45
technical. And I think Ian Seymour kind of
1:48
talked about that a lot. Like you get in this perspective
1:52
of like it's so methodical, it's so rigid.
1:58
Every day has such like an objective, you know, number of
2:01
throws, intensity, whatever. Like, it's so different than
2:06
when the ball is in your hand and you got to get somebody out
2:09
just from, like, how it feels from like an emotional
2:13
perspective. Like, there's just so much more
2:16
energy drawn up when the lights come on, of course, like, as you
2:20
would expect. And that was something that I
2:22
really missed. And it just felt awesome to have
2:26
that going on again. More than anything, it's just a
2:30
feeling I've been longing for and hadn't had in a while.
2:34
Tickle the competitive drive a little bit.
2:36
Yeah. Yeah, I'm I'm sure you felt it
2:39
in new places. Yeah, and you know, it didn't,
2:43
it was rusty for sure. Like you can't expect to have it
2:47
the first time you step on the mound.
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But physically felt really good. It was great to get moving that
2:52
fast again and just kind of be back where I I want to be.
2:57
Was is more so than anything. And now it's probably pretty
3:01
exciting for you that you got through the first game.
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Were the stats perfect? No, by all means they weren't.
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But whatever you you returned. Now I'm, I'm sure it feels good
3:12
that you can kind of shift the focus a little bit to game
3:16
planning or getting on the same page with your catcher or your
3:19
coaches to figure out how to pitch to different guys.
3:23
Because I know you even said you went out there and it, it wasn't
3:26
exactly the game that you would have loved to throw.
3:29
Now I'm getting ahead. I said I wanted to go through
3:31
that. But yeah, so I, I guess we'll
3:33
get into this. You feel free to respond to that
3:35
and then I'll I'll pull us back. No, I mean 100% and and my
3:39
manager down here, Edwards Guzman, he's the man like I
3:44
played for him last year and he's just he loves the game, You
3:48
know, big league career. He's been AGM down here before,
3:51
but just loves coaching and he came out to the mound.
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And so I obviously I played for him last year.
3:57
I threw really well and it didn't work out as obviously as
4:00
as everybody wanted it to. But first thing he said when he
4:02
came up and took the ball from me, like I went to hand it to
4:06
him and he kind of like stood in front of me and stopped me and
4:08
just like, man, I'm so happy to just have you on the mound
4:12
again. We're so glad to have you back.
4:14
I'm glad this went well, even though statistically maybe you
4:17
didn't. But like physically felt good.
4:19
Stuff was good. And he's like, it's just great
4:22
to see out here again. And that moment it was kind of
4:25
like a real weight off the shoulders and like, yeah, I made
4:28
it. Everything is intact, Nothing
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exploded. We're we're physically feeling
4:33
good. Everything's right where it
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needs to be. Be a little patient.
4:36
It's not even been a year. Can't expect to roll right into
4:40
what I was doing beforehand. So that's the biggest thing.
4:43
Just like a weight off the shoulders.
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And like you said, now we it's like now we can kind of be a
4:48
baseball player again instead of trying to just.
4:51
Hold everything together. Yeah, now we go.
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I I do love, I love that you can say now we can be a baseball
4:58
player again. You mentioned Ian Seymour
5:00
already. It was funny for for me to hear
5:04
whatever it was like his first or second outing back and he got
5:08
a ball, just a ground ball to 1st.
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See, I did have that up on him. I fielded a bot last night.
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And. And I covered first.
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So Ian, get your shit together, man.
5:20
I don't know if you want to swear.
5:22
We'll talk some shit to Ian, hopefully he hears this or or at
5:26
least I can send this clip to him.
5:28
But yeah, I thought that was hilarious to hear from Ian.
5:31
He gets a cheap grounder to 1st or just doesn't run over to
5:35
first base. I did in his defense, I guess,
5:39
but I did walk the first two guys that I had at the plate
5:45
after I gave up my first base runner.
5:47
So kind of forgot how to pitch with the guys on base.
5:50
But in my defense, I had to go straight from live VPS into the
5:54
game where like usually if you're in a facility or
5:57
affiliate environment, you're going to have three innings of
6:01
live VPS and you're going to have like 3 scrimmage games and
6:04
then you're going to go to rookie ball and make your way
6:06
up. I went live VPS right into the
6:09
the the Ring of Fire so. Yeah, so I guess where you
6:13
screwed up was letting a guy on base.
6:15
You just shouldn't have done that.
6:16
Right. Yeah, exactly.
6:17
You know, you can't. That was that was my game plan
6:20
was, you know, that's what I always say to to catchers like
6:22
Poppy, what you want to do with runner on second.
6:24
I was like, let's not let him. Yeah.
6:28
Well, we, we can get into the game plan and stuff.
6:30
This is the stuff I'm really excited to talk about.
6:32
But I do want to do at least a few minutes.
6:36
I say a few, maybe 1015 running through, I guess where we last
6:42
had you on the podcast, April of 2024 to get to this point, all
6:47
the work that enabled you to step back on the mound again.
6:51
So when we last had you on, I encourage people to go check out
6:54
that episode. But you hadn't yet begun
6:56
throwing. And I guess that's where things
6:59
get exciting when you were finally able to pick up the ball
7:02
again. So I don't know if you want to
7:03
pick it up from there. Yeah.
7:05
So I think when we talked, yeah, that would have been like first
7:09
week of April. So I was what is that like 10
7:11
weeks out post op and around there I was really it was the
7:15
first time I was starting to get into like lifting the way that I
7:18
like to, which is, you know, more plyometric pretty intense.
7:22
Like I like to get after it in the weight room.
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So kind of getting that governor taken off was a big first step
7:28
for me. And then the way that I kind of
7:31
went about it from there was I knew I wanted to be throwing mid
7:35
to late in May, but the way that I was looking at it was I wanted
7:39
throwing. I think we may have talked about
7:42
this a little bit like from a philosophical standpoint, I
7:44
wanted especially like the early stages of throwing.
7:47
I wanted to feel like a warm up, like super easy systemically on
7:52
the body more so than what time frame starting to throw at week
7:58
22 or whatever it was. My idea was hit my flex grip be
8:03
60% or more. I'm pretty sure I was well past
8:07
it at that point. Setting.
