Latest / Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast / SATP Ep.43 Part II feat. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler

Transcript

SATP Ep.43 Part II feat. Jesse Goldberg-Strassler · Sports Avenue Twisted Podcast

0:02
All right. So the next question I want to
0:04
ask you is that, so now we're going to transition to the A's
0:08
now. So when you got the news, and I
0:10
know that there was in between, there was a pandemic and there
0:13
was no minor League Baseball, which was unfortunate because we
0:16
wish we could have seen what those players would have been
0:19
because some of those players either just accelerated to the
0:22
majors right away or or they just took steps back, right?
0:25
So, so how do you how do you look at that transaction when
0:30
the aids ended up being affiliates with the lug nuts it.
0:33
Was weird, right? So I also, I became a dad in
0:37
December 2019. So kid born and then everything
0:41
shut down and they kept on stringing us along.
0:44
OK, no minor league start to the season, but that's it.
0:47
We're just going to push back start.
0:49
There's no spring training. Now we're going to push it back
0:51
to May. Now we're going to push it back
0:52
to June and now we're going to push it back to July.
0:55
OK, Now there's not going to be a season and just all of us
0:57
trying to figure out what in the world are we supposed to do?
1:00
And every single minor league team shedding jobs.
1:05
So I was very fortunate that I got to keep my job over the
1:08
course of this time as we're sheltering in place, which for
1:11
me, as I'm on a very, very, very long paternity leave.
1:15
But then the the agreement, then the Major League Baseball takes
1:23
over minor League Baseball. And then we start hearing all
1:26
the news. OK, there's going to be 4
1:28
levels. OK, every team is going to speak
1:30
for their single A, high AA, AAA.
1:34
OK, Midwest League is going to move up to high A N with
1:37
Northwest League is going to move up to high A.
1:40
And so I'm just sitting and waiting and suddenly I got a
1:42
call from my owner out of nowhere.
1:44
My owner never calls me and he says I got some news.
1:48
And the news is that we still do have a place in affiliated
1:52
baseball, which that was the scary thing was maybe we
1:56
wouldn't, maybe we'd fall out like a lot of teams did.
2:00
We still do have a place, but we're no longer Blue Jays
2:03
affiliate and now we're an athletics affiliate.
2:06
So that was very weird feeling to get to know an entirely
2:11
different organization. And all throughout the 2021
2:15
season, I did little things, printed off the opening day
2:19
roster for Vancouver and I brought it around to my people
2:22
and I said, this is who we could be.
2:24
Because I'd studied the Jays draft.
2:27
I studied everybody that they picked up.
2:29
I was looking at all of our potential players.
2:31
And I was going, OK, who is this?
2:33
Who is this Will Robertson and Philip Clark and Austin Marden
2:36
and OK, who are the potential guys who could be in Lansing?
2:41
And now I'm having to, you know, change lanes and and pull a UE.
2:47
So just trying to figure out, all right, who are all of our
2:49
A's? All the while I'm watching
2:51
Vancouver the entire 2021 season and I still do, I still will
2:56
check in on Vancouver and go in a different universe.
3:00
That's the team that I'm broadcasting right now.
3:06
So with the as being the the affiliate of the lug nuts now in
3:10
the first season that that you watch them, who are some guys
3:14
that really caught your eye? Was it the guys like Lords
3:17
Butler or Jordan Diaz or, you know, just you can name anybody
3:22
that's really caught your eye that you thought this guy has
3:25
the IT factor? It's, it's so funny because we
3:30
were just talking about the Blue Jays when the Blue Jays were
3:33
down and when they came back up, how did they come back up?
3:37
By trading our prospects. And then by Vladi arriving and
3:41
Bo arriving and now Kirk arriving and guys that I know
3:44
very well arrived and made a a great impact upon the Jays.
3:49
So I kind of watched the Jays get bills and now I'm watching
3:53
the Athletics get bills and I'm looking at the A's and it's
3:56
Tyler Soderstrom and Lawrence Butler and it's Max Muncie and
4:00
Max Schumann. It's Mason Miller.
4:02
At the back end of the pen, It's Jacob Wilson.
4:06
It's more guys arriving all the time because this is a team in
4:10
transition that is looking to its farm and it's very important
4:14
that the farm bolster what the A's do.
4:17
This is how the A's need to win is they need to draft well, they
4:20
need to sign well, they need to develop well.
4:23
So I I get to know all the players.
4:25
But it began with a Matt Chapman trade to Toronto that landed the
4:31
Athletics gunner Hoagland, who I got to see on his way up the
4:35
Blue Jays first rounder. Kevin Smith.
