Latest / Foul Territory / Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell & SPs Lance McCullers and Spencer Arrighetti join FT @Astros camp

Transcript

Hall of Famer Jeff Bagwell & SPs Lance McCullers and Spencer Arrighetti join FT @Astros camp · Foul Territory

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Having a little PTSD here. Guys.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: I am honored, obviously to have Hall of Famer Jeff
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Bagwell sitting next to me. This is probably the nicest
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: he's been to me, because when we played against each other,
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: it was it was hell. He did hit number three
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: ninety nine and four hundred off me in the same
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: game of his four hundred and forty nine career homers.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: But Jeff, great to see you man, Great to have
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: you around.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's good to see you too, Danny.
• 0:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I did do that.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: But there's a lot of times where you did jim
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: the heck out of with two seamer. That one go
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: to you just kind of left over the middle of
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: the play.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Guys, I'm telling you, I've looked up stats that he
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: had against me, and I didn't give up more homers
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: to anybody.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Baggy hit the most homers off me, the most hits.
• 0:47
  Speaker 5: Everything.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: This guy was was tough to pitch too.
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: But let's just talk about why you're here at Astros
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: camp working with the young guys.
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: I do. I do the big league guys too. This
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: year little bit more with the big league because we
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: got some positions in the outfield that are open and
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: so those are younger guys, so I kind of want
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: to see them, how they react during games, how they
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: are when they come in the dugout, and things like that.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: The young guys.
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: I spend the whole year here so that when I
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: do talk to these guys, they're not like scared of me,
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: you know, so that they can feel like I'm part of.
• 1:19
  Speaker 4: Them and part of their development.
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: So we can have good conversations trying to get them
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: in the right frame of minds. And the different ways
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: of thinking about hitting maybe a little different than everybody
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: else thinks, but in my opinion, you can't reinvent the wheel.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Hitting is one way, Just how about how you do
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: it personally to get there. So I just try to
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: help those guys out a lot, and it's been a
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: lot of fun. You know, it's nothing better than watching
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: a kid develop.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah, I want to dive into that a little bit.
• 1:45
  Speaker 6: I was going to talk about your hitting approach and
• 1:47
  Speaker 6: how you teach these kids. I know it seems like
• 1:50
  Speaker 6: from hearing what you're talking about, you still have that
• 1:51
  Speaker 6: old school mentality maybe coming down on the ball, but
• 1:55
  Speaker 6: you know, there's all these different types of ways of
• 1:57
  Speaker 6: hitting the ball now with launch angle and everything else.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Do you do you look into that a lot?
• 2:02
  Speaker 6: Or are you just saying, hey, man, back the ball,
• 2:04
  Speaker 6: try and level the ball up and see what you
• 2:06
  Speaker 6: could do well.
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: The first thing I want them to do is become
• 2:09
  Speaker 4: good hitters.
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: You know, power comes, you know if you if you're
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: good enough to hit twenty home runs, what do you
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: do with the other five hundred that bats? You punch out?
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: Grounded and third, rounded and short pulling off the ball? Guys,
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: get this guy second and third with less than two outs.
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: If you're trying your launch angle and dropping your barrel,
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: you're not going to be very successful. So I want
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: them to become good hitters first, and so I understand
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: what is out there and what it's taught, but I
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: do I really am a believer in you know, there's
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: only there's certain ways to go about hitting.
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: Everybody's different.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: If there was one way to do it, we'd all
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: do it a hundred years ago, they'd have done it
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: the same way. But everybody's got a different stance. Todd,
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: you had a different stance than I did. But we're
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: all being successful in our own right. But how do
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: we get to that position of hitting the line drives.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: You know the phrase I hate is hit the ball
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: in the air. You hit the ball in the air,
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: those are outs. Generally, the only guy that can hit
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: the ball in the air consistently not make outs is
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: Aaron Judge.
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: Other than that, we need to be good hitters.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Hit line drives, line drives turning into doubles, doubles turning
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: into home lund So I'm trying to make them to
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: stay through the baseball, stay in the big part of
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: the field. If you stand on home plate and you
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: look out at the field and three fielders in the outfielder,
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: where's the greenest grass. It's in between both outfielders, the
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: center fielder and then the right fielder and left field.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: That's where all the green grassings. That's where you be
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: trying to hit the base.
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: Gaming how much has development changed in the time that
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: you've been with the Astros. You've seen it. Everyone says, well,
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: they were the best in development. Now they suck like that.
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: To me, I think that's sometimes unfair because they had
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: superstars come through. But how much has it changed in
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: the ORC since you've been really delving into it with them.
• 3:50
  Speaker 3: I think we're changing a lot when trying to get
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: hit those line drives and trying to hit the ball
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: in the middle of the field to try and become hitters. First,
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: I think we have changed like that very difficult. You
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: got to remember these kids in high school and even
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: in college, when they go to these tryout camps and
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: all that, or they play in these tournaments, all people
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: want to do is see home runs. So they start,
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: you know, dropping their back shoulder. They're trying to hit
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: the ball out of the park. There's just no success
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: in that, especially when you get to the big leagues
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: and the way the velocity is now with the breaking
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: pitches and all that.
• 4:22
  Speaker 4: You got to be more.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Square and stay through the middle of the baseball. So
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: you've got to try it with some of these kids.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: We just got to get them more upright a little
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: bit and understanding you don't need to charge the fastball.
• 4:31
  Speaker 4: Let the fastball come to you, and you need to
• 4:33
  Speaker 4: hit off the fastball.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: Everybody's worried about the breaking balls and all that, but
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: if you can't hit a fastball, then you can't see
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: them briating. So there's just kind of little things that
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: I that I believe in, and I think our organization
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: believes in and we're getting better by the day.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: Baggs.
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: Has any of the young kids asked you about your stance,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: you know, what made you go that route, or if
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: they've even asked to, you know, teach them that stance.
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, they don't ask me to teach it. I
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: think a lot of people ask me why and I
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: tell him. The true story is in nineteen ninety four,
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: it was early in the season and I asked Tony
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: Gwinn for a bat. I said, Tony, could he please
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: sign it to me? And he sends it over. He says,
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: two bags keep the same stance, Tony Gwinn and I
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: went Tony Gwinn's watching me because I was tinkering with
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: my stance all the time.
• 5:15
  Speaker 4: I said, Okay, what does Tony Gwinn do?
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: He spreads out a little bit, keeps his head still
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: and just tries it hit from a solid base.
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: I said, okay.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: So I started doing that and then it morphed into
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: that whatever that thing was. And I can look at
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: pictures of myself, you know, in different pictures that I
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: signed for people, and I can tell whether I'm hitting
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: well or not, if I'm really wide, I'm really struggling
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: I'm trying to see it bad.
• 5:36
  Speaker 7: Why didn't you tell us that before? Well, I don't know,
• 5:40
  Speaker 7: but it was. It was a chore, but you know
• 5:43
  Speaker 7: it worked out. But you know, hitting's very difficult. It's
• 5:46
  Speaker 7: the hardest thing to do. It remains that.
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: So we just try and make it as simple and
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: basic as possible, because if you get in the box
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: and you're thinking about your back, shoulder, your back hips,
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: the new thing that they talk about all the time,
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: then you're thinking about everything else. To say, I was
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: actually competing against the guy in front of you.
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: Actually I have a true story that I tried to
• 6:06
  Speaker 5: hit like you squatted down wide out and my hitting
• 6:10
  Speaker 5: coach goes, and I was, I was smashing, I was crushing.
• 6:13
  Speaker 5: My hitting coach goes, you can't catch. You can't catch
• 6:17
  Speaker 5: and stay on your legs like that for an entire season.
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: So I go, right, okay, I'll stop. But either way,
• 6:24
  Speaker 5: we're not trying to polish or turn here like it wasn't.
• 6:27
  Speaker 5: I wasn't going to hit that well anyway. But do
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: you get in the cage still? Do you ever get
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: in a cage?
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: And it's funny you said that I was.