8:09
PRS at that point. All right, all right,
8:14
chronological, stay focused. We're going to get off on too
8:17
many tangents. So yeah, I wanted to be at the
8:19
threshold that you, Daryl and I had kind of laid out for just
8:26
baseline strength to throw. But also I wanted to hit like a
8:32
full four week like busting ass lifting program to where it felt
8:39
like I was getting after it in a traditional offseason level of
8:43
intensity. So that way I knew that like my
8:45
nervous system and stability everywhere else was in a
8:48
position that I was effectively from a strength standpoint where
8:54
I was before surgery. And it's like that was my big
8:57
checklist. And that happened, yeah, right
9:00
around like the third week of May.
9:01
I think I hit like my goal was to get in the ballpark of like a
9:05
three times body weight deadlift.
9:07
And I hit that like that third week of May about four months
9:11
after surgery. And so after that, that's when
9:14
we started throwing and then went pretty conservative.
9:18
I think we followed more of the what, what would you call it,
9:21
not the Recon, the repair, the repair protocol for throwing
9:25
pace because you know, it's more of a nine month generally seeing
9:29
a nine month recovery. And so that put us in a good
9:31
tempo essentially building up and did that.
9:36
I think it's probably worth noting that all of this,
9:40
everything you were doing, was with the intention of getting
9:42
back to winter ball, correct? Yeah, I, I tried to when I got
9:46
home and started sitting down with my physical therapist and
9:50
my trainers and stuff. I was like 10 month mark is
9:54
November 18th. I want to be game ready at that
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that day. And so we kind of backlogged
10:00
everything from there and yeah. And so like that timeline worked
10:04
out and tried to go find as many different throwing programs and
10:08
schedules. I think was more so that the
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program is just kind of like the timing when people are actually
10:15
hitting high intensity, when are they deloading?
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A lot of programs, especially in the affiliate sphere, which like
10:24
that's kind of maybe something we can get into is like the
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difference of doing this in an affiliate environment versus not
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the affiliates fears. A lot of times just because
10:34
there's no rush generally like they treat it as a 12 to 14
10:38
month recovery. So like they're never really
10:41
looking to speed things up. That's just a job security
10:45
benefit. A lot of times they'll take like
10:47
a whole month deload around, I think around the 10 month mark,
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it's like they'll build up to bullpens, get up to like 100%
10:54
speed and then shut down and build back up before facing
10:58
hitters, which I like. I'm a big believer in like the
11:02
periodization, build up, build up, build up, deload and rebuild
11:06
like to let the body recover. But my timeline obviously can
11:10
really afford to give up a whole month.
11:12
So what we did is we took November 18th.
11:14
I wanted to be 100% throw multiple innings like last live
11:18
BP essentially. And I think we hit that almost
11:22
to the day. But so I backlogged that of like
11:25
how long would it take me to build up from a shutdown to be
11:30
ready on November 18th? And so essentially, we did that
11:35
around 10 weeks. So I backlogged 10 weeks and was
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like, OK, well, that's the second week of August.
11:43
OK. So let's take the last seven to
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10 days of August and we'll call that our shutdown period to get
11:50
that break, but not lose a whole month.
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Just let the system relax. I, I, I took a vacation like get
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away from the monotony a little bit.
12:00
Cuz at that point we would have been seven months into it.
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So kind of decompression. We not fully stop throwing, but
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like probably took 5 or 6 days on the throw and a couple days
12:11
really light and then started the build up back into it.
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But that meant what August 21st I could check the dates, what it
12:20
was specifically like that meant August 21st I wanted to be
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throwing 100% intensity, like pushing myself as hard as I
12:28
could make the arm go as fast as possible.
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Like really feeling like I was throwing unrestricted was the
12:36
goal. And so that was what August is
12:39
the 8th. So that was seven months
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essentially was my goal. Like I want not volume like that
12:45
first build up phase was purely intensity, obviously enough
12:49
volume to continue to progress, but like the focus was always a
12:53
velocity threshold on the high end, like hit a number and then
12:59
dial back and cruise for a little bit of D low, right.
13:03
So that was our philosophy going into it was, yeah, like build
13:06
up. If my goal that day was 80,
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build up as you would to play catch or whatever, slowly
13:13
progression intensity, hit 80. If I had 80 throws that day,
13:19
maybe try and hit 80 or be like 78, two.
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So you're averaging like 80 for five or six throws.
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Nothing major, just enough like hey arm, we can go this fast,
13:30
it's OK, and then finish with 15 throws around the 75 mark.
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So it's fluid, it's easy, it feels good, it's not taxing,
13:41
it's not stressful, right? Because chasing Velo in volume
13:45
at the same time is. Is a non starter.
13:47
Great way to great way to go under the Knights, man.
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Like, yeah. So sorry, I wanted to.
13:53
Throw you're good there. You're good yeah chase 2 rabbits
13:56
catch none man like it's it's absolutely you got to have a
14:00
goal one at a time. That's why it's so important to
14:03
kind of look to be able to zoom out, see your overall timeline
14:07
and be like, OK, I've laid down these pillars, these checkmarks
14:11
that I need to hit. And then now I could just today
14:15
we make 10 throws at 80 miles an hour.
14:17
Next week we're going to do 12 throws at 84.
14:21
Just makes it easy, takes the guesswork out of it.
14:23
And that was the overall thought process for that first seven
14:26
months was acute stress, right? Like that's the big difference.
14:31
The arguments always. OK, what blows up arms chronic
14:35
versus acute? Is it one pitch at 100 miles an
14:38
hour? Is it a bunch of shitty throws
14:41
at 92? Not, you know, they're all of
14:43
them are stressed, but talking to my doctor, talking to you,
14:46
talking to Darrell I and that's how I approach my strength and
14:51
conditioning as well is I like to get really high acute stress
15:00
in one day and then give myself longer periods of rest.
15:05
It's kind of more you want to condense it like a powerlifting
15:09
or Olympic weight lifting style like those guys work out for
15:12
like 3 hours but they might do 10 sets of 2 / 90 minutes
15:17
because they're they're trying to output force they want
15:19
maximum force and speed and power output and that requires
15:23
recovery right. Like if it's like you go, sure,
15:26
you can go jog a mile, but or you, you can't Sprint a mile,
15:31
but you could Sprint a mile worth of sprints and get volume
15:35
with intensity, but it's going to take you, it might take you
15:38
all day. And so that's how we looked at
15:41
it was all right. So these first seven months, if
15:44
I want to be able to throw 100%, but I'm not necessarily worried
15:47
about throwing 100% for three innings at seven months, of
15:50
course. Well, let's twice a week have
15:54
quote UN quote higher intensity days, one like 85% and one 100%
15:58
of like our velocity goal for that week, not intensity
16:01
obviously. And we rinse and repeat for
16:04
seven months and it went smoothly, as smooth as it could.
