Latest / Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast / Matthew Liberatore has a new pitch, leading the Cardinals rotation, Opening Day mindset, Nolan Gorman

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Matthew Liberatore has a new pitch, leading the Cardinals rotation, Opening Day mindset, Nolan Gorman · Cardinal Territory: A St. Louis Cardinals Podcast

0:06
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Cardinal Territory.
0:11
Speaker 1: Jim Hayes, alongside Lance Lynn, Matt Holliday, Kyle Gibson had
0:15
Speaker 1: other business to attend to, but with us today Cardinal
0:19
Speaker 1: starting pitcher Matthew Libertore and I think it's a real treat.
0:23
Speaker 1: Hello Matthew. How are you?
0:25
Speaker 2: I'm doing well?
0:26
Speaker 3: Thank you guys for having me on. Hey you can
0:28
Speaker 3: say Happy New Year. You haven't talked to him till today,
0:31
Speaker 3: so that's fine.
0:31
Speaker 4: Yeah, Happy New Year, Happy New Year. All right.
0:35
Speaker 1: So, yeah, it was great last year eight and twelve
0:39
Speaker 1: as a starter four point twenty one era. Your first
0:42
Speaker 1: full year as a starter, you had twenty nine starts.
0:46
Speaker 1: There were some ups and downs, this happens every season.
0:49
Speaker 1: A little issue with VLO that you said wasn't necessarily physical,
0:52
Speaker 1: it was mechanical. So my first question, and I think
0:55
Speaker 1: Lance would back this up that it's.
0:57
Speaker 4: A brilliant one.
0:58
Speaker 1: What is your takeaway from your first full season starting games?
1:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, last year did a lot of learning, probably more
1:08
Speaker 2: than I ever had in my career before. I think
1:12
Speaker 2: one of the biggest things from me was adding on
1:14
Speaker 2: a few extra pounds just to give myself some more durability,
1:18
Speaker 2: you know, coming out of that relief roll in twenty
1:20
Speaker 2: four having thrown like eighty six eighty seven innings and
1:23
Speaker 2: then jumping all the way up to one hundred and
1:25
Speaker 2: fifty two the following year, I just felt like I
1:28
Speaker 2: wanted to add a little more durability to my body,
1:33
Speaker 2: and so I've done that this offseason, and then just
1:36
Speaker 2: making sure that my mechanics are dialed in.
1:37
Speaker 5: And know.
1:39
Speaker 2: What kind of things I can do to get myself
1:42
Speaker 2: back into a good spot if I were to fall
1:44
Speaker 2: out of sink again, because I don't. I think it
1:46
Speaker 2: would be foolish to think that that will never happen again,
1:49
Speaker 2: or that will never feel that way again. So really
1:52
Speaker 2: just creating some systems and some strategies to help me
1:55
Speaker 2: better deal with it the next time I face it.
1:58
Speaker 4: We've talked about this earlier this year.
2:00
Speaker 3: Everyone talks about, Hey, what you saw from Libby's first
2:04
Speaker 3: year starting compared to this, and that people don't understand,
2:07
Speaker 3: like you can start all through the minor leagues. What
2:10
Speaker 3: was the difference from like hey, in the minor leagues
2:12
Speaker 3: to the big league day in and day out rotation
2:16
Speaker 3: compared to like that physical grind, mental grind. You can
2:19
Speaker 3: do all the what your probably most starts you ever
2:21
Speaker 3: had in the minor leagues was twenty five to twenty
2:23
Speaker 3: seven in a season. But it's still different. Even though
2:28
Speaker 3: you know you're only gonna have thirty to thirty three
2:30
Speaker 3: if you do a full year, it's still a different
2:32
Speaker 3: type of grind. Can you explain a little bit of
2:34
Speaker 3: the things that you learn that you can make it
2:37
Speaker 3: even better in year two of fully doing it?
2:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think the best way I could
2:42
Speaker 2: describe the difference is, you know, I got to start
2:45
Speaker 2: the future game when I was in the minor leagues,
2:48
Speaker 2: and I feel like every start in the big leagues
2:51
Speaker 2: was similar to that feeling up that start, which is
2:54
Speaker 2: one start that whole year as a triple A player,
2:58
Speaker 2: And so you know, there's four thousand fans in the
3:01
Speaker 2: stadium every night, You're playing meaningful games every night against
3:05
Speaker 2: the absolute best competition in the entire world. So the
3:08
Speaker 2: stakes are definitely heightened, the expectations are heightened, and uh,
3:12
Speaker 2: it's a lot more stressful on the body and on
3:14
Speaker 2: the mind than throwing them minor league games, for sure. Uh.
3:18
Speaker 2: You know, I think I've put a lot of time
3:20
Speaker 2: and effort into the mental side of the game this
3:22
Speaker 2: aw season. Uh. You know, I have a mental skills
3:24
Speaker 2: coach that I work with. We're extremely organized. Uh, trying
3:29
Speaker 2: to do as much visualization as possible. Really, just trying
3:33
Speaker 2: to put myself mentally in those positions before I ever
3:36
Speaker 2: have to be in them, so that when I when
3:38
Speaker 2: I do face those circumstances. Uh, you know, it doesn't
3:41
Speaker 2: feel like it's the first time when it's taken me
3:43
Speaker 2: by surprise. You know, I want to step on that
3:46
Speaker 2: ound the first game of the year and feel like
3:48
Speaker 2: it's the thousands. It's the thousandth time that I'm there
3:51
Speaker 2: in that game already. So there've been a big emphasis
3:54
Speaker 2: on the mental side of things as well as the
3:56
Speaker 2: physical and mechanical side of things.
3:58
Speaker 1: Also some changes for the Cardinals starting rotation. Sonny Gray
4:03
Speaker 1: traded away that bringing dustin May now you're a guy
4:07
Speaker 1: though with the years you've been at it, you were
4:09
Speaker 1: in the bullpen before you became a starter. Uh, is
4:13
Speaker 1: there more of a leadership role for you?
4:15
Speaker 4: Do you think?
4:15
Speaker 1: I know, you guys got great coaches. You know, Dusty
4:19
Speaker 1: is a great pitching coach, But does that kind of
4:22
Speaker 1: kind of add to what's put on your plate to
4:25
Speaker 1: be sort of a leader, because probably gonna be. And
4:27
Speaker 1: there's other veterans in the mix too, but there's gonna
4:29
Speaker 1: be some young guys in there.
4:32
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely gonna be the youngest clubhouse I've ever
4:35
Speaker 2: been a part of. You know, we don't have anybody
4:38
Speaker 2: like lyonce who has been around and done this for
4:41
Speaker 2: a very long time, has so much knowledge and wisdom
4:44
Speaker 2: and you know, has really just seen all the different
4:47
Speaker 2: sides of this game.
4:49
Speaker 4: You know.
4:49
Speaker 2: Fortunately for me in my short career so far, I
4:52
Speaker 2: feel like I've I've had a lot of experience with
4:55
Speaker 2: different things, and I've gone through a lot of different
4:57
Speaker 2: things which I think can provide some value for or
5:00
Speaker 2: some guys that might go through something similar. So, you know,
5:04
Speaker 2: if I'm able to help in any way, I'd obviously
5:07
Speaker 2: love to step into that role. I'm by no means
5:10
Speaker 2: am I going to call myself a bit or say that,
5:12
Speaker 2: you know, I should be the leader of the clubhouse. Yeah.
5:15
Speaker 2: I want everybody as a group to be better than
5:18
Speaker 2: they were yesterday, and so if there's a role that
5:20
Speaker 2: I can step into that helps facilitate that somewhat, you know,
5:24
Speaker 2: I'm all for it.
5:28
Speaker 4: No, that's awesome.
5:28
Speaker 3: I mean you're looking at well, Jim as you know,
5:31
Speaker 3: you're looking at a spot where you've got dm A
5:33
Speaker 3: coming in who's obviously known as being a great guy.
