Latest / Foul Territory / Eric Chávez unfiltered: 2025 Mets failures, Juan Soto leadoff pitch, Brewers/Blue Jays ahead of curve?

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Eric Chávez unfiltered: 2025 Mets failures, Juan Soto leadoff pitch, Brewers/Blue Jays ahead of curve? · Foul Territory

0:03
Speaker 1: Eric Schabez is here. Six time goal globber by the way,
0:07
Speaker 1: very very illustrious big league career. Just was the hitting
0:11
Speaker 1: coach for the Mets and they basically cleared house with
0:14
Speaker 1: most of their coaching staff.
0:15
Speaker 2: Eric.
0:15
Speaker 1: First off, great to have you on the show. Thanks
0:17
Speaker 1: for joining us. You have some people that know you
0:19
Speaker 1: better than I do, who are big fans of you.
0:21
Speaker 3: How you doing, Bronnie, how you guys doing? Thanks for
0:24
Speaker 3: having me on. Yeah, taking you guys a long long
0:27
Speaker 3: time to get me on your aj What the heck, dude?
0:29
Speaker 2: What do you want me to say? Bro?
0:30
Speaker 4: If you were in Moneyball and then they would have
0:32
Speaker 4: made a movie, a terrible movie about you, then we
0:34
Speaker 4: would have had you on sooner. But you know, Scott
0:36
Speaker 4: Haddiberg hasn't been on either, so let's be honest.
0:38
Speaker 3: I mean that movie.
0:39
Speaker 4: If they would have made the Moneyball movie about Eric
0:42
Speaker 4: Shaviz and now he won gold Gloves and hit a
0:44
Speaker 4: ball off Joe Mays in that series and went nine
0:46
Speaker 4: hundred feet, but it didn't didn't even mention you, so
0:49
Speaker 4: you know what, you had to wait your turn.
0:51
Speaker 3: We were so close, the players were so close to
0:54
Speaker 3: being in that movie. There was I don't know if
0:57
Speaker 3: it was the Players Association or Mlbuh couldn't settle on
1:02
Speaker 3: a on a dollar value. But I would have done
1:06
Speaker 3: that thing for free and been in that movie. No, no,
1:08
Speaker 3: no questions asked. But uh, yeah, that would have been cool.
1:12
Speaker 3: It's a great movie. Uh. You know, did you hear
1:14
Speaker 3: David Did you hear David Justice's interviewed the other day
1:18
Speaker 3: and they asked him how real was it? He goes,
1:20
Speaker 3: not at all. But the problem was is they all
1:25
Speaker 3: they got? They got the perspective of Billy Bean, but
1:28
Speaker 3: they didn't ask any of the players what went down.
1:30
Speaker 3: So it was kind of a one sided, uh, one
1:32
Speaker 3: sided opinion on that movie.
1:35
Speaker 1: Ay J, you know what, go ahead for the first
1:37
Speaker 1: couple of minutes. Then we'll get into I gotta leave,
1:43
Speaker 1: get your questions in on Moneyball and all that, and
1:45
Speaker 1: then we can get.
1:45
Speaker 2: To the rest.
1:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, then we'll go. Then we'll go to other things.
1:47
Speaker 4: But here's my thing on Moneyball. You know what they
1:49
Speaker 4: should have done. They should have made a movie about
1:51
Speaker 4: the Minnesota Twins that year. You know what, I'm sorry, Shelby,
1:54
Speaker 4: I love you to death, and you know we became buddies.
1:56
Speaker 4: We went to Japan after that year. But you know,
1:58
Speaker 4: we ended the winning streak wed the season and I
2:01
Speaker 4: didn't even get credit, Like they made some bad looking
2:03
Speaker 4: fella me as a catcher instead of me. They could
2:06
Speaker 4: have called me and I would have jumped up and
2:07
Speaker 4: down an Oakland colliseem again.
2:08
Speaker 2: It would have been and then it would have been
2:09
Speaker 2: a cool movie. But no movie about y'all.
2:13
Speaker 3: Aj, you killed us. You absolutely you talk about you
2:17
Speaker 3: talk about getting the hits and home runs at the
2:19
Speaker 3: right time in the ball game. Oh my god, AJ,
2:21
Speaker 3: you killed honestly. But but here's here's the deal. I
2:25
Speaker 3: think they should have made a movie about theo Epstein,
2:29
Speaker 3: the fact of what he did in Boston and Chicago,
2:32
Speaker 3: because everything we do is about winning, winning the World Series,
2:36
Speaker 3: and what THEO has done with those two organizations absolutely tremendous.
2:42
Speaker 3: I felt like, if we're going to do a movie,
2:44
Speaker 3: we should have done it about him.
2:46
Speaker 1: It's true, I mean, Aj always he's he's a one
2:49
Speaker 1: man wrecking machine. He's still crushing that A's team. Because
2:52
Speaker 1: He'll bring this up to Mark Moulders were so good
2:55
Speaker 1: a couple of times. It's a good point. We're so good, dude.