16:08
You know, I had a couple hiccups in there, but it was more
16:11
strength and conditioning related, pushing a little too
16:13
hard on that end. Right, the 3X body weight
16:17
deadlift, the yeah, trying to position players and sprints.
16:22
I did that. Kind of stuff.
16:23
There was like right at the end of that August training cycle, I
16:27
was making it. I, I joke about it now, but I
16:30
was literally, I worked so hard that I did literally bust my ass
16:33
because I pulled my glute like mid August doing a like a
16:38
reverse lunge. And so that was pretty funny.
16:41
I have I I bust my ass, that's for sure.
16:44
Like I can say Congrats on that. That's a.
16:45
That's a good title to have, yeah.
16:47
Yeah, I can say it literally. The guy who literally busted his
16:50
ass. Yeah.
16:51
But I mean, I guess that's that's as broadly as I can say
16:54
what we were doing. You're gonna have to maybe hit a
16:56
pay wall or something for the the details in there.
16:59
Yeah, that's your your personal only fans where you just go over
17:03
your recovery. Process.
17:04
Yeah, I I mean, I got it. I, I took my notes, man, I got
17:07
a, a notebook in here that's probably like, I don't know, 50
17:12
bucks. I'll take the, the lock off of
17:14
it and you can read it. I need to monetize that or
17:17
something, you know? Yeah, or we'll get you a Patreon
17:21
page or something like that. Where?
17:22
You can, yeah. There you go.
17:23
Run through it all. Something like that, yeah.
17:26
Or just legit publish it and you can.
17:28
Have the. The book on rehab at one point.
17:30
Yeah, I don't know if my chicken scratch is ready for publishing.
17:34
We'll see. Hey there, there's people
17:37
supposedly with similar hair that have have written the
17:41
gospel and dictated life for for thousands and thousands of
17:46
years. So you might be on, you might be
17:48
on the same path. Yeah, that might be a stretch to
17:51
put my little surgical recovery into metaphysical reality, but
17:57
you know, I appreciate you throwing me in that ballpark.
18:00
Yeah, no problem. That's what I'm here for.
18:02
I'm here to gas you up here for the mentals too, not just the
18:06
physical. I guess.
18:08
Let's hop into that now. Super late stage rehab.
18:12
You're you're starting to face guys.
18:14
I know we, we talked a lot about the Velo gain, how hard you push
18:19
yourself. Then when you started trying to
18:22
build volume, is it difficult for you to kind of like maintain
18:28
the training intensity when it switched from you needed to get
18:32
up to hit 92 or 93 on a given day for five throws to then to
18:40
turn it into, well, now I need to sustain this for 30 something
18:44
pitches, 40 something pitches. I mean, that's that's really
18:48
tough when you're doing it to a net or you're doing it to some
18:51
high school kid that you're beaten up.
18:54
Yeah. I mean the you nailed the
18:55
biggest issue. Like, I guess we, we said we
18:59
could talk about doing like the affiliate sphere versus the
19:03
independent sphere. That, that was what I struggled
19:06
with the most was being the only guy in the gym.
19:10
That environment aspect is, is so influential to the energy
19:13
that you're bringing in every day.
19:14
Like there's just, you can. And I mean, that's where the,
19:17
the discipline conviction and all that stuff comes into play
19:20
of like when it doesn't feel good, you just got to find a way
19:23
to get through it. But the biggest difference was
19:25
the facility that I train and work at.
19:27
Obviously we have a bunch of high level college guys.
19:30
And so they were in town for the summer until like mid August and
19:34
I, there was a just stark contrast and how my body felt
19:39
and how I recovered the out power output I had over those
19:47
weeks that they were in town. Just because it's more fun.
19:49
Like you're, you're around more like minded individuals and you
19:54
know, you get to talk a little shit and there's just, it's just
19:58
more enjoyable. Like you look forward to it a
19:59
little more and you I think like.
20:03
From a hormonal level, like when you're around a bunch of
20:05
testosterone, your testosterone is higher.
20:07
Like that's an observed phenomenon.
20:10
So like that was a huge let down once all those guys got out of
20:14
there. And luckily for me, it lined up
20:17
where I was trying to peek in that mid August time frame.
20:22
So like it definitely worked in my favor at least to that point.
20:26
But I noticed like August 21st, I think I might, that might be
20:30
awesome. Somewhere around there was my
20:31
last Max effort throw day and that was right at seven months.
20:37
I had shuffled 94 and was up to 90 off the mound, which are like
20:43
those are numbers that if I were to hit those indoors and tennis
20:47
shoes pre op like that's about as high as I've ever been.
20:51
I think the the hardest I've ever thrown indoors off a mound
20:56
was like 9093. But that was also like reaching
21:00
back like velocity day like that.
21:03
That's not something I. Would ever the V low slap kind
21:05
of day? Yeah, so like I pitch indoors at
21:09
like 8891. And so I felt like in seven
21:13
months I was roughly back there, which was awesome, Felt great,
21:17
recovered super well, still had plenty of mechanical things that
21:20
I needed to work through. But like from a physical output
21:24
standpoint, I felt like, OK, I have, I have my, my ceiling is
21:30
roughly where I needed to be to continue to be ready.
21:34
And then so all the college guys left.
21:36
I took my little decompression week and came back and like
21:40
physically felt pretty good. But I could tell that like the
21:44
next 8 weeks was going to be tough just because now it's like
21:49
you, you said, it's a little less like volume.
21:51
Obviously everybody wants to go chase a number like volumes.
21:54
Not the sexy exciting part of the process, but it's arguably
21:59
just as important, if not more like your floor is going to what
22:03
is going to be what keeps you healthy more so than your your
22:06
top end. Like the yeah, just the level of
22:09
energy in the building was obviously you take 25 college
22:14
kids out of the the building it it drops a little bit and so it
22:18
I struggled quite a bit. I would say struggled, but that
22:21
like it was far more difficult getting up everyday and like
22:25
trying to find that energy some way or another in that process
22:30
because yeah, it's like, well, now these bullpen sessions go
22:33
from constant progression into a peak feel good for a couple
22:37
throws and you're out of there in 10 minutes.
22:40
Like once you get the mound to now, OK, I have to make 40
22:44
throws and they all have to be above 80, right?
