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Transcript

Reds Caravan Live 2025 - Exclusive Broadcast on 580 WCHS · WCHS Network Podcasts

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: The Cincinnati Reds are or and d air when you're
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: home for Reds Baseball five eight WCHS now live from
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the theater at the Charleston Coliseum. Here is West Virginia
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hall of Fame broadcaster Jeff Jenkins.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And welcome inside. And we are in the theater at
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: the Charleston Coliseum and Convention Center for the Reds Caravan
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: twenty twenty five, and we have Reds fans. Five eighty
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: WCS listeners are here tonight. We've got a good crowd
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: that has gathered and we're looking forward to seeing the Reds.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: The Reds have arrived the ones on this particular leg
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: of the caravan, and they're doing some interviews with some
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: local media now and then they'll do some Q and
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: a's with the crowd here that'll be introduced and they'll
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: do some Q and A so we'll be able to
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: take those live, and then they'll move down in front
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: of the stage here at the theater and start signing
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: autographs for those folks that are here. And then as
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: that's happening, then we'll bring them over one on one
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: and they'll continue to sign the autographs as they're on
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: the air with us. This has been our tradition here
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: on five Adwcchs, longtime voice of the Cincinnati Reds, to
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: carry this caravan live. It kind of gets us a
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: great taste of the baseball season head and kind of
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: gets its exciting. You know, the Reds are only really
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: a few weeks away from the opening of spring training.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: That will come the second week of February. Pitchers and
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: catchers report to Goodyear, Arizona, so it'll be here before
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: you know it. We're talking around the tenth or the twelfth.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Then the whole team will report later that week, and
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: it's an exciting year for the resident. We'll talk about
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: this with those folks that are here tonight about new
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: manager Terry Francona. Res made a change at the after
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: the season last year and David Bell left the Reds
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: and they hired Terry Francona. Of course, Francona on his
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: way to Hall of Fame manager and won a World
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Series with the Red Sox, won lots of games with
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: the Red Sox with Cleveland, experienced manager who had gotten
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: out of baseball for a couple of years. But he's excited,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: ready to go, and I know Reds fans are excited
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: too about having Terry Francona managed the Reds this year.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: And I think it's going to be a good mix
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Red's very young players with Terry Francona. And we'll get
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: into that tonight. So here are some of the guests
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: that will have who are on this particular leg. Carson Spears,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: young up and coming young pitcher. One of the red
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: starting pitchers from last season. Carson made some very good
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: starts down the stretch. He was injured around mid season.
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: We'll talk to him about that. He had one of
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: those shoulder impingements and we'll talk to Carson about that.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: But I've already seen him here tonight. We'll have him
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: on the air later. Blake Dunn an outfielder for the Reds.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: He was one of the young guys he and Jacob
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: Herbeses who were able to they had to come up.
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: You know, a lot of injuries for the Reds last year,
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: and those are the guys that came up and filled
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: some holes for a while. So Done was up for
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: several games and played well when he was up. And
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: he's got a really good background, So we'll talk to him.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: South Stewart, a young Reds infielder is here and he's
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: an up and coming and south Stewart is a very
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: good hitter, power hitter, and a little step back last
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: year with a wrist injury, but he is fully cleared.
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: And I did see this week that he has been
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: invited to spring training with the Big Club. So he'll
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: be with the Big Club for spring training. I'm sure
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: he's very excited about that, and we'll talk to him.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And then a young pitcher Jose Jose Franco, who has
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: been down with Daytona at low A and then up
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: to dayton last year HIA with the Reds and of
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: their up and coming young pitchers is Jose Franco. And
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: then longtime Reds fans will know this name Joe Oliver.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: Joe Oliver catcher for the Reds in the late eighties
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: early nineties, and he was the catcher on that nineteen
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: ninety World Series championship team. We didn't know Joe was coming.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: He's a late ad. Sometimes that happens with these Caravenger
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: We'll get somebody added late who joins, and so we're
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: glad and please to have Joe Oliver. Look forward to
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: talking to Joe Oliver of course, about that big bass
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: hit down the line, down the third base line that
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: he had to score Billy Bates to win Game two
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: of the nineteen ninety World Series, Game two of the
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: four game sweep against the Oakland A. So Joe Oliver
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: will be here and we'll talk to him also. So
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: we'll be back in just a couple of minutes and
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: we'll get ready for the Q and A with the
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: crowd that's gathered here, a lot of Reds fans here
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: ready to get everything and anything signed. You see baseballs,
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: you see the posters, you see jerseys, you see hats,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: you see bats. So there'll be a lot of different
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: things that these players will sign here tonight. And just
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: a word about the caravan. And it's all over Reds
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Country here in West Virginia, in Kentucky and Ohio and
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: in Indiana. Earlier this week they were in parts of
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: southeastern Ohio, so they came over to West Virginia. They
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: made a stop over at Point Pleasant High School. Another
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: leg of the caravan, not that this particular leg, but
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: another leg of the caravan was there, and so they
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: had this stop here in Charleston. Tonight they will be
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: in Huntington at the Huntington Mall and barbers with at
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: the Huntington Mall tomorrow morning, this same part of the tour.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: So thanks for joining us tonight. Reds fans and Reds
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: fans here in the audience getting ready to meet these
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: Cincinnati Reds. Stay tune, will be back and meet the
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: Reds on this particular part of the Reds Caravan. And
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: here the Q and as from the fans gathered here tonight.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: This is coverage of the Cincinnati Reds Caravan here on
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: five eighty that would you see the Voice of Charleston.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: This is the Reds Caravan, WHS.
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: And welcome back to the theater at the Charleston Coliseum
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: and Convention Center. Jeff Jenkins with you tonight, Jeffetty, my
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: producer here on five ADWCHS the Voice of Charleston, the
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: home of the Reds, and the star of the show
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: has entered the room. And that's Gapper. Gapper, the Reds mascot,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: the star of the show here tonight, and he is
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: entered in. Gapper, one of the Reds mascots, here greeting
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: the crowd already drawing a large crowd of kids and
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Gapper's signing autographs. That's a little Tom Gapper's got doesn't
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: look like the easiest hands to grab a pen with,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: but he appears to be doing a very good job
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: with it.
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: How are we doing, Charleston, Come on here we go.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Thank you for coming out to the twenty twenty tent
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: five Red's Caravan, presented by since Anty Children's in partnership
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: with Network for Hope.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: We really appreciate you being here today.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: We do.
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna start our introductions here. My name is Zach Bonkowski.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: I'm the vice president of Events for the Reds. I'm
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: just gonna help us get underway today.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna bring the guys out.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna come out with you so you guys can
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: ask him questions. But the first introduction i'm gonna make
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: is a special guest that's right up here, and the
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: kids have already taken a note.
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: It's Gapper, So welcome Gapper.
• 7:30
  Speaker 4: And Chad is right over there.
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  Speaker 3: Hey Chad, it's been a long time and man Chad
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: has been coming to our Reds Caravan stops for a
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: long long time, so we appreciate him being here today.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: I also want to thank.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: Our staff that's joining us today, so it takes a
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: lot of people to do this caravan. So Ashley and
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: Caroline we're here setting us up. Jorges with me on
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: the bus. We got our friends from the Reds Hall
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: of Fame and our Reds Heads Kids Club back in
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: the back and we want to thank them as well
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: as well as we get help along the way with security.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: A gentleman named Chris, so we appreciate him being here
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: with us today. So I will get everybody introduced here,
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: and I didn't bring my intro sheets. I'm gonna try
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: to remember how I'd introduced everybody properly. But down here
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: our first guest. He's our senior director of player development.
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: He's been in the organization for four years now. Himself
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: was a minor league player for about eight seasons as well.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: So please welcome Jeremy Farrell, one of our young up
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: and coming arms in the organization.
• 8:29
  Speaker 4: A right handed pitcher who made a lot of time
• 8:31
  Speaker 4: in Daytona and dayton recently.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: He has got some really good stuff and we're expecting
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: good things out of him this year.
• 8:37
  Speaker 4: Please welcome Jose Franco. Next to him, we have.
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: One of our guys on the current Major league roster.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: He was drafted by the organization, developed by the organization,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: really shot up through the organization, made a name for
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: himself and his double a season really really shown for
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: us here lately.
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: And he came up and made his debut for the.
• 9:04
  Speaker 3: Club last June. Please welcome outfielder Blake Dunn. Next to him,
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: we got another one of our young guys. He is
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: now in his third season. I think it is as
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: one of our minor league top prospects second baseman. He
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: has just been invited to big league camp for the
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: first time. Please welcome South Stewart next to him. We
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: have one of another developed player by the Reds. He
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: was drafted in twenty twenty. Actually I wasn't drafted. He
• 9:42
  Speaker 3: was signed as a minor league or an undrafted free
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: agent with US. But he shot through the organization, has
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: really proved himself, made his debut in twenty twenty three seasons,
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: came back up last year and provided a lot of
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: good getting good innings for US. Please welcome Carson Spires.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: And lastly, but not least, he is a member of
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: the nineteen ninety World Series champion Reds. He played in
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: a number of Big League seasons for us, for the A's.
• 10:11
  Speaker 5: For Seattle.
• 10:13
  Speaker 4: I may have messed up by the A's. I can't remember.
• 10:16
  Speaker 5: No, he played with the A's.
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: I think we want to welcome.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: We want to welcome one of my favorite Reds alumni
• 10:22
  Speaker 3: is Joe Oliver.
• 10:27
  Speaker 5: All right, I'm gonna.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: Hop down here very gracefully, and I'm gonna see if
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: anybody in our crowd has a question for our panel.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: You guys can raise a hand, I can come your way,
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: and you can ask him any of our guys anything.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: All right, right here, sir, this question is for Blake Dunn. Blake,
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: last year, you got a some time in the big leagues.
• 10:49
  Speaker 5: This year when you.
• 10:50
  Speaker 4: Get caught up, what are your expectations this year?
• 10:55
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think obviously getting my feet wet last year
• 10:58
  Speaker 6: was an awesome experience, being able to debut in June
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: and be up with the cub a few times, and
• 11:05
  Speaker 6: then being able to finish the year.
• 11:07
  Speaker 5: I felt like if you finished the year strong, had
• 11:09
  Speaker 5: a couple of good.
• 11:10
  Speaker 6: Games there in the in the last couple of weeks
• 11:12
  Speaker 6: of the season, and so just been continuing to work
• 11:15
  Speaker 6: in the off season. I feel good, I feel feel fast,
• 11:19
  Speaker 6: feel strong, everything.
• 11:20
  Speaker 5: Baseball wise, feels good.
• 11:21
  Speaker 6: So I'm looking forward to to spring training and go
• 11:24
  Speaker 6: out in there, compete, fight for a job, and being
• 11:27
  Speaker 6: able to help the team win in any way possible.
• 11:30
  Speaker 5: Come April excellent, Right yeah.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: Right here, I'm throw with this, young lady.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: This question is for anybody who was your favorite teammate?
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: Who is your favorite teammate on the spot right there?
• 11:48
  Speaker 7: I mean, come on, I'd say my favorite teammate was
• 11:52
  Speaker 7: Buck Farmer this past year.
• 11:53
  Speaker 8: He's a great guy.
• 11:56
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 11:56
  Speaker 10: My favorite teammates Edwin Arroyo. He's probably one of my
• 12:00
  Speaker 10: best best friends.
• 12:01
  Speaker 9: Say m.
• 12:03
  Speaker 6: I'd say I feel like I'm pretty close with Jacob Hurabye,
• 12:07
  Speaker 6: so i'd say he's probably one of my favorite teammates.
• 12:10
  Speaker 9: My third teammates.
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: All right, young man, right over here, what.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Made you want to start play baseball?
• 12:28
  Speaker 8: Good question, I would say.