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: They asked me today when I was over there, go backs,
• 6:36
  Speaker 3: you want to get in there? I said, hell no,
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: I said, that's a lose lose situations. The night say,
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: I said, if I swing a miss, which I will
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: probably for the first ten pitches, and then I start
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: following pitches off and all that, they'd be like, man,
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: this guy stinks. I told you those old players couldn't
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: hit so and I'm fifty seven years old, so I
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: am not going down that road.
• 6:54
  Speaker 8: Hey, I want to ask you about a couple individuals.
• 6:56
  Speaker 8: So first off, I mean, how impressed are you with
• 6:59
  Speaker 8: Jordan Alva And do you think the team should just
• 7:02
  Speaker 8: let him eat at DH every day? Not that he
• 7:05
  Speaker 8: was getting hurt running around there left and right, but
• 7:06
  Speaker 8: he's had some injury issues and you just want to
• 7:08
  Speaker 8: get one hundred and fifty plus games of him at
• 7:11
  Speaker 8: the plate.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Well, for one, he's you know, arguably one of the
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: best hitters in all baseball. You know, his natural swing
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: is to left center. And when Jordan is on the
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: field and he's in the batter's box, whether he's oh
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: for four or four for four, it makes our team better.
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: Everybody around him is better.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: Posing managers, you can't even bring lefties into facing because
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: he's going to kill them too. So we can get
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: him healthy for one hundred and fifty five games. They'll
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: be in good shape now. Playing in the outfield, Jordon's
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: a good outfielder. You know, when he gets to the ball,
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: he catches it. He's got a very accurate arm. He
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: likes to play the outfield. I think it's important. Being
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: a DH is a very difficult thing to do. You
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: have to have a certain temperament to be a DH.
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: You know, whether it's Poppy or Chili Davis or guys
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: like that, you have to have a certain temperament. He
• 7:58
  Speaker 3: likes to be in the outfield every once while, so
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: I think it's good for him to play the outfield.
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: Good Christian Walker, a guy that came in last year
• 8:06
  Speaker 5: and had to make some adjustments, ended up having a
• 8:09
  Speaker 5: decent year. I mean, I think he got a little
• 8:11
  Speaker 5: bit of flack because of the contract he signed. But
• 8:14
  Speaker 5: when you see a guy like that, what do you
• 8:17
  Speaker 5: see that he could build on but also improve on
• 8:21
  Speaker 5: from where he was when he came over from the Diamondbacks.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think we're seeing a lot better at Christian
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: Walker this year. I think it is tough sometimes to
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: come into a new team and be the focal point
• 8:32
  Speaker 3: of your offseason. When you get a guy like Christian
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: to come in and place first base. I don't think
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: any of us ever think about our contract when we
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: go out there. We're just trying to compete and stay
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: healthy and to do the best we can for our club.
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: You know, he got off to a little bit of
• 8:46
  Speaker 4: a slow start.
• 8:47
  Speaker 3: I think he's learned that some of the moves that
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: he made before him when he was a little bit younger,
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: he can't make as much now.
• 8:54
  Speaker 4: And all of us have been through this.
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: When you get older, you got to make certain adjustments
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: because you're not as quick and you're not as fast
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: as you were, so you got to I'm not going
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: to say cheap, but you've got to do little things
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: to simplify things in order to make more contact. And
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: Christian has tons of power, so he's already making adjustments
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: like that. He's done a great job so far this spring,
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: So I'm excited for this year for him.
• 9:15
  Speaker 5: When you saw or heard that the Astros were getting
• 9:18
  Speaker 5: ESAC parades, were you like, oh, man, Like, he's gonna
• 9:22
  Speaker 5: come in here and just destroy the Crawford boxes or
• 9:25
  Speaker 5: do you think it's something that could get in a
• 9:27
  Speaker 5: hitter's head and say, well, yeah, I mean this is
• 9:30
  Speaker 5: what I've always done, but I want to prove to
• 9:32
  Speaker 5: other people that I can also do that.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: No, I think with Esak, he's just a poll hitter,
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: you know. And I don't think that the wall has
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: anything to.
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: Do with that.
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: Like he had a I don't know fourteen to pitch
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: at Matt yesterday against Sandy Alcintaro, hit falling balls into
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: the dugoutnounced. It's just what he does, you know. And
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: he's such a professional. He's such a good hitter, and
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: he has he has kind of like this feel for
• 9:57
  Speaker 3: producing runs even when he hooks the ball. A lot
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: of times when runers are getting scoring position, he stays
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: a little bit shorter, uses a big part of the
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: field a little bit more, might be left center, might
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: not be right center, but he does a real good
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: job of driving in runs. A great guy, even temperament. Uh,
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: he's just he's been great for us. So I was
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: very excited to have him, still excited to have him.
• 10:18
  Speaker 5: Is it hard to hear that possibly the Astros have
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: to maybe trade one of those two guys where you
• 10:23
  Speaker 5: say would you, as a player who's been through the
• 10:26
  Speaker 5: grind entire season, would you say, man, I'd just love
• 10:29
  Speaker 5: to see the team keep as much offense as possible
• 10:32
  Speaker 5: because you don't know what's gonna happen.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a very fair question.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: You know, basically, you got four guys for three spots
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: and how do you keep everybody happy? And that's that's
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: what Joe Spott's job will be is to make sure
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: he has great conication with these guys. Let him know
• 10:48
  Speaker 3: when they're gonna play, when they're not going to play
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: a position that they you know, maybe Korea moves over
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: to short one day gives Jeremy a day off the
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: east side, place for place third vice versa with with Walker.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: He also can use him in D So we're gonna
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: it's gonna be a lot of work. But as long
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: as there's a lot of communication and guys understand their roles,
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: I think we'll be fine. And truthfully that it would
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: be a heck of a lineup if you see every
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: day that we put out there with those guys that
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: go on.
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: I want to talk to you about the abs a
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: little bit. Now you can challenge balls and strikes first
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: how do you think you would do with that?
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: In second? Do you think this is good for baseball?
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm a big proponent of umpires. I like
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: I like umpires, I like the dialogue back and forth.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: I think the fans kind of like the abs. I
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: think because it's a it stops the game and it's
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: like tennis.
• 11:39
  Speaker 4: You know, you see this thing up in the thing.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: It's either a ball or strike and then they get
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: the yell at the umpire no matter what either way.
• 11:44
  Speaker 3: But you know, when we played, you know, we had
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: to cover three or four inches outside and maybe one
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: or two inside.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: So it's a little bit different.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: With the way the velocity is and the and the
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: breaking pitches, they need to have a smaller strike zone.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: Pitcher would definitely argue that, but it's something that that's
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: gone on in baseball. There's been a lot of changes
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: in the last ten years in the game of baseball,
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: whether they're taking a guy out, a guy at second base,
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: which I hate, I love that part of the game,
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: the catcher rule. You know, there's different rules that have
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: been implemented that are supposed to be for the better
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: of the game. And if the if the baseball feels
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: like that's the case, then I'm all for whatever's best
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: for the game.
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: We had a lot of comments about the Hall of Fame.
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: Are you a Hall Are you a big Hall guy
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: or a small Hall guy? Being in it.
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: I'm not answering that question. I mean, I you know,
• 12:40
  Speaker 4: I don't.
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: I don't know the answer to that. That's not my job, thankfully.
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: You know, I love celebrating great players. But there's been
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: a lot of great players in this game. So whatever
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: the criteria and whatever they want. Things have changed a
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: little bit now because there's more numbers out there now.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: But you know, when you see a guy and you've
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: watched them play for fifteen twenty years, what kind of
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: player they are and where they should be. And there's
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: debates on everybody. Everybody has debates, you know this what
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: been one guy that's been one hundred percent? Uh So
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: it's it's a difficult decision. I'm for whatever whatever they
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: come up with. I'm just grateful to be in it myself.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Maggy, do you remember signing the bat for me?
• 13:22
  Speaker 4: Yes? I do you do?
• 13:23
  Speaker 9: Yes, guys.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: He signed that said thank you for giving up three
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: ninety nine and four hundred.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: I did to me.
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Yes, it was brilliant. I know, it's crazy. It was
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: such an honor though.
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: To get it was great. Danny and I've been been
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: going back and forth for a long time.
