Latest / Foul Territory / Zack Britton on Birdland Territory

Transcript

Zack Britton on Birdland Territory · Foul Territory

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Heyo's fans, welcome in to the latest edition of Birdland
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Territory with Steve tim Brad and today Zach Zach Britton
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: joining us great Oriole Pitcher, and he hasn't been going
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: too long, so we remember him fondly here in Birdland.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: And of course, Ach, great to have you on the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: show today. You started a new venture publishing a newsletter,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and we'll talk more about that when fans can find
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you at thesavenewsletter dot com and find your new newsletter.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: But how is life in Zach's world these days? Great
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: to have you on the show today.
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, happy to be on.
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: Life's pretty good, you know, just falling around my four kids,
• 0:44
  Speaker 4: so I think busier than ever. You know, there's a
• 0:49
  Speaker 4: few moments where I'm wishing I'm pitching because it's a
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: little bit easier than you know, traveling around town and
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: dropping them all off at sports in school, and you
• 0:56
  Speaker 4: know now that summers here, it'll be a lot of fun.
• 0:59
  Speaker 4: But yeah, just staying busy.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: With that awesome man.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Great to have you on the show today, And of
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: course fans remember you for so many things, but top
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: of mine obviously is twenty sixteen years a year or
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: two after you were converted to relief. And that was
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: the best relief season I've ever seen by a picture,
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and maybe the best anybody's ever seen by a picture
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: with a fifty.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: Four era a low whip.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: And by the way, he gave up four and runs
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: and that was not in one bad outing or one
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: in bad homestand that was for the season. Forn runs
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: for an entire season of baseball. Incredible groundball rate. I mean,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: so many things happened. Fourth in the say Young should
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: have been first eleventh for the MVP Award, Zach. When
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: you think back to that, what memories come back to you?
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, what does it almost mind boggling now when
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you look at the stats on the page.
• 1:52
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean it's yeah, when every now and then
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: somebody will bring it up to me or you know
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: now that I'm like back in the little video game
• 2:02
  Speaker 4: my son's friends, like, we'll play with like my card,
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: and you know, they'll bring up the stats and I'll
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: kind of laugh. But for me and even the prior year,
• 2:12
  Speaker 4: I think, you know, with Brad, like going to the
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: All Star Game with two relievers is such a rare thing,
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: especially in the mid market, like Baltimore, like New York
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: gets it all the time. When I was with the Yankees,
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: it's you know, there's guys making the All Star team
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: there that you're like, man, you know, like I played
• 2:28
  Speaker 4: with some guys in Baltimore that it's really good years
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: and never got the opportunity. So I always think going
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: to the All Star Game that year with Brad, the
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: year before with Oday, those were the things that I
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: really remember, and I think we're special more so than
• 2:41
  Speaker 4: the the stats. The stats are really cool in hindsight,
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: but I think in the moment, it's just it's really
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: cool to share that. And you know, having we had
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: a really good bullpen. You can't, you know, being a
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: setup guy, being a closer, you can't have success in
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: the ninth inning if you don't have anybody getting you
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: to that spot or probably navigating the heart of the lineup.
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: So I don't have to you know a lot of
• 3:07
  Speaker 4: the time. So it's it was kind of just the
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: perfect storm for me.
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I look at that season two and
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: it was it was a lot of fun. But I
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: really I think back to like fourteen, when you got
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: converted to a reliever. I remember kind of going over
• 3:24
  Speaker 5: the roster and I'm trying to figure out where I'm
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: going to fit in, and I'm like, I remember now,
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: and you had against the Phillies.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: I think it was Utlely.
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: Howard and somebody else, but it was like eleven pitches,
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: three strikeouts, and I'm like, all right, there goes my spot.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: When when did it finally? Like, because you're was it
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Dave and Dom because I've talked about them on the show,
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: Dom che d Dave Wallace, Like, were they just like, hey,
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: just throw your sinker?
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: What?
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Like, how did that kind of evolution go.
• 3:50
  Speaker 5: From being a starter to finally knowing you're going to
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: be a full time reliever? Like did you when did that?
• 3:55
  Speaker 5: Can you just like go through that process a little
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: bit of what you were thinking. I'm sure it was
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: a lot of emotions and thoughts and everything while that
• 4:01
  Speaker 5: was happening.
• 4:02
  Speaker 4: So it really started in that off season going into fourteen,
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: I was out in California working out with Brady, Miguel Gonzalez, Tillman,
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: you know, Brian mattis Way and Chen and Dave and
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: Dom were they were you know, they were hired already,
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: but they were making the rounds out to meet some
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: people and they flew out there and I was throwing
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: a bullpen and I threw this bullpen. I actually thought
• 4:27
  Speaker 4: it was really good. I actually thought I threw a
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: good bullpen.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Like.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: I was like, man, this is a good first impression.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: And you know, Dave.
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: Dave was like, yeah, that was all right like that,
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: and I was like, wow, I thought like I knocked
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: their socks off and he was just like yeah, and
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: he really dove into me about like, you know, because
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: I was throwing a bunch of like I was not
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: my change up in this bullpen. I thought it was
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: good and he was like that's that's kind of trash,
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: Like that's not gonna work man. And he was like, so,
• 4:53
  Speaker 4: you know, why, why do you think you've struggled? You know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: as a starter, you know, what do you view yourself
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: as going forward?
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: I was like, man, I'm a starter.
