Latest / Foul Territory / FT at Blue Jays camp: Max Scherzer, Alek Manoah

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FT at Blue Jays camp: Max Scherzer, Alek Manoah · Foul Territory

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: For me to be able to get there, and yeah,
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: you know what, we struggle and yeah, there's a lot
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: of people that can say what they want our opinions,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and that doesn't matter because for me, I know, I'm
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: working my butt off, you know, each and every day
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: to be right back there again and help this team win.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Here we go, We're back. We're live at Blue Jays
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: camp in Dunedin. We have Max Shurs are joining us
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: right now, sitting next to aj. All right, let's do this. Max.
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: Great to have you on. Appreciate the time. Thanks for
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: jumping off the show with us for this. And we
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: haven't spoken to you since you signed with the Blue Jays,
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: so I'm surprised that you ended up with Toronto. Take
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: us through how that happened. I was like, okay, I
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: see you Toronto.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, just the way the free agency process works, the
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: way the market works. You know, had some conversations with
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: teams across the link, across the league, especially on the
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: East Coast. You know, my family being there in Jupiter,
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: you know, really kind of wanted to stay on the
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: East Coast really helps me see my kids more so. Uh,
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: you know, when hav many conversations the way to market
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Chuck out Toronto became a really good fit for me.
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: I had some conversations with the front office and wanted
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: to really know, like, all right, what's the direction of team,
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: how you view twenty twenty five And they came back
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: and said, hey, now we're in an all in position.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: We're going for it. Uh And you know, so that
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: was kind of music with my ears. And you know
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: when they went out there, Sigence hand Tander and you know,
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: they showed the commitment that they're they're they're serious about
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: this year. And so became definitely an option for me.
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: And obviously we got that across the finish line.
• 1:30
  Speaker 4: Fifth starter because that's I don't care. Is that the verse?
• 1:34
  Speaker 4: Like in the campus, I.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Don't care where you put me. I go out there,
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: you give me a start. It doesn't matter where you're
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: at and within the rotation. So uh, you know, kind
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: of as a starter of your group, so it doesn't
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: matter what number you are.
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: Okay, Because I was saying first ballot Hall of famers
• 1:47
  Speaker 4: usually don't take over the fifth starters.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't look at any which way like that.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: It's an opportunity to start compete, be a part of
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: a championship caliber team.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: Okay, that's much much, very very vet answer right there,
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: by the way, what is that? What does it?
• 2:01
  Speaker 5: What does a season look like for you? You've never had
• 2:04
  Speaker 5: a season where you're like, well, you know, hopefully I
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: get twenty five starts. But a lot of guys at
• 2:10
  Speaker 5: your age they're already talking about, well, you know, we'll
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: sit them down for a few starts. Did you tell
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: Schneids no chance, Like, give me the ball. I'm gonna
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: be out there every five days.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: The conversation we've bolved around that. Hey, look, the reason
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: why I didn't I was hurt last year. It was
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: really the nerve issue. Was not the back issue. You know,
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: I was dealing with stuff that was coming from my
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: thumb into my tricep, you know, radial nerve stuff. And
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: that was the reason, you know for the lack of
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: starts last year, which is actually a good thing. You know,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: the number one concern you have to have about me
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: is the back. But that hasn't been the omen you know,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: knock on wood. You know, I've been doing very good
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: with that. You know that that and and physically feeling
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: great because of it. Uh, went into the off season
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: to try to address that nerve issue uh through uh
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: you know, my hand all the way up into my shoulder.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: But what I needed to do to make sure that
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: that uh nerve had enough space to work and fire
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: and function properly.
• 3:02
  Speaker 6: And I feel like I've addressed it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: And so as long as that that part is good,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: I should be going out there and making my starts
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: start and start out. So if I'm healthy and going
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: out there, I feel like I can still pitch out
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: very high level, go out there and compete and do
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: my thing.
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: All right, I have to ask, So you signed with
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Toronto this year? Are you still getting checks from Washington,
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: New York, Texas, Dodgers, Tigers, Diamondbacks? How many people do
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: you get checks from per year?
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: And I'm trying to set the record here of how
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: many teams I played.
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: For, like thirteen organizations. You're getting paid from like thirteen
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: organizations at the same time.
• 3:38
  Speaker 6: I know now we're now we're getting mixing the currencies.
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: Yeah really, Yeah, my tax guys gonna CBA is gonna
• 3:45
  Speaker 6: have a nightmare. So yeah, see how many different ways
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: we can slice this.
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: It's awesome. It's awesome. So yesterday, your second start of
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: the spring sere your second start.
• 3:54
  Speaker 6: First batter, Trey had me rolling. Oh man, he.
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: Laughed in your wind up, which I've never seen.
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know that just shows you how much history
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: I have, Uh, you know with Tray and all them
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: you know we that's how you know how much trash
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: talk going on with all those guys on the Phillies.
