[Applause]
welcome to the rants live [Applause]
welcome to the rant it's uh it's been a while since we've done a show it's february 10th i believe thursday
february 10th there hasn't been a lot of a reason to do a show which is why we haven't done a show but today we've got
a good reason to do a show we have a a special guest scott f ross uh is going to join us
today uh release pictures it's got his likeness on it see it's if
you go on mlb.com this is what his face looks like along with every other player uh but uh
but no i i i do want to clarify right part of the reason we haven't done this well i suppose i could have done the
show i was out of town um and it was really bizarre i was in las vegas
and on thursday morning i woke up it was 32. in vegas and then when i got home
despite the snow we had it was like 35 when i got home so it's really bizarre to be out there because if you're and
i'm sure it would be like this in phoenix uh people in vegas are not prepared for 32 degree weather they do not have coats
they do have them don't they don't have furnaces you know what i mean like they're used to that so it was so funny
uh to go out there and i actually got to spend some time hanging out with friend of the show mike bryant um got got to
see the cage and stuff and and talk with him a little bit but he's like doing he's doing a lesson man and he's got
winter gloves on he set the ball of the tee with his gloves because it was like 50. and it was it was chilly man he was
uh it was just it was funny to me to deal with that but thankfully i got home had to back my car out of a snow drift
uh because they they plowed the aisles in the uh of course
oh yeah it was like i was stepping up i had to trudge through the snow and and finally made it out but uh no it was it
was good man and um yeah and now we've had like my son's playing basketball now
so i've been i've been more immersed in basketball lately than than baseball which is a little bit weird but anyway
yeah well uh you know what lockout will do that so anyhow um why don't we just go ahead and bring
scott on what the heck he's sitting right here hey scott how's it going
fellas how are we doing today it's good i can only imagine the amount of shock
you had when evan uh asked you if you wanted to be on the show because we've actually the last time we had you on
was uh not quite two years ago was may of 2020 and uh the fact that this show
has actually lasted that long [Laughter]
hey i'm honored it's a long-standing uh long-standing show now so you guys had a quite a run here so i'm honored to be a
have you guys had any uh repeat guests or am i uh one of the few we we
got it's a loaded question we have had a couple i think mike bryant mike bryant chris
mike mike came on twice uh max bain has been on uh twice now
only the good guys it's people you were the first you were the first one without the initials mb i put it that way to be
to be a repeat making uh making landmarks then that's awesome exactly exactly so that that's we had to had to
switch things up a little bit and go that route but uh no it's um i'm glad you've been in
what's what's cool about this and what i i think is really neat here is
i i was kind of going back through things and so you know the last time you had uh had
joined obviously would have been during the the pandemic uh season right there there was no minor league season
going on you're just trying to kind of get by and figure out hey where can i work out but
when you and i first connected um actually the first time i think you were
still this was pre change uh pre uh mechanic will change
right so i think you were i think you were ended up at myrtle and that's when you were just talking about like you're still trying to kind of find
your way as a minor leaguer like hey i want to i i want to be every day i want to be able to go every day and whatever
role they need me and i got it so the next time we we connected was uh i think during the arizona fall
league yeah actually it was one of your an appearance in the afl and you had four strikeouts in that one
and that was again after the the change with your uh delivery and then when we had you on
this this last time it's kind of like okay i'm sort of in limbo uh and then
now we're talking to you as a major leaguer um
you you were not you're you debuted um you pitched for the cubs made it to
chicago and uh and that's i just think it's the coolest thing that's not a question i don't know where
i'm going with this and eventually i might get to one good path of you know getting to connect
with you evan i think uh you know after doing one of these maybe i'll be an all-star this year or something like
that so
there was something it was really cool so speaking of of max and there's and uh trevor williams has not been a guest
on the show although i did uh did get to meet his dad at uh at an i cubs indians
game uh when when he was pitching a rehab start i got to meet max's parents at south bend and then um when you guys
were coming through when you were with the icubs at the time coming through indianapolis it was really neat your parents were there
i got to talk with them a little bit and and one of the things that stuck with me it was it was so cool because you could see it and it's fun i was like talking
to parents right because uh you could just see it and and your your dad was like beaming and he was
like this is so cool he thought it was the coolest thing that you were just a step away at the time right this was in june it was june 30th it's actually the
same day the cubs blew that uh 7-0 lead against uh the brewers because i was like oh this is awesome i'm hitting here
watching the minor league game i don't even have to worry about the cubs they're up seven nothing great and then that didn't go but it was really neat
because you know he was just like he was so proud of the work that you had done and and what you had been able to
accomplish and the changes that you made and all this he's just a step away and then less than two well just under two
months later there you are you're no longer a step away you're at it so what
what was that like first of all getting the call to say you're coming to chicago
and then how how was that uh you know did you have to contain yourself were you just calling
friends and family like you know get in touch with you let your wife know letting your parents know letting everybody else how what was that like
for you in that whirlwind right after you got the call yeah wow uh it's a lot to kind of
think about there i i think for starters that that indianapolis trip where we got to see you and your son there that was
that was pretty cool to kind of connect there and i think part of the reason for my you know my parents excitement there was just being back in indiana you know
going to school there and everything you know they love it they love it there and especially in indianapolis and everything so that was that was a
special special week that we got to have there plus it's a beautiful stadium so uh but yeah they were they're obviously
excited for you know every kind of every milestone that i had last year but um but as far as the the call-up goes
we uh my story goes we were at home um in
des moines and we finished a pretty long game i can't remember who we were playing maybe omaha
um i think it was omaha and we finished like i think a an x-training game and we
went pretty late and you know i at that time we were live me and dakota because we're living like right across the street so we we head back i got my food
i'm i'm just getting to bed like 12 12 30 but the the big league game was still going on
they were playing the white sox that weekend and it was that crazy game where i think wisdom had two homers like two grand
slams or something like that and he was just going offs and there was a lot of runs being scored so a lot of pitchers getting used and
you know i'm just kind of following along and everything and i think it's like 12 30 12 45
i knew like the score and everything the game was over but um i got a call
from a an atlanta area code um that i didn't have my phone and i was like i i know uh
marty pb the manager um for uh for the i cubs you know it's from
from georgia so it's like ah usually i don't answer those calls but i feel like this one might might want to pick up and
have his numbers saved but you know it calls me and says hey yeah how far away from the field are you like ah it's you know like a block or two
he's like all right come on back you're uh you're going to the majors just like that and i was like like what
like no stop it like stop then i could hear like the coaches blah from the background like uh ron flown and
a couple of the other guys were kind of laughing like let's go sky yeah so like i i kind of i kind of had it you know
it was it was pretty cool moment there so um i kind of get up and i actually told the guy he's in the room next to me you know
at our apartment he was the first person i told so i you know went over zoom like hey got the call so you know got to got
to embrace him that was that was cool you know we've been through good through the minors together we were close so that was that was fun um
i i got dressed real quick and uh ran outside i'm calling my wife uh i
caught her like three times it was like 12 30 central time so like 1 30 back here in pittsburgh
called her a couple times like had to wake her up and she was like dead asleep and i had to tell her like four times it actually happened and
she like woke up real quick she went from like zero to 100 real quick and and just kind of like popped out of bed and
said oh my god oh my god oh my god i'm like yeah i gotta go i gotta call my parents and call my dad like uh i call my dad right
away and you know he got my mom on the phone and woke them up too and told them you know so that was that was pretty
special moment um and then you know went back to the locker room met up with uh pv and and rv and the rest of the rest
of the staff there so um that was that was pretty special then um from there you know woke up the next
day and headed headed to chicago so nice and
so what you know on a scale of so i know you've you've pitched in you pitched in the college world series
uh right was that your freshman year or sophomore year at iu freshman year freshman freshman years okay so
pretty big experience right that's the biggest possible stage you can play on as a college baseball player
um how did did that stack up being on the mound and be being out in omaha being a part
of that versus then stepping on to a major league mound like would same feeling uh bigger
butterflies how'd that all go what was uh how do you equate those things yeah
that's that's that's a good question i think uh i think the scale at least at the time was probably pretty similar in my mind
because you know obviously the college world series coming as a freshman that's as big as it gets i had no
kind of concept of what that magnitude would be like so i think at the time you know i probably felt pretty similarly but
obviously you go through the minors and you know six years in the minors and you kind of dream about the day of getting up to the
big leagues and and what it'll be like so yeah i think i think they're honestly pretty similar at least in my minds at the time but
uh i'll say that i think in both scenarios uh the butterflies in the bullpen like
warming up to go in the game were probably way or definitely way more
uh extreme i would say um once you get in the mound you kind of throw your first pitch it's kind of like okay you
know i'm doing and everything and that's how i kind of felt last year when i made my debut it's you
know i just want to get the first pitch out of the way throw a strike and kind of get off and uh you know and and
