Latest / Foul Territory / New D’backs P Mike Soroka joins FT

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New D’backs P Mike Soroka joins FT · Foul Territory

0:04
Speaker 1: All right, joining us now on foul territories. Mike Siroco
0:07
Speaker 1: back with US on FT and now with a new uniform,
0:09
Speaker 1: the Arizona Diamondbacks freshly sided, Mike. Great to have you on,
0:12
Speaker 1: big smile, as it should be. We can change been
0:17
Speaker 1: for you. Good to see you in congrats.
0:20
Speaker 2: Thank you, thank you. It's good to see you guys too.
0:22
Speaker 2: What's up KP.
0:23
Speaker 3: Hey are we coming from Alberta right now?
0:26
Speaker 2: No? No, I'm still home in Scottsdale. I'm actually heading
0:29
Speaker 2: home to Calgary tonight though, so I'll be home for
0:33
Speaker 2: Christmas and then come back down.
0:35
Speaker 3: Hey. What an absolute dream scenario within now that you're
0:37
Speaker 3: living in Scottsdale playing for the Diamondbacks. How much did
0:40
Speaker 3: that factor into this decision?
0:43
Speaker 2: Yeah? Obviously, I mean, I mean, you know, you lived here.
0:46
Speaker 2: It's something that if you get a chance to do,
0:48
Speaker 2: I think everybody loves it. You know, it's something that
0:55
Speaker 2: you don't necessarily think is going to happen. They take
0:57
Speaker 2: your fifty to fifty that you get to be here
0:59
Speaker 2: in extra six weeks, but getting to be here and
1:02
Speaker 2: with the club that I think you know still has
1:04
Speaker 2: a chance to make the playoffs and make a good
1:07
Speaker 2: run for it. I mean, you saw them in twenty
1:10
Speaker 2: three that what that club did, and I think that's
1:12
Speaker 2: still there. So I think getting a chance to join
1:15
Speaker 2: an org like this too, and and be able to
1:17
Speaker 2: live at home is pretty special.
1:19
Speaker 4: All Right, I'm totally gonna ruin it. We're supposed to
1:21
Speaker 4: keep on track here and you're gonna talk about the Diamondbacks.
1:23
Speaker 4: But you said, you said Alberta and Calgary, and we
1:27
Speaker 4: just talked about South Dakota and North Dakota and how like, Oh,
1:32
Speaker 4: it's like, man, it's you can't say I'm from South
1:34
Speaker 4: Dakota when I'm from North Dakota. Like I played in
1:37
Speaker 4: Medicine Hat Alberta. If I said, if I said med
1:42
Speaker 4: Hat to you and you said Calgary is better, would
1:47
Speaker 4: that make people from med Hat pissed off? Because oh,
1:52
Speaker 4: you know, the big city, you're not really a country
1:55
Speaker 4: guy all that stuff. Like, is that is that a
1:57
Speaker 4: legitimate statement?
2:00
Speaker 2: No? I think they know it's better. I mean it's yeah.
2:05
Speaker 2: I mean I've been down to med Haat enough. You know,
2:09
Speaker 2: it's a good little small town. And I think you know,
2:13
Speaker 2: Mike Frost had actually the head trainer for the Angels
2:16
Speaker 2: KP knows pretty well too, and he was in Toronto
2:19
Speaker 2: for a lot of years. He actually lives just outside
2:22
Speaker 2: of Manhat in a little town called Redcliffe, so i'd
2:25
Speaker 2: give him years sometimes too, but he grew up in Calgary.
2:29
Speaker 2: He knows all right.
2:31
Speaker 3: Why we're off the track real quick. This North Dakota
2:34
Speaker 3: South Dakota thing. Would it be similar to be? Like,
2:36
Speaker 3: is there like a little rivalry between Alberta and like Saskatchewan,
2:40
Speaker 3: Like would that be a better comparison? Would you guys
2:42
Speaker 3: like be offended if someone was like, oh, Alberta is
2:45
Speaker 3: better than Saskatchewan or vice versa.
2:48
Speaker 2: No, I think there. If there's any rivalry, it's probably
2:51
Speaker 2: just east to west in Canada. To be honest with you,
2:53
Speaker 2: I think, you know, maybe a little less so with
2:55
Speaker 2: Alberta and BC because you know, politically they're quite different.
2:59
Speaker 2: But as far as Alberta Sasketchwan, I think it's pretty similar.
3:04
Speaker 2: And then Manitoba I'm not too sure of. But yeah,
3:09
Speaker 2: East to West Canada definitely has their issues, so that's
3:12
Speaker 2: that's probably where they sit.
