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Pirates' Isaac Mattson joins Bucco Territory · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Buco Territory,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: presented to you by the Foul Territory Network. I'm your
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: host Noah Hiles and joining me as always ah my
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: wonderful co host Josh Harrison akaj Hey, platinum Key aka
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Mark and once again we got another Buco on the show.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: Relief pitcher Isaac Mattson joins the program. Isaac, Welcome to
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Bucko Territory.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me on. Excited to excited to dive in?
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, man. I mean we've had how many teammates of
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: years now, We've had Ryan O'Hearn, Jake Mangum, Connor Griffin
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: was on earlier, We've got some other guys, so uh
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: really glad to add you into the mix. It's been
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: fun obviously covering your rise back to the big leagues
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: over the last couple of years. We've got a lot
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: of great questions to ask And with that being said,
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna throw it to Platinum Key, who will get
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: us started.
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Isaac, thanks for hopping on. I just wanted to
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: say real quick, you were easily one of my favorite
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: players to watch last year on the Pittsburgh Pirates. Just
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: absolutely electric, your celebrations on the mound, dumping the water
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: on your head coming out of the bullpen. I loved
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: every moment of it. Man, it was really really exciting.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: And my first question I wanted to ask about is
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: that twenty twenty five season you had a two point
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: four to five era. Your fastball was sitting in the
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: son fifty seven percent of the time, opposing batters were
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: hitting one ninety one against it. Is there like a
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: specific aspect of your twenty twenty five that you're particularly
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: proud of?
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: I think, honestly, just like mindset and before we get
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: too far, do you like platinum?
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Do you like key mister.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Platinum, platinum, key whatever, mark whatever, most comfortable? Yeah, mister
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: platinum for you?
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, I appreciate it. Yeah, it was. It
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: was a lot of fun. It was a fun season.
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: It felt like the biggest piece for me was like
• 1:59
  Speaker 4: that mental piece of being like a thirty year old
• 2:01
  Speaker 4: rookie and no matter what the situation was, I felt
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: like I tried to take something from that.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Obviously, like the big highlights of being able to get.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: Out of jams and whatnot, like pumped to be able
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: to help my team win but that was the thing
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: I appreciated the most. Like looking back at it is
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: like just the mindset I was able to have in
• 2:23
  Speaker 4: the midst of those times and as well as the
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: successes and just kind of lean on those guys that
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: have been in the big leagues for an extended period
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: of time because I'm still learning, Like every day I
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: show up to the ballpark, still trying to figure out
• 2:36
  Speaker 4: what it looks like at the big league level to
• 2:38
  Speaker 4: be able to continue to have success.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: Love it. If you could pick one player from anytime
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: an mob history current passed away anything to face on
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: the mound and taking that bad against you, who would
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: you pick?
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Probably go Grady Saismar.
• 2:57
  Speaker 4: I don't think I've ever been asked that question before,
• 3:00
  Speaker 4: but yeah, growing up, Grady size More was like my idol.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: I pretend to be him in the backyard, So that
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: would be that would probably be like the number one.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: Would love to face him, get a chance to see
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: what see what my.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: You know, skill level looks like versus my childhood idol.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely, I love that. So growing up you were
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: a Guardians fan or Indians fan then.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: Or yeah, yeah, a little bit of a unique situation
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: up up in the erie, we kind of have the
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: ability to considue. Yeah, yeah, two hours, two hours from
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: every major city.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: So growing up, we didn't have cable.
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: Coming from a big family, so I mean, it's not
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: like a sad story, but yeah, we didn't have cable
• 3:42
  Speaker 4: growing up. So it was just this decision our family made.
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: And so I'd have to listen to baseball games a lot,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: and we would always get AM twelve sixty or like
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: AM eleven hundred. It's just like ESPN, and he'd always
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: be broadcasting the Guardians or back then the Indians games.
• 3:58
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I'd fall asleep in the summer's just listening
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: to to Hammy call games.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: Just just really enjoyed Cleveland baseball and still got down
• 4:07
  Speaker 4: to Pittsburgh Aton, so you know, split allegiance a little.