off and running there so uh i would definitely say the the the warm-ups and the bullpen and then i think jogging
jogging out to the mountain was that was a pretty surreal moment because we were at we were at a
guaranteed rate on the south side there and it was packed it was a beautiful sunday uh for my first outing and
it was packed like you know mostly socks fans but a lot of cubs fans too so it was it was it was a wild experience for
my first time so i think the jog jogging was pretty like whoa this is this is kid
pretty uh pretty wild to to say the least but um you know once i got on the mound and started pitching it's like
okay you know you know let's just just go to work kind of you know think through think through hitters and you know get off get off the mound and and
uh you know move on to the next one so why don't we uh john i think you had
something there yeah yeah talk talk about that that first outing i mean i know we were
comparing it to the college world series but like when you first came out i i watched that first outing yesterday
and i mean you you did well you you came out you got up 02 uh against uh who were you larry garcia
and uh and you you were getting real comfortable and then there was there was a you did something in your debut that you
know you just don't see happen in in any debut i mean i can't recall
well you didn't say it was about getting off the mound that's yeah i i think we've got video to
accomplish that so let's uh let's just see if we can pull up this video real quick
uh and then maybe you can just walk us through what happens here yeah okay here we go it's an ambush
right here so here we go yeah oh my gosh i think the
i think the most impressive thing that i did there was be somewhere near the strike zone and
and not breaking my ankle i think uh i think that was the most impressive thing there but
so yeah like was that nerves had that ever happened to you before never happened to
me before and honestly it wasn't nerves and i think a lot of people would like think it was nerves because like oh it's his major like debut he's facing a
really good team and everything i'll tell you i'll tell you the the honest truth i go out there and i'm
warming up and it's really hot and um the mound's like kind of dry i think it
was end of august so it's like really hot and the mound there was really a nice like slope and everything but it was really like kind of firm
and dylan cease actually text him after the game he was pitching and he was like notorious for
making these because he lands really hard on his uh landing and like kind of all over the place he he made this huge
hole in the mound and i'm not blaming him but um maybe indirectly
yeah he uh he made this huge uh like hole and i like i tried to move around
the rubber during my warm-ups um to like try to like finagle my foot to where i wouldn't be
rolling my ankle in there but i kind of just couldn't get comfortable like i don't like this right now i'm not feeling too comfortable right here so
i kind of whatever pitch that was and a couple pitches before i almost did it too but i just couldn't find like a comfortable landing spot
um but uh i yeah caught the edge of like the little
lip where his landing spot was and just like rolled my ankle but again like i i can't like
believe i didn't like break something right there i was i think i got so many texts after that so i was like how did
you stay up like that was really athletic after what you did so um i wouldn't equate it to nerves as much
as just me like not being super comfortable in the footing of the mound but you know you know it makes it makes
it a lot you know kind of makes more sense i guess if you say it's nerves uh you know then debut so yeah or
part of part of dylan ceases uh i think that's an advantage for him he messes with opposing hitters and pictures
absolutely yeah yeah he's like he's like yeah i texted him it was like he's like that mountain is so dry during the day and i'm like
he's like kind of like not apologizing but he kind of felt bad he was like we were kind of laughing about a little bit
he's a good dude but i mean he was i think he had like 15 punches that day so obviously whatever he was doing that
that was kind of working so and when you talk about the nerves of kind of your first outing and then
having to deal with with you know a mound that's a little kind of jacked up
does that does that help you kind of get your mind off the nerves a little bit because you're kind of i mean obviously
you don't want to be focused on you know a hole in the mound that you're trying to navigate but in the same sense did it
help kind of settle the nerves a little bit and kind of get you more in a rhythm of i've got to focus on what i'm doing
right now and versus this is my first time out there on the major league mound yeah in a sense i would say like you
never want to be like kind of like preoccupied with anything else when you're pitching you kind of just want to go through your routines and go through
your thought process when you're out there so whenever you're thinking about something that's not regarded at whether it's mound or nerves or kind of like you
know who's in the stands or whatever but um that's kind of that's kind of the tough
part um but i think uh yeah i think in a sense like once i kind of got that out of the way and found my footing a couple
pitches later it's like okay you know i'm just pitching and i think it kind of took away that that sense of nervousness
a little bit so so you went on uh 14 games 14 innings pitched 18 strikeouts
3.6 era one walk which is super impressive uh 11
strikeouts uh per nine innings what's your assessment of
you know your first experience your first season in the majors i mean looking at the numbers i just don't
think it could get much better than that but i wanted to ask you yeah um yeah i think it you know when it
went as as well as i could ask for i think you know obviously there's things to improve on there's a lot of things i
had going to the offseason that i've tried to work on this this winter um you know regarding specific pitches and just
being kind of smarter with my sequences and everything but you know overall i think it was i think it was pretty successful we actually were playing some
pretty good baseball at the time down the stretch so you know got into some kind of some semi-high leverage
situations which obviously helps you know regarding nerves like kind of getting those out of the way especially especially a couple at home
so that was really cool to kind of experience it and i think uh part of the
benefit of coming up and and kind of being there for the month was i did a lot of different roles um you know i
went two innings a couple times came in and got a couple righties a couple times so i'm just getting to experience all that and my first kind of
go up there was was really was really cool but um but yeah no i think it went well like
i said there's obviously things to things to work on but um you know heading into heading into this season i
feel very confident about you know uh you know being able to go out there and and and continue to build on that
i know you know one thing that was kind of interesting or at least and and again i think
a relatively small sample all things considered but um i know part of you
know when you have anybody who's whether you drop down low three quarters full sidearm submarine you know a lot of that
is it's it's deception but a lot of times it's people think about it as the like in
your case righty on righty or whether you're going lefty on lefty if you go the other side uh you think it feels
like it should be more deceptive to them right because you would think a left-handed batter is going to have a longer look at it maybe but uh i think
you you struck out as many lefties as righties uh held them to a lower average i mean was there um and i know when you
and i talked about it initially though a lot of that was that was the intent right is to be deceptive to both sides i
mean is is that something that um was a little bit i want to say it was surprising to you i know you should be
confident in your own ability but to to really i think i think lefties were i mean batting around 200 or something
like that in in that limited but to have struck out as many of them as you did righties was that part of the plan
uh or are you digging into that a little bit more to make sure those splits are as even as you can or or how do you view
that in terms of your ability to face batters from both sides
yeah definitely i think yeah we we talked about that uh you know the couple times we've we've talked since my
transition uh and i also want to say if you hear my dog barking i think you just went outside so if you start storming in here that's that's
that's why so i apologize in advance for that but um i think uh i think when
when we started this process with uh you know the guys in the pitching department i think um
we didn't want to pitch and hold what i could do just to say like i'm a righty specialist
because obviously the game's changing and you know lineups in the big leagues are are getting more split and you're
not gonna go out there and face three righties in a row just not gonna happen these days so i needed something to kind
of attack lefties with so i think from that mindset i think from the beginning it was always like i'm not gonna be just a brighty right-handed
specialist guy obviously i want to take care of my business against them but i want to be able to attack lefties as well so i think uh part of
part of the advantage um of not being able to play in 2020 was uh i did a lot of live vps
with some of the pro guys here and some of the college guys here who also weren't playing at the time um and there was a couple of good lefty hitters in
that group that are still in pro ball so i was able to kind of experiment and kind of just see what works and what
doesn't work against left-handed hitters and i think i kind of found a good footing heading into the last season
with that and again speaking with people in the pitching department um about what they
had in mind with that i think pairing those two and kind of seeing what worked and what what didn't work against lefties um you know early
in the season and once i got kind of comfortable with my processes to them i you know i felt very comfortable about
facing lefties so i think i think exactly what you said evan i think the deception from the right-handed side is kind of
inherent just because i'm kind of throwing behind it but i think also i create a deceptive
angle to lefties as well because it's something that's kind of coming towards them and and you know you know they don't see a lot of a lot of summary
there's you know there's submarines and sidearm guys in the game but not not every bad so i think just kind of being able to take
uh you know take advantage of that deceptiveness and and not seeing not seeing guys like myself a lot um and
being able to kind of locate and trust my stuff to lefties um and righties uh helped me kind of have success to to
both sides of the plate i know you definitely will run it in on a lefty uh from time to time uh
literally we'll we'll bring it at them uh so scare those guys a little bit maybe uh you know
bring it bring it in there you gotta buzz them a few times right because i know you're not uh you're not up there in the upper 90s like some of these guys
now so i know you got to keep them honest and and you know just plunk a guy from time to time right establish your dominance yeah
as you come yeah i think i i think i actually honestly i'd probably hit more guys last year than i might have walked
more guys uh and a lot of them were a lot more exactly that like when i'm going lefties like up and in like i'm
