Latest / Foul Territory / Ken Rosenthal joins FT from WBC, Ohtani’s slam, Hunter Brown joins @Astros camp, Angels prez retires

Transcript

Ken Rosenthal joins FT from WBC, Ohtani’s slam, Hunter Brown joins @Astros camp, Angels prez retires · Foul Territory

0:04
Speaker 1: Let's get wild. Whole house today, really full house. It's
0:08
Speaker 1: gonna be fun for Master's camp.
0:09
Speaker 2: Whap.
0:10
Speaker 1: The guests joining us, Joe Aspota, Lance mccullors, Hunter Brown.
0:16
Speaker 1: It sounds like we've got another guest joining us in
0:18
Speaker 1: a couple of moments in Spencer Aarraghetti, Toddfather's here, Kratz
0:22
Speaker 1: is here, Danny Graves over at camp while we have
0:24
Speaker 1: a quick moment while they're getting set up, Eric, you
0:27
Speaker 1: have to tell your step brother congrats, and you have
0:31
Speaker 1: to talk to him differently.
0:32
Speaker 3: Now you know the deal.
0:36
Speaker 4: I mean, congratulations Todd. That is the ugliest picture they
0:40
Speaker 4: could have ever chosen for you.
0:42
Speaker 2: But man, what.
0:43
Speaker 4: An awesome, awesome honor the hall of pretty good. You're
0:47
Speaker 4: a great person, not just good.
0:51
Speaker 5: I'll take it. I'll take it.
0:53
Speaker 6: I'm telling people today, I said, listen, I'm forty. Now
0:56
Speaker 6: I'll take all the accolades and congratulations I can get.
1:00
Speaker 5: So I know, I'm I know, I'm pretty good. I'll
1:03
Speaker 5: take that. I'll take that to the grave, to the
1:05
Speaker 5: Danny Graves. How about that.
1:10
Speaker 3: It's going to be that kind of day.
1:13
Speaker 5: Oh my god, Wait till he gets the fifty.
1:17
Speaker 7: Then it's even less and less.
1:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, Todd Father made it on the Hall of pretty good. Actually,
1:22
Speaker 1: we've got a lot of FT fam that's been running
1:24
Speaker 1: through that list, so it's good stuff.
1:27
Speaker 3: Todd Father, did you know about it? Did you? Did
1:29
Speaker 3: you catch it?
1:32
Speaker 5: All the twelve year olds I coach were hitting me
1:34
Speaker 5: up and sending me stuff. Coach, coach, look at that.
1:36
Speaker 5: So that's how I found out.
1:40
Speaker 3: They were What are they showing you an Instagram post?
1:43
Speaker 5: Or is that the kids showing you the Instagram post? Man?
1:48
Speaker 5: You see this comment?
1:49
Speaker 6: Man and this and my god. We have practice tomorrow,
1:52
Speaker 6: so we'll talk more about it. Uh and see if
1:55
Speaker 6: they're really excited me about being me pretty good?
1:59
Speaker 5: I'd like great, but pretty good. I'll take.
2:06
Speaker 1: The inside scoop is engineered by Fastenal where industry meets innovation.
2:11
Speaker 1: Go to fastenall dot com for more information. Let's talk
2:14
Speaker 1: right now with FT senior insider Ken Rosenthal. Oh, it's
2:17
Speaker 1: a party five box party here right now.
2:19
Speaker 3: Ken.
2:20
Speaker 1: Good to talk to you, and we're excited to listen
2:22
Speaker 1: to you on the Fox broadcast along with mister Pierzinski.
2:26
Speaker 1: So I'll ask the same question I asked to Aj
2:27
Speaker 1: before he left, How cool is this moment for you
2:31
Speaker 1: in terms of being around so many superstars, right, it
2:34
Speaker 1: even seems like it's elevated from the All star level
2:36
Speaker 1: where many of these guys are there. But this is
2:39
Speaker 1: a competitive environment and they're all in the same clubhouse.
2:43
Speaker 7: Scott, It's very cool.
2:44
Speaker 8: And I've said this for a while since the twenty
2:47
Speaker 8: twenty three tournament. That was one of the highlights of
2:50
Speaker 8: my career. And I've covered Olympics and Super Bowls of course,
2:54
Speaker 8: World Series and NBA Finals and all of that, but
2:58
Speaker 8: that tournament was so electric. It was so much fun.
3:02
Speaker 8: The games were so good that I will never forget it,
3:05
Speaker 8: and in fact, it seems to me it will be
3:08
Speaker 8: hard pressed for this tournament to be as good as
3:10
Speaker 8: that one was.
3:11
Speaker 5: But you're right.
3:13
Speaker 8: The US team has both side young winners. They have
3:16
Speaker 8: the MVP of the American League, and they have the
3:20
Speaker 8: two guys who finished second in each MVP race, and
3:23
Speaker 8: those are just some of their superstars. And then you
3:25
Speaker 8: look at the Dominican Republic team, tons of superstars. Japan
3:29
Speaker 8: of course has its great history in this tournament and
3:32
Speaker 8: just great players as well. So yes, it is a
3:36
Speaker 8: lot of fun and I am greatly looking forward.
3:38
Speaker 3: To it again.
3:40
Speaker 4: You were hanging out with Team USA, talking to him
3:42
Speaker 4: in the clubhouse on the field, who's the most underrated
3:45
Speaker 4: or overlooked player on a team full of stars?