• 13:41
  Speaker 4: It just happened.
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: I had actually had some balance that day that I
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: hit off you, and I swear to God, I remember
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: how I positioned my feet because I wanted to try something.
• 13:49
  Speaker 4: Different that day. Sorry about that.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: I had balance and Danny left a couple of sinkers
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: out over the plate. But Danny was great. He was very,
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: very difficult to hit off. He had a good breaking ball,
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: a really really good sinker. And you know, I'm not
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: I'm not a big fan of hitting sinkers on my
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: hands because you've got to do everything right in order
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: to get a hit. But I was fortunate at that day.
• 14:09
  Speaker 4: Guys.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: He makes me feel so much better about myself now.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Good.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I really appreciate you stopping behind me. This was an
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: honor for all of us.
• 14:19
  Speaker 4: I'm sure seeing you guys, Yeah, thank you. Dan.
• 14:25
  Speaker 8: Lance mccallor is joining us right now on FT.
• 14:28
  Speaker 4: Lance.
• 14:28
  Speaker 9: It's good to see you.
• 14:29
  Speaker 8: You seem really happy and having fun out there. So
• 14:32
  Speaker 8: what's it been like this little camp run for you
• 14:34
  Speaker 8: to get yourself built up for the season.
• 14:37
  Speaker 9: It's been good, you know, coming into camp and just
• 14:40
  Speaker 9: being able to build up normal and feeling good, feeling healthy,
• 14:43
  Speaker 9: hitting all the benchmarks, you know, not having to worry
• 14:45
  Speaker 9: about bullpen days and if I'm going to recover and
• 14:48
  Speaker 9: you know, how many pitches I can throw it, all
• 14:50
  Speaker 9: that good stuff. So it's been it's been a good camp.
• 14:53
  Speaker 9: Staying with some of the guys this year, so that's
• 14:56
  Speaker 9: been great, and just enjoying enjoying spring.
• 15:01
  Speaker 8: Are you sick of people asking you like, hey, how
• 15:03
  Speaker 8: you doing, how you feeling? You know, stuff like that,
• 15:06
  Speaker 8: or you're just like no.
• 15:07
  Speaker 9: Happy, It just it just is, you know, it's part
• 15:10
  Speaker 9: of it's part of the questions now. But it's fine.
• 15:12
  Speaker 9: I feel good, like I said, you know, first camp
• 15:16
  Speaker 9: and probably at least five years, four or five years
• 15:19
  Speaker 9: where I've just been able to come in and not
• 15:20
  Speaker 9: rehabbing anything, didn't have any stepbacks in the off season,
• 15:24
  Speaker 9: no surgeries. So it's it's it's nice to at least
• 15:26
  Speaker 9: answer the questions, you know, positively, what does.
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: It feel like? What does your arm feel like? We're
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: asking those questions, but not not like okay, mentally I'm here.
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: Mentally I'm not there, but like, what does your arm
• 15:40
  Speaker 5: feel like at a certain point in the off season
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: to get yourself to this Spring training usually.
• 15:48
  Speaker 9: Always in the build ups for me, at least coming
• 15:50
  Speaker 9: off the surgeries and stuff. You know, in the off seasons,
• 15:53
  Speaker 9: you guys know how it is. It's it's your you're
• 15:55
  Speaker 9: your o FP. You know, you get to take light days,
• 15:58
  Speaker 9: you get to you get to maybe skip a throwing
• 16:01
  Speaker 9: session or a lifting session if you're not feeling right.
• 16:03
  Speaker 9: You get to camp and there's there's not much much
• 16:06
  Speaker 9: room there for you. You know, you got to hit your
• 16:07
  Speaker 9: bullpen days. Obviously, you're you're working on stuff, trying to
• 16:10
  Speaker 9: get better, so you need to be recover enough to
• 16:12
  Speaker 9: get there and then you have the games. And I
• 16:16
  Speaker 9: told I told Hunter one day, we're driving home after
• 16:19
  Speaker 9: my first maybe my second live I was like, you
• 16:21
  Speaker 9: know how nice it is just to be able to
• 16:23
  Speaker 9: go home and hang out with you guys and maybe
• 16:26
  Speaker 9: you know, watch movie, play guiton whatever we're doing, and
• 16:28
  Speaker 9: not have to sit there twenty four to seven. It's
• 16:31
  Speaker 9: my ob gonna be good, Nick tomorrow, I am I
• 16:33
  Speaker 9: gonna be able to throw, you know, do I need
• 16:35
  Speaker 9: to go somewhere for treatment. So it's been it's been nice.
• 16:38
  Speaker 9: It's been a it's been a good good spring. I
• 16:41
  Speaker 9: like it down here in Palm Beach. I'm a Florida
• 16:42
  Speaker 9: boy by heart. I grew up in Tampa. So it's
• 16:45
  Speaker 9: been great.
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: So you talk about you said you have no reservations,
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: which I think a lot of people should basically listen
• 16:51
  Speaker 6: to that as ball players and in life do as well,
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: going and kind of free. Is there anything you change
• 16:56
  Speaker 6: right now with your you know, mechanics or anything else
• 17:00
  Speaker 6: that you've been working on a new pitch, anything that
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: you feel that you're going to be comfortable being ready
• 17:04
  Speaker 6: to throw once you're ready to rock.
• 17:06
  Speaker 9: Yeah, you know, last year obviously coming off the injury,
• 17:09
  Speaker 9: long long break wasn't wasn't a great go for me.
• 17:13
  Speaker 9: But I think you go into the off season, you're
• 17:15
  Speaker 9: honest with yourself, you kind of can take that as
• 17:17
  Speaker 9: you know, the ability to kind of step back strip
• 17:20
  Speaker 9: the mechanics kind of get to where you want to
• 17:22
  Speaker 9: get where you want to be. My sinker was just
• 17:26
  Speaker 9: really flat dying on me last last season. It was
• 17:28
  Speaker 9: tough for me to control, tough for me to challenge
• 17:30
  Speaker 9: guys in the zone with So this offseason I kind
• 17:33
  Speaker 9: of went I went all the way back to you know,
• 17:35
  Speaker 9: twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, saw where the arm angle was
• 17:38
  Speaker 9: before I had surgeries, when I was a focus of
• 17:40
  Speaker 9: mine get the arm back up. So last year my
• 17:42
  Speaker 9: arm angle was like twenty four twenty five coming out,
• 17:45
  Speaker 9: which is atrocious. And so this year I'm back to like,
• 17:48
  Speaker 9: you know, thirty thirty five, thirty six, being able to
• 17:51
  Speaker 9: drive that ball. And that's really the bitch for me.
• 17:54
  Speaker 9: I was I was messing with the splitter in the
• 17:55
  Speaker 9: off season. I don't think it's something that I can
• 17:58
  Speaker 9: consistently grow with confidence. Plus it's a it's a big
• 18:03
  Speaker 9: tip pitch for me. So I'm kind of mixing you
• 18:05
  Speaker 9: should I should I stick with it?
• 18:06
  Speaker 10: Should I go back to the change up?
• 18:08
  Speaker 9: So the way my sinker's moving right now, I got
• 18:10
  Speaker 9: I got a little bit more avert on it. It's
• 18:12
  Speaker 9: not so not so flat and die, I'm not running
• 18:14
  Speaker 9: into those barrels. So I think I'll have enough separation
• 18:16
  Speaker 9: with my regular change up to kind of rock rock
• 18:19
  Speaker 9: and roll with it.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: So Lance, now that you you are feeling healthy and
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: this is like a normal spring training for you.
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: You're one of the old guys left.
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: So is it is it more easy for you now
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: to be that leader that you you wanted to be
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: when when you weren't as healthy.
• 18:34
  Speaker 9: You know what I'm saying, well, as a pitcher, and
• 18:36
  Speaker 9: I think Todd and you know everyone can speak to it.