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: Bit totally gate. So going back to your twenty twenty
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: five season, what moment or memory has really stood out
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: to you? Just was there a certain at bet A,
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: you know, getting your first win after you had the
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: runner strain around third, anything like that one specific moment
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: from the season that really stands out.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I think obviously like the first big league win
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: sticks out to me, but I felt like that series
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: against the Dodgers. It's not necessarily like one specific moment,
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: but I felt like so many fat sets facets of
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: the team were clicking in that series and looking back
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: at it, knowing what our goals are in twenty twenty six,
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: there's there's like the expectation of like, that's that's the
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: level we can play at. So to be able to
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: to be able to do that for three straight games
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: of playing really really high quality baseball, that's that's the
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: kind of stuff.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: And obviously like getting to.
• 5:10
  Speaker 4: Getting to have fun after those wins, and you know,
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: being able to look back and know all the work
• 5:17
  Speaker 4: that we're continuing to do, like we have we have
• 5:20
  Speaker 4: that confidence, you know, and we can we can compete
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: against the best teams.
• 5:23
  Speaker 5: I love it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember you like picking off show hey, catching
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: him in a rundown as he was breaking from third
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: to home. Uh, pretty cool series for sure. I love
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: that Giant series.
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: As well too.
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  Speaker 3: You got the the savor the win. I can't remember
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: an extra.
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that that also been a sweep.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a sweet yes, yep.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And you know, you know what also happened, We survived
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: the tsunami that day.
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: True, people don't talk about that enough.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: Fisco. It didn't even hit like land, but like there
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: was a tsunami warning. I remember like asking like pirates
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: pr and stuff. I was like, what's the plan if like.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they're flipping through the binder. Where's the tsunami protocol?
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was. I was sex with my parents. I
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: was like, I think I'm covering the game to tomorrow.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: If not, I mean, watch the news. I don't know, Isaac,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: I want to ask. I want to start by asking
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: about something you just mentioned. You mentioned Tommy Hamilton, who
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: I think is probably my favorite play by play guy.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: I grew up in Pittsburgh, but I have family in Ohio,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: so I listened to him a lot on the radio.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: And it is someone who's interviewed a lot of ballplayers.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: I mean, you do interview as well. You've seem very
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: comfortable in interview settings on camera. Do you have any
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: media aspirations after baseball's done.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: I've never thought about it. I don't know.
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: I mean, I definitely don't think I could call a
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: game as good as Hammy. But but yeah, every every
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: now and then I'll be down in the bullpen, not
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: necessarily like locked in but just pretending to be an announcer.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: So you know, just sometimes there's.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: Games where like Mitch or Paul or I mean any
• 7:09
  Speaker 4: number of our starters, but especially those guys where were like,
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: all right, I'm pretty comfortable until like the fifth inning,
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: so you can kind of lay back a little bit
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: and just relax and chop it up with the boys.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: But every now and then I'll be like all calling
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: the games scout report, and so I don't know, be
• 7:26
  Speaker 4: cool to be able to see what that looks like
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: and what that experience holds, But no, I haven't really
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: thought about it.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: It'd be interesting. I always wonder, like, what guys because
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: obviously a whole crop of current baseball players are going
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: to end up call calling games one day, being like
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: color commentators or analysts, and always kind of fun to
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: predict who end up in that group. Another thing I
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: wanted to talk about. You talked about like the mentality
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: that you worked on throughout all of twenty twenty five.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Heading into that year. I mean, I'm sure sure you
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: had aspirations to get to the major leagues, but there
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: was the beginning of the portion there where you were
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: kind of going up and down And that's like the
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: toughest thing I think in baseball is when you're in
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: the majors one day and then fifteen days later you're
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: in Triple A, and then you got to stay there
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: for fifteen days, and you know when you're going through
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: that cycle, and then you get through that cycle and
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: you're back in the big leagues. How long does it
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: take for you to say, Okay, you know what, I
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: might not long. I might not be an updown guy anymore.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: And do you ever allow yourself to think that.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: I mean, honestly no, I feel like every day, especially
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: this past season, and I mean I think it's going
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: to be into until the support seeable future, like until
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: I'm done playing baseball. But I feel like every day
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: I showed up to the ballpark in twenty twenty five,
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  Speaker 4: I felt like I had to show that I was
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: one capable of doing my job at that high level.
