Latest / Foul Territory / Noah Syndergaard keeps it real on Pitching analytics, Utley incident, Career Highs, Untold pranks, Setbacks & Life in the minors

Transcript

Noah Syndergaard keeps it real on Pitching analytics, Utley incident, Career Highs, Untold pranks, Setbacks & Life in the minors · Foul Territory

0:04
Speaker 1: Here we go.
0:05
Speaker 2: No cinderguard right here on FT for the first time,
0:08
Speaker 2: making his debut, former Todd Father teammate. Great big league
0:11
Speaker 2: picture for a long time. Great to have you on man.
0:14
Speaker 2: Look look at your boy up top here just running
0:16
Speaker 2: things in the media world these days.
0:19
Speaker 3: Hey, what's up fellas? Thanks for having me, god father?
0:22
Speaker 1: What kind of hair? What kind of hair you got
0:25
Speaker 1: going on?
0:27
Speaker 4: I put on a hat because I got a good
0:29
Speaker 4: sized pimple up here right now, so I'm trying to.
0:35
Speaker 1: At least you're honest right now. I love that.
0:38
Speaker 4: It was Harry Potter and I when I was in
0:40
Speaker 4: Charlotte a few weeks ago, I had to take a
0:44
Speaker 4: slithering hat.
0:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like that.
0:46
Speaker 5: So talk to us a little bit about what happened.
0:49
Speaker 5: You went with the White Sox. Uh did you say
0:52
Speaker 5: I'm out of here? They let you go? Talk to
0:54
Speaker 5: us about that? And now what do you got going
0:56
Speaker 5: on right now?
0:58
Speaker 3: I mean I kind of got shafted a little bit.
1:00
Speaker 4: Not that my performance was anything to brag about, but
1:05
Speaker 4: there was, like I don't know how many starting pitchers
1:07
Speaker 4: I had on that roster, so it was kind of
1:09
Speaker 4: just the odd man out. I only got two starts
1:13
Speaker 4: and I was kind of just hanging out there because
1:17
Speaker 4: I mean, not competing for two years and going into
1:21
Speaker 4: like the high stress environment, and let me tell you,
1:24
Speaker 4: the minor leagues freaking suck.
1:29
Speaker 6: Yeah, it's been a while since you've been a true
1:31
Speaker 6: minor leaguer. But how much how much how much ramp
1:35
Speaker 6: up or how much leeway or do you feel like
1:37
Speaker 6: you would have needed Because if you said you haven't
1:40
Speaker 6: competed really for consistently for two years, what kind of
1:43
Speaker 6: starts do you feel like you'd need five to seven ten?
1:48
Speaker 4: You know, I've been searching for the last three years
1:51
Speaker 4: on where it all kind of just went wrong, Like
1:55
Speaker 4: how I mean, I still don't have a whole lot
1:58
Speaker 4: of answers on I mean, I do mechanically, but.
2:01
Speaker 3: I don't know how I got there.
2:02
Speaker 4: How I just lost the ability to throw one hundred
2:06
Speaker 4: miles an hour. I still believe that it's that it's
2:09
Speaker 4: in there, But the mind is such a powerful tool,
2:12
Speaker 4: and the body just kind of holds on to trauma
2:16
Speaker 4: a certain way. And like when I had elbow surgery
2:19
Speaker 4: in twenty twenty, like I was like sick. Great, Like
2:22
Speaker 4: COVID's ruining the world right now, there's not much going on.
2:25
Speaker 4: It sounds like the best time to have elbow surgery.
2:29
Speaker 4: But then about month fifteen, I had some kind of
2:32
Speaker 4: setback to where I was supposed to throw four ings and.
2:36
Speaker 3: I'm threw one. I'm like, something's not right.
2:39
Speaker 4: And next day I got an MRI and Todd I
2:43
Speaker 4: don't know if you remember Beam or car, but he
2:45
Speaker 4: was the one that looked at the original MRI is like,
2:48
Speaker 4: I think I see another tear to your cl and
2:50
Speaker 4: I'm like, you got to be freaking kidding me, Like
2:52
Speaker 4: I couldn't have done a better rehab. All I did
2:55
Speaker 4: was eat, breathe, and sleep recovery. I lived in my
2:58
Speaker 4: hyper bearer. I did countless ice plunges, SAWTA Sessions eight
3:04
Speaker 4: really well, and I'm like, this doesn't make a whole
3:08
Speaker 4: lot of sense. So I think that that's when my
3:10
Speaker 4: body or my mind kind of went like, oh crap,
3:12
Speaker 4: like we might be in some trouble here, because I
3:15
Speaker 4: was thinking I might not ever play baseball again. And
3:18
Speaker 4: I never got to recover from this surgery, and I
3:22
Speaker 4: still feel like I haven't really recovered from it. But
3:24
Speaker 4: I think my body just kind of went to like
3:26
Speaker 4: big brother mode, and it's like I'm going to protect
3:29
Speaker 4: you from hurting yourself again. And then I start tinkering
3:33
Speaker 4: with my mechanics. I probably went to ten different facilities
3:37
Speaker 4: like top notche, I went to tread, I went to
3:39
Speaker 4: drive line. I've been to the place called Maven in Atlanta.
