Latest / Foul Territory / MLB Fan Council cap push + Royals prospect Blake Mitchell joins FT

Transcript

MLB Fan Council cap push + Royals prospect Blake Mitchell joins FT · Foul Territory

0:03
Speaker 1: Pt great to have you on the show, and I'll
0:05
Speaker 1: just reiterate for everyone you can follow them at rational
0:09
Speaker 1: underscore Yankee, not irrational, rational underscore Yankee. We'll get into
0:14
Speaker 1: the Yanks in the second portion here. Let's start with
0:17
Speaker 1: your involvement in the MLB Fan Council. These guys didn't
0:20
Speaker 1: know about it. It's a way for MLB to connect
0:23
Speaker 1: with fans. So what can you tell us about your
0:25
Speaker 1: experience so far and how you went a little viral
0:27
Speaker 1: with a tweet talking about how you were on a
0:30
Speaker 1: recent call with them. And I'll cherry pick here, he said,
0:34
Speaker 1: I'm now almost one hundred percent convinced there will be
0:36
Speaker 1: a work stoppage after next season. A lot of the
0:40
Speaker 1: content presented to us was in support of a league
0:42
Speaker 1: wide salary cap. It definitely felt like the league was
0:45
Speaker 1: making its appeal to fans as to why a salary
0:47
Speaker 1: cap makes sense. Clearly the league as a firm stance
0:50
Speaker 1: on the issue, and if the players dig their heels
0:52
Speaker 1: in against a cap, I think the twenty seventh season
0:54
Speaker 1: will not happen. Prior to this call, I knew this
0:55
Speaker 1: was a possibility, but it was subtly hopefully that cooler
0:58
Speaker 1: heads might prevail prior to missing a season. I'm now
1:00
Speaker 1: a lot less confident in that. So instead of cherry picking,
1:04
Speaker 1: I've decided to just read the whole thing, and now
1:06
Speaker 1: you go for it. Tell us what that meaning was
1:08
Speaker 1: like and why we should be concerned about this.
1:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I I My stance was if we're a year
1:15
Speaker 2: out from these negotiations really kicking off, and you know,
1:19
Speaker 2: I'm just a random guy with a Twitter account on
1:21
Speaker 2: a call with a bunch of other random people with
1:23
Speaker 2: Twitter accounts, and we're spending twenty to thirty minutes plus.
1:26
Speaker 3: But honestly, it was more than that talking about salary.
1:30
Speaker 2: Caps and that as a solution to competitive balance in baseball.
1:35
Speaker 2: It was just kind of alarmed. I don't want to
1:38
Speaker 2: say alarming, but it was just surprising to me that
1:41
Speaker 2: the league was that upfront with us about why a
1:44
Speaker 2: salary cap could could make sense, Because I feel like
1:47
Speaker 2: I'm the last person that you're you're going to articulate
1:50
Speaker 2: that too, right, I'm just literally some guy who fires
1:52
Speaker 2: out tweets into the ether, you know, a couple.
1:54
Speaker 3: Of times a day. So I don't I don't want
1:57
Speaker 3: to say concerned, but you know, kind of going in.
1:59
Speaker 2: I was like every other fan, right, you know, everyone
2:01
Speaker 2: knew there might be a workstoppage, there might not be,
2:04
Speaker 2: but I don't think I knew how serious MLB might
2:07
Speaker 2: be about instituting a salary cap in the next CBA negotiations.
2:12
Speaker 2: And that kind of alarmed me a little bit that
2:14
Speaker 2: it felt like they meant business about it.
2:17
Speaker 4: Okay, first of all, how did you get on this
2:19
Speaker 4: fan committee? Because I want to be on this fan committee?
2:21
Speaker 4: How do I how do I get Rob Manford to
2:23
Speaker 4: call me and let me listen in on these phone calls?
2:26
Speaker 4: And then did you guys get to ask questions back?
2:28
Speaker 4: Or was who was? Who was on this call? Because
2:31
Speaker 4: now you have me completely interested? And I went in, Right,
2:35
Speaker 4: So I got to figure out make a make an account,
2:37
Speaker 4: call myself irrational Yankee fan, and then I'll get all
2:40
Speaker 4: your followers they have.
2:41
Speaker 5: For you, commissioners.
2:45
Speaker 2: There's there's a lot of irrational Yankees fans. I don't
2:47
Speaker 2: think you'd get you get too much traction there. But uh,
2:52
Speaker 2: I literally just one day got a d M from
2:55
Speaker 2: the MLB main account asking me to be on the
2:57
Speaker 2: MLB Fan Council, And that's really what it was. And
3:02
Speaker 2: then when it started, I had no idea what I
3:03
Speaker 2: was getting into. I mean, it's really just kind of
3:05
Speaker 2: a once a month zoom call. And I will give
3:08
Speaker 2: MLB credit. They they're not trying to hide anything. They are,
3:12
Speaker 2: you know, telling us that anything you take off these calls,
3:14
Speaker 2: you can go out onto your platforms and talk about.
3:17
Speaker 2: You know, they gave us some say into what we
3:19
Speaker 2: wanted to talk about, so they weren't really trying to
3:21
Speaker 2: control the narrative. From that perspective, how I got selected,
3:26
Speaker 2: I really have no idea. I mean I was either
3:28
Speaker 2: someone at MB or maybe someone with the Yankees knew
3:30
Speaker 2: my account gave it them.
3:32
Speaker 3: No idea, but.
3:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm it's interesting for me because I'm
3:37
Speaker 2: not I'll work in baseball. I don't really play baseball.
3:41
Speaker 2: I'm just a guy with a Twitter account. To get
3:42
Speaker 2: kind of that inside access there, it was pretty interesting, right.
3:48
Speaker 6: Did they give you any other options? But did they
3:50
Speaker 6: give you like how they're going to fix the what
3:52
Speaker 6: they're calling the inequality in baseball or was it all
3:56
Speaker 6: just the salary cap?
3:58
Speaker 2: They were upfront saying not here to present solutions, right,
4:02
Speaker 2: We're just here to kind of talk about the problem
4:04
Speaker 2: and they it was a it was almost weird because
4:06
Speaker 2: they were they were saying, you know, a salary cap
4:08
Speaker 2: might help, but we also don't want to talk about solutions,
4:11
Speaker 2: which the salary cap would have been the solution. But
4:13
Speaker 2: you know, I think, uh, you know, they they really
4:20
Speaker 2: just kind of focused on, you know, over the last
4:22
Speaker 2: you know, the argument is, you know, there's baseball. There's
4:25
Speaker 2: a ton of parody in baseball, but when you go
4:27
Speaker 2: down the list of who's actually won the World Series,
4:29
Speaker 2: no one outside of the top fifteen has done it
4:32
Speaker 2: in terms of payroll. So how how do you fix that?
4:36
Speaker 2: A salary cap might be the way to do it.
4:38
Speaker 2: That we did not get deep into what if you
4:40
Speaker 2: fix the luxury tax system, what's going on with maybe
4:43
Speaker 2: some of the owners that aren't spending money. They didn't
4:45
Speaker 2: saying about the pirates maybe pocketing all the revenue sharing.
4:49
Speaker 2: So it definitely felt a little bit more one sided
4:51
Speaker 2: toward a cap than anything else. And you know, and
4:53
Speaker 2: and and I did ask the question, and I think
4:55
Speaker 2: it's an important question for the lead to answer. You know,
4:58
Speaker 2: is it necessarily a bet thing for there to be
5:02
Speaker 2: a system in place where your star players get to
5:05
Speaker 2: play consistently in the biggest markets with the most fans,
5:09
Speaker 2: with the most exposure, and they're consistently going to the
5:12
Speaker 2: playoffs in the World Series. I thought that last World Series,
5:15
Speaker 2: you know, as painful as it was to watch the
5:17
Speaker 2: team that beat the Yankees last year play the team
5:20
Speaker 2: that beat the Yankees this year. I mean, any baseball
5:22
Speaker 2: fan would would put that World Series up there with
5:25
Speaker 2: you know, one of the best World Series of all time,
5:27
Speaker 2: and you know, with a salary cap and system system
5:30
Speaker 2: in place, does that World Series happen?
5:33
Speaker 4: This is a pr battle that the league is trying
5:36
Speaker 4: to win by doing having these influencers on their call
5:41
Speaker 4: and then say go spread this news to the world.
5:44
Speaker 4: And I get why they're doing it. But what I
5:47
Speaker 4: want to know is was anything else discussed? Did you
5:50
Speaker 4: get to ask questions? Did they give you any answers?
5:53
Speaker 4: Do they listen to any of your ideas or is
5:56
Speaker 4: this just I know you said you got to ask questions,
5:58
Speaker 4: But did they listen into your ideas and say, oh man,
6:01
Speaker 4: they might have an idea to help fans or is
6:03
Speaker 4: it just like, oh, yeah, we heard you, We're just
6:05
Speaker 4: gonna spear you more information out.
6:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, they let us ask questions. I would say that
6:10
Speaker 2: the fans on the call were overwhelmingly in support of
6:14
Speaker 2: a CAP. I think that's important to point out. But also,
6:17
Speaker 2: at the same time, you know, the Yankees have the
6:19
Speaker 2: biggest fan base in baseball, and I'm the only Yankees
6:21
Speaker 2: fan out of probably seventy or eighty other people on
6:23
Speaker 2: this call, So I won't say that the fan base
6:25
Speaker 2: was the people on the call were necessarily representative of
6:28
Speaker 2: Mob's fan.
6:28
Speaker 3: Base as a whole.
6:30
Speaker 2: But yeah, a lot of the fans from small market
6:32
Speaker 2: teams were in favor of a CAP, so there really
6:35
Speaker 2: wasn't a ton of pushback from a.
6:37
Speaker 3: Lot of the other people.
6:39
Speaker 2: But yeah, I did ask the question, you know, why
6:42
Speaker 2: is it a bad thing that the best players play
6:44
Speaker 2: in the big markets? And the answer I got back was,
6:46
Speaker 2: you know, what do you It depends on what we
6:50
Speaker 2: want baseball to be. Do we want it to be
6:52
Speaker 2: a league where you know, only ten or fifteen teams
6:55
Speaker 2: have a chance every year, or do we want to
6:56
Speaker 2: give everyone a shot? And I don't buy into that
6:59
Speaker 2: premise that that's what it is right now, but that's
7:02
Speaker 2: the answer I got.
7:04
Speaker 6: Would you want to hear from the players, because obviously
7:07
Speaker 6: the Major League Baseball is is putting this together, putting
7:12
Speaker 6: this group together. Wouldn't it be beneficial to hear the
7:15
Speaker 6: player's side, if the players Association the Union puts something together,
7:19
Speaker 6: you'd be open to listen to that part too.
7:21
Speaker 5: Yeah.