• 18:39
  Speaker 9: It's hard to be a pure leader as a as
• 18:41
  Speaker 9: a starting pitcher. That's my opinion. You know that's maybe
• 18:44
  Speaker 9: not accurate to everyone, but that's my opinion. It's hard
• 18:47
  Speaker 9: to really be a leader of the team not out
• 18:49
  Speaker 9: there every day, and I kind of in the grind,
• 18:51
  Speaker 9: in the struggle understanding what guys are dealing with on
• 18:53
  Speaker 9: a daily basis. You know, as a starter you're once
• 18:56
  Speaker 9: every four or five days with resting between of course.
• 18:59
  Speaker 9: So I think that, you know, when we've had really
• 19:01
  Speaker 9: great leaders here, like I think back with you know,
• 19:03
  Speaker 9: on Kykol when he was really emerging, Vertland or Cole
• 19:07
  Speaker 9: you know, Hunter and myself for a period of time
• 19:10
  Speaker 9: when I was healthy. I think it's easier when you're
• 19:13
  Speaker 9: healthy and you're out there and you with the guys
• 19:15
  Speaker 9: every day, you're on the road trips, uh, You're you're
• 19:17
  Speaker 9: at the team dinners, you know, you're you're, you know,
• 19:20
  Speaker 9: one of the veterans. So I think there's a when
• 19:22
  Speaker 9: you're a veteran, there's an automatic type of maybe a
• 19:25
  Speaker 9: responsibility to you know kind of guy and and and
• 19:28
  Speaker 9: help with the young guys, you know, kind of through
• 19:30
  Speaker 9: especially when you're pitching, and you're pitching, well, I think
• 19:32
  Speaker 9: you can, you know, be more, be a little bit
• 19:34
  Speaker 9: more vocal. You're more of a presence. So I think we'll,
• 19:37
  Speaker 9: you know, we'll see how it goes, but I hope
• 19:38
  Speaker 9: I can kind of step into that full roll again.
• 19:41
  Speaker 5: A right, Lance, there's a guy on the there's a
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: rookie that's gonna make his debut this year that wants
• 19:46
  Speaker 5: to wear Batman cleats and they're gonna call him Wago.
• 19:50
  Speaker 5: What would you talk? What would you say to that rookie?
• 19:53
  Speaker 5: I'm obviously for people don't know, I'm referring to Lance
• 19:56
  Speaker 5: when he was a rookie. I was there when you
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: were still young, and the scott Ems and the Luke Gregorsons,
• 20:01
  Speaker 5: those guys gave you a hard time. They called you
• 20:04
  Speaker 5: wag goo. You've had an incredible career of successes in
• 20:08
  Speaker 5: different stages, but what would you right now as your
• 20:12
  Speaker 5: Lance McCullers tell that Lance mccollors.
• 20:17
  Speaker 9: Oh, man, I would say, if I honestly, I would
• 20:19
  Speaker 9: say to trust a little bit more, you know, in
• 20:21
  Speaker 9: your stuff. I think I look back on my early
• 20:24
  Speaker 9: career and I watch video and I think, man, I
• 20:28
  Speaker 9: wish I still had that same stuff. So I would say,
• 20:31
  Speaker 9: you know, just to you know, trusting this stuff a
• 20:33
  Speaker 9: little bit more than I did. I think back in
• 20:35
  Speaker 9: the day, not tinker so much. I'm a tinker by nature.
• 20:39
  Speaker 9: Even in this spring balls me coming out. Well, I'm
• 20:41
  Speaker 9: trying new stuff and our pitching coast. Josh Miller's like,
• 20:43
  Speaker 9: I think, I think maybe we just stick with what
• 20:46
  Speaker 9: we got. You look good right now. So I would
• 20:49
  Speaker 9: look back and say to, you know, truly enjoy the ride.
• 20:52
  Speaker 9: You know, don't always be thinking so far into the future.
• 20:54
  Speaker 9: I think that's natural when you're young. I think you
• 20:56
  Speaker 9: always want the next step, or you always want to
• 20:59
  Speaker 9: get to the next thing, and you kind of, you know,
• 21:01
  Speaker 9: you look at your career and you look back you say,
• 21:03
  Speaker 9: you know, I've enjoyed I've loved it. But man, I'd
• 21:05
  Speaker 9: love to go back, you know. As a twenty one,
• 21:07
  Speaker 9: twenty two year old in the big leagues and you know,
• 21:10
  Speaker 9: be able to kind of experience it all over again.
• 21:12
  Speaker 9: So I'm grateful for the for the veterans I had.
• 21:14
  Speaker 9: They were hard on me at times, but I think
• 21:16
  Speaker 9: it was all in hopes for you know, me to
• 21:19
  Speaker 9: be in the future and be able to lead other guys.
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, following up on that lance, you mentioned that you
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: wanted to have that more belief in your ability to
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: belief in your stuff. You mentioned a minute ago about
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: your splitter. Are we really going to see it? You
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: said you don't have confidence in it yet, but I
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: feel like mentally you're there. You're gonna be able to
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: figure it out if you want to.
• 21:37
  Speaker 9: The pitch is good. The pitch is good, but you know,
• 21:39
  Speaker 9: you kind of got to pick you know. Am I
• 21:41
  Speaker 9: going to hold a pitch that I throw ten percent
• 21:43
  Speaker 9: of the time all the time to move off it
• 21:45
  Speaker 9: for the tipping type of stuff? And then when I
• 21:47
  Speaker 9: pre grip it, I get the grip solid. And then
• 21:49
  Speaker 9: if I'm going to be moving off it for the
• 21:50
  Speaker 9: other pitches and I got I got a wiggle in
• 21:52
  Speaker 9: there with the splitters, then I'm losing the grip when
• 21:54
  Speaker 9: I'm actually going to go throw it. So the splitter
• 21:56
  Speaker 9: for me was more of a my two seam didn't
• 21:59
  Speaker 9: get back to some rise and run. If I couldn't
• 22:01
  Speaker 9: get in on those rid e's, I couldn't stay away
• 22:03
  Speaker 9: from the barrel path and the lefties, you know what
• 22:04
  Speaker 9: kind of and the villa didn't come back, which the
• 22:06
  Speaker 9: villa has been good this spring. My first game, I
• 22:08
  Speaker 9: got up to ninety four point six, as I was
• 22:11
  Speaker 9: told ninety five on the board, but ninety four point six,
• 22:14
  Speaker 9: so the villos, the Villa's climbing a little bit. I
• 22:16
  Speaker 9: think there's enough separation with the two in the change
• 22:18
  Speaker 9: up now. The splitter was a pitch that I'm going
• 22:21
  Speaker 9: to the off season, like Todd was saying, I was like, man,
• 22:23
  Speaker 9: I need something to separate from like that lazy dying too,
• 22:27
  Speaker 9: and something that's a little bit gives gives me a
• 22:28
  Speaker 9: little bit more bite. So we'll see how it goes.
• 22:30
  Speaker 9: I mean, it's it's there, I still throw it, but
• 22:32
  Speaker 9: but again it's it's about being able to execute and
• 22:35
  Speaker 9: feeling confident in the game.
• 22:37
  Speaker 5: Are you ever jealous of Are you? And al Tuove
• 22:40
  Speaker 5: ever jealous of Korea? Because he got to leave and
• 22:43
  Speaker 5: like got to see the world and now he's back
• 22:46
  Speaker 5: the place that you guys feel comfortable and have been
• 22:48
  Speaker 5: in your entire career.
• 22:51
  Speaker 9: Yeah, part of me is always like, man, I would
• 22:53
  Speaker 9: I would love to you know, meet, you know, meet
• 22:56
  Speaker 9: more guys in the game, you know, kind of experience
• 22:59
  Speaker 9: you know, other other clubhouse cultures, you know, meet you know,
• 23:02
  Speaker 9: be able to develop their relationship with with other teammates.
