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Bubba Chandler drives to Spring Training with Bucco Territory · Bucco Territory: A Pittsburgh Pirates Podcast

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: What's up, everybody.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Welcome back to another episode of Bucco Territory, presented to
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: you by the Foul Territory Network. I am Noah Hyles,
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: your host, and as always, joining me are my two
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: co hosts, Josh Harrison aka j Hay, Platinum Key aka Mark.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: And joining us on the show in the midst of
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: his drive down to spring training is.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Pirates rookie right hander Bubba Chandler. Bubba. Thanks for making
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: time to hop on Buco Territory.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: Men.
• 0:37
  Speaker 4: I appreciate it. You know, this is this has definitely
• 0:39
  Speaker 4: filled up the drive, so I enjoy it.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: And I was gonna say, I mean, you've got a
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: couple more hours left on the drive, so this might
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: just be uh, you know, a whole We could we
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: could take you all the way down to Bradenton if
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: you want, you know, we could just get the whole
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: life story out of the way if you want.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, we'll see yeah. All right.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: So the way we do it is always we started
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: with Mark, then me, and then Josh rounds it out
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: with questions. I'll throw it to Mark right now. Let's
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: get right into it. What do you got for Mark?
• 1:09
  Speaker 5: Perfect? Thank you so much for hopping on Bubba speaking
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: for all Pirates fans here, when I'm saying, we are
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: so excited to watch you shove this year, It's going
• 1:18
  Speaker 5: to be a really good time. I absolutely cannot wait.
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: So I just wanted to say that at the start here.
• 1:24
  Speaker 5: But my first question centers around your athleticism. It's forced
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: you to make quite a few unique choices throughout your career.
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: I mean you had to. You were originally committed to
• 1:35
  Speaker 5: go play baseball at Georgia. You de committed so that
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: you could go play football and baseball at Clemson. Then
• 1:42
  Speaker 5: you have to choose between Clemson and going to be
• 1:46
  Speaker 5: after you're drafted by the Pirates. Then you were drafted
• 1:49
  Speaker 5: by the Pirates, have to choose between being the two
• 1:51
  Speaker 5: way player. They're focusing just on pitching. Which one of
• 1:56
  Speaker 5: those choices along the way was the hardest one for
• 1:59
  Speaker 5: you to make?
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: I'll tell you the easiest one. First was putting the
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: bat down, Josh. I don't know how you did it, dude.
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: Hitting suck terrible for us.
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  Speaker 4: But the hardest was definitely decided between Clemson and Okay,
• 2:18
  Speaker 4: getting like taking the draft, I mean, gosh, like, I
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: still talk to a lot of dudes at Clemson. You know,
• 2:24
  Speaker 4: most of those guys are in the league now, but
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: you know, it's it's you know, it's that was tough.
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: You know, kind of a dream of mine was, hey
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: to go to the University of Georgia, which I had
• 2:35
  Speaker 4: the opportunity to on the baseball side and on the
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: football side, and right, you know, I don't know how
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: y'all know with you know, football scholarships and everything, but.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: Point yeah, yeah.
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: But the football is pretty nice, and so that was
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: kind of an easy way to you know, get school
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: paid for because you know, my parents were like, look, man,
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: you know.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: You got all the tools and the talent in the world.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: Like we're not.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: You know, we'll help you with a lot of stuff,
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: but you have the opportunity to, you know, get a
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: free education, which nine a percent in the world doesn't.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: So I would take that. You know. That's kind of
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: where I was.
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  Speaker 4: And then you know, I knew my senior year, I
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: was kind of high up on draft boards.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: And I knew what came with that.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: You know, financial stability is you know big, but also
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: like the dream, you know, I mean, I'm I'm major
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: league baseball player now, and you know, Josh lived it
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: like there's nothing else like it.
• 3:28
  Speaker 3: It's it's so fun.
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: And but yeah, the the connections and the relationships I
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: made at Clemson was pretty tough to leave, even like
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: coach Sweeney, Like I love Coach Sweeney. I still talk
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: to Coach Tweeney pretty regularly. But yeah, I will say
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  Speaker 4: I did think that when I decommitted from Georgia living
• 3:52
  Speaker 4: in Athens, it was gonna be a tough decision.
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  Speaker 3: It wasn't.
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  Speaker 4: I got hounded a little bit from some people. But yeah,
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  Speaker 4: what I bros, I'm not gonna play football in the SEC.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: That's that's a pretty easy choice, I feel like.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, football football is fun.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah. So for my next question here, Uh, when was
• 4:14
  Speaker 5: the first time that you met Joey Bart and can
• 4:17
  Speaker 5: you tell us the story behind that?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah?
