Latest / Foul Territory / Nats enforce long defensive drills + Royals SP Kris Bubic joins FT

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Nats enforce long defensive drills + Royals SP Kris Bubic joins FT · Foul Territory

0:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's what he said.
0:01
Speaker 2: That's what he said.
0:03
Speaker 1: That's what he said.
0:04
Speaker 3: That's what he said. All right, So we wanted to
0:08
Speaker 3: get to this. Before Tuesday's game, Blake Uterra had some
0:12
Speaker 3: long quote to the media about why he's got the
0:15
Speaker 3: team out there over five hours before the game practicing defense.
0:20
Speaker 3: The Nationals are struggling in that component, and this is
0:23
Speaker 3: part of the new regime with a president baseball ops
0:26
Speaker 3: and a manager bringing them on the field nice and
0:29
Speaker 3: early to try and improve on something that they are
0:32
Speaker 3: not great at compared to the rest of the league.
0:35
Speaker 3: I see Kratz working on the substance that washes his eyes,
0:40
Speaker 3: otherwise known as eyew wash. So that's a little preview
0:43
Speaker 3: of maybe what Kratz is going to reply with. But
0:46
Speaker 3: let me at least set the quote up, and I'm
0:48
Speaker 3: going to try and speed read because it is a
0:50
Speaker 3: bit long, Okay.
0:52
Speaker 2: So bear with me here. He said.
0:54
Speaker 3: I think it gets to a point where we've addressed
0:57
Speaker 3: how much we care about defense and how it hasn't
0:59
Speaker 3: been very good. I think we almost started to see
1:02
Speaker 3: a little bit of our players afraid to make mistakes
1:04
Speaker 3: because of how many they've made. The message to them
1:07
Speaker 3: was that we have a super athletic team, if not
1:10
Speaker 3: the most athletic, one of the most athletic teams in baseball.
1:12
Speaker 3: We'd leave the league and run scored second and so
1:14
Speaker 3: on base Again, this a couple of days ago, but
1:15
Speaker 3: still they're high up there. We do a lot of
1:17
Speaker 3: really athletic things. We need to let our athleticism take
1:20
Speaker 3: over defensively. I don't think any sport or anything in
1:22
Speaker 3: life is fun to do if you're afraid to make mistakes.
1:24
Speaker 3: So I'd rather us err on the side of just
1:25
Speaker 3: being athletic and going to make plays and not being
1:27
Speaker 3: out there like I can't mess up. If that makes sense,
1:29
Speaker 3: we'll see if that helps. But I don't want our
1:31
Speaker 3: guys to be afraid to make mistakes. Then there was
1:34
Speaker 3: a question posed back, is there a point where it
1:36
Speaker 3: almost would make more sense to not do extra work,
1:39
Speaker 3: and he said, I don't know if I can get
1:40
Speaker 3: on board with that. I think when we're struggling like
1:41
Speaker 3: we are, we need to work. Maybe changing up to work,
1:44
Speaker 3: But I think it's tough message to players and everybody
1:46
Speaker 3: else if you make a lot of mistakes and it's like,
1:47
Speaker 3: you know what, We're just gonna sit inside krats go.
1:52
Speaker 1: Nobody's saying you sit inside. Nobody's saying five hours is
1:56
Speaker 1: the answer. That's like saying like, well I don't like this, Okay,
2:00
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do the exact opposite. No, you're not sitting inside.
2:03
Speaker 1: Big Leaguers work. That's the only way you stay in
2:06
Speaker 1: the big leagues. If you're not getting better, you're going
2:10
Speaker 1: you're getting worse because there's younger guys, faster guys, more
2:14
Speaker 1: athletic guys coming up behind you to take your job.
2:17
Speaker 1: If an organization says we need to be out there
2:19
Speaker 1: for five hours every day. One, don't tell anybody how
2:23
Speaker 1: much you work, because it really doesn't matter. All that
2:25
Speaker 1: matters is what's going on in the field. Two. If
2:28
Speaker 1: you're just planning things, to plan things like where's the
2:32
Speaker 1: backing of it?
2:33
Speaker 2: What is the.
2:35
Speaker 1: Hey? I remember when I played, this is what really
2:39
Speaker 1: helped me. Hey, this is how we like When I
2:42
Speaker 1: was at the Pirates in two and nine twenty ten,
2:45
Speaker 1: their answer to everything in the minor leagues and in
2:49
Speaker 1: the big leagues was well, we'll just schedule more, We'll
2:51
Speaker 1: plan more. Other teams run the three hundred you know,
2:55
Speaker 1: three hundred yard shuttle we're.
2:57
Speaker 4: Running a nine hundred yard shuttle.
2:59
Speaker 1: And it's like okay, like cool, so you do more.
3:05
Speaker 1: I bet there is, And maybe AJ doesn't agree with me.
