Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / Episode 46 feat. Steve Springer - 11 years in Triple A, Quality at Bats, and being a Pro Scout

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Episode 46 feat. Steve Springer - 11 years in Triple A, Quality at Bats, and being a Pro Scout · Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast

• 0:26
  Welcome to another edition of this savvy twisted podcast.
• 0:29
  Couldn't make it today because he's under the weather.
• 0:32
  But and Rob, I'll be thinking about you.
• 0:35
  So we're going to have a hell of a show and this is dedicated to
• 0:39
  you. But we have a special guest in
• 0:42
  here today and he's a well known hitting hitting coach.
• 0:48
  He's he's known for being a quality at bat coach.
• 0:53
  Steve Springer, welcome to the show.
• 0:56
  Just let the world know what you do, what you're about, and
• 0:59
  everything else. Hey, Rocky, how are you buddy?
• 1:02
  It's good to be here finally. Took a little while to get this
• 1:05
  going. I'm excited about it.
• 1:07
  You know, your audience is going.
• 1:09
  Who? Steve.
• 1:10
  Who? Steve's right here.
• 1:12
  Is that George's brother? No, that's you're talking to a
• 1:16
  guy that didn't start in high school.
• 1:19
  I got cut in college. I was told my whole life you're
• 1:23
  too small. You're only because you're
• 1:24
  brother. You'll never play college.
• 1:25
  You'll never play pro. You'll never get to the big
• 1:27
  leagues. And I did it all.
• 1:29
  And now All Stars Comedy talk hitting.
• 1:31
  So it's a pretty crazy story. But everybody's got a story.
• 1:35
  And I love my story. I mean, I was a freshman in high
• 1:37
  school. I was four, 1190 lbs.
• 1:40
  I made the team because my brother was a star of the team.
• 1:42
  I got 3 at bats. By the time I was a senior, I
• 1:45
  was 5/8 a 140 lbs. It's my time to shine.
• 1:49
  I had nobody ahead of me. I had a sophomore take my job,
• 1:52
  didn't start my senior year. Where I'm from, Huntington
• 1:56
  Beach, CA. I got about 50 colleges within
• 1:59
  50 miles in me. I did not get one phone call to
• 2:01
  go and play for my brother went to Golden West Junior College,
• 2:04
  He was Allstate. I'm thinking the coach knows I'm
• 2:07
  coming there. He didn't have to call me
• 2:09
  because he didn't. And I went out for the team that
• 2:12
  summer and I got cut, you know, which is baffling to me this
• 2:15
  day, how bad this coach thought I saw my brother's best player
• 2:18
  in the state. I get cut, got a job at
• 2:21
  Disneyland working on the canoes thinking it's over and about 3
• 2:24
  days later my brother came home with the uniform because three
• 2:27
  guys quit. I was 19 years old, freshman in
• 2:30
  college. I got 3 at bats the whole year
• 2:33
  and I ended up playing in the big leagues.
• 2:35
  So all you kids out there man negative people suck.
• 2:39
  And when you get your man body, if you have ability, if you have
• 2:42
  instincts, you're going to be able to shrink 2 inches.
• 2:46
  It's not about being tall, it's about being a baseball player.
• 2:49
  I went from the second string second baseman to an all
• 2:51
  conference shortstop in one year.
• 2:53
  I'm getting recruited by all these colleges.
• 2:55
  I had a full ride to Long Beach State, full ride to Irvine, full
• 2:58
  ride to UCLA. I'm going to UCLA on a full
• 3:02
  ride. And it was the greatest 5 days
• 3:04
  of my life until he looked at my transcripts as a dumb ass.
• 3:07
  I couldn't get in, don't know how I get in the University of
• 3:10
  Utah and we had 50 scouts at one game.
• 3:14
  You see Rick Aguilera, Wally Joyner and Corey Snyder, all 15
• 3:17
  year big leaguers and I went 5 for five with the bomb, 2 double
• 3:20
  S and five RB is he's got never heard of me and he turns me in
• 3:24
  on one day and I, I get drafted by the New York Mets in 1982,
• 3:29
  signed for $4000 and end up playing 14 years.
• 3:33
  And unfortunately I was a legend in the wrong league.
• 3:36
  I spent eleven years in AAA and I feel blessed to say I got two
• 3:40
  hits in each league in the big leagues.
• 3:42
  Man, after that story. So in a nutshell buddy, that's
• 3:45
  pretty much my my story to start.
• 3:49
  Well, I want to ask you one question.
• 3:51
  So I know you were drafted by the Mets and and talk a little
• 3:56
  bit how that process turned out to be.
• 3:59
  And I know that Doc good in I had a little story with you and
• 4:04
  he gave you a little teaser and a little bugger and talk talk a
• 4:08
  little bit about that and how how is that like?
• 4:11
  Well, it was 1982 and I got sent a little false New York and and
• 4:17
  Dwight guns there and and you know, he's a great guy.
• 4:20
  And I looked at him and he's first round pick.
• 4:23
  I'm a 20th about 500 picks later.
• 4:26
  And I looked at him, I said, buddy, like 500 picks better
• 4:29
  than me. And he he looked at me sort of
• 4:31
  paused and he said, trust me, spring I am.
• 4:35
  And he was probably right, you know, and then I end up getting
• 4:38
  to the big leagues like 10 years later with the Mets.
• 4:41
  You know, I end up getting to the big leagues with the Indians
• 4:43
  after I got traded, but I re signed with the Mets and I get
• 4:47
  finally get called up and good and still there and he's like
• 4:49
  spring, what took so long? And I'm like, bro, they didn't
• 4:52
  want to rush me like they rushed you.
• 4:54
  But he was a great guy, great teammate.
• 4:58
  The Mets were loaded in the 80s. But I mean, I, I feel if I was
• 5:02
  with any other organization, I probably wouldn't have spent
• 5:05
  eleven years in AAA. But my my AA team, we had 18
• 5:10
  guys playing the big leagues off of one team and I was the last
• 5:13
  guy to get there. That's awesome.
• 5:18
  So you said that you played eleven years at AAA and 14
• 5:22
  professional baseball years. Who are the teammates?
• 5:26
  Where did you, our close friend even till today, like how did
• 5:31
  you get along with anyone? Did you talk to anyone?
• 5:33
  Did you talk to the coaches? Like what was that experience
• 5:35
  like? Well, I've been in the game for
• 5:37
  44 years, so I pretty much know a lot of people.
• 5:41
  I mean, I either played with them, I was an agent for seven
• 5:46
  years. Don't ask me why I did that.
• 5:49
  You know, I've been scouting for 30 years and I just, I've been
• 5:54
  in the game for 40 years. I think the thing that got me on
• 5:56
  my map was my quality at bat company that I, you know, I was
• 6:00
  an agent and I, you know, I wanted my kids to get a metal
• 6:03
  game. And so I had a guy named Tommy
• 6:06
  Mccraw who changed my life. You know, in 1987 when this guy
• 6:09
  was around, I was good, but he was a roving guy.
• 6:12
  And every time I was around, I'd be a stud and I'd carry it for
• 6:15
  three days because I was a dumbass like I, you know, I'd
• 6:19
  forget. And as dumb as I was, I was
• 6:22
  smart enough to realize when that guy was around, I was good.
• 6:24
  So he came in the next time he came in like 3 days a month.
• 6:27
  And I asked him to talk to me about me on what I need to do to
• 6:31
  play in the big leagues and not anybody else, just me.
• 6:35
  And I brought a tape recorder up to his room and he was nice
• 6:37
  enough to talk to me. And, and if I was in my car for
• 6:40
  seven years, it was a 20 minute audio that I listened to every
• 6:44
  single day. And so when I became an agent, I
• 6:46
  wanted my guys to get a metal game so I can make somebody.
• 6:48
  And I didn't even know what I had.
• 6:50
  I mean, you know, fastball right down the middle is right down
• 6:53
  the, you know, HUD. My car door was open in, but I
• 6:56
  had good material on it and I let my brother listen to it.
• 6:58
  He played six years of pro ball and he's like, dude, you clean
• 7:01
  that up, man. That's good stuff.
• 7:03
  So I went to recording studio and I didn't even know what I
• 7:06
  had. I made like 500 CDs and 500
• 7:09
  tapes at the time, and I gave one to George Horton, Cal State
• 7:13
  Fullerton Hall of Fame coach. I didn't even know he was going
• 7:15
  to listen to it. And about a week later and and
• 7:18
  they're playing University of Miami and he had his whole team
• 7:21
  listen to it five hours before they played Miami in Miami when
• 7:25
  Miami was the number team in the country and they swept them and
• 7:28
  scored 10A game. And he said spring, you change
• 7:31
  the way we think. So that's pretty much, you know,
• 7:34
  when you read about all the names that have called me and,
• 7:36
  you know, I'm sort of mentored along the way, it's because of
• 7:40
  that audio, you know. But as far as as a player, you
• 7:44
  know, I mean, I, I room with Billy Beane and Lenny Dykstra in
• 7:47
  1985. And, you know, that's how I got
• 7:50
  my job at the Oakland A's right now.
• 7:52
  You know, you got to pick your roommates, right?
• 7:54
  Because when I hated the job, Billy came through.
• 7:57
  And, you know, I room with Mike Piazza and Winter Ball.
• 8:00
  I played the Cecil Fielder. I got a picture of Prince
• 8:03
  Fielder when he was six months old.
• 8:05
  He looks like he's 2. He's huge.
• 8:08
  But it's just been awesome. I mean, being in the game and
• 8:11
  knowing everybody, you know, I'm scouting right now for the A's
• 8:15
  and I'm in Buffalo for four days and Charlie Kerfield's here, who
• 8:21
  you know, is probably one of the first guys that threw 100 miles
• 8:23
  an hour back in the day. Haven't seen him in a while but
• 8:27
  it's been pretty fun bud. So talk about your time with the
• 8:33
  Blue Jays and Alex and topless with the GM while you were in
• 8:38
  that organization. Talk about a bit about Dwayne
• 8:41
  Murphy as a hitting coach at that time.
• 8:43
  And you know, what was his philosophies?
• 8:46
  What was his way of like his hitting style with these players
• 8:50
  and how did he work around with the players?
• 8:52
  And talk about how you were involved in in any way possible.
• 8:57
  Well, when I first came over, you know why my agency thing
• 9:00
  fell apart and I needed a job. And Tony Lacava, who's, you
• 9:04
  know, been with the Blue Jays for a long time, he's, you know,
• 9:08
  a special assistant to Shapiro and he's doing amateur stuff
• 9:10
  right now. Well, his son had my CD.
• 9:13
  And so when I needed the job, you know, I, I called up Tony
• 9:17
  and he wanted to hire me, but he couldn't, you know, there's too
• 9:20
  many numbers. So I was lucky enough to get a
• 9:22
  job back with the Diamondbacks as a national cross checker.