7:21
Speaker 2: I want to hear that, right, because again, you know,
7:24
Speaker 2: I want to be educated on these issues. I didn't
7:27
Speaker 2: start putting out content or giving my thoughts about baseball
7:30
Speaker 2: thinking anyone's going to follow me.
7:31
Speaker 3: But as I'm learning right now, I'm on foul territory.
7:34
Speaker 2: So every once in a while I say something and
7:36
Speaker 2: people actually read it and listen to it and want
7:38
Speaker 2: to talk about it. And when I do, I want
7:41
Speaker 2: to be knowledgeable about all sides of the issue. You know,
7:44
Speaker 2: I've gotten the ownership side. I you know, I get it.
7:48
Speaker 2: I hear where they're coming from. I'm not going to
7:50
Speaker 2: say I agree with it, but you know, to hear
7:54
Speaker 2: from the other side of it.
7:55
Speaker 3: You want to get a balanced view.
7:56
Speaker 2: So when I talk to you know, my followers, I
7:58
Speaker 2: have something to say.
8:00
Speaker 4: Okay, My question is, is then all other leagues have caps?
8:05
Speaker 5: Right?
8:05
Speaker 4: The Chiefs go to the Super Bowl every year, the
8:07
Speaker 4: Chiefs and the Eagles and forever the Patriots were going
8:10
Speaker 4: to the Super Bowl every year, and in the NBA,
8:12
Speaker 4: you know, it's it's they have to build these super teams, right,
8:15
Speaker 4: And yes, Oklahoma City won last year, but nobody watched
8:18
Speaker 4: because it was Oklahoma City. But when the Lakers are
8:20
Speaker 4: in it and the Celtics are in it every year,
8:23
Speaker 4: people tune in to watch. So how does it? I mean,
8:26
Speaker 4: it still goes back to my original question. Flour would
8:28
Speaker 4: obviously help the cap because there already is a soft cap.
8:31
Speaker 4: I know you're we can't. I'm not going to get
8:34
Speaker 4: too deep in the weeds. It's just amazing to me
8:37
Speaker 4: that they go to fans and I'm assuming now I
8:42
Speaker 4: don't know this, but from what you said, these are
8:44
Speaker 4: people that are probably tweeted things that they were already
8:47
Speaker 4: aligned with, so they were just trying to get them
8:49
Speaker 4: to say, oh, yeah, what you're saying, we already believe
8:52
Speaker 4: in this, let's go spread this. I don't know, I
8:55
Speaker 4: just I would love to be a part of this.
8:57
Speaker 4: I don't even really have a question. I just love
8:59
Speaker 4: to be a part of it, just so I could
9:00
Speaker 4: hear what they say. Because I've been on MLB calls
9:03
Speaker 4: before I was there in two thousand and two when
9:05
Speaker 4: they were trying to contract the Expos and the Twins. Oh,
9:07
Speaker 4: we were never trying to do that. I had a
9:09
Speaker 4: call week right, and now the new thing is salary cap,
9:12
Speaker 4: salary cap, salary cap, and they're spreading it to the fans,
9:15
Speaker 4: and then they get you guys who influenced people to say, oh,
9:18
Speaker 4: this cap is a great idea, and then more fans.
9:21
Speaker 4: I don't know it, just I would love to be
9:22
Speaker 4: a part of this somehow and listen to it.
9:25
Speaker 3: Yeah.
9:25
Speaker 2: I do want to say that this was one call
9:28
Speaker 2: at the end of a series of ten or eleven calls,
9:31
Speaker 2: and this was the only one where I felt like
9:33
Speaker 2: MLB was really pushing its agenda a little bit.
9:35
Speaker 3: Honest.
9:36
Speaker 2: I don't want to make it like the whole program
9:38
Speaker 2: was that this was kind of unique to it, but
9:43
Speaker 2: but yeah, I think that it was definitely alarming that
9:47
Speaker 2: on the last call that was that was the narrative
9:50
Speaker 2: that that was being placed.
9:51
Speaker 3: And like you said, Aj, you can go across any league.
9:54
Speaker 2: I'm a big New York Giants fan on the football side,
9:56
Speaker 2: and there were stories coming out over the last couple
10:00
Speaker 2: of days that MetLife Stadium was filled with Niners fans
10:03
Speaker 2: this week and more so than it was Giants fans, right,
10:05
Speaker 2: because in a league with a salary cap, they were
10:07
Speaker 2: a poorly run organization. They're up against the cap, they
10:09
Speaker 2: can't improve their team. And now you have one of
10:12
Speaker 2: your premier franchises in one of the largest markets. Their
10:15
Speaker 2: fans aren't showing up to the games. I'm sure they're
10:19
Speaker 2: watching the games, but maybe not to the degree that
10:22
Speaker 2: they would have been. You know, you got Niners fans
10:24
Speaker 2: in MetLife Stadium making more noise than Giants fans. And
10:27
Speaker 2: if you create a system where there is a cap
10:29
Speaker 2: and you have teams like the Yankees and the Dodgers
10:32
Speaker 2: or whatever, you know, big market organization you're talking about
10:35
Speaker 2: going through potentially prolonged periods of a downturn. Is it
10:40
Speaker 2: good for Baseball to potentially disengage some of your largest
10:44
Speaker 2: fan bases in an effort to you know, pick it
10:48
Speaker 2: back up in Kansas City, uh, you know, Cincinnati, Seattle,
10:52
Speaker 2: or whatever small market it might be. It's a hard
10:54
Speaker 2: question because if I were a fan of those teams,
10:56
Speaker 2: the answer would be absolutely yes. I want to have
10:58
Speaker 2: a chance to win as much as anybody else. I
11:02
Speaker 2: don't know, if a salary cap fixes that, and I also,
11:06
Speaker 2: you know, for for the greater good of the game.