3:09
Speaker 1: If you do ten perfect reps, you can make mistakes,
3:13
Speaker 1: but you can do them perfectly mechanically perfectly, or one
3:17
Speaker 1: hundred average reps, which is better in my opinion, the
3:22
Speaker 1: ten perfect reps. Get it done, do it right, lock
3:26
Speaker 1: in because then in the game you haven't muddled yourself
3:30
Speaker 1: with a ton of stuff going on in your mind,
3:32
Speaker 1: and you're fresh and you're ready to go because you
3:35
Speaker 1: can stay locked in for ten for ten reps on defense,
3:39
Speaker 1: just like in a cage. My opinion was, you go swing.
3:42
Speaker 1: If you take more than eight swings in the cage,
3:45
Speaker 1: now you're just swinging your bat towards the baseball and
3:47
Speaker 1: you're not really getting a lot of quality reps in there.
3:53
Speaker 4: My thing is this, in the big leagues, it's about
3:56
Speaker 4: the game from seven to five to ten oh five
3:59
Speaker 4: or whatever the day. The time of the game is
4:01
Speaker 4: that day, and if you're doing something every day, I
4:05
Speaker 4: honestly believe that you're taking away. If you're on the
4:08
Speaker 4: field for five hours, guys are gonna get tired. After
4:10
Speaker 4: one hundred and sixty games. In the minor leagues, you
4:14
Speaker 4: would have a little more early work because it wasn't
4:16
Speaker 4: about the games. It was more about developing and it
4:18
Speaker 4: wasn't about winning as much as it is in the
4:21
Speaker 4: big leagues. In the big leagues, you can't have guys
4:23
Speaker 4: out there every day, especially the older guys. Now, you
4:25
Speaker 4: could do this with the young team and if you
4:27
Speaker 4: want to try something once a week or do a
4:29
Speaker 4: little extra this and that. But most guys know how
4:31
Speaker 4: to work. They know how to get their ground balls,
4:32
Speaker 4: they know how to get their defensive work in. If
4:35
Speaker 4: you're a catcher, you have you know what stuff you
4:36
Speaker 4: need to look at as far as the pitchers and
4:39
Speaker 4: the opposing pictures, and you know how to get your
4:41
Speaker 4: A lot of guys do the framing stuff before they go,
4:43
Speaker 4: before they go to warm up the picture. But to
4:46
Speaker 4: be out there at like two o'clock and do this
4:48
Speaker 4: for three hours or whatever it is.
4:50
Speaker 2: It's too much. You just you're gonna kill guys.
4:52
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, You're gonna wear guys up to a point
4:54
Speaker 4: where they're gonna look at you and say, what are
4:56
Speaker 4: we doing? And we talked about eyewash all the time, Kratz,
4:59
Speaker 4: you know this too, Like you know things are going bad. Oh,
5:03
Speaker 4: let's do everybody has to be on the field tomorrow
5:05
Speaker 4: for PfP because we're gonna we're gonna show everybody how
5:08
Speaker 4: hard we're working, and we're out working people like. That's
5:11
Speaker 4: not always the answer, you know, sometimes guys need to
5:13
Speaker 4: take a step back. You want the guys to have fun, Well,
5:16
Speaker 4: then why are you making them worry about things that
5:18
Speaker 4: they shouldn't be worried about. Oh my gosh, I'm not
5:21
Speaker 4: working hard enough, the manager said, I'm not having fun.
5:24
Speaker 4: How about just saying, hey, guys, you guys are doing
5:25
Speaker 4: the right thing. Go out and play and have it
5:27
Speaker 4: and let your athleticism shine. Instead of oh we got
5:30
Speaker 4: to go out, Well, you made a mistake history, Well
5:32
Speaker 4: we got to go out correct if for the next
5:34
Speaker 4: five days like the stakes happened. I made plenty of mistakes,
5:36
Speaker 4: crowds made plenty of mistakes. Every player in the history
5:39
Speaker 4: of baseball has made plenty of mistakes. You can't you
5:41
Speaker 4: can't dwell on them and every single day go out
5:43
Speaker 4: there and work on it. I mean, every once in
5:44
Speaker 4: a while, I got no problem taking an infield or
5:46
Speaker 4: doing some pfps just to do them because you know it's.
5:49
Speaker 1: Been a while.
5:50
Speaker 4: But to do this every day, you're gonna wear dudes out.
5:54
Speaker 1: And I think there is so much value to having
5:57
Speaker 1: that structure that having that A team funndamental maybe once
6:01
Speaker 1: or twice on a homestand because it's harder to get
6:05
Speaker 1: the field and get everybody out there when you're on
6:07
Speaker 1: the road, so you get a one once or twice
6:10
Speaker 1: on a six game homestand a team fundamental where we
6:13
Speaker 1: work on our cutoffs and relays if you feel like
6:15
Speaker 1: that's an issue. But if you're out there every day
6:18
Speaker 1: for five hours, which I think this is, this is
6:20
Speaker 1: a little overblown. I doubt they're out there for five hours,
6:24
Speaker 1: but I think it's like, what what are we accomplishing?