3:00
Speaker 2: They were so good though.
3:01
Speaker 4: I mean, listen, you had to go into the Collegeum
3:02
Speaker 4: you got Hudson mulders Zito, okay, and then he had
3:05
Speaker 4: Cotch in the back end, and then he had I
3:07
Speaker 4: mean one time they had Johnbi tahata Chavi in the.
3:10
Speaker 3: Middle of the lineup, Roberto Ramon Hernandez, who was very underrated.
3:16
Speaker 2: As a player.
3:17
Speaker 4: I'm going to tell you that right now was a
3:18
Speaker 4: catcher in the player. That team was sick, dude, and
3:21
Speaker 4: you went in there, and every time we went in there,
3:23
Speaker 4: we'd lose. We'd get walked off at least once a series.
3:26
Speaker 4: It was like, all right, someone's gonna do hit a homer,
3:29
Speaker 4: walk us off and lose a ball in the sun.
3:31
Speaker 2: Whatever it was.
3:31
Speaker 4: It was incredible. That team was unbelievab. The fact that
3:35
Speaker 4: that team never won still blows my mind. I'm sorry, hurts.
3:38
Speaker 4: It blows my mind.
3:40
Speaker 3: It still hurts to trust me. It hurts because we
3:42
Speaker 3: felt that way too. But you know, it's not I
3:45
Speaker 3: said this yesterday, it's not always the best team that wins.
3:47
Speaker 3: It's a team that's playing the best. So that's why
3:49
Speaker 3: these playoffs like you just never know, like, yeah, they're
3:52
Speaker 3: they're on paper there's some some really big names and
3:55
Speaker 3: some good teams, But it's about getting right, but getting
3:58
Speaker 3: hot at the right moment and having things go your
4:01
Speaker 3: way and having a little luck along the way.
4:03
Speaker 1: All right, So let's get to the twenty twenty five
4:05
Speaker 1: season here. Obviously for the Mets, it ended up in turbulence.
4:10
Speaker 1: So tell us first, you know what happened at the
4:12
Speaker 1: finish line with the team. We can ask about your
4:15
Speaker 1: spot too, but what happened, I mean, it's really not
4:18
Speaker 1: the finish line. It was over a pretty long stretch.
4:21
Speaker 1: You could call it a slow burn where the start
4:24
Speaker 1: was so electric and then the team ran out of gas.
4:29
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean, when you have a situation like this,
4:32
Speaker 3: you know there's a lot that goes wrong. You can't
4:35
Speaker 3: You're not going to be able to just pinpoint one thing,
4:38
Speaker 3: you know. I think, first and foremost, I think the
4:40
Speaker 3: players and uniform personnel have to take the brunt of it.
4:45
Speaker 3: We felt like we had enough talent. It may have
4:48
Speaker 3: not have been, you know, like the best equipped, balanced team,
4:54
Speaker 3: but as far as talent to get you to the playoffs,
4:58
Speaker 3: we felt like we had enough. So from a uniform personnel,
5:02
Speaker 3: we failed to give you kind of more of an
5:05
Speaker 3: in depth look of what happened. We just couldn't come
5:08
Speaker 3: together collectively as a group. The pitchers did really well
5:11
Speaker 3: in the first two months, the hitters were absent, the
5:14
Speaker 3: hitters got hot, the pitchers were absent, and then the
5:17
Speaker 3: defense kind of fell short towards the post All Star breaks.
5:20
Speaker 3: So we just never came together. Though we spent a
5:24
Speaker 3: lot of money. We had a lot of headlines this game.
5:27
Speaker 3: This game, which is why we all love baseball. You're
5:31
Speaker 3: not going to be able to just buy a World series.
5:34
Speaker 3: Like a lot of things have to go right. You
5:36
Speaker 3: got to develop, you got to have young players, You
5:38
Speaker 3: got to draft well, you got to make good acquisitions
5:41
Speaker 3: at the All Star break, you got to make sure
5:43
Speaker 3: you don't trade the wrong guy to the wrong team,
5:46
Speaker 3: and a lot everything went like everything we tried to
5:49
Speaker 3: do just kind of went wrong. But the players in
5:52
Speaker 3: the uniform and the staff in uniform have to take
5:55
Speaker 3: the brunt of that, and that's we definitely felt like
5:57
Speaker 3: we let the city down, and we definitely let the
5:59
Speaker 3: owner down. I mean I have to speak volumes about
6:02
Speaker 3: the owner. You know, obviously I came up in Oakland,
6:05
Speaker 3: and you know, money wasn't thrown around at all, but
6:11
Speaker 3: for for for mister Cohen and his wife Alex Cohen,
6:15
Speaker 3: tremendous owners. I had a blast there for four years.
6:18
Speaker 3: They they treated the families like royalty. The food there,
6:23
Speaker 3: the staff there, the hotels, the travel, everything was first class.