• 8:59
  Speaker 4: But also you know that I could be a contributor.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: And I don't think there's ever a day where where
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: I have an opportunity to kind of take off. And
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: that's that's something that's okay with me. Like there's I
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: have other things that I'm passionate about I have an
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: awesome family that supports me, and obviously being a dad now,
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: like there's there's that piece of it too, but like
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: those are the things where I can kind of relax
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: and be like, all right, that's like my human side almost,
• 9:29
  Speaker 4: and that allows me that when I do show up
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: to the ballpark, it's like, all right, now we're now
• 9:34
  Speaker 4: we're business. Now, we're we're having to get stuff done,
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: being able to focus on the daily process. And so
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: I don't know, I mean, maybe when I'm fifteen years
• 9:44
  Speaker 4: into this thing, forty five years old, I feel like
• 9:48
  Speaker 4: I feel like I can kick my feet up. But
• 9:50
  Speaker 4: but no, I feel like the game is always teaching
• 9:53
  Speaker 4: you that, you know, there's there's not an opportunity to
• 9:56
  Speaker 4: there's not a there's not a time where it's.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: Okay to kind of step back.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: And if that's where I think, if that's where my
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: mind's at, that's almost like a signal to.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Me that, hey, you know, maybe it's time to move
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: on from baseball. Okay.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Obviously many have become familiar with your story just from
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: the very beginning, and I had the opportunity to write
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: about it. I wanted to ask when we met in
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, you were in Double A, right, and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: you were on your way back from the Frontier League
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: from independent ball. That twenty twenty four season, you kind
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of shot off like a rocket, right. It went from
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Altuona to Indy to the major leagues and you put
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: yourself like on the radar to be a big league
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: candidate in twenty twenty five. At what point in twenty
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: twenty four did you kind of realize, like, hey, things
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: are clicking in a way where they hadn't really been
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: clicking in recent years.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a great question. First off, like, kudos to you.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: You were on the beat there in twenty twenty four.
• 10:58
  Speaker 4: It was like the first day in Altuna, we shook
• 11:01
  Speaker 4: hands and you introduced yourself. So so yeah, I appreciate
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: one of the opportunity to share my story, my family
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: story like that. But but yeah, I think I think
• 11:10
  Speaker 4: it's easy to look at twenty four from an outsider
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: perspective and not necessarily understand like the work and what
• 11:18
  Speaker 4: that season looked like.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: At least just personally for me, twenty twenty four was interesting.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: I felt like I had done some really good things
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: in spring training and the Pirates said, hey, we have
• 11:29
  Speaker 4: a need in Double A, will you will you go there?
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: And I was like, you're my boss, so let's go
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: to Altuna. And so that was like a little bit
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: of a gut punch because I felt like I had
• 11:40
  Speaker 4: put myself in a good spot.
• 11:41
  Speaker 2: But I was like, all right, let's just stay the course.
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: And there got some experience in the back half of
• 11:47
  Speaker 4: the bullpen and leverage opportunities, and was learning a ton
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: and pitched well enough to get called up. But then
• 11:53
  Speaker 4: that first like month in Triple A, if you go
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: back and look at the numbers, like my walks were
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: kind of back to where the over in twenty two,
• 12:00
  Speaker 4: and part of that was the ABS system, learning how
• 12:04
  Speaker 4: to pitch in those situations where it was like back
• 12:07
  Speaker 4: then it was the first three days were completely ABS
• 12:11
  Speaker 4: and then the second or the second half of that
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: series was gonna be the challenge system. So that was
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: something that really taught me and I think established that
• 12:20
  Speaker 4: like mentality of just attack through the zone in twenty
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: four because in May I was walking a ton of guys.