6:28
Speaker 1: Less is more, But it doesn't mean the less is lazy.
6:34
Speaker 1: It just means the less is focused attention to detail.
6:40
Speaker 1: And I think when you look down this whole roster
6:44
Speaker 1: of coaches, you say, how many of these guys have
6:48
Speaker 1: built a structure for a big league for a big
6:52
Speaker 1: league season. A lot of these guys have built PowerPoint
6:55
Speaker 1: presentations and like cool like Twitter posts for getting the
7:01
Speaker 1: job that they got in the big leagues, which I'm
7:04
Speaker 1: not saying they're not qualified for it. I'm saying the
7:08
Speaker 1: difference in winning big league games and the exact same
7:11
Speaker 1: thing that Tobony and but Terra said when they got
7:14
Speaker 1: their jobs. We're big into development here. So if you're
7:19
Speaker 1: saying we're big into development, okay, well now you just
7:23
Speaker 1: developed guys and you make sure the fans know we're
7:25
Speaker 1: not necessarily putting a winning product out on the field
7:29
Speaker 1: every single day because we're developing. Like Aj said, we're
7:32
Speaker 1: in the minor leagues. You do this because in the
7:34
Speaker 1: seventh inning, you're not going match up in a minor
7:37
Speaker 1: league game. No, You're like, well, Johnny hasn't pitched for
7:40
Speaker 1: two days, and he has to pitch on the third
7:42
Speaker 1: day because it's on our development sheet. So that's what
7:46
Speaker 1: that's what all this that's what all this basically boils
7:49
Speaker 1: down to. Are the Nats trying to develop and win
7:52
Speaker 1: at the same time at the big league level, because
7:54
Speaker 1: those are not two things that always coincide, and so
7:58
Speaker 1: maybe being able to have somebody there, having that Randy
8:02
Speaker 1: nor on the on the roster who's been in the
8:05
Speaker 1: big leagues for a decent amount of time, Sean Doolittle.
8:08
Speaker 1: You know he's there. He's been in the big leagues.
8:10
Speaker 1: He understands the grind of making seventy appearances out of
8:13
Speaker 1: the bullpen and leaning on those guys.
8:17
Speaker 2: Not just holy crap, I'm in the big leagues.
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Speaker 1: I want to keep my job, so I'm gonna make
8:22
Speaker 1: sure I have the best presentation of what this practice
8:26
Speaker 1: is gonna look like.
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Speaker 2: And we're gonna.
8:27
Speaker 1: Practice and practice and practice. What are you gonna do tomorrow?
8:30
Speaker 2: We're practicing.
8:31
Speaker 1: Oh great, and then we got to play a big
8:33
Speaker 1: game against a really good division.
8:36
Speaker 2: It's good talk.
8:37
Speaker 3: I love when we do these segments. Anyone that's watching
8:40
Speaker 3: after the fact, we'll post it as its own clip.
8:42
Speaker 3: Let us know if you have any comments to contribute.
8:45
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8:58
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9:00
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9:03
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9:57
Speaker 6: We back with our special guests. Royal starting pitcher Chris
10:01
Speaker 6: Bubach is in the house ready to break down some
10:04
Speaker 6: Royals talk.
10:05
Speaker 2: Chris things for joining the show. How are you? I'm great?
10:08
Speaker 2: How are you guys doing awesome? Wait?
10:11
Speaker 1: Wait before we get into anything at Chris, you got
10:14
Speaker 1: a collar button down shirt on? Do the Royals have?
10:17
Speaker 2: What did you just come from?
10:19
Speaker 6: Like?
10:19
Speaker 1: What do the Royals have a role on the road.
10:21
Speaker 1: Do you have to be wearing wearing a gear?
10:25
Speaker 2: Uh, We're a little more casual with it.
10:27
Speaker 7: But I think I'm getting ready to go to the field,
10:29
Speaker 7: to be honest, right after this. So I'm a I'm
10:32
Speaker 7: a simple guy. I consider this a fairly simple shirt.
10:35
Speaker 7: But try to look my best when I can.
10:38
Speaker 1: But the teams do teams still do that? Do teams
10:41
Speaker 1: still wear? But like, do you have a rule or
10:43
Speaker 1: is it? Can it be like a polo or like
10:45
Speaker 1: or like as AJ calls it, the male sun dress
10:49
Speaker 1: the quartersip.
10:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's just look professional.
10:52
Speaker 7: I think it doesn't necessarily have to be a collar shirt.
10:57
Speaker 7: When I when I first got into the organization, even
10:59
Speaker 7: in the mind the leagues, we were kind of colored shirt.