6:26
Speaker 3: So uh to to mister Cohen and Alex Cohen, I
6:29
Speaker 3: want to say thank you. They do a tremendous job there,
6:32
Speaker 3: and it's you know, any free agent you know, moving forward.
6:35
Speaker 3: It's a good place to be. There's good people that
6:38
Speaker 3: work there, and you know, for them, hopefully they can
6:40
Speaker 3: win a world series pretty soon.
6:44
Speaker 1: This episode of FT is presented by Fox one AJ.
6:48
Speaker 1: If people have the Fox one app then they get
6:50
Speaker 1: to listen to you, Adam, Wayne Right and Adam Amine
6:53
Speaker 1: for one more game A game five five.
6:57
Speaker 3: On Friday, all alone, Oh.
7:00
Speaker 1: Yankees, blue Jays, Just your game A game five?
7:03
Speaker 2: What time is that game?
7:06
Speaker 4: Eightiestern so prime prime time in listen eighties. I'm pomped
7:10
Speaker 4: man Friday. There's no other games. There's really not a
7:12
Speaker 4: lot of college football on Friday night. It is baseball.
7:15
Speaker 4: And we complained there was no games on a Friday
7:18
Speaker 4: night before.
7:19
Speaker 2: Well, guess what you get?
7:20
Speaker 3: Game five My question is this going to be the
7:21
Speaker 3: only Game five?
7:22
Speaker 4: Because I don't know. Do we think the Phillies get
7:26
Speaker 4: it done? But I love the fact that we get
7:27
Speaker 4: a Game five I've done. This will be my third
7:29
Speaker 4: Game five I've got to do. They are awesome, they
7:32
Speaker 4: are fun. My first two years I did this, I
7:33
Speaker 4: got to do Game five and I haven't had one since.
7:35
Speaker 4: So guys are pretty excited about it. The crew is
7:38
Speaker 4: super excited about can to do a winn or take
7:40
Speaker 4: all game?
7:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's fun.
7:42
Speaker 1: Crazy things happen, right, we'll probably see.
7:45
Speaker 4: Manager's panic, like nobody, oh my gosh.
7:50
Speaker 1: Decision scrutinized. So we're excited about it. We'll be watching
7:54
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8:20
Speaker 2: Beginning of the year, the pictures were hot. Yep.
8:23
Speaker 5: After that, the hitters were hot. The pictures were not.
8:26
Speaker 5: Can you talk about that as a coach? That angst
8:29
Speaker 5: in the clubhouse in the sense of like you're working
8:33
Speaker 5: with the hitters all day flip and talking to them
8:35
Speaker 5: check out the iPad and they're.
8:38
Speaker 2: Like, ah, man, we just scored four.
8:41
Speaker 5: We're down five to four right now, Like, can you
8:44
Speaker 5: talk about that? And was that present and how do
8:47
Speaker 5: you stop that to be able to move on and
8:49
Speaker 5: play together collectively.
8:50
Speaker 2: As a group.
8:52
Speaker 3: No, No, not at all. I mean I can honestly
8:54
Speaker 3: say this, like the group of guys that we had
8:56
Speaker 3: in that room were true professionals.
8:59
Speaker 2: Uh.
8:59
Speaker 3: One of the things they always talked about in that
9:01
Speaker 3: clubhouse was having each other's back through through thick and
9:04
Speaker 3: thin and good times and bad times. I never heard
9:08
Speaker 3: any of those things. The pitchers weren't complaining about the
9:12
Speaker 3: hitters early in the year, and then when the pitchers struggled,
9:15
Speaker 3: you know, I think the hitters were like, yeah, they
9:16
Speaker 3: picked us up for two months we got to get
9:18
Speaker 3: it going. So it was it was a good clubhouse
9:20
Speaker 3: and that standpoint. You know, I actually apologize in the
9:24
Speaker 3: beginning of the year to to Hefner our pitching coach.
9:27
Speaker 3: I was like, sorry, half these guys will get going
9:29
Speaker 3: here pretty soon. And it was just it's just one
9:31
Speaker 3: of those things. You know, Baseball is a funny game.
9:33
Speaker 3: It's you could spend money, you can get all the
9:35
Speaker 3: good players you want, but you know, clubhouse camaraderie. Uh,
9:39
Speaker 3: you know, the year before we had Iglesias and Jad
9:42
Speaker 3: Martinez that kind of unified that clubhouse. And and you
9:46
Speaker 3: know you can't you have to organically make those things happen.
9:50
Speaker 3: You can't just force them into a clubhouse. So those
9:52
Speaker 3: things have to happen organically. And I think with those two,
9:55
Speaker 3: with those two personalities, it was it was a great blend.