11:08
Speaker 2: I don't know if that's what's best for fan engagement
11:09
Speaker 2: because I don't think there's anything broken with baseball right
11:12
Speaker 2: now where we need to completely revamp the monetary landscape
11:16
Speaker 2: of it.
11:17
Speaker 1: What info did you get, like, did you so in
11:19
Speaker 1: this particular call? Did you learn a lot? Did they
11:22
Speaker 1: give helpful information? And were there any questions like the
11:25
Speaker 1: ones that you said, Hey, there's already a soft salary cap.
11:30
Speaker 1: Why doesn't they soft floor exist for these ownership groups
11:34
Speaker 1: of fan and these are the fan base that are
11:36
Speaker 1: often complaining, as they should, but those groups are not
11:40
Speaker 1: spending money and then they're acting poor. But if they
11:42
Speaker 1: really were struggling, they would obviously sell the team. It's
11:45
Speaker 1: a broken record, but it is true. Do they give
11:48
Speaker 1: any response to that or is it just like, are
11:50
Speaker 1: they trying to make it an open form or is
11:51
Speaker 1: it more.
11:52
Speaker 5: Just hey, here's the solution.
11:54
Speaker 1: There's also revenue sharing, which exists now and can continue
11:56
Speaker 1: to exist. So if a team's like, oh, I'm fifty
11:59
Speaker 1: mils short from spending what I want to spend, revenue
12:01
Speaker 1: sharing can help fix that as well. Did you get
12:04
Speaker 1: any of that or was it just a one sided attack.
12:08
Speaker 3: I don't want to call it an attack.
12:09
Speaker 2: I think that the they geared the content toward what
12:13
Speaker 2: the people on the call were trying to kind of
12:16
Speaker 2: get out of it. And again, it was when when
12:19
Speaker 2: you start talking about salary cap, you're going to get
12:21
Speaker 2: a lot of the fans from a lot of the
12:23
Speaker 2: smaller market teams coming out and saying that, you know,
12:27
Speaker 2: we've been pounding the table for this for for a
12:29
Speaker 2: long time, and you know, for me, I was maybe one.
12:34
Speaker 3: Of the only dissenting voices on there.
12:37
Speaker 2: So we didn't really spend a lot of time on
12:39
Speaker 2: the other side of the issue because there wasn't a
12:41
Speaker 2: lot of interest in the other side of the issue.
12:43
Speaker 3: I didn't feel like.
12:44
Speaker 1: Why are there only one? Why is there eighty people
12:48
Speaker 1: on there and only one Yankee Rep? Like, how does
12:50
Speaker 1: that work?
12:51
Speaker 4: Well?
12:51
Speaker 1: Like other teams had multiple reps, but only one for
12:54
Speaker 1: you guys, I think everyone.
12:56
Speaker 2: Ever, some teams have two or three. I don't know
13:00
Speaker 2: if there's a Dodger's rep. If there is, I haven't
13:02
Speaker 2: met that person. I don't think there's another Yankees rep.
13:05
Speaker 3: To my knowledge.
13:06
Speaker 2: It could just be that Yankees fans can be a
13:08
Speaker 2: little bit annoying sometimes and they didn't want to deal
13:10
Speaker 2: with it. You know, I'm all being pretty upfront about
13:14
Speaker 2: that if that's the case, And I can't say I
13:17
Speaker 2: blame him because I deal with it every day.
13:20
Speaker 3: But yeah, I can't answer that question. I really don't know.
13:24
Speaker 1: Well, you are rational and you are well spoken, So
13:26
Speaker 1: let's let's try to find a positive here from either
13:29
Speaker 1: this meeting or prior meetings, because.
13:31
Speaker 5: You are the voice in the rep for these discussions.
13:35
Speaker 1: Was there anything good that you've learned and idea floated
13:38
Speaker 1: that you actually saw implemented, like over the past year.
13:42
Speaker 1: Is there anything that can come out of it that
13:43
Speaker 1: you think was super helpful for them to understand to
13:48
Speaker 1: help grow the game.
13:49
Speaker 5: It's no secret and I used to work there. You know.
13:52
Speaker 5: It's bosses where you're.
13:53
Speaker 1: Like corny and even Ken caught it up right, like
13:57
Speaker 1: the It's like the concert during the World Series from
14:00
Speaker 1: the Jonas Brothers where you're like, they're trying, but they
14:03
Speaker 1: just don't understand it. So do you feel like anything
14:05
Speaker 1: gets through for them to be cooler in the way
14:08
Speaker 1: that they run the sport?
14:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it depends on the topic you're talking about, right,
14:15
Speaker 2: you know, there were some of it that was just
14:16
Speaker 2: purely educational. We had someone come in and talk to
14:20
Speaker 2: us about the science behind torpedo bats, and that was
14:23
Speaker 2: earlier in the season when that was one of the stories.
14:26
Speaker 3: And there's some things.
