Latest / Birdland Territory / An interview with former big league skipper Mike Shildt

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An interview with former big league skipper Mike Shildt · Birdland Territory

0:06
Speaker 1: Welcome in, latest edition of Birdland Territory, and we got
0:09
Speaker 1: a special guest today, former big league manager Mike Schilt,
0:12
Speaker 1: who worked in the Oriole Farm System this year. This
0:15
Speaker 1: time last year, Mike was managing in the postseason. He
0:19
Speaker 1: managed the Padres the last two years to 93 wins
0:22
Speaker 1: in 24, 90 in 25. Before that, fans know he
0:25
Speaker 1: managed the Cardinals. Just a long life in baseball that
0:30
Speaker 1: took him, Back home, in a sense, I guess you
0:32
Speaker 1: would say it, Mike, to the Orioles, where you once
0:35
Speaker 1: were a clubhouse guy way back in the day for
0:39
Speaker 1: the Charlotte Orioles when they were double A. Your parents
0:42
Speaker 1: had born in Maryland, moved to Charlotte, and you fell
0:46
Speaker 1: in love with the Orioles and met a young man
0:48
Speaker 1: named Cal Ripken Jr. The clubhouse of the Charlotte Orioles
0:52
Speaker 1: back in the day, your first connection to the orange
0:54
Speaker 1: and black, right?
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Speaker 2: Absolutely. I'm an Oriole guy.
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Speaker 3: Listen, you know, like you mentioned, my dad proposed to
0:59
Speaker 3: my mom at the old Memorial Stadium.
1:01
Speaker 2: Dad's from Baltimore.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, a lot of Baltimore roots, you know, uncles and aunts.
1:07
Speaker 3: And then moved to Charlotte. My mom gets a job
1:09
Speaker 3: with a double A club in Charlotte with the O's. And,
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Speaker 3: you know, one of my fondest memories sitting there in
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Speaker 3: the living room chanting, Eddie, Eddie, Eddie, you know, with
1:21
Speaker 3: my dad. So, yeah, I mean, full circle dream come
1:24
Speaker 3: true to be a part of the Oriole organization.
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Speaker 1: Well, and you were that this year. In fact, you
1:29
Speaker 1: told me less than two weeks after you had resigned
1:32
Speaker 1: from managing the Padres, you were contacted by the Orioles.
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Speaker 1: And it was kind of, as you put it, a
1:37
Speaker 1: no brainer to join the club where this year, Mike
1:40
Speaker 1: Schilt was the Orioles upper level coordinator of instruction. Samuel
1:45
Speaker 1: Vega had that job at the lower levels. And, Mike,
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Speaker 1: tell me about your year on the O's farm. You know,
1:51
Speaker 1: kind of a long-winded thing here, but what does that
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Speaker 1: role mean exactly? What are some things you did on
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Speaker 1: the farm this year?
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Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I mean, listen, I applaud Mike Elias for
2:02
Speaker 2: a lot of reasons.
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Speaker 3: You know, Mike recognized that, you know, there needed to
2:07
Speaker 3: be a little bit more experience and a little bit
2:10
Speaker 3: different way of thinking about our player development system. And,
2:13
Speaker 3: you know, he reached out to me, and, of course,
2:16
Speaker 3: you know, Cal– being a part of the organization was
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Speaker 3: the cherry on top for sure. And so, you know,
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Speaker 3: you get in and just recognize, just take inventory, what's
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Speaker 3: going on, what's happening. Didn't want to rearrange any furniture,
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Speaker 3: just wanted to observe and, and create relationships with people.
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Speaker 3: And at a starting point, you know, we've got some really,
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Speaker 3: really talented, you know, really highly competent people in the organization.
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Speaker 2: I'm glad you mentioned Sam, you know, as partner with
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Speaker 2: Sam's me and Sam, I'm not really into upper level,
2:45
Speaker 2: lower level. I mean, there's a delineation of the levels.
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Speaker 3: But, you know, Sam Vega is a really talented young
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Speaker 3: coach that does amazing things and has a really, really
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Speaker 3: bright future for the Orioles and in this game. And
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Speaker 3: got with Sam and ultimately, you know, was able to
3:02
Speaker 3: go to Big League camp and get to know Albie
3:04
Speaker 3: and that staff a little bit and have a lot
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Speaker 3: of history with them and really ultimately figured out what
3:10
Speaker 3: they want to do, you know, relative to how they
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Speaker 3: want to, style of play, you know, fundamentally, you know, situationally, uh,
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Speaker 3: but plays first and thirds fly ball priority. I would
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Speaker 3: just make sure we take that language and take it
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Speaker 3: down and make it so it trickles down. So it
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Speaker 3: can trickle back up to the big league club and,
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Speaker 3: you know, started to put in some processes.
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Speaker 2: Once you started to look in and.
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Speaker 3: Realize where things were, were in the organization, where the
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Speaker 3: strengths were, where areas of improvement were, um, and sort
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Speaker 3: of implement some processes that will lead to, you know,
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Speaker 3: my experience. And that's, you know, sustainable player development success
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Speaker 3: for your sustainable big league club.
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Speaker 4: Mike, I'm just curious, what, what excited you about going
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Speaker 4: back down to the minor leagues and just being around
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Speaker 4: young players again, after spending a bunch of years in
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Speaker 4: the big leagues, like you did and, you know, post-season
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Speaker 4: your last two years of San Diego, uh, after you
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Speaker 4: left there, what, what just excited you about going back
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Speaker 4: down and dealing with the kids again?