• 23:04
  Speaker 9: I think it's a pitcher, especially you never want to
• 23:08
  Speaker 9: be too friendly. I'm a naturally friendly person, but you
• 23:11
  Speaker 9: never want to be too friendly with like opposing hitters
• 23:13
  Speaker 9: and all that stuff, because I feel like it gives
• 23:15
  Speaker 9: him a little bit of an edge. So you know,
• 23:18
  Speaker 9: all my teammates that have been here that I've been
• 23:20
  Speaker 9: really close with, when I face them, it's always a
• 23:21
  Speaker 9: little bit awkward. When I face George or Tucker, place
• 23:25
  Speaker 9: took me deep. That wasn't cool. So you know, you
• 23:28
  Speaker 9: just you just you just try to you just you
• 23:30
  Speaker 9: just try to find that balance of being able to
• 23:31
  Speaker 9: meet people and you know, meet guys around the game
• 23:34
  Speaker 9: and experience the game you know as a whole. But yeah,
• 23:37
  Speaker 9: you know, Carlos, I think he enjoyed his time in Minnesota.
• 23:40
  Speaker 9: But I definitely think he's happy to happy to be home.
• 23:42
  Speaker 5: Lance.
• 23:43
  Speaker 8: While you mentioned Tucker, what did you think of his
• 23:45
  Speaker 8: free agency expedition? And you know how he landed the
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: big high a V deal and ends up with the
• 23:52
  Speaker 8: Dodgers and you know they're coming off the World Series
• 23:54
  Speaker 8: and then they get the best hitter in free agency,
• 23:56
  Speaker 8: that whole saga.
• 23:59
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I think it's I think it's great. I'm super
• 24:01
  Speaker 9: happy for Tuck. Honestly, it just really am all the guys,
• 24:03
  Speaker 9: whether it was BREGGI or George or all these guys
• 24:06
  Speaker 9: going to free agency. I always text them how to say, Man,
• 24:08
  Speaker 9: I just want what's you know best for you and
• 24:09
  Speaker 9: the family, uh, wherever that may be. And I know
• 24:12
  Speaker 9: Tucker is a East Coast boy like myself, so uh yeah, yeah,
• 24:16
  Speaker 9: I knew. I played with his brother, actually with the Astros,
• 24:20
  Speaker 9: play play with Kyle, but being able to kind of
• 24:22
  Speaker 9: watch his development, his growth from from a young from
• 24:25
  Speaker 9: a young rookie and kind of coming out of the
• 24:27
  Speaker 9: show a little bit and you know, really feeling confident
• 24:29
  Speaker 9: in himself. He's a premier player in our game.
• 24:32
  Speaker 4: Man.
• 24:32
  Speaker 9: I think I think he's I think he gets overlooked
• 24:35
  Speaker 9: a lot. Not you know, we were to we had
• 24:37
  Speaker 9: such great players on our team for a long time,
• 24:39
  Speaker 9: and obviously goes to the Cubs a lot of star
• 24:41
  Speaker 9: power there. But I think I think Tucker Man, he
• 24:44
  Speaker 9: could have a big, big season over there in l A.
• 24:47
  Speaker 9: And you know, the Dodgers are a great team, you know,
• 24:49
  Speaker 9: but we we still got to go out there, we
• 24:50
  Speaker 9: got to compete, and I'm happy for him and the
• 24:53
  Speaker 9: Dodgers got a great a great kid, great man.
• 24:57
  Speaker 6: Talk about another picture, Tsuya and I have you seen
• 25:00
  Speaker 6: in him a little bit? And what do you what
• 25:01
  Speaker 6: can you tell us about him and his progression?
• 25:04
  Speaker 4: Uh? In America? Here getting going.
• 25:07
  Speaker 9: He seems very comfortable. He's locker mats with with me.
• 25:10
  Speaker 9: Is his interpreter.
• 25:11
  Speaker 4: Rio.
• 25:11
  Speaker 9: We we kind of talked, well, obviously we talked through him.
• 25:14
  Speaker 9: But he's he's got first he's got the fastest pickoff
• 25:16
  Speaker 9: move I've ever seen the first base. It's it's it's
• 25:20
  Speaker 9: pretty incredible. But he's got he's got big stuff. He's
• 25:23
  Speaker 9: got big stuff and it's quick and it's it's fast
• 25:26
  Speaker 9: and it gets on hitters. I watched him yesterday against
• 25:28
  Speaker 9: the Mets.
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: I mean, the.
• 25:29
  Speaker 9: Fastball really really gets on guys. And he seems like
• 25:33
  Speaker 9: a great, great dude. Obviously there's a there's a big
• 25:35
  Speaker 9: language barrier there. But you know, during the season, you know,
• 25:38
  Speaker 9: we're obviously have the field more hours and you you
• 25:40
  Speaker 9: travel with guys, and he's already asking like, Hey, what
• 25:43
  Speaker 9: are we gonna you know, what do we playing the plane?
• 25:44
  Speaker 9: What card games do we play? And so I see
• 25:47
  Speaker 9: him on his phone kind of watching him, trying to
• 25:49
  Speaker 9: trying to trying to pick him up so he can
• 25:51
  Speaker 9: play with the boys. So he's a it's been a
• 25:54
  Speaker 9: joy to have in the camp. He works super hard. Guy,
• 25:57
  Speaker 9: lifts the house. He lifts the house. Yeah, I see
• 26:00
  Speaker 9: him in there, and you know, by his stature you
• 26:02
  Speaker 9: would you wouldn't think so. But he can move some
• 26:04
  Speaker 9: weight and I think he's going to be a great,
• 26:06
  Speaker 9: great addition. He seems like a super big competitor.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: So humility aside Lance who's got better hair? I saw
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: him walk out and he's got like streaks or something
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: in it, right, Like who's got the better flow?
• 26:16
  Speaker 9: You or him? I don't know. I guess to each
• 26:18
  Speaker 9: their own, it's their own. He's got Yeah, he's got
• 26:21
  Speaker 9: the highlights, got the highlights. Look, he's got a lot
• 26:25
  Speaker 9: he's got a lot of quiet swag. Yeah, I would say,
• 26:27
  Speaker 9: am I does? Yeah?
• 26:29
  Speaker 5: All right, Hunter Brown, we talk about it all the
• 26:31
  Speaker 5: time on the show Aces and Number Ones. Is he
• 26:36
  Speaker 5: an ace yet? If he's not, I would say he's
• 26:40
  Speaker 5: a number one and I would say he's not an
• 26:41
  Speaker 5: ACE yet? Where does he need to take that next
• 26:43
  Speaker 5: step to be an ace in this league?
• 26:46
  Speaker 9: Disconsistency. Hunter's got it all, Hunters the full package. He's big,
• 26:50
  Speaker 9: his stuff's explosive, it's electric. He's he's been here for
• 26:54
  Speaker 9: you know. I mean it's been the big leagues for
• 26:55
  Speaker 9: three or four years now, but with the organization for
• 26:57
  Speaker 9: six I think six or seven years. Extremely healthy, extremely durable.
• 27:02
  Speaker 9: And for me, when I'm when I'm looking at an ace,
• 27:04
  Speaker 9: I'm looking at the guys who just can get out
• 27:07
  Speaker 9: there every every fifth, sixth day. You know, guys that
• 27:10
  Speaker 9: are just the team counts on them. They're the horse
• 27:13
  Speaker 9: and then they got the stuff behind it. So I
• 27:15
  Speaker 9: talk to a lot of guys, you know, in camp,
• 27:17
  Speaker 9: We'll could be going over video and I kind of
• 27:19
  Speaker 9: separate your stuff, guy, or you're a command guy and
• 27:22
  Speaker 9: you got to lean into that right Like I'm obviously
• 27:24
  Speaker 9: I wish I had better command and more of a
• 27:25
  Speaker 9: stuff guy, so I just got to lean into the
• 27:27
  Speaker 9: stuff other guys, and I hate leaning that leaning, lean
• 27:29
  Speaker 9: into that command. You know, don't worry so much about
• 27:31
  Speaker 9: a track man. Don't worry so much about all these
• 27:34
  Speaker 9: different you know, pitch shapes. You're you have a lead command,
• 27:37
  Speaker 9: lean into it. But when you get both, you get
• 27:39
  Speaker 9: a hundred round, you get Scoobale. I mean, those are
• 27:41
  Speaker 9: those are the those type of guys you get Hunter Man.
• 27:43
  Speaker 9: He's probably one more full season away from doing what
• 27:47
  Speaker 9: he's done the last two years, from from from being
• 27:49
  Speaker 9: absolute premier ace in this game. He's an unbelievable person.