3:51
Speaker 8: The big answer would be Bobby Witt Junior, because I
3:54
Speaker 8: still don't believe fans around the country have a great
3:58
Speaker 8: understanding of who he is and what he does. He
4:00
Speaker 8: plays in Kansas City, they don't get as much media attention.
4:03
Speaker 8: They're not on a television as much as some other teams.
4:07
Speaker 8: But the proper answer, probably right now, is Roman Anthony.
4:11
Speaker 8: And Roman Anthony, we saw him burst onto the scene
4:14
Speaker 8: last year. He's got the big extension. He's twenty one
4:16
Speaker 8: years old, and unlike Alex Bregman in twenty seventeen and
4:21
Speaker 8: Bobby rich Junior in twenty twenty three, he's the designated
4:24
Speaker 8: young guy, but he is going to play. That's the difference.
4:28
Speaker 8: So I would say right now he's the guy kind
4:31
Speaker 8: of a watch in that regard Eric, but even Roman
4:35
Speaker 8: Anthony's not exactly an unknown.
4:39
Speaker 9: Hey, Ken, so you mentioned the players to watch, but
4:41
Speaker 9: what about is there a sleeper team from one of
4:44
Speaker 9: these countries that I think we should keep our eyes on.
4:47
Speaker 8: Danny, I'll give you two, and I'm not as well
4:52
Speaker 8: versed in these rosters as I would be perhaps major
4:55
Speaker 8: league rosters. Let's hope I'm well versed on those. But
4:58
Speaker 8: Canada has a good team even without Freddy Freeman, and
5:02
Speaker 8: Italy with Vinnie Pascuentino and Aaron Nola and some of
5:07
Speaker 8: the other players that they have the other major leaguers,
5:10
Speaker 8: they could be interesting. I'm not sure either team will
5:13
Speaker 8: reach the quarterfinals, and it's going to be difficult, in
5:16
Speaker 8: particular for Italy because Mexico and the US are in
5:19
Speaker 8: their pool, But it would not be a shock if
5:23
Speaker 8: either of those teams kind of pulled off an upset
5:25
Speaker 8: or two.
5:26
Speaker 6: Here, let's talk a little about the one and only
5:30
Speaker 6: sho Heo Tani. Off to the start of what I
5:33
Speaker 6: would dream a dream start. It's like he's never left.
5:38
Speaker 6: He just hits and hits and absolutely hits he lists
5:41
Speaker 6: for this stage. How do you see this playing out
5:43
Speaker 6: for Japan and sho Heo Tani moving forward?
5:47
Speaker 8: I expect it will play out well. Todd usually does right,
5:50
Speaker 8: They've won the tournament three times, Japan has and Hoyotani
5:55
Speaker 8: might not pitch this time, but his sheer presence seems
5:59
Speaker 8: to have a galvanizing effect on that team, as you
6:02
Speaker 8: would expect it would Samurai Japan the last time they
6:06
Speaker 8: were in this situation playing the US in the final,
6:10
Speaker 8: Choeotani gave a speech to his teammates, and we don't
6:14
Speaker 8: necessarily hear from him very often, and certainly not in English,
6:17
Speaker 8: and what he says is pretty sanitized usually, But what
6:20
Speaker 8: he told his teammates then was, Hey, don't idolize them,
6:25
Speaker 8: meaning us, don't look at them like, oh my gosh,
6:28
Speaker 8: we cannot beat them.
6:29
Speaker 2: No, we're going to go on the field.
6:31
Speaker 8: To beat them, and sure enough they did so. His
6:35
Speaker 8: sheer presence alone means an awful lot for that team,
6:38
Speaker 8: and of course Yamamoto and Murakami and all the others
6:42
Speaker 8: that they have will help along the way as well.
6:45
Speaker 4: You're in Houston right now for the USA Mexico bracket.
6:49
Speaker 4: Have you heard anything about the other teams kind of
6:51
Speaker 4: changing their approach to say, if we can beat Mexico,
6:56
Speaker 4: we can get in if we can beat so maybe
6:58
Speaker 4: not necessarily throwing they're number one. They're ace right out
7:02
Speaker 4: of the gate to be able, you know, or against
7:05
Speaker 4: America where people were like, well they're not throwing their
7:07
Speaker 4: best picture against the United States, because this is a
7:10
Speaker 4: tournament bracket.
7:11
Speaker 2: Have you heard anything around those lines, not really, Eric.
7:16
Speaker 8: The most interesting thing I heard somewhat alone those lines
7:20
Speaker 8: was this morning from Josh Chishom Junior was talking to him,
7:23
Speaker 8: and of course he's playing for Great Britain. He's a
7:25
Speaker 8: native of the Bahamas, part of the British Empire, that's
7:28
Speaker 8: how that works. He also has a great grandmother who
7:31
Speaker 8: is British. So he was saying that there's been a
7:34
Speaker 8: lot of talking Yankee camp trash talk, of course, between
7:39
Speaker 8: Judge and bed Nar from the US team and gold
7:42
Speaker 8: Schmidt and him, and he has basically said we're going
7:46
Speaker 8: to shock the world. Now that's Jazz, we know how
7:48
Speaker 8: he talks. But Great Britain did have their first win
7:52
Speaker 8: in the last tournament over Columbia. They've got Harry Ford,
7:56
Speaker 8: they've got Jazz, they've got the Beck brothers. So who knows.
8:00
Speaker 2: You'd ever know that.