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna be you know, Col Handles and Greg Maddox
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: or excuse me, Tom Glavin and they were like yeah, like
• 5:08
  Speaker 4: we really think like you need to improve like your
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: command and just really focus on that sinker and like
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: we envision being probably hopefully part of this team and
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: probably looks like a bullpen roll for you, like that's
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: just being around the game, that's what we think. And
• 5:24
  Speaker 4: I didn't really like that first impression, but I also
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: appreciated the honesty. I remember going home and and kind
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: of just being like, I'm out of options, Like this
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: is their plan obviously for me, and I'm just gonna
• 5:36
  Speaker 4: try to have like the best spring training I can
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: make the team, and then maybe if I.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Make the team as a reliever, I can go back
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: to starting.
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: Right That was that was the mindset, But it really
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: started in the off season when I met David Dom
• 5:47
  Speaker 4: and you know, it wasn't all you know, being critical.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: They were like your ability, your talent.
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: Obviously it's like through the roof, but knowing guys like you,
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: you just seem more of a guy that's going to
• 5:58
  Speaker 4: be you know, late in and really or power sinker.
• 6:01
  Speaker 4: Here it is if you can improve your command enough,
• 6:03
  Speaker 4: like you're going to have a good career, and either
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: you buy into that or you know, you go to
• 6:09
  Speaker 4: another team and you try to be a starter, but
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: we just don't see that being your path to a
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: long career. And so it was a lot of honesty
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: on their part, especially since they didn't know me very well,
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: and so I always think about that and it could
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: be why I have.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: Such a good relationship even to this day. But that's
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: how it all started.
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: Well back looking at the beginning part of that twenty
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: fourteen season, So you convert to becoming a reliever, and
• 6:38
  Speaker 6: then Tommy Hunter was experiencing some early season struggles and
• 6:41
  Speaker 6: then boom you're in the closer role, you know in May, Like,
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: what was it like going just from not only reliever
• 6:48
  Speaker 6: to closer closing out games?
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: Initially?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: What was that like?
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: It was interesting because in spring training, like they didn't
• 6:55
  Speaker 4: even throw me a bone and give me a start.
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: I went straight to.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: Like I was relieving right out of the gate, and
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: Don Cheaty told me that he wanted me to understand
• 7:03
  Speaker 4: how to I think Brad knows the story. I think
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: I ran into a game in spring training and not
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: getting put in the game, like I was learning, like
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: the whole thing.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: I think oday was there. He just he like never
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: lets me live it down.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: But they basically were like, you need to follow like
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: Darren a day around and learn how to be a reliever.
• 7:19
  Speaker 4: And so I just was relieving out of the gate
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: and I got comfortable. I had a really good spring,
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: velocity was up, you know, because I was only throwing
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: one or maybe two innings in spring, you know, every
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: now and then.
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: I didn't have a ton of expectation.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: Honestly, I went into the season. I was so happy
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: to finally like make the team. I had had an
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: opening day in twenty eleven when you know, Mattis got
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: hurt and I took his place in the rotation to
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: make my debut. So I had experienced opening Day, but
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: this was different. This was like, hey, like, I feel
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: like I earned, you know, my spot by having a
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: good spring, and I'm part of the team. I'm out
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: of options, So I wasn't worried about getting set down
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: if I performed.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: It was just it was a weird feeling.
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: I was really excited, and I was like, like I said,
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: my goal was to continue to have like really good
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: outings and hopefully get a chance back into the rotation.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: There were some conversations I had with Buck Showalter in
• 8:13
  Speaker 4: spring about relieving and he had mentioned, you know, his
• 8:17
  Speaker 4: experience with Mariano in New York, where he was like,
• 8:20
  Speaker 4: I think when people look back at you, they're gonna
• 8:23
  Speaker 4: thank Sinker. Like, you know, when I look at dominant relievers.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: They normally have one dominant pitch, and I think you
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: can do that, and I appreciated that, but at the
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: same time, I was like, you know, I want to
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: I've always been a starter. I feel like I can
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: still do that. And obviously they were right. I was wrong,
• 8:41
  Speaker 4: but that was my mindset. I didn't think too much
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: into it. Tommy got hurt. He had some struggles, but
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: he got hurt. Like if he didn't get hurt, he
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: probably still stays closing. And Buck, we were in Kansas City.
• 8:53
  Speaker 4: Buck brought me and Darren into the manager's office and said, Hey,
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: if there's a saving the night, that's going to be
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: one of you two, to just be ready for it.
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: And it was.
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: It was that, and then it was my name that
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: got called. I think I got like three grand ball
• 9:04
  Speaker 4: outs and I didn't think any of that.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: I didn't think like, hey, this is my role.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: I was just like, you know, we're the One thing
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: that I learned from Darren was that the bullpen is,
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: you know, its own unit, and it really is like
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: your own little team. And the more that you can
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: kind of compete against each other and support each other,
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: the better it is for everybody, and so I didn't
• 9:26
  Speaker 4: really think anything of it. Even if Darren would have
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: got the call the next day, I wouldn't I wouldn't
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: have cared because, like I said, my.
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: Mind was still like, man, maybe I'll get a chance
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: to start.
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: It wasn't until the end of the year where I
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: was like, man, this is actually pretty fun, like I
• 9:38
  Speaker 4: actually want to start.
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: My friend.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: You were a top one hundred prospect coming up as
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the starting pitcher.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: So there were some good days there.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: Till for sure, the miners is a whole lot different
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: than the big leader.
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: You're right about that. There's no question. Do you're write
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: about that? Zach Britton with us today on Birdland Territory.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: We're gonna fire a few more questions his way in
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: a moment. So I got a.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Great promotion for the Orioles. Free advice here Birdland and OS.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I need a bob bobblehead brock O'Day Britain on one bobblehead,
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: bring these three gents back Saturday night. We're gonna pack
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: this ballpark and honor these guys who are what they
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: and their group did for the Orioles.