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  Speaker 4: Gosh, I mean I've known Joey since. I mean I
• 4:24
  Speaker 4: can remember my my granddad. I actually just at dinner
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  Speaker 4: with my granddad a couple of days ago, and I
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: swear we talked talked about Joey probably seventy five percent
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: of the time, and he he was just like how Bart doing?
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: Like he's good? He goes, how's he gonna be this year?
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  Speaker 4: It's like it's gonna be good. Grandpa like, no, he's
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: he's a good player. But yeah, Joey used to fish
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: at my granddad's pond at his house pretty much his
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: whole life. And yeah, and you know, Joey was a
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: big time name in high school then when went to tech,
• 5:00
  Speaker 4: you know, second overall pick, Like it's always been a
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: big name around the area. When I when I got
• 5:06
  Speaker 4: older and realized, you know, kind of who he was
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: and you know everything. My grandfather didn't know a dang
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: thing about it, but he was like, Joey, good kid,
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: likes to fish uses my pond. Not that you know,
• 5:21
  Speaker 4: second overall pick and then it will be draft. But yeah, yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it's known Joey a long time and it is really special.
• 5:28
  Speaker 4: Other than the giving up the nine runs that I
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: give up, you know who cares about that, But it
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: was pretty special with him catching me, my granddad, I
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: gotta I got a picture framed of me and Joey
• 5:41
  Speaker 4: walking from the bullpen to the dugout. I got it framed,
• 5:45
  Speaker 4: and I need to get Joey to sign it, but
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna give it to him. Yeah, but yeah, my
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: grandmother she's like, I've ever seen your cry.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: I was like, dang, that's pretty sweet.
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: So wait a moment, what a small world. Yeah, I
• 6:11
  Speaker 5: saw that story and I just I couldn't believe it.
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty cool.
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: And then just my last question, quick one here for you,
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  Speaker 5: But which is more satisfying striking the guy out looking
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  Speaker 5: or swinging.
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  Speaker 2: Men?
• 6:30
  Speaker 3: Shoot? It depends.
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: Like Jared Jones a couple of years ago, I think
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: it was terrang when like that swing, it's pretty sweet. Yeah,
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: like when you freeze the guys just like I know
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: you dog, like you had no idea what was coming.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: That's kind of how I think about it. I love
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  Speaker 3: it doesn't.
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  Speaker 5: Matter, Yeah, exactly, all counts the same, So all right,
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: I'm going to tear it back over all.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Count all right, baba.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Obviously, you made your big le debut in the final
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: month of last season. You had a pretty strong but
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: you're still technically a rookie. Now I'll ask you, I mean,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: do you feel like a rookie still or do you
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: feel like that month in the big leagues kind of
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: was your rookie season and now you're expecting to be
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: kind of like a pro and a standard big leaguer.
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: At this point, I feel like a ten year vet. No,
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: I'm just playing.
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: I uh yeah, the taste was nice. Like I mean,
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: it's kind of tough to explain. I felt ready, like
• 7:32
  Speaker 4: when I got up there. You know, I don't know
• 7:35
  Speaker 4: if I felt ready or I was just you know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 4: kind of pissed off, to be honest, but I felt ready.
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: And you know, it also helps to like, you know,
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: getting the opportunity to get invited to big league camp
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: before you're in the big leagues, so you're around the guys,
• 7:48
  Speaker 4: you're around.
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  Speaker 3: You it's not you know, super uncomfortable.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: When when I first got up there, like my buff
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: house and you know, really good friends with most of
• 7:58
  Speaker 4: the pitchers already talk to him daily. It's like it's
• 8:01
  Speaker 4: not you know, it wasn't like a shock. You know,
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: it's related to a different level. So you know, I
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: wasn't you know, overly shocked. But the I think it's
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: like I think I ended up getting like forty days
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: is what I was up there, and I think each
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: day I learned something new and you know kind of
• 8:22
  Speaker 4: some of my thought process this offseason. You know, those
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: forty days helped, and they're gonna help this year and yeah,
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: you know, Yeah, I don't know. I say, like, still
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: a rookie, I feel a lot more prepared, I'd say,
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: body wise, I know what to expect, just because you know,
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: Josh knows it, like dude, the mental grind, say the
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: physical grind too.
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: The big league is completely different.