14:27
Speaker 2: There that you've realized pretty quickly. The person who's talking
14:30
Speaker 2: to about it and knows way more than I ever will,
14:32
Speaker 2: So it's kind of just to sit there and listen
14:34
Speaker 2: and learn. But then we had a really cool call
14:38
Speaker 2: where we were given the same presentation around player marketing
14:44
Speaker 2: a week after for Fernando Tatis Junior got it to
14:47
Speaker 2: talk about, you know, what the league can be doing
14:49
Speaker 2: to help increase his profile, you know, and I learned
14:52
Speaker 2: a lot from that in terms of what the league
14:55
Speaker 2: is doing to try to help make its players more
14:58
Speaker 2: visible from mark. But then they asked us, you know,
15:01
Speaker 2: what's from your perspective, what are the things that players
15:04
Speaker 2: are kind of missing on the social media front right now?
15:07
Speaker 2: And I felt like they really did take our suggestions.
15:10
Speaker 2: Like one of the things I said was, you know,
15:12
Speaker 2: I follow a lot of Yankees on Twitter. Most of
15:15
Speaker 2: their Twitter accounts feel like just straight pr for for
15:19
Speaker 2: the player. It doesn't feel like Aaron Judge is sending
15:22
Speaker 2: out a whole lot of tweets off of his Twitter account, right,
15:25
Speaker 2: it's probably maybe someone doing it for them or whoever
15:27
Speaker 2: runs his social media. And you know, fans can see that.
15:29
Speaker 2: They can see through that, and it doesn't make you
15:32
Speaker 2: give you the ability to like you can identify with
15:34
Speaker 2: someone you know when when it feels like that. So
15:38
Speaker 2: I think just little things like that, I think we're
15:40
Speaker 2: definitely taken into account they. I do think they made
15:42
Speaker 2: an effort to listen to us after every call, they
15:45
Speaker 2: asked us for our feedback.
15:46
Speaker 5: Okay, okay, I agree with that.
15:49
Speaker 1: By the way, where there are mostly employees working for
15:55
Speaker 1: players and running their accounts, right, and they're busy, and
15:58
Speaker 1: some of them aren't good at it, but some more
16:00
Speaker 1: connectivity would certainly help, and some are better than others.
16:03
Speaker 1: But I do know what you're talking about there. There
16:05
Speaker 1: are quite a few players, especially some of the bigger
16:07
Speaker 1: names where I mean it's kind of like when you
16:10
Speaker 1: would look at the Rock or something like they're just putting.
16:12
Speaker 5: Stuff out and they have there.
16:14
Speaker 1: They are their own business online, right, so everything is
16:18
Speaker 1: either an influencer post and then I get it it
16:21
Speaker 1: pays the bills or something that's gearing towards that, So
16:24
Speaker 1: I understand that.
16:25
Speaker 5: I agree with that right.
16:27
Speaker 1: Honestly, it's part of why we started this show, where like, hey,
16:30
Speaker 1: these guys are cool, let's bring them on. It's easier
16:32
Speaker 1: for them to just talk for fifteen minutes to us
16:35
Speaker 1: versus have them go.
16:37
Speaker 5: A lot of these guys feel weird about it. Hey,
16:40
Speaker 5: Yankee fans, it's me talking after the game, right like that.
16:45
Speaker 5: You're great on here.
16:46
Speaker 1: You didn't want to do if you were asked to
16:48
Speaker 1: do this, you'd be like if you were doing this
16:50
Speaker 1: out after every game.
16:51
Speaker 5: Like, here are my thoughts? Yeah, kind of weird, right. Yeah.
16:56
Speaker 1: You've got Royal super prospect Blake Mitchell joining us right
16:59
Speaker 1: now on the show, and he's out in the Arizona
17:01
Speaker 1: Fall League and was named.
17:02
Speaker 5: To the AFL Fall Stars game roster. I used to
17:06
Speaker 5: call those games. It's one of my favorites.
17:07
Speaker 1: The game is Sunday at Sloan Park eight o'clock Eastern
17:10
Speaker 1: and you can watch it on MLB TV. It's streamed
17:13
Speaker 1: live on the app as well. Blake joining us here, Blake,
17:16
Speaker 1: great to have you on. Congrats on making that roster
17:18
Speaker 1: and has everything going out there.
17:20
Speaker 7: Yeah, sir, thanks for having me. It's been great.
17:23
Speaker 8: You know, it's a lot of good baseball out here,
17:24
Speaker 8: a lot of great players, great coaches, So.
17:27
Speaker 7: You know, I'm taking it all in learning from as
17:29
Speaker 7: many people as possible.
17:31
Speaker 5: What's been your favorite moment out there so far?
17:34
Speaker 1: It could be anything individually in a game, moment with
17:38
Speaker 1: some new teammates that you're meeting.
17:42
Speaker 8: I would say just getting to continue to play with
17:44
Speaker 8: the guys that I played with this year, like Daniel Vasquez,
17:47
Speaker 8: Carson Rockefer and all the Royals guys that have got
17:49
Speaker 8: to play with. And then also our manager, Hazusa Swaye,
17:53
Speaker 8: who's been my manager every single year in pro ball,
17:56
Speaker 8: So for him to continue to be my manager, you know,
17:58
Speaker 8: it's really special.
18:01
Speaker 4: What are you trying to learn? Because when I went
18:03
Speaker 4: to the Fall League, I was I was awful because
18:05
Speaker 4: I was I'd actually been in the big leagues for
18:07
Speaker 4: the first time. And then they were like, oh, go
18:09
Speaker 4: play in Arizona, and I was like, you know, what
18:12
Speaker 4: are you trying to work on. They didn't really say anything.
