Latest / Foul Territory / Max Scherzer talks Blue Jays surge, Manfred vs. Union, MLB realignment, Battle vs. Kershaw

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Max Scherzer talks Blue Jays surge, Manfred vs. Union, MLB realignment, Battle vs. Kershaw · Foul Territory

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Hey, we've got Max Schurz are back on FT Max.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Great to see you. How's the year going, man, We
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: haven't caught up with you in a minute.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for having me back on. Yeah, you're going
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: going great.
• 0:13
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, I had a hiccup there for a while,
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: but back on track and we're playing.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Some good baseball here and some meaningful baseball that summer.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Did you see this coming? So you signed with the
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Blue Jays in the off season, right, And I'm sure
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: you see some of the names on paper, but they
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: had been disappointing in the prior couple years. I'm sure
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you evaluate teams obviously when you're making a decision on
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: your free agency. Did you see this kind of breakout
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: for the team?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't look at it like that. You know.
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: Chris Bass is one of my good buddies. Played with
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: them in New York and he was there. I just
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: had conversations. I keep it up with them all the time.
• 0:49
  Speaker 3: We were just having conversations kind of throughout the whole
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: free agent process and just kind of what the team
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: looked like.
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: And then I think they signed Santander and Santander and.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: Then you know, I had a conversation with the upper
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: brass of the Blue Jays, and they said, no, we're
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: all in for twenty twenty five. We're looking to make
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: moves and if we're good, we're gonna go out to
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: trade deadline as well. So when I heard that, that
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: gave me a lot of confidence that this team can
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: turn around. They had they identify their mistakes and one
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: to have a really good twenty twenty five and so
• 1:23
  Speaker 3: it's been great to be a part of it.
• 1:25
  Speaker 4: Max.
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: Can you describe what it's like playing for the Blue Jays.
• 1:27
  Speaker 5: We haven't talked to you, I don't think maybe since
• 1:28
  Speaker 5: spring training, but everyone I know that's ever played for
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: Toronto says it's awesome up there, and everyone but everyone
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: that doesn't play for him says, oh.
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: It's customs and I got to do this and do that.
• 1:38
  Speaker 5: But every guy I know that's ever gone up there,
• 1:40
  Speaker 5: so the organizations unbelievable the way they treat you.
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: So can you can you expound on that? Spand on that?
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I've had a lot of fun this summer. Man,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: it's been great playing for the Blue Jays. They treat
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: the families amazingly well, like my girls, they've had so
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: much fun. We've been staying downtown and so it's made
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: it really easy to get the kids to the park
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: to get some.
• 2:02
  Speaker 2: Extra hours around dad. So that's been great. Uh.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: And you know, every team's kind of got crap you
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: gotta gotta deal with. I mean, it doesn't matter what
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: team you're with. I mean, if you play in LA
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: or New York and DC, you're sitting in traffic. I mean,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: you know, that's one of the life things that you
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: gotta do with. With Toronto, yeah, you gotta do with
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: some border stuff. You know, you gotta be on the plane,
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: I guess, and have the card game go on for
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: a little bit longer than usual, and you know, you
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: gotta deal with some border stuff and get the bags
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: off the kearrousel sometimes.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: So you know.
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: But outside of that, being in Blue Jay, it's been
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: actually so much fun. Loved it, loved every mento of it.
• 2:40
  Speaker 6: When they said the some of the things that they
• 2:42
  Speaker 6: wanted to change, or they they said, oh, this is
• 2:45
  Speaker 6: what we need to change for this year. Did they
• 2:47
  Speaker 6: change those things with the Santander signing? But then Santander
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: hasn't hasn't even played much this year, so it's like
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: other guys have stepped up, right.
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: I mean they looked at themselves was internally too, where
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: they wanted to make changes to hitting coaches, what they
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: want to do different with the pitching, and obviously how
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: they wanted to you know, they made a trade for
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: you know him, and as they didn't like their infield
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: defense and they go out there and to get you know,
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: one of the best gold gloves second basement as there
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: is in the game.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: And so it's moves like that.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Where they looked internally at themselves of how they wanted
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: to operate differently, uh, you know, and the addition of
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: signing guys, uh, you know was the kind of change
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: that they looked. So tough to really tell because I
• 3:31
  Speaker 3: wasn't here last year, uh to really know all the
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: ins and outs, but uh, you know, just from the
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: scuttle butt, that's kind of what's been going on.