kind of just like ticking their jerseys so a lot a lot of those i had last year i remember at least a handful
um where i did that so yeah but like you said i i think for me a guy that doesn't have
upper 90s stuff i don't want i don't want either side of the plate getting too comfortable as far as leaning out over the plate and being able especially
the lefties i don't you know a lot of lefties are so strong that they can kind of take the ball to the left center gap and just kind of sit back on a two seam
and unless i'm like perfect with it and kind of see and see that and i saw that a couple times in the big leagues last
year and that's definitely one of the things that i wanted to go on and work on in this offseason so um but yeah being able to be competitive
inside um it's you know it's something i've always taken pride in and you know especially now so uh as a sidearm
pitcher well and i know you you've always been a guy who who limited his walks right if you look
at your numbers throughout your career um and and sometimes you know especially for someone who's a reliever
even if you don't walk a lot of guys that that rate can get kind of high you know because you walk anybody if you're
in there for one inning or for you know you're facing two batters you walk one that can be a big deal and so as john
mentioned you know having just walked and that i thought that was perhaps the most impressive thing i had seen and it
wasn't until what your second and last appearance i think that you walked anybody at all i mean you went you went
your first 12 or 13 games without a walk and when we're talking about the most advanced hitters
in the game you know these guys who will spit on a slider that just misses off the corner um you know who will take all
day and i think you know perhaps if we color this a little bit you know umpires a lot of
times might give more of the benefit of the doubt to jose abreu than some rookie who's just come up um and so to to only
issue that one walk i mean was there anything different in your approach that you're saying
i'm gonna make these guys beat me i'm comfortable throwing strikes at this level um or was it simply a matter of
just the way your stuff plays at uh at the highest level the game maybe being a little bit different from
how it plays at the minor league level yeah that's a really good question and and kind of just want to like kind of
think about out loud because i think it's a kind of a combination about of all of all of all the things you
mentioned you know um like you said those are the best hitters in the world and you know not gonna obviously want a full one but
you're not gonna fold a whole lot so when you when you get your opportunities to you know attack the zone you kind of
have to and i think honestly probably the best piece of advice i got was on day one i showed up in chicago and
i passed uh david bowie in the locker room and he said hey you know he's like i know you're like you'll be nervous like you'll have a
genital flow in but just keep this in mind like just throw strike one like just get out there and and compete it doesn't matter if you give up back to
back to back jacks like if you come up here and like you're timid and like you you you look like you're out of place
then you're gonna get eaten alive you're not gonna get chances so just come out and throw strikes and i think i'd
inherently took that to heart because i pride myself in that like we talked about so
my whole mantra up there was just getting ahead and and i think i was able to do that enough to where i wasn't
having to work in too many behind counts or even counts um
so i was able to kind of you know let my stuff play in the zone a little bit out of the zone um like i said they're you know they're the
best years in the world but you still if you throw good pitches you know it's still gonna still gonna beat a lot of guys um
so i think for me it was just a concentration of getting strike one getting ahead not showing that you know
i'm i'm gonna be you know working the corners too too much you know try to try to hit my spots
and trust my catchers and i think also along with that you know you're in the big leagues and
obviously we were out of the playoff race at that time but still it's it's a big league game and i think you're just
your inherent focus is just so much more magnified because it's like you want to compete and if every game needs so much
more um even you know if it's you know you know or whatever type of situation
game so i think just being up there you want to you want to show that you can compete at the highest level and i think that just kind of kicks into a gear you
just don't get sometimes in the minor leagues um with with your focus and everything so i think kind of those two things combined
of my mindset and just kind of the just being in the major league kind of helped me
um control my walk rate uh during the season so how different has this offseason been
for you in terms of your preparation your confidence and in your approach
uh you know having had that experience at the major league level versus you know obviously any other preseason
before this like how different has this offseason been for you in in your approach
yeah it's it i think from it's kind of been tricky like with the sidearm not tricky
but i think it's been different each offseason with my sidearm approach you know first off season was kind of just
learning how to do it i guess uh second off season has you know it was like how do we take the next step and
and develop our pit develop my pitches and kind of be comfortable with that now that i feel comfortable with my base and
comfortable with my stuff i think it's just kind of adding to that it's it's being perfect with certain pitches that i know it could be perfect with it's you
know kind of taking the time to really understand how my body's moving and and and really
perfect my my mechanics now while i have the time um trying to be
as perfect as i can with my mechanics um you know every day and then i think part of the thing i learned last year during
2021 was just sometimes i get out of two uh out of line with the mechanics how am i
gonna make that adjustment um you know during next season so i think just being able to strip away that and
kind of know that i feel comfortable with my pitches i feel confident going in the next season uh how can we make that even
better um from from even last year so i know i uh and i don't want to give you
i don't want you to give away any secret sauce but i know you had mentioned maybe some tweaking some pitches or tweaking
the sequencing a little bit because you're what primarily sink or slider change
little four seam or is it more forcing than sinker but i mean the three three main pitches right for if you if you
depending on how and i know it's always interesting too because i think every every individual pitcher
might classify their own pitches a little bit differently from what you know if you look on fan graphs or whatever there's only so much that can
be there or they're gonna you know classify things maybe differently but have you tried to
are you doing anything this off season or have you to to change any
uh grips or to change kind of the um the mix of the pitches that you're looking to throw as you go forward how
what's what's that look like in the process yeah um i think uh it's less changing
board just kind of tweaking and kind of finding where i feel comfortable with i think the biggest thing for me is just
uh as far as from a grip overhaul is was my change up this year i felt good with
my change up last year i didn't use as much as i think i would like to but um when i threw it well last year it was
effective when i threw it bad it was not very good so i think kind of nailing that and and kind of feeling comfortable
with that going into this year was was probably my biggest uh grip adjustment but i played around with different grips
you know it's a good time like i said to kind of strip away everything and focus on uh what works best and you know
see if you know spreading my fingers out a little bit more on a sinker or moving them up a little bit on a slider see if that works best so
during catch play now uh well i have the time but um i think just little tweaks to make
myself feel comfortable from a grip standpoint or it's kind of been my focus uh focus this offseason
so i should have told you or asked you i shouldn't demand anything but i should have asked you if you had a ball because
i oh man i i always forget this because i always like see these grips because i i but i do have a question
about that and and i've never really thought about this before yeah because
you know there are certain pitches that are going to be different for
a sidearm delivery than they would be for a typical over the top or even a three-quarter or something like that
right so if i think about a circle change and i've got it here you know and i want to whatever whatever you know
some people say you want to wipe the inside of the ball or you want to pronate or whatever they would call it but i i feel like for me and i've got a
bad shoulder so it hurts to even do that normally um but i i feel like the pronation would be
much easier from a more over-the-top grip so when you're what is what is the uh the function what is the mechanics
what are the mechanics of your uh of your up what's that grip look like and how are you able to get
that uh the the change from that different angle yeah um so actually i do have a ball in
my other room so i'll go grab one because i think it's easier to explain uh to fill time talk about the best sidearm
pitcher of all time while i'm gone oh well there we go best side of it was dan quisenberry
was he oh well you know what about steve seashek with his uh submariner submarine
came in dude randy johnson decided randy johnson had a really low arm angle so i'm i'm going i'm
considering him sidearm because he was nasty like that because that thing was so low
and he's 6 10 and so by the time he's released it he's like eight feet closer you know what i
mean remember when he remember that bird that he killed it exploded
in the middle of i settled on randy johnson so who'd you come up with i i say randy
johnson because i consider randy johnson i said dennis eckersley yeah i was gonna say accuracy is probably up there uh i
would like to give some a shout out to my boy steve seashek on
because i know you've you've studied his work yeah in the preparation for all this but yeah
um so i got i i grab a ball so i think it's easier for it's kind of the changeup i feel like is
the probably the hardest pitch i've had to work on um
with the siren just because i feel like i'm at an angle where it's not
like more times than not like if i'm throwing it poorly i'm gonna get underneath it and when you get
underneath the change up it's just gonna float or worse not move at all and that's like
especially when you're throwing to lefties excuse me if you just keep that thing in the zone it's going to get hit i remember facing
uh time of the stellar last year i threw him two changeups in a row and threw one really good one and i should have stopped at that one really good one
um and i threw him another one and it just kind of hung there and he's like oh i've seen this before i'm gonna hit it to the left center you
know left center field gap and i think that for me was the probably the one of the biggest things i wanted to
focus on like i said this offseason was just kind of being consistent with that and learning how to throw it so my grip with
that i kind of went from like a traditional kind of split finger type deal with like
a circle to kind of almost like overloading the ball on this side and kind of feeling like
i have like a wall on top of my wrist so i have like a really firm grip on this side of it um so i can't really get