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: And so again, no charge. I don't want to cut
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: or anything. Just throw me a few extra bobbleheads I
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: can give the family and friends.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: We get some T shirts. Man, I feel like there
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: was something right and once there.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Gotta be some T shirts.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, come on, this is a slam dunk promotion
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: and you guys said do it plate so recently it's
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: still gonna be big. So Zach, we're talking about your
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: incredible sinker.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: Why was it so good?
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Why is your sinker better than the next guy and
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the next guy and the next guy.
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: Well, if you would have before I really got a
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: good breakdown with the Yankees on a lot of the
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: things that I did know that were unique to me,
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: I would have just said, like, all the grip and
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: you know I don't have well, I guess some of
• 11:06
  Speaker 4: the things that I felt that I did are true,
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: but I would say, you know, I don't have a
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: long stride. I got a really short arm action. But
• 11:15
  Speaker 4: I couldn't have, you know, really put together. I just
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: thought it was Calvin Maduro showed me a grip of
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: a cutter and.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: It did what it did kind of thing.
• 11:25
  Speaker 4: But then I went to the New York and I've
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: really found out what I do that really stands out,
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: and actually a lot of it was how high my
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: release point was compared to the average in the big leagues.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: I think it was one of the highest release points
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: and at a short stride. So it's just really that
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: angle of approach of the sinker was you know, it
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: basically acted like a splitter. Most guys like a right
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: handed splitter, and I think there was that little bit
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: combination the velocity.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: If you look at that time.
• 11:54
  Speaker 4: There wasn't a ton of left handed guys throwing you know,
• 11:57
  Speaker 4: really power sinkers or really at that velocity, so I
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: think it was just it was unique. And then having
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: that combination in.
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: The ninth inning.
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: I mean our division we had some you know, big
• 12:09
  Speaker 4: left handed hitters, so you can kind of neutralize them.
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: I had always done.
• 12:12
  Speaker 4: I had success against righty's even as a starter, so
• 12:15
  Speaker 4: I think, you know, used to facing righty's with the sinker.
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: It really just put me in a really good spot,
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: that sinker against riety's against lefties.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: And.
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know, like I wish I knew.
• 12:28
  Speaker 4: Exactly why it worked well, but the one thing I
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: learned from Dave and Dom was if it's working, you know,
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: stick with it until they tell you that it's not
• 12:39
  Speaker 4: as in the hitters. If the hitters, you know, eventually
• 12:41
  Speaker 4: tell you that it's not working, then you adjust, but
• 12:43
  Speaker 4: until then don't. And you know, maybe there was one
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: year when I was dealing with the elbow stuff in
• 12:49
  Speaker 4: New York where I wasn't able to get on top
• 12:51
  Speaker 4: of the ball before I had Tommy John and I
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: went to my slider more but other than that, I
• 12:56
  Speaker 4: just I kind of was like, man, just beat me
• 12:58
  Speaker 4: with my with the sinker. I really I believed in it,
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: and I you know, I was just surrounded by a
• 13:04
  Speaker 4: bunch of good guys that gave me a lot of
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: confidence when I didn't have confidence when I had been struggling.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: And there's something to that, you know, when you get
• 13:11
  Speaker 4: around people that believe in you. And Brady was the
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: first one. He was the very first person that I
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: felt like believed in me more than you know, I
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: believed in myself at the time. And then it just
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: kind of snowballed. I really just got a lot of
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: confidence and believed in myself.
• 13:27
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that, like, uh, I just think about
• 13:30
  Speaker 5: David Dom, like those two guys I feel like made
• 13:32
  Speaker 5: the bullpen as good as it was like we got
• 13:35
  Speaker 5: a lot of the credit because we were the ones
• 13:36
  Speaker 5: out there, you know, doing the job. But without those guys,
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: I mean when I got over there, speaking of like
• 13:41
  Speaker 5: Zach story with, they were like, yeah, that bullpen kind
• 13:43
  Speaker 5: of stunk.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: I went to day.
• 13:45
  Speaker 5: I went to don one morning, I'm like, hey, I'm.
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: Struggling against lefties. Do you think you know?
• 13:49
  Speaker 5: Starting on the lit the first base side and then
• 13:52
  Speaker 5: going to the third bay side. When I'm facing the things,
• 13:54
  Speaker 5: he turns me and gives me this look and he's like,
• 13:56
  Speaker 5: your line is crap, and he just kind of walks
• 13:58
  Speaker 5: away and he comes back to me, and its just
• 14:01
  Speaker 5: like like Zach said, without like having guys like that
• 14:04
  Speaker 5: around us that were just honest, and that's at some
• 14:06
  Speaker 5: point you just have to have somebody honest with you.
• 14:09
  Speaker 5: It just it made everything so much easier for us
• 14:11
  Speaker 5: because then it's like, okay, you you have three pitches
• 14:14
  Speaker 5: for my For myself, it was you have three pitches,
• 14:16
  Speaker 5: go use them. But with Zachy was like, hey, throw
• 14:19
  Speaker 5: your sinker until somebody tells you otherwise. But Zach, I
• 14:22
  Speaker 5: always think of It always makes me laugh because we
• 14:24
  Speaker 5: have all these big hitters in the division and Peter
• 14:27
  Speaker 5: Borgis on the rays. It was he was in Zach's head.