• 9:26
  I was with them when I first stopped playing for five years.
• 9:30
  And so I did the agent for seven.
• 9:32
  I go back to the Diamondbacks and I was a national cross
• 9:35
  checker. And then the next year I get a
• 9:39
  call from Tony's like spring. I got it man, 2 year deal,
• 9:43
  National League West pro scout. And so I came over to the Blue
• 9:47
  Jays and Tony had the the, the mastermind of he knew that, you
• 9:52
  know, I could talk to players and, you know, teach players how
• 9:55
  to compete with confidence when the stuff isn't going right is
• 9:58
  what I do. And, and he wanted me to get in
• 10:01
  the player development. So for the first year I, I did,
• 10:04
  I scouted and then he brought me to instructional league and I
• 10:07
  clicked with all the coaches. I played against most of them.
• 10:11
  And so I would do both because when Alex and topless was there,
• 10:15
  he had more scouts than anybody. We had like 15 scouts and every
• 10:20
  every scout had two organizations.
• 10:22
  Well, the Blue Jays were 1. So I scout the angels and then I
• 10:26
  my other team would be the Blue Jays where I would go and do
• 10:29
  player development stuff. I'd I'd Rove 3434, you know,
• 10:33
  days go to a ball AA AAA big leagues and try and talk to kids
• 10:38
  about, you know, how to compete with confidence when it's not
• 10:40
  going well. And I did that for about four
• 10:43
  years and then Alex called me out of the blue and he's like
• 10:46
  spring, I don't want you to scout anymore.
• 10:48
  I want you to run our players and I'm like, well, that's
• 10:51
  great, But my wife likes what I'm doing right now because I
• 10:53
  get to get home and now it's just like keep the same
• 10:56
  schedule, just make phone calls when you're at home.
• 10:58
  So my job got better when I came home.
• 11:00
  I didn't have to scout. And so I was the mental coach
• 11:03
  for the Blue Jays probably four or five years just straight and
• 11:07
  you know, it was awesome. You know, I know Dwayne Murphy
• 11:09
  from the the Diamondbacks when I was with them and I just think
• 11:14
  he's the best. Him and Sido Gaston were there
• 11:16
  and they, they, they, they bought into what I taught too.
• 11:20
  They, they knew I knew what I was doing.
• 11:23
  I was big in the hunting speeds and, and not trying to hit the
• 11:26
  fastball curveball slide up, change over the OO count.
• 11:29
  I think that's the second thing that gets players out right now.
• 11:31
  I think the first thing is, you know, too many, too many
• 11:34
  players, they beat themselves up over yesterday's bad day
• 11:37
  mindset. I think stats are a trap.
• 11:40
  I think the batting average is the biggest trap in the game.
• 11:43
  I hit 3 balls right on the screws right at somebody and
• 11:46
  baseball says I suck. My batting average goes down.
• 11:49
  I think I failed. Now the wrong me starts playing.
• 11:52
  So, you know, me and Murph clicked on on hunting speeds and
• 11:55
  hunting the fastball and until it's time not to.
• 11:58
  And I just thought he was a great coach.
• 12:01
  But I thought Alex, it was by far.
• 12:04
  I've been in the game for 44 years.
• 12:06
  I was with the Blue Jays for 8. Excuse me.
• 12:09
  By far my favorite years in baseball because Alex wanted
• 12:13
  your opinion, man. Like you, you can almost call
• 12:16
  Alex an idiot in front of 100 people and he'd say, OK, thank
• 12:18
  you, as long as that's your opinion, you know, and not
• 12:20
  worried about getting fired like he wants your opinion.
• 12:24
  And I just I love being around him.
• 12:26
  I loved talking baseball with him, him and Andrew tennis.
• 12:30
  And you know, Perry Minassin was there and, and with Tony Lacava
• 12:34
  and, and, and Alex hired a bunch of XGMS.
• 12:38
  You know, Salvatera is here who's a, a scout with the, the
• 12:42
  Blue Jays. You know, he's, he was a coach
• 12:45
  for him. And we went out to dinner last
• 12:47
  night in Buffalo and just really good people, you know, and, and
• 12:52
  John Gibbons, he was my roommate in 1986 and so he's one of my
• 12:56
  best friends. And I would go to big league
• 12:59
  camp like the last four years and live with Gibby and he got
• 13:03
  me into bass fishing. He's a big fisherman and 1st
• 13:06
  bass ever caught was like a 9 LB bass.
• 13:09
  I'm like I'm hooked. That was pretty cool.
• 13:13
  The first time I met Jose Batista was with Dwayne Murphy
• 13:16
  in the cage. I just got there and we're just
• 13:19
  him and I in the cage and Jose walks in and, you know, he looks
• 13:23
  at me and I say, hey, buddy, he just hit 54 home runs.
• 13:26
  I'm like, congratulations, man. What a great year.
• 13:28
  So my name is Steve Springer. And he shakes my hand and he
• 13:30
  double takes me and he's like, you're not quality.
• 13:32
  I bass Steve Springer. I'm like, yeah, He's like, dude,
• 13:35
  I used to listen to your audio every day when I was an A ball
• 13:38
  driving to the yard. And he's like, Q2 is even
• 13:40
  better. And I'm just like, oh, thank
• 13:42
  you. God.
• 13:43
  I didn't know what he was going to say, but I put what I know on
• 13:46
  audio, audio CD back in the day. Now it's an audio file and you
• 13:50
  know, I, I believe that we give ourselves too much credit to
• 13:53
  remember what we're taught. I, I used to make an audio with
• 13:56
  every single Blue Jay player, Beau Bichette, Visio, all the
• 13:59
  good kids that came through, Jake Marisnick, you know, and
• 14:04
  just 1015 minutes of what I think they need to do to play in
• 14:07
  the big leagues and, and, and, and reach the potential.
• 14:11
  You know, one of my lines, Rocky, is if you like your
• 14:14
  abilities and your abilities aren't showing up, it's not your
• 14:16
  abilities problem. It's what you're thinking and
• 14:19
  too many players like yesterday's bad day mindset play
• 14:21
  today. Yet I got a new game, new
• 14:23
  picture and new hero tonight and and and I'm going to dictate how
• 14:27
  I feel and what I did the night before.
• 14:29
  And that's great. When I get two hits, bring that
• 14:31
  guy in, right? I can talk quality about
• 14:34
  stooling and blue in the face, bro.
• 14:35
  I get two hits. I feel good.
• 14:37
  I don't care if it's a swinging bunt, you know, and everybody's
• 14:40
  like, oh, there's spring. The bad numbers are trapped.
• 14:42
  I'm like, yeah, because I know what it does to you mentally.
• 14:44
  I know what it does to you. When you go, you know, hit 4
• 14:47
  balls right in the screws. You beat the pitcher, the
• 14:49
  pitcher knows you beat them. Pitcher's mom knows you beat
• 14:51
  them. Your batting average goes down
• 14:53
  and you think you failed. Now the wrong you starts
• 14:55
  playing. So my whole thing is how do I
• 14:57
  compete with confidence when I'm one for 20?
• 15:01
  And for me, you play every day like it's opening day.
• 15:04
  You plan. I don't give a crap mode about
• 15:05
  me. It's not about me.
• 15:07
  It's about me helping my team. Those are two completely
• 15:09
  different players. You know, you got the you got
• 15:11
  the Toronto Blue Jays. OK, Why, why would somebody be
• 15:14
  hitting 215? They're big leaguers.
• 15:17
  I know why because they don't play with the confident player
• 15:19
  every single day. You know, and I'm telling you
• 15:22
  right now, I I spoke to you heard of Augie Garrido, you
• 15:25
  know, five time national champ in in college at Texas, Cal
• 15:30
  State Fullerton in 2013. I was in Austin scouting and I I
• 15:34
  never met Augie. I knew their coach.
• 15:36
  I didn't know how they were doing.
• 15:37
  I said, hey, you want me to speak to your team?
• 15:39
  He's like Spring. If we go 6 and O, we don't make
• 15:41
  the our conference championship. The top eight teams made it.
• 15:44
  We might get fired. They're the only team that
• 15:46
  didn't make it. He said Augie's not going to pay
• 15:48
  you. I said I'll do it for free.
• 15:49
  I want to meet Augie. So Augie's like what'd he say to
• 15:52
  bring him in? So I could not have spoke
• 15:54
  better. I drove to Waco on an off day,
• 15:56
  same stuff, whether I'm talking to the dad of a 10 year old or
• 15:59
  Major League All Star. Could not have spoke better
• 16:01
  about ready to leave and my buddies like Augie wants C
• 16:04
  again. So I go back in there and he's
• 16:06
  saying, OK, buddy, we're going to pay you for that and I want
• 16:08
  you in here next year for three days.
• 16:10
  He said you're the best public speaker I've ever done baseball.
• 16:13
  And I'm like coming from him like the greatest compliment
• 16:15
  ever because he's the best and Clint hurdles the best.
• 16:18
  And he's like, what's your price?
• 16:20
  I said, I want you to pay me as much as you can pay me.
• 16:22
  That doesn't come out of your pocket.
• 16:24
  He said nothing comes out of our pocket.
• 16:25
  I'm like, good. So I go in there in September, 3
• 16:28
  months later, the same exact team with freshmen and not
• 16:31
  another person on it was one game away from the national
• 16:34
  championship. They did not get better
• 16:36
  physically Rocky. They got out of their own way.
• 16:38
  The slogan of the year was it's not about me.
• 16:41
  It's about me helping my team. And they played every single day
• 16:43
  that whole year like it's opening day because they had no
• 16:46
  yesterday beating them up. But what happens to most
• 16:49
  organizations, most players, you play every day like it's open.
• 16:52
  And nobody in the history of baseball has played opening day
• 16:54
  with no confidence. Why?
• 16:56
  Because they got no yesterday beating them up.
• 16:58
  And then it starts on day number 2 when I got stats and I go, oh
• 17:02
  for four. Now I'm oh for two.
• 17:03
  And now my mind, I'm oh for six. And that's a trap.
• 17:06
  And when you buy ambo, I've seen it happen.
• 17:11
  Yeah, absolutely. So talk about a guy like Kevin
• 17:15
  Pillar, for example. I know that he was a late round
• 17:19
  pick when he was drafted with the Blue Jays, got called up in
• 17:23
  2013. A lot of people knew him
• 17:26
  defensively, but you know, he he was a guy who was batting under
• 17:29
  200. But he fought himself.
• 17:32
  He worked hard at it like he, you know, he, he turned out to
• 17:36
  be a pivotal player during those runs in 15 and 16, right?
• 17:40
  So it's. One of my favorite.
• 17:42
  It's one of my favorite stories. I mean, Ken Pilar had my stuff
• 17:45
  when he was 12, right? And, and you know, any players
• 17:49
  out there think you're getting hosed a little bit?