• 12:33
  Speaker 7: I mean I was five or six years old when
• 12:36
  Speaker 7: I started playing, and I think it was just like
• 12:39
  Speaker 7: getting up and going to the backyard and playing catch
• 12:41
  Speaker 7: with my dad my brother just kind of like started
• 12:44
  Speaker 7: the love for the game. And then obviously once I
• 12:46
  Speaker 7: got into t ball and Little League and stuff like that,
• 12:50
  Speaker 7: I knew that I was pretty good at the game
• 12:52
  Speaker 7: and knew that I wanted to try to play for
• 12:54
  Speaker 7: as long as I could. So I think just playing
• 12:56
  Speaker 7: catch with my dad my brother in my backyard really
• 12:59
  Speaker 7: started it.
• 13:00
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I kind of just started because my dad put
• 13:02
  Speaker 10: me in it, and then from there on not I
• 13:04
  Speaker 10: was pretty good.
• 13:04
  Speaker 5: At it, so I kept going.
• 13:06
  Speaker 6: Yeah, my I would say I probably found out that
• 13:10
  Speaker 6: I wanted to keep playing baseball once I got to
• 13:12
  Speaker 6: the age of travel baseball with me and my my
• 13:16
  Speaker 6: parents traveling all over the place to play tournaments, and
• 13:19
  Speaker 6: I loved the travel, I loved the game, and that
• 13:21
  Speaker 6: was kind of the point when I decided that was
• 13:24
  Speaker 6: kind of what I wanted to do going forward.
• 13:34
  Speaker 11: And Juana, Yeah, I started to play baseball when I
• 13:42
  Speaker 11: was three. My dad was the one that really took me,
• 13:45
  Speaker 11: and he obviously he liked the sport a lot, so
• 13:48
  Speaker 11: really showed me and took me under his arms and said, Okay,
• 13:51
  Speaker 11: we're gonna play baseball. So ever since then, I've been playing.
• 13:55
  Speaker 12: I started playing all kinds of different sports as I
• 13:58
  Speaker 12: was younger, and then when I got old or baseball
• 14:00
  Speaker 12: just progressed that that was a sport that I wanted
• 14:02
  Speaker 12: to play.
• 14:05
  Speaker 4: Midway up here.
• 14:06
  Speaker 8: Who was your favorite player growing up?
• 14:10
  Speaker 4: Favorite player growing up?
• 14:12
  Speaker 5: Who was I grew up?
• 14:14
  Speaker 6: I was born in Michigan, so I grew up watching
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: the Tigers a lot, and so I would say my
• 14:19
  Speaker 6: favorite player growing up watching was Miguel Carrera.
• 14:25
  Speaker 5: Fine was Johnny Bench and Thurman Munson.
• 14:29
  Speaker 9: My hoody player is Felis Nande.
• 14:34
  Speaker 8: My favorite pitcher growing up was Roger Clemens.
• 14:38
  Speaker 13: My favorite player was Manny Machana.
• 14:41
  Speaker 4: Right, young lady, right back here. How many hits do
• 14:45
  Speaker 4: you think y'all gonna make this? Y'all? How many hits
• 14:50
  Speaker 4: we're gonna have? Blake and so? How many hits you're
• 14:53
  Speaker 4: gonna get this season?
• 14:55
  Speaker 10: I'm thinking maybe one hundred and forty That's what I'm
• 14:58
  Speaker 10: looking for.
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: I want one hundred and forty one. Then, all right, who's.
• 15:07
  Speaker 4: Got a hand up here? Oh young man?
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: What was your favorite MLB moment?
• 15:15
  Speaker 4: Two mL get you guys, three MLB guys.
• 15:19
  Speaker 7: I think your l MLB debut so far would be
• 15:23
  Speaker 7: my favorite MLB moment.
• 15:26
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I would say that that's a really good one
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: MLB debut for me for sure. But another good good
• 15:34
  Speaker 6: moment that I had was my home run off of
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: Chris Sale who ended up winning the Cy Young the
• 15:39
  Speaker 6: nl CY Young this year.
• 15:43
  Speaker 12: Mine was definitely Game two of the World Series in
• 15:45
  Speaker 12: nineteen ninety, my hit to end the game off of
• 15:48
  Speaker 12: Ackers League.
• 15:51
  Speaker 14: There you go.
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: Get the people go on, we the people go on?
• 15:55
  Speaker 4: All right, I got one right back here.
• 15:58
  Speaker 8: Okay, this question is for Joe Oliver.
• 16:00
  Speaker 15: Can you just talk about that hit in the moment
• 16:02
  Speaker 15: and winning the World Series in.
• 16:03
  Speaker 5: Ninety Yeah, it was, you know, a special moment.
• 16:07
  Speaker 12: I mean, it all started with me getting the opportunity
• 16:10
  Speaker 12: to catch the first pitch from Barbara Bush and knowing
• 16:14
  Speaker 12: the time frame of when we were in the middle
• 16:16
  Speaker 12: of a Gulf war, So it was a special time
• 16:20
  Speaker 12: that hit. I had never faced ann A Seckersley before,
• 16:22
  Speaker 12: didn't know what to expect other than what I'd seen
• 16:24
  Speaker 12: on TV. I thought that Lou might pinch hit for me,
• 16:29
  Speaker 12: just because that typically in the late inning situations, being
• 16:31
  Speaker 12: a young player, he would usually go to the left hand,
• 16:34
  Speaker 12: left handed hitting Jeff Reid.
• 16:37
  Speaker 5: I didn't hear my name.
• 16:38
  Speaker 12: Called, so I had to go through my head as
• 16:40
  Speaker 12: I'm walking up to the batter's box about a scout report,
• 16:43
  Speaker 12: and I had no idea of what to go off
• 16:45
  Speaker 12: of So I took the first pitch, and it was
• 16:47
  Speaker 12: a pitch that I normally would have been aggressive that
• 16:49
  Speaker 12: and swung mad and myself for taking it. But then
• 16:53
  Speaker 12: he threw another backup slider. I didn't crush it, but
• 16:56
  Speaker 12: I hit it hard enough down the third baseline and
• 17:00
  Speaker 12: couldn't hear myself think because I'm running down the first
• 17:02
  Speaker 12: base line and just so excited and couldn't believe actually
• 17:06
  Speaker 12: what had happened that I had a walk off hit
• 17:08
  Speaker 12: in the World Series?
• 17:11
  Speaker 4: Are you awesome?
• 17:12
  Speaker 5: All right?
• 17:12
  Speaker 4: Back here?
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: This is for Joe Oliveralls.
• 17:17
  Speaker 15: I've been the Reds fans since I was just a
• 17:20
  Speaker 15: little feller, but I always wondered why it would be
• 17:23
  Speaker 15: like the catch the nasty boys want him, particular Rob Dibble.
• 17:29
  Speaker 12: Did it hurt your hand when you caught his pitches?
• 17:33
  Speaker 12: Actually it hurt when he bounced it.
• 17:37
  Speaker 5: You know. He actually for a guy we were drafted together.
• 17:41
  Speaker 12: North Charlton came up through the miners when we got
• 17:43
  Speaker 12: him from the Expos in a trade. So I knew
• 17:46
  Speaker 12: those guys extremely very well. And you know, Dibble through
• 17:50
  Speaker 12: the ball hard. I mean he ninety two mile an
• 17:52
  Speaker 12: hour slider with a hundred and one mile an hour fastball,
• 17:56
  Speaker 12: and he had good control, which was surprise because when
• 18:01
  Speaker 12: we were drafted together, he had no idea where the
• 18:04
  Speaker 12: ball was going. He was newt La loosh, you know,
• 18:06
  Speaker 12: and with the lake kick and the mechanics, it was
• 18:10
  Speaker 12: a nightmare. I'm sure for every pitching coach he ever
• 18:12
  Speaker 12: had trying to team that down a little bit. But
• 18:15
  Speaker 12: he was actually pretty easy to catch. Norm probably beat
• 18:17
  Speaker 12: my hand up more than Dibble did because Norm threw
• 18:21
  Speaker 12: a wet spitner I mean a wet split however you
• 18:25
  Speaker 12: want to call it, and it tend to bounce about
• 18:28
  Speaker 12: five feet in front of the plate and hit me
• 18:29
  Speaker 12: in the navel every time. So but you know, he
• 18:33
  Speaker 12: was really good. He was pretty easy. You just get fiery,
• 18:36
  Speaker 12: so I never knew if I was going to have
• 18:39
  Speaker 12: to go chase the ball at the backstop or try
• 18:41
  Speaker 12: to protect from the hitter charging the mound at him.
• 18:46
  Speaker 16: This is for anybody. I'm a big NASCAR fan, go
• 18:50
  Speaker 16: to Bristol every year. I'm pretty excited for the game
• 18:53
  Speaker 16: that they're having this year. I would to just know
• 18:55
  Speaker 16: your all his thoughts. Playing it inside of a stock
• 18:59
  Speaker 16: car race our stadium.
• 19:03
  Speaker 8: Yeah, it's pretty sweet.
• 19:04
  Speaker 7: I think what's even cooler in the NASCAR, It's gonna
• 19:07
  Speaker 7: be one hundred and twenty thousand people watching us, So
• 19:11
  Speaker 7: that alone itself is gonna be awesome, and then all
• 19:14
  Speaker 7: the NASCAR fans that will kind of bring into baseball.
• 19:17
  Speaker 7: I'm personally not a NASCAR fan, but again, playing in
• 19:21
  Speaker 7: front of one hundred and twenty thousand people will be
• 19:22
  Speaker 7: a fun time.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 19:25
  Speaker 6: I think it's just cool that for the very first
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: time that anybody's playing in a stadium made there, that
• 19:30
  Speaker 6: we're goeing to be a part of it.
• 19:32
  Speaker 5: So I think a lot of guys are looking forward
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: to it.
• 19:34
  Speaker 4: I know from a front office perspective.
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: I had the actually privilege of going to the introductory
• 19:39
  Speaker 3: press conference on MLB Network and actually being in the
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: in there for the first time, having never been to
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: that racetrack before, and just to imagine what they're gonna
• 19:46
  Speaker 3: do there is pretty mind boggling.
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: They're gonna tear down part of the track, part of the.
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: Walls of the track, not the not the up walls,
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: but just down on the infield to make it all work.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: And they're tearing down some garages to make club house
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: for us and everybody else and then Colossus sits right
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: above the field or the middle of the track, so
• 20:06
  Speaker 3: it actually has to be in foul territory. Their their
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: giant screen there, so third baseline will be right alongside
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: of that, but there will actually be when you guys
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: get there, you'll see this. There are four support wires
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: that cannot re remove to keep that up off the ground.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: They actually go outside of the racetrack, so one of
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: those support wires will still be in the infield when
• 20:26
  Speaker 3: you guys are out there playing. It'll be like treated
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: like it is in in Tampa with with the wall,
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: but it will go right across the infield, right above
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: you guys.
• 20:34
  Speaker 4: So it's pretty cool, yes, young man.
• 20:39
  Speaker 5: That running around the whole.
• 20:42
  Speaker 13: What was going to when you go ahead and head.
• 20:46
  Speaker 5: Not much.
• 20:47
  Speaker 6: I mean I saw it coming out of my head
• 20:48
  Speaker 6: and I tried to get out of the way as
• 20:49
  Speaker 6: best as I could. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to get
• 20:54
  Speaker 6: out of the way of one hundred and one mile
• 20:55
  Speaker 6: an hour cutter rutter when it comes up at your face.
• 20:58
  Speaker 5: So lucky, I got lucky.
• 21:01
  Speaker 6: That nothing bad happened, and just hoping that doesn't happen again.
• 21:06
  Speaker 5: But we're all good, all right.