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: Like, you know, flying on planes is nice, but hell,
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: when you're flying every two three days, it's like, you know,
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: kind of takes a little tolle in your body. Yep,
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: And yeah that's uh, you know, guy, I feel like
• 9:01
  Speaker 4: I'm pretty dialed in. Got got some help this offseason
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: to you know, set my day to day stuff of
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: you know, what I need to eat, you know what
• 9:10
  Speaker 4: I need to drink, what I need to do when
• 9:12
  Speaker 4: I'm on the plane, when I need to do when
• 9:13
  Speaker 4: I get off the plane. You know, if we do
• 9:16
  Speaker 4: have an off day, like do I need to play
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: golf or do I need to spend four or five
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: hours just doing straight recovery like whatever it is. And
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: you know, plans are great, but plans go out the
• 9:27
  Speaker 4: window the second you know, the first game is so
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: like you I feel pretty dialed in with the routine
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: and the plane I got, So we'll see. But yeah,
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: it's Yeah, I think those forty days helped. You know,
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: you always wish, I wish I had more last year,
• 9:42
  Speaker 4: but whatever, who cares? Uh, Yeah, but they're super excited.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: It's gonna be It's gonna be a great year for
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: the for the boys.
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: You mentioned that you have some good friends in that
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: starting rotation. That was really the main area of the
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: team that kind of changed this offseason with the with
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: the departures of Mike Burrows and Johann Oviedo.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: When you see those moves.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I'm sure part of you sad that you know you're
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: losing some of the fellas.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, I mean, in a way.
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: That's an endorsement on your skill set that you're going
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: to be asked to cover more in it your gut.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: You're viewed as a big part of this rotation this year.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: How do you take in all of that news while
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: it's happening.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean.
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: Mike and ov where I mean, it's it sucks to
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: see him go like that. Those those are two good teammates.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: They're two good people, And you know, I'm a little
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: closer to Mike than m Ov just knowing Mike the
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: last four or five years. Ov you know, the only
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: time I ever played with him was the last forty
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: days of the season.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: It's like a little closer to.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: Mike than I was Oviedo, but like both two guys
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: that can't really say anything bad about him, just you know,
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: just just it's just dogs and it sucked. Like when
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: you saw them get traded and it's like dang, and
• 11:04
  Speaker 4: then it's like, you know, those guys'.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Careers are far from over, and.
• 11:12
  Speaker 4: You know you want every good player to be on
• 11:14
  Speaker 4: your team, but like seeing them go, it's like, man,
• 11:16
  Speaker 4: like Ovie, he's gonna love Boston, Like you know, I
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: played there once and I was like, dang, this place
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: is really sweet.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: Like the fans are great.
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: They were you know, should be a fun time, should
• 11:27
  Speaker 4: be good, you know, good vibes for him.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: And then Mike's same thing in Houston.
• 11:30
  Speaker 4: It's like, you know, Houston has been really good the
• 11:32
  Speaker 4: last couple of years, and Mike's you know, gonna help them, you.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Know, stay good.
• 11:36
  Speaker 4: And the pieces we got in return for those for
• 11:38
  Speaker 4: those two guys are unbelievable and they're gonna help and
• 11:44
  Speaker 4: you know, I think, you know, kind of all the
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: move's been and the front office made this off season,
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: you know, can't complain about him, and they're all the
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: guys we got are gonna help us, and you know
• 11:52
  Speaker 4: that's all you ask. And yeah, sad to see those
• 11:55
  Speaker 4: boys go, but excited to see what they do. Like
• 11:59
  Speaker 4: it's always you know, for them, it's you know, and Josh,
• 12:02
  Speaker 4: you played for multile team. It's like it's fun to
• 12:05
  Speaker 4: you know, sometimes get a fresh start. And I'm glad
• 12:08
  Speaker 4: that you know, they have an opportunity somewhere else because
• 12:10
  Speaker 4: that's really really good for them. And I wish they
• 12:13
  Speaker 4: were still with us because those are my boys. But yeah,
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: you know, kind of like you said, you know, if
• 12:17
  Speaker 4: I'm in the plant, like I hope that's the plan
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: is you know, I want to throw, you know, I
• 12:22
  Speaker 4: want to throw the most.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: Innings in the big leagues.
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: And you know that's you know, it starts with like
• 12:26
  Speaker 4: getting the opportunities, and I hope I get the opportunities.
• 12:28
  Speaker 6: So awesome.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: I got one final question for you.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: Uh you went, I don't even know if you saw
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: the edit of it, uh, but there was a viral
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: TikTok where you were doing an on field interview with
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: Bucko Banter and they asked you Jordan or Lebron, and
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: you said, Larry Bird. I want to ask for a
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: little bit more context behind that answer.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Do you really think he's better than both of those guys?
• 12:55
  Speaker 4: I mean, you know, I think about it this way,
• 13:01
  Speaker 4: Michael Jordan, Lebron, James. I mean two staples of just athletics,
• 13:06
  Speaker 4: just two athletics specimens.
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: You know, two guys you can.