• 17:51
  This guy had a 54 game hitting streak as a junior in college
• 17:54
  and did not get drafted? That's baffling to me.
• 17:57
  He was at Cal State Dominguez D2.
• 17:59
  There's a bunch of D twos getting drafted. 54 game hitting
• 18:02
  streak does not get drafted. There should have been 50 scouts
• 18:05
  fired for not turning them in. Because you don't look into 54
• 18:08
  bro. You look into the three or 4,
• 18:10
  not 54. Well the Blue Jays took him in
• 18:13
  the 36th round I believe. Gave him $1000 and he was the
• 18:17
  second guy in that draft to get to the big leagues.
• 18:20
  See, there's no exact science on how you're going to do when you
• 18:23
  get 5 at bats a day every day, whether you want them or not.
• 18:26
  And Kevin Pilar is a better competitor than he was a player,
• 18:29
  right? So we sign him.
• 18:30
  He's happy I'm there. I'll tell you a story.
• 18:33
  He goes to Bluefield. And remember in pro baseball,
• 18:35
  it's 5 at bats a day, every day, whether you want them or not.
• 18:38
  He starts off the year 3 for 4/2 for 4/3 for 4-5 at bats a day,
• 18:44
  every day. Oh, for 50 for 50 for four.
• 18:48
  And I get a call from Mama. I know it's coming, he said.
• 18:51
  I said, what's up, buddy, how are you?
• 18:52
  He's like, I'm scuffling. I said, what are you trying to
• 18:54
  do, get hits? He said, yeah.
• 18:55
  I said no. I said be the best competitor on
• 18:57
  the field with an attainable goal to hit the ball hard and
• 18:59
  help a team win, Get rid of stats.
• 19:01
  I'm almost scolding him, right? He told the official score some
• 19:04
  little intern in Bluefield. I don't want to see my batting
• 19:06
  average on the board the rest of the year.
• 19:09
  And the kids like, OK, he end up leading the league in hitting.
• 19:12
  He ends up going to the Midwest League.
• 19:15
  He's MVP of the league, right? I talked to the Blue Jays and
• 19:19
  spend a lot of money on Best Buy gift cards.
• 19:21
  We had three winners per week per team.
• 19:23
  Whoever had the most quality at best got a $25 Best Buy gift
• 19:27
  card and we had one guy go one for 21 time and he won a card.
• 19:31
  How does that happen? He got one hit, he got a couple
• 19:33
  bunts down, help the team. He got a couple runners over
• 19:36
  from 2nd to 3rd with nobody else help the team and he had 7 balls
• 19:39
  right on the screws right at somebody who's 12 for 20.
• 19:42
  And that will get you a card. And that was Kevin Pillar.
• 19:45
  And you know, as good as Kevin is, right, he second guy in his
• 19:50
  draft to get the big leagues, the big leagues a little bit
• 19:52
  different. What would he do?
• 19:54
  He end up hitting 200, maybe his first two or three call UPS.
• 19:57
  Why did he get the third and fourth chance?
• 20:00
  Because he's a Gold Glove center fielder.
• 20:03
  And and players out there, if you're not going to be at least
• 20:06
  a tick above average defender, stop dreaming about playing in
• 20:10
  the big leagues. It's not going to happen.
• 20:12
  You got to play both sides of the ball.
• 20:13
  When I'm scouting right now and I'll see a guy that I like in
• 20:16
  the batter's box and he's a blow average defender, I can't stuff
• 20:20
  him. You know, I, I, you mean we're
• 20:22
  looking for baseball players, We're looking for guys with
• 20:24
  instincts. We're looking for guys that play
• 20:26
  both sides of the ball. And I just believe that the
• 20:30
  mental side is everything. I used to think that that
• 20:33
  baseball is about the mind, the approach and mechanics.
• 20:37
  All three important in that order.
• 20:39
  I've changed it. I think it's about the approach
• 20:41
  to mind and mechanics, in that order.
• 20:43
  Because I don't care how confident you are.
• 20:45
  I don't care how good your mechanics are.
• 20:46
  If your approach sucks, you're going to lose your confidence
• 20:49
  and your mechanics are going to break down.
• 20:51
  And This is why I'm in the hunting speeds.
• 20:54
  I'll ask you, I'll ask the audience the stupidest question
• 20:57
  you're ever going to hear. Is it easier to hit one pitch
• 20:59
  when you know it's coming or three and you don't, right.
• 21:02
  If I told you here comes a fastball 100% and you can't put
• 21:05
  a good swing on it, then go play soccer, bud.
• 21:08
  We got to be able to do that. But I'm telling you right now, I
• 21:11
  scout every night. The OO fastball is extinct.
• 21:15
  The three two fastball not throwing anymore.
• 21:18
  It's a slider. Because this for me, this is one
• 21:21
  of the problems with pro baseball right now is we're
• 21:23
  teaching power over hit ability and we're teaching strikeouts
• 21:26
  over ground balls and those are in their individual glory stats.
• 21:30
  I want win the game stats. You know, if I got a runner on
• 21:34
  on third base with the infield back early in the game, how
• 21:38
  about some ground ball angle for the shortstop and get the run
• 21:41
  in? You know, we, we got to, we got
• 21:44
  to play to win the game. And, and, and I shot a tweet the
• 21:49
  other day. I'm pretty big Twitter guy out
• 21:52
  there. And I said, I said, man, we, we
• 21:55
  have to get great at, at, at learning how to figure out that
• 22:00
  it's not about me. It's about me helping my team.
• 22:01
  Those are two completely different players and when you
• 22:04
  play every day like it's opening day and you play and I don't
• 22:06
  give a crap. What about me?
• 22:08
  Trust me, you got the right guy playing.
• 22:10
  See, we, we think we have a 25 man roster, 26 man roster.
• 22:14
  Now trust me, it's a 50 man because everybody's got two
• 22:17
  players and I got confident who's a good player and I got a
• 22:20
  non confident guy who sucks and he plays too much.
• 22:23
  So if I'm good when I'm confident, would you agree?
• 22:26
  We're all good when we're confident, right?
• 22:28
  And we and we all suck when we don't have confidence.
• 22:30
  What's the question? The question is how do I create
• 22:33
  confidence? Because I'm good when I have it.
• 22:35
  And This is why when you change what you think success is, you
• 22:37
  hit the ball hard, you win. With the Blue Jays, we had an
• 22:40
  annual award. Whoever the most quality at bats
• 22:43
  for the season got a big check and a Max bat trophy.
• 22:48
  And our AA guy, David Cooper, who got to the big leagues, he
• 22:53
  said he had more quality at bats than anybody on AA in New
• 22:57
  Hampshire, 500 plate appearances and he had 245, 246.
• 23:03
  But he had 20 bombs and he had 80 RBIs.
• 23:05
  He had damage, right? And his and his favorite quote
• 23:08
  and what I teach, he told me his good hitters line out more good
• 23:12
  hitters line out more, get great at lining out.
• 23:14
  So when I told these kids, I speak all over the country.
• 23:17
  I have a mentoring program when it when somebody asks you what
• 23:19
  you do for a living, bro, you tell me hip balls hard for a
• 23:21
  living. And if you get a hit, it's a
• 23:23
  bonus. It's nine against one.
• 23:26
  And we think we got to get a hit to have success.
• 23:30
  And that's where the trap is. That's where the trap is.
• 23:32
  Well, it's one of my biggest pet peeves, right?
• 23:34
  When somebody says, oh, go 3 for 10:00 and you're, you're a Hall
• 23:37
  of Famer. Well, how many balls you think
• 23:39
  you need to nut just to get 3? It starts with A6 or A7.
• 23:44
  You don't just hit 3 balls hard out of 10 in your Hall of Famer.
• 23:47
  You got to get 6 or 7 hard contacts just to get it through
• 23:50
  eight guys. So the next thing I want to talk
• 23:55
  about is you work for the Arizona Diamondbacks
• 24:00
  organization and you talked about certain players.
• 24:03
  You worked with specific players, like for example, you
• 24:05
  worked with Mark Trumbo, you worked with AJ Pollock, you
• 24:09
  worked with Boltsman. What was the experience like
• 24:12
  working with those guys and evolutionized with certain
• 24:15
  things and what was that like working in that in that
• 24:19
  organization? Well, it's awesome.
• 24:21
  I wasn't even working in the organization at the time.
• 24:24
  You know, it's like I said, my quality at bat business.
• 24:27
  You know, I, I made the original CD in like 2001 and it's hot
• 24:31
  now. It's ever dead.
• 24:32
  And I don't mean to sound boastful, but it wouldn't be
• 24:34
  here if it wasn't right. And I knew a scout whose son was
• 24:38
  at Notre Dame who AJ Pollock played with.
• 24:42
  And you know, I think there's 50 schools that recruited AJ and
• 24:45
  there's 49 schools that said thank God we didn't get him
• 24:47
  after his freshman year. Well, somebody gave him my CD
• 24:51
  and he listened to it through The Cave, Went out to The Cave
• 24:54
  and I talked about doing 4 things every day, walking up to
• 24:56
  play with confidence with an attainable goal to hit the ball
• 24:58
  hard, attack the inside part of a speed we're looking for.
• 25:02
  We'll talk about that later. And if I had a game tonight, I'm
• 25:04
  there to help my team win the game.
• 25:06
  He did those four things every night.
• 25:08
  I didn't care what his stats were.
• 25:10
  He was MVP of the Cape, right? I find out hearing that he has
• 25:15
  it, he ends up being a first round pick.
• 25:17
  The guy gives me his phone number, I give him a call.
• 25:19
  He couldn't believe I was calling him.
• 25:20
  And AJ probably called me once or twice a week for 10 years.
• 25:25
  And I never asked him to get three hits.
• 25:27
  I asked him to be the best competitor on the field with an
• 25:29
  attainable goal, to hit the ball hard and help his team win every
• 25:31
  time we talked. Right.
• 25:33
  And AJ Pollock stud, I mean, he had little problems staying
• 25:36
  healthy. He had some freak injuries.
• 25:38
  But when he played, he was a star.
• 25:40
  Well, his new best friend is Paul Goldsmith.
• 25:44
  And if you look up Goldsmith's career, he hit eight home runs
• 25:48
  his first September in the big leagues at like 2324 years old.
• 25:52
  Well, he earned the job the next year.
• 25:54
  Well, if you look it up in April this rookie year, he was sitting
• 25:57
  180 with two home runs in April. About ready, get sent down and
• 26:01
  Pollock's like dude, call this guy good guy.
• 26:03
  I get a call from Goldsmith Rocky, I don't even know what he
• 26:06
  looks like. I've never seen him swing the
• 26:07
  bat. I said the first, the first word
• 26:10
  out of my mouth was your career starts today, bro.