8:02
Speaker 8: What might happen in this tournament. I wouldn't expect any
8:04
Speaker 8: of these teams, even Italy is going to be above
8:08
Speaker 8: the US or Mexico, but certainly that is their intent.
8:13
Speaker 8: And Italy's got a veteran Major League season coaching staff
8:18
Speaker 8: with Francisco Zavelli as a manager. Pasada is on their
8:21
Speaker 8: staff as well, and a number of others that.
8:23
Speaker 3: We've heard of.
8:24
Speaker 8: So it's going to be interesting to see how that
8:26
Speaker 8: team plays.
8:28
Speaker 1: Hey, Ken, when this tournament gets rolling and it gets
8:32
Speaker 1: international attention, the story always pops up about how MLB
8:36
Speaker 1: can expand more internationally. And I think they've done a
8:40
Speaker 1: great job in Japan. I mean, Japan baseball is everything
8:43
Speaker 1: there right now, and a lot of that has to
8:45
Speaker 1: do with with Otani and some others with their success.
8:47
Speaker 1: But what about a spotlight the Dominican Republic. I felt
8:50
Speaker 1: like they stole the show this week with their exhibition
8:52
Speaker 1: games and how much of a party it looked like.
8:54
Speaker 1: And so I one article, and I think it was
8:56
Speaker 1: Front Office Sports this morning saying hey, MLB would love
8:59
Speaker 1: to play some games there. So your thoughts on what
9:01
Speaker 1: we can learn from this tournament and how we can
9:03
Speaker 1: at least try to get some more international games. I'm
9:06
Speaker 1: pretty sure you're a fan of the specialty games and
9:08
Speaker 1: doing more of those anyway, right.
9:11
Speaker 8: Of course, and those games have been a lot of
9:13
Speaker 8: fun at least to be a part of from a
9:15
Speaker 8: coverage standpoint, I don't know that the games in Europe
9:19
Speaker 8: and London have had that much of an impact on
9:23
Speaker 8: growing baseball in England. Great Britain's performance here will likely
9:27
Speaker 8: have a greater impact on that.
9:29
Speaker 2: It just goes that way.
9:30
Speaker 8: I remember those games in London. It seemed like it
9:33
Speaker 8: was mostly US fans who traveled over to see their favorite.
9:35
Speaker 2: Teams play and expats at the same time.
9:40
Speaker 8: This is a growing international event, and if there is
9:44
Speaker 8: no participation in the Olympics in twenty eight, which they
9:47
Speaker 8: very well might be, that's something MLB is working on,
9:50
Speaker 8: then this event will get only bigger and bigger because
9:52
Speaker 8: it is baseball's Olympics.
9:55
Speaker 2: Now.
9:55
Speaker 8: As for playing games in the Dominican Republic, I would
9:58
Speaker 8: love if that happened. We saw it, as you said, Scott,
10:01
Speaker 8: just what it means down there. It's not unlike Puerto
10:05
Speaker 8: Rico or Mexico or some of the other locales for
10:08
Speaker 8: these tournament games in the past. So maybe in the
10:12
Speaker 8: future that will happen. I would imagine. The question is
10:15
Speaker 8: is the stadium big enough for the press facilities adequate
10:18
Speaker 8: in all these different questions, but that is maybe the
10:23
Speaker 8: biggest baseball hotbed in the world right there with Japan
10:27
Speaker 8: and the US, So why not go there?
10:30
Speaker 4: Do you think that Major League Baseball WBC and the
10:35
Speaker 4: insurance issues will get in the way, because when I
10:38
Speaker 4: watch the Dominican Republic games, they're there to see the players.
10:43
Speaker 4: And if we can't have players after the age, I'm
10:46
Speaker 4: not sure what it was. Guys were getting cut off
10:47
Speaker 4: at age like thirty five or thirty seven, thirty seven,
10:51
Speaker 4: we can't see those players go to those sites, even
10:54
Speaker 4: if they're not integral parts of the team, they're just
10:57
Speaker 4: more like those figureheads. Is there a way that they
11:00
Speaker 4: can figure that out for the upcoming WBCs to keep
11:04
Speaker 4: it a fan event.
11:06
Speaker 8: Certainly, Eric insurance was tighter this time around, and you're
11:09
Speaker 8: right that thirty seven cutoff did leave some players behind,
11:13
Speaker 8: Miguil Rojas probably most prominently. So I don't know if
11:18
Speaker 8: it gets any better the next time we have the WBC,
11:21
Speaker 8: And of course it would have to be negotiated into
11:23
Speaker 8: the CBA just the mere event, because it is something
11:26
Speaker 8: that is a joint effort of MLB and the Players Association.
11:31
Speaker 2: Insurance is insurance.
11:33
Speaker 8: And MLB can't control what its insurance carrier views as
11:38
Speaker 8: adequate or not adequate for a player. So I don't
11:42
Speaker 8: know that that gets better, and that's probably going to
11:45
Speaker 8: be an obstacle going forward as well. But at the
11:48
Speaker 8: same time, we did get in this tournament most of
11:52
Speaker 8: the best players who wanted to play, and that is
11:55
Speaker 8: a triumph. You look at the US team and it's
11:59
Speaker 8: unlike that they've put together. In O six, there was
12:01
Speaker 8: a really good team. I remember that that was the
12:04
Speaker 8: first WBC in seventeen. The US team won, but the
12:07
Speaker 8: seventeen team was not nearly what this team is in
12:10
Speaker 8: terms of star power. So it's a problem.
12:14
Speaker 2: For sure.