3:14
Speaker 4: I'm gonna triple and double down on this off the
3:16
Speaker 4: tracks thing because this is something in baseball people find
3:20
Speaker 4: out somebody's from Canada and they go, oh, yeah, well.
3:25
Speaker 5: You know, do you know my buddy felipa Mont You know,
3:28
Speaker 5: he's from Canada, he played baseball, And you're like, do
3:32
Speaker 5: you realize that Canada is like ginormous and everybody thinks
3:36
Speaker 5: that everybody knows everybody?
3:37
Speaker 4: So how many times has that happened to you? Where
3:40
Speaker 4: somebody oh, yeah, you know my buddy he played in Canada.
3:43
Speaker 5: Do you know him?
3:45
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I do know Philip. Well that's a
3:48
Speaker 2: bad example. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right, no, quite a bit.
3:53
Speaker 5: You know.
3:54
Speaker 2: The question that I get a lot that I just
3:55
Speaker 2: don't quite understand is if I've moved my family down here,
4:00
Speaker 2: And that's kind of like that's one that gets me
4:03
Speaker 2: because I'm like, you don't understand, like Calgary's not I'm
4:07
Speaker 2: not coming from like the Dominican you know what I mean,
4:09
Speaker 2: Like this isn't I don't worry about their safety. You know,
4:13
Speaker 2: they're they're more than happy up there. I think it's
4:16
Speaker 2: probably somewhere that I can't imagine, at least not having
4:19
Speaker 2: a partial residence after I'm done playing. You know, it's
4:23
Speaker 2: still always going to be home and still a very
4:26
Speaker 2: beautiful place. So it's also, Yeah, I think we're getting
4:28
Speaker 2: close to like two million people too, so it's not
4:31
Speaker 2: a small place.
4:33
Speaker 3: All right. I'm gonna get us back on track here, Mikey,
4:35
Speaker 3: we played together in twenty twenty three. You were coming
4:39
Speaker 3: back from injury. You kind of got your feet wet
4:41
Speaker 3: pitching on a big league mound. I remember how emotional
4:44
Speaker 3: you were leaving the mound that day. But I want
4:46
Speaker 3: to go back to twenty nineteen, one hundred and seventy
4:49
Speaker 3: four innings pitch All Star. How do we get back
4:52
Speaker 3: to that. You feel like you're close, and I know
4:55
Speaker 3: how hard you work. So obviously you had the Achilles
4:58
Speaker 3: the Achilles like, that's a lot to come back from.
5:00
Speaker 3: But we're a couple of years removed.
5:02
Speaker 2: Now.
5:02
Speaker 3: Do we feel like you're trending back to that twenty
5:06
Speaker 3: nineteen version.
5:08
Speaker 2: I do, yeah. I think doing some of the things
5:10
Speaker 2: that I did really well back then were a lot
5:13
Speaker 2: of the competitive mental game over anything else. I think
5:17
Speaker 2: it just came down to executing at a higher rate.
5:20
Speaker 2: I think the game has changed even the last six
5:22
Speaker 2: seven years, and I know you know that too, And
5:26
Speaker 2: there's certain things that I had to learn to be
5:28
Speaker 2: able to stay out there and certain things that I
5:31
Speaker 2: think have definitely helped. I think there's no question from
5:34
Speaker 2: top to bottom my stuff is as good. I think,
5:37
Speaker 2: actually quite a bit better than it's ever been. I
5:40
Speaker 2: don't think there's a dispute in that manner. It's just
5:42
Speaker 2: about again being out there and making the big pitches
5:45
Speaker 2: when they matter. That's ultimately where I missed this past
5:48
Speaker 2: year was you know, not being out there for a
5:51
Speaker 2: couple of months and then just missing that double play
5:56
Speaker 2: ball or that big strikeout in the sixth inning to
5:59
Speaker 2: get out of a jam. And you know, multiple times
6:02
Speaker 2: I got a bit later on, and it wasn't necessarily
6:04
Speaker 2: with a ton of damage. It'd be with a you know,
6:06
Speaker 2: a double down the line that scored to two runs
6:08
Speaker 2: and turn your outing from six innings two runs to
6:12
Speaker 2: five and two thirds with four And that's a big gap, right,
6:15
Speaker 2: And that's where I think I did such a really
6:18
Speaker 2: good job back then, was just nutting up and making
6:21
Speaker 2: a pitch. I mean, it's really what it is. It's
6:23
Speaker 2: it's you're going to end up in jams, and it
6:27
Speaker 2: was a matter of getting out. And I think a
6:28
Speaker 2: lot of people today can look at those stats and
6:30
Speaker 2: say there was luck involved, and you know, maybe to
6:33
Speaker 2: a certain extent, but if you execute pitches at a
6:37
Speaker 2: high rate, good things happen. And yeah, I think there's
6:41
Speaker 2: a lot of things that I'm getting better at with
6:44
Speaker 2: so far as repertoire. I think I've added a couple
6:46
Speaker 2: pitches as well for this coming year that I'm going
6:48
Speaker 2: to be really big to protect, you know, the two
6:51
Speaker 2: ultimate the four team and the curveball, slurve whatever you
6:54
Speaker 2: want to call it. So I think there's a lot
6:57
Speaker 2: of good things moving forward. Some things with some internal
7:02
Speaker 2: medicine stuff that we don't really need to get into,
7:04
Speaker 2: but some stuff that came to like this past year
7:06
Speaker 2: that I think had been really holding me back for
7:08
Speaker 2: a long long time and just didn't really realize it.