• 26:12
  When you say I don't care what I hit, I said the bat there was
• 26:15
  the biggest trap of the game, bro.
• 26:17
  I said he was one for 20 at the time.
• 26:19
  I said if you go 3 for 4:00 tonight, now you're 4 for 24 and
• 26:22
  the media still thinks you suck, right?
• 26:24
  I said two things going to happen if you're not the best
• 26:26
  competitor on the field tonight. He said what I said, one, you
• 26:29
  have zero chance of being the best player in the field.
• 26:31
  And I said, two, you're cheating your teammates because they need
• 26:33
  the right goal. Spent playing tonight and I went
• 26:36
  off for like 20 seconds and he stopped me.
• 26:38
  He said spring, hold on. He said, you knocked me on my
• 26:40
  butt 20 seconds ago. I said what he said when you
• 26:43
  said I'm cheating my teammates and I don't like that feeling.
• 26:45
  I was like, you don't do it. Be the best competitor on the
• 26:48
  field tonight, bro. This isn't something we have to
• 26:50
  work on. This is a choice.
• 26:52
  Well, thank God he got two hits that night.
• 26:54
  Right now he's texting me a spring.
• 26:55
  What do you have, babe? And he started a 17 game hitting
• 26:58
  streak that night with eight home runs.
• 27:00
  And he's called me his whole career.
• 27:02
  And you know, he wins the MVP about two or three years ago at
• 27:05
  the Cardinals. I shoot him attacks.
• 27:07
  I said, buddy, Congrats, this should have been your third MVP
• 27:10
  because he had two of the dime backs better than that.
• 27:12
  But their team sucked. And he shoots me a text back in
• 27:14
  2 minutes. And he said, spring, I don't win
• 27:16
  this award without you in my life.
• 27:18
  And the conversations that we've had over the last 10 years.
• 27:21
  Thank you. I cried.
• 27:22
  I'm a little sensitive. I'm I'm expecting a thanks bud.
• 27:25
  Hope you're well, but Paul Goldsmith's an absolute stead as
• 27:29
  a player and and times what he is as a person by 10.
• 27:34
  It's just a great human being. And you know, you get guys like
• 27:38
  that that have called you. And I was at a Christian retreat
• 27:41
  one time with my wife. It's called PAO.
• 27:43
  All Major League minor League Baseball players and their
• 27:45
  wives. I'm in a seven Man Group at
• 27:47
  10:00 at night. I don't know anybody there and
• 27:50
  I'm in a seven Man Group and I said my name is Steve Springer.
• 27:53
  I'm the metal coach of the Blue Jays and I see this 20 year old
• 27:56
  kid just smiling and I said you got my stuff, don't you buddy?
• 27:59
  He's like, I can't believe you're here.
• 28:01
  He said, I can't wait till I tell my brother-in-law he's
• 28:03
  going to flip. I said, who's your
• 28:04
  brother-in-law? He said Ben's overist.
• 28:07
  I go, Ben's got my stuff. He's like aha, wait till he
• 28:10
  finds out your hair. And I'm like, yeah, he owes me
• 28:12
  20 bucks man. Burning's illegal.
• 28:13
  I'm kidding, sort of. And so I meet Ben at midnight.
• 28:17
  He gives me the biggest thug I've ever had.
• 28:18
  He said, did you change the way I think?
• 28:20
  Man? He changed my life.
• 28:21
  He was 25 years old N AA beating himself up non confident Ben
• 28:26
  playing not wanting the 5th that bat.
• 28:28
  He said he heard my CD. He said non confident Ben stop
• 28:31
  playing and he was two years later he's a Major League All
• 28:34
  Star MVP of the Cubs World Series.
• 28:37
  I think the Cubs owe me a ring, Rocky.
• 28:41
  Come on, I I changed his life. Come on, they have one in 100
• 28:45
  years. Where's my ring?
• 28:47
  No Ben's overs another great guy.
• 28:49
  I mean, the, the, the, the beautiful thing about this.
• 28:52
  And Trumbo called me his whole career.
• 28:54
  I, I, I used to when I was an agent for Hank Conger when he
• 28:57
  was in high school and, and they're in AA and together very
• 29:01
  young. And I asked Hank if you wanted
• 29:03
  to go to lunch. Well, Trumbo's his roommate and
• 29:05
  he shows up for the free lunch and he doesn't say 2 words.
• 29:09
  I'm thinking the guy's an idiot, right?
• 29:11
  Well, give him my audio, give him my CD, and the next year I
• 29:15
  get a text from him. He said spring had four crappy
• 29:18
  at bats. Couldn't get you out of my mind.
• 29:20
  Want the 5th at bat, two run, walk off, double Believe it.
• 29:24
  And that's when Trumbo was in. And he called me at least once,
• 29:27
  twice a week for 10 years and it was the same thing, man.
• 29:31
  It was, it was. It's awesome when guys like
• 29:34
  that. Daniel Murphy said he listened
• 29:36
  to it over 800 times. You know, I got to kid Jet
• 29:39
  Williams with the Mets #1 prospect last couple years.
• 29:44
  He's 21 years old, tearing up AA.
• 29:46
  And he had it when he was 12. You know, his dad bought it.
• 29:51
  And I don't know, it's just been awesome, man.
• 29:54
  And those are, those are good big stories, but they're true.
• 30:00
  The best thing about it, the best thing about Ronnie not to
• 30:03
  interrupt is I love the line that we give ourselves too much
• 30:07
  credit. Remember what we're taught.
• 30:09
  I think the audio is so underused.
• 30:11
  If you made me better at anything, I promise you I'm
• 30:14
  getting something on audio with you talking to me about me so
• 30:17
  that I could listen to it in my car, driving to the yard.
• 30:20
  I could listen to it, you know, maybe before a business meeting.
• 30:23
  I speak to corporations on the analogy, baseball and sales.
• 30:27
  I spoke to one company that sold the valves to oil fields I
• 30:29
  didn't want to look like. And I went to high school with
• 30:32
  the guy. I said I got 50 employees coming
• 30:35
  in. Will you come tell us some
• 30:37
  stories? I said no, I want to give a
• 30:39
  presentation. I think I could pull up.
• 30:42
  And he goes, OK. And so my opening line goes, 50
• 30:45
  was on employees where I give you permission not to get the
• 30:48
  sale. And the guy's looking to me.
• 30:50
  What'd you say? I said you can't control me
• 30:52
  saying yes, I need to get great given your presentation, because
• 30:54
  you get the greatest presentation and that guy says
• 30:57
  no, You know what that's called in baseball?
• 30:59
  It's called the line out, bro. You did everything right.
• 31:02
  You think you failed now the wrong and you start selling
• 31:03
  because in sales year no, no, no, no.
• 31:06
  And at the end of the day, you're like, you know how biased
• 31:08
  you, but it changes who you are. I said that guy had four that
• 31:11
  that guy has no idea. You just got shut out four time
• 31:14
  five times and that phone called 445 when you want to go home,
• 31:17
  you answer it like it's opening day, bro.
• 31:19
  It might be the biggest Grand Slam in your life.
• 31:21
  And I tell you another thing. I need to like you as a person
• 31:23
  before I give you my business. Well, they had their best
• 31:26
  September in 60 years by 30% just by what his employees were
• 31:29
  thinking when they showed up to work.
• 31:31
  So baseball is like the greatest, you know, analogy for
• 31:36
  life. You know, it teaches you how to
• 31:38
  be a good teammate, teaches you how to fail with class, teaches
• 31:41
  you how to lose with class. Or it should.
• 31:44
  I mean, we're in such a dig me era right now.
• 31:46
  You know, it drives me nuts watching the game.
• 31:49
  Some guy's hitting a bucket and he gets a broken back single to
• 31:52
  right and he's pounding his chest, stirring to the dugout.
• 31:56
  I mean it drives me nuts. That's insane.
• 32:01
  That is insane, man. Talk about your time.
• 32:07
  You know you were playing winter ball.
• 32:08
  You said you mentioned about being with Mike Piazza and Tina
• 32:11
  Martinez, right? During those times, Like, yeah,
• 32:16
  how was that like, man? What was those experience like?
• 32:19
  Like, well, MMM was awesome. He probably didn't remember it
• 32:22
  because I've only seen him once since.
• 32:24
  But I just had a baby, my son Cody, who was like 3 months old,
• 32:30
  and it was winter ball in Mexicali, Mexico.
• 32:32
  And they called me for the playoffs.
• 32:34
  And so I show up and Mike's roommate just got released and
• 32:37
  he let me and my wife and my baby stay with them.
• 32:40
  And he's in AA. He's probably 20 years old, but
• 32:43
  we would drive back and forth from California, Mexico in the
• 32:47
  off days. And you know, I talked about my
• 32:49
  first audio. He had a game plan back then.
• 32:51
  I mean, you know, he's just a great competitor.
• 32:55
  See, if your compete level ever goes below your ability, now
• 32:59
  you're underachieving. Because for me, there's no such
• 33:03
  thing as a overachiever in the big leagues.
• 33:06
  Like Dustin Pedroy was not an overachiever.
• 33:09
  He was a really, really good player.
• 33:11
  But because he's 5 foot 70, he overachieved.
• 33:13
  No, bro, you missed them, right? But you know how many
• 33:16
  underachievers there are playing baseball?
• 33:18
  You know how many first round picks can't get out of Abel
• 33:21
  because of their mind? You know, we give these guys
• 33:24
  millions of dollars, but yet we don't teach them how to compete
• 33:26
  with confidence every single day.
• 33:29
  Tina Martinez, he was one of my teammates in 1991.
• 33:34
  And you talk about a great competitor.
• 33:38
  This guy never pissed away in that bat.
• 33:40
  It could be 12, nothing. And it was like the seventh game
• 33:43
  of the World Series for him, you know, And I remember, yeah, I
• 33:47
  used to talk to Tino about, about, like, watching the
• 33:50
  pitcher and see what the guy's throwing and you know, and see,
• 33:54
  you know, I talked about the fake shake.
• 33:56
  You know, any time that you know the pitcher shakes when he's got
• 33:59
  a 3132 count, he sees he got throw you fastball, he's trying
• 34:03
  to trick you and he the next year I re signed with the Mets
• 34:07
  in 92 and Richie Amro is one of my best friends.
• 34:10
  They send me a care package with a like a glove and and Tino
• 34:13
  signed a card and he said spring 32 shake got him.
• 34:19
  You know, I'm a huge believer in hunting speeds, man.
• 34:22
  I believe that too many guys if you're trying to hit the
• 34:25
  fastball, curveball slight of change up with a 00 count,
• 34:29
  you're basically two strike hitting the whole lap out.
• 34:32
  I don't have to swing. You know, Mark Trumbo's favorite
• 34:34
  analogy is my blackjack analogy. I said too many hitters hit like
• 34:38
  they got 16 on them. The oh, oh, count like they're
• 34:41
  in a bust. I said, bro, we're splitting
• 34:43
  aces, bro. We're going deep sea fishing.