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: And I got so many different guys with it.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: Uh So, you know, I thought he was Trey was
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: gonna swing for the fences there and try to tee
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: off on me. Instead he's taken out and he kind
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: of locked me up that he wasn't swinging, and I
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: realized what he was doing. He was challenging it. So
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: that had a good laugh.
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: You love the A B S.
• 4:30
  Speaker 6: Uh, that's A. That's A. I mean there's a lot
• 4:33
  Speaker 6: of talking points.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Want us right down the middle.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, uh no, there's there's a lot of talking
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: points around it. Uh you know in terms of A
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: B S. But uh, you know that's it's a long conversation. Okay,
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: So you I mean, if you want to get into it,
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: we can't.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah, we're here for it, yes, because I think I mean, yeah, sure,
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: first of all, you were six four and now you're
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: only six two, so just know that because measuring yeah
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: you're six three or six to one, though we actually
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: measure your height now because they have to make I
• 5:04
  Speaker 4: don't know.
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, let's get on the talk all the talking points
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: here on on A B S. The reason being is that, hey,
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: I was on the Competition committee with Daniel Murphy and
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: this is like six years ago of working through some
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: of these issues and thinking about the game, and you
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: know where we had and you know when I had
• 5:24
  Speaker 3: these meetings, you know, with the Union and MLB. You know,
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: for me, let's let's go back and say, all right,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: when we first instituted replay, you know, we're you know
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: for us, you know, for me, that was that montal
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: Gala Raga play. You know, like, all right, that's an
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: egregious call. We that's gotta being out, you know, like
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: we have the technology now, you know, let's make that
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: calling out.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: Are you on that team?
• 5:45
  Speaker 6: Yeah? I was on that team, so sawid Yeah.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: And so we've now as an industry, we've gotten that
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: call right at first base, you know, we get the
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: call right one hundred you know, for lack of better
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: terms here, but one hundred percent of time, we're getting
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: that call right. And I think as a game, we
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: like that that calls right one hundred percent of the time. Now,
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: what's the unattended consequence of having replaying the game? Now
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: when you slide in the second you can be safe
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: by a mile and your cleat comes off by just
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: an inch, and all of a sudden, now you're out.
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: So when we were print.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: In replay, you know, we were thinking about these egregious calls,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: but all of a sudden we had this unintended consequence
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: of that was.
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: What it wasn't meant for rights, right, it was not
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: The players were like the guys clearly say, but yeah,
• 6:26
  Speaker 4: his momentum takes them, all of his cleat comes. So
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: that's kind of what you're saying, is that it wasn't
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: what it was meant to do.
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't meant to be for that specific play.
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: We weren't trying to take the neighborhood play out of
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: the game. It just that was an unintended consequence of
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: now bringing replay into the game. The other thing, you
• 6:42
  Speaker 3: know that the umpires, you know, when we think about, uh,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: this was five years ago, is like, hey, gambling's coming
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: more into the game, and who's the number one person
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: that can affect the game in terms of gambling was
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: the umpire. And if the umpire is gonna have if
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: we're gonna have more gambling, hey we might need a
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: check on the umpires and you might need some type
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: of replay system to have that. You combine that with
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: the fact that, hey, there was a lot of kind
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: of egregious calls, you know, calls that are way off
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: the plate. They're getting called the strikes. And being on
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: that competition committee, you know, we said that, hey, we
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: might need a challenge system.
• 7:14
  Speaker 6: We need to look into this. Uh, you know, as
• 7:16
  Speaker 6: the game progresses here, you know, up put my hand up.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: I suggested that you know, now fast forward five years. Uh,
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: you know, how has a game Look, you've seen the
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: undertended consequences of this when you bring in the challenge system. Now, okay,
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: that's fine, but we're you know, there's a there's a
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: wide range of you know, different ways we can actually
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: navigate this. Not saying that technology is bad, but do
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: we need the electronics? How much of the electronics strike
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: zone do we want actually in the gameplay. So there's
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: different ways you can you can actually solve this one.
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: You could sit there and say, all right, the minimum
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: way to actually do this is to say, all right,
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: just grade the umpires. If you just grade the umpires
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: and you try to eliminate the bad umpires, you know, hey,
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: get the umpires call on the zone.
• 8:02
  Speaker 6: They're actually really good about this. Uh.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: You know when you think back to the postseason, last postseason,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: do we think about that bad umpires that.
• 8:09
  Speaker 6: The strike zone was really an issue?
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: That I remember?
• 8:12
  Speaker 6: Right?
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: The good umpires are good? So you know what problem
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: are we really solving right now? So you know, that's
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: one one talking point to kind of you know, think
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: about when we're talking about this issue. You know, second
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: way is the thing about it is it is you
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: know we have a buffer zone already kind of there
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: should there be a buffer zone with the challenge system?
• 8:32
  Speaker 6: Like hey, were you really are the buffer zone still.
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: A ball because it used to be like they used
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: to say, all right, you can kind of get a
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: ball on each side.