• 27:52
  Speaker 9: He prepares fantastic. You know, I think he should be
• 27:55
  Speaker 9: the face of this rotation for for years and years
• 27:58
  Speaker 9: to come. Uh can't, for I know he loves I
• 28:01
  Speaker 9: know he loves playing for for the Astros. And I think,
• 28:04
  Speaker 9: you know, it's only it's only March sixth I think,
• 28:07
  Speaker 9: you know, I think the Astro has got a couple
• 28:09
  Speaker 9: more weeks to see if they if they liked it,
• 28:11
  Speaker 9: to make a run at them. But that that's a
• 28:13
  Speaker 9: guy you built that you build your your starting rotation
• 28:16
  Speaker 9: around for you know, five six seven years to come.
• 28:19
  Speaker 5: What does your future look like after this year? There's
• 28:22
  Speaker 5: your last year with the Astros under contract. Yeah, what
• 28:25
  Speaker 5: does it look like? Because I know you've had these
• 28:27
  Speaker 5: just I mean a little bit that we've texted back
• 28:29
  Speaker 5: and forth. You've you've mentioned like you know what's next,
• 28:33
  Speaker 5: what's next for Lance mccullors, And I know you are
• 28:36
  Speaker 5: where your feet are, but what what are the things
• 28:40
  Speaker 5: that you thought about next for you?
• 28:43
  Speaker 9: I did an interview leading into camp, and I think
• 28:46
  Speaker 9: some people took it the right way. I think some
• 28:48
  Speaker 9: people took it the wrong way. And what I meant
• 28:51
  Speaker 9: by it was I just, like Todd mentioned, I just
• 28:54
  Speaker 9: I have no uh reservations as far as you know
• 28:58
  Speaker 9: what what life bring in the future, you know. I'm
• 29:01
  Speaker 9: just I'm very free right now. I think it's a
• 29:02
  Speaker 9: great place to be as an athlete. I love this team.
• 29:05
  Speaker 9: I'm a I love this organization. I've been with this
• 29:08
  Speaker 9: organization that I was eighteen years old, thirty two. Now
• 29:11
  Speaker 9: I've going on thirty three, and so my life has
• 29:14
  Speaker 9: been here, my career has been here, having unbelievable relationships
• 29:17
  Speaker 9: with not only the players, but the staff at the
• 29:20
  Speaker 9: at the stadium. So this, you know, this is my home.
• 29:23
  Speaker 9: This is this is where we live full time. My
• 29:24
  Speaker 9: daughters are in school in Houston. Whenever, We're never going
• 29:26
  Speaker 9: to leave Houston. And we'll see what the game brings me. Honestly,
• 29:30
  Speaker 9: if if the game, if the game. You know, a
• 29:31
  Speaker 9: lot of times you get you get told by the game,
• 29:34
  Speaker 9: you know, and you got to you gotta go do
• 29:35
  Speaker 9: something else, or sometimes you have the ability to kind
• 29:37
  Speaker 9: of stretch that. I love to be able to be
• 29:40
  Speaker 9: healthy and to have, you know, have a few more
• 29:42
  Speaker 9: years than me. Like I look at a guy like,
• 29:44
  Speaker 9: you know, Nathan Valdi as like big inspiration, someone who
• 29:47
  Speaker 9: has been through, you know, a lot of injuries, kind
• 29:49
  Speaker 9: of had to work his way back and then really
• 29:51
  Speaker 9: had a you know, late late season, late career resurgence,
• 29:54
  Speaker 9: Charlie Morin, those type of guys, I don't think I'll
• 29:57
  Speaker 9: be pitching. So I'm forty, but I love to keep
• 29:59
  Speaker 9: playing this game. It's been my whole life. But in
• 30:02
  Speaker 9: the interview, you know, I said, I'm a dad first,
• 30:05
  Speaker 9: you know, two beautiful daughter, is a great wife, and
• 30:07
  Speaker 9: so if that's what's on the other side of baseball
• 30:09
  Speaker 9: for me, I'm not gonna be upset about that either.
• 30:11
  Speaker 9: So I'm free. I'm open. I'd love to remain an ASTRO.
• 30:14
  Speaker 9: I think if I can prove that I am healthy,
• 30:16
  Speaker 9: my stuff is there. I think there could be, you know,
• 30:19
  Speaker 9: more years to come, or maybe I go off and
• 30:21
  Speaker 9: play for the organization get to experience that, or I
• 30:24
  Speaker 9: get to go home to my daughters.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: It's not a bad thing to go home to family.
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: Being that first Lance, we really appreciate you stopping by
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: and we're happy for you.
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Man.
• 30:33
  Speaker 4: Thank you. Feeling good?
• 30:34
  Speaker 9: Yeah good, so far, so good.
• 30:37
  Speaker 8: Spencer Araghetti joining us from Astro's camp. Danny, want to
• 30:40
  Speaker 8: take it away for a moment.
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Spencer, thank you for joining us. Talk to us
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: a little bit about how you're feeling coming in just
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: bring training this year.
• 30:49
  Speaker 11: I'm feeling extra grateful to be back on the mound.
• 30:51
  Speaker 11: To be real honest with you, last year was absolutely
• 30:54
  Speaker 11: not what I wanted to be.
• 30:54
  Speaker 10: Obviously, nobody wants to spend most of the year on
• 30:56
  Speaker 10: the IL.
• 30:57
  Speaker 11: But I did the work I needed to do this
• 30:59
  Speaker 11: offseason to feel again, and I'm feeling ready to go.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Do you feel like you came back early last year?
• 31:05
  Speaker 9: See?
• 31:05
  Speaker 10: I mean in the moment, I would have said no.
• 31:07
  Speaker 11: But looking back at it, I think probably I think
• 31:09
  Speaker 11: I could have been a little bit more aware of
• 31:10
  Speaker 11: like where stuff was at, where my range of motion
• 31:14
  Speaker 11: and strength in some certain areas was at. And yeah,
• 31:17
  Speaker 11: I think if I could go back and do it again,
• 31:18
  Speaker 11: I'd probably get myself another week or so, take another
• 31:20
  Speaker 11: start and triple age to get things figured out and
• 31:22
  Speaker 11: make sure everything was good. But yeah, you know, I
• 31:24
  Speaker 11: mean in the moment, I just I saw a team
• 31:26
  Speaker 11: that was in a hunt for a playoff spot and
• 31:28
  Speaker 11: I wanted to get back and help, you know.
• 31:29
  Speaker 4: So yeah, I mean that's the mindset everybody. I love that.
• 31:33
  Speaker 6: My question is for you, you're right thumb. It was
• 31:37
  Speaker 6: fractured in twenty twenty five. Is there anything that you
• 31:39
  Speaker 6: need to change now grip wise or you know, maybe
• 31:43
  Speaker 6: throwing something differently a different arm angle, or is that
• 31:47
  Speaker 6: thing back to where it really needs to be in
• 31:49
  Speaker 6: You're fine?
• 31:50
  Speaker 11: So I got really lucky. It was a super clean break.
• 31:53
  Speaker 11: It was a really straightforward rehab process with it, and
• 31:55
  Speaker 11: everything feels completely the same as before. So I think
• 31:58
  Speaker 11: that for me, I'm just trying to be exactly who
• 32:01
  Speaker 11: I was before the injury, try to make everything feel
• 32:03
  Speaker 11: the same as it was before, and I've been fortunate
• 32:05
  Speaker 11: enough to not really have to dig too deep to
• 32:07
  Speaker 11: find something.
• 32:08
  Speaker 5: New, Spencer, is it mandatory that you have legit hair
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: to throw in this rotation? Is that mandatory? I mean
• 32:17
  Speaker 5: I have to be the one to ask about the hair,
• 32:19
  Speaker 5: because you know, I like, I'm jelly, I'm super jelly.
• 32:23
  Speaker 10: I wouldn't say it's mandatory. It's just it's an attribute,
• 32:26
  Speaker 10: that's for sure. That's what we'll call it.