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: Argue all day like who's better, Who's you know, Who's
• 13:14
  Speaker 4: you know, who's the best, who's the second best? You know,
• 13:17
  Speaker 4: I really don't care. I'm gonna be honest. I like
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Aaron Rodgers, good example of football. I modeled my entire
• 13:24
  Speaker 4: game after Aaron Rodgers. On the my guy, you know,
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: like love love a rod hope to meet him one day.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: But like everything I did on the football field, I
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: watched tape Aaron Rodgers. And on the basketball court. You know, look, man,
• 13:40
  Speaker 4: I broke my elbow. I couldn't shoot. You know, that
• 13:42
  Speaker 4: was my excuse that I couldn't shoot. I couldn't shoot
• 13:45
  Speaker 4: in general. But I did break my elbow so I
• 13:47
  Speaker 4: couldn't extend, and but Larry Bird could shoot.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: But everything else Larry Bird did just gretty as hell.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: Just got nasty, talked a lot of craft like that
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: was me, Like I was a good basketball player, but
• 14:00
  Speaker 4: I'd elbow you in the face before I let you
• 14:02
  Speaker 4: get a rebound over me, and you know.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: You were DELI.
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: I don't know what's to do.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: Man, Mad's like eighty million dollars, So.
• 14:20
  Speaker 6: Yeah, you'll take that, ye give him black eyes? Yeah?
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Hell yeah, Like I punched him everything score on.
• 14:29
  Speaker 4: That's kind of like watching videos of Larry Bird. It's
• 14:31
  Speaker 4: like he doesn't give he doesn't give a crap about
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: about you. That's kind of how I had to play,
• 14:37
  Speaker 4: just because of the the ability on a basketball court.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: But no, I just I play a lot of two
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: K too, okay, and shop Larry Larry Bird. I made
• 14:47
  Speaker 4: a Larry Bird build and I just I like it.
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: I know that was just kind of I don't know
• 14:52
  Speaker 4: why I was thinking about Larry Bird in that moment,
• 14:54
  Speaker 4: but I don't know.
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, I think I think is better.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: But when I I would argue that Bird has probably
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: the most similar game to Lebron as just Lebron's just
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: a better athlete, like plays that type of game better,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: like skill set passing wise, I mean, Bird was probably
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: a better defender.
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: But there's a baseball show.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: We have two major league baseball players on it, and
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna let them interview each other now, Josh take
• 15:21
  Speaker 2: it over.
• 15:23
  Speaker 7: Appreciated, No, appreciated, Mark Bubba, Welcome to the show. As
• 15:29
  Speaker 7: I sit here and see you driving the spring training man,
• 15:32
  Speaker 7: it all comes back. It's so surreal as I hear
• 15:35
  Speaker 7: you talking about your you know, you debuted last year
• 15:38
  Speaker 7: forty days. You got the luxury of being in big
• 15:41
  Speaker 7: league camp. I didn't have the luxury of being in
• 15:43
  Speaker 7: big league camp before I got caught up. But as
• 15:46
  Speaker 7: you're heading down the spring training and as we've talked about,
• 15:50
  Speaker 7: you know, guys being traded and possibility of you know,
• 15:53
  Speaker 7: more dependency on you with this spring coming up, how
• 15:57
  Speaker 7: do you feel your preparation for the upcoming is gonna
• 16:00
  Speaker 7: change where last year? You know, you you're knocking on
• 16:03
  Speaker 7: the door wanting to prove yourself, not that you're not
• 16:06
  Speaker 7: always trying to prove yourself, but to be looked at
• 16:08
  Speaker 7: as one of the guys coming out of the rotation.
• 16:12
  Speaker 7: You know what, what are you hoping to gain or
• 16:15
  Speaker 7: get ready for the spring which is way different than
• 16:17
  Speaker 7: last year. Not that you're not always getting ready, but
• 16:19
  Speaker 7: you know the mindset is a little different.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: Uh yeah, you know, just just try to you know,
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: try to be better.
• 16:32
  Speaker 4: And you know what I what I did last year,
• 16:35
  Speaker 4: you know, changed a little bit, like coming into camp
• 16:38
  Speaker 4: and like I told you a little earlier, like I
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: came into camp last year, you know, wanting to make
• 16:42
  Speaker 4: the team, and you know, kind of just rushing myself
• 16:47
  Speaker 4: a little too much, which you know, I think maybe
• 16:51
  Speaker 4: hurt me a little bit middle of the year of
• 16:54
  Speaker 4: you know, usually you get tired at the end of
• 16:57
  Speaker 4: the year, and I got tired kind of in the
• 16:59
  Speaker 4: middle it just because I was so ready to go
• 17:01
  Speaker 4: and rushed up in the spring training, you know, trying
• 17:04
  Speaker 4: to make the team, and you know, it didn't happen.