9:59
Speaker 3: And for whatever reason this year, you know, the things
10:01
Speaker 3: were bad, we always felt like we were gonna be
10:04
Speaker 3: able to kind of turn the switch on and get going,
10:08
Speaker 3: and it just never never really happened. You know, I
10:11
Speaker 3: feel bad for it, Like I said, I they you know,
10:13
Speaker 3: Stern's made a lot of acquisitions for us at the
10:15
Speaker 3: at the break, and you know, none of them really
10:17
Speaker 3: worked out that well. And we had a lot of
10:19
Speaker 3: injuries like most teams do. But no matter what, we
10:22
Speaker 3: still feel like we had enough talent. We just could
10:25
Speaker 3: not get over the hump. We had moments of greatness
10:28
Speaker 3: where we'd go on on a on a tear for
10:30
Speaker 3: about two weeks, and then we'd lose eight nine in
10:33
Speaker 3: a row. And we did that about three or four
10:35
Speaker 3: times this year, and it's just you can't go through
10:38
Speaker 3: this type of losing streak. So yeah, it's you know,
10:40
Speaker 3: it was unfortunate situation. You know, I'm pulling for him.
10:45
Speaker 3: I love a lot of guys in those clubhouse, but
10:47
Speaker 3: you know, they they held it together. There was never
10:49
Speaker 3: no blame game. They did a really good job of
10:51
Speaker 3: keeping that under wraps and supporting each other through the season. Jovy,
10:57
Speaker 3: what was Mendy like during this whole thing?
10:58
Speaker 2: And we've had them in here all the time. He's fabulous.
11:01
Speaker 4: I mean he came on you guys were in the
11:02
Speaker 4: heat of it.
11:04
Speaker 3: Was he the same in the clubhouse every day?
11:05
Speaker 4: Because he seems like he never changes, He's always positive,
11:07
Speaker 4: he always got everyone's back, and he believes.
11:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was great. I think you know you could
11:12
Speaker 3: tell that he was. You know, he was paying attention
11:14
Speaker 3: to Boonie all those years in New York. You know,
11:18
Speaker 3: Boonie gets hit hard. I absolutely love Boonie. I was
11:20
Speaker 3: gonna go work for the Yankees about four years back
11:23
Speaker 3: before I went with the Mets, and it was all
11:26
Speaker 3: I wanted to do was work with Boonie because I
11:28
Speaker 3: knew the person the personality, the consistency, and you could
11:32
Speaker 3: see all those traits that Carlos brought with him, and
11:34
Speaker 3: you could see why they chose Carlos to be the
11:36
Speaker 3: manager here. He's he's had a really tough go, you know,
11:40
Speaker 3: injuries and some of the pitching stuff, some of the
11:44
Speaker 3: highs and lows. It's been a really two difficult years
11:49
Speaker 3: for him. I know last year we went on that run,
11:51
Speaker 3: but we started the season I think oh and five
11:53
Speaker 3: own six uh. To start out his managerial career. We
11:57
Speaker 3: blew a lot of saves last year. You know, the
12:01
Speaker 3: he had to he had to manage a bullpen, our starters,
12:06
Speaker 3: you know, they weren't going very deep. I think we
12:08
Speaker 3: use the most pitchers or relievers in the history of
12:12
Speaker 3: the game, where we're shuffling in and out pitchers throughout
12:15
Speaker 3: the whole year. So he had to manage all this
12:17
Speaker 3: and for this to be his first two years, I
12:20
Speaker 3: think he did a tremendous job, and I think he's
12:22
Speaker 3: got a tremendous future being a manager in this game.
12:26
Speaker 2: What if you guys had gotten in the what if?
12:28
Speaker 5: I mean we're talking about this, like, you guys, a
12:30
Speaker 5: ton of coaches got axed and there's no playoff games.
12:34
Speaker 2: It's a big disappointment.
12:35
Speaker 5: We spend this much money one game, one game is
12:39
Speaker 5: all would have taken.
12:40
Speaker 2: What if you.
12:40
Speaker 5: Guys had gotten in? What kind of path would it
12:43
Speaker 5: have taken for you guys, Because to me, looking at
12:46
Speaker 5: the pitching staff, it would have had to be some
12:48
Speaker 5: absolute pixie dust magic.
12:50
Speaker 3: Yep, yeah, I can. I can answer this honestly. Not enough,
12:56
Speaker 3: you know, I think I think it would have been
12:58
Speaker 3: kind of scary because offensive, you know, we were able
13:01
Speaker 3: to go on some terrors and score some eight to
13:03
Speaker 3: nine runs. But when you're facing some of these pitchers
13:07
Speaker 3: that are in the playoffs, it's just not sustainable. You know,
13:11
Speaker 3: to me, it's not an offensive league anymore. You know,
13:14
Speaker 3: the pitchers are dominating. The stuff is too good. I
13:17
Speaker 3: heard you guys talking about the Brewers and Cubs, and
13:19
Speaker 3: the Brewers or the Cubs not adding on runs, like
13:22
Speaker 3: it's just not that easy. You know, the mop up
13:24
Speaker 3: guys that are coming in in the fifth inning are
13:26
Speaker 3: throwing a hundred with a ninety three mile an hour slider.
13:29
Speaker 3: It's a very difficult, difficult game to be, you know,
13:33
Speaker 3: to to score runs. And I like what the Brewers
13:36
Speaker 3: and the Cubs have done with the pitching being so elite.
