Latest / Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast / Pirates' Konnor Griffin, MLB's Top Prospect, joins Bucco Territory

Transcript

Pirates' Konnor Griffin, MLB's Top Prospect, joins Bucco Territory · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: What's up, everybody?
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Buco Territory, presented to
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: you by the Foul Territory Network. I am your host,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Noah Hiles, and joining me as always are my two
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: co hosts, Platinum Key aka Mark and j Hey aka
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: Josh Harrison. And as you can see, we have another
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: face on the screen, the first ever teenager on Foul Territory,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: on Bucko Territory. Also the first ever taught prospect to
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: join the show. Connor Griffin, joins us. Connor, Welcome to
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: the show, man. Thank you so much for joining us.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for having me, guys.
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: I'm excited just to talk some baseball and just have
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: some fun.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Awesome, all right, So we've got a lot of questions.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: I've interviewed you before. You and Josh are gonna talk
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: some great baseball here. But I mean, first things first,
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: we got a die hard Pirate fan on the show,
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Platinum Key, and I know he's chomping at the bit
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: to ask you a million questions, so we'll let him
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: start it off. Mark, what do you got for the
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: top prospect in baseball?
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: Countor, thank you so much for hopping on. My first question.
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: I was doing some research into your early high school
• 1:17
  Speaker 4: days multi sport athlete, I saw, like Ali, oops, I
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: saw a couple of football highlights and I just wanted
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: to pull one up really quick and have you watch
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: it with us here. You may be familiar with this,
• 1:31
  Speaker 4: but apparently Randy Moss thinks you're some a pretty good
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: football player as well. This is you your freshman year,
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: I believe, yep. And if you could just walk us
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: through it. What was it like having Randy Moss talk
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: about you on ESPN as a freshman in high school?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: That was that was crazy. I love football, I love
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: playing receiver. Just kind of throw it up to me,
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: let me try to go catch it.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: That was That was. That was some fun time.
• 2:00
  Speaker 3: And I remember that game catching that Catching that pass
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: was pretty cool, but I didn't think it'd end up
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: on ESPN. Yeah, Brandy was talking about it, So that
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: was that was pretty cool. But you know, I give
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: a lot of credit to play multiple sports when I
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: was younger.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: I think it kind of built the athlete that I am.
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: And I still try to run routes in the all season,
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: just keeping the athleticism.
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: So football may.
• 2:22
  Speaker 4: Have to go catch some passes for Paul Skin's when
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: he's warming up once you're up in Pittsburgh.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: That's right.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: Another question I had, I saw you were in Pittsburgh
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: this winter. You got to go to a Penn's game,
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: and I just wanted to have you talked about what
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: your experience was like in the city another time around here.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that was. That was an awesome experience.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: I got to go watch the Penguins practice, got to
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: enjoy hanging with Sydney cralsby the legend and just kind
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: of picking his brain. I mean, he's been there for
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: so many years, kind of picking his brain on how
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: he loves Pittsburgh and the ins and outs the thing,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: and so it's it was. It was a really cool
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: experience and I'm glad I got to be a part
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: of that for a few days and got to watch
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: a game, sit up in the suite and just enjoy
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: uh hockey game.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: So that was. That was an awesome experience. Excellent.
• 3:13
  Speaker 4: And Uh one other question I had. I hear the
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: Tutsi role at Osaka is pretty good in Jackson. I
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: famous traveling to Jackson.
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: Uh.
• 3:22
  Speaker 4: Do you have any other recommendations of things to do?
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: I'm big on restaurants. I love good restaurants. One of
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: my favorite. If you come to Mississippi, you gotta taste
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: taste some barbecue and going to Hickory Pitt and Jackson's,
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: that's gonna be a place you don't want to miss.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: So that's that's one of my favorites.
• 3:40
  Speaker 6: Love it all right, I'm gonna turn it back over
• 3:42
  Speaker 6: here to know what Yeah, Connor, obviously, I mean I've
• 3:46
  Speaker 6: reported on you a lot over this past year, so
• 3:50
  Speaker 6: I've learned a little bit about you here.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: But something I've always been curious about is I mean
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: I got to see where you train at great training,
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: an awesome facility. I think I told you is like
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: I wish I had something like that close to me
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: growing up when I was in high school. But I
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: think something that stands out about you is obviously your size, right,
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: you have the hype. I mean, you look like an
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: NFL tight end. When did you start focusing on weight
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: training during your you know your development. Obviously you put
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: a lot into the hitting and the fundamentals, but when
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: did you really start taking your physique seriously and what
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: you put into your body and how you develop it?