• 32:28
  Speaker 5: Jim Craan does come through, because when I played for
• 32:30
  Speaker 5: the Astros, Jim kran came through. It was it was
• 32:33
  Speaker 5: you know, Dallas Kikeel was there. He had his beard
• 32:36
  Speaker 5: and he goes, we're in the weight room and he says,
• 32:39
  Speaker 5: and my other businesses, we wouldn't allow this, We wouldn't
• 32:43
  Speaker 5: allow what Dallas has on his face. And Dallas was like,
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: but I keep it nice. So this Jim has Jim
• 32:49
  Speaker 5: said anything to you. I'm sure he said something to
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: Lance over the years.
• 32:53
  Speaker 11: No, not really. He's like, he's pretty hands off with
• 32:55
  Speaker 11: that stuff. I think, whatever you want to look like,
• 32:58
  Speaker 11: he's okay with it. And like you said, other businesses
• 33:02
  Speaker 11: maybe not so much.
• 33:03
  Speaker 10: But for baseball. I think it's all good.
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: Okay to follow up on that with not just the hair,
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: but is it a prerequisite to be giants to pitch
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: with this pitching staff? And I know I'm just a
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: little guy sitting here, but everybody that's come up here, you,
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: Lance and Hunter so far are ginormous.
• 33:21
  Speaker 11: Man, you haven't even seen the really big guys. You
• 33:23
  Speaker 11: look at You look at Ryan Weiss, you look at
• 33:25
  Speaker 11: Brian A.
• 33:25
  Speaker 10: Brady.
• 33:25
  Speaker 11: Those guys are absolutely units. I feel like one of
• 33:28
  Speaker 11: the smaller guys in the locker room for the most part.
• 33:30
  Speaker 10: And Lance too.
• 33:31
  Speaker 11: Lance has always telling me, yeah, like I'm the short guy,
• 33:33
  Speaker 11: I'm the small guy, and it's like, dude, you're not
• 33:34
  Speaker 11: small like you're You're a big dude. But no, it's
• 33:37
  Speaker 11: a I wouldn't say it's a it's a prerequisite, but yeah,
• 33:40
  Speaker 11: they definitely like a big over here.
• 33:44
  Speaker 8: Hey, Spencer, you obviously you know we're going through your
• 33:48
  Speaker 8: own thing last year. But what did you see from
• 33:50
  Speaker 8: Hunter Brown in his progression? And how cool was that
• 33:53
  Speaker 8: to see a teammate not just to rise and figure
• 33:57
  Speaker 8: it all out for a full season, but finishing third
• 34:00
  Speaker 8: for Cy Young Crazy.
• 34:02
  Speaker 11: I couldn't be more happy for that guy. So when
• 34:05
  Speaker 11: I got called up in twenty four, he was kind
• 34:08
  Speaker 11: of in the midst of like the biggest trouble he'd
• 34:10
  Speaker 11: ever based in baseball.
• 34:11
  Speaker 10: I mean, he was kind of searching for something.
• 34:13
  Speaker 11: Obviously found the answer in a big way in the
• 34:15
  Speaker 11: two seam and then being one of the best pitchers
• 34:17
  Speaker 11: in baseball for a whole year and a half after
• 34:19
  Speaker 11: the back now is just incredible. I mean, it's it's
• 34:22
  Speaker 11: a real testament to the way that he works, the
• 34:24
  Speaker 11: way that he believes in himself, the way he believes
• 34:26
  Speaker 11: in his stuff, And I mean that's what you get
• 34:28
  Speaker 11: every time he takes the mound, is just your belief
• 34:30
  Speaker 11: in what he's going to go out there and do.
• 34:32
  Speaker 10: He knows he's going to dominate at this point, and it's.
• 34:34
  Speaker 11: Just, I mean, it feels out of place for me
• 34:36
  Speaker 11: to say proud, because I mean he's like big brother
• 34:39
  Speaker 11: to me at this point. But I just, I mean,
• 34:41
  Speaker 11: it's it's been the coolest thing to watch, and I
• 34:43
  Speaker 11: feel like it's an inspiration to a lot of guys
• 34:45
  Speaker 11: that might be in the dark place kind of whether
• 34:47
  Speaker 11: the storm a little bit on the mound and you're
• 34:50
  Speaker 11: always that close to being being the best version of yourself.
• 34:53
  Speaker 11: And I think that watching him do it has been
• 34:55
  Speaker 11: really really awesome.
• 34:56
  Speaker 5: What is this rotation as a group like, because you
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: got new pieces put into it, you had a different
• 35:03
  Speaker 5: looking rotation before, before you even came up, it looked
• 35:06
  Speaker 5: different than that. How do you feel like this group
• 35:10
  Speaker 5: is melding? And will there be this like, you know,
• 35:14
  Speaker 5: always behind each other, always fighting for each other, or
• 35:17
  Speaker 5: is it more of like individuals on each every each
• 35:20
  Speaker 5: and every day that they're out there.
• 35:23
  Speaker 11: I'd say it's like a like you said, a little
• 35:25
  Speaker 11: bit of melding at this point. Obviously we've only been
• 35:27
  Speaker 11: around each other for about three weeks now, but I
• 35:29
  Speaker 11: mean I've gotten to know Ami a little bit, I've
• 35:31
  Speaker 11: gotten to know Weiss pretty well, I've gotten to know
• 35:33
  Speaker 11: Burrows really well.
• 35:34
  Speaker 10: And I'm just really excited. I think we got a
• 35:37
  Speaker 10: bunch of dogs.
• 35:37
  Speaker 11: I think we got a bunch of guys that want
• 35:39
  Speaker 11: to go out there and compete, and they want to
• 35:41
  Speaker 11: cover their innings. They want to, you know, just give
• 35:42
  Speaker 11: the team what they need every night, which is a
• 35:44
  Speaker 11: chance to win. And I think that we have exactly
• 35:46
  Speaker 11: that in the rotation right now. Is a bunch of
• 35:47
  Speaker 11: guys who are going to go out there and take
• 35:49
  Speaker 11: the ball and compete until the till the manager comes
• 35:51
  Speaker 11: takes it away from them.
• 35:52
  Speaker 5: Will you learn some Japanese so that you can you
• 35:56
  Speaker 5: can talk to him I a little bit more.
• 35:58
  Speaker 11: I'm trying. We got to We got a word of
• 36:00
  Speaker 11: the day thing going right now. Every day we walk in,
• 36:02
  Speaker 11: there's a new Japanese word. There's a new Mandarin word
• 36:06
  Speaker 11: Kaiwait Tank speaks Mandarin as well, So we got a
• 36:09
  Speaker 11: lot of it going on right now. I'm gonna be
• 36:10
  Speaker 11: completely honest. None of it is stuck yet, but I'm
• 36:13
  Speaker 11: working on it. I got I got good morning down
• 36:15
  Speaker 11: because I say it every day to him he's ad
• 36:17
  Speaker 11: the locker right next to me. But past that, I mean,
• 36:19
  Speaker 11: I'm kind of hopeless at this point, but I'll try.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: Can you give us the good morning real quick?
• 36:23
  Speaker 10: Ohio?
• 36:24
  Speaker 9: Oh?
• 36:24
  Speaker 4: That's it?
• 36:25
  Speaker 10: Ohio? Okay, I'm probably saying it wrong.
• 36:28
  Speaker 2: But are there any other words or phrases that shouldn't
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: be said out in public that you guys have asked for?
• 36:36
  Speaker 10: Certainly, it's like it's like learning Spanish for the first time.
• 36:40
  Speaker 10: You learn all the bad words first.
• 36:42
  Speaker 11: Once you get in the clubhouse full of Spanish speaking guys,
• 36:44
  Speaker 11: and yeah, I've learned a couple of bad Japanese words.
• 36:47
  Speaker 11: I definitely won't say those ones on air, but yeah,
• 36:49
  Speaker 11: that's it. I feel like that's naturally how you learn
• 36:52
  Speaker 11: the new language first, as you learned the ones you
• 36:53
  Speaker 11: shouldn't say.
• 36:55
  Speaker 5: All right, So one of the things that's talked about
• 36:58
  Speaker 5: outside of your team is is this guy gonna get traded?