11:01
Speaker 7: But I think you know, as you go into your
11:04
Speaker 7: career a little bit more, you know, it becomes maybe
11:05
Speaker 7: a little more relaxed. But I think as long as
11:07
Speaker 7: you look professional, you know, business like, as you're going
11:11
Speaker 7: on the field.
11:12
Speaker 2: I think every guy has their own swag too.
11:14
Speaker 7: So I'm not, like I said, I'm a simple guy,
11:16
Speaker 7: So I try to keep it pretty uh pretty plain,
11:19
Speaker 7: I guess.
11:20
Speaker 5: But okay, okay, Uh well, let me last question on
11:24
Speaker 5: this who's the most fashionable guy in the squad before
11:26
Speaker 5: I hit my question?
11:28
Speaker 2: Mm hmmm, I'm gonna go with h MIKEL. Garcia.
11:33
Speaker 7: He's got he's got some he's got some flavor to him.
11:39
Speaker 5: I love that you get a little flavor. I love
11:41
Speaker 5: that probably got the tight jeans on with the tight shirt,
11:44
Speaker 5: all that good stuff.
11:45
Speaker 2: Right, that's right, that's right.
11:48
Speaker 1: That's profilely time.
11:51
Speaker 5: I'm talking about he's out no jeans or anything like
11:56
Speaker 5: that at all. I'm not in elementary school, all right,
11:58
Speaker 5: got you? You back to Tommy Hill figures all day.
12:01
Speaker 2: Anyway.
12:02
Speaker 5: I want to talk about your repertoire man.
12:04
Speaker 2: You brought in this slider.
12:07
Speaker 5: You're All Star last year, you had, you know, you
12:09
Speaker 5: got really good plethora of pitchers, and you brought this slider.
12:12
Speaker 5: And you think that slider is a key factor and
12:15
Speaker 5: you know, an equalizer pitch for you as you move forward.
12:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so.
12:20
Speaker 7: I think, you know, kind of looking at the early
12:24
Speaker 7: part of my career, I was, you know, more traditional,
12:27
Speaker 7: over the top curve ball, but I really had a
12:30
Speaker 7: lot of.
12:31
Speaker 2: Issues with lefties, being a reverse splits guy. Kind of
12:33
Speaker 2: a change up.
12:33
Speaker 7: First guy, and I'd say that's probably a little more
12:36
Speaker 7: balanced now I'll throw a lot more breaking balls. The
12:39
Speaker 7: slider's kind of broken up into two pitches now that
12:42
Speaker 7: I'm in the in the starting role that I've been
12:44
Speaker 7: in the last you know, season and change. But yeah,
12:47
Speaker 7: I think it just helps. You know, the sweeper helps
12:50
Speaker 7: against lefties, helps mitigate contact a little bit, which you
12:53
Speaker 7: know last year they performed exceptionally well. This year it's
12:58
Speaker 7: kind of been a little more inconsistent and maybe haven't
13:02
Speaker 7: you know, just located as well as I need to
13:04
Speaker 7: and execute as well. But for the most part, I
13:05
Speaker 7: think it's it's helped me just get more swing reactions
13:09
Speaker 7: from hitters, you know, be more competitive in his zone,
13:13
Speaker 7: more competitive with two strikes and you know those pitches.
13:16
Speaker 7: I think anything with depth helps me keep the ball
13:18
Speaker 7: on the ground as well.
13:20
Speaker 1: Are you good at seeing that yourself? Are you good
13:22
Speaker 1: at seeing when you're adding or changing a pitch, changing
13:25
Speaker 1: the shape or do you have to come in and say, hey,
13:29
Speaker 1: what was the spin on that? Or you're throwing your pen,
13:31
Speaker 1: Hey what did the iPads say on that? Are you
13:33
Speaker 1: able to cause you're right in that, like I think
13:36
Speaker 1: you're drafting eighteen, right, right, And so you're rate in
13:40
Speaker 1: that realm where it's like, well, you know what, you're
13:42
Speaker 1: left handed, and probably some way when you were kids
13:45
Speaker 1: like hey man, that guy's a million dollar arm. He's
13:47
Speaker 1: gonna make it to the big league. So you have
13:49
Speaker 1: a natural ability. But can you see it yourself or
13:52
Speaker 1: is it only on the metrics.
13:55
Speaker 2: I think it's a little bit of both.
13:56
Speaker 7: I think, you know, you talk to most guys, most
13:58
Speaker 7: pitchers today, you know, for the longest time, I think,
14:03
Speaker 7: you know, going through the minor leagues, even my first
14:05
Speaker 7: couple of years in pro ball, I probably didn't pay
14:07
Speaker 7: much attention to tech, and I was doing it based
14:09
Speaker 7: on eyes and you know, hitter swings, which are still
14:12
Speaker 7: you know, still relevant today. But I think, you know,
14:15
Speaker 7: obviously stuff models for pitchers kind of run the game now,
14:18
Speaker 7: and you know, if you can create a certain pitch
14:21
Speaker 7: shape or let the seams kind of work on the
14:23
Speaker 7: way to the plate, that's kind of what I'm trying
14:26
Speaker 7: to do now, not necessarily chasing a shirt certain shape
14:29
Speaker 7: on you know, on an iPad. But I think, like
14:32
Speaker 7: you said, you you kind of know when when the
14:34
Speaker 7: ball's coming out of your hand.