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it really started when I was a
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: junior in high school. I mean I kind of started weight,
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: uh started late on the weight training and you know,
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: focusing on what I what I'm eating, trying to gain weight,
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: which I don't think it was a was a bad
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: thing because leading up to that, I was playing so
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: many sports. I really didn't have time to uh get
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: in the gym, like I was just playing, practicing whatever.
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: But as I started to focus more on baseball, I
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: really took that serious. And I have a great place
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: to train, like you said, a GRIT. It's just an
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: amazing place. I got every opportunity to grow as a player,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: uh in the weight room or you know, on the
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: baseball training side.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: So I just take it, take it pretty serious. Now.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: I'm just I'm trying to, you know, fill out a
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: little bit, but also keep my speed and you know,
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: like you said, GRIT gives me every opportunity to do that.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: So thankful to have a great place like that.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: You obviously, I mean at GRIT you have Josh who
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: worked with you for hitting. I mean you had a
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: whole bunch of different people who work on your game.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Did you have professionals that worked on your nutrition as well?
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: When you're in high school.
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: I didn't.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I've never had a nutritionist or just kind of learn
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: on my own, figure it out on my own, know
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: what's what's good to eat. And it's hard to go wrong,
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: go wrong with some grilled chicken and rice, So that
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: that that was pretty easy to figure out and just
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: kind of stuck with that.
• 5:50
  Speaker 5: Awesome.
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: And another guy who trains at grit is a new Pirate,
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: Jake Mangum. What was your reaction to the Bucos acquiring him?
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: And we see the tweet right there, the let's go
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: with the Jolly Roger emoji. You guys, your time didn't
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: overlap at Jackson Prep obviously, but you've talked about how
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: much it means to you to represent, you know, your
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: small town in just the state of Mississippi, and now
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: getting to do that potentially with a guy who's from
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: your area, who you train with in the offseason. How
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: excited are you to play with Jake Mingam in the
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: big leagues.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm I'm super excited that It's just kind of
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: it's kind of crazy how it all works out ended
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: up on the same team, but I mean we're training
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: at the same place every single days, he's kind of
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: helping me, you know, get ready for spring training kind of.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: I've been picking his brains just you know, trying to
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: try to get some experience from him. I mean, he's
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: played for so many years and had so much success. Like,
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: I just want to be a sponge when I'm around.
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: But it's super cool to have two Missippi guys be
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: on the Pirates now and hopefully I can play with
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: him as soon as possible and let's try to go
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: win some time, just like we did at Jackson Prep
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: when we were both going through there.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Awesome, I got one final question for you, then I'm
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: going to turn it over to the guy who maybe
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: you'll have some questions for Josh Erison. So this past
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: year has obviously been a whirlwind for you, right, I mean,
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: you start in Low Way, you got a little taste
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: of big league camp, and then you end in Double
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: A as the number one prospect in baseball. And as
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: someone who's covered the sport, obviously you're familiar with the
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: top prospects and you've had your share of attention in
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: your name and your spaces right when, like the prep
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: baseball you've always been high on those lists, but you're
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: becoming a very big name in the baseball world and
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: you're not even in Triple A yet. What's it been
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: like to see kind of the celebrity element of your
• 7:47
  Speaker 2: life take off this early on. I'm sure that was
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: something you probably didn't anticipate.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely something I didn't anticipate because that came into
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: my first year. Just I wasn't, you know, anked on
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: the prospects list very high, and I was just kind
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: of I know, I needed a lot to work on,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: and I just I went to work every single day
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: just facing challenges and just trying to grow as a player,
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: and then worked my way into Double A. I'm thankful
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: for the Pirates for allowing me to move when they
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: were when they thought I was ready to go, so
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: I was able to face new challenges at different levels
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: and it all just kind of helped me grow as
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: a player. But it's been crazy, just you know the
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: amount of media stuff that comes with moving up on
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: the prospects lists, and it's all fun and games. But
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: I got to continue to work. I got a lot
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: of a lot of success, you know, I'm chasing after
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: in front of me, you know, winning championships, making my debut,
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: just different things like that.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I gotta I gotta focus on and.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: You know, I'm just trying to take you one day
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: and trying not to doubtside and always kind of get
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: in my head too much. H But just continue to
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: be who I am and be humble, keep working, and
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: just trust God that all work out for me.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: I got one last last question here for you. I
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: asked Paul his rookie year, who is the most famous
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: person that contacted him. He told me it was Shack.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you're gonna beat Shack yet because
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: you're not a big leaguer, but uh, who's the most
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: Who's the biggest celebrity or famous person that you've gotten
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: the meet since your professional career started.