5:36
Speaker 3: You got a good group of young guys that you've
5:38
Speaker 3: come up with or that you've been able to be
5:40
Speaker 3: a part of them coming up to the big leagues
5:42
Speaker 3: with what are you looking forward to as being a
5:45
Speaker 3: part of a deep staff this year but also a
5:47
Speaker 3: staff that's all trying to truly establish themselves of every
5:51
Speaker 3: day the ability to make starts every five days and
5:56
Speaker 3: being part of that. Have you talked to Dusty a
5:58
Speaker 3: little bit about, Hey, this is what I experienced last year,
6:01
Speaker 3: this is what I'm going to you know, hoping to
6:03
Speaker 3: improve on this year, and then how that can help
6:06
Speaker 3: the guys around you, whether it's McGreevy or whether it's
6:08
Speaker 3: Leahy going to transfer, you know, maybe in to get
6:11
Speaker 3: some starts this year. So you're kind of a guy
6:14
Speaker 3: who's done it all so far in a short period
6:16
Speaker 3: of time. You got the short end of the stick
6:19
Speaker 3: at times too, kind of like Layy did. So I
6:22
Speaker 3: think there's a you know, and it even Polante's dealt
6:25
Speaker 3: with some of the same things you've dealt with too,
6:27
Speaker 3: So you guys have a I guess McGreevy has too,
6:30
Speaker 3: if you start looking at the way everybody's been bounced
6:32
Speaker 3: around and done stuff. So you guys got a group
6:35
Speaker 3: of people that want to prove that you belong in
6:38
Speaker 3: rotations and that everyone knows you.
6:40
Speaker 4: Guys have that ability.
6:41
Speaker 3: How are you guys going to kind of bond together
6:43
Speaker 3: here to make sure everybody is porn in the same direction. So, hey,
6:47
Speaker 3: we belong here and we can we can help carrying
6:49
Speaker 3: his staff as this group.
6:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I think we've got
6:54
Speaker 2: a bunch of guys that do believe in themselves and
6:57
Speaker 2: do believe that they are bigly starting the church, which
6:59
Speaker 2: I think is a great place to start from. I
7:02
Speaker 2: think having a group of relatively younger guys, you know, Dustine,
7:06
Speaker 2: maybe maybe a year or two older than some of us,
7:08
Speaker 2: but having a group of relatively younger guys, I think
7:11
Speaker 2: it's gonna be good because they bring a certain hunger,
7:15
Speaker 2: you know. Besides Dustin, I wouldn't say that anybody in
7:18
Speaker 2: our our rotation has been doing this for a very
7:22
Speaker 2: long time and so you have a lot of guys
7:24
Speaker 2: that are really looking to establish themselves and make a
7:27
Speaker 2: name for themselves and really define what their role is
7:29
Speaker 2: in that rotation, including myself. Uh. And I think that
7:33
Speaker 2: that can be a really fun place to work from
7:36
Speaker 2: and grow from because there's competition amongst us, and not
7:40
Speaker 2: that we're competing against each other, but you know, we're
7:44
Speaker 2: all pushing each other to be the best version of
7:46
Speaker 2: ourselves possible. And I think that that's a really good
7:49
Speaker 2: breeding ground for growth and development.
7:52
Speaker 1: I think we brought this up last week on the
7:54
Speaker 1: show Lance. I'm pretty sure on the last show we did.
7:57
Speaker 1: But opening day starter, I think it means a lot
8:00
Speaker 1: to fans. I don't know if it means a lot
8:03
Speaker 1: to younger pictures. But your name was drawn out maybe
8:06
Speaker 1: May does.
8:07
Speaker 4: It means a lot of every starting picture Jim?
8:09
Speaker 1: So does it matter to you, if be honest with us,
8:12
Speaker 1: do you want to be the Cardinals opening day Starter?
8:15
Speaker 1: I think that's a fair question.
8:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not gonna lie on it and make something
8:20
Speaker 2: I've thought about since the season ended. You know, whether
8:23
Speaker 2: that that honor is given to me or not is
8:27
Speaker 2: not one hundred percent in my control. But I'd be
8:30
Speaker 2: lying if I'm sad if I said that I'm not
8:32
Speaker 2: doing everything in my power to force their hand on that.
8:36
Speaker 4: Yeah, and Jim, you don't want you don't want any
8:38
Speaker 4: other answer to be said than that right there.
8:41
Speaker 3: That tells you what kind of competitor Libby is, but
8:44
Speaker 3: also what he believes his abilities are. He believes that
8:47
Speaker 3: he's an ace and he has a stuff and we've saw,
8:50
Speaker 3: as he said, we saw times of that last year
8:52
Speaker 3: when he was able to do it. But that's the
8:54
Speaker 3: growing process, is how can we sustain it for thirty
8:58
Speaker 3: plus starts throughout a year and he's doing the things
9:00
Speaker 3: that he needs to do mentally, My question would be
9:02
Speaker 3: going forward physically, when you're talking about pitch usage and stuff,
9:06
Speaker 3: is that Is there anything that was glaring that you
9:09
Speaker 3: and the industry and the pitching staff coaches have talked
9:12
Speaker 3: about this offseason that might be able to make maybe
9:14
Speaker 3: things uptick. Maybe a righty or a lefty maybe help
9:17
Speaker 3: you get through games a little easier. Is there anything
9:20
Speaker 3: that's kind of stuck out that might be a thing
9:22
Speaker 3: going into spring training?
9:24
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean, I know my slaughter is going to
9:26
Speaker 2: be my best wipeout pitch against right handed hitters. And
9:29
Speaker 2: I'll try and get into this without giving away too
9:31
Speaker 2: many secrets in case any competition is watching.
9:34
Speaker 4: But good idea. I like that.
9:36
Speaker 2: I that a little on the second half. It turned
9:39
Speaker 2: into a kind of a blended cutter for me, and
9:42
Speaker 2: I lost a lot of swing and miss because of that.
9:45
Speaker 2: So really making sure that I'm homed in on that
9:48
Speaker 2: shape and what that feels like coming out of my
9:50
Speaker 2: hand to start the year, I think is going to
9:52
Speaker 2: be very beneficial for me. And then there is a
9:56
Speaker 2: potential extra pitch in the works now that I think
10:01
Speaker 2: could help me quite a bit against right handed hitters.
10:05
Speaker 2: I'll break it out in spring this year, but Ivan
10:06
Speaker 2: Thurning both pends this offseason so far, and I think
10:10
Speaker 2: that it could it could really be a weapon for me.
10:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, don't give a scouting report on that, but that's
10:15
Speaker 1: good news that you've expanded the repertoire. We're going to
10:18
Speaker 1: take a break right here. You're watching Cardinal Territory on
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11:26
Speaker 1: Jim Hayes, Lance Lynn. Our guest today is Matthew Libertor.
11:29
Speaker 1: We appreciate him coming on. This is Cardinal territory. So Matthew,
11:35
Speaker 1: you're honest about you want to start opening day. You're
11:39
Speaker 1: honest at you've added a pitch, but you're not going
11:42
Speaker 1: to tell us what it is. We appreciate that. My
11:45
Speaker 1: question is, do you set goals for yourself? Number goals,
11:50
Speaker 1: and if they are could you share them with us?