18:13
Speaker 4: They just like, just go get more at bats, and
18:15
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, well, what are you trying to
18:17
Speaker 4: work on while you're out in Arizona? Did they give
18:20
Speaker 4: you a list of things you need to improve?
18:23
Speaker 8: I don't really have a list of things to work on.
18:26
Speaker 8: I was hurt for the entire first half of the years.
18:28
Speaker 8: So the main thing for me is just getting as
18:30
Speaker 8: many at bats as possible, getting to learn, you know,
18:34
Speaker 8: other pictures, other pitching staffs, just getting the experience. And
18:37
Speaker 8: you know, the main thing is just getting more at bats.
18:40
Speaker 6: All right, and I'll give you something to work on.
18:43
Speaker 6: Face some lefties. Did you tell your manager who is it?
18:45
Speaker 6: Heesusa suahe you said, like I was looking at your
18:48
Speaker 6: numbers from so far in pro ball, they don't ever
18:51
Speaker 6: let you face lefties. Do you feel like the organization
18:54
Speaker 6: is insulating you from lefties or do you feel like
18:58
Speaker 6: it's something that just hasn't happened. We just haven't faced
19:01
Speaker 6: a lot of lefties.
19:03
Speaker 8: Yeah, I guess that's just the luck of the draw.
19:05
Speaker 8: You know, I feel like I haven't faced that mini
19:06
Speaker 8: in pro ball. I mean, I played over one hundred
19:10
Speaker 8: games last year in Low A, and you know, I
19:13
Speaker 8: guess I didn't get to face that many lefties.
19:14
Speaker 7: And then being hurt half of the year.
19:15
Speaker 8: Probably held me back a little bit as well.
19:20
Speaker 4: Well, how are you gonna learn to hit lefties if
19:21
Speaker 4: you don't face them. I was left in the hitter.
19:24
Speaker 4: I was, I always said, and I hit lefties fine
19:26
Speaker 4: the minor leagues, and then finally you get to the
19:28
Speaker 4: big leagues and they say you can't hit them. Well,
19:30
Speaker 4: I hit him fine. I never had a problem in
19:31
Speaker 4: high school, minor leagues. I hit him just fine. Just
19:34
Speaker 4: let me play. So tell your manager, let's go. Let
19:36
Speaker 4: me play. Call up, Call up Kucharo, call up Q
19:39
Speaker 4: and be like you listen, I'm gonna be your catcher
19:41
Speaker 4: in the future. I know Salvey's got a couple more years,
19:43
Speaker 4: but let me face lefties because I want to play
19:45
Speaker 4: every day.
19:48
Speaker 2: All right.
19:48
Speaker 8: I'll let him know I faced. I faced a couple
19:50
Speaker 8: the other days. So that's a little And how'd you do?
19:52
Speaker 4: How'd you do?
19:54
Speaker 7: I had two knocks?
19:55
Speaker 4: Oh, so you're bad? Yeah, sorry about.
19:58
Speaker 6: It being a minor leaguer. When you look at a guy,
20:02
Speaker 6: when you see that Salvado Perez just got an extension
20:06
Speaker 6: for two years, what goes through your mind? Are you
20:09
Speaker 6: like cool? Like now I get to play with salviy
20:12
Speaker 6: or wait, is it because I was hurt all year
20:15
Speaker 6: this half of the year this year? Like you do
20:18
Speaker 6: you overthink that and is there somebody in your life
20:20
Speaker 6: that tells you, well, relax, bro.
20:25
Speaker 8: I haven't really thought about it much at all. You know,
20:27
Speaker 8: it just happened. And I love Salvey. I was with
20:29
Speaker 8: him last spring training in Big League screen training, so
20:32
Speaker 8: he's a great guy, great guy to be around, and
20:34
Speaker 8: I know everybody loves him in the clubhouse, all the
20:36
Speaker 8: royals people love him. So you know, I'm not complaining
20:40
Speaker 8: at all. You know, I love being around him, so
20:42
Speaker 8: I'm gonna try to learn as much as possible from him.
20:45
Speaker 6: How hard is it coming to a new team? You
20:47
Speaker 6: spend pretty much, you know, your season, you might bounce
20:50
Speaker 6: from one or two levels, But how hard is it
20:52
Speaker 6: coming to a new team like your fall league team,
20:55
Speaker 6: and you got to go and catch. Obviously, everyone's gonna
20:57
Speaker 6: look at your hitting numbers and you know, see how
20:59
Speaker 6: you hit dangers and you hit the ball really hard.
21:03
Speaker 6: How hard is it to catch and learn all of
21:05
Speaker 6: these new pitchers.
21:08
Speaker 8: It's definitely tough, you know, learning all the signs, what
21:12
Speaker 8: they want to use, the thrown around second since we
21:14
Speaker 8: do have PitchCom here, you know what they like to
21:17
Speaker 8: throw in a certain situations, certain counts. So now I'm
21:21
Speaker 8: starting to get the hang of it after you know,
21:23
Speaker 8: four straight weeks of catching them.
21:26
Speaker 7: But you know, it's definitely a big adjustment.
21:29
Speaker 4: What do you mean, no pitch all up? Before I
21:30
Speaker 4: can get to the next question, why don't they have
21:32
Speaker 4: you guys using pitch com and use it in the
21:34
Speaker 4: big leagues? It can't get you all pitch go on
21:36
Speaker 4: to get used to for when you move up the ladder.
21:38
Speaker 4: That makes zero sense to me. PitchCom in high school.