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: Yeah, and so you know, do you want to.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: You know, have just quarter inches you know, with fifty
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: to fifty pitches you know going on? Uh, you know,
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: do you want to have a buffer zone within within
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: the Challenge system because you bring that all up because
• 8:54
  Speaker 3: all right, so this is the other talking point we
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: got I'd like to say, is okay, when you hit
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: your when you hit your spot, you know, a fifty
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: to fifty pitch on the edge you hit your spot.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: You know, if you hit your spot, you it's not
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: fifty to fifty. Sometimes you get that eight out of
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: ten times. But if you're throwing a pitch on the
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: other side, you know, and you're reaching away, it's a
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: fifty to fifty call.
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: Well you should really only be.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: Getting that two out of ten times. And so that's
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: kind of the human element of the game we're talking about,
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: is you want you want to hit your spot. The
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: electronics strike Zone doesn't view it that way. The only
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: views it as fifty to fifty and fifty fifty on
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: on everything. So when you say the human element of
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: the game, that's what the human element of the game is.
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: Do we want to get rid of that? We're going
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: to be the unattended consequences of getting rid of that,
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: you know, are you gonna is this going to create
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: more you know, catchers syst in up middle and we just.
• 9:40
  Speaker 6: Have more stuff? Guys? Is that better for the game?
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: Uh, it's something that we need to think about if
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: if the electronics strike zone is going to be more
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: prevalent in a game. So, you know, another solution is
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: to say, hey, limit the scope of the replay of
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: saying hey it's only two replays in one game, or
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: you know some limit you know, maybe three at you know,
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: three challenges per game max. So that way you're only
• 10:03
  Speaker 3: using the challenge in you know, big spots or where
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: or it's an egregious call, like you're not just using
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: it on an O pitch or where you can have
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: ten challenges within the game. And so you know, when
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: you're thinking about when we're seeing this abs you know,
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: challenges and coming into the game, it's not as.
• 10:20
  Speaker 6: Versus status quo.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: It's all right whether the where the you know, different
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: options that we could use it, use the technology for
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: to make the game better, you know. And so that's
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: that's where, you know, the last thing we really want
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: to have happened here is have the changes in behaviors,
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: have undertended consequences. Have the game change because of a
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: challenge system. I think, how we want this. We just
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: want the umpires better. We don't want the game to change.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: We don't want you want. We don't want people trying
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: to manipulate the electronics strike zone. We just want people.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: We want the game to We just want the umpires
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: to be better. And so there's different ways to achieve that,
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: and and there could be an incremental way to bring
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: it into the game to make the umpires better. But
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I don't think we
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: want to take the human element out of the game.
• 11:04
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  Speaker 4: Before crats is gonna have a question. You got to
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: hear your pieces out, so but I do have one
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: question when you when you did this in your first start, Yeah,
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: did Night's call you in and say Max you lost
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: all power to ever challenge again?
• 12:16
  Speaker 6: No?
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Actually, uh that was a situation where, uh we we
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: had talked about getting curveballs down because sometimes you.
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: You know, you can like nail the front of the zone.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't know exactly where it's at, you know.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: And actually in that moment I saw the Empire kind
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: of flinch, you know, I was like, oh is it?
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: And then with Kirk the first time throwing a Kirk
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: like all right, where I was actually more curious, like
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: where is that actually at? And so it was just
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: a chance to see that I didn't necessarily know if
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: it was actually starting then.
• 12:42
  Speaker 4: It was like this.
• 12:43
  Speaker 6: I thought it was gonna be close.
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: It turned out was off the ground, like you know,
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: just hey, it's one of those things. I probably wouldn't
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: have done that if it was in season, but it
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: was a Hey, spring train is a chance to look
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: at it.
• 12:52
  Speaker 5: Okay, who's going to have the most benefit. I know,
• 12:55
  Speaker 5: you've only had two starts on the system. Once everybody
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: gets used to it, who's gonna benefit the most if
• 13:01
  Speaker 5: this is implemented.
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: Pictures are hitters?
• 13:04
  Speaker 6: I don't know. I don't know.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: I have to see more of that. And really, you know,
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: you hear from the minor leaguers. You know, I've talked
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: to minor leaguers and minor league coaches, and you know,
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: it's not you know, it's not one hundred percent slam dunk.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: You know, like I said, they've kind of advocated some
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: you know, some of the guys I've talked to have
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: advocate advocated, Hey, just use the electronics strikes from the
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: great umpires.
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: They see that as the kind of.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: The easiest solution that doesn't change behavior, and continue to
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: have the conversation of how we want you know, electronics
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: strikes some within the game, but you know that we
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: also see the negatives have taken the human element out
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: of the game. That would be the kind of the
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: simplest way to move forward with this. Hey, the technology
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: is good, Keep making these guys, keep making the umpires,
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: you know good, make them better, and really just try
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: to eliminate the bad umpires. And I think overall that
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: that's what the humans want, that's what the game, that's
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: what all the players, the veterans, everybody wants.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: But I remember, I don't think you were around when
• 13:58
  Speaker 4: they started what's called questech, So it was before like
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: THEBS and all that, and that was a big thing.