• 14:31
  Speaker 5: He couldn't get out of his head. Like of all
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: the hitters in the division, Peter Borgis was just why
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: do you think it was certain guys like that that
• 14:38
  Speaker 5: were just able to see you better? And you have
• 14:41
  Speaker 5: these other big guys that come up there that we
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: face in the division and they just swing and miss
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: at these pitches in front of the plate. Was there
• 14:46
  Speaker 5: you think just certain guys had better approaches or was
• 14:48
  Speaker 5: it just I don't know. I just always think of
• 14:51
  Speaker 5: back to that story. I think it's just funny with
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: it was like I remember.
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: That name, struggled against them, and then Darren just you know,
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: told everybody.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: I think he actually told Borges.
• 15:02
  Speaker 4: Like you know, and I don't know, he hit a
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: home run off me this one time, and I'm like,
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: how the heck?
• 15:08
  Speaker 3: Like I haven't given up a home run long.
• 15:09
  Speaker 4: He might have hit two off me in my career,
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: which is wild. I don't know, I would have to
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: do a deep dive. It just seemed like he hit
• 15:14
  Speaker 4: a thousand off me.
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: I think it became a mental thing where I'm like,
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: I feel like, this guy sees me so well. And
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: he took good at bats. He was a more of
• 15:24
  Speaker 4: a contact guy, and.
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: I felt like he put like he would put the
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: ball and play. He was fast, so he would hit.
• 15:29
  Speaker 4: He could hit a chopper right and beat it out,
• 15:31
  Speaker 4: and it just seemed like he found a way to
• 15:33
  Speaker 4: get on base against me. And there was a couple
• 15:35
  Speaker 4: other guys. I think Jonathan Sanchez is the name. He
• 15:38
  Speaker 4: was with the Blue This guy didn't play.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: He was actually random random.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: I told him.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: I was like, dude, I don't want to face you ever.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: And people were like, he's like with the Yankees, and
• 15:48
  Speaker 4: they I think he was a coach in their system.
• 15:50
  Speaker 3: He's like, dude, he's a coach in our system. And
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: I'm like, look up this guy's numbers against me.
• 15:53
  Speaker 4: Like I think I ended up hitting him twice, like
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: unintentionally with breaking.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: Balls, and uh, I'm like, why am I throwing breaking balls?
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: Is guy like I am? I am so rattled and.
• 16:03
  Speaker 4: Gibbons with the Blue Jays, he would pinch like he
• 16:06
  Speaker 4: knew he'd like take somebody out, pinch hit him and
• 16:08
  Speaker 4: I couldn't get him.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: Out, and I was like, this is ridiculous.
• 16:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I put those guys in the same uh,
• 16:15
  Speaker 4: at the same level as Dustin Pedroia, who I also
• 16:17
  Speaker 4: struggled with. Like, so when people give me my top three,
• 16:20
  Speaker 4: I lead with Pedroia obviously, and then I you know,
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: I'll throw it. I'll board this Sanchez and then through
• 16:27
  Speaker 4: those guys and I'm like, it doesn't matter.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: But uh, I couldn't get him out.
• 16:31
  Speaker 4: And then, like I said, Darren just made it to
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: be a huge thing, and so mentally I was just
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: I was, I was.
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: I couldn't face him. But I have a funny story.
• 16:41
  Speaker 4: Actually I was really dumbed out facing Mark de Cher
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: even as a starter, and we happened to I think
• 16:50
  Speaker 4: it was in fifteen the All Star Game in Cincinnati.
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: He was there and we just had this conversation in
• 16:56
  Speaker 4: the clubhouse and I laughed, I'm like, man, I just
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: have a hard time, like I feel like you see
• 17:00
  Speaker 4: me so well.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: And he looked at me and was like, oh, man,
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: like I don't see you as well at all.
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: I just hope you walk me And I'm like, what, like,
• 17:09
  Speaker 4: hold on, So we're both domed out facing each other,
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: like I think he sees me well. He's like I
• 17:13
  Speaker 4: don't see you, well, I just hope you walk me.
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: And so I thought about that when we faced the
• 17:18
  Speaker 4: Yankees right after and I threw i'm a forcing fastball
• 17:20
  Speaker 4: right down in the middle for a strike one, and
• 17:21
  Speaker 4: he stared at me like come on, and I was like, man, I.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: Just gotta like throw a strike one and get this
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: guy out.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: But it's just funny that you face these guys and
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: you don't know what they what they're thinking.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Every now and then you get to have a conversation
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: with one.
• 17:34
  Speaker 4: But yeah, there's always those guys that you just cannot
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: get out and you don't know why.
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: And it's funny it goes both ways.
• 17:41
  Speaker 6: I remember Brian Mattis against David Ortiz. Fuck would always
• 17:45
  Speaker 6: use him, Just bring him in and strike him out,
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: move on. But that going back to that twenty sixteen season,
• 17:52
  Speaker 6: and Brad, you can follow this up to just when
• 17:56
  Speaker 6: did you know that it was going to be special?
• 17:59
  Speaker 6: And with both to you guys, because Brad, you had
• 18:01
  Speaker 6: to sell one E r A as well in the
• 18:03
  Speaker 6: first half of the season heading into the All Star break,
• 18:06
  Speaker 6: Like when did you realize that, Oh geez, I'm I'm
• 18:09
  Speaker 6: on a crazy run that might not end.
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: I think after the All Star break.