• 3:39
  Speaker 5: Well, you guys are doing great so far, so you're
• 3:41
  Speaker 5: you're in a good spot. But I got to ask this,
• 3:43
  Speaker 5: how's the back?
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: Right then? Your back? Was your back that tightened up
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: on your last start?
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, last start.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: It's actually kind of minor, like the upper scap, uh,
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: you know, before the game I woke up normal, kind
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: of looking down at the sky reports.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: And you know, I was looking at them.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: I looked up all of a sudden, I could feel
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: like my upper scap was tight, like, oh, that's godd
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: like whatever, you know, I don't know, I'm forty one.
• 4:05
  Speaker 3: I got to do a crap now, So I don't know.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: I heat up thinking it was gonna go away. But
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: then kind of in the second end, I kind of felt,
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: you know, kind of get a little bit tighter again
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: on me. And so that's when I kind of learned
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: the team, Hey, I got something here, and you could
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: see it was compromising my stuff, and I was gonna
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: you know, I was good.
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: It was dull.
• 4:25
  Speaker 3: It wasn't sharp something I thought I could pitch through,
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: but it was affecting my stuff, and you had to
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: come out of the game early because of that.
• 4:32
  Speaker 6: One of the things that we heard from the Blue Jays,
• 4:35
  Speaker 6: or from about the Blue Jays. I think Justin Turner
• 4:37
  Speaker 6: was even talking about it when we had them on
• 4:39
  Speaker 6: talking about the Jays. Their medical stuff is like next level,
• 4:43
  Speaker 6: state of the art. Well, I know two of your trainers,
• 4:45
  Speaker 6: jose minstro and vood and Chung are two of the
• 4:48
  Speaker 6: biggest slouches I've ever seen in my life, and they're
• 4:51
  Speaker 6: two of my best friends in the training world. But
• 4:55
  Speaker 6: do they really have because you've been around, do they
• 4:58
  Speaker 6: have a leg up medically on other teams?
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: I don't know if I would characterize it like that.
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: When they came through and they did all the renovations
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: to the Rogers Center, I mean, this home clubhouse is
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: as pristine. It's the nicest home clubhouse probably in the game.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: I mean, the tech I was just in Texas, Texas
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: might be the biggest. I mean it's awesome. Texas is
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: big and it's awesome, but the details here in Toronto
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: are great. So you know, they kind of got all
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: the machines and everything you need to you know, go
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: about your day. I mean there's definitely times I'm using
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: some of those shock wave stuff where I'm shocking myself
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: to get everything going.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: But no, it's very good, very good all the way around.
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: Max.
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: How surprised are you? I mean early in the year,
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: the Blue Jays weren't great, but now all of a
• 5:45
  Speaker 5: sudden they took off. It was like they three last
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: three months they've just taken off.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: Is it offense? Is it defense, is it pitching? Everything
• 5:52
  Speaker 4: just came together.
• 5:53
  Speaker 5: What changed because early in the year was kind of like, ah,
• 5:55
  Speaker 5: where are the Blue Jays gonna go?
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: And then who it was like a rocket ship.
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think we're just getting off. You know, I
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: want to say on a slow start.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: We just you know, we with was saying in April
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: that you know, you can't win in the division in April,
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: but you can lose it.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Well, we didn't lose it in April.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: You know, we were playing kind of five hundred ball
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: and we're you know, kind of go off to this
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: and I don't want to say a slow start, but
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: you know, we didn't get off to the best start, uh,
• 6:18
  Speaker 3: And then we just kind of clicked as a team.