• 21:11
  Speaker 3: This question is for Carson Inspires, But what is your
• 21:14
  Speaker 3: favorite pitch to throw?
• 21:17
  Speaker 8: Strike one?
• 21:20
  Speaker 7: No, really, I mean every day. It depends for me.
• 21:24
  Speaker 7: This off season working on the change up, so I'm
• 21:26
  Speaker 7: looking forward to throwing that a lot more and just
• 21:30
  Speaker 7: being competitive with that. But I'm the type of guy
• 21:33
  Speaker 7: that has to utilize my whole arsenal, so I lean
• 21:36
  Speaker 7: on all my pitches. Joe, what is your funniest clubhouse
• 21:40
  Speaker 7: story about the World Series team that you can share
• 21:43
  Speaker 7: with the public?
• 21:44
  Speaker 17: Ah?
• 21:44
  Speaker 12: Right, good night, Oh boy, funniest. I don't know about
• 21:51
  Speaker 12: the funniest. I mean, I think everybody saw the one
• 21:56
  Speaker 12: where Dibbil and Vanila got into the fight. That was
• 22:00
  Speaker 12: kind of summed up our clubhouse. We were fighting everybody,
• 22:07
  Speaker 12: I mean just the whole situation.
• 22:09
  Speaker 5: Day in and day out.
• 22:10
  Speaker 12: We had guys that really bonded well together and supported
• 22:13
  Speaker 12: each other, and we were constantly pulling practical jokes on
• 22:17
  Speaker 12: each other. So I can't really pull one out of
• 22:20
  Speaker 12: my you know, one story. It would have to be
• 22:22
  Speaker 12: a collection of them. But uh, we had a close
• 22:25
  Speaker 12: knit group and guys were not afraid to tease and
• 22:28
  Speaker 12: took it in the right way and supported each other
• 22:32
  Speaker 12: and had no problem going out and ragging each other,
• 22:35
  Speaker 12: So that would kind of be I guess my experience.
• 22:37
  Speaker 12: Whatever you think could happen probably did on steroids. Not
• 22:41
  Speaker 12: saying we took steroids, but I mean, you get a
• 22:46
  Speaker 12: bunch of guys together, they're a little bit crazy, They're
• 22:48
  Speaker 12: gonna do some crazy things, all right, young man?
• 22:52
  Speaker 8: Right here?
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Hous it?
• 22:55
  Speaker 8: Keeping that study.
• 23:00
  Speaker 7: We'll make sure to get a picture when we're done.
• 23:03
  Speaker 7: What's your name, sire? Nice to meet you, buddy.
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: That's the cutest question of the day. Anybody else got
• 23:15
  Speaker 4: a question for our group up here today? Man? Over here?
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: Anybody else over this way? Okay, make a walk over
• 23:22
  Speaker 4: here real quick.
• 23:23
  Speaker 3: While I'm walking over here, let's let's ask a question
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: to Jeremy for everybody. Jeremy, can you tell us a
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: little bit about our farm system right now? What you're
• 23:32
  Speaker 3: looking forward to in the spring with the group, and
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: what you think about what's coming along through their system.
• 23:37
  Speaker 18: Yeah, honestly looking forward to some of the guys sitting
• 23:40
  Speaker 18: up here right now, you know, starting with the carson,
• 23:44
  Speaker 18: him getting more comfortable in his role, even if at
• 23:47
  Speaker 18: times it is back and forth, up and down, but
• 23:51
  Speaker 18: the more time he's spending in the major leagues. You know,
• 23:55
  Speaker 18: we're seeing the fruits of his labor and hard work.
• 23:59
  Speaker 18: Sal put together tremendous first half last year. Unfortunately he
• 24:03
  Speaker 18: ran into a freak accident. But he's healthy, he's ready
• 24:06
  Speaker 18: to go and anxious to have a big year. Blake
• 24:09
  Speaker 18: same thing got his feet wet in the big leagues
• 24:11
  Speaker 18: last year. Wherever he starts the season, we expect him
• 24:16
  Speaker 18: to contribute to our major league team. And then Jose
• 24:20
  Speaker 18: Franco coming off of elbow surgery. He'll be healthy and
• 24:25
  Speaker 18: ready to go for a strong year coming out of
• 24:28
  Speaker 18: spring training. So really excited about this group sitting right here.
• 24:31
  Speaker 18: Others that took big steps forward last year. Chase Petty
• 24:36
  Speaker 18: finished the year in tripa A. He'll go to big
• 24:39
  Speaker 18: league camp and should factor into the major league team
• 24:41
  Speaker 18: at some point. Young shortstop Sammy Staffura started the year
• 24:46
  Speaker 18: in extended spring training and ended up in Daytona Beach
• 24:51
  Speaker 18: to end the year. So a lot of bright prospects
• 24:55
  Speaker 18: on the way that we're really excited about.
• 24:58
  Speaker 5: Excellent.
• 24:58
  Speaker 9: All right, young man here, Joe, how many homeworks did
• 25:03
  Speaker 9: you hit?
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: One hundred and two? I believe.
• 25:08
  Speaker 4: Were you sweating those last three?
• 25:11
  Speaker 17: Yeah?
• 25:11
  Speaker 12: I never thought that hundred would come. You know, some
• 25:14
  Speaker 12: people usually talk about five hundred. I couldn't wait for
• 25:16
  Speaker 12: one hundred to happen.
• 25:19
  Speaker 19: All right, right here, Jeremy is a former West Virginia
• 25:22
  Speaker 19: Power player.
• 25:23
  Speaker 5: Were some of your memories were? Playing in Charleston?
• 25:27
  Speaker 8: I remember the toast Man.
• 25:33
  Speaker 18: Yeah, that was my first full season in two thousand
• 25:35
  Speaker 18: and nine West Virginia Power. Gary Green was the manager
• 25:41
  Speaker 18: South Atlantic League. I stayed out in Taye Valley for
• 25:45
  Speaker 18: the year. So driving in, we passed through Huntington, and
• 25:49
  Speaker 18: I saw the signs for Tays Valley and Poka And
• 25:52
  Speaker 18: remember the Polka dots, and so we got some Poka
• 25:56
  Speaker 18: dots in here.
• 25:58
  Speaker 8: Awesome.
• 25:59
  Speaker 18: So those are some of the memories that I had
• 26:01
  Speaker 18: driving in today.
• 26:04
  Speaker 5: Awesome.
• 26:04
  Speaker 4: All right, young man, he break the last windows flame baseball?
• 26:11
  Speaker 4: Have you broken a window playing baseball?
• 26:12
  Speaker 15: No?
• 26:13
  Speaker 4: Not yet. Anybody break a window at the house.
• 26:17
  Speaker 5: My mom would not have been happy about a broken window.
• 26:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah, they had three boys. They said, it's abound to happen.
• 26:27
  Speaker 7: All right, who's just blame it on your brother when
• 26:29
  Speaker 7: it does?
• 26:32
  Speaker 4: Have you have any more? It's been great, Q and
• 26:34
  Speaker 4: A guys. Thanks.
• 26:37
  Speaker 7: I think there's a lot of excitement around Terry Francona
• 26:40
  Speaker 7: coming in. How do you guys feel about the opportunity
• 26:43
  Speaker 7: to play under Francona at some point? Yeah, I think
• 26:48
  Speaker 7: that's the buzz going into camp, right. He's all we
• 26:51
  Speaker 7: here is He's a guy that loves being in the
• 26:53
  Speaker 7: locker room, loves being with the guys. That's where he
• 26:55
  Speaker 7: feels comfortable. So having him in the clubhouse, having his
• 26:59
  Speaker 7: experience where he can just teach us and talk to
• 27:03
  Speaker 7: us about what he knows, is gonna go a long way.
• 27:06
  Speaker 8: So we're all excited.
• 27:08
  Speaker 7: You get to learn from a guy that's done it
• 27:09
  Speaker 7: for twenty three years and one World series.
• 27:12
  Speaker 8: So it's exciting for me, it's exciting.
• 27:15
  Speaker 13: For all of us.
• 27:17
  Speaker 6: Yeah, And I mean he's a future Hall of Fame manager,
• 27:20
  Speaker 6: so I mean everybody in the clubhouse is gonna be
• 27:22
  Speaker 6: able to learn something from him. And I know a
• 27:25
  Speaker 6: lot of guys are super excited about that, and everybody
• 27:29
  Speaker 6: that I've talked to that have known him that can't
• 27:31
  Speaker 6: say enough good things about him. So I mean, I know,
• 27:33
  Speaker 6: me personally, I'm really excited to start to work with him.
• 27:40
  Speaker 6: His questions for a curse inspires how do you feel
• 27:43
  Speaker 6: about having a new manager.
• 27:47
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm like, I'm just I'm excited. He brings an
• 27:51
  Speaker 7: awesome resume with him. So twenty three years of being
• 27:54
  Speaker 7: a manager coaching some of the best players to ever
• 27:57
  Speaker 7: play in baseball. I guess said, you just kind of
• 28:00
  Speaker 7: become a sponge and you listen to what he says
• 28:02
  Speaker 7: and you don't take it for granted.
• 28:04
  Speaker 8: Because he's been there, done that, and.
• 28:07
  Speaker 7: That's what we're all trying to do at this level.
• 28:12
  Speaker 4: Any others is serious day? Okay, feel good? Okay, Oh
• 28:18
  Speaker 4: we got one more here, all right?
• 28:20
  Speaker 11: Stepping away from baseball a little bit, what do you
• 28:23
  Speaker 11: guys doing your off time, like off season away from baseball.
• 28:29
  Speaker 10: I've got a girlfriend that if I don't hang out
• 28:31
  Speaker 10: with gets upsets, So I hang out with her.
• 28:34
  Speaker 18: No, I have I hang.
• 28:35
  Speaker 10: Out with my family, hang out with my girlfriend, spend
• 28:38
  Speaker 10: time with the people I love.
• 28:39
  Speaker 5: My friends.
• 28:41
  Speaker 9: Yeah, we're gone.
• 28:43
  Speaker 10: We're gone for so long that sometimes we need that
• 28:46
  Speaker 10: time away just to be a normal human being.
• 28:48
  Speaker 5: Just like every one of us over here.
• 28:50
  Speaker 10: So I spend a lot of time with family and
• 28:52
  Speaker 10: friends and just the people I love.
• 29:01
  Speaker 13: What I mean, for me, it's just spending a lot
• 29:26
  Speaker 13: of time with my family.
• 29:28
  Speaker 11: You know, it's it's a long season every year, and
• 29:31
  Speaker 11: just to be away from them as long as we do,
• 29:33
  Speaker 11: it's kind of hard. So I try to spend as
• 29:35
  Speaker 11: much time as possible. And and I also like going
• 29:37
  Speaker 11: to the beach. The beach is really a good place
• 29:39
  Speaker 11: for me to be there and unwind as well.
• 29:44
  Speaker 7: I'm either in a deer stand or deer stand or
• 29:46
  Speaker 7: a Doug Blond, so that's where ipend all my time.
• 29:50
  Speaker 5: I like to.
• 29:51
  Speaker 6: Spend time with my family, spend time with my fiance,
• 29:53
  Speaker 6: and uh, play a little bit of video games.
• 29:58
  Speaker 4: Excellent.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: All right, guys, we really appreciate you being here. I
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: know you got a lot of the entertainment options tonight
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: that this building yourself. There's a country music show and
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: a hunting fishing show, which sounds like Carson's heading to
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: both next.
• 30:11
  Speaker 4: But we appreciate you being here.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: We're gonna what we're gonna do is gonna bring everybody
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: down and they're.
• 30:15
  Speaker 4: Gonna take a seat up here.
• 30:16
  Speaker 3: We're gonna do autographs, so everybody just stay with their
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: seated for just a minute.
• 30:19
  Speaker 4: What we'll do is we'll just start over here with Chad.