• 14:04
  Speaker 4: There was only certain ballparks that had it too, and
• 14:07
  Speaker 4: the ballparks that had it thought they got treated unfairly
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: by umpires. So I know every every ballpark has it now,
• 14:14
  Speaker 4: a rating system. But we've also seen that that hasn't
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: translated to umpires getting World Series jobs or postseason jobs,
• 14:22
  Speaker 4: because yeah, I know, the umpires do better in the postseason.
• 14:25
  Speaker 4: But if you look at the grades of guy umpires
• 14:27
  Speaker 4: that were in the playoffs, some of them were rated
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: not even in the top half half of them, but
• 14:32
  Speaker 4: yet they still work. The World Series of the lcs'
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: is so, yes, they have a grading system, but if
• 14:36
  Speaker 4: it's not working, isn't this a better way to make it?
• 14:39
  Speaker 4: Almost more public. I don't want to say public shaming,
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: but this is almost like a way to be like,
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: and this guy stinks he's had more head taps than
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: any other umpires.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: Sure, And I think that's a very fair argument and
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: very for a point to bring up and say, hey,
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: look the umpires, you guys are great, but let's make
• 14:53
  Speaker 3: sure we have the best umpires in the postseason, you know,
• 14:55
  Speaker 3: when they know we're judging everything based on you know,
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: how our seasons are the postseason. Let's make sure the
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: best umpires are in that situation as well. So I
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: feel like that's a very fair argument, very for a
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: conversation to have.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: I mean, the best umpire graded. I just got suspended
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: by the way for a year for gambling, right, But
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: you mentioned gambling, You mentioned umpires. It happened, right, You
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: saw it happen in the NBA. Or the guy got
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: got kicked out for got arrested for point shaving. And
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: again Pat Hoberg, Hoiberg wasn't gambling, Yeah, just his friend
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: uses whatever.
• 15:27
  Speaker 6: I'm not here litigated.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: No, No, I know, say hey, look MLB did that
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: their homework on this, and you know, if there's an
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: entirey violation here, like yeah, you can't have any thing
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: going on with the umpires like that would ruin, Like
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: the fans would really look down on that.
• 15:41
  Speaker 4: Agreed.
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: You said you were on the Competition committee and we
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: had with Merryfield on here and he constantly talked about
• 15:48
  Speaker 5: being on the committee and being like, eye roll, did
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: you feel like you were heard in the sense the
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: way that players want to be heard on a on
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: a competition committee, because that's all you guys, that's all
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: players do is compete.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: I think the committee is different than wherever we were,
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: say six years ago, when I's like it was just
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: Daniel Murphy, me and just kind of a group of
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: different from MLB and we were just kind of talking
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: through issues. I think it's different now where uh it's owners,
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: umpires and select players and a little bit different structure
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: to it. So I think the Competition Committee, I'm not
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: on it, so I can't really comment of what that uh,
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: those conversations like. But you know, for me, I can say, hey, look,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: you know I was on this. I was talking about this,
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: you know five six years ago. Uh, here's where things
• 16:41
  Speaker 3: were at five six years ago. Yeah, I said look
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: into this. But as we've looked into this, hey, there's
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: some hold on. There's now we gotta be careful of
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: how we think about bringing this into the game. Are
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: there other solutions here that you know accomplished ninety percent
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: of what we're looking for and that's good enough?
• 16:58
  Speaker 4: Okay. We had time fam on last week of Pirates camp.
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: He's a veteran, he's been He's very outspoken, kind of
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: like you. He mentioned veteran guys and how hard it
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: was this offseason. And you look out there and you
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: see Rizzo Lancelin with Meryfield, those Akintana like these are
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: guys that have done a lot of things in this game.
• 17:14
  Speaker 4: Are healthy? Gibson? Sure, right, guys, you know guys you
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: played with, guys you played against. They're still out there.
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: Why because these are these are certified big league guys.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: It's not like they had bad years either, right. I
• 17:25
  Speaker 4: mean they're out there and they can help teams win.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: Why are why are they not being signed?
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: Yeah?
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: This is always a tough one because you know, you
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: don't have every answer. You can't help every player in
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: every situation. The only way you can look at this
• 17:38
  Speaker 3: from the league is to say, hey, all thirty teams competing,
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: are they're actually trying to field, you know, highly competitive rosters.
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: I can't guarantee you can't guarantee anybody a job to
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: stay in the big ways. You know, there's a finite
• 17:50
  Speaker 3: years play here. But the only thing you can look
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: at from the league standpoint is are all the teams competing?
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: And if they're all.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: Competing, then that's that's the best. That's where the free
• 18:02
  Speaker 3: market works. If you know regencies to work in a
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: free market, and that's the best you can do, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 3: let the chips fall where they met go.