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: We start identifying the roles that everybody wanted to be in.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: You know, I wasn't pitching, but I was watching this
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: go down and watching how everything was transpiring and how
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: the offense started clicking. Defense is playing great, uh, you know,
• 6:33
  Speaker 3: even the outfield defense. I mean, but now I've seen
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Varsha out in center. Man, my gosh, I knew he
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: was good. I didn't know it was just good. I mean,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: he's making highlight reel catches. All the singles, you know,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: every every seems like every every day he's going back
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: and almost robbing a home run. And so you combine
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: that with all the little things that was going on, uh,
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: and then go up and down the lineup. I mean,
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: it's not just one guy here, George, you know, George Springer.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Vladdy bo Bars comes in, he finally gets hot, he
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: gets going, We got punching, looky, Miles Straw, you name it,
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: going around Ernie Clement, I mean, up and down the lineup,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: everybody just started playing better and feeding off each other
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: and grind out e bes and you know the offense
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: you know, ran and then all of a sudden the
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: pitchon came together as well. So it's just one of
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: those things where the whole team clicked at once. It
• 7:20
  Speaker 3: wasn't just one, you know aspect of this. It was
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: a total team effort.
• 7:25
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• 8:26
  Speaker 6: All right, how are you guys combating against tipping in
• 8:29
  Speaker 6: game in the sense of because when I played on good,
• 8:33
  Speaker 6: when I played on good playoff contending World Series winning teams,
• 8:38
  Speaker 6: they want to take every advantage that you can on
• 8:42
  Speaker 6: both sides.
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: Do you feel like there needs to.
• 8:44
  Speaker 6: Be some kind of rule change as far as the
• 8:47
  Speaker 6: coaches first and third base coaches, going way down the line,
• 8:51
  Speaker 6: or way up the line in unnecessary moments.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, you definitely have to be worried about
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: tipping in today's game. I mean, the cameras that they have,
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: the HD stuff that you know, they can see on
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: you, you know, and like you said, the coaches they're getting it.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: You know that that's kind of the great area for me.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: When the coaches get involved. I don't mind when some players,
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: you know, if you're on the field, your base run,
• 9:13
  Speaker 3: you can get something that.
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's that's part of the game.
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: Uh, you start getting the coaches involved, that's a great
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: area for me, you know. You know, like you said,
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: in the future, do we want to real change to
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: help kind of curtail this? Uh yeah, I guess I
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: think that's a conversation for a different day because I
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: mean does nothing to you know, talk about it now
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: or complain about it now. But in the future, yeah,
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: that could be something to talk about because I mean
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: it's just next level now and multiple teams.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: I've been on it. You know what guys can look
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: at and decipher on you. It's crazy.
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: Well, they're not banging trash cans, right. I just want
• 9:47
  Speaker 5: to make sure that no one's banging trash, everything's coming
• 9:50
  Speaker 5: up and up. Okay, good, good answer. I figured I
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: figured that. Did you see recently that all of our
• 9:55
  Speaker 5: friend Rob Manfred came out and was talking about realignment?
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Are you for realignment?
• 10:00
  Speaker 5: Would you like to see some people say eight divisions
• 10:02
  Speaker 5: of four? And then we have some people that say
• 10:04
  Speaker 5: four divisions of eight? Are you four realignment? Because I
• 10:07
  Speaker 5: think it would be great in certain ways, but then
• 10:09
  Speaker 5: I think there's other ways where it would hurt baseball.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, very intriguing. I mean this also revolves around.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: Expansions, so we got to see what two cities would
• 10:18
  Speaker 3: come into this. But that's definitely intriguing. If you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: when you add two more teams into the league, get
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: the thirty two Okay, you know you look at the NFL,
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: they're divided in you know, eight divisions, four teams each. Yeah,
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: I'm open to it. I think it could be good
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: for the game. Something you definitely got to think about.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: And obviously we're multiple years away from them, but I'm
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: intrigued by it. You know, I wanted to hear what
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: ideas are kind of read some things about it. You know,
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: there's kind of pros and cons who how you would
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: divide this up, but definitely open to the idea of it.
• 10:57
  Speaker 6: Has Rob made the clubhouse tour stop in Toronto yet
• 11:01
  Speaker 6: or when you guys were on the road.
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: No, we haven't seen him yet. I'm not holding my breath.
• 11:08
  Speaker 4: You don't they you don't think he's gonna come in there.