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: Just kind of looking, you know, that was your that's
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: your chance to talk to a lot of the other
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: guys around the league and hitters and stuff, and a
• 18:22
  Speaker 4: lot of guys at the Alstar Game were asking me
• 18:24
  Speaker 4: about it, just like you know, they were talking about
• 18:28
  Speaker 4: it a lot, and I really was like, well, you know,
• 18:30
  Speaker 4: I don't I don't want to blow this thing. So
• 18:34
  Speaker 4: I didn't want to think of it, like I didn't
• 18:35
  Speaker 4: want to dive too much into it because I always
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: thought about how much failure I had as a starter,
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: and I knew like this is very like this can
• 18:43
  Speaker 4: come and go so quickly, and so I never really
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: wanted to get ahead of myself. But probably when Darren
• 18:48
  Speaker 4: started to follow me into the training room after every
• 18:50
  Speaker 4: outing trying to figure out what I was doing.
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Uh, and I'm like what are you doing?
• 18:54
  Speaker 4: He was like, I'm just literally going to follow you
• 18:55
  Speaker 4: around because like I want to know what's your routine.
• 18:59
  Speaker 4: I'm just gonna like be your routine. And I thought
• 19:01
  Speaker 4: it was funny. I'm like, dude, I'm not doing it.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: I don't know, I'm not doing anything at a sprained
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: ankle that year, like I hurt my ankle, so I
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: actually wasn't doing like any cardio. I don't know, like
• 19:13
  Speaker 4: I said, I think after the Ulcar break. But ultimately,
• 19:16
  Speaker 4: when the season ended and I was at home, I
• 19:21
  Speaker 4: was just talking with my wife and I was like, wow,
• 19:23
  Speaker 4: that was that was pretty crazy. A lot of good
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: things happened, did not blow a save. We had some
• 19:28
  Speaker 4: really good defensive plays throughout the year that could have
• 19:30
  Speaker 4: changed things. But yeah, you know, the last pitch I
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: threw the season is the only pitch I actually remember
• 19:38
  Speaker 4: thinking it was to Brett Gardner actually used to make
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: fun of him.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: About it, and I I think I.
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: Had two strikes and I was like, that was the
• 19:46
  Speaker 4: first time in game that I was like, wow, like
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: this has got to be the best pitch I throw.
• 19:50
  Speaker 3: All year, Like this will end the season.
• 19:52
  Speaker 4: And I struck him out, like I threw the one
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: of the best singers I I threw that entire year
• 19:56
  Speaker 4: to strike him out.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: And that was the only time in game.
• 19:58
  Speaker 4: I actually thought about, like I can wrap up this
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: like crazy season right here on this pitch. And I
• 20:05
  Speaker 4: used to tell BRENTA, Yeah, Brett, what I would seem
• 20:09
  Speaker 4: like you were you kept off the season?
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: He was I got what I ran.
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: We are talking with Zach Brittain today on Birdland Territory.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Hope you subscribe to our channel and follow Zach's newsletter.
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: When I ask him about that in a minute to say,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the savednewsletter dot com and uh, we got a couple
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: more questions coming up for Zach here in just moments,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Big Bed Morning Show, Vinnie and Hani Inside Access live
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: on YouTube weekdays six till.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: Six, Search Baltimore one O five seven the Fan.
• 20:45
  Speaker 6: Subscribe for daily Short's right to your phone and never
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: miss what you missed one O five seven the Fan.
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: Zach, I think baseball fans know you've got a lot
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: of great opinions to offer. You always were one of
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: the best guys to interview, provide such great insights. And
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: I'm sure that's happening right now with your new newsletter.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: And it is new.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: It's only been a few episodes you published your It's
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: in the infancy stage, I guess.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: So how did this come to be?
• 21:16
  Speaker 4: You know, I had a lot of people when I
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: was done playing ask me if I was going to
• 21:19
  Speaker 4: do anything, and I was.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: It was I was in a weird spot.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: I had some contracts to keep playing, but I felt
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: like my heart was kind of getting out of it.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: I feel like there's this like burnout stage that everyone
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: hits and it just depends on when you hit it,
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: and I was my kids were getting older, I felt
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: like I was really missing out. It was much harder
• 21:38
  Speaker 4: to leave them, especially like my oldest son. He didn't
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: really like to want to go. He wanted to stay
• 21:43
  Speaker 4: home with his friends over the summer, and it just
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: it was hard to to stop playing and be at home.
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: And I didn't really want to commit to doing TV.
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: I didn't want to go through like the whole setting
• 21:58
  Speaker 4: up a podcast. But recently I had a lot of
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: people reach out about doing stuff, and for me, I
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: kept a journal when I played, I wrote down every
• 22:08
  Speaker 4: single as a reliever, I kept you know, note of
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: every single appearance ever made, you know, my thoughts about
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: every single outing. And I thought about like a newsletter.
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: I was reading actually a newsletter, and I was like,
• 22:20
  Speaker 4: I think I could do something like this. This would
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: be much more you know, efficient for me with my
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: time rather than you know, podcast is is there's a
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: lot going on and I can just sit on my computer,
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: write my thoughts down and hit send. And so I
• 22:33
  Speaker 4: just was like, Okay, like let's try this out and
• 22:37
  Speaker 4: see if anybody cares what I have to say. And
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: what I like is it keeps me connected to the game.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: I don't have to do daily updates. You know, I'm
• 22:44
  Speaker 4: not just talking about you know, anything and everything that's
• 22:46
  Speaker 4: happening every single day in the game. I can pick
• 22:49
  Speaker 4: topics that I want to talk about, you know, I've
• 22:51
  Speaker 4: talked this last one that I wrote about, I wrote
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: about the draft and I feel like, you know, it's
• 22:56
  Speaker 4: coming up in a month. I just wrote about kind
• 22:58
  Speaker 4: of my experience and what I'm seeing with you know,
• 23:02
  Speaker 4: playing for a long time, like how teams are drafting
• 23:04
  Speaker 4: these kids, and what these kids look like and their expectations,
• 23:07
  Speaker 4: and really just like the path that you take because
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: baseball is really unique compared to other sports where guys
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: will they'll be stuck in the minors for a few
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: years before they get the call, Like where the NBA,
• 23:17
  Speaker 4: the NFL, like you see these guys on TV immediately,
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: and baseball is just not the case. So that was
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: my latest issue that I released think yesterday, But really
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: it's just topics I want to talk about, just kind
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: of my thoughts on things, and yeah, I like doing it,
• 23:34
  Speaker 4: so I'm hoping people are enjoying it, and I'm.