• 34:46
  We're we're throwing singles back.
• 34:48
  Oh, oh, if you can't drive it, don't swing.
• 34:50
  And he's like, that's beautiful. So the next question I want to
• 34:56
  ask you, let's go deep into certain things.
• 34:59
  For example, like you said, batting average is a trap and
• 35:04
  explained to me how you know when you look at guys like Tony
• 35:08
  Gwynn who hit for average each row and you talk about Ted
• 35:13
  Williams was the last hitter that hit 400 and.
• 35:17
  It hasn't been. Touched.
• 35:19
  Yeah, exactly. Like dive deep into those,
• 35:22
  right, so. Well, the thing about it is I
• 35:26
  don't know that most people even realize.
• 35:27
  They say hello spring of the batting average to Satan.
• 35:30
  I called it my first CD. What they don't realize is I'm
• 35:33
  trying to help you hit your highest batting average.
• 35:36
  Like the batting average has no brain.
• 35:38
  It doesn't know who's showing up.
• 35:39
  There's not a confident batting average stat and a non confident
• 35:42
  batting average stat. It's one stat.
• 35:44
  It has no brain, it doesn't know who's showing up.
• 35:46
  David Cooper, the year that he hit 246 and won the quality of
• 35:49
  bat chat, he took the same exact approach and the AAA and won a
• 35:53
  bat until that 365 and then change a thing.
• 35:57
  So this is what I'm talking about.
• 35:59
  I told Goldsmith one night. I said, hey buddy, see if you
• 36:01
  could line out five times a night.
• 36:03
  He's like what? I go see if you could do it,
• 36:05
  man. It puts you in aggressive
• 36:06
  mindset. I said good, here's line out
• 36:08
  more. I talked to him a week later and
• 36:10
  he's like spring. I like it because when I line
• 36:12
  out, I'm not as pissed. You know, line out sucks, man,
• 36:17
  until there's a ward at the Espy's like and you get a
• 36:20
  trophy. Like I nutted more baseballs
• 36:22
  than anybody in baseball. Whether you get a hit or not,
• 36:25
  Why? You know it sucks.
• 36:26
  It's like it's like when you line out and somebody says way
• 36:28
  to swing it, you're like, yeah, right, save it.
• 36:30
  If there was an award at the ESPYs or quality at bat award,
• 36:35
  and then when you line out and somebody says way to swing it,
• 36:38
  you'd say thank you. But right now, our whole goal
• 36:41
  was to win a batting title. And I always felt that I had to
• 36:45
  hit 300 to play in the big leagues and now I do everything
• 36:48
  right and go over 4 and I do nothing right and go over 4 and
• 36:51
  I'm O for 8:00 and I got non confident Steve Springer playing
• 36:54
  and he sucked. So when you change what you
• 36:57
  think success is, you hit the ball hard and you win.
• 36:59
  You play to win the game, right? I mean, if every single team got
• 37:06
  25 confident, the only step that I would teach right now if I was
• 37:09
  coaching is is how do I get 25 confident players playing
• 37:13
  tonight? And doesn't mean you win every
• 37:15
  game. It doesn't mean you get three
• 37:16
  hits, doesn't mean you pitch a perfect game.
• 37:19
  It means the right guy's playing because non confident you sucks
• 37:23
  and he plays too much. That's the only if I was
• 37:26
  managing and I walked up to a player and I'd say, hey man,
• 37:29
  how's your confidence today? If he fudged just a little bit
• 37:32
  without saying spring, I'm 100% here, buddy.
• 37:35
  I might take him out of the game.
• 37:37
  I might take him out of the game because you make it about you.
• 37:40
  Yeah. And when you figure out it's not
• 37:42
  about you, it's about you helping your team, those are two
• 37:44
  completely different players. And it gives you some freedom
• 37:47
  and it's freedom from yourself. It goes back to my line.
• 37:51
  If you like your abilities and your abilities aren't showing
• 37:53
  up, it's not your abilities problem.
• 37:56
  Your first round pick, you should spend 10 years in the big
• 37:58
  leagues. Why don't you?
• 38:00
  Because you let yesterday's bad day mindset play today.
• 38:04
  Excuse me? No, you're fine.
• 38:08
  Oh, buddy, I'm, I'm so into, you know, I'm trying to help you hit
• 38:12
  your, I could tell if you could hit by what your batting average
• 38:15
  is. And there's so many players
• 38:16
  right now hitting under 220 and, and, and, and not even caring
• 38:20
  about it. If I was hitting under 250, I
• 38:23
  would be going nuts. Back in the day, you know, I
• 38:27
  played in 15191 minor league games, Rocky, I had 15192 hits.
• 38:33
  I was really glad to see that I hit a game.
• 38:36
  Yeah, I didn't walk much. So talk about the launch angle
• 38:43
  in today's sports because like, you know, there's a there's now
• 38:47
  bat speed has become a thing, exit velocity.
• 38:50
  And you know, when you look at the inches of the verticals of,
• 38:55
  for example, Josh Donaldson, right, he broke down his
• 38:59
  structure, the way he stands his ball.
• 39:01
  When you when you tee the ball, you have a have a certain
• 39:04
  approach of how you want to launch your swing, right?
• 39:07
  And he he head for power and he became MVP in 2015.
• 39:11
  And I'm pretty sure we all witnessed that it.
• 39:13
  He said he he evolution evolutionizes game through Jose.
• 39:17
  But he said, you know, how does that make a thing a big deal?
• 39:21
  Like when you hit first singles, round outs, double S and home
• 39:25
  runs. Like break it down and and talk
• 39:28
  about how that evolution works. Well, to tell the truth, I'm not
• 39:34
  a big analytic guy. I, I, I believe that Jose used
• 39:37
  to talk about just getting ready earlier, right?
• 39:40
  He was ready earlier. There's no quick pitch in him.
• 39:44
  There's no didn't get his foot down.
• 39:46
  You know, I believe hitting his slow feet, fast hands, quiet
• 39:50
  head, taking a controlled violence swing is that's what
• 39:54
  hitting is. It's controlled violence.
• 39:55
  It's not violent violence, not controlled control.
• 39:58
  It's controlled violent act to hit a baseball.
• 40:00
  And I believe, I don't believe in collapsing the backside.
• 40:06
  You know, I believe in like your back shoulder is the roof of the
• 40:10
  car and your front shoulder is the hood of the car and the back
• 40:13
  shoulder is going to collapse. I believe you need to stay away
• 40:16
  from the early collapse. And, you know, these guys had
• 40:19
  electric bat speed. I believe that if you attack the
• 40:23
  inside part of the baseball, that will create backspin.
• 40:27
  You don't hear too many people talking about it.
• 40:30
  I think there's a big difference between staying inside the ball
• 40:33
  and attacking the inside part of the baseball.
• 40:36
  I'm I'm inside the ball when I'm in the box, she's not throwing
• 40:39
  it behind me for a strike, you know, And when you get power and
• 40:43
  you attack the inside part of an inside pitch, I don't want to
• 40:46
  hit it to right field. If you're right, I don't want to
• 40:47
  hit a bomb left center, but the contact points out in front of
• 40:50
  the plate. And I remember I shot Andy
• 40:53
  Pettit one time in the AAA, I'm 30, he's 20 throwing that little
• 40:57
  cutter. He's 8th inning and 00 and I'm
• 41:00
  looking for that little cutter and I just missed it.
• 41:04
  And but because I had the right backspin, the fence was 330,
• 41:07
  Ball went three, 31332 one, nothing.
• 41:11
  Sorry. Andy.
• 41:13
  You think he remembers that he's had a couple accolades.
• 41:16
  That's one of my, one of my big ones.
• 41:18
  But I, I, I believe you could look away and hit in.
• 41:21
  I don't believe that you could look in and hit away.
• 41:24
  You know, I think pulling pitches that shouldn't be pulled
• 41:26
  is probably the third thing that gets hitters out.
• 41:28
  More than anything, I believe that we, we need to start
• 41:31
  teaching being a good hitter before power.
• 41:35
  I think the better here you become, the more your power is
• 41:37
  going to play. But this is the problem right
• 41:39
  now. We're teaching power, overhead
• 41:41
  ability and we're teaching strikeouts over ground balls.
• 41:44
  You know, Kirk Sarlos, the head coach at TCU right now, he won
• 41:48
  30 games in the big leagues, throwing 84 to 89 miles an hour
• 41:52
  because he can make a ball sink and that is a ground ball pitch.
• 41:56
  Believe it. And I saw everyone of his stars.
• 41:58
  I was his agent. And that that guy's not even
• 42:01
  talked about anymore. I did.
• 42:05
  Me. As a hitter.
• 42:07
  I would rather face. 92 to 94 pitch straight than 88 to 91
• 42:12
  with plus sink. I told Trumbo one time, I said,
• 42:16
  hey, buddy and I got this from girls softball.
• 42:18
  I said when you're looking for the fastball, look for it up in
• 42:22
  the zone, up in your chest. It's going to be easier for look
• 42:25
  up there and adjust to the knee high strike rather than look for
• 42:29
  the knee high strike. And then he elevates you that
• 42:31
  way. They're teaching everybody.
• 42:32
  And he looked at me. He's like, really?
• 42:34
  He said you're holding that one back after seven years and he
• 42:38
  hits 49 bombs hunting the high fastball, taking a controlled
• 42:41
  violence sway, you know, and that's, you know, I talked about
• 42:45
  attacking the inside part of the body.
• 42:46
  Talk about breathing players out there.
• 42:49
  You're going to be your best athlete with your heart.
• 42:50
  Be between 60 and 80 at all times, right?
• 42:53
  The only time I want your heartbeat over 80 on a baseball
• 42:56
  field is when you hit a triple. You want to make 95 look 85.
• 43:00
  Slow your feet down. Slow your heartbeat down.
• 43:03
  You want to make 95 look 105. Speed your feet up, bro.
• 43:06
  Get your heartbeat up. It'll look 105.
• 43:10
  There's very few 100 pence's in the in the world right now
• 43:13
  playing our guy Jacob Wilson, our shortstop.
• 43:16
  It has a little bit of, you know, high heartbeat twitch and
• 43:18
  but I think he's a freak and he's and I wouldn't change a
• 43:22
  thing with him. This guy's again, this guy's
• 43:24
  going to be a 200 hit guy every year.
• 43:26
  His hand eye coordination is off the chart.
• 43:29
  I never met him, you know, but I you know, I believe in what I
• 43:34
  teach and I believe, you know, some guys go, what if they don't
• 43:38
  know? What if they don't buy into what
• 43:40
  you're talking about? I'm like, well, I really haven't
• 43:44
  had that get that happened yet. And if he if he says something
• 43:47
  that I like, I'll change it. I promise you.