• 11:10
  Speaker 6: But do you do you feel like because obviously, you know,
• 11:11
  Speaker 6: there's a lot of the word you used was scuttle
• 11:14
  Speaker 6: butt about the Phillies, you know, and how they reacted
• 11:18
  Speaker 6: to him. Do you feel like they reacted in a
• 11:23
  Speaker 6: in a fair way when someone comes into their clubhouse
• 11:26
  Speaker 6: and talks about stuff that maybe it isn't necessarily how
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: they want to react, And how would you have reacted.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: I can't really comment exactly on the Philly situation. All
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: I know is when you start dealing with the finances
• 11:38
  Speaker 3: of the game, you're dealing with people's livelihoods, You're dealing
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: with people how people are getting paid within the game,
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: and you're really in some sensitive situations. Uh, you know,
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: I did my work with a union. I definitely had
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: to have that in the back.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Of my mind.
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: I have people's you know, libyhoods, I mean, I mean
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: people's dreams, of playing the major leagues and how we
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: compensate people because of that in the back of my mind.
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: So I know that these are very contentiously, she's these
• 12:00
  Speaker 3: are very hot and things can get sideways really fast
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: because you're really talking.
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: About how the game can work.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: So you know, without really speculating how things you know
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: got portrayed in the media. I wasn't there, don't know,
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: but I definitely know things like that can get like that.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Max.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: Sorry, you got me all choked up here. You just
• 12:24
  Speaker 5: mentioned you were you were on the union and you
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: were in the union, you were on the what what
• 12:28
  Speaker 5: I forget what the head executive executive board. Yeah, we
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: recently had a thing kind of come out and it
• 12:37
  Speaker 5: was in the Athletic about players that are now working
• 12:39
  Speaker 5: for Rob and they follow Rob into the clubhouse. Is
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: that your next move as a former executive board meeting?
• 12:44
  Speaker 5: When you retire, you're gonna follow Rob around for these
• 12:47
  Speaker 5: clubhouse tours so you can go up to the players
• 12:49
  Speaker 5: and say, Man, Rob is great, isn't he?
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: I probably won't be doing that. Probably probably doing that
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: somewhere else. I'm probably see I've retired from the unions off.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: I don't I was too many phone calls. I got,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: I got four kids, now I got I'm a busy dad.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: I got these kids running around. I don't have time
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: to be sitting on phone calls, you know, keeping everybody
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: up to date.
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: And so you know that's always been my message to
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: the next you know subcommittee guys is look, you know,
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: I know you want to do a lot of great things,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: but just knowing you're gonna be sitting on a lot
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: of phone calls because you've got to talk to everybody
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: across the league and you know kind of all your
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: kind of personal contacts, all your friends across the game.
• 13:26
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: And then uh, you know, you got to.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: Be talking to multiple teams and even people on your team.
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: So it's a lot of work, a lot of phone
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: calls of trying to keep everybody on the same page.
• 13:35
  Speaker 4: Uh.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: And you know, Glad I did it. Glad I tried to,
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: uh do the best thing for the game always. You know,
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: I always loved that I did that. You know, it's
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: a lot of work, but Glad I did it, and
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: hopefully you make the game better.
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: What would you give advice? You would give advice for
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: people that are you know, going on to the executive subcommittee.
• 13:55
  Speaker 6: But what about young guys. What about young guys coming
• 13:57
  Speaker 6: into the game and how to engage in the Union.
• 14:01
  Speaker 6: Because young dudes are like, I want to go play
• 14:03
  Speaker 6: the game, I want to go out after the game,
• 14:05
  Speaker 6: I'm going to play the next game. I want to
• 14:07
  Speaker 6: stay in the big leagues. What would the advice be
• 14:09
  Speaker 6: that you would have for them? As a guy that's
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: now all right, I'm good like I don't I don't
• 14:13
  Speaker 6: need to spend more time on union stuff.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: Honestly, just talk to veterans. The veterans have been through
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: every level.