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: Just gonna keep sending stuff out and see what happens.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: That's awesome. Now, I think we'd be remiss to I
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: don't want to. This isn't gonna be I don't want
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: to turn into like a bashing. I'm just curious where
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: your head was at the final game of twenty sixteen.
• 23:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, Orials fans kind of want to know. I
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: told I was telling them the other day off camera
• 23:57
  Speaker 5: that I honestly didn't think anything about it because you
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: had never pitched in a game on the road unless
• 24:02
  Speaker 5: we had the lead. So like the game ended and
• 24:04
  Speaker 5: then everybody's kind of we're all kind of talking to
• 24:07
  Speaker 5: each other in the clubhouse, and I like, I would
• 24:10
  Speaker 5: love to you just kind of give your experience the
• 24:12
  Speaker 5: whole thing, because, like I said, I thought nothing of
• 24:14
  Speaker 5: it until it was over, and then I'm like, oh, man,
• 24:16
  Speaker 5: Zach didn't pitch, but it was. It wasn't like a
• 24:19
  Speaker 5: thought going into it because you had never done that.
• 24:21
  Speaker 5: But obviously the wild that wildcard game is different. But
• 24:24
  Speaker 5: I'm just curious where your head was at with all
• 24:25
  Speaker 5: of it because during that time everybody was just didn't
• 24:29
  Speaker 5: really know what to say or what was going on, and.
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: It just ended so abruptly.
• 24:33
  Speaker 5: But what was like your thoughts going on during that
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: game after the game, if you can remember much too.
• 24:40
  Speaker 4: I mean I had been warming up for a while.
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: I don't know exactly, you know, it's maybe two or
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: three innings. I had warmed up, you know, in varying stages.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: It wasn't like at least playing catch. And I think
• 24:49
  Speaker 4: I might have gotten hot twice.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: You know.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: I thought about like I had thrown a lot. We
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: had all we all threw a lot to get into
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: that wildcard game. We had played Toronto previous.
• 25:00
  Speaker 4: I think we might have thrown you know, almost every
• 25:02
  Speaker 4: single game in that series. And then we went to
• 25:03
  Speaker 4: New York and it was the same thing, like we
• 25:05
  Speaker 4: had thrown a lot. You know, I'd been warmed up.
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: There was only one time, and I don't remember now
• 25:12
  Speaker 4: exactly how that situation unfolded, but I think it was
• 25:15
  Speaker 4: either like Donaldson got on right away and then Bautista
• 25:18
  Speaker 4: or something like that. I think there might have been
• 25:20
  Speaker 4: a first and second situation and I was like hot,
• 25:23
  Speaker 4: and that's when I was like, well, I'll probably come
• 25:25
  Speaker 4: in and like this perfect opportunity for a double play situation.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: And I mean, you guys can correct me if I'm wrong.
• 25:32
  Speaker 4: I think Buck made a mound visit but didn't take
• 25:34
  Speaker 4: him out, and I thought like that was when I
• 25:37
  Speaker 4: was going to go in. But yeah, like Don, like
• 25:42
  Speaker 4: you know, Don didn't say anything. He wasn't like oh
• 25:44
  Speaker 4: this is where like we were just kind of waiting
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: to see and then that ending a lot of like
• 25:48
  Speaker 4: it happened so fast. I mean, it could have only
• 25:51
  Speaker 4: have been like six or seven pitches. I feel like,
• 25:54
  Speaker 4: but when we got back in the duck the clubhouse, yeah,
• 25:57
  Speaker 4: I remember seeing you and Darren and no one really
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: said anything. And I actually think like Duquet may have
• 26:08
  Speaker 4: like asked me if I was okay. I was like yeah,
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: like you know, I like it sucks and we lost.
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: Like I didn't think about like pitching. I was like, oh,
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: this sucks, like we're going on, and then the media
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: was asking me about it, especially like in that situation,
• 26:22
  Speaker 4: a lot of the national media is there, and so
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: they were asked me, like why didn't you pitch because
• 26:27
  Speaker 4: Buck didn't put me in the game, you know, like
• 26:29
  Speaker 4: I don't know kind of thing, and then it kind
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: of took like you know, it grew some legs and
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: and things like that. But I didn't at the time,
• 26:35
  Speaker 4: I didn't think anything of it. I don't remember who
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: else was down there with me. Maybe Tommy and Dylan
• 26:40
  Speaker 4: Bundy could have.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Been the other guy.
• 26:43
  Speaker 4: Yeah, probably, you know, maybe you' baldo had thrown well
• 26:46
  Speaker 4: maybe you know, anytime you take a start and you
• 26:49
  Speaker 4: put in the pen like unless like Kevin Gosman, I
• 26:51
  Speaker 4: remember doing it one year.