underneath it if i'm gonna throw it it's gonna be down if i miss down that's okay you know you know i'm not gonna get hurt
down there but if i get underneath it and scoop it it kind of just floats and stays there and has no real sort of
effect from what i'm looking for so i think being able to put a little pressure on this side of my hand and kind of create
like a hard like imaginary line of a wall and really forcing the ball down
has helped me kind of feel better with the action of it and i think being more consistent with where i'm actually releasing that pitch will
help me with that as well because sometimes i would get underneath it a little bit and that would even if i would throw a good one it just kind of
looked different so um i think being able to focus on that this uh this winter has been uh you know uh
beneficial for for that pitch so so then you know so like typically
right if i and i typically for for me or as you know again
so i'd be kind of trying to create uh counterclockwise side spin typically right if i were to
pronate or if you devon williams and you over which is the wildest thing in the world
like if you watch that you're like he's a freak yeah that's not even fair and it's like upside down like i i try to do
just to play with it and it it like i i stopped because it and he's like spinning it he's like also like spinning
it really really high like so it the physics of that pitch make no sense it's it's one of the it's one of the craziest
pitches i think in baseball history it's really stupid yeah it's not even fair but but i guess my
but with yours again and it's typically the grip right but again if i were to pronate and i'm getting the ball to spin
this way but if you're trying to stay on top right because you're not trying to get come over under
is it more of a like almost a it's not a gyro but i mean it's still side spinning but just not the same direction is that
is that what you're aiming for like is it almost a uh washing machine uh spin you know kind of
like that or yeah i i i'm trying to get the spin the same as my two stream because i feel like i've
throw it mostly off the two seams so if it looks like that and kind of profiles the same as the two seam that's the most
effective for me i've kind of taken the term uh like pronation outside out of my vocabulary
for this because i'm already down on the side when i throw the ball on the snaps are going to come over the top of it so i'm not even trying to think because
that's just like a lot of extra thought process to try to think to get over the top right if i just throw it and have it
come off my fingers the way i want to and have the grip the change up grip and i give lessons i
tell the kids i give lessons to all the time that like find a grip that's comfortable for you and and makes the ball eight to ten miles an hour slower
like doesn't matter if it moves that much it doesn't matter if you're pronating correctly or whatever but like if you throw it like a fastball
um and hey buddy there he is oh he's got a bathroom where's he at hey where is he come here
he's all wet come here what are you doing watching what are you doing
okay um dogs and babies we love dogs and babies here yeah yeah we
we had you know ethan roberts was on yeah he had his daughter with him the entire time
his uh his newborn and then uh let's see alec mills
oh hey look at that guy yeah there he is he's a little golden retriever puppy so he's a lot of fun
just hijacking this conversation right now he's all wet i think he's rolling some mud outside so
scott where are you like where where are you located right now uh in pittsburgh in pittsburgh okay cool
yeah yeah so it's honestly pretty nice out here so um the snow's all melting i think he was having some fun out there at my wife's
expense so um sorry i've got a i've got a very i've
got some business to take care of very important conversations to have yeah exactly i'm trying to keep my career going here so
uh um i think uh yeah like i said i i think the um
uh trying to just throw the change up the way
you know you hear it all the time like throw it how you would throw a fastball and just kind of trust it and have it
beat down in the zone that's how you have thrown effective change up in my mind so i'm trying to do too much of it
sometimes like trying to think about pronation or throwing it you know with a perfect circle change grip
um i think kind of gets a little like you start thinking about a little too much because it is a finesse pitch and you try to really
um oh my god he's knocking things over i'm sorry um uh
i think it because for me especially like it becomes like too much to kind of to to think about at the time um
so uh i think just kind of try to keep it simple trying to find a grip that works for me and keeps it consistent is
uh is kind of what i'm trying to do with the pitch and how about like with the slider and
i'm interested in this as well because you know there's there's a couple different and i think anymore like it's
it's uh sometimes it becomes interchangeable people talk about cutter slider um obviously if you you could throw both
depending on you know the cutter is generally gonna be a little bit sharper the slider is usually gonna sweep a little bit more and with being a sidearm
guy i'm interested in that too because you've you're gonna have some natural sweep to the pitch right because you're
coming across from that angle so what's the cue on the slider that you're able to get that are you are you
looking for more drop are you because i i wouldn't imagine you want to get too much sweep on it because it's going to carry it too
far away but what does that look like for you when you're trying to throw that pitch yeah um actually in my in my mind i'm
trying to get as much as possible yeah um i mean obviously you want like you want as much
control movement with any pitch you kind of throw so i think whether it's dropping a little bit or even rising
sometimes i think that's you know kind of a side factor because i did throw a few that kind of i tried to rise up and
try to throw into lefties a little bit last year um
uh but i think for me the slider is that that's the pitch that i think was
the difference maker for me because i think just being able to throw that and and compete with two i would say good
pitches um with a different arm slot is is kind of
uh you know enough enough to be competitive against a lot of guys and um i think once i started getting
comfortable with my slider like i said in 2020 when we were not playing i was able to
focus on a lot of the the shapes of those pitches and kind of nail those so i think that's really
where it kind of started to become more comfortable with it so um in my mind i'm trying to get it to go here to here um
and kind of just like you know it called like uh shift shifting lanes like as quick as possible
so um i i try to throw it um i have my like starting points you know what wherever
spot i'm throwing it whether it's if i'm throwing it's already i want to start this side of the plate and have it come across
i think being able to just visualize uh my eye sights and my finish point on
that has been the biggest thing and i think just kind of finding a grip like we talked about that that's comfortable that i'm able to kind of turn over and
try to kind of sweep my arm across the zone um with that i think has been
uh the best kind of at least i'm like i feel like i i've spun it all right
before that but uh i think just kind of having at least in my mind um the focal the focal point um that's
the word i was looking for the focal point of where i'm trying to actually throw the pitch is is kind of separated it so
i'm just trying to stay back on it as long as possible and kind of reach my hand out and kind of flick it and
use that uh you know the natural the natural motion i already have with the ball to kind of
take it across across the zone so and are you when you when you set that focal point is that
uh primarily i mean are you are you trying to pick out a physical spot like okay i'm looking at my you know i'm
looking at my catcher's left knee i'm looking at the glove i'm saying are you picking out a physical spot like a
starting point because i know hey if i start here and and i execute the pitch it's going to end
here uh or or do you have another kind of a cue that you use yeah yeah that's that's my thing it's like i
wherever my catcher's glove is i'm i'm trying my best to throw it there so if we're setting up for a slider
you know away from a righty like i'm trying my best to focus in on that you know the stitching of that glove and try to say like i know where i need to start
it this is that's where i need to finish it so um i think one thing when i got up to
the major leagues i was able to execute that because i was talking about like just focusing so much more
on pitch to pitch you know not more but like just like kind of just you're more into each each pitch because it means so
much more um up there but i think uh yeah just it's as simple
as that just kind of focusing on the target whatever target it is some guys choose different spots but for me it's
where the catcher's glove is and uh no matter what the pitch i'm i'm trying to kind of take take the pitch to
that uh to that spot do you ever have to work with the catcher and and and tell them hey listen
man you need to set up your club in a different place um i think initially i i like to tell i
liked it for guys i haven't um thrown to because my eyesight you know coming from a
different angle like a lot of guys think like slider down and away is like the best pitch or whatever but for me i'm trying to get it a little
bit higher because i want to swoop it across a little bit more um so i will tell guys like hey for the
slider let's set up a little bit higher but never never like in game like once guys kind of figure out like what i'm throwing they kind of you know they they
get it so um and i was really lucky last year at both uh you know iowa and in the big leagues
to throw some really and a double a too as well to you know to amaya down there
before he got hurt um to throw some good catchers and and guys kind of
and to guys that i've thrown to before so um i was i was lucky in that regard to work with some good guys
was it was there anything surprising i mean you've been you know you you've
spent your whole life playing baseball right you came up you get drafted out of college you spend six uh six years-ish
in the minors there dreaming about that that time being up in the majors but i know you know for
all of us so we sit there and we think you know we see the the pitching part of it we see you you know maybe in the
bullpen uh you know warming up we'll see on the mound but was there anything
that was kind of surprising about the routine at the majors that was that you were like i didn't really think about this as
much and i want to preface this i know like when i when another another friend of the program
scott cobos had a really really great season last year his first in in the pros
i talked with him at south bend and he was just like even just getting used to the routine going from myrtle beach to south bend
and just like okay where do i live relative to the ballpark what time do i need to be here how does my routine look
was there anything that kind of surprised you or or made you sort of really have to pay attention to
what that new routine looked like once you got to the majors yeah definitely i think you know i think
you know when you move levels doesn't matter what level there's always a different shift
you know like you said myrtle beach to south bend that's kind of a drastic shift obviously you know it's just one level you know from from low a to high