• 30:21
  Speaker 4: Would be our first one.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: All right, this is five ady w CHS the Voice
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: of Charleston. Hey, what a great QR and a by
• 30:26
  Speaker 2: the Reds fans five eighty w CCHS listeners and uh
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: and so we're gonna interview with us today yep. And
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: we're going to interview some of these folks. We want
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: to take a break and be back with some of
• 30:39
  Speaker 2: the interviews one on one. Thanks for joining us tonight
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: the Red's Caravan and Charleston at the Theater at the
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: Coliseemon Convention Center on five eighty w CCHS The Voice
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: of Charleston.
• 30:49
  Speaker 19: Snap me into a different perspective on pro wrestling Hollywood,
• 30:52
  Speaker 19: Jeff Betty, Josh Cole, and jasonk And step into.
• 30:54
  Speaker 20: The radio ring horn the Gorilla out.
• 30:56
  Speaker 19: We got a covered brother fromar fan favorite Predictions Champion
• 30:58
  Speaker 19: j four were trying to pick the outcomes for all
• 31:00
  Speaker 19: of the WWE at a e W big shows on
• 31:03
  Speaker 19: this day in wrestling history and the main event to
• 31:05
  Speaker 19: keep up to date on international, national and of course
• 31:07
  Speaker 19: all the local shows.
• 31:08
  Speaker 20: What are you gonna do? Catch What Work?
• 31:09
  Speaker 19: Cooking Mondays at one pm fourteen ninety WSWW or stream
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• 31:15
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• 31:17
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• 31:20
  Speaker 1: This is the Reds Caravan on five eight WCHS.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: And we're back at the Reds Caravan. Thanks for joining
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: us tonight here on five eight WCCHS the Voice of Charleston.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I'm Jeff Jenkins. Reds fans are getting in line here
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: and great to be joined by Joe Oliver of the
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: nineteen ninety World Championship team. And they stole my question, Joe,
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: because my question was, you know about that team and
• 31:50
  Speaker 2: about the winning HITD in Game two.
• 31:52
  Speaker 12: Yeah, it was a very close nit group. You know,
• 31:56
  Speaker 12: we really believed in each other and showed the camaraderie
• 32:01
  Speaker 12: and trust that we had in each other how that
• 32:04
  Speaker 12: can pull towards a championship club. And you know, it
• 32:08
  Speaker 12: just seemed like we had enough faith and belief that
• 32:10
  Speaker 12: somebody was going to step forward.
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: It didn't have to rely on one or two guys
• 32:14
  Speaker 5: to carry that club.
• 32:15
  Speaker 12: That somebody every night was going to be the guy
• 32:18
  Speaker 12: that pushed us over the finish line. And what a great,
• 32:22
  Speaker 12: you know, organization to be a part of during the
• 32:24
  Speaker 12: ninety run. And then just the group of people and
• 32:28
  Speaker 12: the fan base that that helped push us through in
• 32:31
  Speaker 12: a good, tough series through Pittsburgh and then the World
• 32:34
  Speaker 12: Championship and against Oakland.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: You got off to such a great start the Reds did,
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: and then kind of played five hundred baseball in the
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: second half. How did you get it all back together
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: for the playoff? You know what I mean? It could
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: play to play more consistently.
• 32:50
  Speaker 12: Yeah, you hate to be so clicheus, but we got healthy.
• 32:53
  Speaker 12: You know, we had built up a really good lead
• 32:57
  Speaker 12: and had the opportunity to get some guys that had
• 33:00
  Speaker 12: been banged up healthy and they got enough playing time
• 33:04
  Speaker 12: under their belt at the end of the season to
• 33:06
  Speaker 12: get healthy and on a roll again and back in
• 33:09
  Speaker 12: the groove.
• 33:09
  Speaker 5: So that was definitely something.
• 33:11
  Speaker 12: When we got our line up, our a lineup back
• 33:13
  Speaker 12: in there, you know, we were tough to beat.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: How did you did you think, because that you lou
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: Penella the manager's first season, did you have any inkling
• 33:21
  Speaker 2: in spring training that that this was going to be
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: a good team or when did you start to they're like, hey,
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: this might be this gonna be pretty good.
• 33:29
  Speaker 5: I think after our ninth win in a row to
• 33:31
  Speaker 5: start the year.
• 33:32
  Speaker 12: Yeah, absolutely, I mean, you always start the year off
• 33:36
  Speaker 12: with the you know, aspirations of a world championship, and
• 33:40
  Speaker 12: you know, whether it's real or not, it's a different story.
• 33:42
  Speaker 12: But all of a sudden, we started winning and getting
• 33:45
  Speaker 12: on a roll and started to see how good we were.
• 33:48
  Speaker 12: And you know, we had the talent before with Pete earlier,
• 33:51
  Speaker 12: and it just was not put together, and for various reasons,
• 33:55
  Speaker 12: we'd have injuries or run into a stumbling block. But
• 33:58
  Speaker 12: you know, we put it all together other to start
• 34:01
  Speaker 12: that year and really just proved how good we could
• 34:05
  Speaker 12: be and we started believing.
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think four straight years of second place finishes
• 34:09
  Speaker 2: with Pete.
• 34:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah, we're tired of being a bridesmaid.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly what was the as you put it together?
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: I mean what was it? The hitting?
• 34:17
  Speaker 5: Was it?
• 34:17
  Speaker 2: The pitching was it? The defense?
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: Was it?
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: Just everything?
• 34:21
  Speaker 12: I think it was a combination of everything. But we
• 34:23
  Speaker 12: lived off of our bullpen. You know, our starting pitching
• 34:25
  Speaker 12: was very good, but it's short in the game. You know,
• 34:28
  Speaker 12: our pitchers really only had to focus on six or
• 34:30
  Speaker 12: seven innings and then we could turn it over to
• 34:32
  Speaker 12: the bullpen. And they were three shut down closers that
• 34:36
  Speaker 12: no team wanted to face, and we could mix a
• 34:38
  Speaker 12: match at any point in time with anybody in any
• 34:40
  Speaker 12: part of the lineup and two lefties that are throwing
• 34:44
  Speaker 12: mid upper nineties and a Arriety throwing one hundred and one.
• 34:46
  Speaker 12: I mean that's pretty intimidating.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, short in the game, exactly like Joe Oliver's with
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: us Red Star of the Past here at the Caravan
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: and Charleston here on five eight wcahs. All right, let's
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: talk about Lou Penella a right. I mean I always
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: get this vision of when he went out to first base,
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: took it out, took it out of the holder, through
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: it once, not once, through it a second time. Right?
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: What was he like to play for?
• 35:14
  Speaker 12: You know, Lou Lou challenged everybody and whether you responded
• 35:18
  Speaker 12: to that was, you know, kind of up to you.
• 35:20
  Speaker 12: And he definitely made people feel like their job relied
• 35:26
  Speaker 12: on every bat or every pitch or you know, every game,
• 35:30
  Speaker 12: and well, good bad are indifferent.
• 35:32
  Speaker 5: It motivated me and I needed that.
• 35:35
  Speaker 12: You know, maybe an older player didn't like it as much,
• 35:37
  Speaker 12: but we had guys that were uncomfortable about you know,
• 35:43
  Speaker 12: we had not been in the big leagues very long,
• 35:46
  Speaker 12: and we had guys who are not used to the
• 35:47
  Speaker 12: role that they were in, and we needed somebody that
• 35:50
  Speaker 12: sparked us, and he definitely was that guy that came
• 35:52
  Speaker 12: in and pushed us to the limb best out of us.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: You just had the you had the pieces. I'm thinking
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: of Mariano Duncan, right, Billy Hatcher. I mean, just these
• 36:04
  Speaker 2: guys that would get hot at times. I mean Duncan
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: hit some big homers for you.
• 36:08
  Speaker 12: Yeah, he definitely did. He had big hits for us,
• 36:11
  Speaker 12: and especially in the series against the Pittsburgh he had
• 36:16
  Speaker 12: a big home run. And it's just that's kind of
• 36:20
  Speaker 12: like the conversation that I'm that I'm having. It was
• 36:22
  Speaker 12: just saying it was somebody different. I mean, you couldn't
• 36:25
  Speaker 12: just sit there and say Eric carried us or Barry
• 36:27
  Speaker 12: carried us. It was somebody different every night. And we
• 36:30
  Speaker 12: had people that do you have a pen? It's like
• 36:35
  Speaker 12: different people each night. And we were just get to
• 36:37
  Speaker 12: the ballpark and we were excited about who was it
• 36:40
  Speaker 12: going to be.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: I'm always intrigued, Joe. I'm always intrigued to wonder when
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: you knew or did you know or how did you
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: know that I'm pretty good at this and I might
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: be able to make it to the major leagues because
• 36:58
  Speaker 2: that percentage is Michael Skop I mean, it's it's so
• 37:01
  Speaker 2: so yeah, exactly.
• 37:04
  Speaker 12: You know, it took me a while. I mean I
• 37:05
  Speaker 12: got drafted out of high school in the second round,
• 37:10
  Speaker 12: and I got exposed to it pretty early. And then
• 37:13
  Speaker 12: shortly after I went to Billings, Montana, I kind of
• 37:15
  Speaker 12: had questions and doubt. You know, I didn't really understand
• 37:19
  Speaker 12: how good the playing pool is everywhere else throughout the country.
• 37:22
  Speaker 12: And now you know, in today's game, it's more worldwide.
• 37:25
  Speaker 12: I mean you're starting to see more kids from Asia
• 37:28
  Speaker 12: and Dominican, Puerto Rico, you know, Venezuela, Columbia. So it's
• 37:34
  Speaker 12: the pool is getting bigger and you have to work
• 37:37
  Speaker 12: even harder. So I think it was actually probably my
• 37:40
  Speaker 12: second year I went to Vermont and Double A that
• 37:42
  Speaker 12: things started clicking and I started thinking, you know, I
• 37:45
  Speaker 12: really got a shot at making a really good career
• 37:47
  Speaker 12: out of this. So it was definitely hard work, and
• 37:52
  Speaker 12: they were disappointing knights, calling my parents on the phone
• 37:55
  Speaker 12: and talking to my wife. We got married when we
• 37:57
  Speaker 12: were in Double A, so there were some there were
• 38:00
  Speaker 12: tough discussions and and you know, tears laid on the
• 38:03
  Speaker 12: on the on the couch and on the pillows, so
• 38:06
  Speaker 12: it wasn't always that fun.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: And then at the right place, at the right time,
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: swinging at the Dennis Across League. Can you get an
• 38:14
  Speaker 2: extra pin there? Swinging at the Dennis Extra Acres League, pitch,
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: hitting it down the line, Billy Bates scores and the
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Reds are up two oh against the team you weren't
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: even supposed to be in the park with.
• 38:26
  Speaker 5: That's right, you know it.
• 38:29
  Speaker 12: It It happened so fast, and it was just so
• 38:32
  Speaker 12: incredible the whole day of being in the World Series, uh,
• 38:37
  Speaker 12: and then having the opportunity to to have a walk
• 38:40
  Speaker 12: off hit and to experience that, you know, we were
• 38:43
  Speaker 12: supposed to get embarrassed by the A's because the old
• 38:46
  Speaker 12: Matty A's were the team that was supposed to be invincible,
• 38:49
  Speaker 12: and here we were pushing them around and showed how
• 38:53
  Speaker 12: good we can be. And you know, it was exciting.
• 38:56
  Speaker 12: It was a really cool time and and I appreciate
• 38:59
  Speaker 12: every moment that.
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And just I like Joe Oliver's with us. Just
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: a comment on Tyler Stevenson, the Reds catcher.