4:38
Zach Logue, Kirby Sneed. They continued to find these
4:44
blue Suddenly they had Ryan Node out of nowhere.
4:46
I'm going. Ryan Node is here.
4:48
Zach Jackson was suddenly in their bullpen.
4:49
Danny Jimenez was suddenly in. I'm going.
4:52
Oh my gosh, the A's are scouting all, all my guys.
4:54
They clearly watched them play in Lansing.
4:58
So yeah, now you're seeing Jacob Wilson's legit and we'll see
5:02
what Butler establishes himself as and if Mason Miller can get
5:05
himself pointed in the right direction.
5:07
But his arm is phenomenal. And there's more guys who are
5:10
going to be arriving very soon. The A's, who I got to see in
5:14
Lansing on their way up. It's it's funny that we've
5:17
gotten to see the different organizations get built just
5:20
like lug nuts. Fans got to watch the Royals get
5:23
built and the Cubs get built before this.
5:27
So the next question I want to ask you is talk about some of
5:30
the guys like the Totter Soderstrom's, the Hogan Harris,
5:33
the Max Muncie, not that one with the Dodgers.
5:36
The other one who's with the A's, people get confused with
5:40
it. They have the exact exact same
5:41
spelling, just to be reminded. But yeah, talk about some of
5:46
those guys. And Matt Schnieman's another one
5:49
to who's a underrated player for the A's right now.
5:51
Like talk about those guys. We're going to get to Jacob
5:55
Wilson and and Mason Miller. We're going to talk deep about
5:58
it in the next topics, but talk about some of those guys and
6:01
maybe some of the guys we didn't mention that that that's been
6:04
overshadowed. Max Muncie, by the way, has the
6:07
same birthday as Max Muncie. Oh my.
6:10
That's wild. Yeah, I knew that that that's
6:12
crazy, man. And.
6:14
They're not related, Max. When?
6:17
When were you aware of Max? And Max told me that his
6:20
grandparents were aware of the older Max back before Max ever
6:25
made the majors. Like when Max, the older Max one
6:28
point O, got drafted by the A's, Max 2 point O, his family
6:32
celebrated and they were like, how about this Max one point O?
6:34
And so Max 2 point O has followed every step along the
6:39
path for Max one point O. Denzel Clark.
6:44
The Canadian Absolutely. Superstar.
6:47
He's Anthony Alford and it's the same thing is offered where you
6:52
just need to keep Denzel healthy because he has the talent to be
6:57
an absolute superstar. Tyler Stoddam Soderstrom has the
7:01
swing and the great power. Max Muncie can do all sorts of
7:05
different things. Hogan Harris, like Brady Bass on
7:08
his way back, that's a serviceable lefty.
7:11
They're they're filling out their roster in various ways,
7:15
but right now it's the starting lineup, the very young starting
7:19
lineup where you can see, oh, there's real talent here.
7:23
So now let's make sure that we fill everything else in.
7:26
That's where I admire what the Tigers have done with Chris
7:28
Feder, their pitching coach. As the Tigers revamped their
7:32
pitching, not just Eric Skubal, but the bullpen for the Tigers
7:35
got great, which eased the pressure on the offense.
7:39
And that's the next step for the A's is really to continue to
7:42
take steps forward in understanding what does this
7:45
bullpen need? What does the starting pitching
7:47
depth need? I want to talk about Mason
7:51
Miller a little bit. He was starting pitcher and he
7:54
converted to a closer. Now with the stuff he has is so
7:57
dominant. Tell us about him and and his
8:00
time in Lansing. Do you know the movie Rookie of
8:03
the Year? Yes, yes.
8:06
Henry Henry, Rowan Gardner, Mason Miller is that story.
8:11
So here we've got a guy who's just is is a pitcher on a low
8:15
level college team and he's a great student and he's a great
8:18
guy and he's a base. He's baritone voiced and he's
8:23
all is well. And they diagnose him with
8:27
diabetes, which explains everything.
8:30
Oh, that's the reason in terms of why he can't keep weight on
8:35
that explains fatigue. That explains.
8:37
So once he gets this diagnosis, now they know how to treat it.
8:42
Now they know how to take care of him and now he's able to put
8:45
on muscle. Now he's able to get himself in
8:47
a great shape. And now this guy who's just a
8:51
middling sort of pitcher gets equipped with 103 mile an hour
8:55
fastball out of nowhere and transfers and is on everybody's
8:59
radar, especially his hometown Pittsburgh Pirates.
