Latest / Foul Territory / Ben Rortvedt on Will Smith's injury, playoff mentality, catching with ABS, Clayton Kershaw's moment

Transcript

Ben Rortvedt on Will Smith's injury, playoff mentality, catching with ABS, Clayton Kershaw's moment · Foul Territory

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, we've got Dodgers catcher Ben Rotbet back on the show.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Ben.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Great to have you back on and wow, things have
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: changed since we last spoke.
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: How is it to be black? And significant time for
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: the Dodgers? Now? What's life like?
• 0:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah? How's it going, guys? Thanks for having me. Life's
• 0:20
  Speaker 3: been fast. Yeah, it's been a long year. Started off
• 0:23
  Speaker 3: kind of a disappointing year. Got you a fade and
• 0:27
  Speaker 3: uh was resetting in Triple A, got traded for was
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: grateful for that opportunity and now here we are? What
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: is that?
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: I went through it plenty of times, didn't play good,
• 0:41
  Speaker 4: got fired, sent down a triple A. Did you feel
• 0:45
  Speaker 4: like there was a chance for you to go back
• 0:48
  Speaker 4: to the big leagues, let alone in another organization or
• 0:52
  Speaker 4: you like you said you went to reset? Was it physical?
• 0:55
  Speaker 4: Was it mental?
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: Was it?
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: I don't know.
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: I think I kind of just got lost and uh,
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: kind of the player I was. I was really excited
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: going to the year, had a good offseason. Kind of
• 1:07
  Speaker 3: in spring, I was working some swing stuff out and
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: I kind of said to myself, you sometimes got to
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: get worse to get better, and I definitely got worse
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: trying to get better. And I never got comfortable, so
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: it was kind of a battle not playing all the
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: time and then really trying to like grind out at bats.
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: I thought I did my job catching, but I just
• 1:27
  Speaker 3: wasn't being productive on the offensive side, wasn't getting on base,
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: I was swinging a lot of balls, so kind of
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: just went down to triple A. And yeah, getting deffaide
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: really really hurt. I love those guys with the rays.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: But at the end of the day, it was good
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: for me. I got that bats I needed, got to
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: work on some swing stuff without a lot of kind
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: of the pressure of trying to really win each game.
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: And I wasn't really thinking about where I could have
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: gone or whatever. I was just trying to get better
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: each day, honestly, So just trying to like let the
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: things shake out as they would.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: Does it keep you from making another swing change again,
• 2:06
  Speaker 4: because sometimes this is what you have to learn. I mean,
• 2:08
  Speaker 4: you're still only twenty seven, right, Yeah.
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: I turned twenty eight in a couple of days here,
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: so I'll roll with twenty seven for a little bit,
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: but it doesn't keep me from it. I just think
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: I just really need to be convicted. Convicted, and what
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: I'm doing kind of got back to what I was
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: doing last year, and I think I'm in a decent
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: I'm in a spot where I can compete, and that's
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: where I want to do. I mean, I'm not going
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: to go out and bang all these homewors back and forth.
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: I want to compete. I want to roll the lineup over.
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: I want to get on base. I want to be
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: a hard out. So I think I'm back to doing that.
• 2:39
  Speaker 4: Now.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: What was your reaction when you heard about the news
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: that Will Smith was going to miss significant time.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's never like I couldn't really get excited. I
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: was grateful for the opportunity. But Will, you can't replace
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: what Will does on this team. I've said the multiple times.
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: Will is the anchor to the staff. He's the anchor
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: to this lineup. He means so much of the Guyston
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: clubhouse day and day out. He's the He's the heartbeat
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: of this clubhouse and a really quiet, confident presence. So
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: I mean it's it's a huge blow for the team,
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: but I mean I'm just trying to kind of bridge
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: the gap and do the best I can doing my
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: job here.