but like you know still like you said you have to get used to the routines you know where what time you need to get the park when you need to leave so i think
all that kind of inherently with every level is an adjustment um i think for me uh
i like to take you know take pride in my preparation and make sure i give myself plenty of time so i'm always on the earlier side of getting to the park but
you know when you get to the major leagues a lot of guys are on that side because they're you know that's why they're successful so just seeing guys
there early and you know kind of putting in the work and and being diligent with with what they need to do
is is something i kind of try to learn from um but yeah i think it took me a little bit to to get used to being in chicago and
when i needed to leave depending on where i was living or you know where on the road and everything uh i like to say
i followed around uh i was i was adam morgan's basically uh you know suitcase for for a month and a
half because i pretty much followed him whenever he would go to the park i would go to the park so um and a couple other guys too so um but
uh i think uh i think honestly one thing i really learned a lot was just because the
amount of day games we play at wrigley kind of learning that comfortability i guess of you know
because it's obviously an earlier start today and uh earlier finish so you get to bed a little bit earlier but still like kind
of getting up and getting moving a little bit um kind of that that took not like a a few you know it took a
little bit to kind of just understand like okay like i think i hear it this time
because i need to you know get my body moving just a little bit more because it's earlier in the day so i think being able to
uh figure those situations out um plus on top of you know living in chicago for
for about a you know month and a half the time um i think took a little bit of time but um once you once you get a good rhythm
it's you know they they take care of they take care of you up there so it's really you got everything you need once you get to the yard and you know once
you're there it's kind of easy to kind of get in a a good a good mental mental habit of
preparation so yeah from uh from
the mental side is really cool that's something i've been um really interested in
for a while now to the point there's some really cool stuff that's out there i mean even at the the lower levels now
it's very interesting where they can you know you can do a virtual interview there's this program you can do a virtual interview and they'll like go
through your linguistics and how you answer questions and they can put out your personality profile and
match that up against it anyway without getting too far afield there um i do
think that does make it interesting but mentally then as far as right it takes a
tremendous amount of drive as you just mentioned you know you get to the bigs and like everybody's there early you
know because that's they they kind of have that similar mentality um and when it comes to just being hungry
right and and driving to reach that level how how did that last
month the month and a half there obviously you have we could say you had achieved your dream
um but i don't think your dream was ever just i i want to appear in 14 major league ball games i mean i i think
obviously your dream is to be a a consistent force
on a major league uh roster in in on the pitching staff for a long time now so how how did that
kind of did that add fuel to the fire was that was that kind of did you look at that as just another step in a bigger
plan how do you kind of see that for yourself how did that uh further motivate you
yeah definitely i think baker also wants to answer that question what are you doing buddy why don't you
go once you go away um yeah i think yeah i i've always kind of been a big
proponent of the mental side um for me i think being i i would
characterize myself as kind of like not an overthinker on the mound but i like to you know think a lot about situations
and everything um while i'm out there so i think in you know sometimes in the past that's kind
of been uh you know part of an issue for me it's kind of just trying to do too much while
i'm out there so i think being able to simplify it um especially when i drop down sidearm um that kind of helped me
like reset a little bit and kind of create a new mental mental approach to the game but um
yeah i i think uh honestly when i got up there um
everybody kind of thinks like oh you want to you know you want to get out there and just do it and say like oh i'm a major leaguer nobody can take this
away from me and you know i think going into it that might have been my mindset to be honest um but once i like you
mentioned uh john like you know once i thought my first pitch i just wanted to keep doing it and like
you get there and it's just like you don't that that mindset of whether it's false or you know you know you think it
in your head or you actually believe it um that mindset of just saying like oh i'm
a major leaguer you know that's great and everything like nobody can take it away from me like i just wanted to keep
going and i remember after my first outing i told my parents and my wife we were at dinner and just like like that was awesome like i like that was awesome
like i'm happy i did it but i want to keep go i want to go to the field right now like just keep doing it you know obviously it's very exciting
everything and you get used to it a little bit more but i think for me being up there for that month
i'd never wanted to not be at the field i always wanted to be doing something just because it's you know it's a dream come true and you know getting to play
in the major leagues and you know some very cool very cool stadiums and get some really you know some of the best players in the
world um it's you know it's what you want to do for for as long as you can so i think that drive to
like you said um evan that drive you kind of have to build it in yourself
but once you get up there it's just like for me at least i i just wanted to keep going and going and just like do it as
many times as possible so uh being able to go out there as many times as i did at the end of the season was was exactly
what i feel like i needed so um but yeah i think the mental side of it is is you know you kind of have to
create your own create your own your drive sometimes um in your head to to get to that point and
then once you uh once you get there i think uh just keeping in mind that like hey i want to stay here is is kind of the
ultimate driving factor there yeah and not wanting to get into the whole lockout and the situation that's
going on but you know we'd be remiss not to mention it um you know with that going on obviously like it
changes your approach uh or it must i don't know if your approach has changed quite yet because perhaps it's been it's
the same uh you know because we don't know what's going to happen if spring training is going to start on time or whatnot but
but looking forward like um have you changed anything at all um
have you been doing anything differently or or has it been pretty much exactly what you do if the season was going to
start on time yeah um i think yeah obviously you know it's
it's uh something you can't kind of avoid at least thinking about but for me i i've kind of just tried to you know
been been the same way with in 2020 it's just kind of controlling what you can control there's you know um you know for
me i'm just kind of you know try try to go out there every day during the off season and take care of my business do you might you know do my workouts and
and get my throwing in and you know when the time comes uh we'll get going but uh you know for me i think uh just just
trying to control what i can control is is you know it's kind of as simple as that for for
what i'm looking to do so and uh this is a really important question is the dog's name baker
haha yes it is you name your dog after cleveland's quarterback yes sir because cleveland is a perpetual
underdog uh the uh so i will such a guy putting it
so i originally said dog but yeah yeah so we're originally from cleveland to be my wife and uh you know she liked the
nate baker so i will put a little bit of it on her but uh i told her i'm like you know if we if we name i'm not gonna
throw her under the bus here but you know if we name him baker lots a lot's riding on the dog's shoulders that that he can't control right now and i think
at the time we got him got him back in october uh baker mayfield started to slip a
little bit as far as his play and got hurt a little bit so i'm like yeah he might be kind of bad luck but um i'm a huge browns fan and and you
know i've uh you know said that before so and baker's baker's my guy as far as you know as a quarterback so um well you
can always say you named him after john baker you know yeah yeah exactly john b and
now he's with the pirates right so there you go the pittsburgh connection is there so
it's beautiful yeah yeah exactly named him after uh one of the best people i've met in baseball so
there you go now he's easy out in case people ask how do you feel about we don't need to get into the politics of
this but how do you feel just generally about the cleveland's new name the guardians are you are you excited about
it do you think it'll settle in is it just kind of just roll with it kind of yeah
yeah i think uh it's you know it's one of those things i know you know the washington football team just had their new name and you know i think a lot of
people you know talk about it for a couple days on twitter and then it kind of you know it everybody's got an opinion right yeah exactly so i i kind
of like the name i think i think if anything the logo might need some work i think they'll kind of fix that up but i
think the name's good i think it you know it obviously um ties into the area around the stadium so
um with the with the guardian bridge being right there so i think you know it's something you kind of go over uh
every time you go to the stadium so it's right there you see it every every time you go to progressive field so i like the name um you know i you know
obviously they you know they felt like they needed to change it and i think it you know it's as good as name as you know any
any other any other name would have been so so it the the last thing i'll ask is
when i talked this was a couple years ago and i uh i was talking to ian miller who
had been at the cubs organization for a while but i know he had a you know a similar experience when he was first called up and i know he he admitted you
know so when he used kind of his first mlb uh check to buy a ring for his wife you're already married but did you
the the the pay scale is a little bit better at the major league level even though i think you guys should should be paid a little bit more you don't have to
agree or disagree with that i'm just throwing that out there of my own volition i would like to working on that but did you did you splurge a little bit
or did that all get socked away did you did you have a little fun when you first got that mlb check
because i'm assuming it's a little bit more than what you had been used to at the minor league level were you able
to that first check may have been equal to an entire season in the mind really responsible and i know you are a very responsible
person i know what i would have done but i i just wondered if you were able to maybe maybe treat your parents to dinner
or something yeah yeah definitely yeah i took care of them um you know what i think they came to uh
uh we came to chicago a couple times you know we went out to dinner um and then during the off season took him to dinner
i think like once or twice just to kind of say thank you you know uh as much of a thank you as pot you know like