• 43:50
  If you say something I like ready, I'm going to give you
• 43:52
  credit once and then it's mine. I come out of the womb with what
• 43:55
  I know, you know, you learn from, you know, the, the Tommy
• 43:59
  of a cross, the Clint Hurdle, who's a big mentor in my life,
• 44:02
  my teammates, you know, remember Dave Magadan?
• 44:05
  He played 15 years in. The bat, He played for the Mets.
• 44:08
  Yeah, yeah. Well, I he was on my team and he
• 44:11
  hit 300 every year. I'm like, I'm like, buddy, how,
• 44:14
  what's your thought process? What are you thinking?
• 44:17
  And he looked at me, paused and he said, spring, every at bat is
• 44:20
  a new season in my mind. I'm like, what?
• 44:24
  Every at bat it's the end of my life and you got this process.
• 44:29
  But the mental side, man, it's about the mental side.
• 44:32
  It's about, you know, looking for something you're going to
• 44:34
  get, not what you want to hit. I always wanted to hit a middle
• 44:38
  end fastball. Never saw him with runners in
• 44:40
  scoring position. My production doubled when I
• 44:42
  started sitting on something I was going to get, you know, how
• 44:46
  could we get all hit? The breaking ball machine in the
• 44:47
  cage and it turns invisible during the game because we know
• 44:52
  it's coming in the cage and This is why you watch the game, you
• 44:55
  watch the pitcher. You do not have 5 bats a game
• 44:57
  anymore. You got 27 minimum right?
• 45:00
  If I got a little lefty out there throwing 21 change ups to
• 45:02
  my buddy and is successful and I come up with the bases loaded
• 45:06
  with a 21 count. I'm a little educated guess in
• 45:11
  here and sit off speed. You know how do you hit a
• 45:14
  braking ball you look for you zone up, you load late.
• 45:17
  My whole goal when I was sitting off speed and when I teach it we
• 45:20
  need to take a fastball swing on off speed, speed like nothing
• 45:24
  pissed me off more when I'm sitting fastball.
• 45:26
  OO guys still 95. You got to cheat a little bit.
• 45:29
  You got it's got to be a yes, yes no mentality.
• 45:31
  And then I recognize slider and I already shifted through my
• 45:34
  middle and swing and I just put it in play and hit a ground ball
• 45:37
  to short and I'm pissed off running down the line.
• 45:39
  I wasn't even looking for the speed with the OO count.
• 45:44
  Yeah. You know, there's a lot of swing
• 45:48
  coaches, Rocky. I am not a swing coach.
• 45:51
  I bailed. I lunge and I had a bad eye.
• 45:54
  I am a hitting coach. You know, there's a big
• 45:57
  difference between having a good swing and being a good hitter.
• 46:03
  You know, you know, The thing is that we talk about how you take
• 46:08
  your approach to the plate, right, like leg kicks, toe taps,
• 46:12
  you know, they try to find a way to generate power because power
• 46:15
  is becoming more of a trending factor now because that's where
• 46:19
  the big bucks are at, right. So how do you how do you compare
• 46:23
  those? And is there any other batting
• 46:25
  stances that that you see as in like, is there a way you could
• 46:30
  have a balance, a compact type of hitting?
• 46:32
  Like, for example, Cal, Cal Ripken, like you look at his
• 46:35
  stance like he had a unique, unusual stance and you don't see
• 46:38
  those in today's baseball, right?
• 46:40
  Like how do you look at that? Well, look at look at the
• 46:44
  Goldsmith. It's more of just a little
• 46:46
  weight shift with both feet on the ground, almost like a no
• 46:49
  stride. See these guys are strong enough
• 46:52
  I don't need to hit 450 home runs.
• 46:55
  Like like I said, 380 works in a 375 gap.
• 46:59
  I believe that the better here you become, the more your power
• 47:01
  is going to play. I think power is the most
• 47:03
  overrated tool in scouting. If you can't hit, you know, I
• 47:06
  mean, look at Nolan Coronado. He's a very slow feet guy.
• 47:09
  I played, I played junior football with Nolan's dad when I
• 47:12
  when I was eight. I've known Nolan his his whole
• 47:15
  life. And I know when he wants to
• 47:17
  talk, they'll shoot me a text. Spring, how you doing?
• 47:19
  And I'm like, I'm good buddy, you know, but I don't know, 6-7
• 47:23
  years ago. I get the text and I call him
• 47:25
  up. I look at his stats.
• 47:27
  He's hitting 270 or 30 bombs and 95 RBI with the month of play.
• 47:30
  I'm thinking he's doing great. I said what's up buddy said
• 47:33
  Spring. I've pissed away the last two
• 47:35
  months mentally. I'm like, really?
• 47:37
  I said you're that good, you got these numbers and you thrown
• 47:40
  away two months. I go what's up?
• 47:42
  He's like up to Lewitz. You got trade us the Blue Jays,
• 47:45
  their team wasn't doing well. I said, buddy, give me 30 days
• 47:49
  of being the best competitor on the field, Give me 30 days of
• 47:52
  opening day mindset and try to line out five times.
• 47:56
  I said non confident Nolan Aaron Otto sucks.
• 47:58
  He says you're right. I said, then he can't play right
• 48:01
  that night, Bomb next night, 2 bombs.
• 48:04
  Next night, bomb next night, two.
• 48:05
  He hits eight home runs in 12 days.
• 48:08
  On the 13th day, he goes, oh, for four and he shoots me a
• 48:10
  text. Why is it so hard to stay
• 48:12
  consistent? I'm like, bro, you just say 8
• 48:15
  bombs in 12 days. I said that pitcher's driving a
• 48:18
  Mercedes too, bro, right? Well, what drives these players
• 48:22
  almost hurts them because they're borderline
• 48:23
  perfectionist. And you know what happens when
• 48:27
  you think you got to be perfect? You're never going to be.
• 48:30
  So you're always pissed off. You're always in a bad mood.
• 48:32
  How do you get labeled a great player when it's all said and
• 48:34
  done? You don't be perfect every day.
• 48:37
  You try to be good every day, get great at being good.
• 48:41
  And then at the end of your career, oh, he's a great player.
• 48:45
  Because, buddy, you're talking to a guy that didn't start in
• 48:47
  high school. I got cut in college.
• 48:49
  I was told my whole life, you're too small.
• 48:51
  You're only because you're brother.
• 48:53
  And I played in the Beyblings as briefly as it was, I like to
• 48:57
  say, parts of two seasons. It sounds better than 36 days.
• 49:02
  You know, Billy Bean's quote on my website, he said, spring, if
• 49:04
  you knew this at 18 instead of learning in that 30, people
• 49:07
  might know who you are. Thanks buddy.
• 49:12
  No, I get that. So as far as the launch angles
• 49:16
  in the different styles, I believe if you have a leg kick
• 49:20
  and you're not hitting, get rid of leg kick.
• 49:22
  Some guys like it. I never tried it.
• 49:25
  You know, I, I wanted contact. I, I, I'm not on the 200
• 49:29
  strikeout guy. You know, let's be a tough out,
• 49:33
  you know, with two strikes, 2 strikes, bring the plate back.
• 49:37
  Any right-handed hitter in baseball, I believe 70%, maybe
• 49:41
  even 80 of their strikeouts are chasing.
• 49:44
  Breaking balls aren't even strikes and so I think there
• 49:47
  were two strikes. Think fastball away about 6070%,
• 49:51
  but you better have 3040% breaking ball and let the ball
• 49:55
  get a little bit. Deeper.
• 49:57
  And and so it could be a tough out.
• 49:58
  I'd rather have my my players take two fastballs out of 10 on
• 50:03
  the inside for a strike three then chasing 8 breaking balls on
• 50:07
  our even strikes. Wow.
• 50:13
  So the next question is I want to ask you about the mental
• 50:15
  aspects of of these approaches, right?
• 50:18
  Like you talk about the way they they look at the plate, for
• 50:23
  example, you look at breaking balls.
• 50:26
  Some, some people can hit the breaking ball.
• 50:29
  And I mean, it's not, it's a lot easier to hit compared to a
• 50:33
  fastball, but some people feel comfortable hitting the
• 50:35
  fastball, right? And, and, and when you look at
• 50:39
  the aspects and when you look at the way they approach at the
• 50:42
  plate and mentally, what, what, what are they expecting more?
• 50:44
  Are they expecting more on the fastball at this point or
• 50:47
  they're expecting to to look at other pitches and just work
• 50:52
  their counts? I, I think that most players
• 50:56
  can't get off the fastball. They're thinking fastball and
• 50:59
  that's fine. And I mean, a lot of, lot of
• 51:00
  coaches teach that don't get off the fastball.
• 51:03
  And I, I feel that's great until you never see it.
• 51:07
  And This is why you watch the game and you watch the pitcher
• 51:10
  and you see what he's got working tonight.
• 51:11
  I'm telling you right now, back-to-back fastballs and the
• 51:16
  minor leagues are extinct. They don't throw it 32.
• 51:21
  They don't throw fastballs anymore.
• 51:22
  It's a slider because they don't care if they walk yet.
• 51:25
  So I I, I'm, I'm, I've been under conclusion that if you
• 51:29
  could become a good breaking ball hitter nowadays, I think
• 51:32
  you're going to have a better chance playing at the highest
• 51:34
  level. I think we should all be able to
• 51:35
  hit a fastball. If I told you it was coming.
• 51:39
  If you if I'm sitting fastball OO and he throws it on the
• 51:42
  outside block, nice pitch buddy. But 2/3 of that played.
• 51:46
  If I'm sitting on that fastball, you know it's a yes yes no
• 51:50
  mentality, not a if if. Maybe see, I think when you're
• 51:54
  trying, oh, oh, it's like I said earlier, if you're, if you're
• 51:57
  trying to hit the fastball and now you're trying to hit
• 51:59
  everything off and I believe you're two strike hitting the
• 52:01
  hole that bad. I don't have to swing when I
• 52:03
  when I do my talks, I tell these players you want to play in the
• 52:05
  big leagues. The next time you watch a big
• 52:08
  league game on TV, stop watching it like you're a fan and watch
• 52:12
  it like you're going to get in that bat and start thinking with
• 52:14
  the pitcher, what's he going to throw here?
• 52:16
  Right? I tell the dad and the kid, get
• 52:18
  a piece of paper and a pen and write O for F for fastball and O
• 52:23
  for off speed on every single pitch.
• 52:25
  And I guarantee you after the second inning you'll both be
• 52:28
  better because you're studying for the test, the pitchers, the
• 52:31
  test. He's going to give the Cliff
• 52:32
  notes on what he has working tonight.
• 52:35
  His video on the picture 2 weeks ago.
• 52:37
  Rocky is really good watching every pitch he makes.