9:02
And the A's draft him in the third round and they go, yeah,
9:05
this is an unbelievable story. Let's go.
9:08
And he battled a little bit of injury, but he joined the lug
9:10
nuts. I love him.
9:11
Great guy, very fun and very normal, like you'd expect an
9:16
engineer who suddenly got outfitted with a 103 mile an
9:19
hour howitzer. So he just he jumped up the
9:22
ladder and they go as as we're working you back from injury,
9:26
let's just put you in the bullpen because we we're going
9:28
to stretch you out slowly. Oh, you're not going to be an
9:31
unhittable closer. Now you can't leave the bull
9:33
pen. That's where things have gone
9:35
with him. What a dude.
9:37
It's so funny you brought up this whole diabetes comes out,
9:40
the guy throws hard. You know, it just came up with
9:43
my mind right now that the comparison of Mason, but I don't
9:46
know if it's a comparison, but but he had this stuff but just
9:49
sound worked out because he had diabetes was Brandon Morrow.
9:51
If you remember, I watched a video about him years ago and I
9:56
didn't even know he was diabetes.
9:58
But when you put him in the bullpen, the guy threw gas and
10:01
the stuff was there. I remember that one game in 2016
10:06
or is it not 2 thousand 2010 he had like 18 strikeouts and
10:09
you're no no hitter that time, right?
10:12
So it was like, it's like it's, it's so it's so interesting when
10:15
you look at those pictures because like it's tough to
10:18
manage diabetes and, and still pitch the way they are, right?
10:22
So. There's so many factors that go
10:26
into Major League success, especially as a reliever because
10:31
you're not getting used all the time.
10:32
If you're a hitter, you can hopefully work your way out of a
10:35
slump on a day-to-day basis. It can be like today was bad or
10:38
this whole week is bad, next week is going to be better.
10:41
But for reliever, it doesn't quite work that way and
10:43
everything gets magnified and every failure gets magnified.
10:46
And when you come in, you better not fail this time.
10:50
So it really weighs heavily on the mind, let alone if you've
10:54
got anything health wise that you need to pay attention to
10:58
that needs extra care. So for a lot of these guys, we
11:01
don't know what are all the other factors that are going on
11:05
mentally, emotionally, physically, but for a reliever,
11:08
it gets put under a microscope. Yeah, absolutely.
11:14
The next question I want to ask you, he's just blossomed into a
11:18
star and you mentioned his name already.
11:20
It's Jacob Wilson. I know he has pedigree and his
11:24
family with dad was a majors played shortstop for the Pirates
11:28
Once Upon a time years ago. And and we had a guy who talked
11:32
a little bit about his his background going to Grand Canyon
11:36
University in Arizona. And you know, he the play the
11:41
way the player he is. If you look at the way he has
11:44
his stance, the way he plays the game, he looks like an old
11:46
school baseball player. Like when you saw him the first
11:50
time with his makeup, with his work ethic.
11:54
How did you look at it with his if first impression?
11:58
Billy was young. He just came across so young and
12:02
so energetic and kinetic and couldn't sit still.
12:06
Came across like a kid, which I would compare Vladimir Guerrero
12:10
junior the same sort of way that on the baseball field, this is
12:14
someone who is at home. Jacob Wilson is at home on the
12:18
baseball field and everything else, just he was someone who,
12:21
hey man, just playing a game, just like Vladdy, just playing a
12:24
game. I think that is perhaps a little
12:27
bit for both of them, the joy of growing up in a baseball family,
12:31
which is second nature. There would be different things
12:33
with Jacob that he would do that other people wouldn't do.
12:36
Just to give you an example, Guy would line a base hidden to left
12:41
field. OK, so Jacob would go out as the
12:44
relay man. Left fielder would play it in.
12:46
Jacob would immediately catch the relay and be looking around
12:49
and like, where can I slip this baseball that someone will be
12:51
expecting? It was just you could not take
12:55
him unawares. So I always think about his
12:58
defense first. His defense is something that he
13:00
cares a lot about. Then at the plate, the bat to
13:05
ball skills are awesome. Otto Lopez was a lug nut in
13:09
2019. Now a Marlon and Otto Lopez, we
13:12
would always joke would be the best Wiffle ball hitter in the
13:15
world because he just had bat to ball skills.
13:17
He knew how to put the bat on the ball regardless of where the
13:20
ball was and that's Jacob Wilson.
13:22
I bet he'd be a king at Wiffle ball because wherever you pitch
13:25
it, the guy's going to hit it. It's it's when you say old
13:30
school that's the thing, is he plays a style of baseball where
13:34
when the ball gets pitched, it's going to get hit.