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: So I felt like once June hit and I got
• 12:29
  Speaker 4: comfortable with those pitching coaches. I mean, I can't say
• 12:32
  Speaker 4: enough good things about VENs and Bayo down there in Indianapolis,
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: like they they poured into me. They invested time and
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: effort and energy into getting getting me back on track.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: And that was through some drill work before pretty much
• 12:47
  Speaker 4: every game. But like being able to focus, Hey, this
• 12:50
  Speaker 4: is what I need to do better and here's our plan,
• 12:53
  Speaker 4: Like that was the big step in June of twenty four,
• 12:57
  Speaker 4: and then kind of the success in July and August
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: was like, Okay, this is this is who I am
• 13:02
  Speaker 4: when I'm out the best and that allowed me in
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: the last two weeks of twenty four to go out
• 13:07
  Speaker 4: and continue to pitch.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Felt like I still learned some things.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: But then once twenty twenty five hit and that continued,
• 13:13
  Speaker 4: like comfortability and familiarity came.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: It was like, all right, let's let's go, let's do
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: this thing.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Awesome. All right, Well that's all I got. I'm gonna
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: pass it over to Josh Harrison. Now some Pirate on
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: Pirate interviewing time.
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: Great job, Noah and mister Platinum. First off, Isaac, welcome man.
• 13:35
  Speaker 6: I appreciate you being on the show, and you have
• 13:39
  Speaker 6: a very interesting story and me I draw to people
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: who have stories like yours. Because I won't say my
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: story was like yours, but at the same time, nothing
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: was ever given to me. So hearing your story and
• 13:51
  Speaker 6: everything that you've been through, you know, going from indie
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: ball to coming back to pro ball, going to double A,
• 13:56
  Speaker 6: triple A, these things, and I hear you talk about
• 13:59
  Speaker 6: the mentality. Mentality is very big for me. But I
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: also heard you mentioned, you know, being a new father,
• 14:07
  Speaker 6: and what a lot of people don't really realize is
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: sometimes that gives you perspective to where I heard you
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: say the human side of oh you can be you know, daddy,
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: and then you know you can be husband, whatever. And
• 14:18
  Speaker 6: then when you go to the field, how much do
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: you think that played a part in you being able to,
• 14:24
  Speaker 6: you know, have that mindset of saying, you know what,
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: whatever happens here is meant to happen, because you know,
• 14:30
  Speaker 6: it sounds like you got a bigger understanding of the
• 14:31
  Speaker 6: game just being baseball. It's like it allows you to
• 14:34
  Speaker 6: do your job because you have peace off the field.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: Oh for sure.
• 14:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I feel like I mean, for at least personally speaking,
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: like faith's a huge piece of that and just being
• 14:44
  Speaker 4: able to know that, like my calling is bigger than baseball.
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: That's like first and foremost, I feel like adding perspective,
• 14:51
  Speaker 4: but yeah, absolutely the ability for me to to be
• 14:56
  Speaker 4: a dad, and like just when I'm in when I'm
• 14:59
  Speaker 4: at home, it's like this is this is what I'm
• 15:01
  Speaker 4: focused on. Like you can't you can't. You can't have
• 15:03
  Speaker 4: your foot one foot in, one foot out of the boat,
• 15:06
  Speaker 4: you know, as a as a father, and so I'm
• 15:10
  Speaker 4: not perfect, but that's that's added, Like you've said that
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: perspective to where I can I can be myself and
• 15:17
  Speaker 4: I don't have to worry about the things like on
• 15:20
  Speaker 4: the field, whether it was good or bad, and I
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: can come home and know, like the people that are
• 15:25
  Speaker 4: closest to me, I care about them deeply and they
• 15:27
  Speaker 4: care about me, and.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: We're going to do this life thing together.
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, No. I got two daughters, they eleven and eight.
• 15:34
  Speaker 6: And literally after every game, you know, I'd have to
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: come out with two Gatorade cups that have sprite in it,
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: and you.
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: Know, whether I went four for four or zero for four,
• 15:42
  Speaker 5: it was.
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: Like, Daddy, we hopping in a car with you and
• 15:45
  Speaker 6: you know I'm trailing my wife. But you know those
• 15:47
  Speaker 6: more road dogs, you know, so It's like, you know,
• 15:49
  Speaker 6: regardless of what happened on the field, you know, it
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: allowed me to come back the next day and say,
• 15:54
  Speaker 6: you know what, I'm.
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: Refreshed hearing you speak about that.