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: So everybody says you can't trade a catcher at the
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: trade deadline because they can't step in, learn a new staff,
• 3:33
  Speaker 4: all that stuff. I've done it, I've lived it. I
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: understand what you have to go through. But I also
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: never joined a team that had a Yamamoto a glass
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: now a Blake Snell to just start it out. How
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: much when you got there did you have to get
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: to know those guys, get to know what they had.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: Did you listen to the organization? Did you say, you
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: know what, I'm actually going to go out and catch
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: a bunch of no hit innings, so I'll take care
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: of this. How much was that like hit the ground
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: running and you got to figure it out on your own.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: It was running, It was really running. There's no better
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: kind of experience than being kind of getting the experience
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: and in the games. So I think I think the
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: first like twelve days, I caught eleven of the games,
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: either off the bench or starting, So I definitely got
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: first in experience. And then you being traded, you know,
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: like you got to do your hit, You got to
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: do your research. I mean, I'm going with the guys
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: trying to talk, get a feel for what they even have.
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: I'm on my iPad looking at their pitch plops. I'm
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: looking at their percentages. I'm just trying to get a
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: feel of what the ball even does out of their hand.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: So my first couple of days, I'm just trying to
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: catch as many bullpens as possible. I definitely missed a
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: couple of hitters meetings just catching bullpens for the bullpen guys,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: catching the starters, and then ended up catching a lot
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: of the starters in the first couple weeks. Definitely had
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: to hit here and there, but it's going to happen,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: and then just trying to learn from those and just
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: really talk to the guys that get a feel for them.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: And trust doesn't Trust is definitely not built quickly. It's
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: still probably honestly isn't there with all the guys. But
• 5:16
  Speaker 3: just showing up doing the most you can, showing that
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: you care and really doing your background for them, it goes.
• 5:22
  Speaker 3: It goes a long way.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: What's it like to catch some of these pictures.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I know the Dodgers have dealt with injuries,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: and hey, I mean the whole league's dealing with it,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: and the talent within, you know, the rotation especially is insane.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: There's essentially at least four, if not five, number one
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: starters in there.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: So what's it like to catch that group?
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I don't. I don't take it for granted. It's
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: it's can't miss stuff. I mean, the last thing I
• 5:52
  Speaker 3: want to do is devate from these guys's strengths in
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: the mound. Their stuff is too good to shy away
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: from being in the zone and looking at hitters weaknesses,
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: just doing the best I can to give them the
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: opportunity to just fill it up and use their stuff
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: to their to their potential. I mean, every day we
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: really have a chance to throw up five, six, seven
• 6:12
  Speaker 3: quality innings. So it's been a lot of a lot
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: of fun that, honestly, I really haven't reflected too much about.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: It's it's been really fast, and it's it's awesome and
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: more than anything, I mean, they're they're all superstars, but
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: they're they're awesome humans. So I mean, really, I'm really
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: grateful to be in the pigeon I am right now.
• 6:31
  Speaker 5: Ben, you went from the Rays in Tampa to the
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: Mega Rays in LA. What's what's the major difference? Are
• 6:37
  Speaker 5: they run the same or they handled the same, Because,
• 6:39
  Speaker 5: as I've said for years, the Dodgers of the Rays
• 6:41
  Speaker 5: on Superpowers, right, because they kind of a lot of
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: the same stuff. But is there a difference? Are they similar?
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: Uh? Yeah, there's some similarities here and there. I mean,
• 6:51
  Speaker 3: I think the biggest similarity, I mean, Glassnow's here, so
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: glass now has just pure stuff and he's trying to
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: fill it up. But here and there there's people with
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: a lot of pitch ability. Snell can move it around.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: Yamamoto is like a video game. But I mean, yeah,
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: everyone has really plus stuff raised like throwing their good
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: stuff from the zone. And I think anywhere, especially here,
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: if you have good stuff, I mean, you do not
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: want to shy away from it, and you want to
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: you want to fill this stuff out. So yeah, there's
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: some similarities. I mean there's some things that they do differently,
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: but I won't get too much into that.
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: All right, Is there anything that you brought from any
• 7:23
  Speaker 4: of your previous stops? Minnesota? Not so much, But Aja
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: asked about the Rays and the Dodgers. You're also on
• 7:31
  Speaker 4: the Yankees, like the the proprietary information that they have.