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: Yeah, because I mean he listened. He dug into a
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: lot of stuff, but he basically said it's harder to stay,
• 18:13
  Speaker 4: which we all know how hard it is to stay
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: in the big leagues. He said, that's Vet's tryout for
• 18:19
  Speaker 4: a phases like in junior July when they get traded
• 18:21
  Speaker 4: to a new team, Like you've been traded in the
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: middle of the year. And he was saying, like that
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: was my tryout for the next year. He's like, there
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: was no freeency. When I got traded, basically that was
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: my free agent time, and then I had to go
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: improve myself again. I mean, it was all stuff that
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: we've all kind of talked about as players before. I mean,
• 18:36
  Speaker 4: because it's getting harder as you get older, as an
• 18:38
  Speaker 4: older player to find I mean, you didn't sign right
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: away and you have the track record that nobody has
• 18:42
  Speaker 4: JV or you know, Justin Erliner was out there for
• 18:45
  Speaker 4: a long time. I mean, you guys are first ballot
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: Hall of Fame guys with all the credentials in the world,
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: and teams are like But I mean, it's just strange
• 18:53
  Speaker 4: to me because you think, if I'm running a team,
• 18:56
  Speaker 4: you guys, not only do I want you for what
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: you do on the field, but I want you guys
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: for what you do off the field. With the young
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: kids who I have coming up, and they can you
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: can sit down with you know, Balen Francis is coming
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: on next and say, hey, look this is how I pick.
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: It's just what I look help him get his career
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: to the next level.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm sure, yeah, there is value in that, but uh,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: you know, it's a hard stone to throw to say, hey,
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: these guys.
• 19:16
  Speaker 6: Everybody should have jobs. Now, you can't necessarily have that argument.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: It's hey, is every team trying to compete to try
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: to win at the major level. You know, that's the
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: only question you can answer. Once you say that answer, yes,
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: then the free agent market is what it is.
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: You sound like Scott Boris by the.
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: Way, Oh really.
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: We had him no because we had him on No.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: We had him on last week, two weeks ago. We
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: had him on after all of his main guys sign
• 19:41
  Speaker 4: And he's kind of saying the same thing. He's like,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: if every team was trying thirty had a thirty, he said,
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: it would be a much better market for every player.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: But he kind of just said, you know, not as
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: we know. I mean, we don't need to name the
• 19:53
  Speaker 4: teams that aren't really trying to win. And he said
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: that that holds the value down because not every team
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: is bidding on all players.
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: Right, I mean, you have that conversation within the union.
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: I mean it's not just Scott, you know, kind of
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: you know, everybody talks like that. So you know, that's
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: at the end of the day, that's what we want,
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: you know, from a game, major baseball fans, everybody involved, that's.
• 20:16
  Speaker 6: What we want.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: Max, I've got one more for you. You're on a
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: team with super super talented youngsters like Flatty Junior and
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: Boba Schett. You actually went through their experience a long
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: time ago, a free agencies in right, the Tigers making
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: an offer, You bet on yourself. You end up with
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: the Nats, great contract, World Series title. It all worked
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: out great. What advice would you give them?
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: You know, hey, look right now, you're going through that.
• 20:45
  Speaker 3: This is a really tough time you're walk here. It's
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: a tough year, knowing nobody else understands these challenges when
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: you're in this position and you know it's really a
• 20:56
  Speaker 3: tough year. But the only way to get through it
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: is when you walk through those. Are you here to
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: win or not? Are you here for contract? Are you
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: here just to win for baseball? And if you just
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: show up and play baseball and you're here to win,
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: be a good teammate, everything takes care of itself. Don't
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: worry about anything else. It all just works. Be yourself,
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: go out there, compete as hard as you can. Business stuff, Yeah,
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: you gotta worry about business stuff.
• 21:19
  Speaker 6: I get it.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know you're making decisions around that. But when
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: you walk through the clubhouse. Just be yourself and go
• 21:26
  Speaker 3: out there and compete and win.
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: All right, Last one, You've played with a lot of people.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: You've played with more people than Crats has had uniforms on. Okay,
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: your favorite teammate.
• 21:35
  Speaker 6: Oh, I can't get it to one.
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: I thought for sure you'd say Austin Hedges, because I mean,
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: you guys used to dump chocolate sauce on it and
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: all kinds of things.
• 21:43
  Speaker 6: Yeah, in Texas Hedges. Great.
• 21:44
  Speaker 3: I mean, you know, like it goes back throughout all
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: the years, different guys from Arizona, you're you know, through
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Texas now of all the different guys I got to
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: play with it, you know, but there's you know, there's
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: so many different guys of different characters that I played
• 21:59
  Speaker 3: with and played against. I really enjoyed. So that's the
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: best part is that, you know, it's great. You know,
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: it's great to have actually getting up be a part
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: of so many different clubhouses because I've gotten to be
• 22:08
  Speaker 3: exposed to so many different you know, team to so
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: many different guys. I'm really good to you know, get
• 22:13
  Speaker 3: on the same page and be friends with so many
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: different players.