22:48
So like we're going to get tired, we're going to have to
22:50
take breaks to make sure we're not over fatigue, but we're
22:53
still able to get that stimulus in.
22:55
And so the workouts got longer. They got a little slower pace.
22:59
And yeah, it was that part was far more mentally taxing and
23:05
emotionally taxing than it was physically because like I was
23:07
strong, obviously, you know, I was forearm grip flex pro
23:11
numbers were far ahead of where they needed to be.
23:13
Like my physical strength in the weight room.
23:16
All those numbers were really good.
23:18
Like it wasn't an issue with capacity or just like, all
23:23
right, we got to make 120 throws.
23:26
We just, we just got to do them and it's going to take a while
23:30
and stuck it up like this is going to take 2 1/2 hours to get
23:33
everything in and all the prep work, all the posts throw and
23:36
like you're just going to have to do it.
23:38
And then you're going to have to do your lift and then you got a
23:41
four or five hour session at the gym right after that, so.
23:44
It's almost like you became an endurance athlete a little bit,
23:47
and I hate. Long distance running for like
23:50
that reason, like it just takes forever and like it just feels
23:53
like I'm so inefficient. I'm like there's just got to be
23:56
a better way that I could accomplish this task.
23:59
Sometimes there's not. Sometimes you just got to 1 foot
24:02
in front of the other and get all your steps in.
24:05
Yeah, wow, Yeah, I, I think that that's probably get gets lost on
24:10
a lot of people. I, I say that a few things you
24:13
said gets lost on a lot of people.
24:15
One, the environment that you rehab in or do your work in 100%
24:22
influences your ability, mindset, everything, your
24:27
psychology because you you are just going to respond to the
24:31
environment that you were in. So yes, when you rehab out of
24:35
college or rehab with an affiliate, that's awesome that
24:39
you have people around you that can support you.
24:42
Or if you're in a gym where others are going through a
24:45
similar process, that's sweet. But once you're on your own, you
24:50
have to find motivation somewhere that is incredibly
24:53
difficult. Then it's kind of an extension
24:55
of that piece when you talk about the volume because you're
24:58
no longer in that kind of sexy or exciting or fun realm of
25:04
chasing a radar gun. Now it's great.
25:07
Set the floor and just chop and chop and chop and chop away just
25:13
so you can build that floor. You can continue to elevate your
25:17
base to make sure when you do get to the point that you're in
25:19
now, you can handle doing up, down, after up, down after up,
25:23
down and then repeating that day in and day out.
25:27
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, man.
25:29
Like it was a grind, like it was a grind like nothing that I've
25:33
really experienced before. And I think so much of that was
25:37
it was a little like lonely when the college guys aren't there.
25:41
And luckily I've got a great facility and people that I
25:43
really enjoy being around thought that there's no way I
25:46
would have been able to get all the way through this.
25:48
But like, I mean, there's certainly days in there where I
25:51
was the only guy in the gym for two hours, way overthinking
25:56
everything I was doing. And, and that's been that big
26:00
green pad with all those numbers on it.
26:02
And yeah, it, it was tough, man. Like it, it's like that mental
26:05
part of the rehab process is, is so important and all those,
26:10
everything about that that's difficult.
26:13
The less people around you to distract yourself from yourself
26:16
just gets turned up to 10. Right.
26:19
That's when you start naming the buckets and you're the name has
26:24
a name. Just you're like SpongeBob
26:27
naming Chip Penny and used napkin as as the best friends
26:32
inside the house. Yeah.
26:34
For sure, but you know, like that and that that's another
26:39
piece of why it's so important to have the ability to zoom out
26:42
because you can at least when in the moment you're looking for 82
26:46
and 79 keeps popping up like that hurts like not physically,
26:51
but like you, you start wanting to try a little harder, but you
26:53
got to remember to zoom out and not use today or not train in a
26:57
way today that what would the word be like cost you tomorrow.
27:03
Like it's sometimes you got to lose a battle to keep fighting
27:07
in the war, so to speak. And you know, that was a big
27:10
thing. I was trying to know when to do
27:12
that and when to not like there's days that it doesn't you
27:18
don't have the juice, but you got to find it.
27:19
So having a good team around you is so important in that scenario
27:25
because for me, I'm I tend to be a guy that is kind of push too
27:30
hard generally, I guess my default.
27:32
Bust your ass, yeah. And so having people that were
27:37
invested in me as friends and as trainers, which is a big part,
27:41
like just that generally care about the guys that they're
27:43
working with and got to watch me for 8 hours a day every day.
27:48
Like they get to see those patterns kind of manifest
27:51
themselves. And so having those guys in my
27:53
corner be like, hey man, you're you, you look like shit today.
27:57
Like, just relax, take it home, shut it down.
28:00
You got your volume in, quit pushing.
28:03
It's going to be all right. Like you'll feel better
28:05
tomorrow. So I mean, yeah, there's just so
28:07
many pieces to that puzzle and and having a good team around
28:11
you just makes everything so much easier.
28:13
I want to call out one thing that I think might get
28:17
overlooked. In that answer response you just
28:20
gave, you even mentioned the difficulties for a guy in your
28:25
position, a professional baseball player.
28:27
You're not a flamethrower, but you throw in the low 90s.
28:31
You're you're you're comfortably throwing in the low 90s every
28:34
single time you get on the mound.
28:36
And you talked about the difficulties of throwing 80 mph.
28:42
Just because you throw in the 90s, it didn't mean that that's
28:49
right back where you were thrusted to.
28:51
Who had to go through those incremental steps to get there.
28:55
And I think that's another piece that can get missed of how
28:59
difficult it is to get back. Just because you've done it
29:03
before doesn't mean you're knocking at the door at that
29:06
same number again. You still have to build up just
29:10
as you did previously to even get to that number in the 1st
29:13
place. Every one of those numbers needs
29:15
to fall for you to get back to where you were.
29:18
Yeah, 100% there you can't like that was the biggest thing that
29:23
we are our focus was on those incremental steps was not making
29:29
jumps. We wanted to stay in that like
29:33
3% climb for our weekly number was kind of more or less what we
29:39
were trying to do. So stay in the one to two miles
29:42
an hour jump each week. And there's obviously there's
29:46
days where stuff synced up and it feels really good and you're
29:49
supposed to hit 84 and it comes out as 86.
29:52
And having the discipline to be like, all right, I mean, that's
29:56
we're fine. But like 84's the number, right?