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: It was lights outcual.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: He threw hundreds right, like stuff played up, and I
• 26:56
  Speaker 4: felt like with Eovalda, like I don't know if his
• 26:58
  Speaker 4: stuff was gonna play up out of the pen, so
• 27:01
  Speaker 4: it was it's easy to second guess now he had
• 27:04
  Speaker 4: thrown really well. But like if it wasn't me, like
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: maybe I thought it would have been like Tommy or Dylan,
• 27:11
  Speaker 4: because Dylan at that time was throwing one hundred, so
• 27:14
  Speaker 4: it wasn't necessarily like I thought it was gonna be me.
• 27:16
  Speaker 4: I thought maybe like they would bring like you know,
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: Tommy can strike guys out dealing, can strike guys out
• 27:20
  Speaker 4: in that situation. But in hindsight, it really changed the
• 27:25
  Speaker 4: course of the playoffs. I'll tell you that I went
• 27:27
  Speaker 4: to the World Series that you're to get an award,
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: and I remember talking to Killer and he's like, gosh, man,
• 27:32
  Speaker 4: like now I'm getting absolutely abused because no one wants
• 27:37
  Speaker 4: to answer those question. So I think it really changed
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: that year and then future years how guys did not
• 27:43
  Speaker 4: want to answer that question about why I left my
• 27:46
  Speaker 4: closer in the pen.
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: But who knows.
• 27:50
  Speaker 4: I could have came in and gave up the game,
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: And then does my season feel as great as it
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: as it was? I think about that that was that
• 27:58
  Speaker 4: would have been a tough situation to come into and
• 28:00
  Speaker 4: have success.
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: That's a good lineup.
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: And I don't know, you know, like I said, I
• 28:06
  Speaker 4: Buck always put me in a good situation to be successful.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: So and he always has a reason why he did things.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: I don't know if he'll ever dive into it, or
• 28:16
  Speaker 4: maybe maybe there's there's nothing to dive into. And him
• 28:21
  Speaker 4: and I have never talked about it.
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: I never never drusted them, never asked him. He apologized
• 28:29
  Speaker 3: in the next spring training, like at the movie theater,
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: like like not like to me, But I think in general,
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: like for just how it ended. But I didn't feel
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: like it was.
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: Necessary, and so yeah, I never talked to him about it.
• 28:42
  Speaker 4: The thing I know about Buck and I appreciated as
• 28:45
  Speaker 4: my career went on and I left the Orioles, was
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: that he always looked out for my best interest and
• 28:52
  Speaker 4: I think our bullpen's best interest, and he wanted you
• 28:55
  Speaker 4: to be successful.
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: So he didn't feel like that was the right spot
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: for me.
• 28:58
  Speaker 4: He didn't put me in the game, and you know,
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: I trusted him because I had a.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: Great career with him.
• 29:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, he did great buy me, So I never
• 29:06
  Speaker 4: felt the need to address it with him.
• 29:08
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and I always thought it was like weird because,
• 29:10
  Speaker 5: like I said, we got in the clubhouse and didn't
• 29:13
  Speaker 5: think anything of it. Like I said, I didn't even
• 29:14
  Speaker 5: think about it, and then everyone else got involved in
• 29:17
  Speaker 5: the media got involved, and it was just like I felt,
• 29:20
  Speaker 5: if you followed the team all year, you understood to
• 29:22
  Speaker 5: an extent, but I just felt like it just got
• 29:25
  Speaker 5: like this blown out of proportion thing, and it was
• 29:28
  Speaker 5: just like we Zach never pitched without the lead on
• 29:30
  Speaker 5: the road. If you went back that entire season, I
• 29:32
  Speaker 5: don't know if there was one single time you pitched
• 29:35
  Speaker 5: on the road without the lead. It was always somebody
• 29:37
  Speaker 5: else and then those.
• 29:39
  Speaker 4: Three or four days off and I needed in any
• 29:41
  Speaker 4: But yeah, yeah, it just wasn't it just wasn't a thing,
• 29:44
  Speaker 4: you know. We Yeah, like Brad said, I, I didn't
• 29:47
  Speaker 4: think anything of it. I know, Jones yelled at me
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: during the game, like put yourself in, and you know
• 29:53
  Speaker 4: I heard him, but it's so loud and like the
• 29:57
  Speaker 4: way that bullpen was set up even now it's actually worse,
• 30:00
  Speaker 4: but the way that it's so loud, like you hear
• 30:02
  Speaker 4: things like and like, I'm like I looked that at him.
• 30:06
  Speaker 4: I think it was like, what do you mean to
• 30:09
  Speaker 4: run into the Like that's not a thing, you know whatever.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: But yeah, I didn't think anything of it. I've been
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: asked that question a lot, like throughout my career, especially
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: when I went to.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: New York, and I feel like people always think there's
• 30:24
  Speaker 4: like a huge conspiracy theory behind it, and but no.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: I've never talked to him about it.
• 30:29
  Speaker 4: I didn't feel like I think he kind of gave
• 30:31
  Speaker 4: an apology if I remember. Maybe Brad knows better than I,
• 30:34
  Speaker 4: but I think he kind of said something about it
• 30:36
  Speaker 4: in the spring, and you know, I know there.
• 30:39
  Speaker 3: Was people upset.
• 30:40
  Speaker 4: Like I'm not gonna name names, I know there was
• 30:41
  Speaker 4: certain players that were really upset by it, and I
• 30:46
  Speaker 4: just felt like, you know, he had a reason and
• 30:50
  Speaker 4: he didn't do it, and if we would have won
• 30:52
  Speaker 4: the game and I pitched the next series against the
• 30:54
  Speaker 4: Rangers and did well, like it would never have happened.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: It just you know, the Blue Jays were good and
• 31:00
  Speaker 3: they figured out how to win the game.