12:14
Speaker 8: It was a big problem for Puerto Rico, but going forward,
12:18
Speaker 8: I don't know.
12:18
Speaker 2: How you solve it necessarily.
12:23
Speaker 1: All right, let's talk to WBC for a bit, and
12:25
Speaker 1: it is presented by Fox Won. Fox has all the games,
12:29
Speaker 1: forty seven WBC games and if you have.
12:32
Speaker 3: The Fox Won app then you can watch all of them.
12:34
Speaker 1: So first off, Todd Father, let's start with Shoheo Tani.
12:39
Speaker 1: He looks ready for the season Grand Slam for Team Japan.
12:44
Speaker 1: They ended up pouring on ten runs in one inning
12:47
Speaker 1: against Chinese Tape Taipei and they won thirteen nothing. They
12:51
Speaker 1: banged that one after seven. So there's rules ten runs,
12:55
Speaker 1: ten run lead through seven. It's done, fifteen run lead
12:58
Speaker 1: through five. It's so Japan mercy ruled him.
13:02
Speaker 6: That's how they should do it in MLB too. I
13:05
Speaker 6: think that is fantastic rule. Besides the point, he's unbelievable.
13:10
Speaker 6: This guy is absolutely incredible, a triple shy of the cycle.
13:15
Speaker 6: I mean he's out in front on a breaking pitch
13:17
Speaker 6: and he still hits it over the wall. He did
13:20
Speaker 6: the same thing last year or two way out in
13:22
Speaker 6: front and found a way to flip one over. Just
13:25
Speaker 6: do this every time he's up. Excuse me, poor, just
13:28
Speaker 6: put it up. I mean this he is. He is
13:31
Speaker 6: just a man among boys. It's just absolutely incredible what
13:35
Speaker 6: he does. Japan looks really good facing a really good
13:39
Speaker 6: squad there too, so it's like, Okay, is it Japan's turn?
13:44
Speaker 5: Is it Dominicans turn? Is a USA's turn?
13:47
Speaker 6: There's a lot of really good teams out there, And
13:49
Speaker 6: if you're sho Hao Tani, you're feeling really good about yourself.
13:52
Speaker 3: Do you consider walking him with the bases loaded?
13:56
Speaker 2: Yeah?
13:56
Speaker 6: Depending on the score, Yeah, why not early in the game,
14:00
Speaker 6: even if its zero?
14:00
Speaker 5: Is there at walk them.
14:03
Speaker 1: It's unconventional, and hey, I don't want to discount there
14:06
Speaker 1: there are. I mean the lineup is not stacked top
14:09
Speaker 1: to bottom, but I would say at.
14:10
Speaker 3: Least half the lineup that's pretty legit big leaguers.
14:12
Speaker 5: But they're not got culture. They got culture.
14:15
Speaker 3: Man.
14:15
Speaker 5: They know each other, they play with each other, so
14:18
Speaker 5: they're fine with that.
14:20
Speaker 1: Speaking of culture, so these were the chance for seosuzuki
14:23
Speaker 1: out in Japan.
14:40
Speaker 3: It sounds like just every other Thursday. No, I'm kidding.
14:44
Speaker 3: That was that was cool.
14:46
Speaker 4: It is every game that I played in Japan, whether
14:50
Speaker 4: it was in twenty fourteen with the MLB All Stars
14:54
Speaker 4: or it was in twenty nineteen with the qualifying team
14:58
Speaker 4: for the Olympics. I'm sure Toddkins say in twenty one,
15:02
Speaker 4: like when you play Japan, when you play, when you
15:05
Speaker 4: play against teams or guys on your team, that the
15:09
Speaker 4: fans know they have something like that. I mean, it's
15:12
Speaker 4: not just a chant, it's choreographed. But the amazing thing
15:15
Speaker 4: to me was it's captured in that video from the outfield.
15:20
Speaker 4: It's only the fans from the outfield, the fans that
15:23
Speaker 4: aren't in the bleachers like around Basically from what I
15:27
Speaker 4: would consider left field down over to right field behind
15:31
Speaker 4: home plate. They sit in their seats and they stand
15:34
Speaker 4: up and they cheer whenever something happens, but the bleacher
15:36
Speaker 4: creatures go hard.
15:39
Speaker 1: Hey, I want to show a funny tweet that someone
15:43
Speaker 1: put out there about how you'll see some guys pop
15:46
Speaker 1: up who's like, oh, he's a mechanic and he throws
15:50
Speaker 1: seventy nine miles an hour. It was a good tweet,
15:53
Speaker 1: and then it actually is still happening. There's that one
15:55
Speaker 1: dude again. I'm not gonna be able to pronounce the
15:58
Speaker 1: name correctly, but who's ruck out Otani last time? He's
16:01
Speaker 1: an electrician, a Czech electrician. So he struck out Otani
16:05
Speaker 1: a few years ago, and he was still going and
16:07
Speaker 1: he was picking up whiffs left and right. So the tweet,
16:12
Speaker 1: let me see if I can find it real quick.
16:14
Speaker 1: Kind of riffing a little bit here, but the uh,
16:19
Speaker 1: the tweet was just pointing out how cool the World
16:21
Speaker 1: Baseball Classic will be when you'll suddenly see his name's
16:24
Speaker 1: Andre Setoria. Six whiffs or strikeouts on pitches slower than
16:30
Speaker 1: seventy two miles an hour in his WBC return, And
16:34
Speaker 1: I got Jordan Moore on Twitter wrote, I love the
16:37
Speaker 1: World Baseball Classic because it'll.