11:54
Speaker 2: Dude, I think the way I look at goal setting
11:58
Speaker 2: is maybe a little different how other people do. I
12:01
Speaker 2: wouldn't say that I choose numbers to look at by
12:04
Speaker 2: the end of the season. I think that can be
12:07
Speaker 2: somewhat missing At times. I try and judge my outings
12:12
Speaker 2: based off of what we call on execution journal, And
12:15
Speaker 2: so you know, every pitch, the only thing that you
12:18
Speaker 2: have the ability to control is deciding what to throw
12:21
Speaker 2: in your commitment to throwing it, and then your ability
12:23
Speaker 2: to execute on that commitment. And so I'll go back
12:27
Speaker 2: through every outing after and do this journal where I
12:31
Speaker 2: watch each pitch and I think about what I wanted
12:34
Speaker 2: to do with that pitch, where I wanted to throw it,
12:36
Speaker 2: what the plan was, and did I execute or did
12:38
Speaker 2: I not? And so you know, if I can maintain
12:42
Speaker 2: above a seventy percent execution rate outing after outing, I'm
12:46
Speaker 2: usually in a pretty good spot. And we will track
12:49
Speaker 2: and one on one counts two I started tracking two
12:52
Speaker 2: strike kill counts a little bit last year, but that's
12:56
Speaker 2: how i'd judge it. And so I'd say, I have
12:58
Speaker 2: a threashold that I would like to stay abolved throughout
13:01
Speaker 2: the course of the season, and I think that if
13:04
Speaker 2: I do that, the numbers will take care of themselves.
13:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, now that's a good way to do it. Back
13:12
Speaker 3: when I was coming up, Jim, you're asking him, is
13:14
Speaker 3: it what's your numbers? I want to make thirty three starts,
13:17
Speaker 3: I want to throw two hundred innings, and I want
13:18
Speaker 3: to win fifteen games. Right, those were kind of the
13:22
Speaker 3: ideas of the old days when you came up. But
13:25
Speaker 3: the way your process oriented, which I don't think fans
13:28
Speaker 3: understand some of it, some of them do, like old fans.
13:31
Speaker 3: If you do what you're talking about right now, you're
13:33
Speaker 3: going to look up at the end of the year,
13:35
Speaker 3: you're going to be above five hundred pitcher with ten
13:38
Speaker 3: plus wins, with you know, your one hundred and eighty
13:40
Speaker 3: plus innings and your thirty plus starts. Because it's processed
13:44
Speaker 3: day to day. You're a very process oriented person. Is
13:48
Speaker 3: there anything that you've done to kind of I see
13:51
Speaker 3: that you've you've added some things, right, You've added a
13:54
Speaker 3: layer of it post start and all that too, which
13:56
Speaker 3: is great for you because I feel like sometimes you
13:59
Speaker 3: were a throat, you would go throw through things instead
14:02
Speaker 3: of maybe using these abilities to think through things so
14:05
Speaker 3: you don't have to throw as much to feel it.
14:07
Speaker 3: I think you've gotten to the point now I'm hoping
14:10
Speaker 3: or while we're talking, right, it's like, Okay, I know
14:12
Speaker 3: what I struggled with my last start. Does that make
14:15
Speaker 3: sense because I went through my postgame, my check my
14:19
Speaker 3: checklist or whatever. Now is it, Hey, I can go
14:22
Speaker 3: concentrate on these strows and I don't have to overthrow
14:25
Speaker 3: to get to where I need to do. So hopefully
14:27
Speaker 3: as the season goes on this year, it goes into, hey,
14:30
Speaker 3: we don't have the dip, right, that's the big thing.
14:33
Speaker 3: We don't want to worry about the dip, so we
14:34
Speaker 3: can kind of slowly here and then we just keep
14:37
Speaker 3: kind of slowly going up. Is that your hope that
14:39
Speaker 3: going into this season with those processes that you've developed
14:42
Speaker 3: over the last year.
14:44
Speaker 4: Yeah? Absolutely.
14:44
Speaker 2: I mean that in essence is the ultimate goal. You know,
14:49
Speaker 2: I've always been a very hard worker, and I've always
14:52
Speaker 2: been a big thinker, and I've always been process oriented,
14:56
Speaker 2: but I've never been as organized as I am now,
14:58
Speaker 2: So I think a lot of times when things didn't
15:00
Speaker 2: go my way, I always thought that I could outwork
15:02
Speaker 2: those problems. And while that might work in high school
15:06
Speaker 2: and you're on a seven day routine or in the
15:08
Speaker 2: minor leagues when you're pitching once maybe twice a week,
15:11
Speaker 2: you can get away with a lot of that stuff.
15:13
Speaker 2: But as we talked about earlier, there's a different stress
15:16
Speaker 2: making them start every five or six days in the
15:17
Speaker 2: big leagues in front of forty thousand fans against the
15:20
Speaker 2: best hitters on the planet. So you know, the goal
15:24
Speaker 2: of all my organization and the filters that I put
15:27
Speaker 2: myself through after these outings is to help me narrow
15:30
Speaker 2: down and really focus in on the things that do
15:33
Speaker 2: need to be worked on, so that I'm not spinning
15:35
Speaker 2: my tires working on things that I'm already doing a
15:38
Speaker 2: really good job at and now I'm putting myself behind
15:41
Speaker 2: the eight ball because I have to play catch up,
15:42
Speaker 2: if that makes sense.
15:44
Speaker 1: So, Libby, I want to thank you not only for
15:46
Speaker 1: coming on but also showing us a different side of
15:50
Speaker 1: Lance Linn. Now, I've known Lance for a long time,
15:53
Speaker 1: his approach in terms of media, Gruff on this show
15:59
Speaker 1: kind of kind of a wise guy, right, But with you,
16:03
Speaker 1: I this is coach Lance linn Like, it's a different
16:06
Speaker 1: softer Lance lin. So my question is what was Lance
16:10
Speaker 1: like in the clubhouse working with the younger guys, because this,
16:14
Speaker 1: for me is a real eye opener.
16:17
Speaker 4: Yeah.
16:17
Speaker 2: I think what you're seeing is what what you got
16:19
Speaker 2: in the clubhouse. You know, I don't want to give
16:23
Speaker 2: too much way, but I think that you know, Lance
16:25
Speaker 2: is a big teddy bear and when he pitches, he's
16:27
Speaker 2: the most intimidating dude on the planet. I would never
16:29
Speaker 2: step in front of him. But Lance one of my
16:33
Speaker 2: favorite people to go talk to. Him and Kyle Gibson.
16:35
Speaker 2: I think we're both tremendous human beings and always wanting
16:39
Speaker 2: to talk and give advice and talk about their experiences
16:42
Speaker 2: and share what they know in an effort to try
16:44
Speaker 2: and help us. And you know, I called Lance before
16:46
Speaker 2: the start of the season last year when I got
16:48
Speaker 2: put into the rotation. You know, I hadn't really done
16:51
Speaker 2: much scouting work in my career before, and when I did,
16:54
Speaker 2: it did not work very well for me. So we
16:56
Speaker 2: spent like an hour and a half on the phone
16:58
Speaker 2: before my first started the season, Latch, You're just figuring
17:01
Speaker 2: out how I can look at hitters and how I
17:02
Speaker 2: can make all the numbers make sense for me, and
17:05
Speaker 2: how they can tell a story about who I'm facing
17:07
Speaker 2: and what that means to me, and how what I
17:10
Speaker 2: should throw based off of those things.
17:12
Speaker 5: Uh.
17:12
Speaker 2: And that was one of the most valuable conversations I
17:14
Speaker 2: had the entire season, and that happened before I threw
17:17
Speaker 2: the first pitch of the year.
17:21
Speaker 4: We think he called you a teddy bear.
17:26
Speaker 3: Teddy bear, that's fine when your your teammates are your brothers, man,
17:30
Speaker 3: and that's you know. And then there's times when, well,
17:33
Speaker 3: as we know, Libby did a better job at being
17:36
Speaker 3: able to get that out of me than save.
17:38
Speaker 4: Up Plante of the world.
17:41
Speaker 3: And we loved Dre as much as you know anyone
17:44
Speaker 3: can love Dre. But Dre likes to poke the bear,
17:47
Speaker 3: and you'll get the bear Libby liked. Libby had the
17:49
Speaker 3: ability to come to me and we're gonna get the
17:52
Speaker 3: We'll get the teddy side of the bear, not the
17:54
Speaker 3: not the grizzly. And that's where Palante would get the
17:57
Speaker 3: grizzly more more because he kind of asked for it,
18:00
Speaker 3: but Blonte likes that's what he wants. So But and
18:03
Speaker 3: you know, every ed's Jim as you know, every guy
18:06
Speaker 3: on your team, everybody talks a different language. And I
18:09
Speaker 3: told Libby this last year, and I think I helped
18:13
Speaker 3: him talk to Dusty and Dusty's language at times. Because
18:17
Speaker 3: every coach, every player has their way of processing things
18:20
Speaker 3: and the things that they think do things the right way.
18:23
Speaker 3: You have to find your way, and then you have
18:25
Speaker 3: to be able to understand other people's ways and then
18:27
Speaker 3: be able to explain that. And that's the fun part
18:29
Speaker 3: of pitching, and the fun part of competing is figuring
18:32
Speaker 3: out what makes guys pick, how they process things, what
18:36
Speaker 3: they think they're good at, how to stick with what
18:38
Speaker 3: they're good at, and also how to always improve with
18:40
Speaker 3: a little bit of pieces that you can day in
18:43
Speaker 3: and day out, like Libby is doing.
18:45
Speaker 4: And that's the beauty of it.
18:46
Speaker 3: And that's why you know, we've talked so highly of
18:48
Speaker 3: him here, Kyle and I have because we've seen the process.
18:51
Speaker 4: Right when when Libby was in the bullpen.
18:54
Speaker 3: He figured out why he was a good reliever, but
18:57
Speaker 3: he was always picking brains on. Okay, how can I
19:00
Speaker 3: translate this into starting? What's my process to do it
19:03
Speaker 3: when I have to do it one out of every
19:05
Speaker 3: five days, over and over again? And how can I
19:08
Speaker 3: do those things? And he was doing this research while
19:11
Speaker 3: he was getting people out in the bullpen. And that's
19:13
Speaker 3: the thing that I loved about him. He always knew, hey,
19:15
Speaker 3: I have the starter stuff. I know my job right
19:18
Speaker 3: now is to get really or get people out in
19:20
Speaker 3: the bullpen. But I'm going to be a starter because
19:22
Speaker 3: I have that ability, So why not learn as I'm
19:24
Speaker 3: doing both? And that was one thing that I really
19:26
Speaker 3: enjoyed being his teammate and watching him go through those processes.
19:30
Speaker 3: And I was able to do it as a young
19:32
Speaker 3: kid myself starting in the bullpen, so I had a
19:35
Speaker 3: little bit of background in that, so it made it
19:37
Speaker 3: fun to, you know, kind of see and coach people
19:39
Speaker 3: through that.
19:41
Speaker 1: And I've seen from Litty like he's always been like
19:44
Speaker 1: a mature guy, even when he was a younger player
19:47
Speaker 1: when he first came up. He had an aura of
19:50
Speaker 1: maturity about him. But I wonder, so last year was
19:52
Speaker 1: a big year for you, your first time as a
19:54
Speaker 1: full time starting pitcher. You learned that and now it's
19:59
Speaker 1: a different team, it's a younger team, part of a reset,
20:02
Speaker 1: and they're looking at you as front of the rotation guy.
20:05
Speaker 1: How do you look at this season? For you going
20:08
Speaker 1: into it and doesn't feel any any different than maybe
20:11
Speaker 1: going into last season.
20:14
Speaker 2: I mean, first of all, that's that's a way that
20:16
Speaker 2: I want to carry and then I look forward to carrying,
20:19
Speaker 2: you know, growing up, that's that's everything that I dreamed of.
20:23
Speaker 2: So you know, I'm very excited for this year. And
20:27
Speaker 2: as far as the group that we have, you know,
20:30
Speaker 2: why not us? You know, you saw the Dbacks food
20:32
Speaker 2: a few years ago or they had a super young group,
20:34
Speaker 2: and you know, the beautiful thing about baseball is anybody
20:37
Speaker 2: can went on any given day for any given reason.
20:40
Speaker 2: And so you know, you put the right group together
20:42
Speaker 2: that creates the right culture, and all of a sudden
20:44
Speaker 2: you start playing a good brand of baseball. You know,
20:47
Speaker 2: things can turn around real quick. So you know, you
20:49
Speaker 2: can call it a rebuild. The front officers can call
20:51
Speaker 2: it a rebuild or reset or whatever we want to do.
20:54
Speaker 2: But I don't think anybody's showing up to spring cashing
20:57
Speaker 2: in on the season already. I think we all want
20:59
Speaker 2: to show up and compete. We all have personal reasons
21:01
Speaker 2: to compete for and therefore we have reasons to compete
21:03
Speaker 2: as a team too. So you know, I'm trying to
21:06
Speaker 2: approach this with the idea that really anything can happen
21:10
Speaker 2: if we if we put the right bricks in place
21:12
Speaker 2: and line at us.
21:17
Speaker 1: I got one more question before we let let me
21:19
Speaker 1: get on with his day. If that's okay, Lance, and
21:22
Speaker 1: it's about his boy, Nolan Gorman.
21:25
Speaker 4: I know you guys are boys.
21:26
Speaker 1: You talk about a young team, you talk about personal
21:29
Speaker 1: reasons to want to compete and do well. So we
21:32
Speaker 1: don't know what's going to happen with Nolan Arnatto yet,
21:35
Speaker 1: but clearly the Cardinals are looking to make a move
21:38
Speaker 1: because they would like to see what Nolan Gorman can do.
21:42
Speaker 1: And look, last year was a rough one. They were
21:44
Speaker 1: good spots for him, but he was trying to stay
21:47
Speaker 1: within the process that he believed in. Tell me something
21:50
Speaker 1: about Nolan Gorman, what you expect from him and why
21:54
Speaker 1: you believe that he will find it again?
21:58
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think for and foremost I know that he
22:01
Speaker 2: deals with failure incredibly well. He's a guy where you know,
22:05
Speaker 2: I've questioned at times like hey are you even upset,
22:08
Speaker 2: you just struck out four times, and like you're able
22:10
Speaker 2: to have a conversation with me, like I wouldn't be
22:12
Speaker 2: able to sleep tonight. And what I've kind of learned
22:15
Speaker 2: is that, say, probably one of his most admirable qualities
22:18
Speaker 2: is his ability to just flush it and keep moving forward. So, yes,
22:22
Speaker 2: we've seen the stretches of what he can do, and man,
22:26
Speaker 2: it's so special and he does turn it on in
22:28
Speaker 2: that way. But I think the most reassuring thing to
22:31
Speaker 2: me is I haven't seen any of the struggles that
22:35
Speaker 2: he's gone through really get to him or really affect
22:37
Speaker 2: him in a way that I think would hurt his career.
22:40
Speaker 2: And so you know, he's put in a ton of
22:42
Speaker 2: work again this offseason. I think his swing is in
22:45
Speaker 2: a great spot again this offseason, and I don't see
22:48
Speaker 2: any reason why he can't come out and be the
22:50
Speaker 2: guy that we all know he can and that he
22:53
Speaker 2: knows he can too.
22:55
Speaker 1: Mabby, I appreciate you coming on and showing us the
22:58
Speaker 1: softer side of lance Lynn. Lance I want to thank
23:02
Speaker 1: you because you're actually coaching him, and I'm like, this
23:06
Speaker 1: guy should be a coach somewhere. I think that'll happen somewhere. Oh,
23:12
Speaker 1: it's because you're sitting on a pile of money. Gentlemen,
23:15
Speaker 1: it's been a pleasure, Libby. Thanks for making time, Lance,
23:19
Speaker 1: thank you for being a teddy bear that's going to
23:21
Speaker 1: do it for this edition of Cardinal Territory. We'll see
23:24
Speaker 1: you on the next episode. Hopefully that one won't suck.