for for all the countless hours of you know driving and everything i'll you know say thank you with a dinner i guess that kind of doesn't equal out but um i
you know we got we got the dog so he's been quite an investment uh investment as is so yeah uh you know we
try to be smart with it and kind of uh you know save it as much as we can but obviously you know just you know treat
yourself a little bit um i will say that uh quick ian miller story love ian miller uh definitely one of my favorite
guys on that iowa team last year um we were in uh we were in the outfield in saint paul
i think two weeks maybe not even i think it's the last road trip we had before i got called up
we were talking and i was i was throwing pretty well um i had a pretty good outing the day before and we were talking while
he was getting reads and i was shagging he's like hey man it's like you're not gonna be here for much longer i'm telling you right now i got a feeling
i'm like okay like i you know like okay and like i know you're super positive and everything and
uh you know you're super positive i think i appreciate that he's like i'm just you know i got a pitch tonight like whatever
um he's like no i'm telling you man you're not gonna be here you're not gonna make it to the end of the month i promise you just mark my words i'm like
okay and uh i got called up on i didn't remember i should know the date but i think it was like the 26th
27th something like that and he texted me after he found out he's like man i love being right like i knew
i knew you want to make it at the end of the month so he was he was awesome to to kind of get to know and play with this year but uh yeah he's he's a good dude
and uh one of the one of the one of the people i followed around um in iowa and kind of followed his lead so
well i can i can say uh now i have not had my son has not quite experienced the the success that
you have he's also a little bit younger so i i my expectations for him at this point are a little bit but i could
he's trying and uh he's he's like a baby giraffe right now um because he's just growing but but what i was going to say
is i i think you know the the dinner when you talk about your your parents say we'll repay but i i
will guarantee and you already know this but i i will guarantee being able to watch you do
what you do is the biggest gift they could possibly ever have for the work that they put in
and being able to see that and i think you know again i always like to say this like um
and i feel like we do a really good job of this on the show maybe it's just that i've encountered just some really good
dudes across the the way um but it's it's been really really awesome to just
follow your career as that has gone along and i've shared this before but like i knew of you from being an iu fan
and i used in the college world series oh i've heard of this kid oh hey you got drafted by the cubs that's neat oh cool
i get to do an interview and then to have have seen that come in because we're talking about you know
again that's that's uh 10 years um from 10 or 11 years uh so far because
what was that uh 2012 yeah anyway um i just it's been really cool for me so
it's been a rewarding kind of a thing to follow that and i think everybody who i've ever talked to um who i've
mentioned you know hey oh yeah we got to you know i met up with scott the last time he was here and whether it's ethan roberts like oh he's a great dude
maxwell oh he's a great dude ian miller oh he's one of the best so anyway i know you have have made a really really good
impression on whether it's teammates everybody else and i i appreciate the time that you've taken for us i
appreciate you putting up with my uh with my uh the videos and providing some advice
never putting up with it it's a pleasure i i love getting to yeah i love getting to work with
with ryan and kind of you know see him see him grow as far as his game off the mountain so never never
never never bothered with that for sure well as somebody you're from cleveland so you're used to kind of toiling and
trying to deal with very difficult things uh with the with the browns there so i'll uh i understand but no i i
really do i'm i'm really thankful for the time that you've spent with us here and i'm i'm super super looking forward
once we finally get this thing back and started to uh to seeing what that next chapter is for you and and watching you
kind of come into your own even further coming out of that bullpen and and hopefully locking that thing down in those uh in those middle late innings
yeah no i appreciate that evan yeah it's been it's been uh it's been an honor getting to know you guys you know you guys uh you know always been good to me
and throughout my you know throughout my career and kind of get to get in chat with you uh you know as a fellow
hoosiers it's been very cool um very cool experience for for me too so i i appreciate you know all that and and
like you said you know i think uh you know for my parents my family it it's it's obviously impossible to repay
repay them and you know my wife and and my friends and family for all the you know the sacrifices they've taken um
throughout the year as far as you know travel and everything come to see me play but um yeah my parents especially you know they i'm an only child so um i
like to think i get a lot of spotlight with them and and just just inherently but you know growing up i was i was the
priority as far as you know you know baseball tournaments and you know you know taking kids everywhere to
you know try to try to make sure they're they're doing the thing so i'm i'm extremely grateful for all the hours they put in and i'm
happy i'm happy at least in in some regard it kind of paid off and paid off in the end a little bit so yeah today
excited excited to keep keep trying to make it pay off and and and you know continue to continue to play the game i
love and you know that they that they raised me with so i'm very very grateful for that as well it's one the the last
thing speaking of hold on i just want to share one and i sorry this because it's just it reminded me so like i you know i
met your dad down there we were talking to you over by the bullpen in india and we came up and it was after the game and then your mom was over there and uh and
your dad just kind of introduced me she was like oh hey nice to meet you and then i said oh this is the cubs insider guy and then her face just lit up she
was like oh oh you've been there yeah you know it's so it's just that was like the coolest
thing and it's just so yeah so seeing again i i love i love seeing how our parents just light up about because it's
like to to then have that and to know like hey that that was really cool like when
i always assume that like nobody reads anything that i that i write or like they'll see this they'll see this i'll
get notes from from them and and other people that watch this for sure so yeah they yeah they they know who you guys
are absolutely they and they love your guys's you know love you guys take on everything so i love it yeah they're yeah they're they're fun they were they
were they were excited to meet you and you know my dad's so funny he's like yeah can i say hi to him and everything so he's uh yeah they're they're they're
starving yeah well that was great well we were hanging out after the game and just just kind of talking and going through that whole i just i i enjoy that
tremendously and uh and it's just that that getting to meet the parents is almost more fun you know no offense to
you but uh it's it's kind of more fun than the players but yeah yeah you know it's so but it's cool like
okay where did this person come from what helped him to get to this drive and and uh and all that and so anyway like i
said i appreciate it and as a as a as a father you know i i i just dig that whole vibe
so anyway i'll stop rambling for a while and let's say john maybe close this thing up let you go back and take care
of the dog one thing to note uh just so you know scott is uh unlike before we actually
published this as a podcast so any anybody who wants to just listen to it they don't have to they don't actually
have to look at our faces they can just good yeah it works out really well when you're displaying this displaying the pitch
grips that's what's uh it works great in podcast form but i was going to say i hope you don't need any more pitch grip explanation because i think baker
just took a picture yeah but but i would i would also like
to reiterate what evan was saying you know i'm a dad i've got two kids to play baseball and i know if i could just full
time just go and watch them play and support them and
you know just just do that as a parent that's just like the coolest thing right i would just quit every single other
thing that i do so uh i'm sure i think it's it's funny to hear you say that you're thankful i mean obviously you're
going to be thankful but to to hear you say that you're thankful because as a parent it's just like such a pleasure to
do it so yeah absolutely both sides of that yeah no and as you guys know it's you know i feel like raising raising uh
raising kids in baseball is is unique and and being able to share that moment is is is you know is awesome so i hope
to hope to you know someday be able to repay the favor with you know with my kids um but uh yeah i know like like i
said i'm i'm very fortunate to to to have the support system i have and you know
i think uh getting to see them at uh u.s cellular uh guaranteed rate
was a pretty pretty special moment a lot of biscuits yeah kaminsky yeah yeah south side field uh
it was it was a pretty special moment to kind of you know a lot of emotions kind of going into that to that kind of that
brace there so that's that's uh pretty cool yeah cool all right well hey man thanks for uh thanks for joining us it's been
great as always and uh yeah much success hopefully this uh lockout gets resolved soon we've got some encouraging news
coming out i think hopefully and uh and we'll see you in the season dominating
appreciate it guys thanks for having me on all right take care scott
nice cool yeah speaking of uh the just quickly obviously we've gone
uh a little long here today but uh you know some maybe somebody's listening maybe they join like mid stream maybe
they don't uh but i did want to comment there's a lot uh coming out right now and obviously we'll have some on the the
website about uh uh rob manfred's comments that he made um
and uh sounds like he's encouraged it's always hard to tell with the owners whether they're trying to set it up to
you know kind of look good after they make a really crappy proposal that doesn't move at all or if they're
actually really going to make a proposal i mean according to manfred he's saying that they're not announcing a delay to spring
training they're not announcing which is crazy because it's supposed to start you know pitchers and catchers were what february 14th
yeah and the 15th and so it's hard to imagine uh maybe they're
just positioning themselves to you know be kind of have this positive outlook on things hey look how positive we are uh
we made this great proposal uh and and you know play it up as a political thing
but uh i i guess it's i don't know it's so hard to be
encouraged through any of this yeah the one the one thing i'll say and i and i did write about this you know so they
they did say hey universal dh is is coming like that's agreed upon draft
lottery agreed upon you know i was fully expecting for
manfred to not only say that the the sort of spring training is delayed yeah but that it's the player's fault right
because that's exactly what he came out you know right after the lockout start we're doing this because the players don't want to negotiate and then they