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Speaker 3: Not doing it, but, it's probably a long answer you
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Speaker 3: want Brad, but, um, you know, I started out cutting
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Speaker 3: my teeth, you know, I'm a field guy, you know, coaching, teaching,
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Speaker 3: getting in the weeds, um, 12 years won't bore you
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Speaker 3: with that, but 12 years on the amateur side at
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Speaker 3: different levels, collegially, um, high school showcase, American Legion, you name.
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Speaker 2: It, I've done it.
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Speaker 3: Um, you know, I coach anywhere they'd let me coach
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Speaker 3: somebody and, you know, get into a really established.
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Speaker 2: Organization, St.
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Speaker 3: Louis and, 13 years of player development there and a
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Speaker 3: lot of grassroots and, you know, that model changed in St.
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Speaker 3: Louis where it went from a little bit more of,
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Speaker 3: you know, trading your prospects and more into developing your
4:50
Speaker 3: prospects to help on a, on a big league club. And,
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Speaker 3: but the criteria at that time didn't change. And that
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Speaker 3: was championship players for a championship team. And I just
5:00
Speaker 3: enjoy that 13 years of helping feed an organization that
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Speaker 3: went to four world series one, two, and, You know,
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Speaker 3: it really blew my mind when I actually ultimately got
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Speaker 3: to manage the club and, you know, with the playoffs
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Speaker 3: there as well and nationally championship series. But, you know, Brad,
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Speaker 3: as I looked up and I said, you know, okay,
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Speaker 3: where am I at right now in my career?
5:21
Speaker 2: What have I done?
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Speaker 3: Can't believe I had the opportunity to manage. Who's to
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Speaker 3: say I won't think or want or have the opportunity
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Speaker 3: to do it again? It's on the table potentially. But,
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Speaker 3: you know, really I just really wanted to get back
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Speaker 3: and help serve and ultimately help. young players and ultimately
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Speaker 3: some young staff, you know, get to where they want
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Speaker 3: to go and help them get the most out of
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Speaker 3: their God-given ability in an organization that is dear to
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Speaker 3: my heart.
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Speaker 2: That's awesome.
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Speaker 5: Mike, you said earlier you didn't come in this past
5:51
Speaker 5: season and made all these sweeping changes. You wanted to
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Speaker 5: take inventory, which is the prudent thing to do. But
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Speaker 5: is it fair to say that there will be, you know,
6:01
Speaker 5: changes enacted in your second year on the gig? And
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Speaker 5: You know, what were maybe some areas of weakness or
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Speaker 5: areas that you think need to be tweaked?
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Speaker 3: Yeah, Tim, I feel like we'll definitely continue. I'm a,
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Speaker 3: you know, continual involvement kind of guy. You know, you
6:18
Speaker 3: put a process in and one of the things that
6:21
Speaker 3: is really fun and also can be challenging is, you know, listen,
6:25
Speaker 3: we talk about a way. And when I came up
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Speaker 3: with the organization with Charlotte and observing Baltimore and studying Baltimore,
6:33
Speaker 3: there was the Oriole Way. And then, you know, the
6:35
Speaker 3: Orioles were the winningest organization from 54 to 79 in
6:38
Speaker 3: all of Major League Baseball.
6:40
Speaker 2: And you go to St.
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Speaker 3: Louis, there's a Cardinal way. And so, you know, everybody's
6:44
Speaker 3: got a way by the way. And then you look
6:47
Speaker 3: up and you realize, okay, what is the way we're
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Speaker 3: doing things? And that way continually evolves. And ultimately that
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Speaker 3: way is a collaborative effort together in a like-minded setting
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Speaker 3: where we can talk and work through and vet and
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Speaker 3: then come up with the best practice for the Orioles,
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Speaker 3: but it's constantly evolving.
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Speaker 2: So again, observations of just where we are.
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Speaker 3: Again, admittingly, the organization would have said that, you know,
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Speaker 3: fundamentally and.
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Speaker 2: How we think and teach.
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Speaker 3: Is something that wasn't at the forefront or thought about,
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Speaker 3: you know, highly. So just at a starting point there, again,
7:26
Speaker 3: without being that big league camp with that group, you know,
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Speaker 3: How do we want to do our cutoffs, relays? How
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Speaker 3: do we want to call the baseball and the fly ball?
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Speaker 3: All the different things, controlling the running game, PFP, things
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Speaker 3: that feel like they're more nuanced and can be on
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Speaker 3: the back burner but show up every day, especially as
7:46
Speaker 3: we watch the playoffs now. It ultimately dictates whether you
7:49
Speaker 3: shake hands at the end of a game. At least
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Speaker 3: it can be a big part of it. So I
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Speaker 3: started the process of really that collective teaching and mindset
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Speaker 3: throughout the organization process. And it starts with the staff
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Speaker 3: because our staffs are full force multipliers for our players.
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Speaker 3: And just standardizing what those things look like was the
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Speaker 3: entry point to that.
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Speaker 2: And as I alluded to earlier.
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Speaker 3: A lot of really, really bright, hungry baseball staff members
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Speaker 3: in our player development department.
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Speaker 2: And they were fantastic to partner with.
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Speaker 3: As we've talked a little bit with Steve previously and
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Speaker 3: is out there, You know, Cal got involved.
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Speaker 2: I mean, heck, when you have not only the, you know,
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Speaker 2: one of the.