• 52:40
  Tonight is 10 times better and and I don't want you sitting off
• 52:44
  speed all the time. I always want to hit a fastball,
• 52:47
  but you tell me. Let let let's say Jose.
• 52:49
  Is playing still and he hits a a bomb fastball, his first at bat
• 52:54
  on a fastball for a bomber a double and he comes up with
• 52:57
  runners on 2nd. 3rd is next at bat.
• 52:59
  Do you think 2 out of 3 going to be fastball or off speed?
• 53:02
  They're going to be off speed. So why am I looking fastball?
• 53:05
  You're looking for something you're not going to get.
• 53:08
  I believe that's the second thing that hitters out they
• 53:10
  they're looking for everything. They're not ready for anything.
• 53:12
  Clint Hurdle said it as good as you can say it on MLB channel.
• 53:16
  He said it's really, really hard hitting 94 and 79 at the same
• 53:19
  time. And why would I want to until I
• 53:22
  get 2 strikes, you know when I can hit two speeds when I'm
• 53:25
  facing a lefty and I'm a right-handed hitter, I could, I
• 53:28
  could think fastball away and let the ball get a little bit
• 53:31
  deeper. And now I recognize that little
• 53:33
  rap at the top of his delivery and he's throwing a breaking
• 53:37
  ball. And because I'm thinking
• 53:39
  fastball away, I'm letting the ball get deep.
• 53:41
  I haven't shifted through my middle end swing yet.
• 53:44
  And so I could still put a good swing on it.
• 53:46
  But if I'm looking middle end off a lefty and he throws me a
• 53:49
  change up, it's a death move with no shot.
• 53:52
  I'll be out in front of it. But I, I believe that we, we're
• 53:57
  not teaching kids how to watch a game when they're not hitting,
• 54:02
  they're watching it. They're dicking around the
• 54:03
  dugout. They're watching like a fan
• 54:05
  instead of studying that picture, man, that's what Tom
• 54:07
  Mccraw taught me. You know how to, how to watch a
• 54:11
  game and, and create some instincts.
• 54:15
  Because if you don't have instincts, stop dreaming about
• 54:18
  playing in the big leagues. It's hard enough to play in the
• 54:20
  big leagues with instincts. If you don't have them, it ain't
• 54:23
  happening. What are instincts?
• 54:25
  Instincts are the ability to dictate what's going to happen
• 54:27
  before it happens. Seeing it's going to happen
• 54:29
  before it happened. That's what instincts are.
• 54:31
  Offensively, defensively, base running.
• 54:34
  You know there's more to being a good baseball player, Rocky,
• 54:37
  than giving an X velocity off a tee in a cage or a flip, right?
• 54:43
  It's about being a baseball player.
• 54:45
  And when I talk to college coaches, I've spoke to all the
• 54:48
  top colleges in the country. I've spoke to Virginia, I spoke
• 54:51
  to TCU, I've spoke to Fullerton, Texas, I spoke to Duke, North
• 54:56
  Carolina, North Carolina State, all the top ones and Mississippi
• 55:00
  State and it's the same stuff I'm telling you guys right now,
• 55:04
  same exact speech. I'm Milli Vanilli at one hit
• 55:06
  wander. This is I'm like a walking CD,
• 55:10
  but it's I did it, I touched it, I felt it.
• 55:13
  And so that's what I try to teach, man.
• 55:16
  And and when you'd buy in, what's the alternative?
• 55:20
  I'm the big alternative guy. Oh, it's all about me.
• 55:22
  What am I hitting? I'm going to try and hit the
• 55:24
  fastball turbo side up, change it.
• 55:25
  But oh count, you know I'm going to get pissed.
• 55:29
  You know, I don't care if you get mad.
• 55:32
  I tell these young kids just don't pout.
• 55:35
  I don't care if you get mad. But when you pout, I'm not
• 55:38
  saying you're soft, bro, but it sure does look soft.
• 55:41
  And how long do you get pissed for after a bad at batters?
• 55:45
  The question and for me one hitter, as soon as that next
• 55:48
  hitter hopefully gets a knock or helps the team get back in the
• 55:51
  game, take a deep breath and want the 5th at bat.
• 55:55
  Man, when are heroes made? Heroes are made in the 5th at
• 55:58
  bat, right? And most guys don't even want
• 56:02
  it. This one, you know, you get what
• 56:03
  I'm talking about when you're over 4th, 4 strikeouts and you
• 56:06
  look at that line up in the 9th and you say I need 2 guys get on
• 56:09
  so I could be the hero instead of oh crap, if two guys get on,
• 56:13
  I got to hit again because you, you see your stats going down
• 56:17
  and you get 25 guys playing to help your team win.
• 56:21
  It's going to be good. You're right now the hitting
• 56:26
  scout for the athletics right now and look at OK pro scout and
• 56:34
  you look at the philosophies right now and, and you talk
• 56:39
  about like how, how their approach is like you said,
• 56:42
  you've been friends with Billy Beane for quite some time and,
• 56:45
  and what's his mindset like when you look at the players they
• 56:49
  have, they have a lot of hitters and what's their approach to,
• 56:53
  you know, drafting guys, getting guys looking at, looking at the
• 56:57
  way you know, they, they use philosophies when it comes to,
• 57:03
  you know, just getting guys that.
• 57:05
  And, and The thing is like, I know Billy Bean's known for the
• 57:08
  Moneyball and all that stuff and he he looks at analytics and
• 57:11
  stuff like breakdown the ideas of what what that organization
• 57:16
  is. Well, I think, I think you'd be
• 57:18
  a little bit shocked on how they value scouts opinions and, and,
• 57:24
  and they try to put everything in because I, I do believe in
• 57:27
  some athletics are good, some for me are not, But they also
• 57:30
  want scouting and baseball people to give their opinion.
• 57:35
  I know nothing about mechanic or, or analytics.
• 57:38
  I mean, 0 if you said spring, give me the average spin rate on
• 57:42
  the fastball curveball, cider change up and I'll pay your
• 57:45
  house off. I'd still have a house payment.
• 57:49
  And, and, and my first year I was in, I was in Oakland and I'm
• 57:53
  in the GM bugs and boots and our, our analytic top guys are
• 57:57
  there. And, and I said, man, I really
• 57:58
  need to learn a little bit more about analytics.
• 58:00
  And the guy didn't even hesitate.
• 58:03
  I said, no, you don't. I said, we got that.
• 58:05
  Just give us your opinion on what you see from your from you
• 58:07
  know your you know how I scout pitching Rocky?
• 58:10
  Do I want to face it? Really.
• 58:13
  I have a hard time scouting left-handed pitching because I
• 58:16
  think I can still hit it. My mind is just like, you know,
• 58:20
  locked in. I, I crushed lefties.
• 58:22
  I felt like I was cheating because there was No Fear
• 58:24
  factor. Right when I was nine years old,
• 58:27
  I got hit by Joe Wood, who was 12 to 100.
• 58:30
  Nobody knows Joel but me. I bailed my whole life.
• 58:33
  My my mom was like, I'm so proud of you didn't cry.
• 58:35
  I'm like, I couldn't breathe, Mom.
• 58:38
  I bailed my whole life. You know, I, I believe we
• 58:41
  watched football for two reasons.
• 58:43
  Yeah. They couldn't, they couldn't hit
• 58:44
  a breaking ball and they were afraid of a baseball when they
• 58:46
  were 10, not a linebacker. But you know, as far as the,
• 58:52
  the, the A's and, and you know, I think everybody, but you tell
• 58:56
  me if this was only about analytics, shouldn't every team
• 59:00
  be great because they all got the same computer?
• 59:04
  It still comes down to to good coaching and and scouting and
• 59:08
  getting good players Our our position players.
• 59:10
  I wouldn't trade our position young position players for not
• 59:14
  too many more people. We got, you know, we got, we got
• 59:17
  the Rooker, we got the Wilson, we got, you know, a couple first
• 59:21
  baseman, catcher, you know, our, our, our center fielder, right
• 59:26
  fielder. I mean, we got good position
• 59:28
  players, you know, and, and hopefully when we go to Vegas,
• 59:32
  you know, they got the Dome. Like Sacramento's like playing
• 59:34
  in Colorado right now. The ball just flies out of
• 59:37
  there. And and you mentioned about a
• 59:41
  guy like Jacob Wilson, like you said, he's going to get like
• 59:44
  200. It's average with a guy like
• 59:47
  Jacob Wilson. He he reminds me like a old
• 59:49
  school player. You know, he has like a Winder
• 59:52
  at his bad approach and and he does not strike out a lot.
• 59:55
  He does not take a lot of walks. Like is there like any
• 59:59
  explanation to that? Well, his hand 9 coronation's
• 1:00:03
  off the chart. He sort of reminds me, and this
• 1:00:06
  is what I thought Kevin Pillar reminded me early in his career.
• 1:00:08
  Like a Paul Molotar, you know, that's that 200 hit guy that
• 1:00:12
  developed power down the road. You know, it's like I said, I
• 1:00:16
  think the better here you. Become the more your power is
• 1:00:18
  going to play down the road. You know, I don't I don't think
• 1:00:21
  true power comes until you're, you know, 252627.
• 1:00:25
  You know, I, I, I watched the MLB channel 19 Cal Ripken was
• 1:00:30
  on. You mentioned him earlier and
• 1:00:32
  they were talking to him. About.
• 1:00:34
  You know what his approach was and you would have thought I was
• 1:00:37
  in Kyle Ripkins brain talking. He said, well, I'm going to I'm
• 1:00:41
  going to hunt. I'm going to hunt the fastball
• 1:00:43
  till it's time not to. And sometimes I would sit off
• 1:00:45
  speed. He said.
• 1:00:46
  Scott Erickson had the filthiest sinker at 97 miles an hour and I
• 1:00:50
  was sick of it hitting it off my ankle.
• 1:00:53
  But I know I'm going to get a couple sliders and my whole goal
• 1:00:56
  is to have power is to be on time and take a fastball swing
• 1:01:01
  on all speed speed. And they tried.
• 1:01:03
  They go, well, what I mean, I mean just sometimes you like,
• 1:01:06
  you know, sit fastball and adjust.
• 1:01:08
  And Cal was like, no, I don't. He said I would rather be wrong
• 1:01:12
  with my plan and have a plan than have no plan.
• 1:01:15
  And I agree with him 100%. Couldn't agree with him anymore.
• 1:01:20
  I would rather be wrong with the plan and have a plan and have no
• 1:01:22
  plan. And when you start talking about
• 1:01:24
  approach, there's a couple things with approach.
• 1:01:26
  Well, my approach need to be right center because I was a
• 1:01:29
  right-handed hitter. Like I said, yeah, you could
• 1:01:31
  look away and hit and you can't look at and hit away.