29:59
Like being diligent about the small levels of introducing
30:04
small levels of stress as opposed to making those big
30:07
jumps. Like that's what gives the body
30:09
time to acclimate. And so that, yeah, those that we
30:13
could throw an 82 is 100% just as important as the week
30:17
throwing 88 or the 1st week you're trying to go for 90
30:21
because you just don't want to shock the system.
30:24
That's when stuff locks up. That's when your body starts
30:27
moving differently. Stuff gets tense.
30:29
Like you need those small just literally 1 stair at a time,
30:33
right? Like that's how we, we wrote
30:35
everything out. And no skipping steps.
30:37
Like that's, that's the most important thing.
30:40
That's how rehab looks like. An airplane instead of it.
30:42
Instead of a helicopter. Yeah, A. 100%, yeah, yeah.
30:47
Well, I, I think that's probably good on the rehab talk.
30:51
Maybe we can get into the really exciting shift to Puerto Rico.
30:55
So you're, you're, you're finishing this late stage rehab,
30:59
you're crushing your live at bats at the facility.
31:02
I know you said November 18th was the date.
31:05
So what did it look like whether it was?
31:08
Calling the crew back in Carolina or getting on the same
31:12
page with them for you to get back down there, Yeah.
31:17
Getting here was as much an adventure as the baseball part
31:22
of being here. Just because in professional
31:24
baseball, across the board, doesn't matter what country it's
31:27
in, what level it's at. Like my mom always makes jokes
31:31
about it's, it's a man, a man's run organization that like
31:35
literally organization just is never a priority.
31:37
So getting little business things like flying a player down
31:44
sometimes gets lost under the stack of to do's.
31:47
I guess because I was originally supposed to go down like October
31:51
21st and then I didn't hear from the team for like 3 weeks in
31:57
October. And then by the time I finally
31:59
did there, they, they were saying, yeah, we wanted you to
32:02
come down earlier, but the apartment complex that we're
32:05
working with didn't have rooms ready so we got to wait until
32:09
November. It's like, OK, sure, that's
32:13
totally fine. Would've appreciated hearing
32:15
that three weeks ago, but you know, whatever.
32:18
And I was like, OK, can we fly down November 5th?
32:21
Yeah, November 5th rolls around. Radio silence flight, like I was
32:26
expected, been half packed for two weeks, expecting to be on a
32:30
plane any day. And then so I eventually I get a
32:33
hold of them on the 6th and they have a flight for me on the 7th.
32:36
And so I get down there more. Yeah, like took me an hour to
32:39
get moved into the apartment 'cause they just didn't have the
32:41
name on my my name on the list. Just weird little organizational
32:46
issues. So that's literally just
32:48
baseball. Every, every team I've ever
32:50
played for, I'm looking around like, what are we supposed to be
32:53
doing today? Because.
32:54
No matter the country. Right.
32:56
And yeah, there's not a Puerto Rico specific phenomenon by any
32:59
means. My mom would always say like,
33:01
like we're in Little League. She was the Teen Mom that would
33:04
organize the hotels and stuff. And she's like, you guys just
33:08
need a Teen Mom. You need to be in charge of all
33:10
those things. I was like, you know, you're
33:12
probably right, but I don't think they're going to bother to
33:15
pay somebody's mom. They should though.
33:18
Yeah, they should. That's.
33:19
Probably the single most needed organizational position for
33:23
every single club. Somebody's mom that's invested
33:26
in making sure everybody's where they're supposed to be with 100.
33:29
Times on the bench. Yeah, A. 100% And so I finally
33:32
got down here in early November, threw a couple of hole pens.
33:36
My first live BP was just an inning start slow from the
33:41
ground up kind of thing. But I the biggest thing for me
33:43
was like those first couple practices, just feeling awesome
33:49
to be at the field again. Like it'd been so long since
33:52
I've been in a clubhouse. Longest period for me since I
33:56
got to college. You know, you don't really have
33:58
a clubhouse in high school, but you know, you got a locker room
34:00
regardless. Like it just being away from
34:03
that for so long, like I forgot how accustomed just like my
34:09
general state was to being in that environment.
34:12
Like I was removed from it for so long.
34:15
It was just such a relief to be around the team, mess around the
34:19
locker room, but also like get cleats on, sweat when you're
34:23
outside under the sun, all that stuff.
34:26
And so we did that for like that was like we talked about the
34:30
environment would have been the polar opposite over the summer
34:35
indoors all alone, training in the green pad and then getting
34:40
back to like really feeling kind of like myself again.
34:42
And in the environment that I'm accustomed to being in, just
34:45
kind of another one of those stages where a little weight off
34:49
the shoulders, everything relaxes a bit more, it gets more
34:51
fun again and a little bit of a second win, so to speak.
34:54
After that 10 week period where I was really struggling with
34:58
like the burnout, so to so to speak of just doing that same
35:01
thing for 7-8 months in a row. And then same kind of idea,
35:05
which the team's been great and patient with me kind of working
35:09
with the progression that I've had laid out.
35:12
And so we did one inning live BP, couple days later, 2 inning
35:15
live BP, couple days later, 3 inning live BP.
35:18
Then we once we got up to the three inning mark, we kind of
35:21
worked out like a week long schedule kind of more back to
35:24
that college, so to speak. I think right now I'm throwing
35:27
on Tuesdays and give it three or four days bullpen 3 or 4 days
35:32
back on the mound. So they've been worked with me
35:34
far more than especially as an independent team, like they're
35:37
planning to win every time out there and I've just really
35:39
appreciated how patient and how much support they've they've
35:43
given me in that aspect. So are you kind of like the
35:46
Tuesday starter now? Is that how this works?
35:50
How? How does that play?
35:52
I guess so the schedule down here like we have Mondays off
35:56
and then we usually have one more off day in that week.
35:59
So we're playing five to six times a week.
36:01
So it doesn't necessarily work out perfectly.
36:05
That was just kind of the schedule that that is just how
36:08
it worked out. Right now I'm throwing on
36:10
Tuesdays through on Tuesday this week.
36:12
My next start will be on Tuesday.
36:14
But also and like these independent winter leagues, your
36:17
rosters, there's so much turnover with affiliate guys
36:20
coming in and out. Like we've got 3 Japanese guys
36:22
on the team that are leaving on the 16th.
36:25
They're all three starting pitchers.
36:26
So like that's going to shake up the rotation, obviously.
36:28
So this week on the start, the Tuesday star for sure, but
36:33
couldn't tell you anything more than that.