14:35
Speaker 2: The right way, you know how that feels.
14:37
Speaker 7: You know, whether it's a fastball, breaking ball, change up,
14:40
Speaker 7: whatever it may be. You know kind of what that
14:42
Speaker 7: feels like when it's right and what it feels like
14:44
Speaker 7: when it's not right.
14:45
Speaker 2: So I think the iPad just kind of confirms that.
14:48
Speaker 7: But I think at the end of the day, there
14:50
Speaker 7: are a couple of things we can look at, whether
14:53
Speaker 7: what I'm doing mechanically or what I'm doing, you know,
14:56
Speaker 7: grip wise, we can tweak something and get kind of
14:59
Speaker 7: the pitch shapes right back to where they need to be.
15:02
Speaker 6: Chris, you mentioned things feeling right, and the one thing
15:05
Speaker 6: that I think is really stood out about this season
15:07
Speaker 6: is ABS because we'll see some true conviction behind both pitchers,
15:11
Speaker 6: catchers and hitters two over what they believe is a
15:13
Speaker 6: ball and a strike. And you are working with one
15:16
Speaker 6: of the best catchers in the game in Salvor Perez.
15:19
Speaker 6: How has he been with ABS?
15:21
Speaker 2: Oh, he's been great.
15:22
Speaker 7: I think I remember back to our first series in
15:25
Speaker 7: Atlanta to start the year, and I think he I
15:27
Speaker 7: want to say, he had one hundred percent success rate
15:29
Speaker 7: throughout the entire series, which is pretty incredible, especially, you know,
15:32
Speaker 7: first implementing something that everybody's kind of getting the custom too,
15:36
Speaker 7: But I think our catchers overall have had a great
15:39
Speaker 7: success rate so so far. I think we're towards the
15:41
Speaker 7: top of the league. Sometimes, you know, as pitchers, we
15:44
Speaker 7: can be a little bit biased and feel like everything
15:46
Speaker 7: out there, you know, even if it's a ball or
15:48
Speaker 7: two off, feels like a strike. But I think they've
15:52
Speaker 7: they've recognized, you know, kind of you know, Salvi obviously
15:56
Speaker 7: has been around for a while, and he I think
15:58
Speaker 7: he has a really good idea of the and a
16:00
Speaker 7: really good idea of kind of the new ABS zone
16:02
Speaker 7: as well, because it's it's shrunk a little bit. I know,
16:05
Speaker 7: walks are up across the league, you know, myself included,
16:09
Speaker 7: But but I think he's done a great job in
16:12
Speaker 7: terms of understanding kind of the edges of the zone,
16:15
Speaker 7: picking picking the right times to challenge pitches. Especially I
16:18
Speaker 7: know a lot of a lot of teams are saving
16:20
Speaker 7: him for later in games and more high, high leverage situations,
16:23
Speaker 7: but he's been great.
16:24
Speaker 2: Carter Jensen, We've had Alias Diaz as well as.
16:27
Speaker 7: Our third catcher, but I think all of them have
16:29
Speaker 7: a really good idea of kind of the the borderline
16:32
Speaker 7: pitches and kind of went to challenge and went to
16:34
Speaker 7: to save him for later in the game.
16:36
Speaker 5: Talk about starting pitching man, it's fun to watch play
16:39
Speaker 5: with Seth Lugo Fantastic's got his a thousand career strikeout
16:44
Speaker 5: the other day. Talk a little bit about him first
16:47
Speaker 5: and foremost. I know, he's just a chill dude. I
16:49
Speaker 5: don't know if he's you know, really come out of
16:52
Speaker 5: his shell yet. Talk about him and how how big
16:54
Speaker 5: of a leader he's been and helpful to you guys.
16:57
Speaker 2: Oh, he's been great.
16:58
Speaker 7: Uh, super super liable, super consistent. I think you know
17:01
Speaker 7: what you're going to get every time he walks in.
17:03
Speaker 7: That's with you know, everybody on our starting staff. But
17:06
Speaker 7: obviously he's been doing it. Obviously came out out of
17:08
Speaker 7: the bullpen with the Mets, but you know this, the
17:11
Speaker 7: transition to the starting roles has been great for me
17:15
Speaker 7: to kind of watch because I've done a little bit
17:16
Speaker 7: of both myself.
17:18
Speaker 2: But he's just so cerebral.