13:40
Speaker 3: This is the one thing, this is the only kind
13:43
Speaker 3: of trump card the offense has is to be to
13:46
Speaker 3: have some speed and to have guys that put contact
13:49
Speaker 3: on the baseball consistently. Now, if that comes with some homers,
13:53
Speaker 3: you can kind of see, you know, even the padres,
13:56
Speaker 3: you know somehow. You know, bunning was a big no no.
13:59
Speaker 3: And now it's become sexy again because I think people
14:03
Speaker 3: are realizing how hard it is to score runs. And
14:05
Speaker 3: runs aren't a premium. Defenses at a premium. Running bases
14:09
Speaker 3: is at a premium, outfield plays at a premium. Like
14:12
Speaker 3: everything offensively, to score runs is at a premium, and
14:16
Speaker 3: it's just it's not that easy to do. I meant
14:18
Speaker 3: these pitchers, I meant a couple of years ago, when
14:21
Speaker 3: I first got into this, you know, guys were throwing
14:23
Speaker 3: extremely hard, but I didn't see a whole lot of control.
14:29
Speaker 3: Now it's like one hundred dotted down and away at
14:33
Speaker 3: the corner, and I'm watching video and it's pretty much
14:36
Speaker 3: what I do. And you know, obviously I go over
14:37
Speaker 3: the bats with these guys and I'm like, you guys
14:40
Speaker 3: had nothing to hit that at bat, Like it's hard.
14:43
Speaker 3: Usually pitchers leave something over the middle of the plate
14:45
Speaker 3: and they're dotting right. And they know every detail about
14:49
Speaker 3: the hitter. They know where he hits it, how hard
14:51
Speaker 3: he hits it, they know the weaknesses, they know his tendencies.
14:56
Speaker 3: Everything about this game is really focused for the pitching.
14:59
Speaker 3: I meant we had defenses like we'd hit balls and
15:04
Speaker 3: the defense would be playing in the perfect position, and
15:08
Speaker 3: it's just something. It's just like, you know, Jeremy and
15:11
Speaker 3: Jeremy Barnes and I the old hitting coach with the Mets,
15:13
Speaker 3: we used to talk about this, like we looked at
15:15
Speaker 3: our batting profile and a lot of the time you're
15:19
Speaker 3: just kind of like hoping the ball finds grass right
15:22
Speaker 3: and there's a little luck factor to that. Like, our
15:24
Speaker 3: batting profile was extremely good. You know, Wan didn't have
15:28
Speaker 3: the best first two months. Every out one made was
15:32
Speaker 3: like one hundred and nine miles an hour. He had
15:34
Speaker 3: the worst luck of any hitter in the big leagues,
15:36
Speaker 3: and he was smashing balls, but you know, the defense
15:39
Speaker 3: was right there. But you know a lot of the
15:41
Speaker 3: times like you're really at the mercy of the ball
15:44
Speaker 3: just finding grass, and you know, the defense's positioning has
15:47
Speaker 3: gotten so good. The pitching's gotten so good. The one
15:51
Speaker 3: thing I did notice this year more than any other year,
15:54
Speaker 3: where pitchers are they have two fastballs. Now they have
15:57
Speaker 3: the four seam ride at the top and they have
16:00
Speaker 3: a two seam. So now you know, a guy like
16:03
Speaker 3: Wan who covers the four team at the top, you know,
16:05
Speaker 3: we we had all our numbers, like if they had
16:08
Speaker 3: a two seam, we knew Wan was gonna get two seams,
16:10
Speaker 3: even though the four seam was probably the better pitch
16:13
Speaker 3: for the pitcher. Wan did so well against those, but
16:16
Speaker 3: they had something to attack him with now, So you know,
16:19
Speaker 3: it's to me, it's a it's a defensive game. And
16:21
Speaker 3: the way the Brewers and the Cubs have built their team,
16:24
Speaker 3: you talk about being consistent and competitive. You know, maybe
16:29
Speaker 3: not the sexiest offenses, but what a tremendous job they've done.
16:33
Speaker 3: I think this is how you're gonna have to combat
16:34
Speaker 3: the pitching. Because the pitching's not going anywhere. You look
16:38
Speaker 3: at Schlitler throwing a hundred with a ninety four like
16:42
Speaker 3: like I'm going as a hitter, I'm going, Holy, I'm
16:45
Speaker 3: thinking the radar guns are wrong, Like it's got to
16:47
Speaker 3: be wrong, Like you know, it's guys are throwing one
16:51
Speaker 3: hundred and four with a ninety seven mile hour slider
16:53
Speaker 3: Like it's just like, how is the human body even
16:56
Speaker 3: capable of doing that? But you know, to me, it's
16:58
Speaker 3: it's a It's a pitching and defense game now, And
17:01
Speaker 3: you know, I think, you know, I think gms are
17:04
Speaker 3: going to have to act accordingly. And you know, if
17:07
Speaker 3: you've got a position player who can do both, those
17:11
Speaker 3: guys are always at a premium. But you know, defense
17:13
Speaker 3: and speed are going to come back into play and
17:16
Speaker 3: as we seen early in these playoffs, like bunts are
17:19
Speaker 3: They're a big thing and it's coming back.