• 39:07
  Speaker 12: You know, I really like him. I like the way
• 39:10
  Speaker 12: he goes about his business and the way he goes
• 39:12
  Speaker 12: well about catching. I want him to stay healthy because
• 39:15
  Speaker 12: I think if he stays healthy, he's an all star
• 39:17
  Speaker 12: caliber caliber difference maker on the club. I really want
• 39:21
  Speaker 12: to see him get behind the plate more often. You know,
• 39:23
  Speaker 12: it's not my decision to make, but I think he
• 39:25
  Speaker 12: can have a bigger impact when he's behind the plate.
• 39:27
  Speaker 2: Okay, number nine, Joe Oliver's with us. Thanks Joe, good
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: seeing it. Then, welcome to Charleston. Thanks for being here,
• 39:33
  Speaker 2: appreciate having me. Yeah, we're gonna take a break. Get
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: another Red coming up. This is the Red's Caravan here
• 39:38
  Speaker 2: on five eighty wcchs The Voice of Charleston.
• 39:42
  Speaker 17: Download the free Metro News TV app to watch the
• 39:44
  Speaker 17: Voice of West Virginia in the comfort of your living room.
• 39:47
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• 40:09
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• 40:14
  Speaker 1: This is the Reds Caravan on five eighty WHS.
• 40:21
  Speaker 2: We're back inside the theater at the Charleston Coliseumn Convention Center.
• 40:24
  Speaker 2: Here on five EIGHTWCCHS The Voice of Charleston. Jeff Jenkins
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: with you tonight, Jeff Petty, my producer. We're at the
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: Red's Caravan twenty twenty five. We've heard from Joe Oliver
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: and now we're going to get Blake. Donne is going
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: to be with us, young Red's outfielder and he's going
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: to sit down here with us as he continues to
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: sign autograss. Nice crowd of Red Reds fans here tonight,
• 40:46
  Speaker 2: and Blake's going to put that right on. And Blake's
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: with us here. On five eight WCCHS The Voice of Charleston. Blake,
• 40:53
  Speaker 2: How you doing good? How are you doing good? Buddy?
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: Get to see it. Yeah, he sound great, He's not great,
• 40:58
  Speaker 2: He's not great. Welcome to Welcome to Charleston. Tell me
• 41:01
  Speaker 2: about the caravan, I mean, do you like it?
• 41:03
  Speaker 6: Yeah, this is the second one I've been on. I
• 41:05
  Speaker 6: was on one of the West tours. I think last
• 41:08
  Speaker 6: year going into like the Indianapolis area.
• 41:11
  Speaker 5: So this is the second one. It's been awesome so far.
• 41:14
  Speaker 6: We've made a couple of stops at some some different
• 41:18
  Speaker 6: radio radio show venues, I guess, and we stopped at
• 41:24
  Speaker 6: a school this morning, and so it's been great so far.
• 41:26
  Speaker 5: And the crowd here is awesome.
• 41:28
  Speaker 6: It's so cool seeing all these fans out here and
• 41:31
  Speaker 6: coming to support us, and we love it.
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Blake, you got the call up last year, And I
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: know you've been asked this question a lot, but tell
• 41:38
  Speaker 2: me about the call up and and you know, I'm
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: sure you heard from your manager, Pat Kelly's at who
• 41:45
  Speaker 2: you heard from, right, and got the call up from
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: Louisville to go to the Major Lakes.
• 41:49
  Speaker 9: Yeah.
• 41:50
  Speaker 5: So it was Sunday night.
• 41:52
  Speaker 6: I was home with my fiance, my girlfriend at the time,
• 41:55
  Speaker 6: my fiance and now we were we're just hanging out
• 41:58
  Speaker 6: at our apartment, and I was like it was late
• 42:01
  Speaker 6: at night, like ten, ten thirty maybe I got the
• 42:03
  Speaker 6: phone call and he told me I was going to
• 42:05
  Speaker 6: the big leagues, and so called my parents. They were
• 42:08
  Speaker 6: on their drive on the way home. They were just
• 42:10
  Speaker 6: in Louisville with me that weekend, and I had to
• 42:14
  Speaker 6: tell them like, hopefully you don't Hopefully you're okay with
• 42:17
  Speaker 6: missing work tomorrow because you've got to come to Colorado
• 42:19
  Speaker 6: to watch me debut and against the Rockies.
• 42:22
  Speaker 5: And I mean that was awesome.
• 42:24
  Speaker 6: Being able to share that moment with my fiance, and
• 42:28
  Speaker 6: being able to share that moment with my parents once
• 42:30
  Speaker 6: I found out, and then being able to go there
• 42:31
  Speaker 6: and play in front of some more family.
• 42:33
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's just incredible, Blake.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: I've seen projections. You know, people project who's going to
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: make the team. I mean, you got to prove it
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: on the field, but I see projections that, Yeah, I
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: mean they've got you on that. You know, on the
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: opening day roster, what do you and nothing's given to anybody, right,
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: So what do you need to do in spring training?
• 42:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 42:51
  Speaker 6: I think I need to Obviously I need to go
• 42:53
  Speaker 6: out there and produce. I mean, then that's my goal.
• 42:56
  Speaker 6: I expect myself to go there and play well. I
• 42:59
  Speaker 6: expect myself to go there and and be aggressive, fit
• 43:03
  Speaker 6: into the mold of the players that are are starting
• 43:07
  Speaker 6: to emerge with the big league team and and be
• 43:09
  Speaker 6: quality contributors.
• 43:10
  Speaker 5: And that's guys that are going out there, they're being aggressive.
• 43:13
  Speaker 6: They're stealing bases, they're playing really quality defense, and they're
• 43:17
  Speaker 6: able to to find more ways than just hitting to
• 43:19
  Speaker 6: help them win. Obviously, you've got to hit at the
• 43:21
  Speaker 6: big league level to produce quality numbers and be able
• 43:26
  Speaker 6: to to win games that way, but there's also a
• 43:29
  Speaker 6: bunch of other ways that you can then kind of
• 43:32
  Speaker 6: pack on top of the hitting. That makes you a very,
• 43:35
  Speaker 6: very quality baseball player at the big league level. And
• 43:38
  Speaker 6: I think I have the skill set and the tools
• 43:41
  Speaker 6: to be able to do that. So looking forward to
• 43:43
  Speaker 6: spring training, I'm looking forward to competing. I'm looking forward
• 43:46
  Speaker 6: to uh fighting for a spot and and uh, like
• 43:49
  Speaker 6: you said, I mean that's my goal. I want to
• 43:50
  Speaker 6: go in there and I want to I want to
• 43:52
  Speaker 6: break with the team for opening Day, and I want
• 43:54
  Speaker 6: to want to be in Cincinnati and help that team
• 43:56
  Speaker 6: win a lot of games this year.
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: Your new manager, Terry Frankcota, have you have you been
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: able to talk to him at all or any any
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: of the new staff.
• 44:04
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it was the week after the week after he
• 44:08
  Speaker 5: got hired.
• 44:09
  Speaker 6: I was able to talk to him on the phone,
• 44:12
  Speaker 6: and then I haven't been able to meet him in
• 44:15
  Speaker 6: person yet. So I'm looking forward to meeting him in
• 44:17
  Speaker 6: person once I get the spring, so that that's something
• 44:21
  Speaker 6: I'm looking forward to.
• 44:21
  Speaker 5: But yeah, I think I think he's gonna do great
• 44:24
  Speaker 5: things for us.
• 44:24
  Speaker 6: I mean, he's he's a future Hall of Fame manager
• 44:26
  Speaker 6: for a reason, So I think he's going to bring
• 44:28
  Speaker 6: out the best and all the players in the clubhouse,
• 44:30
  Speaker 6: and we're all looking forward to that.
• 44:32
  Speaker 2: Blake Dun's with us here on five E whs the
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: voice of Charleston Young, Red's outfielder, And I say young,
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: he is young, and he said beside me, and he
• 44:39
  Speaker 2: looks young.
• 44:41
  Speaker 5: Good, that's good.
• 44:43
  Speaker 2: How old are yea I should know, twenty six years old? Okay,
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: twenty young? Yeah?
• 44:48
  Speaker 14: Absolutely a year ago.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: Basically absolutely, you did absolutely no doubt about it. And
• 44:54
  Speaker 2: I asked you, Oliver this, you know, of course played
• 44:57
  Speaker 2: for years and you're still I mean, you've made it
• 45:00
  Speaker 2: to the major leagues. When did you think that, man,
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: maybe I can maybe I can make it to Was
• 45:06
  Speaker 2: it in high school? Was it in you know, when
• 45:08
  Speaker 2: was it that you thought I could be a major leaguer?
• 45:10
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 45:11
  Speaker 6: I think obviously when you're younger, the dream of getting
• 45:16
  Speaker 6: to the big leagues is every young ball players dream
• 45:20
  Speaker 6: and as you progress through your career, I think it develops.
• 45:23
  Speaker 6: And as I progressed through high school baseball, I mean
• 45:27
  Speaker 6: I played I played four sports in in high school.
• 45:30
  Speaker 6: I played football, basketball, baseball in college, and when I
• 45:34
  Speaker 6: when I was playing through baseball, I ended up signing
• 45:37
  Speaker 6: to play baseball at Western Michigan. And then I think
• 45:41
  Speaker 6: as I was able to finish that career and get
• 45:45
  Speaker 6: drafted that it kind of shipped my focus to now, Okay,
• 45:49
  Speaker 6: I'm not in college anymore. I'm I'm now in professional baseball,
• 45:53
  Speaker 6: and I'm starting to realize this dream. It's starting to
• 45:58
  Speaker 6: mold from a dream to a reality, and you're on
• 46:01
  Speaker 6: that path. And so as you progress through the miners,
• 46:04
  Speaker 6: it's just you're getting that much closer, and the light
• 46:07
  Speaker 6: of the tunnel gets that much closer, and you just
• 46:09
  Speaker 6: you feel like it's out there and you can grab it.
• 46:11
  Speaker 5: And that's the that's so that's what's so.
• 46:13
  Speaker 6: Cool about being able to climb through the ranks of
• 46:15
  Speaker 6: the minor leagues is you're obviously chasing that dream of
• 46:18
  Speaker 6: getting to the big leagues, and you can just see
• 46:20
  Speaker 6: how close it is the higher up.
• 46:21
  Speaker 2: You go, how how many games you getting in Western Michigan.
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: Do you go to Florida for like the whole month
• 46:26
  Speaker 2: of February.
• 46:27
  Speaker 6: Yeah, the first like month and a half, we're down
• 46:29
  Speaker 6: south for sure, trying to get as many games as possible.
• 46:32
  Speaker 6: And then once we go to I think the I
• 46:36
  Speaker 6: think the conference, I think the conference season started starts
• 46:43
  Speaker 6: off in like March.
• 46:44
  Speaker 5: Maybe.
• 46:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so's he's signing autograss as he's talking. It takes
• 46:51
  Speaker 2: some skill here.
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: It's hard to talk and read and write at the
• 46:54
  Speaker 5: same time.
• 46:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's signing some autographs here, all right, as
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: we can through.
• 47:00
  Speaker 6: But yeah, I mean that's uh, that's definitely something that
• 47:06
  Speaker 6: that's definitely something that the I mean all Northern schools
• 47:09
  Speaker 6: struggle with. I mean, you gotta you gotta get those
• 47:11
  Speaker 6: games in at the beginning of the season so that
• 47:12
  Speaker 6: you're ready for the conference once it comes around.
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Tell me what what part of your game
• 47:18
  Speaker 2: and Blake Dun's with us young grades outfielder, what part
• 47:21
  Speaker 2: of your game do you still you probably say a
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: lot of it, but what part of your game you
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: you still think needs maybe the most improvement or the
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: most significant improvement.