7:12
Speaker 2: And I'm excited to get to play a full season
7:15
Speaker 2: without that dragging me down.
7:17
Speaker 4: I love hearing that stuff, like little things that make
7:19
Speaker 4: a big difference. That's the difference in dudes that keep
7:23
Speaker 4: playing and keep you know, getting back to where they were.
7:25
Speaker 4: But I got to go back to what you said,
7:28
Speaker 4: I'm better than I ever was. We do a thing
7:31
Speaker 4: on here, we'll see it, you'll see it over Christmas.
7:34
Speaker 4: How good were they you're twenty nineteen, Like people need
7:39
Speaker 4: to go back and look at it. We see your
7:41
Speaker 4: trophies in the background of your All Star Game, the
7:44
Speaker 4: you know, the Cleveland guitar, the Rock and Roll Museum
7:47
Speaker 4: that they gave you. You were ridiculous you had that.
7:53
Speaker 4: Like the pitch you would throw to get out of
7:55
Speaker 4: any situation is not necessarily your predominant pitch anymore, am
7:59
Speaker 4: I correct? Like you would throw that, you would throw.
8:03
Speaker 4: You would probably call it similar, but you would throw
8:06
Speaker 4: just the disappearing I'm gonna throw this pitch and you're
8:09
Speaker 4: not gonna hit it anywhere but into a double play.
8:13
Speaker 4: And now your strikeout level is up. So you're saying
8:17
Speaker 4: your stuff is better now because of how you throw
8:20
Speaker 4: these pitches differently in the new era of this game.
8:25
Speaker 2: Yeah, without a doubt, I think it's it's I mean,
8:28
Speaker 2: just knowing the way I throw and the way i'd been,
8:33
Speaker 2: you know back then, in the way it felt there's
8:36
Speaker 2: more life on everything, everything is, you know, movement is up.
8:39
Speaker 2: It's really coming down to command. I think, you know,
8:43
Speaker 2: I got away with with the sinker for a while
8:45
Speaker 2: because the angle was different. If you're really up and
8:47
Speaker 2: over the top kind of actually not too dissimilar to
8:49
Speaker 2: the way your Savage was throwing. I think if you
8:52
Speaker 2: go and look at the Baseball Savant page, you'll see
8:55
Speaker 2: the arm angle shift over the last couple of years.
8:57
Speaker 2: And you know, people can debate whether that's good, bad, whatever,
9:02
Speaker 2: but ultimately I think I'm throwing in a manner that's
9:05
Speaker 2: been much healthier. You know, even back then, I wasn't
9:09
Speaker 2: necessarily without problems. I was out there and managed to
9:11
Speaker 2: throw a year, but it wasn't exactly smooth, and I
9:15
Speaker 2: think you guys know that that's you know, never how
9:18
Speaker 2: it is. But WAS still managed to get out there.
9:21
Speaker 2: And I think one of the reasons I was I
9:22
Speaker 2: was doing that because it was just age right. I
9:24
Speaker 2: was twenty one and managed to kind of gut it out.
9:28
Speaker 2: But there was some things that we're adding up. Obviously.
9:32
Speaker 2: The Achilles was that you know, hadn't been good for
9:34
Speaker 2: a couple of years before it actually went and there
9:39
Speaker 2: was definitely some changes that I needed to make. Now.