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Speaker 3: Best players in the history of baseball, but also clearly
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Speaker 3: an oral legend. And those things are clearly separating attributes.
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Speaker 3: But then you have what I think is really the
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Speaker 3: separator for Cal, which is, you know, you're talking about
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Speaker 3: a super high level baseball IQ that, looks at things,
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Speaker 3: has the experiences. Clearly, his dad, Ripken Sr., his brother, Billy,
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Speaker 3: this is an absolute baseball royalty family, and getting Cal
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Speaker 3: involved to help standardize, teach, share, grow, was a real
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Speaker 3: asset for the development of the department and the staff.
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Speaker 2: Just the continuation of those.
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Speaker 3: Things, I know I'm talking more in general terms, but
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Speaker 3: we clearly are getting more specific, and now I've identified
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Speaker 3: the next areas not only to go deeper in the
9:27
Speaker 3: areas we cover and wider, but then also some exploration
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Speaker 3: in some other areas that still need some attention.
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Speaker 1: Mike, I told these guys that one of my most
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Speaker 1: fun hours of the baseball season in 2026 was spent
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Speaker 1: sitting with you and Frederick and talking about baseball. Man,
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Speaker 1: I could feel the passion come through, the knowledge, and
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Speaker 1: I'm sitting next to a guy who's managed 561 winning
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Speaker 1: percentage in Major League Baseball Manager of the Year in 2019,
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Speaker 1: came close two other times. so I mean he knows
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Speaker 1: his way around ballpark but you mentioned to me during
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Speaker 1: that interview that and you're and obviously this is obvious
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Speaker 1: to any keen observer baseball's gotten a little bit away
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Speaker 1: from situational baseball we're so obsessed with spin rate and
10:14
Speaker 1: velocity on pitches and how far and hard you can
10:17
Speaker 1: hit the ball that sometimes players don't know how to
10:20
Speaker 1: advance a runner or keep the double play in order
10:22
Speaker 1: or hit the cutoff man or bunt up a guy.
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Speaker 1: How can you help or how are you trying to
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Speaker 1: help the Orioles, minor league players, learn that part of
10:33
Speaker 1: the game?
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Speaker 2: Well, you hit the nail right on the head.
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Speaker 3: The industry, you know, we all know and don't need
10:39
Speaker 3: to cover too much ground that we're all pretty aware of.
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Speaker 3: And it really starts from an amateur, and I mentioned
10:45
Speaker 3: about things trickle down the trickle up, but things trickle
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Speaker 3: up to just from the beginning. And, you know, amateur
10:50
Speaker 3: baseball is way more skill development related. That's how players
10:54
Speaker 3: are getting monetized or getting signed based on these metrics
10:57
Speaker 3: and measurables. And you can't fault anybody for, um, chasing
11:01
Speaker 3: what the, you know, what the industry tells you that
11:03
Speaker 3: you're going to be rewarded for. Um, but Oh, by
11:05
Speaker 3: the way, the game actually starts and the scoreboard comes
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Speaker 3: on and you play to the scoreboard. And the beautiful
11:12
Speaker 3: thing about it is that's never going to change. Um,
11:15
Speaker 3: the game is the beautiful thing of many about baseball
11:19
Speaker 3: is it's situational comprehension. And, you know, as George Kissel,
11:24
Speaker 3: who was in St. Louis for 66 years and a
11:27
Speaker 3: huge part, and basically the founding father and the curator
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Speaker 3: of the Cardinal way for, you know, seven.
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Speaker 6: Decades, you know, he would say, you know, the game
11:38
Speaker 6: has a lot of situations and it requires a lot
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Speaker 6: of tools and you better have a lot of tools
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Speaker 6: in your toolbox and, you know, more, consistently and generically
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Speaker 6: as i say this now it is somewhat relative to
11:51
Speaker 6: baltimore but just in the industry um you know the
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Speaker 6: teaching of the game the situational understanding of the game
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Speaker 6: just in the beginning part of the awareness forget the
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Speaker 6: ability to actually execute like anything that starts with just
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Speaker 6: an awareness of what the situation calls for and then
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Speaker 6: it becomes the training and because championship players think and
12:15
Speaker 6: do for themselves. And it's our job to do that
12:19
Speaker 6: with the players so they can understand and recognize in
12:22
Speaker 6: real time in high leverage situations what the situation is,
12:27
Speaker 6: but then have the ability to execute it. And so
12:30
Speaker 6: we're on that train of creating the awareness of what
12:32
Speaker 6: the situations are and then following up with the actual
12:36
Speaker 6: ability to have a lot of the tools that Because
12:39
Speaker 6: you look up in the game and, you know, everybody
12:41
Speaker 6: looks at the game.
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Speaker 3: From different lenses and that's fine. But the lens I
12:45
Speaker 3: look at it from is how to win the game
12:47
Speaker 3: and what is going to be required to win the game. And,
12:50
Speaker 3: you know, listen, you know, I've studied, been a part of,
12:52
Speaker 3: won a lot, to your point. You know, I had
12:55
Speaker 3: a lot of really talented players. Let's don't kid ourselves
12:58
Speaker 3: on that one. But, you know, the fact of the matter,
13:01
Speaker 3: you do your part to put them in the best
13:03
Speaker 3: position to win, not only in strategy, but also in
13:06
Speaker 3: just the of development and the training and the mentality
13:09
Speaker 3: of seeing the game, playing the game. And, you know, look,
13:13
Speaker 3: you see the industry now and, you know, Milwaukee, I
13:16
Speaker 3: was over there managing a club for years and you
13:20
Speaker 3: study successful organizations, Cleveland, Tampa, I was able to get
13:24
Speaker 3: out this year and see other organizations. I'll go over
13:27
Speaker 3: and see Milwaukee's triple-A club play, Rick Sweet, their triple-A manager.