16:39
Speaker 3: Be like, here's thirty two year old Benjamin Smith, a
16:43
Speaker 3: journeyman from Djibouti. Career highlights four spring training appearances, normally
16:48
Speaker 3: a member of the Yokohama Flying Fish of the Banana
16:51
Speaker 3: Ball League. Anyway, he'll face Shoho Tani.
16:56
Speaker 2: That's true, that's true. You never see it.
17:01
Speaker 4: But maybe maybe you know what I was telling my
17:03
Speaker 4: high school kids, This guys will come back to Doug
17:05
Speaker 4: out there.
17:05
Speaker 2: Like he's thrown too slow, so hard to hit.
17:09
Speaker 4: I'm like, well, what if you face somebody thrown slow
17:12
Speaker 4: later on? So maybe if show Hay strikes out against
17:15
Speaker 4: the electrician, maybe every team should have the one specialty
17:19
Speaker 4: show Hay pitcher.
17:20
Speaker 2: The position player just kind of lobs it in there.
17:23
Speaker 4: How many times? How many times do big le hitters
17:27
Speaker 4: get big hits off of position players?
17:29
Speaker 2: Just saying.
17:32
Speaker 3: I don't know, I don't know if I like that strategy.
17:35
Speaker 4: All right, I don't either, but yeah, I'm always maybe.
17:39
Speaker 1: Every country guy is like an electrician who made four
17:41
Speaker 1: spring training appearances or something, and he's not that good,
17:44
Speaker 1: but it's like just in between where he's not just
17:46
Speaker 1: throwing lobs up there, but it's so damn slow that
17:49
Speaker 1: you can't time up the speed. Maybe that that's that's
17:53
Speaker 1: the trick, Danny, I don't know.
17:55
Speaker 9: Yeah, it's got to be the in the seventies, low seventies,
17:57
Speaker 9: because sometimes when the position players get out there, they're
18:00
Speaker 9: throwing forty five to fifty and then you can kind
18:04
Speaker 9: of wait on. But seventy two it's tough to wait
18:07
Speaker 9: on when you've been seeing one hundred and two all game.
18:10
Speaker 3: Yep, Hey, you always want to change speeds.
18:15
Speaker 1: So the speed is fierce right now with the WBC
18:19
Speaker 1: schedule here it is as we're about to say goodbye,
18:22
Speaker 1: so you can see right now Netherlands is playing Venezuela.
18:25
Speaker 1: That's the lit game going on. So Fox one app
18:29
Speaker 1: for that one if you've got it. It started with
18:32
Speaker 1: Acunya first pitch double a rise drove him home in
18:35
Speaker 1: that inning, and then Drew Jones, son of Andrew playing
18:40
Speaker 1: for Netherlands, tied up to score. So last I checked,
18:44
Speaker 1: it was one to one in that one. Mexico's playing
18:47
Speaker 1: Great Britain now Puerto Rico, Columbia Nicaragua, led by Dusty Baker,
18:53
Speaker 1: the manager of that team against the star studed Dominican
18:55
Speaker 1: Republic team. The headliner in the US is USA against
18:59
Speaker 1: Brazil this evening with Dante Pouschett Junior and his crazy haircut.
19:04
Speaker 1: Chinese Type A against Chechia is the game this evening.
19:09
Speaker 1: That's over in Japan. A few more days over in
19:11
Speaker 1: Japan with that pool. So start your seven day free
19:15
Speaker 1: trial today. For Fox One, they're airing every single World
19:19
Speaker 1: Baseball Classic game, So there are no excuses to say, hey,
19:22
Speaker 1: I can't catch this. There is a way anyone anywhere
19:27
Speaker 1: in the US just go get the app and go watch.
19:30
Speaker 3: Every single WBC game. They have big NASCAR races in
19:32
Speaker 3: Indy car this.
19:33
Speaker 1: Weekend football during the football seasons for both NFL and
19:37
Speaker 1: college football.
19:42
Speaker 9: We're here at Astros camp and we are sitting with
19:45
Speaker 9: Hunter Brown, a starting pitcher for the Houston Astros. Hunter,
19:49
Speaker 9: before we came on, I said, are you done for
19:51
Speaker 9: the day.
19:52
Speaker 7: It's really early.
19:53
Speaker 2: What do you got planned?
19:55
Speaker 7: No big plans, hit some recovery, maybe some Norman texts,
19:58
Speaker 7: getting getting the tubs and then you know, get some
20:01
Speaker 7: food in it and hang out. That's kind of that's
20:03
Speaker 7: the plant.
20:06
Speaker 1: Hey, no concert, no no golf, no golf today.
20:09
Speaker 3: Looks windy for golf today. I'm gonna jump right.
20:12
Speaker 1: To the to the chase because we talked to some
20:14
Speaker 1: of your teammates too about this. Are there any conversations
20:18
Speaker 1: with the Astros right now? I mean, you're coming off
20:20
Speaker 1: such an awesome season. Are there any current combos. I
20:23
Speaker 1: know you've expressed even on Krush City Territory, how you
20:27
Speaker 1: want to be an Astro for life, But is there
20:29
Speaker 1: anything going on?