3:43
Speaker 4: Worked with countless coaches and everyone seems to say something different.
3:48
Speaker 4: And now I'm just trying to get back to just athleticism.
3:53
Speaker 4: And like when I was really good, like I had
3:57
Speaker 4: Dan Worthing as a pitching coach, and he kept things
4:00
Speaker 4: super simple and just kind of trusted my body. And
4:04
Speaker 4: you look at a delivery now versus where it was
4:08
Speaker 4: back twenty fifteen through twenty nineteen, and like my delivery
4:11
Speaker 4: changed a little bit, but like the main pillars or
4:14
Speaker 4: components that allowed me to be really good didn't really change.
4:19
Speaker 4: And now I'm doing all kinds of like I'm like
4:21
Speaker 4: leaning back, like, yeah, it just looks kind of out
4:25
Speaker 4: of whack. But it was just like I had too
4:27
Speaker 4: many cooks in the kitchen and it kind of just
4:31
Speaker 4: fried me a little bit.
4:35
Speaker 6: Yeah no, that's I mean all this like watching you
4:38
Speaker 6: watch those highlights, I remember being a hitter and being like,
4:42
Speaker 6: oh man, how can I look like that. Do you
4:44
Speaker 6: feel like if you just go back, do you feel
4:46
Speaker 6: like you have the ability to just go back to
4:49
Speaker 6: who you were because you were ridiculous freak, you were
4:55
Speaker 6: so athletic. Do you feel like you're able to say,
5:00
Speaker 6: everybody out of my way, I'm going to do it
5:02
Speaker 6: my way, or do you feel like to get a
5:05
Speaker 6: job in the.
5:05
Speaker 1: Game, To.
5:07
Speaker 6: You know, get yourself back on the map, you have
5:10
Speaker 6: to go to all the places that you said, and
5:12
Speaker 6: you have to be able to speak the language, because
5:15
Speaker 6: I know worth them was not speaking in force plates
5:20
Speaker 6: and extension rates and spin and all that stuff. When
5:24
Speaker 6: when we played you guys in twenty fifteen, you know
5:27
Speaker 6: that wasn't that wasn't happening from him. So can you
5:30
Speaker 6: go back to that or do you feel like you
5:32
Speaker 6: have to get in line with everybody and say, okay,
5:35
Speaker 6: well I throw a heavy ball as hard as I
5:37
Speaker 6: can up against the wall, and this is that because
5:39
Speaker 6: you did all this with your athletic natural ability, not
5:43
Speaker 6: with some gimmick like turn spin, throw on a knee,
5:48
Speaker 6: all that stuff.
5:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it all boil down to is a
5:53
Speaker 4: paralysis by analysis. So I think the like all the
5:58
Speaker 4: weighted ball stuff. I think that has its benefits for sure.
6:03
Speaker 4: The force plate mounds. I like that in terms of
6:07
Speaker 4: like just routine, but I think you can get a
6:12
Speaker 4: little too fixated on that, and like you look at
6:18
Speaker 4: de Gram or Wheeler, like I'm I don't know, maybe
6:21
Speaker 4: they've changed their routine, but I don't. Those guys like
6:25
Speaker 4: just had the utmost confidence and trusted their stuff and
6:29
Speaker 4: just I mean in between the lines, like all they
6:32
Speaker 4: did was compete. And I don't think those guys are
6:36
Speaker 4: getting on force plate mounts or doing any way to
6:38
Speaker 4: ball programs. But that's just kind of like the new
6:44
Speaker 4: age stuff, and I kind of came up when it
6:47
Speaker 4: was kind of like transitioning through all like the eeditronic cameras.
6:52
Speaker 4: I remember the first time they brought the editronic cameras out.
6:54
Speaker 4: I think it was like twenty eighteen or twenty nineteen,
6:57
Speaker 4: and Dave Island was the pitching coach, and like he
7:01
Speaker 4: sends us like these these pictures of the grips and stuff.
7:04
Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't understand, Like what is this mean?