• 47:29
  Speaker 6: Yeah, I think I think just the consistency of of
• 47:34
  Speaker 6: the offensive side. I mean my season a couple of
• 47:38
  Speaker 6: years ago when I ended up being Red's Minor League
• 47:41
  Speaker 6: Player of the Year, I was able to produce offensively
• 47:43
  Speaker 6: for the whole season and was able to show the
• 47:47
  Speaker 6: potential that is there and the skill set that is there.
• 47:50
  Speaker 5: And last year was a little bit up and down.
• 47:52
  Speaker 6: I was banged up with with a few different minor
• 47:56
  Speaker 6: injuries that kind of halted my season from really taking
• 48:02
  Speaker 6: off a couple of times.
• 48:03
  Speaker 5: And so I'm looking forward to this season being healthy again.
• 48:07
  Speaker 6: And and I know that if I can do that,
• 48:11
  Speaker 6: and I can stay healthy, I can I can go
• 48:12
  Speaker 6: back out there and reproduce.
• 48:15
  Speaker 5: Kind of that year that I had in.
• 48:19
  Speaker 6: Twenty twenty two or twenty twenty three whatever, two seasons
• 48:23
  Speaker 6: ago when I.
• 48:24
  Speaker 5: Was in High A and Daton High dating in Double A.
• 48:28
  Speaker 6: And that's the thing, like in the big leagues, you
• 48:31
  Speaker 6: have to consistently produce if you want to stay in
• 48:33
  Speaker 6: the big leagues. I mean, there's guys that make it,
• 48:35
  Speaker 6: but there's a lot less guys that make it and
• 48:37
  Speaker 6: stay there for a long time.
• 48:38
  Speaker 5: And that's my goal, and that's what I want to do.
• 48:40
  Speaker 6: And so that that's kind of my my thought process
• 48:44
  Speaker 6: going into spring is I know I have the ability,
• 48:48
  Speaker 6: I know the tools are there, I know the skills
• 48:49
  Speaker 6: are there, but but I just need to be consistent
• 48:52
  Speaker 6: and do it every single day.
• 48:54
  Speaker 5: And that's what makes you a big leaguer.
• 48:56
  Speaker 2: All right, well, good to meet you, and you're going
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: to do great things and the Reds going to win
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: a lot of games. Said, all right, did you see
• 49:03
  Speaker 2: Blake appreciated buddy? All right, thank you, Blake Dunn here
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: on the Reds caravan as he signs autographs, and we'll
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: be back with more Reds in a moment here on
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: the Home of the Reds. Five eight w CCHS, the
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: Voice of Charleston.
• 49:16
  Speaker 21: Every Saturday, you're invited to join me, Chris Lawrence here
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  Speaker 1: This is the Red Scravan on five e WHS.
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: Jeff Jenkins back with you on five ADWCCHS, The Voice
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: of Charleston, were at the theater at the Charleston Commiseum
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: and Convention Center and South Stewart Young Red's infielder is
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: set down with us. He loves Charleston so much. He's
• 50:36
  Speaker 2: come back for the second year.
• 50:37
  Speaker 9: In a row.
• 50:39
  Speaker 10: Nice to see everybody and nice to talk to everybody again.
• 50:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah good to be here. Sal you had a really
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: good first half of the season last year, and you
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: had a freak injury, broke your wrist, right broke the wrist,
• 50:51
  Speaker 2: and but you've been given the all clear and and
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: you've been invited to the big league camp. Yep, give
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: me your reaction to that.
• 51:00
  Speaker 5: I'm super excited. I mean, that's something I've always wanted.
• 51:02
  Speaker 10: It's one step closer to my dream, which is to
• 51:04
  Speaker 10: make the make make the roster. So I feel like
• 51:08
  Speaker 10: it'll be a good stepping stone, be a sponge, kind
• 51:10
  Speaker 10: of take in all the information and then start off
• 51:15
  Speaker 10: a good year and then then hopefully make the team
• 51:17
  Speaker 10: towards the end of the year.
• 51:18
  Speaker 14: That's my goal.
• 51:19
  Speaker 5: That's my dream. So I feel like I can help
• 51:21
  Speaker 5: the team win.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: You uh, I mean, I know people hate to get injured.
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: You were having a good, a good season, you got injured.
• 51:29
  Speaker 2: How bummed out were you? I mean, do you have
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: to handle that at first?
• 51:33
  Speaker 17: Not?
• 51:33
  Speaker 9: Really.
• 51:34
  Speaker 10: I'm a believer in Jesus Christ, and I know that
• 51:36
  Speaker 10: he has a plan for me. So once you're a
• 51:38
  Speaker 10: believer in then and you're a believer in God and
• 51:40
  Speaker 10: who he is, I mean, you'll never stress because you
• 51:42
  Speaker 10: know He's in control. So I had no stress, no,
• 51:47
  Speaker 10: nothing like that. Why mean, none of those thoughts because
• 51:49
  Speaker 10: I know God's God's in control.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: That's great, great, great answer. And so you rehabbed it.
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: You're all clear. Now talk about that a little bit.
• 51:59
  Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean they had I've got surgery on my wrist.
• 52:02
  Speaker 10: After surgery, I kind of started the rehab process and now.
• 52:05
  Speaker 5: I'm full, full go and I'm ready to go.
• 52:08
  Speaker 10: So I'll be ready to go first this from training
• 52:11
  Speaker 10: and I'll be ready to play in the best my ability.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: You've been a third basement. Now they've got you some
• 52:16
  Speaker 2: at second base, right. Tell me about the transition over
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: to second base.
• 52:21
  Speaker 10: I mean it's just like any other position. I think
• 52:23
  Speaker 10: they're just trying to give me some some versatility. So
• 52:27
  Speaker 10: whatever Rock can get me to the m will be quicker.
• 52:29
  Speaker 10: I mean, then that's what that's what it'll be. But
• 52:32
  Speaker 10: I'm honestly, wherever they put me, I want to I
• 52:34
  Speaker 10: want to make it to the show and I want
• 52:36
  Speaker 10: to be in the show a while. So whether that's second, third,
• 52:39
  Speaker 10: wherever they put me, I'm ready for that.
• 52:41
  Speaker 2: I was reading a thing about you in the last
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: couple of days and it always comes through, like South
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: Stewart's bat will get him to the Major leagus. Yeah, yeah,
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: I mean not that obviously you're a good fielder, but
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: you know it's it's it's the bat, right yeah, hitting,
• 52:58
  Speaker 2: I mean, yeah.
• 52:58
  Speaker 5: That's why everyone says. I mean, I just gonna go
• 53:00
  Speaker 5: out there and play a lot.
• 53:02
  Speaker 10: A lot of people they they talk, but they're not
• 53:05
  Speaker 10: at the game, so it's hard to talk when you're
• 53:07
  Speaker 10: not there. But I mean, I feel like I can hit,
• 53:09
  Speaker 10: but I mean I feel like I can defend just
• 53:12
  Speaker 10: as well. So I feel like I can continue to
• 53:15
  Speaker 10: prove that and and I will. So although I feel
• 53:21
  Speaker 10: like a lot of people feel my bad is what's
• 53:23
  Speaker 10: gonna get me there, I feel like I'm an all
• 53:25
  Speaker 10: around player as well.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: What about this young organization still young that you still
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: a lot of young players, are you hopeful? I mean
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: I hopeful under like like under the too loser, like
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: a Terry Francona, who's you know they talk about he'll
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: hold young players responsible and any of those type of things.
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: You think that it's going to be a good mix.
• 53:45
  Speaker 5: I think that's a great mix.
• 53:46
  Speaker 10: I mean, if you don't want to be held accountable,
• 53:48
  Speaker 10: you don't want to be a winner being held accountable
• 53:50
  Speaker 10: as a as a number one side of respect. When
• 53:52
  Speaker 10: someone holds you accountable, that means there they respect you
• 53:55
  Speaker 10: as a person as a player. So I hope, I
• 53:58
  Speaker 10: hope Terry holds me accountable. I hope he holds everyone
• 54:01
  Speaker 10: in the organization accountable and towards the highest level. I mean,
• 54:05
  Speaker 10: if we want to win, we got to be excellent
• 54:07
  Speaker 10: in every aspect. So I'm super excited for that.
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: Uh and so you so you go to the major
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: league camp. You'll play hard there. You know, we see
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: what happens. You never know with injuries, never know, right Yeah.
• 54:20
  Speaker 10: From from what I'm kind of understanding, they want me
• 54:23
  Speaker 10: to go to Double A and kind of Chattanooga, right yeah, Chattanooga.
• 54:28
  Speaker 10: They want me to kind of get more games under
• 54:29
  Speaker 10: my belt since I did get her last year.
• 54:31
  Speaker 5: I mean, you never know.
• 54:32
  Speaker 10: I'm going in I'm going into BigGAN camp with the
• 54:35
  Speaker 10: mentality that I'm gonna try to make the team, but
• 54:37
  Speaker 10: they want me to kind of go and gain more experience.
• 54:39
  Speaker 10: So either way, I know I'm ready for anything that
• 54:42
  Speaker 10: comes my way. But I'm going in there knowing that
• 54:45
  Speaker 10: I want to gain gain experience learn so then when
• 54:48
  Speaker 10: the time does come after my season, whenever they feel
• 54:52
  Speaker 10: the time's right, that's just I get in there and
• 54:54
  Speaker 10: I'm ready to go.
• 54:54
  Speaker 5: There's there's nothing stow me down.
• 54:56
  Speaker 2: Okay, next year, it'll be three years in a row,
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: you're here and we'll be talking about we'll be talking
• 55:00
  Speaker 2: about your being in the big box. How's that sound
• 55:02
  Speaker 2: that sounds like a fan?
• 55:03
  Speaker 9: Okay?
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, Sal gas buddy, all right? Sal Stewart here with
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: us on five ADWCHS The Voice of Charleston. We back
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: in a minute with Carson Spires on five ADWCHS.
• 55:14
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• 56:16
  Speaker 1: This is the Reds Caravan WHS.
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: And we're back inside the theater at the Charleston Colisseuman
• 56:25
  Speaker 2: Convention Center. Jeff Jenkins with you on five. EDWCHS the
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: Voice of Charleston Homer, the Reds, and one of the
• 56:30
  Speaker 2: Reds very good young pitchers, Carson Spires is with us here. Hey,
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: thanks for coming to West Virginia. Is this your first
• 56:37
  Speaker 2: time in West Virginia?
• 56:38
  Speaker 5: It is, But it looks like there's a hunting fishing
• 56:40
  Speaker 5: convention over there.
• 56:41
  Speaker 2: Let me tell you that's the thirty seventh annual West
• 56:44
  Speaker 2: Virginia Hunting and Fishing Show.
• 56:45
  Speaker 14: That's awesome.
• 56:46
  Speaker 2: You need to go over there.
• 56:47
  Speaker 8: I truly might if we have time before getting back
• 56:49
  Speaker 8: on the book.
• 56:49
  Speaker 2: And we got a guy over there who's our outdoors
• 56:52
  Speaker 2: guy named Chris Lawrence. He's large and in charge over there,
• 56:56
  Speaker 2: So you gotta go. Chris laws Yeah, Chris Lawrence, Yeah,
• 56:59
  Speaker 2: exactly right. Take care of you height, Carson. Uh. First
• 57:03
  Speaker 2: of all, I want to ask you about, uh, you
• 57:05
  Speaker 2: know last year, Uh, really good performances down the stretch.
• 57:09
  Speaker 2: You came back from a little elbow impingement, right, So
• 57:12
  Speaker 2: everything good, the arms good, everything's good.
• 57:14
  Speaker 7: Yeah, it was more so shoulder shoulder. Shoulder kind of
• 57:17
  Speaker 7: did leaked down to the bicep a little bit. But
• 57:20
  Speaker 7: I'm feeling good. You know, I'm already out in Arizona
• 57:22
  Speaker 7: getting some bullpens and stuff like that under underway.