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: Have you been able to go come to the Dodgers
• 7:40
  Speaker 4: and go hey when we when I was here, this
• 7:43
  Speaker 4: was something obviously you don't need to get in specifics
• 7:46
  Speaker 4: because they think it's all tricks and treats between the two.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: Is there something that they were like, oh for real, Okay.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: I wouldn't say anything in particular, but myself just kind
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: of be with a couple of different organizations. I've just
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: started to learn more about myself as in kind of like, wow,
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: I was really bad here, Let's let's be proactive about this.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: I felt good here, I was doing this, or our
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: staff was really rolling in this way. This lineup usually
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: kind of trends in this direction as overall. One through nine,
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: we played Baltimore, so it's kind of I played in
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: that division for a while going up against those guys,
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: So yeah, mo motives start for me. The first one
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I caught when he threw went really really late in
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: that game. I felt pretty comfortable against that lineup in
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: that ballpark. And then a lot of stuff, like you say, raise,
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: a lot of stuff that they simplified there is definitely
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: applicable to like any rotation or staff kind of in
• 8:44
  Speaker 3: a pinch, Yankees, I learned a lot about myself kind
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: of playing in a bigger space like that and how
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: to try and handle it and play with kind of
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: bigger guys. So I'm just trying not to do too
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: much in that kind of role piece. So I feel
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: like I've kind of took bits and pieces from every
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: place and trying to like apply to my game.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Or situationally ftfam Superpower believes that every human has one
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: hundred year potential and they're going to help you get there.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: I like the sweatshirt, Aer Kratz, and I also love
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: the way that Superpower takes care of its members.
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you go get your lab test. You become the
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: best you you be a member of this group, and
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: your test will come back. It's unlocking things that you
• 9:31
  Speaker 4: didn't know about yourself. This is stuff that players used
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: all the time. You can do it.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Now too, Exactly Kratz, how many of you have gone
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: to a doctor's appointment You get the classic oh you're fine,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: or just drink more water, No real data, no real
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: game plan. With one simple blood draw with superpower and
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: over one hundred biomarkers, that is way more than what
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: you'd usually get, and it unlocks so much more about
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: your own body. Head to Superpowered dot com to learn
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: more and lock in the special one hundred ninety nine
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: dollars price. While it lasts after you SA, they'll ask
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: you how you heard about them. Please make sure to
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: mention the FT podcast to support the show. Your Biology Decoded,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: Your Blueprint Activated with Superpower. Been a little sarcasm here,
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: But the Dodgers were supposed to win one hundred and
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: eighty games in the regular season and right now they're
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: at eighty eight. They're going to be in the playoffs.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: They should win the division. Are you surprised that the
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: record isn't even better given the talent that you're playing around?
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: And do you think that the way they prepare for
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: the postseason has anything to do with the record maybe
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: not being insanely good?
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: No, I'm not going to get into it too much.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: I mean, you guys know I haven't been here long.
• 10:39
  Speaker 3: What I see is it's been a long season of
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: injuries for a lot of the guys, so that definitely
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: plays into it. But I mean, everyone wants to get
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: hot at the right time, and I think we're doing that,
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: and I'm just looking for the postseason.
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: Who's the one guy. Who's the one guy when you
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: came over that you've been more impressed with than anybody else.
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: Not just pictures. Obviously, Dodgers have this mystique. You play
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: with Judge. Judge has this mystique. Was there somebody when
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: you were coming over and you got called up? You
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: were like, I didn't think he was quite like that,
• 11:09
  Speaker 4: And now I see him, You're like, whoa, he is
• 11:11
  Speaker 4: the real deal or way different than what you had thought.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: I can't I can't pinpoint one guy. I mean every
• 11:20
  Speaker 3: guy kind of sit back and we'll just watch in
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: the cage, and everyone just is so strict to their
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: routine that it's really really impressive. From the pitching staff,
• 11:30
  Speaker 3: everyone's really on it. Kershaw is day and day out
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: going through it. It's really impressive. Yamamoto is in the
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: weight room all day and kind of has his routine
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: that's been really impressive. Glass snow gets after it, Snell
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: gets after it in the cage. Mookie is really fun
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: to watch. Freddy really has his routine down. I don't
• 11:49
  Speaker 3: see show Hay much just because he's always either throwing
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: or he's hitting before the game. So that's one person
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: that that obviously is it's show Hey. But I want
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: to do more of sitting back and really watching him work.