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: That's funny. That's funny. By the way, I know you've
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: seen this and you have to go. But the meme
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: that runs on Instagram where it's like, oh, they came
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: to see Randy Johnson and someone pure each other. I mean,
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: how disappointed were the fans And now they look back
• 22:29
  Speaker 4: and say, oh, man, I was.
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I had a good one. So I saw that
• 22:35
  Speaker 6: and uh.
• 22:35
  Speaker 3: I went to Mike Maddox and I said, uh, all right,
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: who you got, you know, Randy and I versus Greg
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: orkushel how you taking And I thought you had the
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: best answer, and he said, Who's who's a closer?
• 22:49
  Speaker 6: I thought that was a good answer.
• 22:50
  Speaker 4: Yes, agreed, that's good.
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: Thank you really good.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you, Max. Appreciate the time and always good
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: to see you and we'll catch you during the season.
• 22:58
  Speaker 6: All right, appreciate it.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: We've got Alec Banoa, Jay's starter on FT Alex. Great
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: to have you on here for the first time actually
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: and one of the best interviews in baseball. How you
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: doing and how's the recovery process going?
• 23:09
  Speaker 6: Man? Yeah? Man?
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: First off, thank you guys for having me, thank you
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: for being here, welcome, you know, excited to be on
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the show with you guys, and I'm feeling great man
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: Arms arms, feeling amazing. Reas been great, so excited to
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: get start getting out there.
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: What's the day, what's the day We're going to see
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: you on the mount? Like against hitters now, I know,
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: you know, like against other teams, maybe other teams hitters.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I start bullpens. So this is the first week
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: of like back to backs, so that's like a pretty
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: big deal. And then next week I start. At the
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: end of the week, get off the mound, and then
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: from there it's kind of feels a little bit more normal,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: you know, like bullpins twice a week, some heavy days,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: some night er days, work on the mechanics a little bit,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: and then probably about three months from there sometime probably
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: start facing you know, hit or some ibps.
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: Are you bored?
• 23:57
  Speaker 7: No. I found ways to keep myself.
• 23:59
  Speaker 6: Very bit training.
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: Everyone's running around. I got to catch a bus, I
• 24:02
  Speaker 4: gotta throw a pen, and you're just kind of like, well,
• 24:04
  Speaker 4: I don't know what I'm like.
• 24:05
  Speaker 7: I'm gonna run over here and watch pants. I'm gonna
• 24:07
  Speaker 7: run over here and.
• 24:08
  Speaker 4: Do like I get to throw ninety feet. It's a
• 24:11
  Speaker 4: big day, huge day.
• 24:13
  Speaker 7: Like today I went up to Chad Green.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: He's been helping me a time through this, and obviously
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: he just went through it previously, and I'm like, I'm like, hey, man,
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: big week, I got back to back days today. He's like, whoa,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: so one of the guys I've been through. I kind
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: of understand, but I find ways to stay busy.
• 24:27
  Speaker 4: All right, that's good. That's good. Apparently you didn't go
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: to a barber while you We're just.
• 24:32
  Speaker 6: Letting it flow.
• 24:33
  Speaker 4: I mean I like it. Yeah.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's been about two years now. Yeah, not
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: one trim or anything. So just letting it flow.
• 24:41
  Speaker 4: Man. Wow, you ever do you ever think about ponytail?
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: You're gonna go do rag.
• 24:45
  Speaker 7: I got the pontil It comes out once I get
• 24:50
  Speaker 7: to the weight room.
• 24:50
  Speaker 4: Oh you're not. You're not a headband guy.
• 24:53
  Speaker 7: No, No, not big on the headbands.
• 24:54
  Speaker 6: Ok.
• 24:55
  Speaker 4: Not to like the Brice Harbor headband that keeps it out.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: I don't know, maybe maybe not yet. The whole hair
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: flip and stuff. I'm not that used to it yet.
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: Okay, all right, all right, Alec I got a question
• 25:07
  Speaker 4: for you.
• 25:08
  Speaker 5: We watched you probably to me one of the best
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: moments in the All Star Game where you were miked up,
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: that confidence that like swag and everything at what point
• 25:20
  Speaker 5: did you lose that swag and then gain it back
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: in the sense of like in everyday life, because you've
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: been through injuries, you've been you know, you pitch, You
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: pitch for like an hour and a half once every
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: five days. So you know, I'm talking about like in
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: everyday life that like same alec Mino that we saw
• 25:37
  Speaker 5: in the All Star Game.
• 25:40
  Speaker 7: Yeah, man, I think definitely.