13:38
There aren't swings and misses. What's that?
13:40
So the thing that they're working with him on is, hey man,
13:43
if the pitch is not in the zone, you don't have to hit it.
13:47
But he, Jacob Wilson, in a sense, is a little bit like
13:50
Vladimir Guerrero, the first one where wherever you pitch it,
13:53
man, that ball is getting struck and it's going to get struck
13:56
hard. And now, because all the while,
13:59
he never was on the strength and conditioning program, never
14:01
lifted weights. That's only something that
14:03
started since he turned professional.
14:05
So we're starting to see him come into more and more power.
14:09
I think he's going to get better.
14:12
I agree. One thing I've noticed about
14:14
Jacob Wilson too is when he hits the ball he doesn't walk.
14:18
His his on base is high but he doesn't walk.
14:21
Was he always like that? Like, even at Lansing, too.
14:24
Yes, when the ball is pitched, it gets swung at.
14:28
That's. Right.
14:30
You get that when when Vladimir Guerrero junior first joined us,
14:34
every single person said, oh, is he a bad ball hitter like his
14:40
dad? Because that's what everybody
14:42
thinks about with Vladi. The first is rocket arm hits
14:46
everything, hits it by his shoelaces, hits it by his
14:49
shoulders. It doesn't matter outside.
14:51
Inside, Vladimir Guerrero punished the baseball.
14:54
And in fact, Vladi Junior, no, he was raised by Wilton.
14:57
He was trained by his uncle Wilton.
14:59
So the play discipline the entire way through, Vladi would
15:02
get into trouble because the pitcher would throw the pitch
15:04
and Vladi would immediately shout out no, because he knew
15:07
that it was not going to be a strike.
15:09
Vladi stopped shouting out. No, Jacob Wilson looks like he
15:13
was raised by Vladimir Guerrero. I noticed Kevin Palar was a lot
15:17
like that too. He could hit like Eddie Ball
15:19
like over his head. And I mean, he wasn't on on that
15:22
level of of, you know, back to ball contact, but he was also a
15:27
bad ball hitter in that. Regard.
15:29
That's a great comparison because the two of them have the
15:31
same hitting stance in that they both jump at the ball.
15:35
Some guys have relaxed swings. Jacob Wilson in the midst of all
15:39
those Derek Jeter mechanics that he has patterned himself after,
15:43
he jumps at it. And Kevin Pillar would jump at
15:45
the baseball. I want to ask you though, on the
15:51
current roster, I was looking at it and I don't really like know
15:56
a lot of the names that are on this roster, but who are some
15:58
guys that are impressing you this year on the current roster?
16:02
Let's go to our opening day starter who is now up in AA
16:06
gauge jump, which is an incredible name.
16:10
Drafted last year out of LSU, he had not made his pro debut until
16:14
this year. He is going to be a Major League
16:16
starting pitcher and I am of the opinion that he's one of the top
16:20
five left-handed pitching prospects in baseball today.
16:23
Basketball is 9596 unless he wants it to be 9798 and the
16:28
breaking stuff is absurd. The change up is great, but he
16:31
rarely needs it. So he's not the biggest of
16:34
lefties, but he's a Major League arm.
16:37
He's probably 6 feet tall. Thereabout knows exactly what
16:40
he's doing. I would not be surprised if,
16:42
like Kendall Graveman before him, Kendall Graveman went from
16:46
Lansing to the major leagues in the same year.
16:48
Yeah, I remember that. Yeah, yeah.
16:51
So Gage jump started the year in Lansing.
16:53
I wouldn't be surprised if he finished this year in the major
16:56
leagues based on how he's going. There's we our third baseman was
17:02
Gage's teammate at LSU. Tommy Tanks Tommy.
17:06
White. Tommy White.
17:07
Yeah, I know. I know a lot about him, yeah.
17:10
He is a pure hitter. It reminds me a little bit of
17:13
Vladimir Guerrero junior and that Vladdy when he was with us.
17:17
Every single scat would go well. The bats, a Major League bat,
17:20
where is he going to play? So that's Tommy.
17:24
The question is right now, is he 1/3 baseman?
17:26
So he just needs more reps, more time to work on his defense.
17:30
But he's got a Major League bat. Bat is absolutely Major League.
17:34
Yeah, I saw a lot of people in the draft when they were talking
17:37
about him, they weren't sure if the the the end profile was
17:41
first base or not. Yeah, Tyler Soderstrom was a
17:44
catcher with us and got moved to first base and then the left
17:46
field. Spencer Torkelson, you can look
17:48
around and you can see the guys. We were like, I'm not sure where
17:52
the position is, but this bat is a bat.