9:42
Speaker 2: It took me time to make those changes. I think,
9:44
Speaker 2: you know, KP saw that in twenty three and then
9:47
Speaker 2: in twenty four, and it wasn't really until I got
9:50
Speaker 2: really stubborn with those changes and said, screw it, we're
9:53
Speaker 2: going to lean into it, and we're going to lean
9:54
Speaker 2: into what I'm doing better now. And yeah, obviously the
9:57
Speaker 2: stuff that people look at, the whiff rates and k
10:00
Speaker 2: R it's all great. But when it came back to
10:03
Speaker 2: being in zone and executing in big counts, I think,
10:08
Speaker 2: to be honest with you, was always the breaking ball.
10:10
Speaker 2: I think if you look at what got me out
10:14
Speaker 2: of the most jams and what got me out of situations,
10:16
Speaker 2: it was probably my breaking ball. I've I've always leaned
10:19
Speaker 2: on that my whole life, you know, I've always been
10:21
Speaker 2: able to spin it, no matter what the profile was.
10:25
Speaker 2: And I think if you look at opponent averages and
10:28
Speaker 2: really what did it for me back then, it was
10:31
Speaker 2: the off speed. So I think, yes, guys, we're probably
10:36
Speaker 2: worried about the sinker, and that's that's something that they
10:38
Speaker 2: had to go down and get and that's why they
10:40
Speaker 2: were following the breaking ball down there as well. But
10:43
Speaker 2: I think now I'm at the place and I have
10:45
Speaker 2: learned from enough people, especially you know, a couple over
10:48
Speaker 2: the past this this past season with Sean Doolittle and
10:53
Speaker 2: Tyler Zambro with the Cubs all the different things that
10:56
Speaker 2: I'm able to do and again add pitches and and
11:00
Speaker 2: give different looks. And I think this next year is
11:02
Speaker 2: going to be much more about pitching again, not just
11:05
Speaker 2: learn how to have better stuff, if that makes sense.
11:08
Speaker 2: So we're going to be able to take it and
11:11
Speaker 2: kind of go back to the way that you know,
11:13
Speaker 2: I was able to just be stubborn and realize that
11:15
Speaker 2: I'm better than whoever's at the plate, and you know,
11:18
Speaker 2: let's go, let's let's let's try and make the manager's
11:22
Speaker 2: decision really tough in the seventh and eighth inning as
11:24
Speaker 2: opposed to the fifth and sixth.
11:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, you kind of stole my question here, you know,
11:29
Speaker 3: referring to do little and stuff. But I was going
11:32
Speaker 3: to ask you some of these changes that you made,
11:33
Speaker 3: ultimately you had to make the decision to make them.
11:36
Speaker 3: You can be a little bit stubborn, But I was
11:38
Speaker 3: going to ask you if it was coach driven, was
11:40
Speaker 3: it peer driven from some of the guys that you
11:42
Speaker 3: had played with. And then, without kind of going into
11:45
Speaker 3: detail about your internal health, was that something that was
11:48
Speaker 3: maybe encouraged by a player, something you did research on
11:51
Speaker 3: your own, You seeked out a doctor on your own,
11:54
Speaker 3: or was it a conversation with a staff member or
11:57
Speaker 3: maybe even a player that kind of led you down
11:59
Speaker 3: that road.
12:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, first was the delivery. I
12:05
Speaker 2: changed the delivery, and that was ultimately through Bob Guys
12:08
Speaker 2: in Utah. I did a ton of learning from him.
12:13
Speaker 2: You know, I'm glad I did, because I do think
12:15
Speaker 2: he's one of the best sources around for actually just
12:19
Speaker 2: raw data and what actually happens. There's no opinions involved,
12:22
Speaker 2: it's all just this is what you're doing, this is
12:25
Speaker 2: what the greats did. You can take what you want
12:28
Speaker 2: with it and move from there and just kind of
12:31
Speaker 2: learning how to move. But you know, being stubborn with
12:34
Speaker 2: some of those changes was difficult and really understanding what
12:36
Speaker 2: they what they meant. And then this past year really
12:39
Speaker 2: just finally settling into that and not really having to
12:42
Speaker 2: worry too much about all that anymore, and kind of
12:45
Speaker 2: back to the pitch design. And that's where you know,
12:47
Speaker 2: I mentioned with Doolittle, we were able to work on
12:50
Speaker 2: some stuff as far as command and the site points
12:53
Speaker 2: go with the fastball. Obviously, he was probably one of
12:58
Speaker 2: the first guys in our new era that was throwing
13:01
Speaker 2: the the super ride ball. With the low angle, you know,
13:05
Speaker 2: and and he was kind of able to help with
13:07
Speaker 2: a lot of that stuff. And Tyler Zombro was able
13:10
Speaker 2: to kind of piggyback on that and and give me
13:12
Speaker 2: a good idea of how to you know, make the
13:15
Speaker 2: ball move in any direction I wanted really, So you know,
13:19
Speaker 2: it's all stuff that I think is going to be
13:21
Speaker 2: extremely useful going forward. But yeah, the health stuff, I
13:27
Speaker 2: got to a pretty rough place in spring this past year.