• 31:02
  Speaker 4: We had plenty of chances to win that game, Like,
• 31:04
  Speaker 4: we didn't have a ton of office going. Our bullpen
• 31:06
  Speaker 4: threw amazing, and I feel like when you extend your
• 31:09
  Speaker 4: bullpen in a game, eventually, it's just eventually like somebody's
• 31:13
  Speaker 4: in a score and you know it wasn't your bald
• 31:16
  Speaker 4: necessarily could have been Like I said, I could have
• 31:18
  Speaker 4: came in and gave up that game too.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: So it's just like we just didn't have enough offense.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah, a postgame clubhouse was crazy. I was in there
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: that night, three three waves. Maybe there was more of
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: reporters at your locker.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: Wouldn't helped the thing.
• 31:36
  Speaker 4: I think when the Jerseys came out and they were
• 31:37
  Speaker 4: auctioning like game neuse Jerseys, I made like a funny
• 31:39
  Speaker 4: comment like like, Min's technically not game us. So I
• 31:43
  Speaker 4: didn't really like squash it. I just like, in hindsight,
• 31:47
  Speaker 4: I was like that. I was sitting on the couch
• 31:49
  Speaker 4: and I was just like, ah, that's a funny. And
• 31:50
  Speaker 4: then I was like, yeah, boy, like.
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: Hey, you know, we're almost out of time here, but
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: I don't want the show to go go be over
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: with that mentioning Buck the other Buck, Buck Brittain. He
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: is the older brother here by a couple of years,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: and just as his friend, I'm proud of him. I
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: covered him in the Miners as as soon as he
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: started managing. I said, this guy's path is going to
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: go fast because he's so smart and so as his bro,
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: how proud are you of Buck?
• 32:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's been great to watch him evolve. And the
• 32:26
  Speaker 4: one thing that I know about him is he's very selfless.
• 32:30
  Speaker 4: He the way that his career unfolded, he was a grinder.
• 32:33
  Speaker 4: You know, he had to earn everything that he got,
• 32:36
  Speaker 4: and you know, there was probably an opportunity for him
• 32:38
  Speaker 4: to get to the big leagues that you know, one year,
• 32:39
  Speaker 4: and it just really he was never on the forty man.
• 32:41
  Speaker 4: He never just never got that chance. But he connected
• 32:45
  Speaker 4: really well with players. He was a great coach.
• 32:47
  Speaker 5: To me.
• 32:48
  Speaker 4: He was one of those guys that would give you
• 32:50
  Speaker 4: the honest opinion of what he thought. And I feel
• 32:52
  Speaker 4: like guys appreciate that, you know what you're going to
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: get from him, and a lot of the young players
• 32:57
  Speaker 4: on the roster, you know, he managed through the upper levels,
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: and I know they talk highly of him as a
• 33:03
  Speaker 4: guy like I said, you're gonna get a straight answer,
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: and he's a baseball guy. He's a guy that knows
• 33:09
  Speaker 4: the analytics and I think he's really good at adapting
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: to the people on the roster and I know he
• 33:16
  Speaker 4: loves being up there. And you know, I still think
• 33:19
  Speaker 4: there's gonna be a chance for him to manage at
• 33:21
  Speaker 4: some point in his career. I think that's his path ultimately,
• 33:23
  Speaker 4: And I think Buck Showalter was kind of the guy
• 33:27
  Speaker 4: that told him he should probably stop playing and pursue
• 33:29
  Speaker 4: coaching because I think he felt like that was in
• 33:31
  Speaker 4: his future too, and it was just another thing like
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: show Walter identifying that for him, and really I think
• 33:37
  Speaker 4: gave him a push in that direction, like Okay, it's
• 33:39
  Speaker 4: time for me to hang him up playing wise and
• 33:42
  Speaker 4: really get into coaching and It's been great and.
• 33:45
  Speaker 3: I'm really happy to see.
• 33:46
  Speaker 4: I'm really interested to see how you know, this career
• 33:49
  Speaker 4: goes for him, because I do think that he'll be
• 33:50
  Speaker 4: a manager at some point at the majors, just based
• 33:54
  Speaker 4: on his ability to connect with players and understand the game.
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: Where I wasn't. I didn't have that cool. I was
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: more like, I can play, I can do my thing. Uh.
• 34:03
  Speaker 4: It takes a really special person to be able to
• 34:05
  Speaker 4: connect on all levels with players, especially now nowadays, there's
• 34:09
  Speaker 4: so many different personalities you need to manage and understand
• 34:12
  Speaker 4: how to communicate.
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: And he's just he's just got that ability.
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: He sure, he sure does.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: And I mean you look at the fact a couple
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: of different regimes, several different major league managers, and they
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: keep buck Britten around for obvious reasons. So great that
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: he's doing so well, Zach. Great to see you doing well.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Good luck with the savenewsletter dot com. We hope a
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: lot of people head your way after seeing this, and
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: uh man, we're thrilled you took time today to talk
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: about a wide variety of topics that we left a
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: few in the cutting room floor for the next time.
• 34:46
  Speaker 4: Sounds good, I'm available My schedule is pretty As I
• 34:50
  Speaker 4: always said, next.
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: Time, next time we get Darren in here too, and.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: An hour and a half, Tim and I.
• 34:59
  Speaker 2: Are taking the you off. We hit record in that
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: show Man. That's the show I want to watch.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, Zach, Thanks and thanks to Tim and Brad and
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: uh what a great show Berdland Territory. Thanks to Zach
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: Britton for joining us today. We'll catch you next time.
• 35:15
  Speaker 3: Sounds good.