7:06
Speaker 4: Am I supposed to post this on social media like
7:09
Speaker 4: my story or something like what's his information? And then
7:14
Speaker 4: I got like really, fixated on like the track man numbers,
7:17
Speaker 4: and I think there's some benefit to it there because
7:19
Speaker 4: I remember one time I was pitching to Jay Bruce
7:22
Speaker 4: and I think it was with the Phillies, and I
7:25
Speaker 4: threw two fastballs like at ninety eight up and in
7:27
Speaker 4: it like had eighteen inches of ride. And then the
7:29
Speaker 4: next pitch I threw one same location, it was only
7:31
Speaker 4: fourteen inches of ride and he hit it into the
7:34
Speaker 4: Pepsi porch or whatever it's called now. But I still
7:39
Speaker 4: have the most confidents in me to get back. It'll
7:42
Speaker 4: be a hell of a success story. And you know,
7:47
Speaker 4: it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me,
7:48
Speaker 4: So I'm going to continue to try, because I mean
7:51
Speaker 4: I'm in the best shape that I've ever been in,
7:54
Speaker 4: like in terms of like mobility, strength, power, just appropriate reception.
7:59
Speaker 4: Like I think I'm in the right path. It's just
8:05
Speaker 4: you know, you never think you're gonna be in the situation,
8:07
Speaker 4: but it kind of just defines the one kind of
8:09
Speaker 4: person you are.
8:11
Speaker 2: Hey, we love ripping slab packs on arena club. I
8:14
Speaker 2: just ripped one in a ruby pack. Those are fancy
8:17
Speaker 2: schmancy kip and I pulled a Matt Shaw twenty twenty
8:21
Speaker 2: three Bowman Draft Aqua Lunar Creater Refractor card.
8:26
Speaker 1: And I guess what. Guess what?
8:27
Speaker 2: I got a little offer. You get the instant offer
8:29
Speaker 2: right away. Okay, so they're offering me one hundred and
8:32
Speaker 2: twenty one bucks, sell it back and then I can
8:34
Speaker 2: get a new slab pack.
8:36
Speaker 1: What do I do?
8:37
Speaker 7: I want to see this thing. Hold on, look at that.
8:39
Speaker 7: That's a beautiful card.
8:41
Speaker 6: You know what.
8:41
Speaker 7: I think that's a safe bet. I think it's gonna
8:44
Speaker 7: make you a little bit of money. I think the
8:46
Speaker 7: more more big league time he gets, I'd almost take
8:49
Speaker 7: the deal, though, I'm in it for the chase.
8:51
Speaker 1: I like opening more packs.
8:53
Speaker 7: I think that one hundred and twenty one can buy
8:55
Speaker 7: you a couple more slabs to open. And uh, I
8:57
Speaker 7: think you keep chasing until you get someone.
8:59
Speaker 1: You really but that's the best part about it for me.
9:02
Speaker 1: That's right.
9:02
Speaker 2: You can sell it back one hundred twenty one bucks
9:04
Speaker 2: and then open up another slab pack. Use the code
9:06
Speaker 2: foul to receive twenty percent off your first slab pack
9:08
Speaker 2: or card purchase at arenaclub dot com.
9:10
Speaker 5: Slash foul no doubt about it, And you've always been
9:13
Speaker 5: intrigod about who you are, how you go about things.
9:16
Speaker 1: You're a big component of lifting.
9:19
Speaker 5: I love everything about this because whenever we had our conversations,
9:22
Speaker 5: we always had good talks. And you know, anything you
9:25
Speaker 5: talked about, I was the exact opposite. I was the guy,
9:28
Speaker 5: let's go grip it, rip it, let's get in there.
9:30
Speaker 5: You ever think about you know now, you know there's
9:33
Speaker 5: so much technologies you talked about. You ever just think
9:35
Speaker 5: about just getting on the mound and saying, you know what,
9:37
Speaker 5: screw everything else. I'm coming. I'm bringing it here. I
9:41
Speaker 5: don't need paperwork or anybody to tell me anything else.
9:43
Speaker 5: Forget about the mindset. I'm going to go on this
9:46
Speaker 5: mound when I get my next chance and just go
9:48
Speaker 5: and get after it. I don't need numbers, you know
9:50
Speaker 5: what I'm saying. You ever want to get that out
9:52
Speaker 5: of your mind and just go and say, screw everything else,
9:54
Speaker 5: let's get after it here.
9:57
Speaker 3: Yeah.
9:57
Speaker 4: I've tried just about everything. I've tried it all. Like
10:01
Speaker 4: I've tried to be as like mindless and dumb out
10:05
Speaker 4: there and free as much as I can not think
10:07
Speaker 4: about anything. But when I was really good, I still
10:09
Speaker 4: like thought about certain things, like when I, uh, the
10:12
Speaker 4: twenty nineteen game I pitched against the Reds, pitched a
10:16
Speaker 4: complete game and hit a solo home run. Like there's
10:19
Speaker 4: like around the fourth or fifth inning, and I had
10:21
Speaker 4: like this little queue where I just would tell myself
10:23
Speaker 4: to screw my leg into the ground, and that like
10:26
Speaker 4: helped me load my really fuel into my legs. And
10:30
Speaker 4: then I would just think stay closed and rip it.
10:33
Speaker 4: And it got to like fourth fifth inning on it
10:35
Speaker 4: got to like I could just throw my eyes closed.