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: You know, sometimes like you know, especially at the highest level,
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: when you go through kind of some some turmoil out
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: on the field, you know, it could be a little
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: bit tough, you know, especially you know, dealing with some
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: injuries and things like that. And for me, you know,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's been great to kind of go through
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: that a little bit and to kind of you know,
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: you kind of got to know what kind of person
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: you are and kind of just keep that foundation. But
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: at the same time, just continue to learn and to
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: grow about yourself, which is something that I feel like
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I've been able to do. Sometimes you got to get
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: punched in the mouth, you got to get kicked down
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: to know how to get up. You know, those are
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: things that you can't really mimic or practice. Those are
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: things that you got to go through to learn. So
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: for me, you know, it's been it's been a great journey.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: And for me, you know, being able to have my
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: family around me, some really great teammates and just really
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: amazing people in my corner that always pushing me and
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: supporting me. You know, I kind of feel like it
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: allows me to continue to have my swag and my confidence,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: you know, even if we're dealing with some injuries and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: we're kind of going through it a little bit.
• 26:45
  Speaker 4: You know what happened? Because you were like cratch you said,
• 26:48
  Speaker 4: you're on top of the world, and then all of
• 26:50
  Speaker 4: a sudden you're a triple A. Yeah, not long after?
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: What what like did something change? Because everyone, you know,
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: we've heard all the things like whatever you want to say,
• 26:59
  Speaker 4: what happened? But you tell us because I mean it
• 27:02
  Speaker 4: was like from here and then all of a sudden
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: you're word Syracuse Buffalo Buffalo.
• 27:07
  Speaker 6: Yeah.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: Well, I think definitely obviously, you know, came off of
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: the most innings I've ever thrown before, coming off of
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: the year previous to that, the most innings I've ever
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: thrown before. And I'm always the kind of guy that's
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: gonna take the ball, man. I want to go out
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: there and compete. I want to go out there and
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: fight for my guys. And you know, sometimes like your
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: body just isn't able to do it, you know. And
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: you know, for me, after twenty two, I dealt with,
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: you know, some stuff I feel like injury rises, my shoulder,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: my leg, you know, have some house stuff, and you
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: know sometimes like you try and put that in in
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: the rear view and like I can I can go
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: do this, like you know, I just got in the league,
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: and you know, I'm up. I'm up here, like okay,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: what what does a matter if I'm at sixty percent?
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: What does a matter if I'm at seven percent? I'm
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: gonna go out there and compete. You know, But when
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: you're focused on yourself and you're not focused on how
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: to it Mike trout Out, you know, like you're you're
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: kind of fighting yourself while fighting him, you know, and
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: it's it's it's hard and you know obviously you've played
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and you know, and for me, it was just something
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: where you know, I kept going through that through that
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: year like it's gonna click, it's gonna click, it's gonna click.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna find it. You know, I was a little
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: behind in camp, and you know, it just it just
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: never clicked for me. And then you know, obviously the
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: struggles of the day to day, you know, it could
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: be like that. And obviously we're a contending team, you know,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: so any other organization probably I would have gone through
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: some of those headaches, you know, still at the big
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: league level, but you know, this teams trying to win
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: a World Series every year and there's really no time
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: for that. So you know, I feel like everybody kind
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: of needs that that come into life moment and you know,
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: you kind of got to get punching them out to
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: know what you're made of and to know what you're
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: to know what you're built like.
• 28:52
  Speaker 6: So uh, for me, it's about.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: You know, there's a lot of people that don't even
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: get to that that height of the mountains, So for
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: me to be I would to get there, and yeah,
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: you know what, we struggle and yeah, there's a lot
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: of people that can say what they want our opinions,
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: and that doesn't matter because for me, I know, I'm
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: working my butt off, you know, each and every day
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: to be right back there again and help this team win.
• 29:12
  Speaker 5: You kind of alluded to it, we talk about like,
• 29:15
  Speaker 5: I hate when guys are like, oh, he was rushed
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: to the big leagues. Would even better if you've got
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: that adversity, hit that adversity while you were in the
• 29:23
  Speaker 5: minor leagues and not in the big leagues.
• 29:27
  Speaker 7: No, not at all.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: That everybody goes through a learning curve when they get
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: to the big leagues, right, everybody goes through a learning
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: curve from single A to double A, from Double A
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: to triple A, from triple A to the big league.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: So you know that learning curve. Clearly, I didn't need
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: it at the minor league level. And you know that's
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: why our front office and everybody and where our team
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: was in twenty twenty one when I did come up,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: you know, it was this is where I my development, my.
• 29:54
  Speaker 6: Learning curve was gonna come.
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: You know.
• 29:57
  Speaker 7: So for me, there's no there's no regret on that.
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: And you know, and I'll never say like, oh, they
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: should have had me on and it that's bullshit. You know,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: like I'm going to take the fucking bond. I'm gonna
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: go out there, I'm going to compete as hard as
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: I can, and you know, whatever the outcome is, the
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: outcome is. And I'm still going to do that, you know,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: So really the other outside noise, you know, top of
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: the world, bottom of the world, none of that matters
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: to me. You know, in hindsight in twenty years, I
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: know I'm going to look back and be like, hey,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: you know, there were some ups, there were some downs,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: but you know it was it was a good career.
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: And that's that's what I hope to be able to say,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: to be able to do, you know. And and for me,
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: it's a it's a part of the story to be
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: able to help the next generation.