17:54
Josue Breseno coming up to the Tiger system, not sure where he
17:58
plays, but the guy can swing it. And then two other guys.
18:02
Our shortstop is Joshua Kuroda Grauer, who is the Big 10 player
18:06
of the year out of Rutgers. He's got a chance to make the
18:08
major leagues great contact hitter.
18:11
It's so funny. The lug nuts are the hardest
18:13
team to strike out in professional baseball.
18:16
It's like the A's right now have this philosophy of do not strike
18:19
out. That's Tommy White, that's
18:21
Corroda Grauer, that's Jacob Wilson.
18:23
Then we have a 19 year old starter named Steven Echevarria
18:27
who is very interesting, who was taking on his old high school
18:31
buddy Kevin Mcgonagall. Because the two of them were on
18:33
the showcase store. They knew each other.
18:35
So suddenly he showed that he had 100 mile an hour fastball
18:38
than I never saw it before. So I've gotten to see some
18:42
really good talent this year. And then around the lake got to
18:45
see Leo Devries pull off the mutant cycle five hits with two
18:49
home runs on his way to a cycle. Jason Churio in the guardians
18:52
organization, Max Clark, Kevin Mcgonigal host, Weiber senior
18:56
and like on through everywhere we go or like, all right, here's
19:00
all the Marlins prospect pitching and Thomas wet
19:03
etcetera. So it's fun to go.
19:05
Who is this team got? Oh Zaire Hope?
19:08
OK, let's see how this goes. You know, you know what's so
19:12
funny about that? Because like, look at the bats
19:15
they've drafted and developed. Like they think about
19:18
positioning later. But Jacob Wilson is their
19:21
anomaly, right? And you look, you look at a guy
19:23
like Nick Kurtz or Tyler Soderstrom and now you're
19:27
talking about Tommy White. And they're like, let's see,
19:31
let's work on their bats because the bat has the upside.
19:34
And then we'll figure out the defense later because people are
19:36
questioning that they were drafting Tommy Wade and then
19:40
Nick Kurtz to play. Both play the same position, but
19:42
at the same time, they're bat plays.
19:44
And that's where baseball's trending towards, especially
19:47
now. And if you look at the AIDS
19:49
lineup currently and if you look at the future, they're just
19:52
they're just only going to be a problem too, right?
19:55
So. Well, and I would argue that
19:57
Nick Kurtz is going to be a Gold Glove first baseman.
20:00
I think it's different at first base is excellent, just like
20:03
Jacob Wilson is excellent at shortstop.
20:07
I love the A's drafting philosophy.
20:09
The A's are going to be different than the Blue Jays.
20:11
The Blue Jays drafted so many more pitchers.
20:14
The A's rarely draft a pitcher. And when they do, maybe it's a
20:17
gauge jump, maybe it's a Mason Miller.
20:19
Keep on waiting to see them draft more arms.
20:21
But the A's drafting's remarkable.
20:25
Players who I'm going this guy is interesting whether it's a
20:28
Kurtz or Wilson or Tommy White or we've seen some other guys
20:31
Denzel Clark and the A's love to draft best player available and
20:35
draft loud tools. Colby Thomas is another Henry
20:39
Bolte. I I I really enjoy going into
20:45
the draft and going. What is each team looking for in
20:47
this current draft and the Blue Jays draft with the great
20:51
pitching that they've picked up? Although Arjun Amala looks
20:54
great, the Blue Jays generally have drafted younger players
20:57
than the A's. So it's it really is with the
21:01
Major League draft, you can see what each team's philosophy is
21:05
and whether it works or not. But it's so exciting to me that
21:07
there's so much talent in the draft.
21:11
You know, you know, it's a perfect segue for my next
21:14
question is like, since you've been with the Blue Jays
21:18
affiliates for 10 years and now I believe you're in your fifth
21:21
season with the A's now, how do you look at these comparisons?
21:25
Alexandopolis was there until 2015 and then obviously it's
21:29
Ross Atkins and Mark Schapaio. And then you have David Forrest
21:32
and Billy Beane that are now running the A's.
21:37
And now they look like they're, like you said, how do you look
21:39
at those comparisons with those 3 eras itself?
21:43
And like you said, the pitching was so dominant during the Alex
21:46
era. And then you had Mark, Mark and
21:50
Ross, they, they drafted like high talented and sign
21:55
international players. And, and then the A's they just,
21:59
they just built the way they built.