17:19
Speaker 7: I mean, you guys see the pitch Arsenal throwing nine
17:23
Speaker 7: ten different pitches every time he goes out there.
17:25
Speaker 2: So it's really hard to pick one as a hitter.
17:28
Speaker 7: I can't even imagine what that is in the box,
17:30
Speaker 7: or what that's like in the box, because you don't
17:32
Speaker 7: necessarily know what you're going to see in any given
17:34
Speaker 7: any given a bad any given count, because they'll throw
17:36
Speaker 7: anything at any time. But just to see the level
17:39
Speaker 7: of detail he goes to in the game planning, how
17:42
Speaker 7: he keeps his body right, and like you said, a
17:45
Speaker 7: thousand strikeouts, you know, not that's that's a great accomplishment.
17:49
Speaker 7: Not many people, you know, get to that point. So
17:53
Speaker 7: I think just to see him kind of grow through
17:55
Speaker 7: the years. Obviously he's been great for us in the
17:57
Speaker 7: last few years since he's been here in Kansas City.
17:59
Speaker 2: But he's a great guy to emulate.
18:02
Speaker 7: Just to see the daily consistency of the daily work
18:04
Speaker 7: has been great for me, and I know the other
18:06
Speaker 7: starters in the rotation as well.
18:08
Speaker 1: All right, Chris, So two years ago, we were celebrating
18:10
Speaker 1: the twenty fourteen team and I brought my one son
18:13
Speaker 1: into the clubhouse and besides the fact that everybody was ginormous,
18:16
Speaker 1: that's what he was.
18:17
Speaker 2: Like, whoa, dad, everybody's huge.
18:19
Speaker 1: He goes Seth Lugo's book of I was like, that's
18:24
Speaker 1: a scatter report book. He's like that folder he goes,
18:27
Speaker 1: does everybody have one that big? So do you have
18:29
Speaker 1: a Seth Lugo scouting folder binder his binder like him?
18:36
Speaker 2: Yeah?
18:37
Speaker 7: Yeah, So that that started for our starting rotation. Probably
18:40
Speaker 7: Lugo was the inspiration for that, but our starters back
18:43
Speaker 7: in twenty four when we made the playoffs and had
18:45
Speaker 7: a playoff run, I was down in the bullpen when
18:47
Speaker 7: I came back from Tommy John, but all the starters
18:50
Speaker 7: were carrying around binders and their game planning and their
18:52
Speaker 7: notes and you know, just just scouting reports and whatnot,
18:56
Speaker 7: just to do their homework before the game, kind of
18:59
Speaker 7: making adjustments when they needed to.
19:01
Speaker 2: But now, as a.
19:02
Speaker 7: Starter, I do have a binder that I carry around
19:04
Speaker 7: most days, do my game planning study hitters, make some
19:09
Speaker 7: notes on guys, especially if I facing guys with the
19:12
Speaker 7: first time or facing guys multiple times.
19:14
Speaker 2: So I think, you know, Lugo's kind of the poster.
19:18
Speaker 7: Child, I guess for that because you'll he'll pull up
19:20
Speaker 7: you know, his splits by pitch type and it's it's,
19:23
Speaker 7: you know, it's like an essay because so many pitches,
19:27
Speaker 7: so many hitters to kind of work through. But it's
19:30
Speaker 7: great just to see the the method, to the madness
19:33
Speaker 7: to kind of work behind the scenes. I think just
19:36
Speaker 7: the game planning itself. You see the level of detail
19:39
Speaker 7: he goes into. It's really helped myself. Obviously we have
19:42
Speaker 7: Michael walk he's throwing the night for us, and he's
19:44
Speaker 7: been great as a veteran guy as well, because those
19:47
Speaker 7: guys came in around the same time for us. But
19:49
Speaker 7: just to see the level of detail and the level
19:51
Speaker 7: of conviction that they go to in their game planning,
19:53
Speaker 7: and then hey, you go into the game, you know,
19:55
Speaker 7: sometimes things change, you make an in game adjustment.
19:58
Speaker 2: They're really good at that as well.
20:00
Speaker 5: I want to talk about Vinnie pas Quortina. Talk talk
20:04
Speaker 5: about him and so give me some quotes from him,
20:06
Speaker 5: some of the funniest things you've heard from him, or
20:08
Speaker 5: you know that you could say on here, some of
20:10
Speaker 5: the antics he does. It just looks absolutely like he's
20:13
Speaker 5: a joy to be around too.
20:15
Speaker 7: Man, he's awesome, as outgoing as you guys can imagine.
20:19
Speaker 7: I know the Espressional machine made its way around the WBC,
20:22
Speaker 7: so our lockers set up in Kansas City in the
20:24
Speaker 7: Home Clubhouse.
20:25
Speaker 2: There's actually like a stretch of four lockers.