13:31
Speaker 2: I was not feeling really good and I kind of
13:34
Speaker 2: felt like I had the flu all the time and
13:37
Speaker 2: was kind of just stubborn with with understanding that something
13:40
Speaker 2: was not right. And so we were able to kind
13:42
Speaker 2: of narrow some things down, do a whole bunch of
13:44
Speaker 2: blood work, and you know, I went out there at
13:47
Speaker 2: the beginning of the year and kind of felt like
13:48
Speaker 2: a zombie a little bit and was just kind of
13:50
Speaker 2: gutting it out. But by the time things got figured
13:53
Speaker 2: out and we got everything in the right place, and
13:59
Speaker 2: you know, found found the right doctors to be able
14:00
Speaker 2: to help with treatment, and again, I was a different
14:04
Speaker 2: human by the end of the year and have been
14:06
Speaker 2: this offseason. So you know, I at one point i'd
14:10
Speaker 2: lost a whole bunch of weight, and I was looking
14:12
Speaker 2: at a little frail and put all that weight back on,
14:17
Speaker 2: and I think we're in a really good place moving forward.
14:20
Speaker 2: So I'm really excited to play without that, you know,
14:24
Speaker 2: without that monkey.
14:25
Speaker 4: I went back, can you walk through the contract negotiations
14:29
Speaker 4: with us in the sense of they are basically signing
14:33
Speaker 4: you up for seven and a half million dollars when
14:35
Speaker 4: you're looking at other starting pitchers who are getting fifteen
14:40
Speaker 4: for an old veteran, which, by the way, everybody needs
14:42
Speaker 4: to know, you're still twenty seven years old, So I
14:44
Speaker 4: think you're still twenty seven unless you just turned twenty eight.
14:47
Speaker 4: You just turned twenty eight, sorry, twenty eight a few
14:49
Speaker 4: months ago, but you're still young. How do those negotiations go?
14:55
Speaker 4: And did they go the same way you thought they
14:57
Speaker 4: would go going into this offseason and one of the
15:00
Speaker 4: teams we're in on you and in on your services.
15:06
Speaker 2: So I mean again, it was it was a little
15:08
Speaker 2: easier than the previous year. I think, you know, there
15:11
Speaker 2: was a lot more unknown in the previous year because
15:13
Speaker 2: I was in the bullpen, and you know, there was
15:16
Speaker 2: just a whole bunch of changes being made. But this year,
15:21
Speaker 2: I felt as comfortable as ever that this is a
15:24
Speaker 2: year that I need to be able to bet on things.
15:27
Speaker 2: So ultimately that the total dollar didn't necessarily matter when
15:33
Speaker 2: it really came down to it was about finding the
15:34
Speaker 2: right situation for me and finding the place that I
15:37
Speaker 2: could really thrive. And you know, I think had we
15:42
Speaker 2: kind of opened it up and said, okay, We're we're
15:44
Speaker 2: all right being a swingman. I'm okay with the possibilities,
15:47
Speaker 2: you know, only being in the rotation if guys really
15:50
Speaker 2: get hurt. But I think for me moving forward, kind
15:54
Speaker 2: of having explained the things I just did with you know,
15:58
Speaker 2: the pitch stuff and as well as the health stuff,
16:00
Speaker 2: I think this is a year that I need to
16:02
Speaker 2: be able to go out there and prove to myself,
16:04
Speaker 2: not just everybody else, that you know, I can go
16:07
Speaker 2: out there and throw one hundred and eighty innings. Again.
16:10
Speaker 2: I think that's that's something that I'm still very capable of. Again,
16:14
Speaker 2: I have age on my side, and I'm very lucky
16:17
Speaker 2: for that. But again, I think this was about getting
16:21
Speaker 2: to the right scenario and not really waiting on it.
16:23
Speaker 2: That's ultimately what we found too, is that I'm comfortable
16:28
Speaker 2: not taking the security, even if it meant you know,
16:31
Speaker 2: getting another year or two, you know, with a swingman role. Again,
16:36
Speaker 2: this is something that I want to do and I
16:38
Speaker 2: feel very convicted in and I'm very excited to be
16:41
Speaker 2: given the opportunity to do so.