21:42
Speaker 8: Yeah, we don't even have it in the minor leagues,
21:44
Speaker 8: like I think only Triple A has it, Like we
21:46
Speaker 8: didn't have it all year.
21:48
Speaker 4: That's crazy to me. I think I know a guy.
21:52
Speaker 4: Are you not allowed to use it? Or you just
21:54
Speaker 4: don't they don't let you cause I know a guy
21:56
Speaker 4: that can send you one if you want it.
21:58
Speaker 8: Yeah, I'm not sure. I haven't ask too many questions
22:01
Speaker 8: about it. I'm just like, you tell me what to
22:02
Speaker 8: do and I'll do it.
22:04
Speaker 4: Okay. So what do you do in the Fall league
22:05
Speaker 4: because you still get an off day a week. Is
22:06
Speaker 4: that they still do where you get one off day
22:08
Speaker 4: a week.
22:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, it's been every Monday that we've had off.
22:12
Speaker 4: What do you do out in Arizona? I know you
22:14
Speaker 4: spend time out there, obviously in surprise with the Royals,
22:16
Speaker 4: But what do you do during the Fall League on
22:18
Speaker 4: your off day? You're hanging out your golfing, You're climbing
22:20
Speaker 4: a camel back mountain? What do you do out in Arizona?
22:24
Speaker 8: Most of the time, I'm just relaxing, you know, geting
22:26
Speaker 8: my body ready for that week. I've been pretty consistent
22:30
Speaker 8: on Mondays going to this recovery place called Modern Athlete.
22:34
Speaker 8: They've just been getting my body right, you know, get
22:36
Speaker 8: me ready for that upcoming week. So I thank them
22:38
Speaker 8: a lot for everything they've done.
22:40
Speaker 4: What did that?
22:41
Speaker 6: What did that look like? Because recovery in Arizona Fall
22:44
Speaker 6: League when I was there, and I'm sure when AJ
22:46
Speaker 6: was there, was not quite the same on off days
22:49
Speaker 6: as going to Modern Athlete. But what does that look like?
22:51
Speaker 6: What do you what do you do go in there? Massage, cryotherapy, hot,
22:55
Speaker 6: cold tub? What are you doing?
22:58
Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean they have cold tub in there, this
23:01
Speaker 8: thing called PMF that just runs like electrodes through through
23:06
Speaker 8: your entire body.
23:07
Speaker 7: To relax it.
23:08
Speaker 8: They have these things called solo dome that you know,
23:10
Speaker 8: relaxes your nervous system, your body, just a bunch of
23:14
Speaker 8: different stuff that we go through for about a couple
23:16
Speaker 8: hours and then you know, it's kind of a reset
23:19
Speaker 8: for my body. And then just come back here to
23:21
Speaker 8: Surprise and just lay around, watch the YouTube, just do whatever.
23:26
Speaker 6: I mean.
23:26
Speaker 4: Listen, you're right about one thing. I only recovering from
23:30
Speaker 4: hangovers on my off day. In the folly, there was
23:32
Speaker 4: no there was no there was no modern athlete, trust me,
23:37
Speaker 4: just as forever it goes. So this is way before
23:39
Speaker 4: you were even born. Who's your roommates? Do you have
23:41
Speaker 4: roommates out there in surprise? Are you living by your side?
23:45
Speaker 8: I had Hunter Owen, who's a picture with the Royals,
23:48
Speaker 8: but then something happened with his shoulder, so he went home.
23:51
Speaker 8: So it's just me by myself now. But I have
23:53
Speaker 8: all the living Yeah, I have all the other Royals
23:56
Speaker 8: players that are in the same facility, but I got
23:59
Speaker 8: my own room, so it's nice.
24:00
Speaker 4: So wait, are you in a dorm or you know,
24:02
Speaker 4: like an apartment.
24:04
Speaker 8: It's like it's literally an old hotel that the Royals
24:06
Speaker 8: bought and just made it their own and then all
24:10
Speaker 8: the Royals players stay here. This is where we stay
24:12
Speaker 8: for spring training. If we're here for rehab, we stay here.
24:16
Speaker 8: So it's a nice setup they have for us.
24:19
Speaker 6: Is is it nice? Because this is something new? This
24:24
Speaker 6: is something new when I was in the minor leagues.
24:26
Speaker 6: AJ didn't spend much time in the minor leagues, but
24:28
Speaker 6: when I was in the minor leagues, we got we
24:30
Speaker 6: had to go find our own place. And man, you
24:32
Speaker 6: sit in Arizona and you're like, I don't know some
24:35
Speaker 6: sketchy places, but this is all we can afford it.
24:39
Speaker 6: Do they do a good job? And do they give
24:40
Speaker 6: you like a do they give you options to choose from?
24:45
Speaker 8: Yeah, it's definitely a nice setup. I know, like all
24:49
Speaker 8: the minor league guys stay here. So my first spring
24:52
Speaker 8: training I was here. But then once you get to
24:54
Speaker 8: big league camp, then they give you that extra money
24:56
Speaker 8: to stay away, stay off so you get your own
24:59
Speaker 8: AIRBNBC set up, which.
25:01
Speaker 7: Is not too bad.
25:02
Speaker 8: You know, it's nice, but here it's called the Fountains.
25:05
Speaker 8: They have you know, a whole kitchen, a whole living room.
25:08
Speaker 8: Uh to two rooms in here, so there'll be two
25:11
Speaker 8: beds in the bathroom and then two beds in the
25:12
Speaker 8: bathroom and.