22:01
How do you look at those transactions and how do you do
22:02
the comparisons or not? Well, we went through the period
22:05
with JP Ricciardi, with the high schoolers, right.
22:07
And then we went through the period where it was college
22:10
pitchers, Dec McGuire, etcetera. And then we went through the
22:13
period and you can keep on looking at these and go, OK,
22:17
what's the philosophy here? What's the philosophy here?
22:20
Is the philosophy that we really need to focus on international
22:24
free agents, which the A's are big time into right now, and
22:27
signing players from Taiwan or South Korea or Japan.
22:31
They just signed this wonderful two way prospect from Japan and
22:35
they hit Cuba and they signed Luis Morales should make his
22:38
Major League debuts later this year.
22:40
But the A's resources and the A's philosophies are so
22:43
different from the Blue Jays resources and philosophies.
22:49
The Blue Jays whole complex in Dunedin is very different from
22:52
the athletics complex in Mesa. The A's, I would argue, have
23:00
been a team with some old school tendencies until recently.
23:04
And they're they're getting more modernized.
23:06
I've been fascinated by what Mike Mcferrin is doing with the
23:09
pitchers. But the A's people have been in
23:12
place for a long time. And the A's I feel like are
23:15
constantly focusing on character.
23:17
And to someone is the Blue Jays in their labs.
23:22
And when when last I was there in 2019 and going down for 2020
23:27
spring training and seeing everything that they were
23:28
building, I feel like the Blue Jays constantly strive to be
23:32
cutting edge. So it's it's two very different
23:36
organizations. And it's cool to me to see where
23:39
it bears fruit for each of them, like the Blue Jays.
23:42
Remember when the Blue Jays suddenly tilted their philosophy
23:44
toward having the best defense possible?
23:46
Yeah. And I would argue that the A's
23:49
right now, there is clearly an offensive philosophy at foot in
23:54
the minor leagues where it's like, hey, guys, we're not going
23:56
to strike out anymore. And we can look around the
23:58
different organizations and I can say the Miami Marlins in
24:01
their minor leagues are trying to steal every base possible.
24:05
The Detroit Tigers in their minor leagues, if we looked at
24:08
every single level, there is a mandate to win.
24:11
The Tigers want to win their league title every single level.
24:15
And we can do that with each team and go, what is this
24:17
organization trying to accomplish?
24:20
And then we can go, what worked, what didn't work?
24:23
But everyone is constantly, There are very few copycats per
24:27
SE. Every now and then you've got a
24:28
team which goes, let's be more like them.
24:30
Like the Tigers hired away the Dodgers people to construct what
24:33
they're currently doing. But it's a really interesting
24:38
sort of personality where you look around and you say, what is
24:41
this team's organizational personality?
24:46
I want to talk about a bit about the, the home of the Lansing
24:49
Nugget nuts, Jackson Field. It opened in 96.
24:53
I believe they did some renovations in in 2014.
24:57
And just tell us what the what the atmosphere is like at that
25:01
ballpark on on any given night. It's cold in April and, and into
25:07
May, so the coldness effects everybody.
25:11
But Lansing is state capital, so it's, it's thriving, it's young,
25:16
there are people coming in from all over.
25:18
So there's tons of things happening.
25:21
And 8 minutes down the road from the stadium is Michigan State
25:24
University, which is a gigantic college town.
25:28
So you've got this huge college town atmosphere and you've got
25:31
this huge state capital atmosphere.
25:33
It's got some really funky, and I mean that in a great way,
25:37
neighborhoods. Rio Town is a cool neighborhood.
25:40
Old Town is a cool neighborhood, and everything meets the
25:43
ballpark. We're surrounded by their farms
25:45
here. There's farms, they're all
25:46
around, and then you've got city and then you've got suburb.
25:49
So you've got a lot of different things all at once that have
25:54
been put together, which is it makes it eclectic.
25:57
And our fans are baseball fans. So the fans get loud, the fans
26:03
know what's going on and they will give us a home field
26:06
advantage. All the while, our ballpark, if
26:08
the wind is cooperating, is a great hitter's park with some
26:12
weird angles that can lend inside the park, home runs or
26:15
triples. Very cool.
26:19
Who? Who would you?
26:21
Say during during the season, during during trade deadline
26:26
season, which is coming up in a few weeks that you saw a shock
26:31
move like you mentioned about Jesus Tinoco being traded to
26:34
Colorado in that Troy Tulowitzki deal.