• 57:25
  Speaker 8: So the arms feeling good. I think last year was.
• 57:29
  Speaker 7: More so just kind of being overused a little bit
• 57:31
  Speaker 7: and throwing a lot of innings, kind of uncharted territories
• 57:34
  Speaker 7: what I kind of told myself. So, but going to
• 57:37
  Speaker 7: the off season, I made sure to see a pt
• 57:39
  Speaker 7: the whole off season and just get the arm ready
• 57:41
  Speaker 7: to go.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: Is it true? Is it the adage true that you
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: never can have enough pitching. Is that really true?
• 57:46
  Speaker 9: Oh?
• 57:46
  Speaker 7: And having enough pitching depth is the biggest thing because
• 57:49
  Speaker 7: guys are gonna have hiccups throughout the year and stuff
• 57:51
  Speaker 7: like that. So starting pitching is always hard to find.
• 57:55
  Speaker 7: So making sure that you have enough guys is is
• 57:57
  Speaker 7: a very big thing.
• 57:59
  Speaker 2: This Rotatee boy, there's a lot of pieces there. I mean,
• 58:03
  Speaker 2: it could I mean, what what do you think of it?
• 58:05
  Speaker 2: Top to bottom?
• 58:06
  Speaker 7: It's as deep as we've ever been, you know it is.
• 58:11
  Speaker 7: It's awesome to have a guy like Brady Singer come in.
• 58:13
  Speaker 7: You can look at his resume for the past three
• 58:16
  Speaker 7: I know he's been doing it for a number of years.
• 58:17
  Speaker 7: Past three years, he's had one hundred and seventy five innings.
• 58:20
  Speaker 7: That is a really that's a hard thing to do.
• 58:22
  Speaker 7: So having a guy like him come on staff, and
• 58:24
  Speaker 7: then we re sign Nick Martinez, who I love, you know,
• 58:27
  Speaker 7: I love watching him. I love kind of following what
• 58:29
  Speaker 7: he does and learning from him. So bringing those two
• 58:32
  Speaker 7: guys in, I think is gonna ultimately help me just
• 58:35
  Speaker 7: from learning. I'm such a I'm a I'm a listener,
• 58:38
  Speaker 7: you know, so I like to I like to take
• 58:39
  Speaker 7: things in, So picking their brains and just figuring out
• 58:42
  Speaker 7: what they how they attack hitters is gonna be.
• 58:44
  Speaker 14: Big for me.
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: Hunter really turned a corner last year. Hunter Green tell
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: me about watching him and what that was like, the
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: kind of year he had.
• 58:52
  Speaker 7: Yeah, again, like you said, he turned it, but he's
• 58:56
  Speaker 7: been doing it for a number of years. But what
• 58:59
  Speaker 7: was so impressive was the number of seven inning starts
• 59:02
  Speaker 7: that he had in a row. That is hard to do,
• 59:05
  Speaker 7: and he had, I want to say it was three
• 59:06
  Speaker 7: or four outings in a row where he was going
• 59:08
  Speaker 7: seven innings. So he showed that he could be the
• 59:11
  Speaker 7: number one guy. He showed that he can be a
• 59:13
  Speaker 7: top end starter for us and take us a long way.
• 59:15
  Speaker 7: So he's looking to have another big year this year
• 59:18
  Speaker 7: and we'll see how it goes.
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: Carson Spires is with us here on five eight WCS,
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: The Voice of Charleston. I've asked a couple other guys this,
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: and when did you know you know a lot of
• 59:29
  Speaker 2: people play baseball. When did you know like I might
• 59:32
  Speaker 2: be Was it in high school or you might when
• 59:35
  Speaker 2: you thought, you know, I might be a major leaguer here.
• 59:38
  Speaker 8: You know, I don't know if I ever really had
• 59:41
  Speaker 8: that thought.
• 59:42
  Speaker 7: I never was really the highly ranked prospect or. I
• 59:46
  Speaker 7: never had the All American title or anything like that.
• 59:49
  Speaker 7: You know, I was a walk on at Clemson, so
• 59:51
  Speaker 7: I actually didn't get the I didn't know that I
• 59:53
  Speaker 7: was going to go to Clemson until my senior year
• 59:55
  Speaker 7: of high school, and finally they gave me a shot.
• 59:58
  Speaker 7: And then my biggest thing is, man, I've I've always
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 7: just outworked the next guy.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 17: You know.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 7: I've always just said that I'm going to be better,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 7: be stronger, be faster than the guy in front of me.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 7: And that's just kind of what I've always carried myself
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 7: as So even when I got to pro ball, I
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 7: was an undrafted free agent, so you hear of all
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 7: these guys that get big signing bonuses and just kind
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 7: of move up in the ranks and stuff like that.
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 7: I never had that. So the dream was always the dream,
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 7: right Like, I've always wanted to be a professional baseball player,
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 7: but I didn't never know from a young age if
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 7: I was actually going to attain that goal. But one
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 7: thing that I've always told myself and I've always prided
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 7: myself on.
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 8: Was I'm an outwork the next guy. So I feel
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 8: like I've done that. I've made it to the big league.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: So that's great. Tell me about the change up. How's
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 2: that coming along?
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 7: Yeah, that's my that's my biggest pitch this off season
• 1:00:44
  Speaker 7: I've been working with so really I changed the grip
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 7: with it. I'm kind of in baseball terms, going with
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 7: a little seam shifted change up. So working with it,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 7: throwing it a lot and catch play and just trying
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 7: to get a.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 5: Good feel with it.
• 1:00:59
  Speaker 2: I was working with Johnson.
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 8: He's awesome.
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 7: I mean, he's one of the best pitching coaches in
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 7: game in the game, so just being able to talk
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 7: to him. Again, I'm a sponge, so I love listening.
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 7: I love just like learning from guys that have been
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 7: there and done that, and he obviously has been there
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 7: and done that.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 8: So him, and then thank you Matt Tracy's on staff.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 7: And then Simon. Matthews now is our assistant big big
• 1:01:22
  Speaker 7: league coach. He Simon is going to be awesome.
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 5: For us too.
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 7: He is a he's a big brain, he knows the game,
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 7: he knows how to pitch. So having those three guys
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 7: is a huge help.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 2: You are a starter, you'll prepare I'm sure in spring
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 2: training as a starter. Would you be opposed to being
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: in the bullpen on this team.
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 7: I want to help the club win, you know, so
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 7: whether that is starts or whether that is long relief
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 7: back in bullpen, it truly does not matter to me.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 7: My biggest thing is just help the club win. I
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 7: want to give us as many quality innings as possible.
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 7: So whether again that is starting, I am going to
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 7: go into spring as a starter and I want to
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 7: give our club as much up as possible, so I
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 7: will be linked. I will have linked the innings in
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 7: spring to hopefully get a shot to crack the rotation.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 7: But again, at the end of the day, whatever Tito
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 7: and Derek Johnson think of that, I'll help the club
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 7: win is what I want to do.
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 2: You know what amazes me when I go and watch
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: a Big League game. I go watch Reds game, and
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 2: this might be said, but the long toss, the way
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 2: you guys long toss. You know, when you're warming, it's unbelievable.
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 2: How far you can throw, how far you can long toss.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 5: Well, that is what we do for a job. I
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 5: know you can talk. You can talk for days, can't you.
• 1:02:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah I can, Unfortunately, yeah I can. But it is
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: pretty amazing. Yeah, I mean I mean you and it's
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: right there too. I mean it's right there.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 8: Yeah, I mean, I actually, I mean it's funny you
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 8: say that.
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 7: I am a big fan of long toss, even at
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 7: a young young age. I think long tossing build strength
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 7: and it also develops you as a pitcher as a player.
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 7: There's two things that tell people long toss and have
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 7: athletic catch play. So if you can just keep moving
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 7: around being athletic while you're playing catch, those two things
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 7: will go a long way with throwing and just becoming
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 7: a baseball player.
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 9: You know.
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: One of the best they ever saw do it, I
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 2: think was Homer Bailey. Yep, yeah he had. I mean
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 2: he could, he could long toss it now problem, you know.
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 2: And also he threw a couple of no hitters too.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 5: He was.
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 8: He's a good one.
• 1:03:16
  Speaker 5: He is a good.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 8: Rid that's for sure.
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 9: All right.
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: Okay, one final question for Carson. So they asked you
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: up there a little bit about FRANCONA young mix, you know, Elie,
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: Matt McClain looking forward to him being back this year.
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: You think Cees is going to have a big comeback year, right,
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 2: It's a pretty good mix, right, hopeful.
• 1:03:35
  Speaker 7: Like you said, it's a lot of young guys. But
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 7: I think the four big acquisitions that we had with Tito, Trevino,
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 7: Singer and Gavin Lux are gonna do us wonders. You know,
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 7: it is a real thing. The season is so long.
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 7: It is a real thing that every team goes through
• 1:03:51
  Speaker 7: a rut, right, Like you're not gonna win every game.
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 7: You're gonna have those weeks that you lose more than
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 7: you win. So having those four guys that kind of
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 7: lean on this year will be big for us. Because
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 7: we are so young, we're so talented. Our game is fast, hard, right,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 7: so just having those guys that have been there, done
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 7: that well allow us to take the next step.
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, Betty, go get you some jerky. They got some
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 2: jerky over there, and they got some big pickles too,
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 2: like fried pickles. I think I can't wait for it.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 8: I can't wait for it.
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: All right, Carson, nice meeting you, but I appreciated good
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 2: luck this year, Yes, sir, all right, Carson Spiers out
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 2: of the Reds, very good young pitcher, and we'll see
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 2: him on the mound. A great American ballpark. Will be
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 2: back in a moment on five eighty. Would you see
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 2: HS the Voice of Charlestone.
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: You've missed the Kim Commando's show.
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  Speaker 21: America's Digital Donnie Jim Commando.
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  Speaker 17: Saturday Mornings at ten on the Voice of Charleston five
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  Speaker 17: eighty w HS snap.
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  Speaker 19: Into a different perspective on pro wrestling Hollywood, Jeff Betty,
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• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, this is the Reds Caravan on five eight WHS.
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: Not at the Reds Caravan at the theater at the
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 2: Tarston Coliseum, the Convention Center and your home for the
• 1:05:46
  Speaker 2: Reds five adwcchs. Joining me now, one of the Red
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: young pitchers, Jose Franco, is with us. He's got an
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 2: interpreter here and so this is great. Hey, welcome to
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 2: West and a lot of mountains here right, you can
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: see that Virginia. Tell me about just about some of
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 2: your background and where you're from and how you made
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: it to professional baseball.
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 5: So he.
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 9: Venezuela, He went on and tense Kisa.
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 11: And comments, Yeah, so, I mean I'm from Venezuela, and
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 11: I mean I started playing at an early age. My
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 11: dad used to take me out to the field that
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 11: unfortunately he never got the opportunity to play. But once
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 11: I got out on the field and I started practicing
• 1:06:53
  Speaker 11: with him, he saw something that I had something in
• 1:06:56
  Speaker 11: there that I was going to be able to play.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 11: So I've just kept growing and loving sport ever since.
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: Now you know that one of the greatest Reds is
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 2: from Venezuela, the Daily Concepcion. I'm sure you know that.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 14: Venezuela.
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 9: Yeah yeah, leto Loo as well.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 5: Yeah yeah, you know.
• 1:07:22
  Speaker 11: I've seen him out on the streets of Venezuela as well,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 11: and it's been cool to see that. And I've also
• 1:07:26
  Speaker 11: seen all the highlights from him and from the Big
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 11: Red Machine too.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely. Okay, So you've been in Daytona and
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 2: dayton how's your arm feel and what are you looking
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 2: for kind of development this year.