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: M I don't know.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: That's that's that's that's crazy. I've I have been in
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: a group chat talking with Mike Trout, so it's hard
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: not to say Mike Trout.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a pretty good one.
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: That's awesome.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, So that was pretty cool.
• 9:34
  Speaker 3: He's he's big into cards and we were kind of
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: talking about making a double card where I sign it
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: and he signs it, so that could be pretty cool.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Wow, that's sure. Off of that card.
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, so yeah, you just you're going to pay
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: for about eight college educations with that card. So thank you.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: In advance.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: We're gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsors.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: When we get back, Josh Harrison gonna talk to some
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: or talk to the game's top prosper that counter Griffin.
• 10:02
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  Speaker 2: All right, we're handed it over to the ballplayers now, Josh,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: you have the floor.
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: All right, what's going on? Connor?
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: What's going on?
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Man?
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: Thanks for thanks for taking the time to talk a
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: little bit.
• 11:18
  Speaker 10: Oh, no Man, appreciate you being on Buco territory. I'm
• 11:22
  Speaker 10: gonna start off, Man, I've learned a lot about you
• 11:25
  Speaker 10: just in this brief little uh, you know, interview session
• 11:28
  Speaker 10: here with Noah and Mark. But one of my first
• 11:32
  Speaker 10: questions I want to ask is Man, you're nineteen.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: Right, yeah, nineteen?
• 11:37
  Speaker 10: Man, Man, I can remember being nineteen as my sophomore
• 11:39
  Speaker 10: year at college. So I'm looking at you know, you
• 11:43
  Speaker 10: been nineteen already hitting a professional level, being in double A,
• 11:47
  Speaker 10: and as you said, a lot of these things happen fast.
• 11:49
  Speaker 10: As you said, you know some of the celebrity status.
• 11:52
  Speaker 10: What do you feel has been has been your biggest
• 11:55
  Speaker 10: adjustment right now? Being nineteen and having touched double A
• 11:58
  Speaker 10: because as I said, I was nineteen, I was a
• 12:00
  Speaker 10: sophomore year in college.
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: I was still taking classes. So like my.
• 12:03
  Speaker 10: Adjustment was just making an adjustment from freshman and sophomore year.
• 12:07
  Speaker 10: You have made an adjustment from coming from high school
• 12:09
  Speaker 10: to going you know what I'm saying. So what do
• 12:12
  Speaker 10: you feel that has been the biggest adjustment has been
• 12:13
  Speaker 10: on the field? Has been off the field.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: Kind of, it's really been away from the field. Going
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: from high school straight to pro ball, you get sent
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: off pretty quick, and you got to learn a few
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: things on your own pretty fast.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: So moving low a high double A, I was.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: Moving around a lot and having to move apartments, and
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: I think just that I kind of grew as a
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: person a lot, Like I really learned more about myself,
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: how to take care of myself and just learn some responsibility.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: And I think that's that ultimately helps me at the field,
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: just because it's more serious now. It's kind of you know,
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: my job, what I do for a living, and got
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: to keep playing well, got to keep playing well to
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: keep living well. So you just got to continue to
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: continue that work and just enjoy the process. But I
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: think it helped me grow a lot, just kind of
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: figuring out how to live on my own.
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 13:07
  Speaker 10: No, I can definitely attest to that because after I
• 13:10
  Speaker 10: got drafted, I got sent out the Boise and uh,
• 13:13
  Speaker 10: you know, I'm the youngest of three, so I got
• 13:15
  Speaker 10: two older brothers and you know, even all the way
• 13:19
  Speaker 10: through my major league career.
• 13:21
  Speaker 9: Uh.
• 13:21
  Speaker 10: My first cause after the game, you know, to my parents,
• 13:24
  Speaker 10: And that was going to lead to my next question
• 13:27
  Speaker 10: is how long has your dad been like a.
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: College softball coach? First? How long has he been a
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: college softball coach?
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: He's been college softball coach for twenty plus years. He's
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: he's done it a while.
• 13:40
  Speaker 10: Okay, So that that was going to lead to my
• 13:42
  Speaker 10: next question. Family been very close to me. Had My
• 13:46
  Speaker 10: oldest brother has been you know, he played pro ball.
• 13:49
  Speaker 10: He's been coaching through the minor leagues at various ranks
• 13:52
  Speaker 10: all the way up to Triple A.