36:35
Yeah. So the in a sense you, you do
36:37
have a little bit of that high school feel when you don't
36:42
really know what position you're playing until you show up to the
36:45
ballpark that day. I know it's a little more
36:47
advanced than that, but it sounds like you have about a
36:50
week warning, maybe two weeks at most.
36:53
Yeah, and I mean, you don't really need more than that.
36:58
As long as I can lay my week out up to or lay out my days up to
37:01
the next appearance, that's all. That's all I need, you know, get
37:04
that schedule going and then you can adjust after you throw that
37:09
next, next game. For sure.
37:11
Yeah. That's also the beauty of being
37:13
a starter is, hey, you're just one of these days you're going
37:18
to start. Yeah.
37:19
No, that's 100% true. Yeah, feel bad for relievers.
37:23
Yeah, no, I've, I've been there and I don't want to go.
37:28
Yeah, Call back, I guess your first episode where you ran us
37:30
through, you threw in all three possible roles in one week when
37:35
you were in like triple AA, you, you had to start close bridge
37:41
relief. Yeah, it was.
37:43
Yeah, it was the the first day that like the first week, we
37:46
were allowed to go back to backs or make X amount of appearances
37:51
in a week. And I'm like, all right, man,
37:53
governor's off. Here you go, you're in the game.
37:55
In the past. We're here now, so let's, let's
37:57
talk about the game. Let's let's run through that.
37:59
I know we started to get into it.
38:01
What did it feel like waking up on Tuesday morning knowing that
38:05
the day was finally here? Awesome.
38:08
I mean, it was. It was just felt great, like it
38:11
was super exciting. It was one of those you wake up
38:13
a little earlier, time moves a little slower just from a little
38:17
bit of extra anticipation. And yeah, it was it felt the way
38:20
that I wanted it to feel, which I think it's it's the most
38:23
important part, not overwhelming, but I was excited,
38:26
looking forward to it. Lights came on, I had the
38:29
adrenaline rush and then it was just back to trying to get
38:32
people out, which a great feeling didn't go super well a
38:37
little rusty. The outs will come last I think
38:39
when you get your velocity back and then you get your stuff back
38:43
and then precision takes a little bit of a time.
38:46
You can't because you just can't replicate those game speed reps
38:50
no matter how hard you try even in at least for me, like even in
38:53
the live VPS like that first live VP.
38:56
I was pretty amped up for but everyone after that like it, you
38:59
just get a little more acclimated to it and your body's
39:03
more accustomed to moving that speed.
39:05
And so you just again, now we're back kind of into the volume
39:09
game. More fun way to do it.
39:11
Certainly the yeah, we're, we're building up the floor.
39:15
Right now, yeah. So you went, what, 2 1/3, two
39:20
and two? Third, Yeah, two and two and
39:22
one. Yeah.
39:23
I'm assuming it was pitch counted because I know you had a
39:26
couple couple walks in. There, Yeah, we were, we were.
39:28
It was around there. We were trying to be in the
39:32
three UPS, if we could get a fourth one, great, but 3 was the
39:35
goal being the 50 plus ish pitch range to continue progressing
39:42
that way. And no, I don't think it was
39:45
exceptionally specific to the pitch count.
39:47
I think we needed to make a bit of a switch to Get Me Out of a
39:50
jam, but that's that's part of it there.
39:54
Was it's baseball? Yeah, it's it's getting people
39:57
out. It's, you know, it's the
39:58
difference when when the lights come on and they come on for the
40:00
other team too. Everybody else gets better.
40:03
We're we're competitors. Everybody locks in a little
40:05
more. Mistakes get amplified and I
40:08
wasn't super sharp and that's that's what happens.
40:12
Like it's just part of getting back into the game.
40:13
I was playing things to take away that went well.
40:16
Arm felt great, which was. Number one focus was just
40:20
getting out of there feeling healthy and like that was a huge
40:22
relief. Like no matter, no matter how
40:24
much work you do, especially if you're rushing a recovery, so to
40:27
speak, which I, I certainly am a little bit like the, the voice
40:31
in the back of your head is gonna be like, hey, man, but you
40:32
don't know, it's only been 10 months, dude, like you're kind
40:38
of out of your mind a little bit, but let's, we'll hold on
40:40
it. But it felt great.
40:43
Woke up the next day and forearm, elbow felt really great
40:46
sore and the places that you want to be soaring, lampscaps,
40:50
core, all that good stuff. All the signs are positive
40:54
feedback from a physical standpoint, which it's a little
40:58
annoying I guess for me, like I'm just such a competitor in
41:04
the sense that I just I, I just care about getting people out,
41:07
especially coming from affiliate ball.
41:08
We've probably talked about the difference in perspective of
41:13
chasing numbers, trying to put up good.
41:15
The guy that had this conversation dugout yesterday,
41:18
like affiliate ball is isn't so much more about OK, but how good
41:23
can that guy be tomorrow? And like for me, like we're I'm
41:26
playing today. What's it matter if we're doing
41:28
tomorrow if I can't get anybody out today?
41:30
And so having to have that perspective of being OK with
41:34
sucking but the body feeling good is, is tough for me.
41:39
But I'm doing my. Right.
41:42
I think that's painted perfectly when you talk about it that way.
41:46
Yeah, it's it truly is back in the competitive mindset now
41:49
where it I guess normally you feel like you should be back in
41:54
the competitive mindset fully of just get this guy out in front
41:57
of me and you're in this weird mixed space now where every day
42:03
you wake up feeling good is a win, right?
42:05
You're also doing it while trying to get guys out and be
42:09
Yeah. It's like a weird survivors,
42:11
like a a low threshold survivors guilt kind of thing of like, I
42:16
don't know, I I don't like feeling that selfish.
42:18
I guess in a way of like I I gave up two runs and two earned,
42:23
but like there's an error in four runs and and two and a
42:26
third. I'm like totally bone the team,
42:28
but like, oh, my arm feels great.
42:29
So I get to feel good about that.
42:31
It's just not how not the kind of player I want to be.
42:35
But you got to take it with a grain of salt.
42:38
Find your Silver Linings when they're be in there and like
42:41
back in games where this is still technically rehab process
42:44
and still building up innings and getting back into the groove
42:48
of things, trying to be the pitcher that I'm used to being
42:51
while just it's getting thrown into the deep end, so to speak,
42:55
a little bit going straight from practice to to full games.
42:58
So that's just a an adjustment period.
43:01
Yeah, hit the ground running. Yeah, literally.
43:04
You're on one of those like speed treadmills.