waited 43 days to actually give the players a proposal so um it does and and knowing that like
basically and there's supposed to be a new proposal coming from the league on saturday at which point
and now we're talking three days before which i i still think like that's come on dude like people who are like players
who live internationally they're not getting to their respective sites within two or three days given the
the state of travel and especially if there's weather in certain places you know i mean scott's out there in pittsburgh
if a storm comes through and it grounds all the flights so you ain't getting out you know what i mean like that that could happen so
three days a little bit tight um but the fact that that manfred was really
positive about a bunch of stuff that he didn't just throw players under the bus
immediately and like it makes me feel and honestly we've talked about this right and then i still hold my
conspiracy that you know the owners could snap their fingers and make a decision
and come to meet the players on a couple different fronts and this thing would be over right um oh hey the super bowl's on
sunday well gosh you could you know you could come out get this thing going get spring training turn it right around the way
get it done so i don't know i i feel like this thing is is actually i
i don't want to say i don't i'm not saying i believe rob manfred i want to be careful about that but i i think more
what i believe is like believe in the devil yeah it's it's more what he didn't do than what he did right because like
of course you're gonna say i think it'll start well actually we did expect him to to delay it that's the part that and i
wonder if there was a change if the intent initially was to say we're gonna delay it but then it's like well
no the owner because they've been meeting for three days maybe there's some positive things out of that i don't know but
um i mean we'll see but i mean they they all know how disastrous it would be but it's the only the owners that were
meeting for three days right so there was there were no players players no no the players met separately here in arizona
they're making a proposal on on on saturday so yeah and so it feels to me like they're just trying to position
themselves to kind of be like hey look we were so ready to go and and now the players are shutting it
down i mean that's to me that's what it feels like because otherwise why wouldn't you comment on the fact that
obviously it's quite obvious spring training is going to be delayed there's no doubt about that um and so that's a certainty yeah at
this point the other thing that i think is interesting that he one of the comments that he made uh is that he was
saying that that the penalty on the cbt uh penalty was going to remain unchanged
that competitive balance tax i don't know what he's talking about there because the proposal that both
sides have made were a move that changed the cbt we won't get
in the details right now uh but but the penalties for going over were a lot higher the actual levels
obviously are going to rise um for the luxury tax and so i'm not sure
what he's talking about there i mean unless they keep the penalty percentages the same and then agree to still scale it up because i mean it has to scale up
over time purely for inflation reasons right if you stick it in the same spot then of course it's good you know
contracts are going to become uh a bigger percentage of that well they they wanted to lower they run
the lower well they wanted to lower it and put a floor i think 180 with a 100 million floor or
something like that and change the players like no we wanted to maybe that's what he's talking about yeah
they're not going to push to lower it you know if you said the penalties are the same percentage and then you set it at a different level um which you know
again it's not great but uh you know uh we'll so we'll we'll see what um
uh the yeah the players have uh have backed off the thing with revenue sharing so i i'll you know we gotta
gotta make sure we're uh we're accurate on that you know they changed their revenue sharing things so i mean the players so far have said you
know they backed off the age-based free agency they backed off of the changes in revenue sharing stuff they've lowered
the uh the amount of the bonus pool they were asking for the players have made a lot of i don't
want to call them concessions because there's never anything there in the first place but but they've come closer right they've lowered their asks in
other words whereas the owners have not uh done nearly as much of that so so they could they could move in that
direction and we'll see but i think you know the tide has turned a bit when it comes to public perception
um which is fairly interesting i had a semi-viral tweet that went out about that just how much you know player
salaries have have not changed or have actually gone down over the last several years so um so
we'll see but um you know i i remain somewhat like weirdly optimistic about
certain things and then you know just but mostly out of the conspiratorial perversion actually right mostly that
it's because the owners know exactly how long they could sit and wait on this thing now we'll say this
too like the for the players like you know if you're if you're a scott f ross if you're another guy who's kind of on the
on the lower end there maybe of the uh you know who's at that minimum uh the one to three year guys who you know
aren't dealing with tons of of um sponsorships and you know have all kinds
of different management companies working with like if you're a big time player you know if you're max scherzer or whatever
like you can be sitting home today you snap your fingers these people go to work for you and
they they ship your cars out they pack yourself up they send it out there you show up out there and you can afford to
have a second home out in that area where you just arrive at you've got a car waiting for you and you've got clothes there like those guys
can do that on a moment's notice it's the ones you have to like pack and buy their ticket and figure all this stuff
and i know they they have agents that'll work with them but it's a little bit different you know then um then most of
these guys i mean like chris bryant could be ready to go if they made an agreement he could be down there tomorrow
with it's it's a matter of getting to an airport right well i guess he's got to have a team too so he can't really be ready to go but
but especially assuming now just show up wherever if he's at a cactus league team again well it's really easy to get to to
phoenix from vegas right i mean you could drive 45-minute flight or you can drive um so
very very simple there so it's um yeah it's there's all kinds of stuff that's
uh that's going into it but and like i said to the international players you know if you're if you are in the dominican
republic if you're overseas i mean who knows maybe these guys are taking vacations you know what i mean they don't think it's gonna get done i i don't know but um
i think three days will be a little bit tight to get anything yeah to get anything going for pitchers and kids the
funny thing about major league baseball and you talk about guys like max scherzer and the superstars who make all
the money and those are the ones who get all the headlines right and at the end of the day that's beneficial to them as
people and as in individuals beneficial to the teams they play on because they are dominant players but it's also
beneficial to the owners because the owners didn't tout that as being like you know as if that's the
status quo what the actual situation really is is that the owners for years have
understood the value of youth in major league baseball and they have tried and they've manipulated the collective
bargaining agreement for years so that they pay younger players as little as possible
but those players are really the players that drive the most value i think uh
steve cohen the owner of the mets uh tweeted out that you know that that you
know whatever dummies are worth over a hundred million dollars to teams yeah draft picks well of course then this is
from the same organization that failed to sign their draft pick right they drafted yeah exactly but they get they get a compensatory
effect though now they're gonna get a picture but it's like but you drafted one of the top college pitchers couldn't agree with him now you get a cop pick
but it's like what a bunch of dumbasses but you you know you lost the ability to get this one dude who's gonna go back in
there i just yeah it's so funny but yeah there's their subs that's why they don't want to raise the minimum but it's like
imagine how much how much more how much flatter would it be if
they were able to actually pay these younger guys what their value is or if you were you
know that's but that's why we're seeing some of these extensions for these guys very very young in their first year of professional
baseball at the major league level because i shouldn't say professional but their first year of service time because
these guys know how valuable they are and if you can lock that player up for six seven eight ten years
then you've saved so much money on the back end that they would have normally been making as a free agent after six
years or whatever so um but the the troublesome part is and i'll i promise i won't go too much longer it's the guys
in the middle who really gets i have somebody somebody's like trying to argue with me it's like they're squeezing out the younger guys i was like yeah well in
point of fact paying max years of 40 million is actually creating more room for the youngest cheapest players because
they're not the ones that's the guy that now that team wants to have more of they need more young guys to offset and
subsidize the 40 million it's the guy who's 32 33 34 years old who's looking
for a four or five million dollar contract that now they're not gonna pay because they're saying well i can get oh you're good you're still fine
but i can get a guy who's 21 years old and making 570 thousand dollars so a tenth of what you want i can pay this
guy because i want to offset scherzer's contract and that's the way that works so those monster contracts that's why
the game is getting younger that's why you're seeing more and more players making under a million dollars in that
there's all these people like look at all this money they're making free it most players don't reach free agency
that's the thing people need to understand a majority of baseball players are within their first six years in the
league and most of them are never going to get to that monster contract even if they make free agency right so most those
guys are gonna be in that now you talk about of the first six years half of those guys years four five six
those are our beers most guys don't even really make it that far if not into this so you're talking about
the median salary is 1.15 million it was 1.65 million five years ago so
it's come down by half a million dollars in five years most players make a million dollars right that's that's the
simple big number yeah that's a lot different not that many players uh guess what
there's not that many players making over 25 million dollars right like that's that's what everyone wants to focus on oh we spent two billion dollars
on these that's what the owners want everyone to focus on it's what they did prior to the lockout
yeah they kept so two billion dollars two billion dollars yeah but you know the the
sign is as many of these big ticket guys as you possibly can so we can talk about all the money that
we're spending but yeah at the end of the day you write these middle these replacement level guys right guys that are basically