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: You know, when the young guys, when you're in the
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: you know, you kind of the pre arm and you're
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: making the minimum. Well, every veteran has been there. Every
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: veteran's put into three years. Every veteran's gone through, you know,
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: three years of art. They've seen free agency and especially
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: when you get you know, guys with ten plus years,
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: they've seen the ups and downs of free agency. They
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: see how different decisions get made on teammates. They had
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: a teammate go through this, and they have the experience
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: of seeing how certain things and within the CBA affect
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: how decisions get made for players' careers. So really for
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: young guys, just stay connected to the old guys can
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: talk about that type of stuff. You know, when you're
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: you know, sitting you know, on the couches and you
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: know after BP or something, that conversation comes up up.
• 15:00
  Speaker 3: Young guys need to be a part of that because
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: they helped control where does where the boat goes, so
• 15:07
  Speaker 3: to say, to where everybody in the game goes.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: So everybody's on the same page.
• 15:12
  Speaker 4: All right, Well, for a couple of things.
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: First of all, I want to make you clear, we're independent,
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: so we're not owned by the union or no, it's
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: not for you. I know you know that, but I'm
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: saying for other people out there, we're not owned by
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: the players and we're not owned by the commission, so
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: we're independent. We just like well you mentioned though, the players,
• 15:27
  Speaker 5: the young players need to sit down and listen to veterans.
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: I remember as a young player you were like, I
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: just want to stay out of it and let those
• 15:33
  Speaker 5: guys handle it. How does the union make it better
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: on these young players, because again, you know when you
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: were young and you had the veteran guys at times
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: have changed a lot, but it was just sitting your locker,
• 15:44
  Speaker 5: don't talk, We'll let you know what you're supposed to
• 15:46
  Speaker 5: do right now. Now, younger guys have a bigger voice
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: in this game, So how does the Union communicate with
• 15:52
  Speaker 5: them better what they're trying to get across.
• 15:55
  Speaker 3: I think there's this better team communication about these issues
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: when it gets into kind of you know, when the
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: pressure really gets cooked up around these issues, that you
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: can get information out to the whole team very quickly.
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: I think teams are identifying. I mean now with phones
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: and texting, I mean, you can get in touch with
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: anybody across the league within five minutes. And so it's
• 16:18
  Speaker 3: really stayed in due diligence of kind of the union
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: rep on the team of keeping that kind of communication
• 16:23
  Speaker 3: in line, hey, throughout the team. So it's kind of
• 16:27
  Speaker 3: a team effort of who your leader is and then
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: how well everybody is engaged of understanding what the issues
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: are at hand. So yeah, I mean it's a difficult task,
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: but it's nothing that's not insurmountable.
• 16:44
  Speaker 6: Max, everybody had somebody just I know it's totally off
• 16:47
  Speaker 6: topic here, but you talked about being a rookie and
• 16:49
  Speaker 6: vets who is your guy that as a rookie just
• 16:54
  Speaker 6: absolutely wore you out, but could have also been somebody
• 16:57
  Speaker 6: that really helped you, because I feel like everybody has somebody.
• 17:02
  Speaker 6: But now as a vet you look back at you're like,
• 17:05
  Speaker 6: all right, I guess that kind of that kind of
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: worked out for me.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: The best thing I can say about that Alex grows
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: in Detroit was Gerald Laird uh Man. He would just
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: get on you for absolutely anything, but he made the
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: best way, uh and the best way possible and uhleed you.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: You know, you developed that relationship.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: So then when it needed to be when he you know,
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: I mean he got stacks to the times. But like
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: this is how you need a pitch. You needed when
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: I call fastball away, fill the fastball away, and you
• 17:34
  Speaker 3: get very you know, animated about it, and you know,
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: really have great conversations about it, you know, at all
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: all different phases of it. So you know, if you
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: when you say that, you know it's a veteran that
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: was really harden me when I was young.
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Say him.
• 17:51
  Speaker 5: Max, You've played with some of the best guys in
• 17:53
  Speaker 5: the history of baseball.
• 17:54
  Speaker 4: Maggie Price Soto.