10:38
Speaker 4: And then five days later, I'm trying that same cueue
10:42
Speaker 4: against the Padres and it's like I'm able to repeat
10:44
Speaker 4: it like one in every three pitches.
10:47
Speaker 3: So it's just.
10:50
Speaker 4: Now like when I try to use those cues, my
10:52
Speaker 4: body doesn't like translate it the right way. And you
10:55
Speaker 4: take one picture. I don't know how it is with
10:57
Speaker 4: hitting necessarily, but you could take like one Q. I
11:01
Speaker 4: might translate that cue from another pitcher differently than what
11:05
Speaker 4: they might like screen the leg into the ground. They
11:07
Speaker 4: might translate that into something else. I think every athlete,
11:12
Speaker 4: I think, especially with baseball, because it's like such a
11:14
Speaker 4: controlled violence, like everybody has their cue, but it might
11:18
Speaker 4: be I mean, something completely different to another player.
11:23
Speaker 5: Do you remember now, let's switch gears here a little
11:25
Speaker 5: fitt talk about something fun. We talk about the one
11:28
Speaker 5: time you had that little dust up in the first
11:31
Speaker 5: pitch to Chase Utley back in the day. Terry Collins
11:35
Speaker 5: come out and talk about my rear ends in the jackpot,
11:38
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, Just stuff like that. Talk
11:41
Speaker 5: to us about that whole situation. I know it's way
11:44
Speaker 5: in the past, but you know, was their talks before?
11:47
Speaker 5: You know, this is the guy I gotta get Did
11:49
Speaker 5: you put that on yourself? I mean that video circles
11:52
Speaker 5: every year, and Terry Collins is he just he had
11:56
Speaker 5: your back and he was he was pumped up about
11:58
Speaker 5: the whole situation. You know, take us back to that time,
12:01
Speaker 5: and uh, you know, what was your mindset there? What
12:03
Speaker 5: was going on?
12:05
Speaker 4: Oh Man's Harry is the best. I love that guy.
12:10
Speaker 4: But I mean and also I've heard like the best
12:12
Speaker 4: things about Chase Utley too, And I don't don't necessary
12:16
Speaker 4: I don't think that slide was intentional. I just think
12:18
Speaker 4: he plays the game so hard and it's such a
12:21
Speaker 4: ballplayer that that's just kind of what happened. But uh,
12:27
Speaker 4: you know, I was just I don't think I really
12:29
Speaker 4: discussed that with anybody, and I just saw my opportunity
12:34
Speaker 4: there to take it. I think when I was younger,
12:38
Speaker 4: I also did a lot of stupid things that I
12:39
Speaker 4: didn't really think about, like throwing over Escobar's head and
12:45
Speaker 4: the World Series only I think back on and I'm like, damn,
12:47
Speaker 4: like cant believe it.
12:49
Speaker 3: I did it, but I just.
12:53
Speaker 4: But yeah, I was so juiced in that moment that
12:55
Speaker 4: I think Renee Rivera actually called it a change up
12:58
Speaker 4: away and I didn't even shake. I was is already
13:01
Speaker 4: going into my delivery and and then I was just
13:05
Speaker 4: kind of just taken back to being ejected and I
13:11
Speaker 4: didn't really know what was going on. I just walked
13:12
Speaker 4: off the field and I just remember walking off the
13:14
Speaker 4: field and to Grom having that little signature smurf that
13:17
Speaker 4: he has, so that that was a good time.
13:23
Speaker 6: Anybody that you still keep in touch with that is
13:26
Speaker 6: playing during from those times, like the Grom, Harvey, any
13:30
Speaker 6: any of those guys that you're like, hey, you know,
13:34
Speaker 6: remember when this happened, or guys that you you hit
13:37
Speaker 6: up on a regular especially with the Grom throwing the
13:39
Speaker 6: way he's been. Have you kept in contact with those guys?
13:44
Speaker 4: A little bit to grom Actually there's probably like a
13:46
Speaker 4: five minute walk from from my house, but his house
13:49
Speaker 4: is a lot nicer and he's got a couple of them.
13:53
Speaker 4: But you know, he's got three kids, maybe like even
13:56
Speaker 4: a fourth on the way. I don't really know, and
13:58
Speaker 4: so I'm win Sam fortunate enough, but I don't have
14:03
Speaker 4: children right now, so you know, I'm living a kind
14:07
Speaker 4: of different life. But I'm really spoken to Harvey in
14:10
Speaker 4: a while. Anytime I go up to New York and
14:13
Speaker 4: I hit him up. So he's up to It's always
14:14
Speaker 4: nice to catch up with him. Thank who else a
14:18
Speaker 4: recent guys. I haven't talked to Pete really, but I
14:23
Speaker 4: think that's super cool that he's now the home run leader.
14:27
Speaker 3: For the Mets. Yeah, that's about. That's about it. Other
14:32
Speaker 3: than like Michael Lorenzen, he's one of my good buddies.