17:22
Speaker 5: I want to hit on one specific person. Obviously Catcher's
17:25
Speaker 5: show AJ left. He said you're the man, but he
17:28
Speaker 5: had to get on a flight, So yep, I talk
17:30
Speaker 5: about catching the match, don't make the playoffs. I talk
17:33
Speaker 5: about Francisco Alvarez. This is a guy that I think
17:36
Speaker 5: his energy behind the dish is infectious. You saw in
17:40
Speaker 5: the playoffs last year he got sent down to triple
17:43
Speaker 5: A when he was struggling. Some of it was his defense,
17:46
Speaker 5: But when he came back, he was awesome. And I
17:50
Speaker 5: always think sometimes triple A triple an like, guys just
17:53
Speaker 5: send down a triple A and it can be a
17:54
Speaker 5: detriment and it can be eyewashed.
17:56
Speaker 2: Very rarely is actual a thing.
17:58
Speaker 5: Did you see a difference when he came back, just
18:01
Speaker 5: in his overall Francisco Alvarez being the man for this team.
18:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. And I love Alva. He's you know,
18:09
Speaker 3: I've told him two years ago. You know, I think
18:12
Speaker 3: he hit twenty five homers and you looked at his
18:14
Speaker 3: batting profile and there were some other things that weren't
18:17
Speaker 3: so sexy about it, you know, but everybody falls in
18:19
Speaker 3: love with homers. Oh, twenty five homers. This is great.
18:22
Speaker 3: And I kind of challenged him to be a complete hitter,
18:25
Speaker 3: and I told him, I said, you could be the
18:27
Speaker 3: best offensive catcher in this league, right if you work
18:30
Speaker 3: on the right things. You know, his defense at that
18:34
Speaker 3: time was tremendous. His throwing was really good. You know,
18:37
Speaker 3: this offseason he went he revamped his swing. You know,
18:41
Speaker 3: players are always looking to get better. They're always looking
18:45
Speaker 3: for that next great thing. You know. The way I
18:49
Speaker 3: view things as getting better is to be more consistent.
18:53
Speaker 2: Like you.
18:53
Speaker 3: You are who you are as a player. All of
18:57
Speaker 3: us have God given abilities and you have to tap
18:59
Speaker 3: into those. I think what's wrong, you know, kind of
19:03
Speaker 3: offensively is is the social media hitting coach and the
19:07
Speaker 3: gurus that are out there. You know, they're they're selling
19:09
Speaker 3: you something. There's this, Hey, I got this one thing
19:12
Speaker 3: that will make you a great hitter. And I don't
19:15
Speaker 3: view it like that. Hitting is way too hard. Each
19:20
Speaker 3: each player has its his own his own tool set,
19:23
Speaker 3: his own strengths, his own weaknesses, and you kind of
19:26
Speaker 3: have to work with with that player and and and
19:28
Speaker 3: in his realm of what he can do and can't do.
19:32
Speaker 3: I I don't I'm you know, from the hitting side.
19:34
Speaker 3: I'm not a hitting guru. I don't have the magic
19:37
Speaker 3: pill to make you a great hitter. But what I
19:39
Speaker 3: what I what I do is is I try to
19:41
Speaker 3: work with you. I try to I try to get
19:43
Speaker 3: inside your mindset. I try to work with you know,
19:46
Speaker 3: let's talk about an approach, and you know, make little
19:49
Speaker 3: adjustments as we go but I don't have a magic
19:52
Speaker 3: pill to turn somebody into a fifty home run guy.
19:56
Speaker 3: I've never been a salesman like that. Hitting is too hard.
19:59
Speaker 3: I have too much respect for this league and the pitching.
20:02
Speaker 3: I did it for a really long time, and I
20:04
Speaker 3: knew how how hard it was, you know. And and
20:07
Speaker 3: Albis Albi's it. He's got all the tool set. He
20:10
Speaker 3: can catch. You know. He he got off to you know,
20:15
Speaker 3: with this swing this this spring training, he was starting
20:19
Speaker 3: to feel it kind of you know, he struggled and
20:22
Speaker 3: he started to feel it, and then he had a
20:24
Speaker 3: hand injury, and he had a couple of injuries through
20:26
Speaker 3: the season and you know, he just wasn't able to
20:29
Speaker 3: to get it right. But then when they sent him
20:30
Speaker 3: down this last time, uh, he got his head right.
20:33
Speaker 3: He was he was focused on the right things at
20:35
Speaker 3: the plate. He came back and he was the Alvarez
20:39
Speaker 3: we all think he can be.
20:41
Speaker 2: Now. The tool set is there.