16:43
Speaker 4: Was there a larger contracts available to be a swingman,
16:46
Speaker 4: to be that like, ooh, I want a Swiss Army knife,
16:48
Speaker 4: Mike Soroka.
16:51
Speaker 2: I think total value there would have been obviously. I mean,
16:54
Speaker 2: if you if you sacrifice another couple of years. But again,
16:57
Speaker 2: being twenty eight, I think you all know that age
17:01
Speaker 2: and free agency is pretty important, and being on the
17:04
Speaker 2: younger side of that gives you a chance for more
17:07
Speaker 2: years if you were able to go out there and
17:08
Speaker 2: show health and success. So I think it's kind of
17:12
Speaker 2: a no brainer to take a gamble on that a
17:14
Speaker 2: little bit. You know, we're at the point where financially
17:18
Speaker 2: it doesn't necessarily make that big of a difference at
17:23
Speaker 2: the rates we were talking, And again, I think where
17:27
Speaker 2: my skill set lies and where it's going to lie
17:29
Speaker 2: is going to be as a starter, and I just
17:32
Speaker 2: needed to kind of figure that out a little bit
17:33
Speaker 2: and get back to the things that we already talked about.
17:37
Speaker 2: And move forward on the things that I learned. So
17:40
Speaker 2: it's it was out there. It was just kind of,
17:44
Speaker 2: you know, what I wanted, and we discussed this, and
17:48
Speaker 2: I wanted to be out there and again make a
17:51
Speaker 2: manager's decision really tough come the seventh inning. So it's
17:56
Speaker 2: just where I've always been and where I feel a
17:57
Speaker 2: most comfortable and I'm more than happy to bet on it.
18:03
Speaker 4: You mentioned the number one eighty, one hundred and eighty innings.
18:07
Speaker 4: What would it mean to you if you reach that
18:09
Speaker 4: goal of one hundred eighty innings for this season in
18:11
Speaker 4: the sense of where you've been since your twenty one
18:15
Speaker 4: year old season when you were an All Star.
18:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, it would. It would kind of complete you know
18:22
Speaker 2: that whole thing. I think you could. You could turn
18:23
Speaker 2: the page and I think I already have. I think
18:25
Speaker 2: that was what this year was biggest for with everything,
18:29
Speaker 2: is that you know, I'm not exactly seen as what
18:33
Speaker 2: once or could have been if if you know, if
18:36
Speaker 2: you know what I mean. I think that's where I
18:38
Speaker 2: think a lot of people look at it and think that, oh,
18:40
Speaker 2: what if you didn't get hurt, what if all the
18:42
Speaker 2: sacm that I think with the way I threw and
18:44
Speaker 2: the way things happened, there would have been struggles, as
18:47
Speaker 2: there are with any career. I would have had to
18:50
Speaker 2: figure things out one way or another. It just kind
18:52
Speaker 2: of happened all at once in the spotlight of the
18:54
Speaker 2: big leagues after already having success. So I think I'm learning,
18:58
Speaker 2: and I've got a chance to learn last like three
19:00
Speaker 2: four years. What a lot of guys are coming up
19:03
Speaker 2: and learning in college and in the minor leagues, and
19:06
Speaker 2: I just had to kind of do it on the
19:08
Speaker 2: biggest stage. So it's, yeah, it's a journey. But I
19:13
Speaker 2: think being able to go out there and throw again
19:16
Speaker 2: that full season and not touch the IL and throw
19:19
Speaker 2: in the playoffs would just give me the sense that
19:22
Speaker 2: I always had and the things that I always took
19:24
Speaker 2: pride in which were being out there. I didn't get hurt,
19:27
Speaker 2: I didn't sniff the IL in the minor leagues, and
19:29
Speaker 2: I think people will say, oh, it was different, but
19:31
Speaker 2: back then it wasn't. I was still on a five
19:33
Speaker 2: day I still think, you know, including instructs and spring training.
19:38
Speaker 2: I still think I was over like one hundred and
19:40
Speaker 2: seventy innings both years, one hundred and sixty and then
19:45
Speaker 2: got called up in that in that third season. So
19:48
Speaker 2: that was something that I always thought was never gonna
19:50
Speaker 2: be a problem because I worked out, I ate well,
19:53
Speaker 2: I thought I would never get hurt. So coming out
19:56
Speaker 2: the other side of that, and you know, having all
19:58
Speaker 2: the things that I've learned through these past you know,
20:01
Speaker 2: four years, really I think it would it would feel
20:04
Speaker 2: pretty good to just be able to detern it and
20:07
Speaker 2: not worry about what could have been, you know, and
20:09
Speaker 2: not have to ask ask answer questions about that.