26:39
Do you remember any other trades or, or or just in trades with
26:43
prospect? You thought, oh, this guy got
26:45
traded, I'm shocked. Or did you have to do it during,
26:48
during your live play by plays like, oh, we have a report out
26:51
there or anything that comes in mind that you remember vividly?
26:56
There was no hug. Watch but I remember getting a
26:59
call from a Marlin scout right before a game and he was like,
27:03
hey Osman Gutierrez, what do you got?
27:05
And I was like, I love him. He goes thanks.
27:07
And immediately Gutierrez I got with Ohio.
27:10
We've traded him. I remember when da well, Lugo
27:13
got traded and he didn't know what to do with himself.
27:16
He was just in the clubhouse gone.
27:18
Well, what now? We were on the road in Beloit, I
27:24
think, when Carlos Perez was one of the players packaged in that
27:29
massive deal with the Astros. Do you remember that deal?
27:33
Yes, it was. I do, yes.
27:35
Deep player deal. So that was the that was the J
27:40
hap deal with Kevin Calmer. What that watching Husky.
27:46
I believe Joe Musgrove was the centerpiece in that Guild.
27:49
Musgrove, yeah. Yeah, he was a centerpiece and I
27:52
believed that was like a what, 2011 I believe or 12.
27:56
Yes, Yeah. Probably 2012 because Carlos was
28:00
with us 2011 and then again with us in 2012 and we just all woke
28:04
up and we all found out. I was looking forward to seeing
28:07
Joe Musgrove. I believe that he was tearing up
28:09
short season ball and I'm going. This guy looks like a great arm.
28:12
I can't wait for him to come to Lansing.
28:14
And then he didn't. Wow, it's it's so crazy to say
28:18
that because like wasn't he in that 2010 eleven draft class as
28:23
well? Because if you remember, you had
28:25
the deck McGuire. So I was also drafted.
28:28
You mentioned about Discla. Funny, Henderson, Henderson and
28:30
Alvarez. Like looking at all those arms
28:35
the Jays drafted in and you know what?
28:37
Some turned out to be great. I don't even.
28:40
Did you ever get a chance to see Marcus Stroman by any chance?
28:43
Yes, I'll tell you my Marcus Stroman story.
28:46
I'm going back to that 2011 draft for the Blue Jays.
28:49
Let's have a look at this. So in 2011 for the Jays, they
28:53
went, oh, Tyler Beatty was their first pick, 21st overall, and
28:56
they couldn't sign them. And then they got Jacob
28:58
Anderson. Talk about a guy who missed
29:01
love, Jacob Anderson, then Joe Musgrove, then Dwight Smith
29:05
Junior who it didn't work out but.
29:08
Just a lovely person. Kevin Comer, Daniel Norris,
29:13
Jeremy Gabariski. Oh man.
29:15
Tom Robson. Tom Robson, The Canadian.
29:19
What an arm he had. Christian Lopes and Andy Burns.
29:23
John Birdie was your 18th rounder.
29:26
They drafted Aaron Nola in the 22nd round and they didn't sign
29:29
him. Do you remember, do you
29:31
remember, do you remember Anthony Ghost was also in the
29:35
system to he was traded for Brett Wallace.
29:37
I think it was. It was like a one for one.
29:39
Into a reliever, didn't he? Yes.
29:41
He did. Yes, he did.
29:43
Did you have any stories about him?
29:45
Because I remember like he was called up and he was like a butt
29:49
merchant and he had speed for days.
29:52
The guy could run. They thought he he would have
29:54
been a, you know, the prototypical lead off hitter.
29:57
He just didn't turn out to be. It's just pretty surprising for
30:00
a player like him. Yeah, we never got to see
30:03
Anthony goes unfortunately in Lansing.
30:05
I went back to 20/10/2010 was the draft where they went Dec
30:08
McGuire, Aaron Sanchez, Noah Synergard, Asherwood, Jahowski
30:11
and then just Nicolino 3 picks later is like holy moly Sam
30:15
Dyson was in that draft. Sam Dyson is another one.
30:18
Sam Dyson, man, go ahead. There was a player that we were
30:25
going to talk about, but hold on back to you.
30:28
So I was just saying that when you look at the plethora of arms
30:33
and and players like they could, they drafted a Chris Bryant Once
30:37
Upon a time, like you said, Aaron all.
30:39
They even drafted James Paxton in 09.
30:42
James Paxton, Yeah. Didn't come, didn't come to a
30:45
deal. What about Phil Bickford in
30:46
2013, right? That's another one as well.
30:49
And I think they drafted. Brady Stinger, right?