20:43
Speaker 3: Now, it's just about repeating it and and and bringing
20:46
Speaker 3: your tool set to the to the game every single day.
20:49
Speaker 3: But I really do firmly believe if he puts it
20:51
Speaker 3: all together, he could be the best, the best catcher
20:54
Speaker 3: in the league. But definitely the best offensive catcher in
20:56
Speaker 3: the league.
20:57
Speaker 5: You're right at that, You're right at that time when
21:00
Speaker 5: you should think hitting wasn't hard anymore. Like I always say,
21:03
Speaker 5: ten years after somebody retires, they're like, oh, I have
21:06
Speaker 5: all the answers. So I'm so glad to hear that
21:09
Speaker 5: you know hitting is really hard because you were really good.
21:13
Speaker 5: I sucked and I knew that hitting was really hard.
21:16
Speaker 5: But my question for you, you mentioned Juan Soto onan
21:20
Speaker 5: sodo almost was forty forty. People really didn't even talk
21:24
Speaker 5: about it. One of the things against one and as
21:27
Speaker 5: a hitting coach, did you ever have this conversation is
21:30
Speaker 5: he doesn't chase out of the zone. When you have
21:33
Speaker 5: a guy in a milliar lineup, can he get one
21:35
Speaker 5: hundred and thirty stakes if he never chases out of
21:38
Speaker 5: the zone or he just passes the baton. I get
21:41
Speaker 5: it in the long term of the season, like he's
21:43
Speaker 5: gonna have the best numbers possible. Could he be a
21:47
Speaker 5: guy to chase out of the zone or is that
21:48
Speaker 5: something you would never ever tell an elite superstar to
21:52
Speaker 5: do because that's his superpower?
21:55
Speaker 3: Really crazy, really good question. You know, I think I
22:00
Speaker 3: think there were times when and I'll just be honest,
22:02
Speaker 3: I think there were times you know where myself and
22:04
Speaker 3: I even talked to Carlos, was you know, if we
22:07
Speaker 3: could just kind of get him to swing, you know,
22:10
Speaker 3: maybe oh or some pitches that he could do damage
22:12
Speaker 3: on early in the counts. But but Wan is he
22:16
Speaker 3: he is a precision hitter. I wouldn't I wouldn't get
22:20
Speaker 3: him out of his comfort zone at all. The one thing,
22:23
Speaker 3: the one thing I would say, if you want to
22:26
Speaker 3: think outside the box and get creative, you know, sho
22:28
Speaker 3: Hey Atani's you know, along with Judge and and cal Riley,
22:33
Speaker 3: you know, the three best hitters in the game, Wan's
22:35
Speaker 3: up there. You know, uh, show Hey leads off. You know,
22:38
Speaker 3: Wan is so good at getting on base. He's so selective.
22:44
Speaker 3: You know, there are times when things are going and
22:46
Speaker 3: you're in the middle of the lineup, you're three four five,
22:49
Speaker 3: like Pete Alonzo, Like we know Pete's gonna chase, Pete's
22:52
Speaker 3: gonna do damage. I think that's you're kind of referencing
22:55
Speaker 3: driving in runs at an at a. You know, Wan
22:58
Speaker 3: could drive in one hundred and forty, but instead of
23:01
Speaker 3: doing that where you're telling him to get out of
23:03
Speaker 3: his comfort zone, slide him in the leadoff spot. He
23:06
Speaker 3: stills bases, he gets on base at a four hundred
23:09
Speaker 3: at a forty percent clip. You know, don't have him
23:12
Speaker 3: get out of his comfort zone or what he likes
23:14
Speaker 3: to do. But you can be just as dynamic in
23:17
Speaker 3: the leadoff spot if you look at Shohan and what
23:19
Speaker 3: he's done without changing the player too much, just changing
23:21
Speaker 3: where he hits in the batting lineup. Like it's you know,
23:24
Speaker 3: I know people they're like, ah, wherever you hit shouldn't
23:27
Speaker 3: really matter, but it really does matter. Like when we
23:30
Speaker 3: moved Lindor from the from the third slot into the
23:33
Speaker 3: leadoff slot where he's really comfortable, and he's really comfortable
23:37
Speaker 3: at the one or the two slot. You know, where
23:40
Speaker 3: a player hits does matter sometimes, like there's there's some
23:43
Speaker 3: you know, there's an emotional tie to where you're at
23:46
Speaker 3: in the lineup, and you know, not everybody can hit three, four,
23:49
Speaker 3: five in the lineup and you have to have the
23:51
Speaker 3: right animals to do that. But you know, I think
23:53
Speaker 3: with wants profile and if you want to get creative
23:56
Speaker 3: and think out of the box, I think about leading
23:58
Speaker 3: them off. I like it all right.
24:00
Speaker 1: Last one I want to get to the coaching staff
24:03
Speaker 1: in particular. Number one, and I know you've mentioned this before.