14:36
Speaker 5: It's difficult, dude. It's the same way for me too
14:39
Speaker 5: as well. You know, I got a couple of guys.
14:41
Speaker 5: It's I always tell people, it's like, if you're not
14:43
Speaker 5: getting Christmas cards from these guys you play with, it's
14:46
Speaker 5: really it's really tough to stay in touch with them.
14:48
Speaker 5: I mean, that's just something I'm going along with now.
14:52
Speaker 4: I really and hearing your voice and then trying to
14:55
Speaker 4: harass you and FaceTime you and trying to get you
14:57
Speaker 4: to say my name on the broadcast.
15:01
Speaker 1: I got, I got you hit me up.
15:02
Speaker 5: I got my buddies telling me to say a random
15:05
Speaker 5: word on a broadcast.
15:06
Speaker 1: I'm doing the gig. They're like, oh, you know, you.
15:08
Speaker 3: Know somewhere randomly.
15:12
Speaker 5: I'm anyway, remember the one time, and I want you
15:18
Speaker 5: to tell this story we talked about this earlier fun story.
15:20
Speaker 5: I remember you were messing with me on the bus
15:23
Speaker 5: one time. I forget exactly.
15:26
Speaker 4: I don't have to get in the details prior, but
15:28
Speaker 4: I'm honored that I was chosen for this prank, as
15:32
Speaker 4: I still recovering from that experience. But uh, I think
15:37
Speaker 4: we were in me so to the the road trip
15:41
Speaker 4: before or the city before, and I was messing you
15:44
Speaker 4: in the lobby there, and then we went to Chicago,
15:48
Speaker 4: and then I'm in the training room and Mickey calls
15:51
Speaker 4: us all into the clubhouse and I think it's a
15:54
Speaker 4: team meeting, and there's this huge police officer in the
15:58
Speaker 4: middle of the clubhouse. He's like, I'm looking for an
16:00
Speaker 4: a cindergard I'm like, oh God, what did I do?
16:04
Speaker 4: And then like the video like it's I wish we
16:07
Speaker 4: could play the video of it, but uh. I walk
16:10
Speaker 4: over to my locker and I'm trying to put like
16:13
Speaker 4: get dressed. I just have my shorts on, and it
16:15
Speaker 4: takes me, like I'm so rattled. It takes me two
16:17
Speaker 4: minutes to get dressed, and I finally handed my id's like,
16:20
Speaker 4: all right, put transmind your rack.
16:21
Speaker 3: You're under arrest, and I'm like, I.
16:23
Speaker 4: Just went I blacked out at that point, and like
16:27
Speaker 4: if I would have just looked around the clubhouse, I
16:29
Speaker 4: would have seen that some people were not maintaining their composure.
16:32
Speaker 3: Half the people knew, half didn't.
16:35
Speaker 4: And so I'm just like tunnel vision and like Wheelers
16:40
Speaker 4: like no, what did you do? And I'm like, I
16:42
Speaker 4: don't know, man like, and then the officer says something
16:47
Speaker 4: and he takes me out, puts me in this random
16:50
Speaker 4: room and there's a piece of paper on the table
16:52
Speaker 4: and I'll start looking at him reading it and I'm like,
16:54
Speaker 4: this has nothing to do with me, and then before
16:56
Speaker 4: you know, Fraser's barging in the room with its camera
17:00
Speaker 4: and then the other video is like next thing like
17:03
Speaker 4: as soon as I leave the room, he's just like.
17:08
Speaker 3: He was together.
17:08
Speaker 4: But yeah, I tried my retaliation. I tried to get
17:12
Speaker 4: like Brody. I tried to make it look like you
17:14
Speaker 4: were going to fail a drug test. Odie was on
17:19
Speaker 4: boards with that, but I didn't really know what the
17:22
Speaker 4: standard procedure was on that. But if I could have
17:26
Speaker 4: added Don it would have been nice. But it was
17:29
Speaker 4: like a big big brother little brother moment. And I
17:32
Speaker 4: always family with the Todd father. My mom is from
17:36
Speaker 4: She'll say she's running Tom's River, but she was born
17:38
Speaker 4: on the naval base there, and I think they moved
17:40
Speaker 4: when she was like three months old.
17:43
Speaker 1: But we'll take that as you knows Jersey girl.
17:46
Speaker 5: So that was Sergeant John Connolly by the way, absolute
17:50
Speaker 5: beasts came in. He's like six seven, two hundred and
17:53
Speaker 5: seventy five pounds. All Braun put him in cuffs in
17:57
Speaker 5: the locker room. I only told a couple of people,
17:59
Speaker 5: so if you if you were to look around, some
18:01
Speaker 5: people are like, what the heck's going on? In other
18:04
Speaker 5: people like the grom like he couldn't control it. I
18:06
Speaker 5: wanted I almost kicked him. I'm like, get I.