replacement level you just you can just say hey you know we're going to cut this guy because he costs too much we're
going to bring in a young guy who we can pay you know in in his first three seasons
preharb um and and see how it goes and that's something that i don't it'll be
interesting to see what happens with the uh with that arbitration uh that that number is it gonna stay at
three years yeah i mean obviously there's some they've agreed they've agreed to that that there won't be any changes to the free agency
stuff the players not the players the players back down from to the arbitration stuff or the free
agency to both so they've said free agent the the first six years the six years of control
the arbitration uh after three years like all that stuff that's that structure it will remain the
same so i mean to me it's that it's like the players coming out of this have to have
a gain somewhere well what they want what the the players want the thing that and as we just said
though the change that would impact the most players immediately and and even just over time
is increasing the minimum salary they want to increase the 750 000 from 570
500 and um they want to create that bonus pool uh it would be a hundred million
dollars that would uh that would be eligible to open two players in their first three years if they meet certain
war thresholds or win certain awards i think going off of war is that i think that's a dumb idea trying to tie
compensation to war i think is is terrible and i don't i don't know why the players want to do that but that so then what you're saying is hey
we're going to compensate these guys in the first three years much more highly than what we have and that honestly is
going to have the greatest impact across the sport whether you look at a guy like so let's say
again scott f ross comes up for about a month you know that's that's worth a significant amount of money it's like 80
grand versus you know that's like four times what you'd make in a full year at triple a right or double a or whatever um yeah
yeah so that impacts those guys even for that a small period but for those who are never going to make it to arbitration so i think that's what
they're really aiming for to say we want to have these younger players better compensated because then if that happens
i you know you may see a little bit you probably see some guys at the top end get a little bit less right as a result
maybe a couple million dollars shaved off but it should actually benefit the ones in the middle as well if you kind of increase that um at the low end so be
interesting you think though that's it i mean there was a number of different issues that they were that they were talking about
yeah they would like so they backed off well i mean they want the service time thing they want to do you know hey you
get a if you if you have this top prospect he's on your roster the full season you know the team earns a
compensatory draft pick or something like that so there are some items like that they want to have added to it um that i think are agreeable um
you know that that's the big one there the draft lottery kind of addresses the uh the the failure to compete you know
the players backed off of the changes they wanted to have big changes to revenue sharing they backed off of that they wanted to have
age-based uh free agency you know uh the 39.5 or 29.5 they backed off of that
so they and they came down they were at 105 million on the bonus pool they came to 100 million the owners went to 10
million uh and then yeah yeah and the owners there will be something
yeah that feels like 50. yeah and i mean it gets there and that's and that's really the thing right in negotiation you say we want a hundred
then you say we'll do ten say how about 90 all right how about 25 how about 75 how about 60. okay good but
but it feels like all the things that we're talking about and all the issues that have been raised and the things that
they've been uh going back and forth on it feels like the the only and based on what we've just
discussed the only things that are going to change are things that are going to change uh
for the to the advantage of the players and typically in a negotiation there's kind of you know two sides of it
so do you think the owners aren't going to kind of win any points at all i think we'll there will be expanded playoffs to
some extent right and that i think that's a win but i think that was a foregone conclusion sort of uh the dh is
a win both ways uh yeah the owners you know ideally if baseball gets a little bit more uh more but but i think here's
the thing though remember we've talked about this how much more money does baseball make off of the playoffs right
so i think i think getting an extra point all right there's some extra teams in there i think that's a big one for them uh but but you look at the owners
to say well here's the deal and whether you know they're all meeting by themselves they say well okay cool if we're going to
give up a few million dollars paying these young players more we're not going to be paying these older guys we're not going to be paying these
massive contracts quite as i mean so they'll make it up right on their few million dollars here there i think there's probably some other things
you know again they probably want to penalize some stuff here and there so they'll try to sneak some poison pills in there i have no doubt well and to
that extent do you think the players aren't getting enough for the expanded playoffs i yeah i don't i don't know
where that comes in like what i think it dilutes the product to be honest with me oh yeah it was a mess i didn't like it at all
but i think they've also you know i mean i think the players should want uh robo amps that's coming in but the the teams
probably want that too i mean there's some things i think the owners probably look at too they're like man we beat the hell out of the last couple times on
this thing we got a little bit of room to we got a little bit of room to roam on our uh
you know what we need to give up here but i think the fact that they're just getting to keep some of these things is
kind of interesting too you know what i mean like if they're able to keep in uh the cbt where it is or at similar
levels if they're able to if they don't see a big increase in the uh in that level i think those
are all wins for the for the owners and that's where i wonder where they come down you know yeah i mean i don't see the cbt as being
you know anything of value to the players to be honest with you i mean i know i mean unless it goes but even if
it goes to 230 what is that yeah no matter what it is
right nobody it's not going to happen there's five teams that might get to that level if they could and they would
and the thing is possibly if they felt like it if steve cohen wanted to go to 250 he could because what does he give a he's worth 13 billion dollars
right just okay cool yeah yeah i mean it gives you really penalties i don't give a and
they're going to make it more punitive as you go up over those levels no team's going to stay up over
the cbt threshold for for more than two years yeah i i just don't there's not a whole lot there um
so that doesn't really help the players in any way shape or form they could rise raise that i think really what they're
fighting for are the younger guys they understand the value of these young guys
and there's a reason why and the international draft yeah i think that's another one
guys yeah there's a there's a lot there i mean i just i think the owners the owners have
a couple of items as long as as long as they don't lose much and realistically
they don't lose much by i mean you know you're talking about an extra 150 000 for some of those young guys like
over the grand scheme that doesn't really mean mean too much especially if you make it up somewhere else uh which you know they'll try to do um
but i think well you know we'll see one thing that i was reading through maury brown's comments he's a good follower on
the business of baseball writer for forbes and he was saying that uh manfred had i haven't seen his speech or his
comments but evidently they they brought in an investment banker uh a really good one to look at club
values and and said that taking an investment in baseball uh you would have been better off investing in the stock
market that's actually factually incorrect it's entirely incorrect
i just think it's funny you can't even compare the two it's not even i mean the the the tax breaks and the different things
that healthy people can do through owning an asset like a major league baseball team would
you control the whole thing but it's not even true like if you if you look at somebody i
forget who it was now that's out there that i i replied to his original tweet and then he had a reply to it it's like since 2002
you know the the total return if you had and first of all too this is talking about the the few people in the world
who can afford a billion dollars at a minimum right to invest like okay cool
like we're not talking about you know this isn't like you or me investing in the stock market
this is a very wealthy person uh but that the return on franchise values has far outstripped because the thing is is
it's what they sell for right like and same thing as stock it's it's in that same way they're like oh my
401k went up by this or down by this well only in value it only actually went up
or down if i sell it right and so the whole point but these guys are in this to sell these things eventually
they're in there for asset appreciation because and it's about stat status and it's
about you know it's a big swinging dick right it's a it's a cool thing to talk about at your
cocktail parties oh my team is worth three and a half billion but
that doesn't really mean anything unless you sell it right it is the asset appreciation and if i am really
interested in nothing other than asset appreciation i am not going to invest my
money in a shitty investment right if that's what i'm trying to do so these guys know damn well
it is a very very good investment of their time and their money to buy a professional sports team
very good question of course it's just when he says comments like that i just kind of feel like he's
talking to everybody as if we're all a bunch of idiots right well and that's that's exactly how they will talk to you
if you speak to a major league owner even off the record they will speak to you as if you're an idiot who doesn't
know it because they don't they themselves don't necessarily they believe they're the smartest people
in the room and as a result they think it's like aaron rodgers so as a result when they speak to you they
believe that you must naturally be dumber than them because they are very smart and very wealthy that's how they
they believe them that's that's what they think about anyone who's not in their circle right where it's like well let me
explain to you how arbitration salaries work like yeah i know how arbitration salaries work you i don't need you
to explain it to me when i'm i've been reading about it right here you see all those highlights baby like it's it all
makes sense so anyway yeah it does so anyways we'll uh hopefully you know the they're gonna meet on saturday i guess
the owners are gonna make up this uh amazing proposal to the uh players that uh will not be accepted i'd be shocked
if it was yeah um but we'll see because they were so far apart before um but we'll uh let's uh we'll circle
back on all this stuff because we probably lost 80 percent of our listeners and i gotta go too so at this point so anyways uh
good show yeah we'll uh circle back do it next week in the meantime everybody have a nice
weekend and we'll uh we'll catch you later we'll see ya
[Applause]
you