• 12:04
  Speaker 3: I think he is hitting before the game, so I'm
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: I don't I'm not really in the cage at the
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: same time, But I mean a lot. There is a
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: lot of good stuff that happens in and out of
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: the clubhouse that I really try and just take note
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: of throughout the day.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Hey, what advice do you have for rookie catcher Dalton
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Rushing who enters the scene here and also has to,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: you know, suddenly do a lot.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: Yeah. I've been talking to Rush the past week with
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: kind of the will stuff coming on, and it's just
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: I've never been in the postseason. This is Rushing's first year.
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: Kind of just that is all hands on deck. I mean,
• 12:44
  Speaker 3: there's no excuse to the postseason. There's no distractions, and
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: that you know, this is this is probably gonna bet
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: us anchor and the staff for the for the first
• 12:51
  Speaker 3: part for sure, and that we got to do our
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: best to anchor this staff. All emotions from the hitting
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: and all that goes out the window. We got to
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: do our best to channel everything towards the pitching staff.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Obviously we're gonna be in the box and compete in
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: our ass off, but we gotta we got to do
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: our best to keep the rotation hot and be on
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: the same page as the bullpen, so no distractions and yeah,
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: just that kind of stuff.
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: Explain that Kershall moment to us from the field. We
• 13:23
  Speaker 4: saw it on TV the crowd, you know, the ovation.
• 13:28
  Speaker 4: You haven't been there all million years that he's been there.
• 13:31
  Speaker 4: But explain what that was like in the dugout leading
• 13:34
  Speaker 4: up to that game and all that stuff that we
• 13:37
  Speaker 4: that we don't see on camera.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think it really kind of started
• 13:42
  Speaker 3: on his interview. All of us were in the room
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: and you could really see the emotion coming out, and
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: when he started talking about his family and like what
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: the team meant to him, you could really kind of
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: start to like relate things in your own life of
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: like important people, important times in your life, and just
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: kind of like you say, eighteen years and it's it's
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: a long time, but you start relating eighteen years to
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: kind of what happens in eighteen years. I kind of
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: viewed eighteen years as like, man, that's like being born
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: in my hometown, going to middle school, high school, and
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: then like graduating, getting drafted, So like that's that whole
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: phase in my life that all this important stuff has happened.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: And that whole phase he's kind of gone through at
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: Dodger Stadium, being in Dodger like raising a family. That
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: really hit home for me. I haven't been here a
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: long time, but I think everybody can relate to like
• 14:31
  Speaker 3: how much like family important people mean their lives. And
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: like I said, like I kind of related to eighteen
• 14:37
  Speaker 3: years to like, holy crap, like that's all this time
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: that I spent like growing up as a child and
• 14:43
  Speaker 3: becoming who I am before I kind of like left home.
• 14:45
  Speaker 3: So I was like, Wow, that's that's a lot. And
• 14:47
  Speaker 3: on the field, like you guys saw it, it was
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: really cool. The stadium was filled that day and he
• 14:52
  Speaker 3: kind of gave it back to the fans. I mean,
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: they kind of got a taste of kind of what
• 14:56
  Speaker 3: he was feeling, and it was really really cool to
• 14:58
  Speaker 3: see everyone come out and applaud him for all the
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: years here. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't really have much
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: words for it. It was really cool to see in person.
• 15:06
  Speaker 5: Ben, you mentioned you haven't been in the postseason yet.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: Have you started talking to people about what it's like
• 15:11
  Speaker 5: to be in the postseason. Have you talked to the
• 15:13
  Speaker 5: veteran guys Freddie and Mookie and some of these guys
• 15:16
  Speaker 5: that have been in the postseason for years and years
• 15:19
  Speaker 5: and know everything kind of been through all the wars
• 15:21
  Speaker 5: and all the battles. Do you sit down and talk
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: to them a little bit before you guys played that
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: first game, or you're just gonna you and you and
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: Rushing just gonna sit down and live it together for
• 15:30
  Speaker 5: the first time.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Honestly, I really haven't thought about asking guys yet. I've
• 15:37
  Speaker 3: been pretty focused. I'm kind of like winning each day.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: We're trying to clinch the division here, so I really
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: haven't gotten past that. And it's so it's definitely something
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: I'm going to talk to the older guys and kind
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: of expectations and what going into that, how to kind
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: of navigate through some of the emotions that go through it.