43:06
It's already. 2nd or 20 mph just.
43:09
Get on and go. Yeah, and I mean that that
43:11
part's like super exciting too. I think.
43:14
I guess we probably didn't talk too much about that.
43:16
But like, I've had that conversation a few times over
43:18
the summer where one of the things that really helped me get
43:21
through those dog days where I just was feeling so mad like
43:27
about going to train was I, I'm kind of trying to do something
43:32
pretty exceptional. It was a little exhilarating
43:34
going into the training for that day of like, well, one, you're,
43:38
I was towing an intensity line so closely that like today could
43:42
just be the day that this all just goes to shit, rolling the
43:45
dice a little bit. But that risk from an adrenaline
43:49
standpoint, like it's, it's a little not necessarily
43:52
addicting, but like that can you got to find your, your
43:55
motivation, your edge wherever you can.
43:57
And for me that was a a lot of it, like everyday was just kind
44:00
of sink or swim. Like I've been treating this
44:03
whole process is kind of like a last ditch effort.
44:07
I'm going to come out twice the guy I went in before or I'm done
44:12
that. That has been my big kind of
44:14
focus of conviction of I don't like doing the the mediocre is,
44:20
is kind of the way I look at it. You know, I'm not, I'm not here
44:22
to just be another guy on a 14 month plan and trying to be back
44:29
to where I was beforehand. I'm trying to take three steps
44:32
past the guy I was before. So I I want to step back again
44:37
to day of even prior to the game, Ted, were you able to re
44:43
enter your old game day mindset of like just wake up, make food,
44:48
get coffee or whatever it is you or did it feel different to you
44:53
on that day? No, I was pretty happy with that
44:56
part as far as the preparation and felt more or less normal.
45:00
Of course, it felt a little surreal in the moment because
45:05
it's been so long since I felt that.
45:07
Went to the field a little earlier, kind of took a moment
45:10
and went out to the outfield and processed everything for 5-10
45:14
minutes or so, which I think definitely helped me settle all
45:19
the nerves and everything that I was experiencing at the time.
45:22
But as far as that mindset of going out there with focus to
45:27
execute pitches and all that like I was, I was pretty happy
45:30
with where I was able to to get to the execution.
45:35
May not have been there, but the base level mind state was, which
45:39
goes a long way to moving. Forward sweet.
45:42
Well, that's awesome. Now now let's talk about
45:44
becoming a pitcher again. So game planning for Tuesday.
45:48
I know you and I talked a little bit about it via text.
45:52
What what changes do you want to make game plan wise?
45:55
Because you're a pitcher again, You're you're not just a rehab
45:58
guy. You have to get outs for your
46:02
team for y'all to win. So what's the plan?
46:06
Yeah, so for me, I think sometimes guys are difficult to
46:09
catch because their stuff is like just so overwhelmingly good
46:13
and disgusting. But I I think I'm a guy that's
46:16
not easy to catch. Because honestly, sometimes I
46:19
think early on in a catcher pitcher relationship, guys just
46:23
forget that I have pitches, especially, especially from the
46:29
one which is unfortunate, like gets forgotten a lot is the
46:33
cutter because I usually have AD 5.
46:35
And so like guys aren't used to going past four for the change
46:38
up. And for me, the cutters like the
46:41
pitch that I usually pitch off of else fastball play up tunnels
46:45
of raking stuff a little bit better.
46:47
And I have a really good command of it.
46:50
So like that's usually the pitch that I'm trying to establish and
46:54
work off of. And I just didn't, I think I
46:57
threw one or two in my my 2.1 innings cause with the pitch
47:01
clock and stuff, it's tough to make a whole lot of in game
47:04
adjustments. And at the end of the day, like
47:06
my focus was committing to the pitch and trying to execute
47:09
whatever was called. And as much as anything, I
47:12
needed feedback from the hitters to see their reaction on stuff.
47:16
Because I've been pretty happy with how my stuff is looked in
47:19
my live VPS and stuff like that. But it's a little different than
47:21
it was pre op. And so there's still a learning
47:24
curve that just cause track man says it's doing this doesn't
47:27
always mean that that's how the header is going to perceive it.
47:29
And there's a lot of nuance that I have to kind of discover by
47:33
just trial and error more than anything.
47:35
And so the biggest thing for me is execution right now is
47:39
commands. OK, I'm around the zone, but
47:42
it's kind of horseshoes and hand grenades.
47:44
It's got to be in there or it doesn't matter.
47:46
So that's that's my biggest thing is just get more polished.
47:51
Got to just get the reps and kind of endure, survive a little
47:57
bit I guess is the right word with what I have on that any
48:00
given day. I keep mentally wanting to go
48:03
back to like, oh, last year I was locked in borderline the
48:09
best I've ever thrown. It's hard not to want to just
48:12
jump back into that role. But that same time, you know,
48:16
100 innings into the year at that point, like you're in mid
48:18
season form, you had plenty of reps Hopefully it doesn't take
48:21
me 100 innings to get back to that point this time, but it
48:25
might. And I just kind of have to be OK
48:28
with that. And like we're still again,
48:30
sometimes it takes guys 1418 months to feel themselves again.
48:35
Like Ian was talking about like that first year back, it was
48:39
just getting to work in survive and figuring out how to get
48:42
people out with whatever you had that day.
48:44
And so that's, that's right where I am right now.
48:47
And so just got to find a way through it.
48:49
That's part of being a pitcher too.
48:50
You don't get your A stuff everyday.
48:51
It's a nice challenge in a way too, to try and figure out how
48:54
to get people out with your B or C stuff.
48:56
That's that's where you make your money really.
48:58
And that's kind of always the picture.
49:00
I felt like I was where I felt like I was really good at just
49:05
having B stuff a ton of times, not really having a lot of days
49:08
with the C stuff. And so yesterday I had or
49:11
Tuesday I had C minus stuff. And so that, so it's a good
49:16
challenge and it's humbling. Remember when you're human,
49:21
settle the ego down, all that good stuff.
49:23
It's all part of part of the process.
49:25
And without getting too far ahead, how many starts or
49:31
innings are you trying to get to this winter and what would you
49:36
deem a success just from an innings logged perspective?
49:42
Yeah, My, my goal is don't miss any starts and get at least one
49:47
of five innings. Our regular season goes until
49:50
January 6th. That would put, you know, that
49:52
last start hopefully would be the 4th, 1:00.
49:56
And if I go 2345 perfect, we nailed it.