20:28
Speaker 7: I have one corner and Vinnie has the other corner,
20:30
Speaker 7: and then in between there's two empty lockers, but one
20:33
Speaker 7: of those houses the so called especial machine.
20:36
Speaker 2: So I stay out of it.
20:38
Speaker 7: I let him and the CAGs take care of that.
20:42
Speaker 7: But I will say something actually that popped up recently, so,
20:46
Speaker 7: you know, me being a calmer kind of i'd say,
20:50
Speaker 7: lower heart rate guy, sometimes I gotta get up and
20:53
Speaker 7: you know, a little more angry when I go pitch.
20:55
Speaker 7: And sometimes this is funny, but he's recently recently been
21:01
Speaker 7: calling me batrack boobage because he's kind of trying to
21:04
Speaker 7: trying to piss me off, trying to motivate.
21:06
Speaker 2: Me a little bit. You know, hitters are just so excited.
21:09
Speaker 7: Opposing hitters are so excited to get you know, to
21:12
Speaker 7: the batrack and go face me because they're gonna tee
21:14
Speaker 7: off on me, which you know, I I I think
21:18
Speaker 7: it's I think it's funny, but it also like, hey,
21:21
Speaker 7: you know, he's got a point. Sometimes when I pitch,
21:23
Speaker 7: a little angrier probably goes a little bit better. So
21:25
Speaker 7: those are some of the things that stand out. But yeah,
21:27
Speaker 7: he's he's a great leader for us, you know, a
21:29
Speaker 7: good presence in the middle of the order, driving and
21:31
Speaker 7: runs and you know it's it's a joy to have
21:35
Speaker 7: him in the clubhouse every day.
21:37
Speaker 1: You got me on focus and we're supposed to say
21:39
Speaker 1: focused here, so that's he just says. He just calls
21:42
Speaker 1: you batrack, boobage or like, what's another way, what's another
21:46
Speaker 1: way that can get you pissed off? Because like I think,
21:49
Speaker 1: I think, I love this. I love that. I like
21:51
Speaker 1: out of control, calm people. So what else I mean,
21:54
Speaker 1: get into the espresso machine maybe.
21:57
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's uh, I actually have yet. I will
22:00
Speaker 2: drink my fair share of coffee.
22:02
Speaker 7: Cold Brui is probably the go to, or just any
22:05
Speaker 7: caffeine and beverage before I pitch. But but yeah, when
22:08
Speaker 7: we get back home, I'll make it a point. I
22:10
Speaker 7: got to have some respression, especially you know day game
22:13
Speaker 7: or something night game or day game after night game.
22:15
Speaker 7: Got to wake it up a little bit, you know,
22:18
Speaker 7: provided some good vibes for them in the WBC.
22:21
Speaker 2: So I'm all, I'm all for the vibes.
22:23
Speaker 1: All right, Well, on your pitch, on your on your
22:26
Speaker 1: start day, maybe you should wear like what mikel Garcia
22:29
Speaker 1: wears and then you can have like you could be
22:32
Speaker 1: like crease crease, bubik and then like it's your alter
22:36
Speaker 1: ego when you're pitching. But anyway, you do what you want.
22:39
Speaker 1: Stanford guys they're super smart. So I'm not gonna I'm
22:42
Speaker 1: not gonna get in the way of that. Let's talk
22:44
Speaker 1: about your return after Tommy John surgery, the things you
22:49
Speaker 1: learned during that year plus long rehab and then also
22:53
Speaker 1: to come out on the end of it and get
22:56
Speaker 1: back to starting pitching to make an All Star team.
23:00
Speaker 1: What do you feel like are the lessons that you're
23:02
Speaker 1: able to teach younger players through it, but also what
23:06
Speaker 1: you were going through during that time.
23:10
Speaker 7: Yeah, for me, you know, things can change in an instant.
23:13
Speaker 7: I think you keep your head down, you keep working.
23:15
Speaker 7: You never know when when an opportunity is going to
23:17
Speaker 7: come knocking. And then for me, you know, looking back
23:19
Speaker 7: at that time, you know, at the end of twenty
23:22
Speaker 7: twenty two, I was kind of in a in a
23:23
Speaker 7: in a tough spot.
23:24
Speaker 2: I had a really bad year, just nothing was really
23:27
Speaker 2: going right.
23:28
Speaker 7: I knew I had to make some changes going into
23:30
Speaker 7: twenty three, and I did, and we saw some early returns,
23:33
Speaker 7: kind of overhauled the repertoire a little bit overhaul the mechanics,
23:37
Speaker 7: but then you know that got halted because of the
23:39
Speaker 7: Tommy John surgery that ket me out you know for
23:42
Speaker 7: the remainder of twenty three and then the first half
23:44
Speaker 7: of twenty four. But I think, you know, going into
23:47
Speaker 7: the bullpen that year really helped kind of solidify my
23:50
Speaker 7: mindset in terms of being aggressive, attack and hitters, you know,
23:53
Speaker 7: being a it. Really the bullpen thing was actually quite
23:57
Speaker 7: interesting because at the time I had built up as
23:59
Speaker 7: a starter on my reab assignment, so it was kind
24:01
Speaker 7: of intended to be more of the long guy, you know,
24:03
Speaker 7: the starter out of the pen, but you know, just
24:07
Speaker 7: kind of worked my way into some more leverage opportunities
24:09
Speaker 7: and you know, just took it and ran with it.