20:31
Speaker 7: No, I haven't heard anything. You know, hopefully they they
20:36
Speaker 7: come knocking soon. But you know, I'm focused. I'm focused
20:38
Speaker 7: on the year. This year. I'm excited to have another
20:42
Speaker 7: year of wearing this jersey and you know, at least
20:44
Speaker 7: another two more after that. So yeah, coming into the
20:48
Speaker 7: season this year, just just focused on that. But you know,
20:51
Speaker 7: like you said, I love wearing this uniform and you know,
20:54
Speaker 7: I got no visions doing it anywhere else.
20:56
Speaker 4: So what is the one thing that you say Hunter
21:00
Speaker 4: needs to improve on? Like, this is definitely an area
21:02
Speaker 4: that I need to improve on to take that next
21:05
Speaker 4: step to be the elite of the elite.
21:09
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think there's a there's a couple of different things.
21:12
Speaker 7: You know, in an ideal world, you can throw a
21:14
Speaker 7: first pitch strike, every every hitter and every chance you get.
21:17
Speaker 7: I could do a lot better job of that, you know.
21:19
Speaker 7: I think I was actually probably towards the bottom of
21:22
Speaker 7: the league and starting pitchers with that. So I think
21:25
Speaker 7: that's something that that I can focus on, whether that's
21:29
Speaker 7: you know, breaking balls or just kind of tighten up
21:31
Speaker 7: the fastballs in the zone early. You know, I think
21:35
Speaker 7: I think breaking ball location overall last year was was
21:40
Speaker 7: really good. But I think that's something that I'm always
21:41
Speaker 7: gonna kind of be leaning towards and trying to get
21:44
Speaker 7: better with, especially with with my slider. So I would
21:48
Speaker 7: say probably those two things, you know, I need to
21:50
Speaker 7: do a better job of that.
21:51
Speaker 9: So with that being said, Hunter, at what point in
21:54
Speaker 9: spring training do you feel like you need to have
21:56
Speaker 9: all that tightened up?
21:58
Speaker 7: Yeah, I would say, you know, that's a good question
22:02
Speaker 7: because I would tell you by the last start. But
22:05
Speaker 7: last year, my last start was was terrible. They rolled
22:09
Speaker 7: a couple innings on me. I think I walked five
22:10
Speaker 7: or six so and then I had a good year.
22:13
Speaker 7: So I mean, I don't know if there's actually a
22:17
Speaker 7: true answer to that, but mentally you want to have
22:19
Speaker 7: that dialed in by the time you get out of here.
22:21
Speaker 7: You know, I think I think as as you start
22:24
Speaker 7: for me as a starter, as you get out there
22:25
Speaker 7: for those three, four or five in extents, that's kind
22:28
Speaker 7: of where where you can really lock it in and
22:31
Speaker 7: kind of focus on what you're working on and dial
22:34
Speaker 7: those things in. So, you know, I don't really put
22:36
Speaker 7: too much stock into the first couple outings. I'm just
22:38
Speaker 7: trying to get get the timing right, get the body
22:40
Speaker 7: feeling good, and then you know, when you start trekking
22:42
Speaker 7: out there for four or five innings, that's that's when
22:44
Speaker 7: you want to have it ready to go.
22:46
Speaker 4: Would it be too tough to get get everything ramped
22:49
Speaker 4: up by now? Because you're going to see a lot
22:51
Speaker 4: of dudes right now thrown into WBC full intent? Would
22:55
Speaker 4: it be too tough for you to get it ramped
22:57
Speaker 4: up to that point?
22:59
Speaker 7: What do you full intent?
23:00
Speaker 2: For full intent?
23:02
Speaker 4: If you were pitching, if you're pitching a WBC game
23:05
Speaker 4: here in the next week.
23:08
Speaker 7: I think if you if you were asking for a
23:09
Speaker 7: full start, you know, a five, six, seven inning out
23:13
Speaker 7: and throwing one hundred pitches, I think that would be
23:14
Speaker 7: a little bit early, you know, I think I think
23:19
Speaker 7: it comes with with the pressure of the game. I
23:21
Speaker 7: think the competitiveness that that the WBC brings, you know,
23:25
Speaker 7: those guys, I think that's why why you see those
23:27
Speaker 7: starters and in certain guys you know, really on a leash.
23:31
Speaker 7: But uh, you know, right now your body is really
23:34
Speaker 7: starting to come into shape and and you're feeling good
23:37
Speaker 7: for the season, so you can definitely turn it on
23:40
Speaker 7: in a shorter stand. But I think I think in
23:42
Speaker 7: the grand scheme of things, it would be it would
23:43
Speaker 7: be tough to you know, roll out there like like
23:46
Speaker 7: its opening day.
23:48
Speaker 6: You talk about your body a lot and getting acclimated
23:50
Speaker 6: and making sure you're in the right spots and feeling good.
23:53
Speaker 6: You joined, uh, Alex Bregman's Nemesis Baseball program miss offseason.
23:57
Speaker 6: You want to talk a little bit about that and
23:59
Speaker 6: how that hopefully it's been helping you in spring training
24:02
Speaker 6: and moving forward.
24:04
Speaker 7: Yeah, just getting around all those guys was awesome. You know,
24:07
Speaker 7: Reggie Is he's a good friend of mine and also
24:11
Speaker 7: he's an incredible player. You know, the Matt Chatman out there,
24:14
Speaker 7: Walker Buehler, Zach Allen, a bunch of guys. So you know,
24:17
Speaker 7: you really get to in the off season. You kind
24:19
Speaker 7: of as you guys know, you get get in your routine,
24:23
Speaker 7: and I mean, I'm working out indoors in Michigan a
24:26
Speaker 7: lot of the time, so I don't I don't see
24:28
Speaker 7: much of the green grass and dirt that we got
24:31
Speaker 7: behind me here. So it's good to get around guys
24:34
Speaker 7: and get back out on the field and just kind
24:35
Speaker 7: of getting the baseball mode again. So that was great
24:38
Speaker 7: for me. You know, the facility is awesome. Reggie did
24:40
Speaker 7: a great job done on that together for the boys,
24:42
Speaker 7: and I'm definitely happy to be a part of it
24:45
Speaker 7: for sure.