• 15:57
  Speaker 6: It's something that you know, I don't think was a
• 16:00
  Speaker 6: accident to your success because with that, I feel like
• 16:04
  Speaker 6: you learned a lot about yourself having to go through
• 16:06
  Speaker 6: those struggles, in those up and down moments. What would
• 16:10
  Speaker 6: you say was the biggest adjustment? You know, you went
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: from pro ball, then you went to indie ball. What
• 16:15
  Speaker 6: would you say the biggest adjustment? And I don't even want.
• 16:18
  Speaker 5: To say abs would it be, you.
• 16:21
  Speaker 6: Know, having to jump back in and learn a new
• 16:22
  Speaker 6: organization and their philosophy, but also saying, you know what
• 16:25
  Speaker 6: I understand myself, how can your philosophy help me?
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: Because I also played at.
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: A lot of different organizations and you know, sometimes you
• 16:33
  Speaker 6: get lost in the mix of trying to explain who
• 16:36
  Speaker 6: you are, but at the same time, you know, finding
• 16:38
  Speaker 6: that balance of how can we help each other help me?
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: What would you say has that transition been I won't
• 16:45
  Speaker 6: say necessarily smooth one, but like, has it been better
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: than you've expected?
• 16:49
  Speaker 4: With the Pirates specifically, Yeah, yeah, I would, I would
• 16:53
  Speaker 4: say for sure. I think like the first question you
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: asked was like, what what's been the adjustment?
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 17:01
  Speaker 6: Like you went from pro ball then you know, affiliated ball,
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: than indie ball, and I said, I no ABS, But like,
• 17:08
  Speaker 6: was it just getting back into knowing like okay, man,
• 17:11
  Speaker 6: it's a little different, or is it like, oh, did
• 17:13
  Speaker 6: you have a different mindset to say, you know, all right,
• 17:16
  Speaker 6: I really got to go for it. Not that you
• 17:18
  Speaker 6: weren't before, but did something click different mentality wise?
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: For sure? Yeah.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: I think like the biggest step I took after getting
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: released in twenty two was going to indie ball, and
• 17:31
  Speaker 4: I spoke with I think it was the fan over
• 17:33
  Speaker 4: the weekend at Piratefest, but that was like that for me,
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: being able to go from affiliated where there's so many
• 17:41
  Speaker 4: like things outside of your control that I felt like
• 17:45
  Speaker 4: back then I was constantly thinking about to be able
• 17:48
  Speaker 4: to get back to baseball and like just be able
• 17:51
  Speaker 4: to enjoy the game without the bells and whistles, without
• 17:53
  Speaker 4: the Where do I stack up in this hierarchy like
• 17:56
  Speaker 4: indie ball? Yeah, you're trying to get signed out of there,
• 17:59
  Speaker 4: but like you're you're that's where you're at like you
• 18:01
  Speaker 4: can't get called up other teams. So that was like
• 18:05
  Speaker 4: refreshing for me to have the that like last two
• 18:08
  Speaker 4: or three months in twenty twenty two, to be able
• 18:10
  Speaker 4: to just play and like not have to worry about
• 18:14
  Speaker 4: anything else. And that's when I felt like I fell
• 18:16
  Speaker 4: in love with the game of baseball again.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: And so that was a big adjustment.
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: And then when it comes to the Pirates and like
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: whether or not they had helped me kind of take
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: that next step, like I felt like from day one
• 18:31
  Speaker 4: in twenty twenty three, when I signed for the twenty
• 18:33
  Speaker 4: four season, like the baseline understanding was, Hey, we have
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: a belief in what you can do. And so from
• 18:40
  Speaker 4: there being able to stack on those conversations like you said,
• 18:44
  Speaker 4: of like hey, what can I take from what can
• 18:46
  Speaker 4: I take from the coaching staff and player development? What
• 18:49
  Speaker 4: can I give them as far as what I feel
• 18:52
  Speaker 4: like helps me. When we had that like baseline understanding
• 18:57
  Speaker 4: of like, hey, we believe in you, and for me, hey,
• 19:00
  Speaker 4: I believe in the process.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: That you guys have have in place, like that.