• 13:53
  Speaker 5: My middle brother played baseball and junior college.
• 13:56
  Speaker 10: But also got an uncle that played Major League baseball
• 13:59
  Speaker 10: for eleven years in coach for and you know, having
• 14:02
  Speaker 10: that having those guys play ahead of me and having
• 14:05
  Speaker 10: those experience, do you feel like your dad being a
• 14:08
  Speaker 10: college coach helped you make some of these adjustments not
• 14:11
  Speaker 10: only from you know, high school pro but you know,
• 14:13
  Speaker 10: just your whole life. It's kind of a it's kind
• 14:16
  Speaker 10: of an outlet that most people don't have.
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, for sure, he was. It was super big
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: having him by my side through the college recruitment process.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: I mean, he knew the ins and outs how to
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: go about things, and having him for that was was
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: really big.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And our big thing was we're.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: Not going to commit at a young age like eighth
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: and ninth grade.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna ride it out.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: We're gonna take our official visits and just really make
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: sure we're going to the right place and and take
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: our time with it. That was that was That was
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: huge for me. And you know, I come from a family.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: We I haven't had many family members, you know, play
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: at the division ie level or play pro ball. So
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: I'm kind of writing my own story. I got my
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: dad by my side. He's there try and with me
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: every day, so we're kind of we're kind of trying
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: to start something new here and write our own path,
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: which is which is pretty cool. So hopefully it ends
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: up being a pretty cool story. But I'm thankful to
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: happen by my side.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Every day.
• 15:13
  Speaker 10: Oh no, man, that's a pretty cool story man, because
• 15:15
  Speaker 10: I'm a firm advocate for you know, keeping your family
• 15:19
  Speaker 10: close by, and you know, that's something that I that
• 15:22
  Speaker 10: I saw, you know, even through tweets and just hearing
• 15:24
  Speaker 10: you speak, so that that's something that that kind of
• 15:27
  Speaker 10: jumped out to me because I think that also leads
• 15:29
  Speaker 10: to success on the field, you know, when you can
• 15:32
  Speaker 10: have that piece to know that your loved ones are
• 15:34
  Speaker 10: you know, supporting you and you get a chance to
• 15:35
  Speaker 10: see them.
• 15:36
  Speaker 5: That's that's why I wanted to ask that question.
• 15:39
  Speaker 10: And outside of that, I know you've been to Pittsburgh
• 15:43
  Speaker 10: a couple of times and just speaking from playing there,
• 15:46
  Speaker 10: it's a city that loves you know, people that play hard,
• 15:49
  Speaker 10: play with passion. And just watching some of your highlights
• 15:53
  Speaker 10: I've watched you. It's very rare to watch someone on
• 15:56
  Speaker 10: your size play you know, shortstop and hit the way
• 16:01
  Speaker 10: that you do. But also, but now that I've seen
• 16:05
  Speaker 10: the highlight of you know you most is somebody what
• 16:09
  Speaker 10: is something that you think is your part of your
• 16:11
  Speaker 10: game that might be you know, overlooked per se.
• 16:16
  Speaker 5: If I may ask.
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Defense everybody was like questionable on whether I could play
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: short because I've always been an outfielder just kind of
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: co get it be an athlete. I don't know if
• 16:32
  Speaker 3: a lot of people thought I could handle playing the infield,
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: knowing where to be be a leader, but also you know,
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: have the right footwork and fundamentals to to actually handle
• 16:43
  Speaker 3: the position, and you know, to be honest, I didn't
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: really know if I could do it either until uh
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: got out there every day at spring training. They just
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: kept throwing me in the fire, and I just learned
• 16:55
  Speaker 3: from experience. And my main thing is just be an athlete.
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: Go go use those skills that I build playing other
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: sports and that I've been building my whole life, just
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: to be an athlete, and go go trust those skills,
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: and uh, it'll all work out. Just make the make
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: the plays, make the consistent plays, the routine plays.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: And and then you'll be just fine.
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: So it's been it's been pretty cool to see my
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: defense uh grow like it has, and you know, I
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: still feel like there's a lot of room to continue
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: to grow.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: Just got to keep keep working.