24:46
Speaker 2: What's your least favorite part of spring training? That's a
24:50
Speaker 2: great question, Cratcy.
24:52
Speaker 7: Okay, so actually, my least favorite part of spring training
24:55
Speaker 7: is not like having a full scouting report for the game.
24:58
Speaker 7: So like there's a lot a lot of the times
25:00
Speaker 7: where I don't even know who who's in the box,
25:03
Speaker 7: And that is no disrespect, that's just actual, like you
25:07
Speaker 7: just don't know, right which I'm somebody that likes to
25:11
Speaker 7: go and and know what I'm you know, at least
25:13
Speaker 7: have a plan of what I'm gonna throw guys or
25:14
Speaker 7: where to attack them. So that's probably my least favorite part,
25:18
Speaker 7: is not you know, having that direct plan, like, hey,
25:22
Speaker 7: this guy crushes fours away, I should probably keep it
25:24
Speaker 7: in here. You know, this guy handles two is better
25:27
Speaker 7: than fours. I think. I think that's something that maybe
25:31
Speaker 7: I should probably take a peek into. But like like
25:33
Speaker 7: I said, you don't really know who the lineup is
25:35
Speaker 7: going to be all the time. You know, you get
25:36
Speaker 7: late scratches and stuff like that. So that and and
25:38
Speaker 7: then obviously the day game, the day game life, the
25:41
Speaker 7: early morning rising is also also not really up my alley.
25:45
Speaker 7: I've been accustomed to to waking up at eleven o'clock
25:48
Speaker 7: instead at a six, So you know that that's probably
25:53
Speaker 7: the two things for me.
25:55
Speaker 4: So you're definitely So you're definitely not a guy that's like, hey,
25:57
Speaker 4: do you want to pitch the the day game and
26:00
Speaker 4: cargo I'll take. I'll take the night game before having
26:02
Speaker 4: a double header. You're that guy.
26:05
Speaker 7: If you got the choice, I definitely prefer to pitch
26:07
Speaker 7: at night. You get the you get longer time to
26:09
Speaker 7: get the caffeine rolling in you. You know, you get
26:11
Speaker 7: to sleep in, but sometimes you gotta do what you
26:14
Speaker 7: got to do. I think I threw like six out
26:16
Speaker 7: of the first eight starts last year were day games.
26:18
Speaker 7: So so it happens, and you gotta be ready for it, all, Right, What.
26:23
Speaker 4: Is it like to know that you are the number one,
26:26
Speaker 4: that you're the number one, the teams are going in
26:28
Speaker 4: and they're going we gotta beat Hunter Brown.
26:31
Speaker 2: That this is like they put a little extra into it.
26:35
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think I think it's good when when expectations
26:39
Speaker 7: are high, you know, I think that's where you want
26:41
Speaker 7: to be. That's where you strive to be your whole career.
26:44
Speaker 7: I had dreams of pitching Opening Day this year. It
26:46
Speaker 7: looks like it's gonna happen. So you know, stay healthy,
26:50
Speaker 7: stay in the field. But uh, that's that's what you want.
26:53
Speaker 7: You know, you want to face the best guys in
26:54
Speaker 7: the world and and and you want to be the best.
26:57
Speaker 7: So so that's what we're striving after all encompassing. Like
27:02
Speaker 7: I said, there's no better place to be than when
27:05
Speaker 7: people really want want to want to get after you,
27:07
Speaker 7: whether that's your team, whether that's individually. I think that's
27:11
Speaker 7: that's a lot better than than the opposite, when people
27:14
Speaker 7: are maybe thinking that you're not going to do so well.
27:16
Speaker 7: So I've been on both hands, like I like this one, right,
27:19
Speaker 7: now a lot better.
27:21
Speaker 9: Well, we are happy for you that your dream has
27:23
Speaker 9: come true. Opening day starter for the Astros this year. Hunter,
27:27
Speaker 9: really appreciate you stopping by.
27:28
Speaker 7: Yeah, thank you, guys, appreciate it.
27:30
Speaker 1: Hey, some news during the show here Alden Gonzalez reporting
27:34
Speaker 1: that John Carpino, who is the right hand man of
27:37
Speaker 1: owner Artie Moreno, has informed the Angels he will retire
27:41
Speaker 1: as team president, ending a twenty three year run with
27:44
Speaker 1: the organization. Molly Jolly, a long time exact on the
27:47
Speaker 1: business side, is going to replace him. On April sixth,
27:50
Speaker 1: Alden said, more to come, Chriss, Did you come across him?
27:54
Speaker 1: We don't talk about team president's a ton on this show,
27:57
Speaker 1: but I mean they are the right hand man and
28:00
Speaker 1: to the owner most of the time. You know, Randy
28:02
Speaker 1: Levine for years with the sign Berners, Derek Hall for
28:05
Speaker 1: years with Ken Kendrick and the Arizona Diamondbacks, and many
28:08
Speaker 1: many others in that role. I think sometimes people get
28:11
Speaker 1: confused nowadays because President of Baseball Operations versus president. We
28:16
Speaker 1: used to just basically have GMS, but the President Baseball
28:19
Speaker 1: Operations is the GM of.