49:59
And I'm hopefully that would put me in a great position where I'm
50:03
a bit more polished, refined and can give us a chance to be an
50:06
impact guy in the playoffs would be kind of cherry on top.
50:11
Obviously from like a player's perspective, like that's really
50:15
what I want to do is make an impact in the playoffs this
50:17
year. But from a rehab perspective, if
50:19
I can make 4 plus starts and get built up to five innings, I
50:23
think that'll be a a great that puts me in a great spot going
50:27
forward. Yeah, probably, probably good to
50:30
have two different kind of mindset type goals, the one as
50:36
your rehab progression. Yeah, you are.
50:40
As you have said multiple times, I've said you're 10 months
50:43
removed from surgery and then from a competitive edge because
50:48
you're playing for a contract as well.
50:50
Right. I mean, at the end of the day,
50:51
they have the rehab part just it's great.
50:54
Like it's cool that I'm doing this, but it, it doesn't, it
50:56
doesn't matter. Like if I'm out there not
50:58
getting anybody out, like I'm like you said, I'm playing for a
51:00
job in, in the summer. So at the end of the day, like
51:03
after that, got that first one out of the way, we talked about
51:05
like now we go like, yeah, I got to start, I got to get people
51:08
out and none of this really matters if I'm rolling out there
51:11
at 8891 and getting hit around and stuff.
51:15
Yeah, like we got to go. We got some some work to do man.
51:20
Yeah, it's back to what you said, comparing affiliate rehab
51:24
timelines or schedules versus non affiliate.
51:28
You don't have the luxury of job security, which sucks, but it's
51:32
the reality. And yes, you can tell people or
51:36
anybody can see that you're still on this progression.
51:39
Right. But if you just go on baseball
51:42
Reference fault, right, If you just go on baseball reference,
51:45
man, all it says is I didn't pitch this year and now I got a
51:48
70 RA. So at the end of the day, like
51:51
the shit counts. And and that's like that's a big
51:55
part of being an independent guy is like you don't you don't
51:58
really get to have bad years anymore.
51:59
And especially like that's been, I think that was something that
52:02
went a long way to me not getting resigned And after I got
52:05
released in 2023 is like my 2022 was pretty dog shit.
52:09
So like you're kind of as good as your last year.
52:13
So I guess on the independent side, like it matters.
52:16
It just, it just matters. You're you're going out there,
52:18
you're you're putting your career on the line with
52:20
statistics or not everything. But like it's a good snapshot.
52:24
And that's what a lot of teams are when you got 1000 indie ball
52:27
guys that you're looking to fill a couple spots, like that's how
52:32
they reach out in the beginning. So put up or shut up.
52:35
Man, so it's time, I guess it's relying on the the 10 different
52:40
pitches you throw and getting getting on the same page with
52:44
whoever's behind the dish and saying this is this is the plan.
52:47
This is what we do, Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
52:51
And that's it's, it's fun like like you said, having those two
52:54
different goals helps give you a little bit of mental fall back,
52:59
like a fall back mentally, I guess.
53:01
But yeah, the player goal certainly is the priority.
53:05
And it's hard to keep that quiet when, you know, you walk that
53:09
second guy in a row and you're like, oh, my arm feels pretty
53:12
good. Like, well, you look like an
53:13
asshole. But you you feel a little bit
53:19
you covered first base. I did feel you.
53:20
Are still a baseball. Player.
53:23
Yeah, it's in there, It's common.
53:24
Just got to give it a chance to to find its way out.
53:28
Yeah, and well, we also talked about maybe not the best
53:31
results, but what maybe one ball against you was hit above 90
53:36
mph. Yeah, I mean, that was the other
53:38
thing, like I said, getting feedback from hitters when I was
53:42
in the zone. It it wasn't hit hard.
53:44
Would have liked a little more swing and miss on the the
53:48
heater. The one said a lot of pop ups
53:50
like I'm a carry guy. So like I was getting the misses
53:53
I was looking for. I was able to get inside guys
53:55
even though I below was a little bit down, but still got on the
53:59
hands a lot of jams. Like most of the hits, the runs
54:02
that gave up were scored on a ass out slider off the end of
54:06
the bat and a a fisted 4 seam up and in on the guys.
54:09
So like those are the outcomes I'm looking for with those
54:13
pitches. And that's just baseball man.
54:15
Like that's the difference between throwing all those
54:18
bullpens indoors. Like you execute your slider
54:20
down the way like well, good pitch, but guys on first base,
54:23
that's just how it goes sometimes.
54:25
Well, I I appreciate the entire update.
54:28
I know I could drill you with questions forever, but we also
54:31
have buried the lead that you still have school to finish.
54:34
And you are. In that week, yeah, yeah, yeah,
54:36
man, the ever. Studious Miller Hogan refuses to
54:40
settle. Yeah, my mom won't get a crack
54:42
out of that one. Calling you ever studious?
54:45
Yeah, yeah, 100%. It's been hard, but I mean that
54:49
for 20 years. Yeah, too bad Saint Louis
54:52
doesn't have a degree in track man plots or something like
54:55
that. Yeah, that would help.
54:57
I'm sure that I'm sure that's in the books.
54:59
Yeah, yeah. I bet you'd have a PhD at this
55:02
point if that were the case. But something like that, Miller,
55:05
I appreciate you doing this. Now.
55:07
Now there's a little bit in me that wants to do this after
55:09
every single one of your stars. But I'll I'll probably keep that
55:11
to text for a while. Yeah, there you go.
55:14
Yeah, maybe we do a recap of after the the season you make a
55:18
playoff run or something. We can.
55:19
Perfect. Yeah, that's that's what we'll
55:21
need when the Gigantes are playing for the Caribbean series
55:25
that there you go, we need. Yeah, right on.
55:28
Yes, well, hey, I appreciate you hopping on here.
55:31
Congrats again on getting back on the field.
55:33
We are so incredibly proud of you.
55:35
I know I've told you, but I I can't express it enough.
55:40
You guys have been a huge part of it, so give yourself.
55:43
Thank you. Thank you.
55:46
Well, we'll be following. I know you don't have any social
55:49
media, so there's there's nothing to really plug.
55:52
But if anybody wants to watch Miller's games, they are
55:55
available for stream on YouTube. So definitely, definitely give
55:59
the Roberto Clemente league a little, little YouTube search
56:03
and you can watch all the games live or recorded.
56:06
Yep, Yep. All right.
56:07
Well, to everyone out there, thanks for laying back with us.
56:12
Yep, thanks for having me.