• 17:26
  Speaker 10: No, that's good to hear. You definitely hit it on
• 17:28
  Speaker 10: the you know, the nail on the head. Playing multiple
• 17:31
  Speaker 10: or multiple sports. I grew up playing football, basketball, and baseball,
• 17:35
  Speaker 10: and I definitely feel that, you know, playing football and
• 17:37
  Speaker 10: basketball helped me, you know, in moments on the field,
• 17:41
  Speaker 10: not just randomly like pretty much every day. The way
• 17:44
  Speaker 10: that I approach ball is the way that I moved
• 17:47
  Speaker 10: making reads. So hearing you say that was very encouraging
• 17:51
  Speaker 10: because you sound like a student of the game, and
• 17:53
  Speaker 10: you know it's something that I would just want to
• 17:55
  Speaker 10: encourage you to continue to do. There was one thing
• 17:57
  Speaker 10: that I didn't hear you mentioned, but I know you're doing.
• 18:01
  Speaker 10: Make sure that you're always having fun. Yeah, that that
• 18:05
  Speaker 10: is the one thing that I want you to make
• 18:06
  Speaker 10: sure you're always having fun. But man, I'm excited for
• 18:08
  Speaker 10: what's to come for your future. I'm excited for you
• 18:10
  Speaker 10: to be in Pittsburgh whenever that is. I don't know
• 18:13
  Speaker 10: if my co hosts have any questions, but do you
• 18:15
  Speaker 10: have any questions for me or us?
• 18:17
  Speaker 5: Just excited to have you on the show man.
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm hopefully one day we can get together kind
• 18:22
  Speaker 3: of hang out in person. I'd like to be around
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: you know, good athletes and guys that had great success
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: at the highest level. So you know, if if you're
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: in my position kind of going into spring training got
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: a lot on my mind. You know, there's some there's
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: so many like rumors about you know, opening day roster,
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: when I'm going to.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: Get caught up.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: What's the little piece of advice you got for me
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: just to kind of go into spring training kind of
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: focused on, you know, just taking it one day at
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: a time, Like what's the best way to go about that?
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Just with so much noise going on on the outside
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: right now.
• 18:55
  Speaker 10: That's a really good question. And my answer to you
• 18:58
  Speaker 10: is be true to yourself. And granted you're only nineteen
• 19:01
  Speaker 10: years old, you're still learning. No matter how old you are,
• 19:05
  Speaker 10: you going to still be learning. But for three years
• 19:08
  Speaker 10: after making my debut, I was fighting for the twenty
• 19:11
  Speaker 10: fifth man spot, you know, And what did I have
• 19:13
  Speaker 10: to do every spring? I had to stay true to
• 19:15
  Speaker 10: who I was, showing up and being who I was.
• 19:18
  Speaker 10: Not that I was going to be any different, but
• 19:21
  Speaker 10: at the end of the day, I just had to
• 19:22
  Speaker 10: prove myself right. And even if proven myself right meant
• 19:26
  Speaker 10: I had to go to Triple A, it didn't mean
• 19:28
  Speaker 10: that the door was closed. It just meant that the
• 19:30
  Speaker 10: timing wasn't right. But you know, needless to say, I
• 19:34
  Speaker 10: made the team every year out of camp. But that's
• 19:37
  Speaker 10: just one of those things where there's always going to
• 19:39
  Speaker 10: be pressure, whether you're playing well, whether you're not. Stay
• 19:42
  Speaker 10: true to yourself and enjoy the process. Man, pick the brain,
• 19:47
  Speaker 10: you know, pick the brains of those that are there,
• 19:50
  Speaker 10: that that are there to help you. And you know
• 19:53
  Speaker 10: we will meet in personal i'ma speaking in to you know,
• 19:56
  Speaker 10: I'm speaking into fruition.
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: You know you said hopefully we will make it happen.
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: Yes, sir, let's do it. Maybe you can teach me
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: how to get out some rundowns.
• 20:05
  Speaker 10: Hey, trust me, you're already halfway there playing multi sports.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: Wow. I mean that as someone who has done a
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: lot of interviews. I mean that was just fun to
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: sit back and watch. That was awesome. I was hoping
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: you would bring up the rundown thing. Connor, Yeah, that
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: seemed like the obvious thing. So but that was great.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: I want to remind everyone before we wrap up to
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: hit that subscribe button if you haven't already. We just crossed.
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: We just hit our goal over one thousand. Subs now
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: our new goal three thousand.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: That's all right, that's what we're going for picking up
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: a few new subscribers after uh, after this guest here, Connor,
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: you want to tell the people to subscribe.
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, go ahead and subscribe and get the guys some love.
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: Awso, thanks, thank you so much for having for coming on, Connor.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: Thank you to everyone who tuned in. Be sure to
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: follow us on all of our social media platforms and
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: stay tuned in for more episodes here on Bucco Territory,
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: Presented by the Foul Territory Network.