18:08
Speaker 1: Wanted to out at there, but you know, Oscar, Yeah,
18:16
Speaker 1: it was.
18:18
Speaker 5: Those type of things are what makes the year special
18:21
Speaker 5: for everybody. You need that type of stuff during the
18:23
Speaker 5: year because it gets so boring sometimes in that locker
18:25
Speaker 5: room as you as we all know, so fun stories.
18:29
Speaker 4: When I was with the Angels in twenty two to
18:31
Speaker 4: one of our young guys. But I guess things have
18:35
Speaker 4: gotten a little soft over there, and they wouldn't they
18:37
Speaker 4: couldn't make it happen.
18:39
Speaker 1: Ah.
18:41
Speaker 5: Yeah, well that's the way it goes. And I remember
18:43
Speaker 5: locking you in the Where where did I lock you
18:46
Speaker 5: in in?
18:47
Speaker 1: In New York? And oh man, the sauna.
18:51
Speaker 5: Remember you were in the sauna right by the hot
18:54
Speaker 5: tub there in Cityfield.
18:55
Speaker 4: And yeah, yeah, okay, when he's in New York element
18:58
Speaker 4: we were in on the road in the Yankee Stadium.
19:00
Speaker 4: But no, you know, I I I'm gonna have a
19:04
Speaker 4: panic attack in there.
19:07
Speaker 6: It'd be terrible. That'd be terrible. I would fight you.
19:16
Speaker 1: He was only in there for ten minutes. It wasn't bad.
19:21
Speaker 3: It made me tougher. That's good. Well. The Mets, Yeah,
19:27
Speaker 3: the Mets let you do stuff.
19:29
Speaker 1: Do you run into Mets fans often?
19:31
Speaker 2: Noah, Like, do you miss the you know the vibes
19:34
Speaker 2: that that the Mets fans brought, you know, during those times.
19:38
Speaker 4: Yeah, Mets fans are everywhere. I was just in Austin
19:41
Speaker 4: with my girlfriend and we went to some like piano bar,
19:45
Speaker 4: and when we were leaving, this guy's like, oh, my
19:48
Speaker 4: mom is a huge Mets fan. I'm like, oh, you're
19:51
Speaker 4: your mom or you are you can just say so.
19:55
Speaker 4: And anytime I go up to New York, I'll just
19:57
Speaker 4: spe casually, like riding a city bike on the street,
20:00
Speaker 4: and the people will recognize me.
20:02
Speaker 3: That's one of my favorite things to do.
20:06
Speaker 6: That's fun. That's fun. But if you cut your hair,
20:08
Speaker 6: you think anybody recognize you?
20:11
Speaker 3: Uh? Oh no, probably not. I don't know. I do
20:15
Speaker 3: still stand out.
20:17
Speaker 6: You're you're You're, You're an absolute monster. But the question
20:20
Speaker 6: I have, it's kind of a good leeway, is who's
20:23
Speaker 6: the most famous person in your phone? We like asking
20:26
Speaker 6: dudes like this. But you lived in like the Spotlight,
20:29
Speaker 6: you lived in New York. You guys went to the
20:32
Speaker 6: World Series and you were four the.
20:36
Speaker 3: Most famous person in my phone.
20:38
Speaker 4: Wow, crap, you really put me on the spot there,
20:43
Speaker 4: And I don't know, Okay, I'm trying to come up
20:47
Speaker 4: with the cool answers.
20:48
Speaker 3: I don't disappoint him.
20:49
Speaker 6: But think about it, think about it, don't don't disappoint us,
20:52
Speaker 6: because I know you got a lot of good ones.
20:53
Speaker 6: I like it that you didn't say Todd because that's
20:55
Speaker 6: such a cop out because he's not that famous, only
20:57
Speaker 6: in Tom's River. But while you come up with that one,
21:02
Speaker 6: what's your favorite big league moment?
21:05
Speaker 4: All right, Well, I don't have I'm gonna do like
21:07
Speaker 4: a phone number thing, but I've had some cool experiences.
21:10
Speaker 4: Like one of my best friends up in New York,
21:13
Speaker 4: his name is Mike Zandman, and he's really close with
21:16
Speaker 4: Michael Rubin and Michael Ruben likes having those cool, overwhelming parties.
21:21
Speaker 4: And when I right when I got released by the Guardians,
21:24
Speaker 4: I just took a trip to New York for the week,
21:26
Speaker 4: and he took me to Michael Rubin at the celebrity
21:29
Speaker 4: Blackshack Tournament and he let me play in it. And
21:32
Speaker 4: so I go, I put my drink down at the
21:36
Speaker 4: table and I go to the bathroom. I come back
21:38
Speaker 4: and there's this woman named I think La La Anthony
21:41
Speaker 4: maybe I don't know.
21:43
Speaker 3: Was in my seat.