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Speaker 2: You know, I managed against Rick, you know, a hundred
13:34
Speaker 2: years ago in triple-A.
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Speaker 3: When he was the AAA manager in Milwaukee, you know,
13:39
Speaker 3: and Rich got the second most wins of all of
13:42
Speaker 3: minor league baseball history. And you go into Tampa and
13:45
Speaker 3: you see Morgan Insberg over there and he's managing the
13:48
Speaker 3: AAA club and guy with real experience. And you go
13:51
Speaker 3: out and watch him play and there's a method to
13:52
Speaker 3: what they're doing and how they're doing it. And you
13:54
Speaker 3: study the Cleveland club and, you know, so you're getting
13:57
Speaker 3: the point of it that the organizations that are consistently successful,
14:01
Speaker 3: they've got that nice blend of what are important, And
14:05
Speaker 3: these technologies and these measurables and the analytic things that
14:08
Speaker 3: help you create clarity of a lot of different things
14:13
Speaker 3: and make things to where you can make them more
14:15
Speaker 3: simple and actionable, they're super important in the game. But
14:19
Speaker 3: as we're doing now in Baltimore, creating that sweet spot
14:21
Speaker 3: of how to put it all together and blend it
14:23
Speaker 3: to where we can rightfully be back as the Orioles,
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Speaker 3: one of the best teams, and then ultimately the best
14:29
Speaker 3: team in Major League Baseball.
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Speaker 4: Mike, Steve had kind of told us to stop for
14:34
Speaker 4: the show, and I just got to know, he said
14:35
Speaker 4: you're one of eight managers to never have professional experience
14:39
Speaker 4: to manage at the major league level since like 1900.
14:42
Speaker 4: I'm just curious, when you got started without any professional experience,
14:46
Speaker 4: was that tough when you first got going as a
14:49
Speaker 4: minor league coach? Or did that help you not having
14:53
Speaker 4: any where you had a different perspective of everybody else
14:56
Speaker 4: around you? I was just curious about that experience. I
14:58
Speaker 4: had to ask that while we had you on here.
15:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, Brad, I mean, you know, listen, now, thankfully, and
15:04
Speaker 3: I'm not saying I'm some kind of trailblazer because I'm not, but,
15:07
Speaker 3: you know, back in the early 2000s, you know, if
15:11
Speaker 3: you didn't play major league or professional baseball, you just
15:13
Speaker 3: weren't in, you just weren't going to get into player
15:15
Speaker 3: development and understandably so. And so the short of it
15:19
Speaker 3: is I went through the 12 years of the amateur
15:21
Speaker 3: side and I went to a major league scout school
15:26
Speaker 3: and a gentleman named Gary Randall, a long time in
15:29
Speaker 3: awesome area scout for Major League Scouting Bureau and a
15:32
Speaker 3: real mentor of mine, suggested I go.
15:35
Speaker 2: To the scout school.
15:35
Speaker 3: So I go to scout school and with no real
15:39
Speaker 3: intention of scouting, just wanted to better myself as a
15:40
Speaker 3: baseball guy. And a year later, John Mazalek with the
15:43
Speaker 3: Cardinals called and said, hey, you know, understand you're interested
15:46
Speaker 3: in a scouting position. You went to scout school and
15:48
Speaker 3: it got really favorable reviews from Steve Marcos, the gentleman
15:52
Speaker 3: that ran the bureau. And I said, no, I'm not
15:55
Speaker 3: really interested in scouting. He said, well, why'd you go
15:59
Speaker 3: to school?
16:00
Speaker 2: I said, I don't know. Just because I thought it'd
16:01
Speaker 2: make me a better baseball guy. Seemed like a good idea.
16:04
Speaker 3: And he said, well, we've got a scouting job in
16:06
Speaker 3: the Carolinas, Virginia, and Tennessee over to Nashville. Would you
16:09
Speaker 3: be interested? I said, if you'll let me coach in
16:13
Speaker 3: the summer. And to their credit, they did. And I'd
16:18
Speaker 3: go do my scouting territory. And then I'd go for
16:21
Speaker 3: four years. And I got a Mark D. John scholarship.
16:24
Speaker 3: You know, they parceled out. I'd go a little bit
16:27
Speaker 3: at a time the first year, second year. And Mark
16:30
Speaker 3: Dijon said, hey, listen, I'll come back and manage a
16:33
Speaker 3: rookie club. DJ had played for Sparky, had coached and
16:40
Speaker 3: played for Leland, and was on La Russa's big league
16:43
Speaker 3: staff for seven years. And amazing mentor, taught me a ton,
16:48
Speaker 3: wouldn't be where I am without him. But ultimately said,
16:51
Speaker 3: you know, Mike wants to be in full-time player development.
16:54
Speaker 3: I wasn't a great scout, evidently, you know.
16:56
Speaker 2: So they didn't know what to do with me, Brad.
16:58
Speaker 2: They put me in player development.
17:00
Speaker 3: And, you know, to your point, I was a little
17:03
Speaker 3: apprehensive that they would look and frown upon the fact
17:05
Speaker 3: that I hadn't played.
17:07
Speaker 2: And while I did get some of that from.