• 37:02
  Speaker 5: Is that guy you know? Where's how's this gonna work out?
• 37:04
  Speaker 5: And everyone's like they have to figure this out or
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: it's a distraction. Do you feel like as a player
• 37:09
  Speaker 5: on the team that kind of stuff is a distraction.
• 37:13
  Speaker 10: I wouldn't call it a distraction. I think it's part
• 37:15
  Speaker 10: of the business.
• 37:16
  Speaker 11: And I know that guys tend to steer away from
• 37:19
  Speaker 11: putting too much stock into any of that because at
• 37:21
  Speaker 11: this point we're all still here and we had one
• 37:22
  Speaker 11: goal right now, and that's getting ready to go win
• 37:24
  Speaker 11: baseball games.
• 37:25
  Speaker 10: So I think in from a to keep it short.
• 37:29
  Speaker 11: Yet, it is a distraction in a way, but if
• 37:31
  Speaker 11: you don't let it get to you, it never can be.
• 37:33
  Speaker 11: So I think that we got a bunch of guys
• 37:34
  Speaker 11: that are committed to being here, nobody's one foot in,
• 37:36
  Speaker 11: one foot out. Everybody's bought in on what we're trying
• 37:38
  Speaker 11: to do this year, So I don't really think anybody's
• 37:40
  Speaker 11: thinking too much of it.
• 37:44
  Speaker 5: Hey go ahead, what if you look back at last year?
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: You were hurt, but how the season ended, the Astros
• 37:53
  Speaker 5: ended their run of not making the playoffs. Has that
• 37:56
  Speaker 5: been brought up in spring training? Was that a sour
• 37:59
  Speaker 5: taste in your mouth? Or was it? You know what?
• 38:01
  Speaker 5: I was hurt while I couldn't help the team. I
• 38:05
  Speaker 5: also didn't have the same feeling as the guys that
• 38:07
  Speaker 5: were out there on the field grinding it out.
• 38:10
  Speaker 11: I mean, I I'm from Houston, so I definitely leaves
• 38:13
  Speaker 11: a sour taste in my mouth. I've been very lucky,
• 38:16
  Speaker 11: very fortunate to be able to watch this team be
• 38:18
  Speaker 11: in the playoffs for, like you said, the last nine
• 38:21
  Speaker 11: ten years before that, So I think it goes without
• 38:24
  Speaker 11: saying in the clubhouse. I think we all know what
• 38:25
  Speaker 11: the goal is, and it's not just a goal, it's
• 38:27
  Speaker 11: an expectation at this point, and that's the culture that
• 38:29
  Speaker 11: we've had here forever. That's all I've ever known with
• 38:31
  Speaker 11: the Astros. So I would like to say that. It's
• 38:34
  Speaker 11: probably the same feeling for everybody else. It doesn't need
• 38:37
  Speaker 11: to be said. It's just what we're going to set
• 38:39
  Speaker 11: out to do as soon as we play that opening game.
• 38:42
  Speaker 11: And yeah, I don't really think there's much else to
• 38:45
  Speaker 11: say about it. Obviously, I would have liked to have
• 38:47
  Speaker 11: been a bigger part of it, like to have been
• 38:48
  Speaker 11: a bigger part of maybe making that last push that
• 38:51
  Speaker 11: we needed to make, But it just it didn't. Chips
• 38:53
  Speaker 11: didn't fall that way last year. And I'll do everything
• 38:55
  Speaker 11: I can this year to make sure I'm around for it.
• 38:57
  Speaker 5: Go into the being from Houston and play for the Astros.
• 39:01
  Speaker 5: But the history of the Astros now have had and
• 39:04
  Speaker 5: then you joined the program. But also do you play
• 39:08
  Speaker 5: for free? Like do you have to give away that
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: many tickets?
• 39:13
  Speaker 11: So when I was a rookie, I didn't quite understand
• 39:17
  Speaker 11: exactly how fast you can rack up that tab on tickets.
• 39:20
  Speaker 11: And if I were to say the tab on air
• 39:22
  Speaker 11: would make me want to throw up. Like it was
• 39:24
  Speaker 11: it was a disgusting amount of money that I spent
• 39:26
  Speaker 11: on tickets. And I kind of had to tell the
• 39:27
  Speaker 11: family year two, like, hey, you know, guys, you might
• 39:31
  Speaker 11: be getting your own tickets a little more often this year,
• 39:33
  Speaker 11: and that's not ever a conversation I wanted to have.
• 39:35
  Speaker 11: But yeah, I was playing for free probably thirty percent
• 39:38
  Speaker 11: of my starts my rookie year, but it was because
• 39:41
  Speaker 11: I wanted them all there. They're all twenty minutes thirty
• 39:43
  Speaker 11: minutes from the stadium, so it's easy for them to
• 39:45
  Speaker 11: get there. And I don't ever want to be the
• 39:46
  Speaker 11: one to say no, don't come watch me play, but
• 39:49
  Speaker 11: at this point they know it's like, hey, get your
• 39:51
  Speaker 11: own tickets, get your own parking pass.
• 39:53
  Speaker 10: Like I'm kind of off that at this point.
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Do you ever I'll go go ahead, cratzy, No.
• 39:59
  Speaker 5: No, can we get a ball Can we get a ballpark?
• 40:01
  Speaker 5: Of how much? Like are we talking like? Or is
• 40:04
  Speaker 5: it that much of a number. Because fans don't understand this.
• 40:08
  Speaker 5: You do have to pay for your tickets. Are the
• 40:11
  Speaker 5: face value of the ticket? You have to pay the
• 40:13
  Speaker 5: taxes on that ticket. And people are gonna say, oh,
• 40:16
  Speaker 5: it makes millions of dollars. You don't make millions of
• 40:19
  Speaker 5: dollars until you have a contract or you are arbitration eligible.
• 40:25
  Speaker 5: So I'm saying that to preface what you're going to say.
• 40:29
  Speaker 10: I spent just south of twenty grand on tickets.
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: You know how much other cool stuff you could have
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: bought for twenty grand.
• 40:37
  Speaker 10: I'm just thinking it could be in a savings account.
• 40:39
  Speaker 10: At this point, I would rather be there.
• 40:41
  Speaker 11: But again, I'm very grateful for all the people that
• 40:43
  Speaker 11: made their way down to Dacon Park to come watch
• 40:45
  Speaker 11: me pitch. But yeah, just you look back on it,
• 40:48
  Speaker 11: it's like, man, that is a disgusting number and I'll
• 40:50
  Speaker 11: never do it again.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: Tell them to watch on TV. So do you ever
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: obviously not.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: While you're actually pitching, but do you ever sit in
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: the dugout and look out at left field the Crawford
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: boxes and say, gosh, I wish pictures could hit again?
• 41:07
  Speaker 9: Oh?
• 41:07
  Speaker 11: Man, I have no business hitting against the arts that
• 41:10
  Speaker 11: we got in the big leagues today. But I think
• 41:12
  Speaker 11: there was part of me in high school that thought
• 41:14
  Speaker 11: I could do it, thought I could be a hitter.
• 41:16
  Speaker 11: But yeah, you look out there, it's like, man, I
• 41:18
  Speaker 11: can hit a fly ball.
• 41:19
  Speaker 5: Eighty nine to left field.
• 41:21
  Speaker 10: It's not that far away.
• 41:22
  Speaker 11: But yeah, the funny thing about Mini made is if
• 41:25
  Speaker 11: you hit it the center field, it's not going over
• 41:27
  Speaker 11: the fence. If you hit it to left field, it's
• 41:29
  Speaker 11: almost a coin flip, like it's just it's a I
• 41:32
  Speaker 11: said minute made on air again. Sorry Dacon Park, but yeah, no,
• 41:36
  Speaker 11: I got no business. We got too many nasty guys
• 41:39
  Speaker 11: to throw way too hard. Now, I'd punch out every
• 41:41
  Speaker 11: single at that.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Spoken like a true pitcher.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: Hitting is hard.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: Guys, we all know that Spencer really appreciate you stopping by.
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: Good luck to you this season, a full season of
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: good health for you.
• 41:52
  Speaker 10: Thank you, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. Guys,