21:44
Speaker 4: So I just sat next to her and she said, oh,
21:46
Speaker 4: do you care of my friend Kim sits there. I'm like, okay, cool,
21:49
Speaker 4: So I just move over and I look over, I
21:53
Speaker 4: look up, and I just turned back. I had to
21:55
Speaker 4: do a double tack because Kim Kardashian was sitting right
21:58
Speaker 4: next to me, and I taught her how to play
22:00
Speaker 4: a little bit of blackjack.
22:02
Speaker 1: Nice.
22:05
Speaker 4: So my first favorite big league moments mm hmm, like
22:12
Speaker 4: a selfish one or like a team one. I can
22:17
Speaker 4: go both, Like, I guess my favorite one would probably
22:20
Speaker 4: be personal one would be either hitting I think probably
22:24
Speaker 4: hitting two home runs in one game and throwing eight
22:27
Speaker 4: innings against the Dodgers, be up there and then man
22:35
Speaker 4: celebrating on the field in Chicago to go to the
22:38
Speaker 4: World Series.
22:39
Speaker 3: That was pretty surreal.
22:41
Speaker 4: That the whole season was crazy, just because I think,
22:46
Speaker 4: like May right when I got called up, that team
22:48
Speaker 4: was we're not very good. We had some like a
22:51
Speaker 4: couple of guys with probably four or five guys under
22:54
Speaker 4: two hundred batting average. And then I saw Kershaw later
22:56
Speaker 4: in that year pitch like the fastest complete game, shout out,
23:00
Speaker 4: three hit, shot out, and then we got cesspa is
23:04
Speaker 4: Kelly Johnson wanting to Rebay belief pitchers, and then uh
23:12
Speaker 4: maybe like just got steam like just or the best team,
23:16
Speaker 4: but played really well as a team, supported each other.
23:22
Speaker 3: It was just awesome to be a part of.
23:27
Speaker 6: Uh No, I.
23:27
Speaker 2: Got one more for you, so obviously, Yeah, you spent
23:30
Speaker 2: a lot of time with the Mets. I asked about
23:31
Speaker 2: that earlier, and then you told us at the beginning
23:33
Speaker 2: of the conversation about you know, some of your experiences
23:36
Speaker 2: with other teams, including just recently with the White Sox.
23:39
Speaker 2: I always like to ask this for guys that have
23:41
Speaker 2: pitched with different organizations, even if it's in the minors, Like,
23:44
Speaker 2: how different is the mindset from teams, you know, even
23:48
Speaker 2: from a strategy component, from when they bring a guy on,
23:50
Speaker 2: when when they sign you and say, hey, here's the
23:53
Speaker 2: plan we have for you, here are the resources that
23:56
Speaker 2: you have. How different is it from ball club to
23:58
Speaker 2: ball club? Because yeah, and you're coming off the White Sox, Done, Mets, Dodgers, Angels,
24:03
Speaker 2: et cetera.
24:05
Speaker 4: Yeah, the I guess the ethos or the beliefs around
24:07
Speaker 4: every organization have been like very drastic, Like when I
24:13
Speaker 4: was with the Mets, that was one thing with like
24:17
Speaker 4: the Willpond's involved of course, and then went to the
24:20
Speaker 4: Angels and it's like, oh, we're not We're not very good,
24:23
Speaker 4: but we're in California, so nobody really cared. But then
24:26
Speaker 4: when I got traded to the Phillies, I'm like, wow,
24:28
Speaker 4: this team there, top notch, have high expectations, spared no
24:33
Speaker 4: expense for their players. I know I gave Harper a
24:37
Speaker 4: lot of shit sorry for I guess throughout his career,
24:42
Speaker 4: much like a lot of people have.
24:45
Speaker 3: But once I got to know.
24:46
Speaker 4: Him, he's been He's probably one of the best teammates
24:50
Speaker 4: I've ever had.
24:52
Speaker 3: I just remember him like that.
24:54
Speaker 4: In twenty twenty two, if any pitcher on the opposing
24:58
Speaker 4: team got anywhere close to throw went up and in
25:01
Speaker 4: he was ripping the picture like it was awesome to
25:06
Speaker 4: see and like that took some Cahonians for sure, and
25:09
Speaker 4: they just like I remember, like everyone has known me
25:12
Speaker 4: as like the green water bottle guy, for like because
25:15
Speaker 4: I carry the Mountain Valley, like I got it over here,
25:18
Speaker 4: and like my five gallon glass container over there. And
25:23
Speaker 4: then I went with the Angels, you know, like the
25:25
Speaker 4: long walk from where the buses drop you off in
25:27
Speaker 4: Philly to the clubhouse. They had pallettes and palettes of
25:31
Speaker 4: Mountain Valley and they're like, no, this is your team.
25:33
Speaker 3: This is your team.
25:33
Speaker 4: I'm like and then two months later I get traded there.
25:37
Speaker 4: So like they have like I'm big into like raw milk.