17:10
Speaker 3: Opposition, especially as you get higher, kind of the good
17:14
Speaker 3: old boy network kind of thing, I never got that
17:18
Speaker 3: in St.
17:18
Speaker 2: Louis. I was welcomed with open arms, players, staff.
17:24
Speaker 3: They appreciated the fact that the one thing that I
17:26
Speaker 3: knew I could do is put my head down and
17:27
Speaker 3: listen and learn. And I took a ton of notes
17:30
Speaker 3: for some, I mean, listen, the four managers, um, that
17:34
Speaker 3: were there were, you know, red Shane D's, Whitey Herzog,
17:37
Speaker 3: Joe Torrey, Tony La Russa. Um, and I just absolutely
17:41
Speaker 3: picked their brain. And of course you had Mr. Kissel
17:43
Speaker 3: and it was just baseball royalty there. So they never
17:46
Speaker 3: judged me. They let me, um, Gave me a portion
17:49
Speaker 3: of that a little bit more every year to.
17:51
Speaker 2: Be able to kind of learn and do.
17:52
Speaker 3: And I was always a little over my skis, but
17:54
Speaker 3: I always had a safety net. And they always were
17:56
Speaker 3: right there to not only catch me, but also to
17:59
Speaker 3: educate me. And so I never felt any anxiety or
18:05
Speaker 3: any concern about.
18:06
Speaker 2: Having not played. They welcomed me. They grew me.
18:08
Speaker 3: And ultimately, it turns out, you know, around double A,
18:13
Speaker 3: they were grooming me. They all thought I was going
18:15
Speaker 3: to manage in the big leagues. And I was just
18:17
Speaker 3: trying to hold on for dear life to manage the Springfield.
18:21
Speaker 1: Hey, Tim, before you jump in, I want to get
18:24
Speaker 1: a break in and we'll come back with Mike Schelt,
18:27
Speaker 1: who this year served as the Orioles' upper level coordinator
18:30
Speaker 1: of instructions. And we'll continue more with Mike here in
18:35
Speaker 1: a minute on Birdland Territory.
18:37
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19:38
Speaker 1: Mike Shelton is with us today on Birdland Territory, a
19:42
Speaker 1: proud member of the Fowl Territory Network. And Brad, you
19:44
Speaker 1: mentioned that list of eight. Mike's the only one on
19:47
Speaker 1: that list to have won manager of the year in
19:49
Speaker 1: Major League Baseball, which he did with the Cardinals in 2019,
19:53
Speaker 1: third in 2021, and in 2024, second to Pat Murphy
19:57
Speaker 1: of the Brewers, whose team is going to try to
19:59
Speaker 1: win the World Series here in a few days.
20:01
Speaker 2: And Tim, your turn. You got a question for Mike?
20:05
Speaker 5: Like, I got a question about player development and this
20:08
Speaker 5: isn't just an Orioles thing. This is all 30 teams
20:11
Speaker 5: in baseball where you're seeing players develop at the major
20:16
Speaker 5: league level. And, and we always joke with Brad, you know,
20:19
Speaker 5: like you got Samuel, but silos 21, 22 years old,
20:23
Speaker 5: Jackson holidays, 22 years old. But how hard is it
20:27
Speaker 5: to kind of walk that line?
20:29
Speaker 2: Right.
20:30
Speaker 5: Where, where, you know, do you want a left-handed bat
20:33
Speaker 5: facing left-handed pitching, or do you want to play them
20:35
Speaker 5: every single day and just try to instill all of
20:38
Speaker 5: that confidence in, but you're trying to secure a playoff spot.
20:41
Speaker 5: There's just so many balls in the air.
20:44
Speaker 2: That you have to juggle.
20:46
Speaker 5: How difficult is that kind of navigating that development at
20:50
Speaker 5: the major league level?
20:52
Speaker 3: That's the, that is the job now, you know, and
20:55
Speaker 3: it's really still, um, incumbent upon the development, um, department
21:01
Speaker 3: to accelerate as best they can players that physically are
21:07
Speaker 3: jettisoned in their way and understandably and rightfully to the
21:11
Speaker 3: big leagues and try to not only help them, you know,
21:15
Speaker 3: with some of the situational understanding the game, but you
21:18
Speaker 3: alluded to it, the, the mental emotional side that comes with,
21:22
Speaker 3: you know, the, all the trappings of major league baseball
21:25
Speaker 3: and the microscope that it falls under, especially the, on
21:29
Speaker 3: clubs that are, you know, competing and have expectations, which
21:33
Speaker 3: I love to, to, to be a playoff world series
21:36
Speaker 3: caliber championship, big league team. And so, um, the importance
21:43
Speaker 3: of that, you know, for example, um, and I don't
21:46
Speaker 3: think I'm going to be out of school with this,
21:48
Speaker 3: but with like when Jackson Merrill came up in, in 24,
21:53
Speaker 3: you know, Jackson had two things. One, he's trying to
21:55
Speaker 3: break into a big league club and two, He's changing positions.
22:01
Speaker 3: We had a real need for outfield. Jackson shortstop, of course,
22:06
Speaker 3: Baltimore kid, phenomenal guy. And just, you know, that was
22:11
Speaker 3: part of the equation too, you know, just to make
22:14
Speaker 3: up really high, the desire to play, just a baseball player.
22:17
Speaker 3: So when we realized, you know, this is a guy
22:19
Speaker 3: that can go out and play outfield, which took me
22:22
Speaker 3: about a spring training game to figure that out. And
22:25
Speaker 3: then we put him in the center. It's like, yeah,
22:27
Speaker 3: this looks right. He was comfortable with the position change.