• 17:08
  Speaker 4: And you know, I think this year, like I said,
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: I'm not saying that I made the team, but I'm
• 17:15
  Speaker 4: gonna take it a little slower than I did last year.
• 17:17
  Speaker 4: And know that, Hell, I want to throw, you know,
• 17:19
  Speaker 4: close to two hundred innings this year, and you know,
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: I want to be pitching in November next year in
• 17:26
  Speaker 4: the World Series.
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: And that's a long time from now, and that's a
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: lot of innings in between.
• 17:30
  Speaker 4: And yeah, that's just kind of the mindset this whole
• 17:32
  Speaker 4: off season, and that's what it's been is, you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 4: how can I still be throwing one hundred miles an
• 17:37
  Speaker 4: hour on October thirtieth, twenty twenty six, And you know
• 17:42
  Speaker 4: that's kind of it starts, you know, the first day
• 17:44
  Speaker 4: of the all season, and it really starts now, you know,
• 17:46
  Speaker 4: heading into camp.
• 17:48
  Speaker 6: Yeah, definitely a nice liele switch up.
• 17:50
  Speaker 7: As I said, you know from spring training last year
• 17:52
  Speaker 7: where you said you were pretty much guns blazing coming
• 17:55
  Speaker 7: out to where it not that you won't come into
• 17:58
  Speaker 7: this spring training ready to go, but you you said
• 18:00
  Speaker 7: you're working towards a different goal, which it's always it's
• 18:04
  Speaker 7: always cool to see how year to year things change,
• 18:07
  Speaker 7: and especially with what's I don't even want to say
• 18:10
  Speaker 7: what expected, what you expect of yourself, because people can
• 18:12
  Speaker 7: expect whatever. But I know listening to you, listen to
• 18:15
  Speaker 7: you talk just your background, there are certain things that
• 18:17
  Speaker 7: you expected yourself and that's pretty cool to see.
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: Just to hear you talk about how you're excited for
• 18:23
  Speaker 6: what's to.
• 18:23
  Speaker 7: Come this year, and uh, listen to you, I think
• 18:26
  Speaker 7: we got something in common, you know, besides the point
• 18:30
  Speaker 7: that we both pitched for the Pirates.
• 18:31
  Speaker 6: It's going to be more about pitching for the Pirates.
• 18:35
  Speaker 7: Did I see that your first career your first career
• 18:39
  Speaker 7: appearance was?
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: Was that like a four inning save in Colorado? Did I?
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: Did I read that correct?
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: At home?
• 18:48
  Speaker 6: Or four inning save at home against the rock Home?
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah?
• 18:52
  Speaker 6: Oh yeah, okay against but against the Rockies.
• 18:55
  Speaker 7: Okay, because my first pitching appearance was in Colorado against
• 18:58
  Speaker 7: the Rockies. I was about to ask you what was
• 19:00
  Speaker 7: it like coming back and at the same time still
• 19:03
  Speaker 7: for your first appearance to have to go four innings?
• 19:06
  Speaker 6: What can you recall what.
• 19:08
  Speaker 7: That was like your debut because a lot of people
• 19:10
  Speaker 7: ask about a debut and I can remember mine, but
• 19:12
  Speaker 7: hearing yours being a four inning saved, that's that's kind
• 19:15
  Speaker 7: of that's kind of sick if you ask me.
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, pretty cool.
• 19:22
  Speaker 4: I you know, of course I wanted to start the
• 19:24
  Speaker 4: game right, like I'm a starter. I hadn't came out
• 19:26
  Speaker 4: of the bullpen all year. But again, like I'm not
• 19:29
  Speaker 4: going to complain about an opportunity, and you know, looking
• 19:33
  Speaker 4: back on it, I'm very I'm very glad that, you know,
• 19:37
  Speaker 4: if whoever made that decision to you know, let me
• 19:40
  Speaker 4: come out of the bullpen, not only on my debut,
• 19:42
  Speaker 4: but against the Cardinals my next game, and then against
• 19:45
  Speaker 4: LA the next my third game.
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: I think it really prepared me to finish strong like
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: Colorad is like my debut, Bro, I was.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: May not have felt it like I was just fired
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: up and just ready to go.
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: I didn't care who was in the box like I was.
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: I was ready to kill you. And the Cardinals cooled
• 20:10
  Speaker 3: down a little bit, and.