24:11
Speaker 7: So I think that mindset really helped me going back
24:13
Speaker 7: into starting in twenty twenty five, just to keep attacking guys,
24:16
Speaker 7: staying aggressive and I think you know, the stuff played
24:20
Speaker 7: in the zone, and you know, that's something that we've
24:23
Speaker 7: had at times this year. It's kind of been a
24:25
Speaker 7: little more inconsistent for me so far this year, but overall,
24:27
Speaker 7: I think just to be in this spot after you know,
24:30
Speaker 7: going through the Tommy John surgery, you know, it's along
24:34
Speaker 7: your plus process. You just I'll just you never know
24:37
Speaker 7: when things can change, because you know, for me, twenty
24:40
Speaker 7: two is kind of rock bottom, and you know, for me,
24:42
Speaker 7: I had kind of nothing to lose going at you know,
24:45
Speaker 7: into twenty twenty twenty three and beyond. So for me,
24:49
Speaker 7: it was like, hey, put your head down at work.
24:51
Speaker 7: You know how often, you know, you go into an
24:53
Speaker 7: off season, you get you let your body kind of
24:55
Speaker 7: recover for a little bit, and then you build back up.
24:57
Speaker 7: So for me, the Tommy John rehab was like, hey,
25:00
Speaker 7: how often do you get, you know, a year plus
25:03
Speaker 7: to really work on your your physical strength, your you know,
25:07
Speaker 7: weight room stuff, arm care stuff, your mentality?
25:11
Speaker 2: Like how often do.
25:11
Speaker 7: You get this kind of underrupted period to really work
25:14
Speaker 7: on yourself both physically and mentally. So I tried to
25:17
Speaker 7: take advantage of every single day and kind of use
25:19
Speaker 7: its an opportunity instead of the setback. So I think
25:22
Speaker 7: that really helped my mindset and just kind of getting
25:25
Speaker 7: to this point that I've gotten to today.
25:27
Speaker 1: All Right, anytime somebody comes on from the Royals, I
25:30
Speaker 1: have to tell them that I played with Salve when
25:32
Speaker 1: he was a baby, and Sarby always he toy like
25:35
Speaker 1: this and essent never changed. But he could never say
25:39
Speaker 1: people name right, he would call me crappy. What does
25:42
Speaker 1: he call you? Or what did he call you when
25:44
Speaker 1: you first came up? And has your name changed since
25:48
Speaker 1: you've been there?
25:51
Speaker 7: Uh no, I can confidently say no one calls me
25:54
Speaker 7: by my first name, as you guys could probably imagine,
25:57
Speaker 7: giving my last name being a little more unique. But
26:01
Speaker 7: he usually says bubitch in his in his accent. But uh,
26:06
Speaker 7: but no, he's he's great. I'd say that's probably the
26:10
Speaker 7: most common thing.
26:11
Speaker 2: I mean, I.
26:11
Speaker 7: Have a variety of nicknames, but I'll let you guys
26:17
Speaker 7: kind of think about what those could be. But uh,
26:21
Speaker 7: but yeah, no, he's great in terms of, you know,
26:25
Speaker 7: just just the energy he brings every day. Like he said,
26:27
Speaker 7: you play with him, just a smile he has every day,
26:31
Speaker 7: even when you know he's such a legend in Kansas City,
26:34
Speaker 7: like he could retire today and and you know be
26:39
Speaker 7: in our Hall of Fame in the Royals and you know,
26:41
Speaker 7: make a pretty good case for Coopers Town as well.
26:43
Speaker 7: But but no, he's he's always he's always ready to go.
26:47
Speaker 7: He's always you know, talking some smack here and there.
26:50
Speaker 7: But He's a joy to have around as well.
26:54
Speaker 6: Well. Chris, you were a joy to have on with
26:57
Speaker 6: us today. Thanks for taking some time out of your
26:58
Speaker 6: busy day and surely I have no idea where those
27:01
Speaker 6: nicknames could possibly lead. With you a family show here
27:05
Speaker 6: on Foul Territory. Best of luck the rest of the season.
27:08
Speaker 6: Royals in Saint Louis this weekend for a three game set.
27:11
Speaker 6: The I seventy series is what they call it. Chris,
27:14
Speaker 6: thanks so much again for hoping on. We'll see you soon.
27:17
Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Thank you,