• 15:57
  Speaker 3: But I was around a little bit when the Yankees
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: were in the postseason, so I got a little taste
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: of kind of like over there. I also talk to
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: a lot of the guys I go through there, so
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: I know kind of emotionally kind of the locals go
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: through and just how much you want to stay focused
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: and keep it all on the field and off the field,
• 16:20
  Speaker 3: how you can get distracted and how how everything plays
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: into it. But I think it's definitely something. When we
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: get a couple more days in that I'll be sitting
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: down and trying to get a better feel for everything.
• 16:33
  Speaker 2: Hey, Ben, last one for you.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: So today the rules Committee is meeting to discuss the
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: ABS challenge system. It's definitely going to get approved. Maybe
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: we'll break the news during the show. Your thoughts on
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: what to expect with that next year.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: It's different, it's different. It kind of takes no it
• 16:53
  Speaker 3: takes complaints out of it from each side. It's definitely
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: gonna be a big change. I know from my position.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: We'll see how it goes and how they're valued catchers
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: here and there. I liked it hitting catching. It can
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: be frustrating because you want to get rewarded for pitch
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: locations and all this stuff that kind of plays into
• 17:15
  Speaker 3: it throughout the history of the game. But yeah, we'll
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: see how it rolls out. I bet people are gonna
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: be unhappy to meet people that are gonna be happy.
• 17:22
  Speaker 3: I think it's just all situational. When a when a
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: big call kind of comes down to ABS, it can
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: be frustrating, but it can also be fun here and
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: they're kind of getting some some feedback and on umpires,
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: So I'm not sure what to expect. I had it
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: in triple A, and it can it can drag on,
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: but it's also it's way, it's the actual zone.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: So you had in triple A. Did you have the
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: challenge or you had every pitch?
• 17:52
  Speaker 3: We had the challenge, which I think is better than
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: every pitch. So, like you, you're doing your best for
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: the margins as a catcher, and you can challenge catching,
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: you can challenge hitting. I've looked stupid challenging catching, and
• 18:04
  Speaker 3: I've looked stupid challenging hitting. So there's definitely some things
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: that go into it. You want to save your challenges
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: and be smart about them for big situations. But yeah,
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: it's it's it'll be a really big change and we'll
• 18:15
  Speaker 3: see how it all plays out.
• 18:18
  Speaker 4: Is that is this gonna take away some of your
• 18:20
  Speaker 4: value as a great receiver or is there still like
• 18:23
  Speaker 4: some good value on the edges because you don't just
• 18:26
  Speaker 4: have unlimited challenges.
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: I think it'll take away some value, but at the
• 18:31
  Speaker 3: same time, it'll definitely make the margins a lot valued
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: a lot more. I think blocking will be definitely valued more.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: I think throwing will be valued more game calling, but
• 18:44
  Speaker 3: the big chunk of kind of staying a lot of
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: strikes probably will decrease a little bit. But it's the
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: margins that come into play with the abs and on
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: the edges. So and also probably just understanding the strikes
• 18:56
  Speaker 3: down as a hitter and what to challenge, what not
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: to challenge. It changed a lot with the height of batters,
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: so that's one thing that's difficult. The zone can change
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: with the size of the hitter, so it's definitely going
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: to be you understanding the strikes and as a whole.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Great breakdown of it. Yeah, I'm excited from a fan perspective,
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: just to you know, ad a bad call.
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: Hey, ight, for fans, it's got to be fun and
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: you see it on the big scoreboard, it can be
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: kind of funny.
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, exactly, bring an entertainment component to our game.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: I'm into it.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: Ben, great, thank you for joining us. Great combo and
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: good luck man. We'll be watching awesome thing you guys.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: I appreciate it.