• 17:57
  Speaker 5: I mean, you've you've had kind of a who's who
• 17:59
  Speaker 5: of of dudes on that you played with hit or
• 18:02
  Speaker 5: Wise right, and now you have Vlad. What is something
• 18:05
  Speaker 5: that people don't know about Vlad or comparison to some
• 18:09
  Speaker 5: of those guys that you played with throughout your career
• 18:11
  Speaker 5: that stands out and you can say Jay's fans, this
• 18:13
  Speaker 5: is why he's worth the contract that he signed.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: You know, he's actually very athletic. He kind of gives
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: you some de tackle vibes.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: He really like you watch him get down the line,
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: You're like, oh, like he's running that mind that fast,
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: or he goes first to third or second at home.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: He's actually you know, he's way faster than you would
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: typically think of him. And I think he's just he's
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: coming into his own I mean, as good as he is,
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: you know, there's still so much more on tap of
• 18:39
  Speaker 3: potential of what I see from him. You know, I
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: don't like throwing this comparison around because I hold him
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: so high, like you said, Miguil Cabrera, but he has
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: that type of talent.
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: He can hit the ball as hard as Mega Cabrera.
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: It's but maybe had the IQ.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: And then you know the Polish when I play with him,
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: you know, I played him in the early thirties, so
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: a little bit different.
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: You know, Vlad's still got some time develop here.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: But you know, if he puts his nose down into
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: the dirt and figures out how to you know, really
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: study the way he hits and how he doesn't, and
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: you takes stuff like that and puts it into his game, Uh,
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: he can be, you know, in an absolute offensive force.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: I've definitely seen it.
• 19:17
  Speaker 6: Can you give us an insight into the bullpen pep
• 19:20
  Speaker 6: talk that you.
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: Gave bullpen pep talk? No? No, crats No, what was
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: that one? I don't know.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: I think you're we're talking about Laddie. Laddie gave a
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: pep talk.
• 19:31
  Speaker 4: Oh that's my bazil, I was.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah. You know what, it makes sense that all the time,
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: because we all have each other's backs, we all believe
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: in each other.
• 19:43
  Speaker 3: I think that's one strait that we have here is
• 19:45
  Speaker 3: that we think we have the right team, the right personalities,
• 19:48
  Speaker 3: the right guys. Everybody's in the right roles. Somebody fails,
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: somebody else is gonna do their job better, it doesn't matter.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: We've seen this happen to us all throughout the season,
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: where hey, one bat, what happens there's somebody doesn't make
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: a play that somebody gives up a homer who knows. Uh,
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: No one's turning the back, no one's everybody's trying to
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: pick each other up. And so I think Glad he's
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: learning himself as a as kind of a leader, you know,
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: being twenty six years old still in the game, it's
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: it's tough to be kind of that vocal leader. And
• 20:16
  Speaker 3: he's finding his voice, he's finding his way to do it,
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: and he's showing support when guys need it the most.
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: And so, you know, you know, having him say that,
• 20:24
  Speaker 2: you know, that's just the kind of the who we
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: are kind of as a Blue Jays right now. All right.
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: I got to ask and she said, you're living in
• 20:32
  Speaker 5: the city. Have you met Drake yet? I mean, he's
• 20:35
  Speaker 5: the king of the six right, has Drake been to
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: a game? And as he said, what's up, Max.
• 20:40
  Speaker 3: No, we haven't seen Drake. Let's see, I'm trying to
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: think of any slurries that we've seen come by. You
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: got me on the spot drawing a blank. The cool
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: thing we did do is we did go to the
• 20:53
  Speaker 3: game seven Eastern Conference when the Leafs played the Florida Panthers.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: That was a pretty was a really cool environment. I mean,
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: I know there's a hockey town in Toronto and man,
• 21:04
  Speaker 3: there was that stadium was going that we went to it.
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: It was nuts.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: So it kind of gives you a taste of what
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: it could be for us, and so that gives us
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: the motivation. Man, if we can get there to the playoffs,
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: this is this is this is the Rogers Center will
• 21:17
  Speaker 3: be rocking.
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: I know that.
• 21:18
  Speaker 5: But by the way, I know you're rooting for the
• 21:20
  Speaker 5: Panthers because I know you live in Florida, so you
• 21:22
  Speaker 5: better have been rooting for the Panthers, not the Leafs.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm still kind of you had secret you had
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: to kind of do.