• 20:14
  Speaker 4: You know, I had a good outing, had had a
• 20:16
  Speaker 4: really good outing, and just you know, very relaxed. And
• 20:19
  Speaker 4: the third third game, hell, we played the Dodgers, and
• 20:22
  Speaker 4: like Dodgers, a good team, and you know, they got
• 20:27
  Speaker 4: some guys on that team that I looked up to
• 20:29
  Speaker 4: as a kid. I mean Freddy Freeman for example, you know,
• 20:31
  Speaker 4: being from Georgia, he played for Atlanta. Like Bro, I
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: love Freddy, I got his jerseys, loved him, Bro, and
• 20:37
  Speaker 4: just like very surreal pitching against him.
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: But too they also got a guy named.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: Shoe Hale Tony like you know, who who doesn't want to,
• 20:45
  Speaker 4: you know, throw against those guys.
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: They're the best.
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: And you know I kind of came into that outing,
• 20:51
  Speaker 4: you know, pumped up. You know, I had eight or
• 20:53
  Speaker 4: nine innings, you know, scoreless, a lot of strikeouts, you know,
• 20:57
  Speaker 4: kind of pitching really well. And you know I came
• 20:59
  Speaker 4: into the out like, all right, this isn't gonna be
• 21:01
  Speaker 4: anything different, Like who cares about the names on the
• 21:04
  Speaker 4: back of their jerseys, Like they're literally they're they're just dudes.
• 21:08
  Speaker 4: Like go out there and execute. And the first guy
• 21:12
  Speaker 4: faced is Miguel Rojas. Mean, dude's played forever in big leagues,
• 21:15
  Speaker 4: Like great player. You get him out, and I'm like
• 21:18
  Speaker 4: all right, Like we're good. We're like, you know, I
• 21:21
  Speaker 4: got my feet wet, you know in this game, Like
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: you know, we got Showy coming up next, Let's blow
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: his doors, Like he can't hit me, Like there's no
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: chance this guy can hit me.
• 21:31
  Speaker 3: He ended up hit me pretty far, pretty hard. Whatever.
• 21:33
  Speaker 4: Who cares, man, I think after that, like I ended
• 21:36
  Speaker 4: up putting together a pretty good outing, got Freddie Freeman
• 21:39
  Speaker 4: out twice.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: You know, does he care? Not at all? Did I care?
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, fired up about it?
• 21:44
  Speaker 6: Of course?
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: Oh I was. Yeah. I mean he yeah, he he
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: doesn't know my name.
• 21:52
  Speaker 7: But I tell you one thing, I trust trust me.
• 21:57
  Speaker 6: You're a big leaguer and you got him out twice.
• 21:58
  Speaker 6: He knows your name.
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: All hell, yeah, but pretty pretty cool. But yeah, I
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: ended up putting together a pretty decent outing. You know,
• 22:07
  Speaker 4: gave up some runs, but you know the final the
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: final three innings, I think, yeah, I gotta gave up
• 22:13
  Speaker 4: runs in my first and my final three innings.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: You know, we're smooth sailing.
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: But I had a little bit of that, like, Okay,
• 22:18
  Speaker 4: you know I've given up runs in big leagues. Now
• 22:21
  Speaker 4: I know how to get out of a jam, because
• 22:22
  Speaker 4: I really had to get out of any jams up
• 22:24
  Speaker 4: until that point. You know, my first start was against Milwaukee.
• 22:30
  Speaker 4: Good team, real good team. Give it to them, and
• 22:32
  Speaker 4: you know they they embarrassed me. But again it was
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: like I'll give myself some credit. Like I didn't care
• 22:40
  Speaker 4: about it, you know. I I knew I was gonna
• 22:43
  Speaker 4: get another opportunity to start, and I think that helped.
• 22:47
  Speaker 3: But you know, after that, I was like, all right,
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: what was I doing? Was I tipping? Was I like?
• 22:50
  Speaker 3: What was on that day? What was off?
• 22:53
  Speaker 4: And just kind of put in the memory bank of
• 22:55
  Speaker 4: like all right, you know, if if I can't say
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: land my heater, we gotta we gotta find something else
• 23:00
  Speaker 4: to establish the zone with and you know, I think, uh,
• 23:03
  Speaker 4: I think that helped me with my last three starts.
• 23:05
  Speaker 4: And you know, I ended up pitching pretty good in
• 23:08
  Speaker 4: my last three starts. And that's you know, I ended
• 23:10
  Speaker 4: the season with a good taste in my mouth. And
• 23:13
  Speaker 4: you know, still have you know that Brewers out in
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: the back of my mind. That pisses me off every day.