28:22
Speaker 3: What we grew up knowing.
28:23
Speaker 1: They run the roster the president reports business side budget,
28:30
Speaker 1: everything financial with the owner and is not making player
28:34
Speaker 1: personnel decisions as a whole. He might be in on
28:37
Speaker 1: some conversations, but generally it's business. It's like CEO and
28:41
Speaker 1: general manager.
28:43
Speaker 4: Yeah, completely different. I never ran into him three weeks
28:47
Speaker 4: in TRIAA with salt Lake. I don't think the president
28:51
Speaker 4: was really too worried about me as a player. But
28:56
Speaker 4: you know what, maybe this is the beginning of something
28:59
Speaker 4: new for the angel I don't know. I think I
29:02
Speaker 4: think some of the stuff that stems with art arty
29:05
Speaker 4: is is an arty thing. But he needs somebody in
29:09
Speaker 4: there that's willing to make the infrastructure changes, and this
29:14
Speaker 4: is the role that will allow like, hey, you know what,
29:17
Speaker 4: I hear what the baseball side of baseball is saying.
29:21
Speaker 4: I'm the business side Molly Jolly's gonna which by the way,
29:24
Speaker 4: is name of the week. But the business side has
29:29
Speaker 4: to be in line with the fact that you're spending
29:33
Speaker 4: two hundred and fifty million dollars in your payroll. It's
29:36
Speaker 4: okay to spend three million more in your minor leagues
29:39
Speaker 4: to create an infrastructure that will quite possibly make you
29:44
Speaker 4: not have to pay as much in the big leagues,
29:47
Speaker 4: or here's here's a mind blower for you. Maybe I'll
29:51
Speaker 4: help you win a World Series in the big leagues.
29:53
Speaker 4: That's the point of owning a team. So to me,
29:56
Speaker 4: this is an important role for a team to be,
29:58
Speaker 4: especially with Arty willing to spend the money in places
30:02
Speaker 4: that he has severely lacked spending the money.
30:10
Speaker 3: Ooh, this is a good one.
30:12
Speaker 1: On the day that the US team gets going and
30:16
Speaker 1: many others. I mean, this is the Friday where it
30:18
Speaker 1: suddenly becomes madness in the World Baseball Classic. And again
30:21
Speaker 1: we'll talk about what's happened so far a little bit
30:23
Speaker 1: later on, including Otani and Yamamoto, but highest ticket for
30:26
Speaker 1: World Baseball Classic MVP goes to Bobby Witt Junior at
30:30
Speaker 1: twenty three point eight percent, and then Juan Soto at
30:33
Speaker 1: ten point five percent. Otani at eight point six percent.
30:37
Speaker 1: Crats your thoughts on the top three there or anybody
30:39
Speaker 1: else that you think you'd place.
30:42
Speaker 3: I mean, it's going to be tough. There's so much
30:43
Speaker 3: star power, and it depends on who you think is
30:46
Speaker 3: going to win. You got to pick someone from a
30:47
Speaker 3: win from the winner.
30:49
Speaker 2: For sure.
30:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, No, I mean it's just gonna be picked from
30:51
Speaker 4: the winning team, and I think the DR something about
30:55
Speaker 4: the DR so I do like the one Soto there,
30:59
Speaker 4: But I feel like my pick yesterday, I picked the
31:02
Speaker 4: Deer to win it, and I would say, if they
31:05
Speaker 4: win it, it's gonna be a Junior Kamania MVP. Junior
31:09
Speaker 4: Camanio is the guy that I feel like in a
31:13
Speaker 4: lineup of superstars, you're gonna be like, all right, well.
31:15
Speaker 2: We'll see what we can do.
31:17
Speaker 4: I guess he's a home run hitter, so well, he's
31:19
Speaker 4: a better hitter than just a home run hitter. And
31:22
Speaker 4: I feel like he's the guy in the lineup that
31:24
Speaker 4: other teams will be like, I guess if somebody's gonna
31:27
Speaker 4: beat us, we're gonna let him beat us. And I
31:29
Speaker 4: think that's where you're gonna find the most value. I
31:32
Speaker 4: tried to look it up. I wasn't able to find
31:33
Speaker 4: it yet. What the value is on Junior to win MVP.
31:38
Speaker 5: Nice, Well, that's going outside the box.
31:40
Speaker 6: I like that, but I might I might be the
31:44
Speaker 6: guy like oh typical, but shoho tani man, this guy
31:47
Speaker 6: is an absolute beast. The team is absolutely phenomenal. He's
31:52
Speaker 6: he's a guy that can do it from both sides.
31:54
Speaker 6: Too as well. So that puts him over the top
31:57
Speaker 6: for me. And he's he looks like he's ready to play.
32:00
Speaker 6: It looks like he never lost a beat from last
32:02
Speaker 6: year in the years before, So I would definitely take
32:06
Speaker 6: a big time look at Shohyotani in this World Baseball Classic.
32:11
Speaker 1: You got off to an okay start today, a little
32:14
Speaker 1: Grand Slam danger, no big deal again, We're gonna talk
32:17
Speaker 1: about it later, but yeah, nice start for mister Otani
32:21
Speaker 1: against Chinese Taipei. They blew them out. Hey for the
32:24
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