20:13
Speaker 3: Hey, how excited are you to share a rotation with
20:17
Speaker 3: Corbyn Burns eventually when he comes back, and a guy
20:19
Speaker 3: like Merrill Kelly. And secondly, remember that time you broke
20:23
Speaker 3: that driver on your back when we were playing golf.
20:28
Speaker 2: I remember very well. That's one of my favorite moments
20:30
Speaker 2: of my life.
20:32
Speaker 5: Was it was that?
20:33
Speaker 3: Was that money MIC's driver or is that like a
20:35
Speaker 3: rental driver? I can't remember. I think we were playing
20:37
Speaker 3: that I was using.
20:38
Speaker 2: I was using his driver because they didn't have Uh, yeah,
20:44
Speaker 2: I've got a triple X now, so it's a little
20:48
Speaker 2: tougher to break. But yeah, that's one of my favorite
20:51
Speaker 2: moments of my life.
20:54
Speaker 3: And what about Corbyn and Meryl Kelly?
20:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, these guys, I'm their dogs, right like they've done it,
21:01
Speaker 2: They've done their learning. There are two guys especially that
21:05
Speaker 2: you know went through it at some points. You know,
21:06
Speaker 2: obviously Meryl was overseas and able to come back and
21:11
Speaker 2: take what he learned and have success, you know, well
21:13
Speaker 2: into his thirties. It's it's really impressive to go watch
21:16
Speaker 2: him pitch, and I think he's as good of an
21:19
Speaker 2: example as anybody as far as what a true pitcher
21:21
Speaker 2: means in today's game. I think people will look at
21:24
Speaker 2: him and think, you know, this stuff isn't isn't that
21:27
Speaker 2: crazy because of what's all out there, But you know,
21:30
Speaker 2: it's really good stuff that's commanded extremely well, and I'm
21:34
Speaker 2: excited to learn from that. And then, yeah, obviously Corbyn's
21:38
Speaker 2: you know, hopefully back here at some point around the
21:40
Speaker 2: All Star break and get a chance to learn from him,
21:43
Speaker 2: because you know, there's one point where again he was
21:47
Speaker 2: the best in baseball. So and again, just surrounding yourself
21:50
Speaker 2: with guys like that is is always helpful and you know,
21:54
Speaker 2: brings out the best. And yeah, I'm excited to be
21:57
Speaker 2: able to do that.
21:58
Speaker 4: Knowing all that you know about you know, how certain
22:01
Speaker 4: guys throw and what the injury could be. You don't
22:03
Speaker 4: know how guys are feeling. But you look at a
22:06
Speaker 4: guy like Trey Savage and you go, I see parallels
22:09
Speaker 4: in what I was doing. Do you feel like a
22:11
Speaker 4: guy like that you could go and talk to him
22:13
Speaker 4: and go, hey, this will keep you healthy at this
22:16
Speaker 4: point in his career, a guy that's now had more
22:19
Speaker 4: postseason starts than regular season starts, and or does he
22:25
Speaker 4: have to learn it on his own? And should an
22:29
Speaker 4: organizations be doing this anyway?
22:33
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's such a difficult question. I mean, you guys
22:35
Speaker 2: know that like hitting a little different than pitching, because
22:39
Speaker 2: there's a uniqueness factor to pitching that makes success available.
22:44
Speaker 2: And I think you know, if if somebody came to
22:48
Speaker 2: me in twenty nineteen and at the end of that
22:51
Speaker 2: season said you need to switch it up, you need
22:54
Speaker 2: to go back to how you were throwing when you
22:56
Speaker 2: were probably like sixteen seventeen years old, and you know
23:01
Speaker 2: that's because this is sustainable, I would have told them
23:06
Speaker 2: to take a hike, you know, and not that nicely.
23:09
Speaker 2: I think anybody would would agree that if you're having
23:11
Speaker 2: success and you're staying healthy and you feel good, then
23:14
Speaker 2: you don't touch a thing. You know, you learn and
23:17
Speaker 2: improve on what you can and what's going to help
23:19
Speaker 2: you continue to have sex success. But again, these are
23:23
Speaker 2: things that we need to learn as you go through
23:25
Speaker 2: a career, as as you find things that work. And
23:28
Speaker 2: you know, there's definitely some things, like I said, the
23:30
Speaker 2: arm angle was was super high back then, and a
23:32
Speaker 2: lot of it was just tilt to the side, and
23:35
Speaker 2: that's not necessarily something that's unsustainable. You just don't know that.