25:42
Speaker 4: I think it's a powerful superfood and like so their
25:45
Speaker 4: chef would go out and get it for me and
25:47
Speaker 4: like they're the food was amazing. I mean, Honesad had
25:53
Speaker 4: my personal chef travel with me. But from when it
25:55
Speaker 4: looked like it looked incredible, and Wheelership of that when
26:00
Speaker 4: it did Philly Cheesteaks, and then I remember like one
26:06
Speaker 4: he was complaining to today about it and Dave's like, well,
26:08
Speaker 4: what do you want?
26:09
Speaker 3: Like Popeyes?
26:10
Speaker 4: And we were like yeah and this so the next
26:12
Speaker 4: day David Bowski brings in like a whole table is
26:15
Speaker 4: worth a Popeyes for Wheeler.
26:19
Speaker 5: He was.
26:21
Speaker 1: That's good stuff. Man. Well listen, thank you for coming on. Man.
26:24
Speaker 5: We appreciate you. You know what, You're just getting off
26:27
Speaker 5: from playing and you got a little more time on
26:29
Speaker 5: your hands. Hopefully everything works out for you. Man.
26:31
Speaker 1: We'll keep in touch and uh we'll talk to you soon,
26:34
Speaker 1: big dog. Thanks again.
26:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.
26:37
Speaker 4: Good to see you in the little League World Series today.
26:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, seven o'clock, big dog. You make sure you send
26:44
Speaker 1: me a text message.
26:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, give him a word of the day.
26:51
Speaker 3: Spamony.
26:53
Speaker 1: Oh god man, thanks, we'll talk to you about the boat. App.
26:58
Speaker 1: That's good.
26:59
Speaker 3: That's good.
27:00
Speaker 1: Now, appreciate you man, Good to see you.
27:02
Speaker 3: See you guys.
27:03
Speaker 1: It's a layered Italian ice cream dessert. I don't even
27:06
Speaker 1: know it. Did he say it again? It's p U
27:13
Speaker 1: M and S p U M O N I Todd father,
27:17
Speaker 1: have you ever heard of it? I have ever? Okay,
27:20
Speaker 1: we're both from Jersey. You never heard of spamoni.
27:26
Speaker 6: I thought it was that like it was you said
27:28
Speaker 6: it was layered ice cream, like almost like laired ice
27:30
Speaker 6: cream cake, right.
27:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, like different gelato kind of colors all together cakesh Yeah.
27:40
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe I've seen it and I just didn't know
27:43
Speaker 2: that it's spamoni. I'm not the best guy to comment
27:45
Speaker 2: on certain desserts, to be fair, I'm not the.
27:48
Speaker 6: After that there's dairy in that, well aware, well aware
27:54
Speaker 6: double do get some ice cream? You don't get no.
27:57
Speaker 1: I I will say that that was great.
28:00
Speaker 2: It was cool to catch up with or obviously get
28:04
Speaker 2: deep in the beginning there on what it's been like
28:06
Speaker 2: for him and how you cannot pitch for a while
28:09
Speaker 2: and then get thrown into the mix and unless you've
28:11
Speaker 2: got it clicking in five seconds, they're like, see you later.
28:18
Speaker 5: It's it's very hard. I mean, I don't know how
28:21
Speaker 5: to do that. It's it's incredible. It's just it's wacky.
28:24
Speaker 5: I'm not gonna be able to do that one.
28:27
Speaker 6: It's not like it's not like, it's not like the
28:30
Speaker 6: White Sox had just a just a plethora of pitch
28:35
Speaker 6: guys that can pitch. Like they're just running through guys
28:37
Speaker 6: in Triple A that are like big League ready, and
28:39
Speaker 6: they're developing him in Triple A.
28:43
Speaker 3: I don't know.
28:44
Speaker 6: I don't know. I'd say give the guy a chance.
28:46
Speaker 6: He has worlds of experience to a young roster. Yeah,
28:50
Speaker 6: he might not pitch that great, but what he brings
28:53
Speaker 6: to the roster I think can can help the organization
28:57
Speaker 6: continue to move forward. But he, you know what, I
28:59
Speaker 6: look at the differently.
29:02
Speaker 2: I'm with you, Yeah, for for him, I mean, obviously Yale,
29:07
Speaker 2: it sounds like he's going to try to latch on
29:08
Speaker 2: with another spot. It's thirty two years old now two Well,
29:14
Speaker 2: but it's interesting to hear top five. I already said, like,
29:18
Speaker 2: he feels like he's got a Hundo and all that
29:20
Speaker 2: still in him, but it's just tough to find it.
29:23
Speaker 1: He's gone through some injuries, yeah.
29:25
Speaker 5: And especially now at the game now he's got to
29:28
Speaker 5: have that plus movement and other pitches and he hasn't
29:34
Speaker 5: been on a big league mound yet, so it's very hard.
29:36
Speaker 1: But knowing him, he can do it.