22:29
Speaker 3: Let's do it. Then there's the decision about, you know,
22:32
Speaker 3: the platoon. And, again, there's no absolute answer to it.
22:35
Speaker 3: It is representative of how your club's made up and
22:38
Speaker 3: philosophically how you think about the game. But, you know,
22:42
Speaker 3: one of the things that, you know, I believe in is,
22:46
Speaker 3: you know, we have an obligation, especially with a talent
22:48
Speaker 3: like that, that we feel like it's going to be
22:51
Speaker 3: a 10-, 11-, 12-, 15-year big leaguer. And then the
22:55
Speaker 3: experience of, of seeing the development and seeing how guys
22:58
Speaker 3: like Yachty and Albert and guys like that were brought
23:01
Speaker 3: along as everyday players. You know, the decision was made, like,
23:06
Speaker 3: I'm not going to, I'm not going to hit for
23:08
Speaker 3: this guy. And to your point, you're also like every
23:12
Speaker 3: game matters. That game in April clearly matters. So you
23:16
Speaker 3: are in between both places and, you know, it's a hard,
23:20
Speaker 3: it can be a challenging place to be in, but
23:21
Speaker 3: that's why we have our, our jobs. You know, that's
23:23
Speaker 3: ultimately what we, are there for and, you know, to say, okay,
23:27
Speaker 3: I'm not going to hit. Jackson's going to be an
23:29
Speaker 3: everyday player where he's got a chance to be an
23:30
Speaker 3: all-star and ultimately invested in, which the organization rightfully did.
23:35
Speaker 2: He's going to play.
23:35
Speaker 3: He's going to get those at-bats against lefties. And, you know, listen,
23:39
Speaker 3: and they don't show us whether he can or can't,
23:42
Speaker 3: but it's not going to be, at least at that time,
23:45
Speaker 3: a knee-jerk reaction. He's going to go play. He's going
23:48
Speaker 3: to settle in. But, again, it depends on your roster.
23:51
Speaker 3: It depends on your philosophy. If you've got other guys that,
23:54
Speaker 3: also can play. I mean, you know, I grew up again,
23:57
Speaker 3: Oriole guy, and it was Lowenstein and Renneke, you know,
24:01
Speaker 3: between in the left field. And, um, I was talking
24:03
Speaker 3: to Cal a couple of weeks ago and I didn't
24:05
Speaker 3: know this, but between that platoon system, that was basically
24:08
Speaker 3: an MVP platoon of that year that they had had.
24:12
Speaker 3: But he also shared with me that it wasn't an
24:14
Speaker 3: absolute platoon in that because Renneke would get the majority
24:20
Speaker 3: of the, of the playing time. Um, but he would
24:22
Speaker 3: still play against them, right, based on his swing path.
24:26
Speaker 3: So even then, Earl and the group knew, like, you know,
24:28
Speaker 3: he's a global hitter. This guy's a sinker guy. It's
24:31
Speaker 3: a good matchup.
24:32
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
24:33
Speaker 3: It wasn't like it took a ton of high-level analytics
24:36
Speaker 3: to think about those things. And Earl was a big–
24:41
Speaker 3: I mean, he was on– he wanted a three-run homer,
24:44
Speaker 3: and he wanted a base percentage, you know, and it won.
24:48
Speaker 3: And so– and, oh, by the way, he wanted to
24:50
Speaker 3: let you catch the baseball, too. and play defense and
24:53
Speaker 3: make sure you play fundamentally sound. So as I tend
24:57
Speaker 3: to do, I can give.
24:57
Speaker 2: A long answer. You know, I always want to make
25:00
Speaker 2: sure I.
25:00
Speaker 3: Get some depth of the content, but it can be
25:05
Speaker 3: a challenging thing to do, but a necessary thing to
25:08
Speaker 3: do now to wrap it up, Tim, to make sure
25:10
Speaker 3: that your staff has teachers on it because the process
25:15
Speaker 3: of development never stops. Having Yachty as a growth-minded guy
25:19
Speaker 3: at 38 years old, still thinking about a better way
25:22
Speaker 3: to play the game, see the game. But really important
25:27
Speaker 3: for young players that are coming up and getting there
25:29
Speaker 3: because they're so physically gifted now that they just get
25:33
Speaker 3: to the big leagues quicker. And there's some economics in
25:35
Speaker 3: play with it as well.
25:38
Speaker 1: Very interesting, Mike. In San Diego, you manage some big talents.
25:41
Speaker 1: There are some big personalities, all the big dollars that
25:44
Speaker 1: are in the game right now. How does a manager
25:47
Speaker 1: navigate that with their clubhouse?
25:50
Speaker 3: It's, it's ultimately a partnership, you know, this is what,
25:53
Speaker 3: and including.
25:55
Speaker 2: That partnership is not, Oh, you get the big leagues.
25:57
Speaker 2: Now we're going to partner with you. We're going to
26:00
Speaker 2: partner with players in the, in the, in the minor leagues,
26:03
Speaker 2: they come up, you know, there's always just a partnership
26:05
Speaker 2: because it's their careers. And, you know, Brad, I'm sure
26:08
Speaker 2: you can appreciate this. You know, it's, you want to
26:11
Speaker 2: be able to have the voice to weigh in on
26:13
Speaker 2: what's going on.