23:41
Speaker 2: You know, we're all built differently. There's there's different ways
23:44
Speaker 2: to to you know, be in different positions, but there's
23:49
Speaker 2: still some principles to pitching that need to remain and
23:52
Speaker 2: again we all figure those out and you know, hopefully
23:56
Speaker 2: he doesn't have any of those problems that I had.
23:58
Speaker 2: There's you know, there's there's so many guys that have
24:01
Speaker 2: thrown different ways. I mean, you look at actually, Chris
24:03
Speaker 2: Bassett's a good example that I think a lot of
24:05
Speaker 2: people at some points in his career were probably telling him,
24:08
Speaker 2: you know, you can't throw like that, But look at
24:12
Speaker 2: him and what he's done and how he's able to
24:14
Speaker 2: stay and sustain that. No, I think me personally, I
24:18
Speaker 2: had to change it because I wasn't moving the way
24:20
Speaker 2: my body needed to and and it didn't work for me.
24:23
Speaker 2: But it doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, that's something
24:26
Speaker 2: that he has to change at this point. You know
24:29
Speaker 2: it's time and you know adaptation, it's it's what this
24:33
Speaker 2: game is all about. And you can see countless examples
24:35
Speaker 2: of it throughout the years, and you know, somebody like
24:39
Speaker 2: du Gram even as a good example, he just got
24:41
Speaker 2: better and better at better at moving and throwing a baseball.
24:43
Speaker 2: And then eventually you look up there in twenty twenty
24:46
Speaker 2: one or whatever it was, and he's sitting one hundred
24:48
Speaker 2: miles an hour. So I think that's that's the dream
24:51
Speaker 2: for all of us, is that we're able to kind
24:53
Speaker 2: of continue to, you know, make those little adjustments that
24:57
Speaker 2: make us better. And it's not a clean line, you know, uphill,
25:00
Speaker 2: but you know, he's he's definitely the poster child for that.
25:04
Speaker 2: And yeah, there's there's again countless examples of it. So again,
25:10
Speaker 2: I hope he doesn't have to do a thing because
25:12
Speaker 2: it's it's clearly disgusting and it's worked extremely well, and
25:16
Speaker 2: the combo between him and Rogers is going to be
25:20
Speaker 2: pretty lethal, So I hope they get to see, uh
25:24
Speaker 2: see the contrast in those couple angles all year.
25:27
Speaker 1: I mean, from a fan perspective, I want to admit
25:29
Speaker 1: at bat. I mean, I know it'll never happen, but
25:32
Speaker 1: mid at bat, I just want to see somebody go
25:33
Speaker 1: from watching the Savage and then the next pitch is
25:36
Speaker 1: coming from Rogers.
25:38
Speaker 2: No, I think that. I think those are both guys.
25:40
Speaker 2: I don't know about Rogers, but I know you Savage.
25:42
Speaker 2: They can't have on the traject the hitting machine, which
25:48
Speaker 2: I actually think is an extreme advantage at this point,
25:51
Speaker 2: because I got to watch, you know, Justin Turner take
25:55
Speaker 2: reps in the cages, and you know, I think the
25:57
Speaker 2: first day I went down and watched something, he ended
25:59
Speaker 2: up hitting a a walk off homer off of the
26:02
Speaker 2: pitch that he'd been looking at in the tunnel. You know,
26:05
Speaker 2: I think it's something that teams are using to their advantage,
26:08
Speaker 2: and so they should. I think it advances the game,
26:11
Speaker 2: It gives them a better chance, and you know, makes
26:14
Speaker 2: me have to play a different game on the mountain too.
26:16
Speaker 2: So it's all it's all good in competitiveness, but for him,
26:20
Speaker 2: if if you're out there and you're not able to
26:23
Speaker 2: actually see what it really looks like in practice, and
26:26
Speaker 2: the first time you're seeing it in the game is
26:28
Speaker 2: a pretty huge advantage in my opinion, So again another
26:31
Speaker 2: reason probably not to touch it at this point, no doubt.
26:35
Speaker 1: Mike, this was great man, good to catch up. You're
26:37
Speaker 1: a great interview. Really appreciate it. We have a ton
26:39
Speaker 1: of young and you guys all players that listen and watch,
26:42
Speaker 1: so this stuff's really helpful. Thanks for joining us, have
26:44
Speaker 1: a great holiday up there in Canada and then looking
26:47
Speaker 1: forward to seeing Yeah, it'spring training in Arizona.
26:50
Speaker 2: Beautiful. Thank you guys for having me. I was a pleasure.