• 19:04
  Speaker 4: Allowed those conversations to be a lot easier and it
• 19:07
  Speaker 4: wasn't really like an ego thing it was like, hey, like,
• 19:09
  Speaker 4: we're all trying to pull the same direction, so let's
• 19:12
  Speaker 4: do this right, Yeah.
• 19:14
  Speaker 5: All right.
• 19:15
  Speaker 6: Being a bullpen guy, you probably don't know. I when
• 19:19
  Speaker 6: I played with the Pirates are our bullpen was called
• 19:21
  Speaker 6: the Shark Tank. Oh okay, yeah, you're know it's part
• 19:25
  Speaker 6: of the Shark Tank, right. Oh no, yeah, I mean
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: too many apparently too many games. That's how why I
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: was a part of the Shark Tank. Had a shirt
• 19:36
  Speaker 6: and everything. But do you one thing that I loved,
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: especially P and C coming from the bullpen hearing how
• 19:43
  Speaker 6: you enter, Like what are the wave of emotions that
• 19:46
  Speaker 6: go through Like because pn C Pittsburgh fans, you know,
• 19:50
  Speaker 6: they're really electric, especially when it's that crunch time and
• 19:53
  Speaker 6: you know bullpen is coming out. Do you feel like
• 19:57
  Speaker 6: when you come out the bullpen, I heard Mark go
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: over or mister Platinum, sorry go over.
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: You know you're coming out the bullpen.
• 20:03
  Speaker 6: Is that something that you've always done or or is
• 20:07
  Speaker 6: that something that you know you just kind of developed
• 20:09
  Speaker 6: over the past couple of years. Because I know in
• 20:11
  Speaker 6: PNC when you do that, I'm sure it probably gives
• 20:14
  Speaker 6: you a little few more chills because they get pretty
• 20:15
  Speaker 6: pumped there.
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: Oh, absolutely, And I definitely let myself feel the chills.
• 20:20
  Speaker 4: I would say that the one.
• 20:22
  Speaker 2: Thing, Yeah, I love.
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: I love like when we walk out to the bullpen,
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: they'll be playing the hype video before the game, and
• 20:30
  Speaker 4: like every game I've watched, like every game I walked out,
• 20:33
  Speaker 4: I was like, I'm gonna watch this video because like
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: I just I don't know. I love I love feeling that.
• 20:39
  Speaker 4: I love the ability to play this game in front
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: of some awesome fans and like we're entertainers. We're humans,
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: but like we're entertainers, Like we're.
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: Paid to.
• 20:50
  Speaker 4: Give the fans something that they can cheer for and
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: be able to play this awesome game of baseball. So
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: it's like I kind of want to. I allowed myself
• 20:58
  Speaker 4: to feel that. I don't think that's gonna stop, but yeah,
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: I let myself kind of feel that, especially before the
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: game and then.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: The routine going into the game. I don't know, it's
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: it's developed over the years. I think in twenty four
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: I definitely started doing it in Triple A. But got
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: a good friend, Brandon Marsh with the Phillies.
• 21:18
  Speaker 6: That's my dog, Hey, Yeah, that's what we played together
• 21:21
  Speaker 6: with the Phillies. All you gotta say, Hey, that's enough,
• 21:24
  Speaker 6: that's all you gotta says.
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I played with him.
• 21:27
  Speaker 4: I played with him and the Angels organization coming up,
• 21:31
  Speaker 4: and that is something that he is. He has kind
• 21:34
  Speaker 4: of had as a staple where he'll just dump that
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: water on his head and when it's ice cold, yeah,
• 21:42
  Speaker 4: gets you going.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: So so I go, I gotta tip my cap. That's
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: where I got it from. But I definitely love doing it.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Like those are the those are the friendships.
• 21:52
  Speaker 4: The memories from from early on that like, all right,
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: let's let's be in this together. Obviously when we face
• 21:57
  Speaker 4: each other, I want to I want to beat him,
• 21:59
  Speaker 4: but you know that's that's like the friendship and the
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: connection throughout baseball. And so that kind of started, I
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: think last year, and like you said, like it just
• 22:10
  Speaker 4: kind of gets me locked in, gets me ready to go,
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: and from there just kind of focused on the process
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: and being able to throw one pitch at the time,
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: as you know, as a fellow shark tanker.