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 9: And theo.
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 3: NA.
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 11: Yeah, I mean, my my arm feels really healthy right now,
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 11: and that's really the goal of this year is and
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 11: keep myself healthy. And you know, I've done a lot
• 1:08:20
  Speaker 11: of exercises during the off season to make sure that
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 11: my arm will stay healthy throughout the season. So that's
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 11: that's me just going out there, really trying to give
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 11: an opportune for the team to win as any way
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 11: that I can, and just to be out there and
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 11: stay healthy.
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 2: And just to share with our listeners what kind of
• 1:08:35
  Speaker 2: picture you are? You're a young picture, uh and and
• 1:08:38
  Speaker 2: a young name to a lot of people, maybe a
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 2: new name to a lot of people. So what kind
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 2: of picture are you and what can they expect from.
• 1:08:44
  Speaker 9: You, yo, that's part.
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 11: So in reality, I think I'm just a very aggressive
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 11: picture and it's like I like, I love to attack hitters.
• 1:09:20
  Speaker 11: Uh sometimes you know, those strikeouts will come, but I'm
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 11: there just to get them out. And I think that's
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 11: my name of the game. That's how I'm gonna get
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 11: guys out. And I just love the I just love
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 11: to win. That's the key thing to everything is just
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 11: to be able to win.
• 1:09:33
  Speaker 2: Okay, and final question here, how do you like the
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 2: caravan meeting fans? How do you like that?
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 14: And territory.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 9: Cincinnati, Cincinnati.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 14: So yeah, I'm just really grateful for all these fans
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 14: coming out.
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 11: You know, even when they come out to the ballparks
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 11: wherever we go, you know that those Reds fans will
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 11: always uh you know, come out and support you. And
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 11: it's really exciting going now to all these different places
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 11: and just seeing all the fans.
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 14: And you know, they're grateful for us, and we're grateful
• 1:10:25
  Speaker 14: for them to come out.
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, congratulations and it's nice meeting you and have
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 2: a great year. Yeah, thank you, Okay, thank you all right,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 2: good seeing you all right. Franka one of the Red
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 2: Young pitchers as the caravan is winding down here and
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 2: we'll be back in the moment. On five D w
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 2: c HS the Voice of Charleston.
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: This is the Reds Caravan on w c h S.
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 2: All right, one of the heads of player development for
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 2: the red Jeremy faraolls with us here at the Reds
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 2: Caravan on five D sEH the Voice of Charleston. This
• 1:11:01
  Speaker 2: is a guy who knows Charleston. Jeremy, right, you played here.
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 18: Yes, spent the season on two thousand and nine playing
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 18: for the West Virginia Power back when they were the
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 18: low affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 5: So a lot of good.
• 1:11:13
  Speaker 18: Memories of Charleston in the South Atlantic League. And as
• 1:11:16
  Speaker 18: I was saying during the panel earlier, lived out in
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 18: Tays Valley for the season and my brother went to
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 18: Marshall and Huntington and so have some familiarity with the area.
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 8: And then cool to be back.
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 2: It's great. And you said, you said you remember the
• 1:11:32
  Speaker 2: toast man Rod Blackstar. Yes, yes, he's still doing it.
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 2: He's still doing yeah still yeah, because it's independent league
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 2: now right here, right, yeah, he's oh yeah, he's right.
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 2: Actually he works for the team.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 18: Well, I was always on the right side of the
• 1:11:45
  Speaker 18: toast man because he didn't do his thing for the
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 18: power players. So luckily I played for the power with
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 18: the toast man.
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he would give the opposing players a hard time
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 2: with me, absolutely, Hey, you just talk about the minor leagues.
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 2: I've seen some rankings where the Reds are kind of
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 2: right in the middle of the pack, right about fourteenth.
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 2: I think I've seen some of the some of the rankings.
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 2: So where is the minor league system about as you evaluated?
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 18: Yeah, So over the last few years, starting with a
• 1:12:11
  Speaker 18: couple of years ago, you know, the pipeline was restocked
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 18: a little bit, if you will, with some of the
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 18: trades that were made at the major league level that
• 1:12:19
  Speaker 18: brought back significant talent on the minor league side. You know,
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 18: we've drafted really well over the last few years, signed
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 18: signed well, if you will. In the international market. We've
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 18: graduated quite a few players from the minor leagues to
• 1:12:36
  Speaker 18: the big leagues who are now, you know, contributing in Cincinnati.
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 18: So we feel good about where we are right now.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 18: We've got more work to do to help guys get
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 18: to the spots they need to get to to be
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 18: able to contribute at the major league level, and you know,
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 18: whenever Tito and the Gang needs, you know, reinforcements, that's
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 18: our job to provide that a.
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 2: Lot of young guys had to come up. Last year,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 2: injuries force young guys to come up. Rehet Louder comes
• 1:13:03
  Speaker 2: up at the end of the year, the first round
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 2: draft pick from the year before really performed. Well, you've
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 2: got burns Now who was picked last year. You don't
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 2: want to rust these guys to the major leagues, but
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 2: I mean there's some good young talent.
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 18: There, absolutely, and we try to individualize everyone's progression. You know,
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 18: it's not linear for everyone. Some are going to move faster,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 18: like the ret Louder, some are, you know, take a
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 18: little bit more time. But it's our job to try
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 18: to identify, you know, where we need to intervene, whose
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 18: way we just need to stay out of. You know,
• 1:13:32
  Speaker 18: let Reht Louder go. And he learned some things in
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 18: double A and like you said, finish the year really strong.
• 1:13:39
  Speaker 18: So you know, we feel good about the talent that
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 18: we have and you know, anxious to get the season
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 18: going and hopefully everybody stays healthy.
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 2: Jeremy Farroll's with us or the Reds development, and it's
• 1:13:53
  Speaker 2: really interesting. I'm sure your job's interesting because a player
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 2: might be played one way or you may not see
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 2: much progression, and then the next year, wow, you see
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 2: a lot of progression. I mean, I'm sure, just as
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 2: you mentioned, it's different for different players.
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 18: That's one of the you know, most enjoyable parts of
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 18: the job is you know, watching the maturity and the
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 18: growth of the players. You know, whether they come in
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 18: as an international free agent and they're just extremely green,
• 1:14:18
  Speaker 18: they're they're trying to get assimilated to the culture, and uh,
• 1:14:22
  Speaker 18: you know, the drafted players, you know, they're just trying
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 18: to come in and get used to pro ball, and
• 1:14:26
  Speaker 18: year over year as they start to learn more about
• 1:14:29
  Speaker 18: themselves and what professional baseball is about, and you know,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 18: as they reach the double A level and the Triple
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 18: A level, you know how their skill set plays into
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 18: you know, becoming a you know, successful major league player.
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 18: That whole evolution is one of the most enjoyable parts
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 18: of the job.
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 2: Some may ask, this is a common question for you guys,
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 2: why draft so many shortstops or or infielders, But well,
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 2: y'all all have tea answer.
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 18: That that is one of the things that we feel
• 1:14:58
  Speaker 18: strongly about in our acquisition strategy, you know, trying to
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 18: stay in the middle of the diamond. You can only
• 1:15:06
  Speaker 18: play one shortstop per game, but we feel like taking
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 18: those intangibles, the athleticism and not just short stop center
• 1:15:14
  Speaker 18: field catcher. We feel strongly in starting in the middle
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 18: of the field and at some point, if we need
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 18: to introduce some players to a secondary position to help them,
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 18: you know, continue to grow and mature and flourish as players,
• 1:15:29
  Speaker 18: you know, we'll do that at the appropriate time. But yeah,
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 18: at times it does seem like we have a lot
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 18: of shortstops, but you know, we feel strongly about that strategy.
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 2: Ellie de la Cruz generational player. I mean, you know, talent,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 2: you know, different than players. Things that he still needs
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 2: to work on, but even even the things that he
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 2: struggles with, he's still still very good. What what is
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 2: his what should be the progression for him?
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 4: What?
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 2: You know, what should that happen this year? You think,
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 2: what what would he want to do?
• 1:16:00
  Speaker 18: And see I think there's some you know, detail things
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 18: that he wants to clean up. You know, you think
• 1:16:08
  Speaker 18: about an impact shortstop, you know, traditionally, if you will
• 1:16:12
  Speaker 18: it's the guy that's going to make the routine play
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 18: and balls hit to him, you know it's going to
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 18: be an out. I think there are, you know, some
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 18: of those aspects that Ellie himself wants to clean up
• 1:16:25
  Speaker 18: and be more consistent there. But you know, in the
• 1:16:27
  Speaker 18: day and age of advanced metrics and whatnot, you look
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 18: up and he's one of the most impactful shortstops in
• 1:16:32
  Speaker 18: the game because of the other things that he brings.
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 18: So you kind of think through that and digest that, Like, man,
• 1:16:40
  Speaker 18: if he can clean up some of those detail things
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 18: that the and fine tune some of the the routine stuff,
• 1:16:49
  Speaker 18: this guy's got a chance to explode. I mean, this
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 18: guy's the limit for him.
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 2: Gavin Lux, Well, that's a really nice pick up, don't
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 2: you think.
• 1:16:57
  Speaker 18: Yes, absolutely, he lengthens the lineup. Fantastic left handed bat.
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 18: He'll probably get some time at second base. I know
• 1:17:04
  Speaker 18: he's gonna take grund balls at third base and spring
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 18: training explore left field. I think it remains to be
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 18: seen how he fits exactly defensively on the field, but
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 18: from you know, a left handed impact bat. Really excited about.
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 5: The pick up.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 2: Matt McClain, I think that he may been the most
• 1:17:23
  Speaker 2: misplayer last year on that.
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 18: Team, baseball player, baseball rat. He was frustrated with the
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 18: way last year went, and rightfully so, he just wants
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 18: to play, just wants to be out there. He asked
• 1:17:37
  Speaker 18: to play in the Fall League. He got at bats,
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 18: he got time in the field. It was his idea
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 18: to go out and play center field, just so that
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 18: he can get more playing time. He's just a baseball player,
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 18: and we're excited for a healthy Matt McClain in twenty
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 18: twenty five.
• 1:17:50
  Speaker 2: And then having Tito Terry Francone final question, you've been
• 1:17:54
  Speaker 2: in meetings with him, I'm sure, and everything is that.
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, it seems like he's just I mean, he's
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 2: a baseball guy and ready to go.
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 18: It's a presence. He brings instant credibility. He's seen a lot,
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 18: he's done a lot. He commands respect. He's got an
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 18: unbelievable way of connecting with people and especially connecting with players.
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 18: So we're excited to get going on spring training.
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 2: Okay, welcome back to Charleston.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 8: Thank you.
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 2: You never know you might run into the toast man
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 2: over here. Okay, right, Jeremy, thanks a lot, appreciate it,
• 1:18:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you, all right, Jeremy Feroh player development with the
• 1:18:27
  Speaker 2: Cincinnati Reds, and we're done. All right, it's over. The
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 2: caravan is over here on five ADWCCHS. Thanks to Dave
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 2: Allen for helping us. And you know, just a really
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 2: good turnout here by fans tonight, really great questions and
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 2: really good young players here tonight for the Reds and
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 2: the front office people. So always a great event. And listen,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 2: spring trains just a couple of weeks away. Second week
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 2: of February. We'll have spring training games on five ADWCCHS.
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 2: And then opened the season at the end of March
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 2: open against the Giants. And so of course you're home
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 2: for the Reds for about five decades here five ADWCHS.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 2: Thanks to my producer Jeff Petty, and we'll return to
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 2: regular programming here on five ADWCHS. Thanks for joining us
• 1:19:16
  Speaker 2: tonight from the theater at the Coliseum and Convention Center
• 1:19:20
  Speaker 2: on five ADWCHS. The Voice of Charleston