26:14
Speaker 3: And I always said, there's two things that, that we
26:16
Speaker 3: owe you as a staff, we owe you a question of, Hey,
26:20
Speaker 3: I don't, I don't understand.
26:22
Speaker 2: We owe you an explanation.
26:23
Speaker 3: If we're going to invest and put our time, energy
26:26
Speaker 3: effort and, and rightfully have our jobs for a reason
26:29
Speaker 3: as well, you know, we've going to bring something to
26:31
Speaker 3: you and we're going to share it with you.
26:34
Speaker 2: You have a right to say, Hey, I don't understand
26:35
Speaker 2: what you're saying.
26:36
Speaker 3: I'm going to encourage that because our job is to
26:38
Speaker 3: get our information into your head and you go execute
26:41
Speaker 3: because it's a player's game. Um, And then secondly, that's
26:45
Speaker 3: also most importantly is, you know, I don't agree. I
26:48
Speaker 3: see it this way. And so you mentioned a big
26:52
Speaker 3: league side of it. The one, I mean, the clubhouse
26:55
Speaker 3: in San Diego, awesome group of guys, Manny, Toddy, Bogey, Crony,
26:59
Speaker 3: Joe Musgrove, Hugh Darvish, you know, the guys that were
27:03
Speaker 3: rightfully invested in Joe Musgrove, all those guys were, you know,
27:08
Speaker 3: invested in.
27:10
Speaker 2: Now it's a collaboration of.
27:11
Speaker 3: Okay, what do we want to, how do we want to,
27:13
Speaker 3: you know, what our non-negotiables as a group, everybody gets
27:17
Speaker 3: to weigh in. And by the way, in a team setting,
27:19
Speaker 3: not including myself, not everybody's going to get what they want.
27:23
Speaker 2: But we've got to come up with, you know, what
27:26
Speaker 2: our preferences are.
27:27
Speaker 3: And then we as a group come up with what
27:29
Speaker 3: our non-negotiables are and our standards. And I like what
27:32
Speaker 3: Albie said. He talks about high standards with high support.
27:35
Speaker 3: I just love how that's framed. I believe in it
27:37
Speaker 3: completely and echo it to our minor week side. But
27:41
Speaker 3: ultimately it's about listening. It's about partnership, and it's about
27:45
Speaker 3: being together for a common goal, and that's what this
27:48
Speaker 3: is about. But it is about being able to listen
27:51
Speaker 3: to your clubhouse and give them a rightful voice because
27:55
Speaker 3: they've earned the right to have it.
27:58
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think that's a great approach to it all.
28:00
Speaker 4: That was a great answer. Kind of just with your
28:05
Speaker 4: spin on the minors, what excites you about the next
28:07
Speaker 4: wave of players for the Orioles fans that are listening
28:10
Speaker 4: to this podcast?
28:12
Speaker 3: The future's bright. You know, listen, I'm not, patience is
28:18
Speaker 3: an interesting word. Fan bases don't want to hear it.
28:21
Speaker 3: I'm not overly patient. However, the development of a system
28:25
Speaker 3: and processes that need to be put into place requires
28:28
Speaker 3: some time. So some, some patience is required, but we
28:33
Speaker 3: are running the race, but running the race right now
28:35
Speaker 3: in our player development system with some real talent. You know, I,
28:40
Speaker 3: what we got back in the Adderley trade, um, you know,
28:43
Speaker 3: we have real talent, you know, I sends a, uh,
28:46
Speaker 3: a sewing pitch a couple of times. Um, I mean,
28:49
Speaker 3: real now stuff, good, good, you know, three, four pitches
28:54
Speaker 3: command up and feel for repeatability makes adjustments.
28:57
Speaker 2: Good athlete.
28:59
Speaker 3: Um, I liked the way he competed. Um, you know,
29:02
Speaker 3: a guy that we can really get excited about. Um,
29:04
Speaker 3: you know, I didn't get a chance to see him, but, um,
29:08
Speaker 3: As a car player, the position player, the guys who
29:10
Speaker 3: went in there in the system that I trust highly said,
29:13
Speaker 3: you know, this is one of our best position players
29:15
Speaker 3: in the system. Witherspoon, nice arm. We got back there.
29:20
Speaker 3: So we got some real talent back that, you know,
29:24
Speaker 3: bode well for our future. And then the guys that
29:26
Speaker 3: are in the system that were already there. I mean, DeLeon,
29:28
Speaker 3: you see him come up. He came up out of
29:31
Speaker 3: the bullpen, contributed, didn't make situations bigger than they were.
29:35
Speaker 3: You know, got the guys on the ground, carried himself well, has.
29:39
Speaker 2: A bright future.
29:40
Speaker 3: You know, like, you know, has an arsenal to go
29:42
Speaker 3: in and be a starter. You know, jersey, pitcher of
29:47
Speaker 3: the year. I mean, I saw him first game of
29:50
Speaker 3: the season in Spartanburg to open up the high club
29:54
Speaker 3: with the high club and Frederick. And I went, ooh,
29:58
Speaker 3: this is pretty, pretty good. and absolutely good stuff, knows
30:04
Speaker 3: how to use it. Then you talk to him, and
30:07
Speaker 3: he's got the right kind of mindset, you know, whatever
30:09
Speaker 3: the it factor is, really dedicated, head on straight, open.
30:13
Speaker 2: You know, we talked about the mental, emotional side to it.
30:15
Speaker 3: You paint up a little picture of what that can
30:17
Speaker 3: look like, and we'll get in the weeds with that.