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: That's something I really.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Liked, Apples and oranges, And it's really easy, man, There's
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: there's really uh not something that you can help that
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: next guy that is dealing with something. So for me,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: it's part of my story. It'll be a part of
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: how I'm able to help people. And yeah, just continue
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: to work my butt off to to be right back
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: where we need to be.
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: Alec, I'm gonna take us back to the origin of
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: that question when they're talking about you at the All
• 30:57
  Speaker 2: Star Game being miked up, which was awesome. I'm I'm
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: a fan, right, I'm the non player here host on
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: the show, so I'm always looking for that access. How
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: do you think MLB can know better market players and
• 31:09
  Speaker 2: our sport and get the sport, you know, back more
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: to what it was in the eighties and nineties, just
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: in terms of popularity, right, and being able to go
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: toe to toe with football and basketball and get the
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: national coverage that it deserves, which is what we do
• 31:23
  Speaker 2: every day.
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, And I think you guys are you know,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: obviously doing a great job, you know. You know, I
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: think I think obviously the analytics in the game are great,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: you know, But I think the biggest thing is, uh,
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: we were We all started off as kids that with
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: a dream, you know, and everybody that's playing in the
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: big leagues, I hope is a kid that's living their dream,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: you know. And there's a lot of kids right now
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: that are dreaming to be where we're at. And I
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: remember myself, you know, as a kid, like man, I'm
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: a I'm a romantic about baseball and I used to
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: wake up at six seven in the morning and just
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: watch Sports Center reruns every thirty minutes, you know, growing
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: up until my parents woke up, until there was any
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: action in the house. But it was just a lot
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: easier to kind of understand which players were really good,
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: you know, like you saw Bonds and Sosa and Maguire
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: and all these guys hitting fifty sixty homers, you know.
• 32:16
  Speaker 7: The batting average.
• 32:17
  Speaker 6: I don't know.
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: I feel like it was just a little bit easier
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: to understand, you know, for kids. And I think that's
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: the big thing, you know, for the marketing stuff. You know,
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: it's like we got all these alphabet you know, statistics
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: and analytics up there that I don't even understand them
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: at twenty seven years old, some of them, you know,
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: So how are we going to convince a seven year
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: old like, hey, no, you know, this is how it's calculated.
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: And so I just think kind of like simplifying it
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: a little bit. And you know, I feel like the
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: league does a great job of trying to show off
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: our personalities.
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: You know.
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: That's that's something that I feel like some of the
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: other leagues do a really good job of, you know,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: kind of not just pinning us as you know, just
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: baseball players baseball pants and a jersey and a hat on,
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: you know, but more about our families and who we
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: are off the field and the things we like to do.
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: So I feel like when when fans are able to
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: engage in those behind the scenes. They feel like they're
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: kind of going through it with us, and uh, you know,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: learning about who we are, not just the fastball or
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: the slider or the home run or the oh he's fast.
• 33:18
  Speaker 7: And I feel like that really helps grow the game. Right.
• 33:21
  Speaker 5: Did you see Travis Hunter's comments about show a Tani
• 33:24
  Speaker 5: whose job is tougher?
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: Yeah? I did see that. I did see that.
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: Which do you think is tougher his job, Travis Hunter's
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: job or show him with Tani's job?
• 33:34
  Speaker 7: I mean, uh, what he does is pretty remarkable.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: You know, he goes out there and plays both sides
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: of the ball and a ton of snaps and you
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: know it plays what two hundred snaps the game or whatever.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: I feel like that's pretty tough, uh physically, But at
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: the same time, you know, it's it's basically like he's
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: playing the same position but on other sides of the ball,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: whereas you know, show his playing two completely different positions,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: two completely different sides of the ball, hitting, pitching. You know, obviously,
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: as a baseball player, I have to say what show
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Hay does, it's definitely harder. I think mentally it's harder.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Travis on the physical side might be harder, but you know,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: just the fact that he's you know, rehabing TJ and
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: just want an MVP on the offensive side's pretty impressive.
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I gotta say what he's doing harder.
• 34:26
  Speaker 4: I'm all in. I'm all in. You know. It wasn't
• 34:28
  Speaker 4: hard though. Crouch and Scott Austin my son. He plays.
• 34:31
  Speaker 4: He's a senior high school. They recently played South Date
• 34:34
  Speaker 4: and whooped their ass nine to three, so he.
• 34:38
  Speaker 2: Went to so they miss that's why.
• 34:40
  Speaker 7: They got one ring.
• 34:42
  Speaker 6: They got one ring.
• 34:42
  Speaker 7: I was on that team.
• 34:43
  Speaker 4: Oh there you got I got one ring.
• 34:47
  Speaker 2: Exactly. Well, Alec, this was awesome to have you on here.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: Hopefully we'll catch again during the season, and good luck
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: with the rehab as you keep going there. Man, We're
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: excited to see you back.
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: Yeah, man, thank you guys. I appreciate it. Two