October 13, 2025 • 27 mins
What went wrong with the 2025 Mets? Who is to blame? Former Mets Hitting Coach and 6x Gold Glover lays out his love for the team’s ownership, and how the team’s streaky nature contributed to a disaster finish.
He also highlights why this year’s team was unfit for a pitching dominant era and comments on the best way to utilize Juan Soto going forward.
Hosts: AJ Pierzynski, