Latest / Birdland Territory / Today's guest: Former Orioles All-Star closer Zack Britton

Transcript

Today's guest: Former Orioles All-Star closer Zack Britton · Birdland Territory

• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Ayo's fans, welcome in to the latest edition of Birdland
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Territory with Steve tim Brad and today Zach Zach Britton
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: joining us great Oriole Pitcher, and he hasn't been going
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: too long, so we remember him fondly here in Birdland.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: And of course, Ach, great to have you on the
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: show today. You started a new venture publishing a newsletter,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and we'll talk more about that when fans can find
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: you at thesavenewsletter dot com and find your new newsletter.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: But how is life in Zach's world these days? Great
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to have you on the show today.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, happy to be on.
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: Life's pretty good, you know, just falling around my four kids,
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: so I think busier than ever. You know, there's a
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: few moments where I'm wishing I'm pitching because it's a
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: little bit easier than you know, traveling around town and
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: dropping them all off at sports in school, and you know,
• 0:56
  Speaker 3: now that summer is here, it'll be a lot of fun.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: But yeah, just staying busy with.
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: That awesome man.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Great to have you on the show today, And of
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: course fans remember you for so many things, but top
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: of mine obviously is twenty sixteen years a year or
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: two after you were converted to relief. And that was
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: the best relief season I've ever seen by a pitcher
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and maybe the best anybody's ever seen by a picture
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: with a fifty four era a low whip. And by
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the way, he gave up four and runs and that
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: was not in one bad outing or one in bad
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: homestand that was for the season for earned runs, for
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: an entire season of baseball. Incredible groundball rate. I mean,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: so many things happened. Fourth in the say Young should
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: have been first eleventh for the MVP Award, Zach. When
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: you think back to that, what memories come back to you?
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, what does it almost mind boggling now when
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you look at the stats on the page.
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean it's yeah, when every now and then
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: somebody will bring it up to me or you know
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: now that I'm like back in the little video game
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: my son's friends, like, we'll play with like my card,
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: and you know, they'll bring up the stats and I'll
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: kind of laugh. But for me and even the prior year,
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, with Brad, like going to the
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: All Star Game with two relievers is such a rare thing,
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: especially in the mid market, like Baltimore, like New York
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: gets it all the time. When I was with the Yankees,
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: it's you know, there's guys making the All Star team
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: there that you're like, man, you know, like I played
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: with some guys in Baltimore that it's.
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: Really good years and never got the opportunity.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: So I always think going to the All Star Game
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: that year with Brad, the year before with Oday, those
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: were the things that I really remember, and I think
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: we're special more so than the the stats. The stats
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: are really cool in hindsight, but I think in the moment,
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: it's just it's really cool to share that.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: And you know, having we had a really good bullpen.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: You can't, you know, being a setup guy, being a closer,
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: you can't have success in the ninth inning if you
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: don't have anybody getting you to that spot or probably
• 3:03
  Speaker 3: navigating the heart of the lineup. So I don't have
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: to you know a lot of the time. So it's
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: it was kind of just the perfect storm for me.
• 3:14
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think I look at that season two and
• 3:16
  Speaker 5: it was it was a lot of fun. But I
• 3:18
  Speaker 5: really I think back to like fourteen when you got
• 3:21
  Speaker 5: converted to reliever. I remember kind of going over the
• 3:25
  Speaker 5: roster and I'm trying to figure out where I'm going
• 3:26
  Speaker 5: to fit in, and I'm like, I remember now, and
• 3:28
  Speaker 5: you had against the Phillies. I think it was Utly
• 3:31
  Speaker 5: Howard and somebody else, but it was like eleven pitches,
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: three strikeouts, and I'm like, all right, there goes my spot.
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: When when did it finally?
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: Like, because you're was it.
• 3:42
  Speaker 5: Dave and Dom because I've talked about them on the show,
• 3:44
  Speaker 5: Dom Cheety Dave Wallace, Like, were they just like, hey,
• 3:46
  Speaker 5: just throw your sinker wre Like how did that kind
• 3:49
  Speaker 5: of evolution go from being a starter to finally knowing
• 3:52
  Speaker 5: you're going to be a full time reliever? Like did
• 3:54
  Speaker 5: you when did that? Can you just like go through
• 3:56
  Speaker 5: that process a little bit of what you were thinking.
• 3:58
  Speaker 5: I'm sure there was a lot of emotions and thoughts
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: and everything while that was happening.
• 4:02
  Speaker 3: So it really started in that off season going into fourteen,
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: I was out in California working out with Brady, Miguel Gonzalez, Tillman,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: you know, Brian mattis Way and Chen and Dave and
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: Dom were they were you know, they were hired already,
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: but they were making the rounds out to meet some
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: people and they flew out there and I was throwing
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: a bullpen and I threw this bullpen.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: I actually thought it was really good. I actually thought
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I threw a good bullpen. Like.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: I was like, man, this is a good first impression,
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: and you know, Dave. Dave was like, yeah, that was
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: all right like that and I was like wow, I
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: thought like I knocked their socks off and he was
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: just like yeah, and he really dove into me about like,
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: you know, because I was throwing a bunch of like
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: I was not my change up in this bullpen. I
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: thought it was good and he was like that's that's
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: kind of trash, like that's not gonna work. I was like, man,
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: and he was like, so, you know, why, why do
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: you think you've struggled? You know, as a starter, you know,
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: what do you view yourself as going forward? I was like, man,
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: I'm a starter. I'm gonna be you know, Col Handles
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: and Greg maddox or excuse me, tongue Glavin and they
• 5:06
  Speaker 3: were like yeah, like we really think like you need
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: to improve like your command and just really focus on
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: that sinker and like we envision being probably hopefully part
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: of this team and probably looks like a bullpen roll
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: for you, Like that's just being around the game.
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: That's what we think.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: And I didn't really like that first impression, but I
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: also appreciated the honesty. I remember going home and and
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: kind of just being like, I'm out of options, Like
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: this is their plan obviously for me, and I'm just
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: gonna try to have like the best spring training i
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: can make the team, and then maybe if I make
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: the team as a reliever, I can go back to starting.
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: Right That was that was the mindset. But it really
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: started in the off season when I met David Dom
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: and you know, it wasn't all you know, being critical.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: They were like your ability, your talent.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: Obviously it's like through the roof, but knowing guys like you,
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: you just seem more of a guy that's going to be,
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: you know, a late in and relieve or power sinker.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Here it is if you can improve your command enough,
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: like you're going to have a good career, and either
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: you buy into that or you know, you go to
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: another team and you try to be a starter, but
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: we just don't see that being your path to a
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: long career. And so it was a lot of honesty
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: on their part, especially since they didn't know me very well,
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: and so I always think about that and it could
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: be why I have such a good relationship to this day.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: But that's how it all started.
• 6:30
  Speaker 6: Well back looking at the beginning part of that twenty
• 6:34
  Speaker 6: fourteen season, So you convert to becoming a reliever, and
• 6:38
  Speaker 6: then Tommy Hunter was experiencing some early season struggles and
• 6:41
  Speaker 6: then boom, you're.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: In the closer role, you know, in May.
• 6:45
  Speaker 6: Like, what was it like going just from not only
• 6:47
  Speaker 6: reliever to closer closing out games?
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Initially?
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: What was that like?
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: It was interesting because in spring training, like they didn't
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: even throw me a bone and give me a start.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: I went straight to like I was relieving right.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Out of the gate, and Dom Cheaty told me that
• 7:01
  Speaker 3: he wanted me to understand how to I think Brad
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: knows the story. I think I ran into a game
• 7:06
  Speaker 3: in spring training and not getting put in the game,
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: like I was learning, like the whole thing I think
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: oday was there. He just he like, never lets me
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: live it down. But they basically were like, you need
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: to follow like darren O day around and learn how
• 7:18
  Speaker 3: to be a reliever. And so I just was relieving
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: out of the gate and.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: I got comfortable a lot. I had a really good spring.
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: Velocity was up, you know, because I was only throwing
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: one or maybe two innings in spring, you know, every
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: now and then.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: I didn't have.
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: A ton of expectation. Honestly, I went into the season.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: I was so happy to finally like make the team.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: I had had an opening day in twenty eleven when
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: you know, Mattis got hurt and I took his place
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: in the rotation to make my debut. So I had
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: experienced opening Day, but this was different. This was like, hey, like,
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: I feel like I earned, you know, my spot by
• 7:53
  Speaker 3: having a good spring, and I'm part of the team.
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: I'm out of options, So I wasn't worried about getting
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: set down if I performed.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: It was just it was a weird feeling.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: I was really excited, and I was like, like I said,
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: my goal was to continue to have like really good
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: outings and hopefully get a chance back into the rotation.
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: There were some conversations I had with Buck Showalter in
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: spring about relieving, and he had mentioned, you know, his
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: experience with Mariano in New York, where he was like,
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: I think when people look back at you, they're gonna
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: thank sinker like, you know, when I look at dominant relievers,
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: they normally have one dominant pitch, and I think you
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: can do that. And I appreciated that, but at the
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: same time, I was like, you know, I want to
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: I've always been a starter. I feel like I can
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: still do that. And obviously they were right. I was wrong,
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: but that was my mindset. I didn't think too much
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: into it. Tommy got hurt. He had some struggles, but
• 8:46
  Speaker 3: he got hurt. Like if you didn't get hurt, he
• 8:48
  Speaker 3: probably still stays closing. And Buck, we were in Kansas City.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: Buck brought me and Darren into the manager's office and said, Hey,
• 8:57
  Speaker 3: if there's a saving the ninth, that's going to be
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: one of you two, so just be ready for and
• 9:00
  Speaker 3: it was. It was that, and then it was my
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: name that I got called. I think I got like three
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: grand ball outs and I didn't think any of that.
• 9:06
  Speaker 3: I didn't think like, hey, this is my role. I
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: was just like, you know, we're the One thing that
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: I learned from Darren was that the bullpen is, you know,
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: its own unit, and it really is like your own
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: little team. And the more that you can kind of
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: compete against each other and support each other. The better
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: it is for everybody, And so I didn't really think
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: anything of it. Even if Darren would have got the
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: call the next day, I wouldn't I wouldn't have cared because,
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: like I said, my.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: Mind was still like, man, maybe I'll get a chance
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: to start.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: It wasn't until the end of the year where I
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: was like, nah, this is actually pretty fun, like I
• 9:38
  Speaker 3: actually want to start.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: My friend.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: You were a top one hundred prospect coming up as
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: the starting pitcher, so there were some good days there
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: till for sure.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: The miners is a whole lot different than the big leader.
• 9:55
  Speaker 4: You got.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: You right about that, There's no question do you're write
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: about that? Zach Britton is with us today on Birdland Territory.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: We're going to fire a few more questions his way
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: in a moment.
• 10:05
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• 11:06
  Speaker 1: So I got a great promotion for the Orioles. Free
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: advice here, Birdland and os. I need a bob bobblehead
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: brock O'Day Britain on one bobblehead. Bring these three gents
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: back Saturday night. We're gonna pack this ballpark and honor
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: these guys for what they and their group did for
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the Orioles. And So again, no charge, I don't want
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to cut or anything. Just drove me a few extra bobbleheads.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I can give the family and friends.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: You get some T shirts. Man, I feel like there
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: was something right and once there.
• 11:35
  Speaker 4: Gotta be some T shirts.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: I mean, come on, this is a slam dunk promotion
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: and you guys said do play so recently it's still
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: gonna be big. So Zach, we're talking about your incredible sinker.
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: Why was it so good?
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: Why is your sinker better than the next guy and
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the next guy and the next guy.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: Well, if you would have you before I really got
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: a good breakdown with the Yankees on a lot of
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: the things that I did, and you know that were
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: unique to me, I would have just said, like, all
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: the grip.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: And you know I don't have.
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: Well, I guess some of the things that I felt
• 12:08
  Speaker 3: that I did are true, but I would say, you know,
• 12:11
  Speaker 3: I don't have a long stride. I got a really
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: short arm action. But I couldn't have, you know, really
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: put together. I just thought it was Calvin Maduro showed
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: me a grip of a cutter and.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: It did what it did kind of thing.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: But then I went to the New York and I've
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: really found out what I do that really stands out,
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: And actually a lot of it was how high my
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: release point was compared to the average in the big leagues,
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: I think it was one of the highest release points
• 12:39
  Speaker 3: and at a short stride. So it's just really that
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: angle of approach of the sinker was you know, it
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: basically acted like a splitter. Most guys like a right
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: handed splitter, and I think there was that little bit
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: combination the velocity. If you look at that time, there
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: wasn't a ton of left handed guys throwing you know,
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: really power sinkers or really at that velocity, so I
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: think it was just it was unique. And then having
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: that combination in.
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: The ninth inning.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: I mean our division we had some you know, big
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: left handed hitters, so you can kind of neutralize them.
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: I had always done.
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: I had success against righty's even as a starter, so
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: I think, you know, used to facing righty's with the sinker.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: It really just put me in a really good spot,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: that sinker against Rioti's against lefties.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: And.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: You know, I don't know, like I wish I knew
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: exactly why it worked well. But the one thing I
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: learned from Dave and Dom was if it's working, you know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 3: stick with it until they tell you that it's not.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: As in the hitters.
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: If the hitters, you know, eventually tell you that it's
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: not working, then you adjust, but until then don't. And
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: you know, maybe there was one year when I was
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: dealing with the elbow stuff in New York where I
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: wasn't able to get on top of the ball before
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: I had Tommy John and I went to my slider
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: more but other than that, I just I kind of
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: was like, man, just.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Beat me with my with the sinker.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: I believed in it, and I you know, I was
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: just surrounded by a bunch of good guys that gave
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: me a lot of confidence when I didn't have confidence
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: when I had been struggling. And there's something to that,
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: you know, when you get around people that believe in you.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: And Brady was the first one. He was the very
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: first person that I felt like believed in me more
• 14:20
  Speaker 3: than you know, I believed in myself at the time.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: And then it just kind of snowballed. I really just
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: got a lot of confidence and believed in myself.
• 14:28
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I think that, Like, uh, I just think about
• 14:30
  Speaker 5: David Dom like those two guys I feel like made
• 14:33
  Speaker 5: the bullpen as good as it was, Like we got
• 14:36
  Speaker 5: a lot of the credit because we were the ones
• 14:37
  Speaker 5: out there, you know, doing the job. But without those guys,
• 14:40
  Speaker 5: I mean when I got over there, speaking of like
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: Zach story with, they were like, yeah, that.
• 14:43
  Speaker 4: Bullpen kind of stunk. I went to day.
• 14:45
  Speaker 5: I went to don one morning. I'm like, hey, I'm
• 14:47
  Speaker 5: struggling against lefties. Do you think you know? Starting on
• 14:50
  Speaker 5: the first base side and then going to the third
• 14:53
  Speaker 5: bay side. When I'm facing the things, he turns me
• 14:55
  Speaker 5: and gives me this look and he's like, your line
• 14:57
  Speaker 5: is crap, and he just kind of walks away and
• 15:00
  Speaker 5: he comes back to me, and its just like like
• 15:02
  Speaker 5: Zach said, without like having guys like that around us
• 15:05
  Speaker 5: that were just honest, and that's at some point you
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: just have to have somebody honest with you. It just
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: it made everything so much easier for us because then
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: it's like, Okay, you you have three pitches for my
• 15:15
  Speaker 5: For myself, it was you have three pitches, go use them.
• 15:18
  Speaker 5: But with Zach, he was like, hey, throw your sinker
• 15:20
  Speaker 5: until somebody tells you otherwise. But Zach, I always think
• 15:23
  Speaker 5: of it always makes me laugh because we have all
• 15:25
  Speaker 5: these big hitters in the division, and Peter borgis on
• 15:28
  Speaker 5: the Rays. It was he was in Zach's head. He
• 15:32
  Speaker 5: couldn't get out of his head, Like of all the
• 15:34
  Speaker 5: hitters in the division, Peter Borgis was just why do
• 15:37
  Speaker 5: you think it was certain guys like that that were
• 15:39
  Speaker 5: just able to see you better? And you have these
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: other big guys that come up there that we face
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: in the division and they just swing and miss at
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: these pitches in front of the plate. Was there you
• 15:47
  Speaker 5: think just certain guys had better approaches or was it
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: just I don't know. I just always think of back
• 15:51
  Speaker 5: to that story. I think you're just funny with it.
• 15:54
  Speaker 5: Was like I remember that name.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Against them, and then Darren just you know, to everybody.
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: I think he actually told Borges like you know, and
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: I don't know, he hit a home run off me
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: this one time, and I'm like, how the heck? Like
• 16:09
  Speaker 3: I haven't given up a home run long. He might
• 16:10
  Speaker 3: have hit two off me in my career, which is wild.
• 16:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I would have to do a deep dive.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: It just seemed like he hit a thousand off me.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: I think it became a mental thing where I'm like,
• 16:19
  Speaker 3: I feel like this guy sees me so well, and
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: he took good at bats. He was a more of
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: a contact guy, and I felt like he put like
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: he would put the ball and play. He was fast,
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: so he would hit. He could hit a chopper right
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: and beat it out, and it just seemed like he
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: found a way to get on base against me. And
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: there was a couple other guys. I think Jonathan Sanchez
• 16:38
  Speaker 3: is the name. He was with the Blue This guy
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: didn't play.
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: He was actually random random. I told him.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: I was like, dude, I don't want to face you ever.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: And people were like, he's like with the Yankees, and
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: they I think he was a coach in their system.
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: He's like, dude, he's a coach in our system. And
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: I'm like, look up this guy's numbers against me. Like
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: I think I ended up hitting him twice like unintentionally
• 16:56
  Speaker 3: with breaking.
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: Balls, and uh, I'm like, why am I throwing breaking ball?
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: Is this guy like I am? I am so rattled and.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: Gibbons with the Blue Jays, he would pinch like he
• 17:06
  Speaker 3: knew he'd like take somebody up, pinch hit him and
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: I couldn't get him out.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: And I was like, this is ridiculous.
• 17:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, So I put those guys in the same uh,
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: at the same level as Dustin Pedroia, who I also
• 17:18
  Speaker 3: struggled with, Like, so when people give me my top three,
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: I lead with Pedroia obviously, and then I, you know,
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: I'll throw it. I'll board this Sanchez and then I
• 17:28
  Speaker 3: throw those guys and I'm like it doesn't matter. But uh,
• 17:31
  Speaker 3: I couldn't get him out. And then, like I said,
• 17:33
  Speaker 3: Darren just made it to be a huge thing, and
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: so mentally I was just I was.
• 17:38
  Speaker 4: I was.
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: I couldn't face him. But I have a funny story.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Actually I was really dumped out facing Mark de Cher
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: even as a starter, and we happened to.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I think it was in fifteen the All Star Game
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: in Cincinnati.
• 17:54
  Speaker 3: He was there and we just had this conversation in
• 17:56
  Speaker 3: the clubhouse and I laughed, I'm like, man, I just
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: have a hard time like.
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: Facing I feel like you see me so well. And
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: he looked at me and was like, oh, man, like
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: I don't see you as well at all. I just
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: hope you walk me.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: And I'm like, what, like, hold on, So we're both
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: domed out facing each other, like I think he sees
• 18:13
  Speaker 3: me well. He's like, I don't see you well. I
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: just hope you walk me. And so I thought about
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: that when we faced the Yankees right after and I
• 18:19
  Speaker 3: threw i'm a forcing fastball right down the middle of
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: for a strike one, and he stared at me like
• 18:23
  Speaker 3: come on, and I was like, man, I just gotta
• 18:25
  Speaker 3: like throw a strike one and get this guy out.
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: But it's just funny that you face these guys and
• 18:30
  Speaker 3: you don't know what they what they're thinking.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: Every now and then you get to have a conversation
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: with one.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: But yeah, there's always those guys that you just cannot
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: get out and you don't know why.
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: And it's funny.
• 18:41
  Speaker 6: It goes both ways. I remember Brian Mattis against David Ortiz.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: Fuck would always use him. Just bring him in and
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: strike him out, move on.
• 18:48
  Speaker 6: But that going back to that twenty sixteen season, and Brad,
• 18:53
  Speaker 6: you can follow this up to just when did you
• 18:57
  Speaker 6: know that it was going to be special and with
• 19:00
  Speaker 6: both of you guys, because Brad, you had to sell
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: one E r A as well in the first half
• 19:04
  Speaker 6: of the season heading into the All Star break, Like
• 19:07
  Speaker 6: when did you realize that, Oh, geez, I'm I'm on
• 19:10
  Speaker 6: a crazy run that might not end.
• 19:13
  Speaker 3: I think after the All Star break, just kind of
• 19:17
  Speaker 3: looking you know, that was your that's your chance to
• 19:19
  Speaker 3: talk to a lot of the other guys around the
• 19:21
  Speaker 3: league and hitters and stuff, and a lot of guys
• 19:23
  Speaker 3: at the al Sstar Game were asking me about it,
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: just like you know, they were talking about it a lot,
• 19:29
  Speaker 3: and I really was like, well, you know, I don't
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: want I don't want to blow this thing. So I
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: didn't want to think of it, like I didn't want
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: to dive too much into it because I always thought
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: about how much failure I had as a starter, and
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: I knew like this is very like this can come
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: and go so quickly, and so I never really wanted
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: to get ahead of myself. But probably when Darren started
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: to following me into the training room after every outing
• 19:51
  Speaker 3: trying to figure out what I was doing. Uh, and
• 19:53
  Speaker 3: I'm like, what are you doing? He was like, I'm
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: just literally going to follow you around because like I
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: want to know what's your routine. I'm just gonna like
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: copy your routine. And I thought it was funny. I'm like, dude,
• 20:03
  Speaker 3: I'm not doing it. I don't know, I'm not doing
• 20:05
  Speaker 3: anything at a sprained ankle that year, Like I hurt
• 20:07
  Speaker 3: my ankle, so I actually wasn't doing like any Cardio.
• 20:13
  Speaker 3: I don't know, like I said, I think after the
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: ulcer break, But ultimately when the season ended and I
• 20:18
  Speaker 3: was at home, I was just talking with my wife
• 20:23
  Speaker 3: and I was like, wow, that was that was pretty crazy.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: A lot of good things happened.
• 20:27
  Speaker 3: Did not blow a save, We had some really good
• 20:29
  Speaker 3: defensive plays throughout the year that could have changed things.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: But yeah, you know, the last pitch I threw the
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: season is the only pitch I actually remember thinking. It
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: was to Brett Gardner actually used to make fun of
• 20:41
  Speaker 3: him about it, and I I think I had two
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: strikes and I was like that was the first time
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: in game that I was like, wow, like this has
• 20:49
  Speaker 3: got to be the best pitch I throw all year,
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: Like this will end the season. And I struck him out,
• 20:54
  Speaker 3: like I threw the one of the best singers I
• 20:55
  Speaker 3: I threw that entire year to strike him out. And
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: that was the only time in game I actually thought
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: of about like I can wrap up this like crazy
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: season right here on this pitch. And I used to
• 21:06
  Speaker 3: tell brenta, yeah, Brett, what I would see him like
• 21:10
  Speaker 3: you were you kept off the season?
• 21:12
  Speaker 2: He was, I got what I ran.
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: We are talking with Zach Brittain today on Berdland Territory.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: Hope you subscribe to our channel and follow Zach's newsletter.
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: When I ask him about that in a minute to say,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the savednewsletter dot com and uh, we got a couple
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: more questions coming up for Zach here in just.
• 21:33
  Speaker 8: Moments, Big Bed Morning Show, Finny and Haiti, Inside Access
• 21:40
  Speaker 8: Live on YouTube weekdays six till six, Search Baltimore one
• 21:44
  Speaker 8: O five seven the Fan, Subscribe for Daily Short's right
• 21:47
  Speaker 8: to your phone and never miss which you missed one
• 21:50
  Speaker 8: O five seven the.
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: Fan, Zach, I think baseball fans know you've got a
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: lot of great opinions to offer. You always were one
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: of the best guys to interview, providing such great insights.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure that's happening right now with your new newsletter.
• 22:05
  Speaker 4: And it is new.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: It's only been a few episodes you published, so your
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: it's in the infancy stage, I guess.
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: So how did this come to be?
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: You know?
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: I had a lot of people when I was done
• 22:19
  Speaker 3: playing ask me if I was going to do anything,
• 22:20
  Speaker 3: and I was.
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: It was I was in a weird spot.
• 22:25
  Speaker 3: I had some contracts to keep playing, but I felt
• 22:27
  Speaker 3: like my heart was kind of getting out of it.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: I feel like there's this like burnout stage that everyone
• 22:32
  Speaker 3: hits and it just depends on when you hit it.
• 22:34
  Speaker 3: And I was my kids were getting older. I felt
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: like I was really missing out. It was much harder
• 22:39
  Speaker 3: to leave them, especially like my oldest son. He didn't
• 22:42
  Speaker 3: really like to want to go. He wanted to stay
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: home with his friends over the summer, and it just
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: it was hard to stop playing and be at home.
• 22:53
  Speaker 3: And I didn't really want to commit to doing TV.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: I didn't want to go through like the whole setting
• 22:59
  Speaker 3: up a podcast asked. But recently I had a lot
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: of people reach out about doing stuff, and for me,
• 23:06
  Speaker 3: I kept a journal when I played, I wrote down
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: every single as a reliever, I kept you know, note
• 23:11
  Speaker 3: of every single appearance ever made, you know, my thoughts
• 23:14
  Speaker 3: about every single outing. And I thought about like a
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: newsletter I was reading actually a newsletter, and I was like,
• 23:21
  Speaker 3: I think I could do something like this.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: This would be much more you know, efficient for me
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: with my time.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Rather than you know, podcast is is there's a lot
• 23:27
  Speaker 3: going on and I can just sit on my computer,
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: write my thoughts down and hit send. And so I
• 23:34
  Speaker 3: just was like, Okay, like, let's try this out and
• 23:37
  Speaker 3: see if anybody cares what I have to say. And
• 23:41
  Speaker 3: what I like is it keeps me connected to the game.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: I don't have to do daily updates. You know, I'm
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: not just talking about you know, anything and everything that's
• 23:47
  Speaker 3: happening every single day in the game. I can pick
• 23:49
  Speaker 3: topics that I want to talk about, you know, I've
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: talked this last one that I wrote about, I wrote
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: about the draft and I feel like, you know, it's
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: coming up in a month. I just wrote about kind
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: of my experience and what I'm seeing with you know,
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: playing for a long time, like how teams are drafting
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: these kids, and what these kids look like and their expectations,
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: and really just like the path that you take because
• 24:11
  Speaker 3: baseball is really unique compared to other sports where guys
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: will they'll be stuck in the minors for a few
• 24:16
  Speaker 3: years before they get the call, Like where the NBA,
• 24:18
  Speaker 3: the NFL, like you see these guys on TV immediately,
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: and baseball is just not the case. So that was
• 24:23
  Speaker 3: my latest issue that I released think yesterday, But really
• 24:28
  Speaker 3: it's just topics I want to talk about. You just
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: kind of my thoughts on things, and yeah, I like
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: doing it. So I'm hoping people are enjoying it, and
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: I'm just gonna keep sending stuff out and see what happens.
• 24:43
  Speaker 5: That's awesome. Now, I think we'd be remiss to I
• 24:46
  Speaker 5: don't want to. This isn't gonna be I don't want
• 24:48
  Speaker 5: to turn into like a bashing. I'm just curious where
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: your head was at the final game of twenty sixteen.
• 24:53
  Speaker 5: I mean, Orials fans kind of want to know. I
• 24:55
  Speaker 5: told I was telling them the other day off camera
• 24:57
  Speaker 5: that I honestly didn't think anything about it because you
• 25:01
  Speaker 5: had never pushed in a game on the road unless
• 25:03
  Speaker 5: we had the lead. So, like the game ended and
• 25:05
  Speaker 5: then everybody's kind of we're all kind of talking to
• 25:07
  Speaker 5: each other in the clubhouse, and I like, I would
• 25:11
  Speaker 5: love to you just kind of give your experience the
• 25:12
  Speaker 5: whole thing, because, like I said, I thought nothing of
• 25:14
  Speaker 5: it until it was over, and then I'm like, oh, man,
• 25:17
  Speaker 5: Zach didn't pitch, but it was. It wasn't like a
• 25:19
  Speaker 5: thought going into it because you had never done that.
• 25:22
  Speaker 5: But obviously the wild that wildcard game is different. But
• 25:24
  Speaker 5: I'm just curious where your head was at with all
• 25:26
  Speaker 5: of it, because during that time, everybody was just didn't
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: really know what to say or what was going on,
• 25:31
  Speaker 5: and it just ended so abruptly. But what was like
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: your thoughts going on during that game after the game,
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: if you can remember much too.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: I mean, I had been warming up for a while.
• 25:43
  Speaker 3: I don't know exactly, you know, it's maybe two or
• 25:45
  Speaker 3: three innings. I had warmed up, you know, in varying stages.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: It wasn't like at least playing cash and I think
• 25:50
  Speaker 3: I might have gotten hot.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: Twice, you know. I thought about like I had thrown
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: a lot. We had all we all threw a lot.
• 25:57
  Speaker 3: To get into that wildcard game. We had played Ronto previously.
• 26:01
  Speaker 3: I think we might have thrown you know, almost every
• 26:02
  Speaker 3: single game in that series. And then we went to
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: New York and it was the same thing, like we
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: had thrown a lot, you know, I'd been warmed up.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: There was only one time, and I don't remember now
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: exactly how that situation unfolded, but I think it was
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: either like Donaldson got on right away and then Bautista
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: or something like that. I think there might have been
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: a first and second situation and I was like hot,
• 26:24
  Speaker 3: and that's when I was like, well, I'll probably come
• 26:26
  Speaker 3: in and like this perfect opportunity for a double play situation.
• 26:30
  Speaker 3: And I mean, you guys can correct me if I'm wrong.
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: I think Buck made a mound visit but didn't take
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: him out, and I thought like that was when I
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: was going to go in. But yeah, like Don, like
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: you know, Don didn't say anything. He wasn't like oh
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: this is where, like we were just kind of waiting
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: to see and then that ending a lot of like
• 26:49
  Speaker 3: it happened so fast. I mean, it could have only
• 26:51
  Speaker 3: have been like six or seven pitches, I feel like.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: But when we got back in the duck the clubhouse, yeah,
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: I remember seeing you and Darren and no one really
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: said anything. And I actually think like Duquet may have
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: like asked me if I was okay. I was like yeah,
• 27:11
  Speaker 3: like you know, I like it sucks and we lost.
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: Like I didn't think about like pitching. I was like, oh,
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: this sucks, like we're going home. And then the media
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: was asking me about it, especially like in that situation,
• 27:22
  Speaker 3: a lot of the national media is there, and so
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: they were asked me like, why didn't you pitch, like
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: because Buck didn't put me in the game, you know,
• 27:29
  Speaker 3: like I don't know kind of thing, and then it
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: kind of took like you know, it grew some legs
• 27:34
  Speaker 3: and and things like that. But I didn't at the time,
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: I didn't think anything of it. I don't remember who
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: else was down there with me. Maybe Tommy and Dylan
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: Bundy could.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: Have been the other guy. Yeah, probably, you know, maybe you'
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: baldo had thrown well.
• 27:47
  Speaker 3: Maybe you know, anytime you take a start and you
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: put in the pen, like unless like Kevin Gosman, I
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: remember doing it one year.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: It was lights outcual.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: He threw hundreds right like, stuff played up, and I
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: felt like with Uvalda, like I don't know if his
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: stuff was going to play up out of the pen,
• 28:01
  Speaker 3: so it was it's easy to second guess now he
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: had thrown really well.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: But like if it wasn't me, like.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Maybe I thought it would have been like Tommy or Dylan,
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: because Dylan at that time was throwing one hundred, so
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: it wasn't necessarily like I thought it was going to
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: be me. I thought maybe like they would bring like
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: you know, Tommy can strike guys out, dealing, can strike
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: guys out in that situation. But in hindsight, it really
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: changed the course of the playoffs. I'll tell you that
• 28:27
  Speaker 3: I went to the World Series that you're to get
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: an award, And I remember talking to Killer and he's like, gosh, man,
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: like now I'm getting absolutely abused because no one wants
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: to answer this question.
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: So I think it really changed that year and then
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: future years.
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: How guys did not want to answer that question about
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: why I left my closer in the pen. But who
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: knows I could have came in and gave up the game.
• 28:52
  Speaker 3: And then does my season feel as great as it
• 28:56
  Speaker 3: as it was? I think about that that was that
• 28:58
  Speaker 3: would have been a tough situation to come into and
• 29:01
  Speaker 3: have success.
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: That's a good lineup. And I don't know, you know,
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: like I.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Said, I Buck always put me in a good situation
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: to be successful. So and he always has a reason
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: why he did things. I don't know if he'll ever
• 29:14
  Speaker 3: dive into it or maybe maybe there's there's nothing to
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: dive into. And him and I have never talked about it.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: I never never addressed them, never asked him. He apologized
• 29:29
  Speaker 3: in the next spring training, like at the movie theater,
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: like like not like to me, but I think in general,
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: like for just how it ended, but I didn't feel
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: like it was necessary and so Yeah, I never talked
• 29:42
  Speaker 3: to him about it. The thing I know about Buck
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: and I appreciated as my crew went on and I
• 29:47
  Speaker 3: left the ools, was that he always looked out for
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: my best interest and I think our bullpen's best interest,
• 29:54
  Speaker 3: and he wanted you to be successful. So he didn't
• 29:57
  Speaker 3: feel like that was the right spot for me. He
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: didn't put me in the game. And you know, I
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: trusted him because I had a great career with him.
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: I mean, he did great buy me, So I never
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: felt the need to address it with him.
• 30:09
  Speaker 5: Yeah, And I always thought it was like weird because,
• 30:10
  Speaker 5: like I said, we got in the clubhouse and didn't
• 30:13
  Speaker 5: think anything of it. Like I said, I didn't even
• 30:15
  Speaker 5: think about it, and then everyone else got involved in
• 30:17
  Speaker 5: the media got involved, and it was just like I felt,
• 30:20
  Speaker 5: if you followed the team all year, you understood to
• 30:23
  Speaker 5: an extent, but I just felt like it just got
• 30:26
  Speaker 5: like this blown out of proportion thing, and it was
• 30:29
  Speaker 5: just like we Zach never pitched without the lead on
• 30:31
  Speaker 5: the road. If you went back that entire season, I
• 30:33
  Speaker 5: don't know if there was one single time you pitched
• 30:35
  Speaker 5: on the road without the lead. It was always somebody else.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: And then like three or four days off and I
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: needed in any But yeah, yeah, it just wasn't it
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: just wasn't a thing, you know. We Yeah, like Brad said, I,
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: I didn't think anything of it. I know, jonesy yelled
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: at me during the game, like put yourself in, and
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: you know, I heard him, but it's so loud and
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: like the way that bullpen was set up even now
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: it's actually worse, but the way that it's so loud,
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: like you hear things like and like, I'm like I
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: looked that at him. I think it was like, what
• 31:08
  Speaker 3: do you mean run into the like that's not a thing,
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: you know whatever, But yeah, I didn't think anything of it.
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: I've been asked that.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: Question a lot, like throughout my career, especially when I
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: went to New York, and I feel like people always
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: think there's like a huge conspiracy theory behind it, and but.
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: No, I've never talked to him about it.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: I didn't feel like I think he kind of gave
• 31:31
  Speaker 3: an apology if I remember. Maybe Brad knows better than I,
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: but I think he kind of said something about it
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: in the spring, and you know, I know there was
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: people upset, Like I'm not gonna name names. I know
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: there was certain players that were really upset by it,
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: and I just felt like, you know, he had a
• 31:50
  Speaker 3: reason and he didn't do it. And if we would
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: have won the game, and I pitched the next series
• 31:54
  Speaker 3: against the Rangers and did well, like it would never
• 31:57
  Speaker 3: have happened. It just you know, the Blue Jays were
• 32:00
  Speaker 3: good and they they figured out how to.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Win the game.
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: We had plenty of chances to win that game, Like,
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: we didn't have a ton office going. Our bullpen threw amazing,
• 32:07
  Speaker 3: and I feel like when you extend your bullpen in
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: a game, eventually, it's just eventually like somebody's gonna score.
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: And you know it wasn't your bald necessarily could have
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: been Like I said, I could have came in and
• 32:19
  Speaker 3: gave up that game too. So it's just like we
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: just didn't have enough offense.
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: Yeah, a postgame clubhouse was crazy. I was in there
• 32:29
  Speaker 4: that night, three three waves.
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: Maybe there was more of reporters at your locker.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: What didn't helped the thing.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: I think when the Jerseys came out and they were
• 32:38
  Speaker 3: auctioning like game News jerseys, I made like a funny
• 32:40
  Speaker 3: comment like like mine's technically not game US. So I
• 32:44
  Speaker 3: didn't really like squash it. I just like, in hindsight,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: I was like that. I was sitting on the couch
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: and I was just like, Ah, that's a really funny.
• 32:51
  Speaker 3: And then I was like yeah, boy, like.
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: Hey, you know, we're almost out of time here, but
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: I don't want the show to go go be without
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: mentioning Buck. The other Buck Buck Brittain. He is the
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: older brother here by a couple of years, and just
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: as his friend, I'm proud of him. I covered him
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: in the minders as as soon as he started managing.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: I said, this guy's path is going to go fast
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: because he's so smart and so as his bro, how
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: proud are you of Buck?
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been great to watch him evolve. And the
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: one thing that I know about him is he's very selfless.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: He the way that his career unfolded, he he was
• 33:33
  Speaker 3: a grinder. You know, he had to earn everything that
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: he got, and you know, there was probably an opportunity
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: for him to get to the big leagues that you know,
• 33:39
  Speaker 3: one year, and it just really he was never on
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: the forty man. He never just never got that chance.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: But he connected really well with players. He was a
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: great coach to me. He was one of those guys
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: that would give you the honest opinion of what he thought.
• 33:52
  Speaker 3: And I feel like guys appreciate that, you know what
• 33:55
  Speaker 3: you're going to get from him, and a lot of
• 33:57
  Speaker 3: the young players on the roster, you know, he managed
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: through the upper levels, and I know they talk highly
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: of him as a guy like I said, you're gonna
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: get a straight answer, and he's a baseball guy.
• 34:08
  Speaker 2: He's a guy that knows the analytics, and I.
• 34:11
  Speaker 3: Think he's really good at adapting to the people on
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: the roster, and I know he loves being up there,
• 34:18
  Speaker 3: and you know, I still think there's gonna be a
• 34:20
  Speaker 3: chance for him to manage at some point in his career.
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: I think that's his path ultimately.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: And I think Buck Showalter was kind of the guy
• 34:27
  Speaker 3: that told him he should probably stop playing and pursue coaching,
• 34:30
  Speaker 3: because I think he felt like that was in his
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: future too, and it was just another thing like show
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: Walter identifying that for him, and really I think gave
• 34:38
  Speaker 3: him a push in that direction, like Okay, it's time
• 34:40
  Speaker 3: for me to hang him up playing wise and really
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: get into coaching. And it's been great and I'm really
• 34:46
  Speaker 3: happy to see I'm really interested to see how you
• 34:48
  Speaker 3: know this career goes for him, because I do think
• 34:50
  Speaker 3: that he'll be a manager at some point at the majors,
• 34:54
  Speaker 3: just based on his ability to connect with players and
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: understand the game.
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: Where I wasn't. I didn't have that tool. I was
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: more like, I can play, I can do my thing. Uh.
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: It takes a really special person to be able to
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: connect on all levels with players, especially now nowadays, there's
• 35:10
  Speaker 3: so many different personalities you need to manage and understand
• 35:13
  Speaker 3: how to communicate.
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: And he's just he's just got that ability.
• 35:18
  Speaker 4: He sure, he sure does.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: And I mean you look at the fact a couple
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: of different regimes, several different major league managers and they
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: keep Buck Brittin around for obvious reasons. So great that
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: he's doing so well, Zach. Great to see you doing well.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: Good luck with thesavenewsletter dot com. We hope a lot
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: of people head your way after seeing this, and uh man,
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: we're thrilled you took time today to talk about a
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: wide variety of topics.
• 35:43
  Speaker 4: We left a few in the cutting room floor for
• 35:45
  Speaker 4: the next time. For sure.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Sounds good. I'm available.
• 35:48
  Speaker 3: My schedule is pretty as I always said.
• 35:53
  Speaker 4: Next time, next time we get Darren in here too.
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Off an hour and a half, Jim and I are
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: kick the day off.
• 36:01
  Speaker 4: We hit record in that show Man. That's the show.
• 36:03
  Speaker 4: I want to watch it, Hey, Zach.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Thanks and thanks to Tim and Brad and what a
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: great show. Berdland Territory. Thanks to Zach Britton for joining
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: us today. We'll catch you next time.
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: Sounds good.