• 23:19
  Speaker 4: And you know, it's kind of what you work for
• 23:20
  Speaker 4: in the off season is fine little stuff, find little
• 23:24
  Speaker 4: chips put on your shoulder and you know, like you said,
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: you know you've never been to big league camp before
• 23:28
  Speaker 4: you debut, you know, you probably played with the chip
• 23:31
  Speaker 4: on your shoulder. I don't know where you got drafted
• 23:33
  Speaker 4: or whatnot, but you know, I.
• 23:35
  Speaker 6: Mean it was fifty.
• 23:37
  Speaker 7: Rounds then, though not twenty now, but it's fifty six rounds,
• 23:41
  Speaker 7: so pretty decent.
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: But I was traded to the Pirates too though, so
• 23:44
  Speaker 6: I also wouldn't they're draft.
• 23:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah, so like you know, you know, God, I mean,
• 23:50
  Speaker 4: that's a good thing about you know, professional sports is
• 23:56
  Speaker 4: you're so delusional that people don't want you and you
• 24:00
  Speaker 4: got to prove yourself whether you're a guy. You know
• 24:05
  Speaker 4: that was a fiftieth rounder who made it to the
• 24:07
  Speaker 4: big league splore if you're Connor Griffin, who was a
• 24:09
  Speaker 4: top you know ten pick, and you know it's just
• 24:12
  Speaker 4: an overall stud like you gotta find stuff to put
• 24:14
  Speaker 4: on your shoulder of Like, you know, I'm pissed off
• 24:17
  Speaker 4: and that's how I got to go at it.
• 24:19
  Speaker 3: Every day.
• 24:19
  Speaker 4: I just got downe listening to a podcast. You know,
• 24:22
  Speaker 4: a or nine year guy in the NFL plays for
• 24:25
  Speaker 4: the Patriots. Undrafted guy just signed a forty million dollar
• 24:30
  Speaker 4: contract last all season, and you know he's said he's good,
• 24:34
  Speaker 4: but he's still saying, like every day I wake up
• 24:36
  Speaker 4: just pissed off that I got cut eight years ago
• 24:39
  Speaker 4: by a team. And I think, you know, that's kind
• 24:42
  Speaker 4: of how I go about it. Is you know, a
• 24:44
  Speaker 4: rough outing, and it's like, you know, think about that outing.
• 24:47
  Speaker 4: You never want that stuff to happen again and focus eat,
• 24:51
  Speaker 4: stale and getting better, and you know, allow that stuff
• 24:56
  Speaker 4: not to happen because you can control what you can control,
• 24:58
  Speaker 4: and there's a lot of stuff that you can't control.
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: That is true.
• 25:02
  Speaker 7: And with this last question, obviously you got a little
• 25:06
  Speaker 7: bit of taste of being in Pittsburgh last year and
• 25:09
  Speaker 7: with some moves that have been made this offseason, hopefully
• 25:12
  Speaker 7: some more and even if not, an off season where
• 25:15
  Speaker 7: y'all have added to the team and for you personally
• 25:18
  Speaker 7: with things going on, Pittsburgh is a very special city,
• 25:21
  Speaker 7: especially when teams are winning. What would it mean to
• 25:24
  Speaker 7: you to be a part of a team that you know,
• 25:27
  Speaker 7: brings winning baseball back to Pittsburgh and being able to
• 25:29
  Speaker 7: you know, go to the playoffs and hopefully, you know,
• 25:31
  Speaker 7: win the World Series, especially being a younger guy, because
• 25:34
  Speaker 7: you know, back when, back when we made the playoffs,
• 25:37
  Speaker 7: I ain't trying to say it like it was a
• 25:38
  Speaker 7: long time ago, but we had a very you know,
• 25:41
  Speaker 7: veteran present team where this team right now doesn't have
• 25:46
  Speaker 7: you know, as many veterans as I would say we have.
• 25:49
  Speaker 6: So what would it mean.
• 25:50
  Speaker 7: To have a nucleus of guys like yourself and some
• 25:52
  Speaker 7: of that pitching staff to kind of get over that
• 25:55
  Speaker 7: hurdle and you know say, winning baseball is here in Pittsburgh.
• 26:00
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you were on that twenty thirteen team. Yeah, Yeah,
• 26:06
  Speaker 4: so I watched I watched that video of Russell Martin
• 26:10
  Speaker 4: and stuff like pretty regularly, pretty pretty pretty sweet, sweet
• 26:15
  Speaker 4: video and I think we usually play it. You know
• 26:19
  Speaker 4: when we are minor league camp. We always played it
• 26:21
  Speaker 4: in in spring training of like that video, like that's
• 26:24
  Speaker 4: what we're getting, that's what we're getting back to. It's
• 26:26
  Speaker 4: like this is what we should strive to be, like
• 26:28
  Speaker 4: not the wildcard, Like wild card's great, but like getting
• 26:31
  Speaker 4: in the playoffs and bringing winning baseball back to Pittsburgh.