25:13
Speaker 7: The other one. So it's nice.
25:15
Speaker 8: You know, in spring training it's kind of packed where
25:17
Speaker 8: it'd be four guys to a room, so you'll be
25:19
Speaker 8: sharing a room and a bathroom.
25:21
Speaker 7: But I mean, it's not bad at all. It's it's
25:24
Speaker 7: a really nice setup.
25:26
Speaker 6: That's bad.
25:26
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, that's bad. You got to share a bathroom,
25:28
Speaker 4: like that's my that's my number one. Like, oh man,
25:32
Speaker 4: I'm too old for that.
25:33
Speaker 3: People.
25:33
Speaker 4: People are like, yeah, but he's a key. I understand.
25:36
Speaker 4: But still I know. I know. I have two kids
25:41
Speaker 4: in college. Trust me, I know all about it. I
25:44
Speaker 4: got two kids in college that are both share rooms.
25:47
Speaker 4: It's I don't know how they did it, Like I
25:49
Speaker 4: would have to leave the room for certain things to happen,
25:52
Speaker 4: find like a find like a lobby or something.
25:54
Speaker 5: That is part of I know.
25:57
Speaker 4: Listen, I was. I lived in the minor leagues. I
25:59
Speaker 4: did the minor leagues. We had a hotel room we
26:00
Speaker 4: stayed in. It was it was not as nice as
26:03
Speaker 4: the one he's that I'm looking at behind him and
26:05
Speaker 4: you shared it, right, yeah, and it was awful and
26:07
Speaker 4: it's yeah, but it makes you appreciate it. Well, it does,
26:11
Speaker 4: it does. It definitely makes you That's one of the
26:13
Speaker 4: good things about baseball. When you get there, it makes
26:15
Speaker 4: you appreciate not having a roommate and not having to
26:17
Speaker 4: shave share a bathroom. So trust me, when you do
26:20
Speaker 4: get there, Blake, you're gonna enjoy it. Who was your
26:22
Speaker 4: favorite player growing up? You can say me, Okay, I
26:28
Speaker 4: was in Texas when you were about ten years old,
26:30
Speaker 4: so you can say me, I was a left handed
26:32
Speaker 4: hit a catcher. I get it.
26:33
Speaker 8: Yeah, I remember watching when I grew up, but I
26:35
Speaker 8: think Bryce Harper was partly my favorite.
26:38
Speaker 4: Okay, that's fair.
26:39
Speaker 5: Original catcher.
26:40
Speaker 4: It was a catcher one time. It didn't last very long,
26:42
Speaker 4: but that's that's I can understand that Bryce and I
26:44
Speaker 4: we have similar power numbers, so I get it.
26:47
Speaker 5: I totally understand similar personalities.
26:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, I like Bryce.
26:50
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Uh.
26:54
Speaker 1: Last question for you in terms of you know, what
26:57
Speaker 1: you've learned so far with Kansas City. I know of
27:00
Speaker 1: friends in other organizations. What do you think stands out
27:03
Speaker 1: about the Royals organization? I know they didn't make the
27:05
Speaker 1: playoffs this season, but last year had a nice postseason run.
27:10
Speaker 1: What do you think is part of the identity for case,
27:13
Speaker 1: and if you can try and avoid a cliche, like
27:15
Speaker 1: what's something that you feel like is special that they
27:17
Speaker 1: point out that you've really learned that maybe you didn't
27:20
Speaker 1: pick up until you got there, you know, something a
27:23
Speaker 1: little more big picture but not cliche.
27:25
Speaker 5: If it's possible to figure that part.
27:27
Speaker 8: Out, I'd say with the Royals, I really like how
27:33
Speaker 8: they strive to make everything homegrown. You know, they're not
27:35
Speaker 8: going to go out and sign somebody for you know,
27:38
Speaker 8: hundreds of millions of dollars just because they really can't.
27:41
Speaker 8: You know, it's just the reality of it. You know,
27:43
Speaker 8: they have to scout well, they have to you know,
27:46
Speaker 8: get the right players. So I really like that. And
27:49
Speaker 8: I really like how they you know, put all their
27:51
Speaker 8: effort into their players because they know that they have
27:54
Speaker 8: to make them the best, the best possible.
27:57
Speaker 5: I like it. Well, thanks for joining us.
27:59
Speaker 3: Have fun.
28:00
Speaker 5: Are you excited for the Fall Stars game?
28:03
Speaker 7: Yeah, for sure, It's gonna be a lot of fun.
28:04
Speaker 8: So get to go play out there with some guys
28:06
Speaker 8: I haven't played with in a few years, So I'm
28:09
Speaker 8: excited to be on the same team as them.
28:11
Speaker 5: Nice. Yeah, it's a good event. I called a few
28:13
Speaker 5: of those I had fun with the we used to.
28:15
Speaker 4: I was in the follogue so long ago. I don't
28:16
Speaker 4: even think they had a whole Star game.
28:18
Speaker 5: No, it wasn't there the whole time.
28:20
Speaker 1: But it's my favorite part because you get all, you know,
28:23
Speaker 1: the guys playing well and a lot of top prospects
28:25
Speaker 1: and we might up players.
28:28
Speaker 5: Yeah, so enjoy it. We'll be watching. Thanks for joining us.
28:31
Speaker 7: Yes, sir, thank you all for having me.
28:33
Speaker 5: Appreciate you. That's wake Mitchell. Get to know the name
28:36
Speaker 5: if you don't already