• 22:20
  Speaker 5: Oh yeah, you know, one pitch out of time.
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: Mine might have been coming a little slow to where
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: it couldn't register on the uh you know, the radar
• 22:27
  Speaker 6: gun I was throwing below the hitting speed.
• 22:30
  Speaker 5: But you know what, hey, I was getting out. That's
• 22:32
  Speaker 5: the name of the game.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Out still count, out, still count.
• 22:36
  Speaker 6: And uh, before we get off of here, I heard
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: you mentioned that sometimes down in the bullpen that you
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: might you know, kind of you know, commentate the game
• 22:45
  Speaker 6: or whatever. Do you have like a like a home
• 22:48
  Speaker 6: run call or anything, or is it just pretty you
• 22:50
  Speaker 6: just kind of, you know, pretty much basic to where,
• 22:52
  Speaker 6: oh that balls hit the left because I kind of
• 22:54
  Speaker 6: had a home run calling the dugout that the whole
• 22:57
  Speaker 6: team loved. But uh, and I said it everywhere, But
• 23:00
  Speaker 6: I was curious, like, did you have anything like a
• 23:03
  Speaker 6: home run, Like, say, you know, somebody hits a home
• 23:06
  Speaker 6: run on the team and it's.
• 23:07
  Speaker 5: Like, did you have a home run call or was
• 23:08
  Speaker 5: it just that ball's gone. No.
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: Usually it's just like the the intro and then I'll
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: hit like the first few batters like balls and strikes,
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: and I'll pass it off to some guys and they'll
• 23:21
  Speaker 4: they'll like they'll be the color guy and we'll go.
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: Back and forth.
• 23:26
  Speaker 4: But yeah, no, Usually when Cruz hits a homer, we
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: all just kind of stand up and our jaws hit
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: the floor. But yeah, that's no home run calls just
• 23:35
  Speaker 4: just tons of fun as far as UH make myself
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: and I embellish it for sure, I definitely I I
• 23:41
  Speaker 4: don't think I could do it for nine straight innings.
• 23:43
  Speaker 5: Oh that's tough. Yeah, that's that's why I only had
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: a home run call. Like, somebody hit home.
• 23:48
  Speaker 6: Run, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna get I'm gonna get hyped.
• 23:50
  Speaker 6: But in between that, somebody else gotta you know, let
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: me bring the energy with the home run.
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: That's why I don't know if you had one.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, no not yet.
• 23:59
  Speaker 5: All right, you got time to work on.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: Hopefully partners in the bullpen.
• 24:06
  Speaker 7: Oh man, well in uh in twenty four in Indy
• 24:11
  Speaker 7: it was Brady fi goal okay, and then I mean
• 24:16
  Speaker 7: it's Kinny whoever sitting closest to me.
• 24:18
  Speaker 4: We just let a rock so Sisky toward the end
• 24:21
  Speaker 4: of the year, Evan Sisk was sitting next to me.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: So we go back and forth a little bit.
• 24:24
  Speaker 4: But yeah, nothing nothing above board, but we just we
• 24:29
  Speaker 4: have some fun with it and U enlightens the mood.
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: Oh for sure, be locked in Ash.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna have to hear that home run
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: call on another episode. Well, well.
• 24:41
  Speaker 5: You know I got you.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Well I think that wraps it up
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: for today on behalf of On Behalf of Mister Platinum,
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: Josh Harrison and our guest Isaac Mattson. I'm Noah Hyles,
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: thanking everyone who tuned in for this episode. I want
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: to remind everyone to hit that subscribe button if you
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: have not already. We were trying to get up to
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: there's Isaac Mattson that in twenty twenty five, and here
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: we go, there's the subscribe button. We're trying to get
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the three thousand subs. We're quiet or we're quickly making
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: our way there, and we want to thank everyone who
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: has played a part in all of that. So thank
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: you all again for tuning in and keep tuning in
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: to another episode coming up soon of Bucco Territory, presented
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: by the Foul Territory Network