• 1:01:33
  But my real approach was sitting on speeds and, and, and you
• 1:01:38
  know, like Clint said, trying it 94 and 79 is not that that easy
• 1:01:43
  to do. And why would I want to until I
• 1:01:45
  get 2 strikes, I'm in control of that batter's box until I get 2
• 1:01:48
  strikes. And This is why you watch the
• 1:01:50
  game, you watch the pitch, you see what he's got working
• 1:01:52
  tonight. Well, I was watching the MLB
• 1:01:55
  channel with, with Kyle Ripken. You would have thought I was in
• 1:01:58
  his, in his head talking. He was talking about I would
• 1:02:01
  rather be wrong with my plan and have a plan than have no plan.
• 1:02:04
  And he was facing Scott Erickson who would regularly make him
• 1:02:09
  foul the ball off his foot with his 97 one hour sinker.
• 1:02:12
  So I'm not swinging anymore because he knew he was going to
• 1:02:15
  get a couple sliders. So he would sit slider on the
• 1:02:18
  guy. He would zone up and load late
• 1:02:20
  to take a fastball swing. He said that true power comes
• 1:02:23
  from me taking a fastball swing on either a fastball or off
• 1:02:27
  speed, speed and trying to drive it.
• 1:02:30
  And they tried to say, well, would you ever adjust like, you
• 1:02:34
  know, with less than? Two strikes and he's like, no.
• 1:02:37
  Not really, you know, he said. I'd rather be wrong with my plan
• 1:02:41
  and have a plan than have no plan.
• 1:02:43
  And I agree with him 100%. So the last question I want to
• 1:02:51
  ask you is this is comparing to what baseball was in the 80s and
• 1:02:57
  90s and comparing it now you mentioned about Paul Muller, you
• 1:03:00
  mentioned about Cal Ripken. I mean, I mean, you you talk
• 1:03:04
  about guys who used to hit hit for average and being compact
• 1:03:08
  hitters and being complete hitters, whether for now, I
• 1:03:11
  mean, you see Aaron Judge, he's playing out of his mind like he
• 1:03:16
  like he's he's doing a little bit of everything right now,
• 1:03:19
  right? And he's on verge to be the
• 1:03:22
  crippled trial Triple Crown winner so far, right.
• 1:03:25
  And you don't see those today in baseball.
• 1:03:27
  I think the last one, well, I mean, the last one to do that
• 1:03:31
  was was what Miguel Cabrera or was it even Notani?
• 1:03:35
  I don't remember. But like, like talk about, yeah,
• 1:03:38
  talk about the evolution of what the 80s nineties baseball was
• 1:03:42
  compared to now. Because I remember in 93, the
• 1:03:46
  Blue Jays when they were, they were having that Ramco lineup, I
• 1:03:52
  mean, the top three guys who hit for average were all all Blue
• 1:03:56
  Jays guys. And you don't see that in
• 1:03:58
  today's baseball. Like how do you how do you look
• 1:04:00
  at it in comparison? Well, I mean, it's for me, it's
• 1:04:04
  a totally different game. And all those 9293 Blue Jays I
• 1:04:09
  played against all those guys in triple AI was a AAA 85678 in
• 1:04:13
  Tide order. So I played against the Timlin's
• 1:04:16
  and you know, all the guys that came through there.
• 1:04:22
  I just think the game's changed where, you know, we're teaching
• 1:04:26
  power over hit ability now and we're teaching strikeouts over
• 1:04:28
  ground balls. I, I would like to get back to
• 1:04:32
  let's win the game. I we're in such a dig me era
• 1:04:35
  right now. You know, I mean, Can you
• 1:04:37
  imagine that home run trot that Acuna?
• 1:04:41
  Hit the other day. Like what, Bob?
• 1:04:44
  Gibson or or or Schilling or Randy Johns would do to them.
• 1:04:48
  They're next at bat, but but it's so it's something that I
• 1:04:52
  probably need to get over because I don't know if it's
• 1:04:54
  going to go away and everybody does it.
• 1:04:57
  We're in such a dig me out right now and it drives me nuts.
• 1:05:01
  You know we're kissing the sky on a broken bound single, you
• 1:05:05
  know? It's just like it it.
• 1:05:07
  Drives me nuts, but that's where we're at right now, buddy.
• 1:05:11
  So you know I is the game better?
• 1:05:14
  Is the game worse? I don't know.
• 1:05:16
  I know when I played in, in the era that you're talking about
• 1:05:19
  right now, it's not early 2000. It's a pretty good game.
• 1:05:24
  And it just seems like you know when, when the league batting
• 1:05:28
  average is 240 now. But and then nobody really cares
• 1:05:31
  if you strike out 200 times. For me, that's not winning
• 1:05:35
  baseball and winning baseball is.
• 1:05:38
  I think it was Jimmy Rollins on the MLB channel said, you know,
• 1:05:43
  they talk about angles and launch angles and, and he said
• 1:05:46
  I, I like count angles. You know, if I got 2O count, you
• 1:05:51
  better believe I'm trying to hit a home run.
• 1:05:53
  But with a runner on 3rd with with one one out into the back.
• 1:05:57
  You know, I want some ground ball angle and get the run in.
• 1:06:00
  You know, they almost lost me when they say RB is don't count
• 1:06:06
  because it's, you know, you just don't know when you're going to
• 1:06:08
  get up. Well, if RBI's don't count.
• 1:06:10
  Then then look, let's let's pinch hit Johnny Diaz for Jose
• 1:06:14
  Batista with the bases loaded. You know, and I love Johnny
• 1:06:19
  Diaz. He could hit.
• 1:06:20
  He's a great little utility guy, but.
• 1:06:24
  You know, you cannot tell me that there's, there's, you know,
• 1:06:29
  two strike RBI's. You know, I don't need a home
• 1:06:32
  run, bro. How about how about slapping one
• 1:06:34
  to right? We know.
• 1:06:35
  Before they had the shift. I would hit 700 with the shift.
• 1:06:39
  I could let the ball get deep and hit the ball to right field.
• 1:06:43
  So I think it just comes back to, you know, us teaching
• 1:06:47
  hitting overpower. We're teaching power to every
• 1:06:50
  single kid that comes in and signs.
• 1:06:52
  And I'll bet you that 90% of all players that play the game
• 1:06:57
  aren't going to hit 20 home runs in their lifetime, let alone one
• 1:07:01
  season. You know, really like each role
• 1:07:04
  can't play today's game. This guy slapped 250 singles and
• 1:07:08
  he had power but is disciplined to attack the inside part of the
• 1:07:11
  ball and use the whole field and be a great hitter.
• 1:07:13
  Was second to none. You know.
• 1:07:15
  Derek Jeter attacked the inside part of the.
• 1:07:18
  Ball. Use the whole field, Develop
• 1:07:21
  some power, you know. Aaron Judge is a freak.
• 1:07:25
  He's he's a stud. I know he had my audio in 2013
• 1:07:29
  in college. I'm not saying he's listened to
• 1:07:32
  it since then. I know he had it, you know, and
• 1:07:37
  there's guys like that know Tony, they're just, they're just
• 1:07:40
  so special, you know, and guys are throwing harder now.
• 1:07:45
  You know, we I'm watching the game every night and that guy
• 1:07:48
  come in the bullpen. Bro is usually 95 plus.
• 1:07:51
  You know, so it might be a little bit tougher.
• 1:07:54
  I think it's tougher because it's, like I said, the, the, the
• 1:07:58
  3-1 fastball is extinct. It's a, it's a cutter, you know.
• 1:08:07
  Well, well, Steve, we thank you for being a guest here.
• 1:08:11
  We appreciate your great stuff, man.
• 1:08:14
  Like, man, fans who want to be baseball players, kids who want
• 1:08:18
  to people need to go go follow Steve Springer and listen to
• 1:08:22
  him. But where can we find you on
• 1:08:24
  social media? Talk about your website, talk
• 1:08:26
  about you know your information where they can find you.
• 1:08:30
  Well, yeah, quality@bats.com is my website.
• 1:08:33
  Get my bundle, I call it. I got about 5 audios, one video.
• 1:08:37
  I got a book called Springtime. My life story, hopefully soon to
• 1:08:42
  be a movie. Rocky, I got to get the
• 1:08:44
  producer. The Wedding Crashers have it.
• 1:08:46
  Apparently it takes some time, but but we're going to go
• 1:08:50
  baseball version of Rudy and if that goes, it'll be good.
• 1:08:54
  But everything's quality at bats.
• 1:08:55
  Twitter, Facebook, get my bundle.
• 1:08:59
  It's it's the biggest no brainer.
• 1:09:01
  We're spending 75 bucks on 1/2 an hour flip session once a week
• 1:09:05
  minimum. And I got something that I
• 1:09:07
  believe that could change not only not only kids life, but
• 1:09:10
  parents because of the press that's put on him by the one who
• 1:09:13
  loves him the most, US parents and Johnny Testosterone coach,
• 1:09:17
  you know, my 10 year old to win the Burger King championship and
• 1:09:20
  now the kids playing with. Tension, anxiety and pressure.
• 1:09:23
  Instead of calmness, toughness, focus, having some fun and then
• 1:09:27
  one thing that you better have, you're going to play at the
• 1:09:28
  highest level, Bro, you better be tough.
• 1:09:31
  And I'm not talking about fighting me tough.
• 1:09:32
  I'm talking about. Mentally tough and, and, and
• 1:09:35
  when you learn how to compete with confidence when the stuff
• 1:09:37
  isn't going right, it's going to dig that how far you play.
• 1:09:41
  And anybody orders my stuff at qualityofbest.com, I call them
• 1:09:44
  up. I thank them.
• 1:09:46
  They can't believe I'm calling them.
• 1:09:47
  And, and I speak all over the country and I've spoken in
• 1:09:51
  Toronto a couple times. You know, that's my, that's my
• 1:09:55
  honey hole, man. It's it's, it's getting a group
• 1:09:58
  of 6080 kids together with their parents and we have a great
• 1:10:01
  night. And whoever sets it up, I hit
• 1:10:03
  with their kid and make their own audio, just like I hit with
• 1:10:06
  Beau Bichette when he was 12. Dante senior bought my stuff and
• 1:10:10
  I'm like, what Dante Bichette? And he's like, oh, my boys love
• 1:10:13
  you. And, and I have going back to
• 1:10:16
  his facility in Orlando a month later.
• 1:10:19
  So you never know who you're going to meet.
• 1:10:21
  And buddy, I appreciate you, man.
• 1:10:23
  I, I'm glad we did this and you know, we're friends for life
• 1:10:27
  now. Brother, if you need anything,
• 1:10:28
  let me know. Yeah, for sure.
• 1:10:31
  We appreciate. You once again.
• 1:10:33
  We will place the description below where you can find Steve
• 1:10:36
  Springer. But till next time, take care,
• 1:10:39
  be kind to each other. Signing up for the Sports Every
• 1:10:42
  Twisted Podcast on Friday, June 27th, 2025.