30:19
Speaker 3: But he picks up on it, see him next time.
30:21
Speaker 3: He's kind of incorporated it, thinking about it. Now it's
30:23
Speaker 3: a conversation. So you say, okay, he's on his way.
30:27
Speaker 3: You know, the hunter kid, the lefty, I mean, between Jerza, Hunter, Bateman,
30:32
Speaker 3: you know, three lefties that all have a chance to
30:35
Speaker 3: start and legitimately contribute. And one of the things that
30:39
Speaker 3: I've always created the bar of is, you know, championship
30:43
Speaker 3: player for a championship team.
30:45
Speaker 2: So I was groomed to think.
30:46
Speaker 3: And so these are guys that, you know, can legitimately
30:49
Speaker 3: help us win division, you know, and help us in
30:52
Speaker 3: the future. Now we still have a job to do.
30:54
Speaker 3: Ultimately the player gets the credit. They've got their work
30:56
Speaker 3: to be done. A little bit of a, not a
31:00
Speaker 3: hidden guy, but Micah Ashman, reliever in Chesapeake, put together
31:04
Speaker 3: some crazy good numbers.
31:06
Speaker 2: Another lefty.
31:08
Speaker 3: So then you had the Quinn kid, righty with the
31:10
Speaker 3: nice arm, breaking ball. So the pitching side, you know,
31:13
Speaker 3: the good news is I can still talk about five
31:16
Speaker 3: or six more guys, you know, and still feel good
31:19
Speaker 3: about it and didn't get a chance to see some
31:21
Speaker 3: of the lower level arms that people are excited about.
31:23
Speaker 3: So it's really, we got a really good scouting system
31:27
Speaker 3: that came in. You know, looking at the guys that
31:29
Speaker 3: are coming in from amateur scouting and, you know, Will,
31:33
Speaker 3: the scouting director, is doing a great job. And Kobe Perez,
31:37
Speaker 3: international scouting director, does a great job. And so the
31:39
Speaker 3: talent's there. And then positionally, it's like Irish can.
31:42
Speaker 2: Hit, man. This kid can hit.
31:45
Speaker 3: You know, had a little bit of a hiccup with
31:48
Speaker 3: a slight manicus tear at the end of the season.
31:51
Speaker 3: And Frederick is back in Arizona Fall League just barreling
31:53
Speaker 3: balls all.
31:54
Speaker 2: Over the place. Vance Honeycutt. You know, look at the
31:58
Speaker 2: four homers and four bats in spring training.
32:01
Speaker 3: And then, you know, got things kind of clicking a
32:05
Speaker 3: little bit towards the end of the year, promoted double A.
32:08
Speaker 2: I mean, his.
32:08
Speaker 3: Last 25 games or so there, great. Off to a
32:11
Speaker 3: good start in the fall league. So positionally, you know,
32:14
Speaker 3: we got some guys that are, you know, doing some things.
32:17
Speaker 3: You know, Bradfield put together a solid year, taking those
32:20
Speaker 3: next steps like defense, base running, some of the nuanced
32:24
Speaker 3: things that, He can come up and, you know, at
32:27
Speaker 3: a starting point, be that good fourth outfielder, you know,
32:31
Speaker 3: go pinch run for Albie, play a little defense, that
32:33
Speaker 3: kind of thing, taking it back and a buck down.
32:35
Speaker 2: Those kind of things. So I get excited, as you
32:37
Speaker 2: can tell, about our players.
32:39
Speaker 3: And like I say, there's more on both sides of
32:41
Speaker 3: the ball we can talk about, but there's some real
32:44
Speaker 3: talent down there. There's big leaguers in our system that,
32:46
Speaker 3: you know, we do our part, they do their part.
32:48
Speaker 3: They can come up and contribute.
32:53
Speaker 2: Pretty exciting stuff, Mike.
32:54
Speaker 1: Thank you for taking the time to spend with us today.
32:57
Speaker 1: I think Oriole fans, uh, got a real glimpse of
33:00
Speaker 1: some things that went on this year in the system.
33:02
Speaker 1: And I, as I said, I love talking to you
33:04
Speaker 1: about there's 90 foot increments and get the first out
33:07
Speaker 1: of the inning and old school things that match up
33:10
Speaker 1: with the new school technology and data. And we see
33:13
Speaker 1: it with the teams that are still playing. So you
33:15
Speaker 1: gotta have it all at this point in the game. And, um,
33:20
Speaker 1: Sounds like you had a blast this year on the
33:22
Speaker 1: farm in Birdland.
33:23
Speaker 2: I had a blast.
33:24
Speaker 3: You know, we got some work ahead of us. You know,
33:27
Speaker 3: we got some ground to cover, but we're going to cover.
33:29
Speaker 3: We're going to cover quickly. And I'm ready for the
33:33
Speaker 3: Orioles to take their rightful spot back to where I
33:35
Speaker 3: grew up.
33:36
Speaker 2: And that's the, you know, the industry leader.
33:40
Speaker 1: Mike Schill, thanks for taking time today. Continued success. And
33:44
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you being a part of our show. Thanks, Mike.
33:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, awesome talking Oriole baseball with everybody. Appreciate it. Thanks, Mike.
33:53
Speaker 1: Mike Shelton with us today on Birdland Territory. Thanks for
33:56
Speaker 1: tuning in, O's fans, and we'll see you next time
33:59
Speaker 1: on Birdland Territory.
34:02
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34:05
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