• 21:29
  Speaker 4: You had to do it in secret.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: I know Washington Capitals. I still gotta. I still got
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: a piece of me that loves the Washington Capitals. So
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: uh okay, you know when they came in, they gave
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: me that trophy and I got the oldest Stanley cup
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: over my head like that.
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: Uh you know, I still remember that pretty well. So
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: that's can still going. Uh old, guys are still getting
• 21:48
  Speaker 3: it done.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 21:49
  Speaker 5: So when you you recently faced Kershaw, did you guys
• 21:53
  Speaker 5: like have to get wheelchairs, you know, to get out
• 21:55
  Speaker 5: there because everyone's talking about all the time, right, because
• 21:57
  Speaker 5: you guys remember the famous game where you both started,
• 21:59
  Speaker 5: like forever ago in Dodger Stadium when it was supposed
• 22:02
  Speaker 5: to be Maddox and Randy instead it was these two puffs,
• 22:04
  Speaker 5: sures Are and Kershaw. Who the hell are these two guys?
• 22:07
  Speaker 5: And now twenty like twenty years later, you guys got
• 22:10
  Speaker 5: to do it again. So were you guys leaving notes
• 22:12
  Speaker 5: for each.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: Other on the mound.
• 22:13
  Speaker 5: I know you guys exchanged jerseys, which was really cool,
• 22:15
  Speaker 5: but I mean that had to be one of the
• 22:17
  Speaker 5: most the best, one of the best games you ever
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: got to pitch in, right.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: It was just really cool. And I knew that Dodger
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: start was coming up. It was like two starts ahead.
• 22:28
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, I'm gonna get get the Dodgers.
• 22:30
  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, man, who are I gotta get up?
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: I was like, please let it be Kershaw. This is
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: gonna be too much fun. And sure enough it lined
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: up just right where he was starting to and you know,
• 22:40
  Speaker 3: just what a moment. You know, we've been competing at
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: each other all these years, you know, from the same
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: draft class. You name it and still the eighteen years
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: in and we're still going at it. And you know,
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: we both went out there and compete hard against each
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: other just like we always have. And even though he
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: got the better end of it, you know, sit my
• 23:00
  Speaker 3: hat to them. But that was a pretty cool moment.
• 23:03
  Speaker 3: I didn't get a jersey from when I was in LA,
• 23:05
  Speaker 3: but I've always wanted to curse off jersey, so best
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: to get it in that way.
• 23:11
  Speaker 4: All right? Who should have been picked first? You were Kershaw?
• 23:16
  Speaker 4: You got it.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: That's where you decide.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: No, I'm trying to win every time. I don't care
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: who's against me. I'm trying to beat anybody who's who's
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: staying in that box.
• 23:26
  Speaker 6: But I'm saying who should if you go back to
• 23:28
  Speaker 6: the draft, because you always do these, like you know,
• 23:30
  Speaker 6: redo the trade or redo the draft, compare you have
• 23:35
  Speaker 6: to compare your career to Kershall's career.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: Who should have been picked first?
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: I don't know, that's weird. You know, it's easier to
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: do it when it's somebody else. If you go to them,
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: spot something else. Yeah, you can give it a lot.
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: It's you verse ten.
• 23:50
  Speaker 2: I don't know, it's it's weird talking to yourself like that.
• 23:53
  Speaker 3: Uh, you know, because we were on the mound, we
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: compete against each other. It's weird thinking into those terms,
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: but that's where that's where you to decide, like you're
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: out of the game.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Now you can look at it. Now you.
• 24:06
  Speaker 4: I got it.
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: You both are going into the Hall of Famous Dodgers.
• 24:09
  Speaker 5: So that's it. That's all the matters. You guys are
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: both going to the Hall of Famous Dodgers.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he will be Yeah, exactly, exactly. Well, Mac, that
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: was fun. Yeah, that was fun, fun matchup to watch.
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: Great catching up with you man. Yeah, it's been a
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: minute so uh, we enjoyed it. Thanks for the time.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: Good luck the rest of the way. Man, we're following
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: this closely, all right.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Appreciate it. Thanks money, Thank you.