24:06
Speaker 1: Thoughts on the way that the hitting coach setup was
24:10
Speaker 1: and how it should look differently for a team. And two,
24:14
Speaker 1: Jeremy Haffner getting let go. I mean I followed the
24:17
Speaker 1: Mets very closely. He was looked at as a top
24:19
Speaker 1: three pitching coach, pitching whisper the whole deal. So do
24:23
Speaker 1: you think that it was warranted?
24:27
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I don't think any of the coaches
24:30
Speaker 3: should have been fired, to be honest with you, But
24:34
Speaker 3: understanding the nature of the beasts and how things work
24:38
Speaker 3: weeks prior to this, I knew this was coming.
24:41
Speaker 2: Is it fair?
24:42
Speaker 3: No, But when you sign up for this job, it's
24:45
Speaker 3: kind of what comes with it. You're in a big
24:47
Speaker 3: market like New York. The owner just spent eight hundred
24:50
Speaker 3: million dollars. Your team better makes some noise, right, not
24:55
Speaker 3: even making the playoffs isn't even good enough? Like you
24:57
Speaker 3: better get deep and you better lead make it to
25:00
Speaker 3: the World Series. And so I saw this coming. No,
25:03
Speaker 3: it's not fair. The coaching staff we had was was unbelievable. Uh,
25:08
Speaker 3: it's some of the guys that were there for with
25:10
Speaker 3: me for the last three or four years. You know,
25:13
Speaker 3: things just didn't go our way. You know, there's a
25:16
Speaker 3: lot of injuries, a lot of acquisitions that we had
25:20
Speaker 3: that didn't really pan out. But the coaching staff was steadfast, like,
25:24
Speaker 3: I'll go to bat for these guys any day. Matter
25:27
Speaker 3: of fact, I told Carlos the same thing at the
25:29
Speaker 3: end of the year when I was flying home, I said, Carlos,
25:31
Speaker 3: I'll go to bat for you any day. The job
25:33
Speaker 3: you've done. There's a lot of things that go on
25:35
Speaker 3: that people aren't privy to, but a lot of things
25:38
Speaker 3: that need to stay in the clubhouse they don't really
25:40
Speaker 3: need to be out there that people will never know about.
25:43
Speaker 3: But the coaching staff we had, I'll go to the
25:46
Speaker 3: bat for them. They they worked extremely hard from the
25:49
Speaker 3: hitting standpoint. Somebody had asked me, you know, from the
25:53
Speaker 3: hitting department and if there's anything I would have changed.
25:56
Speaker 3: And Jeremy Barnes did a great job. Him and I
25:58
Speaker 3: did a really good job of speaking different languages, believing
26:03
Speaker 3: in certain and different things, coming from two different worlds,
26:06
Speaker 3: and making it work together for the better of the group.
26:09
Speaker 3: And that was the conversation him and I always had
26:11
Speaker 3: we never disagreed on anything, right, we might have looked
26:15
Speaker 3: at each other and go, man, this guy is full
26:16
Speaker 3: of it, or I disagree with him. But whatever it was,
26:20
Speaker 3: we made sure that we we brought. We brought it
26:24
Speaker 3: to the group that him and I were on the
26:25
Speaker 3: same page. The only thing that I had mentioned, and
26:29
Speaker 3: I think Jeremy would agree with this too, you cannot
26:31
Speaker 3: have two head hitting coaches. Like players, players get confused
26:35
Speaker 3: when there's multiple voices. You know, from my standpoint, I
26:39
Speaker 3: try to I try to give Jeremy kind of his
26:42
Speaker 3: space because he did so much and the players were
26:47
Speaker 3: very accustomed to kind of him being in the leadership role.
26:50
Speaker 3: And then when I left to be the bench coach
26:52
Speaker 3: for that one year under Buck and then I came
26:53
Speaker 3: back into the hitters role, you know, Jeremy had established
26:56
Speaker 3: himself in his voice, and so you know, to make
26:59
Speaker 3: it work, I kind of gave him his space and
27:02
Speaker 3: moving forward, And I said this to Lindor a couple
27:04
Speaker 3: of months back, said I'll never do the co thing
27:07
Speaker 3: ever again, Like there should never be. You know, things
27:10
Speaker 3: are set up when there's there's a head guy and assistant,
27:14
Speaker 3: when roles are defined, when there's one voice, I think
27:18
Speaker 3: is the best situation moving forward. But you know, whatever
27:22
Speaker 3: the Mets do or they're gonna do. But I you know,
27:24
Speaker 3: I was asked that question. I said, the only thing
27:26
Speaker 3: probably that you know, needed to change was you know,
27:29
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't think two hitting coaches is the
27:30
Speaker 3: way to go.
27:31
Speaker 1: It makes total sense and a lot of teams operate
27:34
Speaker 1: that way with the one and then the assistant. Eric
27:36
Speaker 1: ran at a time, But this was awesome, man, will
27:38
Speaker 1: definitely have you back on. Appreciate the time here right all.
27:42
Speaker 3: Right, Thank you guys, appreciate it. Cratzy, Bronnie, thank you,