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: Like winning wherever you're at is fun. I mean, you know,
• 26:39
  Speaker 4: whether you're a high school athlete or your professional athlete, Like,
• 26:41
  Speaker 4: if you're winning, you're gonna have fun.
• 26:43
  Speaker 3: And yeah, you're right. I mean, we don't have many
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: vets on this upcoming team, but again, like.
• 26:53
  Speaker 4: You know, we have a lot of young guys who
• 26:57
  Speaker 4: are you know, kind of have that you know me
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: below the team, like they want that, like we want
• 27:05
  Speaker 4: the team to win. You know, if I went out
• 27:07
  Speaker 4: there and you know, like Paul, I think, you know,
• 27:10
  Speaker 4: he won the cy Young this year. I think Paul
• 27:12
  Speaker 4: would have rather won a World Series when the cy Young.
• 27:15
  Speaker 4: I genuinely think that. I think we got a lot
• 27:18
  Speaker 4: of guys that are kind of in the same boat.
• 27:21
  Speaker 4: It's like, yeah, you know, personal accolade, it's also come
• 27:23
  Speaker 4: with team accolade. It's like if you're on a winning team,
• 27:26
  Speaker 4: You're gonna have a lot of All Stars. You're probably
• 27:28
  Speaker 4: gonna have a lot of guys up there with MVP votes,
• 27:30
  Speaker 4: Cy Young votes, Silver Slugger like whatever it is.
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: And I think that's kind of what Starks and I
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: think that's where.
• 27:35
  Speaker 4: We want to be, like man like, yeah, I mean
• 27:38
  Speaker 4: since I've been in the organization, you know, we haven't
• 27:40
  Speaker 4: made the playoffs and we necessarily haven't been that close.
• 27:44
  Speaker 4: But now, like being in the big leagues, I mean,
• 27:47
  Speaker 4: like you you try to do everything in your power
• 27:49
  Speaker 4: to you know, uplift the team and you know, be
• 27:52
  Speaker 4: a leader. You know, you hell you pitch one. I
• 27:54
  Speaker 4: pitched once a week, so like it's kind of tough.
• 27:56
  Speaker 4: But I think the guys we're gonna have out there
• 27:59
  Speaker 4: every day, you know, position players are bought in on.
• 28:02
  Speaker 4: You know, if the team has success, I'm probably also
• 28:04
  Speaker 4: going to have success. And I think the grittiness of
• 28:08
  Speaker 4: the team we're gonna have this year is gonna be
• 28:10
  Speaker 4: pretty special. You know, I don't know uh lao or
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: O'Hearn or I'm not gonna butcher his name, but the password.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: Like some of the some of the guys, Jake, you
• 28:22
  Speaker 3: know some of the guys.
• 28:22
  Speaker 4: We've added, Like you know, I don't necessarily know them,
• 28:25
  Speaker 4: but everything I've heard from guys who do know them
• 28:27
  Speaker 4: say they're great teammates, and they're good dudes, and they
• 28:29
  Speaker 4: want to win, and you know, I think there's a
• 28:34
  Speaker 4: different feeling in the building. And like I mean, I
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: tell you what, I had a conversation with DK a
• 28:38
  Speaker 4: couple of days ago, like, it's just so fired up
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: for the season.
• 28:41
  Speaker 3: I've never looked this forward probably.
• 28:44
  Speaker 4: Anything in my life. So you know, it's it's it
• 28:47
  Speaker 4: should be a special year.
• 28:50
  Speaker 6: Well, definitely excited for you guys. Man. Excited for you
• 28:53
  Speaker 6: as well.
• 28:54
  Speaker 7: I'll tell you, just like I told the other guys
• 28:56
  Speaker 7: that have been on here, good luck, But I don't
• 28:59
  Speaker 7: really believe in luck. I know, if you stay healthy,
• 29:01
  Speaker 7: you'll do what you do, so I always wish for
• 29:03
  Speaker 7: good health.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: You create your own luck. I appreciate it for sure.
• 29:09
  Speaker 6: You're welcome.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: Awesome.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Well, that will wrap up this episode of Bucco Territory,
• 29:16
  Speaker 2: presented to you by the Foul Territory Network. Want to
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: remind everyone to hit that subscribe button if they haven't already.
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: We're on a mission to three thousand subs, and we
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: need your help to get there. On behalf of Bubba Chandler,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: Josh Harrison and Platinum Key, I'm Noah Hyles saying thanks
• 29:31
  Speaker 2: for tuning in.
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: We'll see you again next time. Here, I'm Bucco Territory