30:51
15 in second round and he just just went back to went to
30:55
Florida because he was a high school guy and not get all that.
30:58
But I mean, if you look at every year, these last what about Max
31:02
Pentecost? What?
31:04
What? About that.
31:06
Oh, Max Pentecost. Max Pentecost was, I saw him by
31:09
the side of the bus practicing his casting because he was such
31:13
a fisherman. And he was just practicing with
31:16
a rod and reel into the weeds. Boy, I I wish that Max could
31:21
capture it. He was another guy who his
31:23
health just was never great. Oh, I was going to tell you a
31:27
Marcus Stroman story. Yeah.
31:29
Would you like to hear? That or of course.
31:31
Would love to hear it. Marcus Stroman, it's 2015.
31:35
Hey, he's jumped over us. He went from Vancouver to, I
31:40
believe he went to AA New Hampshire.
31:42
Like he jumped his way up to the organization.
31:45
Well, this is the year that he gets injured in spring training.
31:48
And we've got a good team this year that we're getting near the
31:51
end of the season and suddenly we get worried that Marcus is
31:56
going to rehab with us. We never get rehabs.
31:59
We got Brett Laurie as a rehab two years in a row.
32:02
We got Jesse Lynch as a rehab and that's it.
32:05
We didn't get rehabs, but Marcus Stroman shows up and Marcus does
32:14
this full workout in our strength and conditioning center
32:17
in our weight room at the stadium with the guys.
32:20
And he goes harder than all the guys.
32:22
And when he's finished, he says to all the guys, all right, back
32:25
here this time tomorrow morning, I hope to see you there.
32:29
And the guys are like, you just did all this and you're going to
32:32
do more tomorrow. And his work ethic that he
32:37
showed after he arrived into town, all the work that he was
32:41
trying to put in in order to get back to major leagues.
32:44
And it is always felt to minor leaguers.
32:47
This has been my experience. Oh, guys only make the major
32:50
leagues if they're good, if you've got the talent.
32:53
And if you don't have the talent, you don't make it.
32:55
So just to be able to show what kind of work ethic is required
32:59
to be a major leaguer in addition to talent was highly
33:02
important. And then he went out there and
33:04
he fired hitless baseball in his rehab.
33:07
Toronto media came in. Marcus could not have been nicer
33:11
and relaxed and everyone was asking everything and just
33:14
chilling with him. And after the press conference
33:17
got done, they they looked at me and they go, this is the easiest
33:20
press conference we've ever had with Marcus because the minor
33:24
leagues, there's just a different level of intensity.
33:27
There's just this feeling of, hey, we're here.
33:30
We're here to get things done. And there wasn't that pressure.
33:33
He was so glad to be back on the way.
33:35
He was finishing off his degree at Duke.
33:38
There was such a feeling of happiness that he's back on the
33:42
mound and it all went well. And then up he went to the Blue
33:45
Jays to be part of their starting rotation in the
33:47
postseason. So we had a highly positive
33:50
experience with Marcus rehabbing and Lansing.
33:54
Jesse that man. We enjoyed the stories.
33:56
We could do this forever and ever, man.
33:59
I could listen to you all day, man.
34:01
All day man, but we thank you for being here.
34:04
This was a long time coming. Hopefully we can do this again,
34:06
man. We appreciate you being here.
34:09
We love everything. What you talked about from the
34:11
past, from the Blue Jays to the current A squad.
34:13
Where can we find you in social media and everywhere else?
34:17
So my name is Jesse Goldberg Strassler, and when I was young
34:20
I discovered that if you took Gold Strauss away from Goldberg
34:24
Strasser, you were left with burglar.
34:25
I was like, so on social media, it's Jay Goldstrass.
34:31
JGOLDSTRASS. That's me.
34:35
Thanks for joining us, man. It was awesome just to listen to
34:38
the stories you have, man. You've got so many.
34:40
It's just like I said, we could listen to you all day long and
34:43
not get bored. This was awesome, just sitting
34:46
here talking baseball with you and reminiscing more or less
34:49
about the past and the future. So it was great, man.
34:53
I mean, you just say a player, I'll go.
34:56
Oh, here's a story about that. Here's a story when Patrick
34:58
Murphy and Ryan Baracki wore their Thunder Buddy shirt.
35:01
Is it fun to be able to go? Yeah, These are really great
35:04
times. We will place the description
35:08
below where you can find Jesse Goldberg stressor, but till next
35:11
time, take care, be kind to each other.
35:14
Signing off that Sports Ave. Twisted podcast Monday, June
35:17
16th, 2025.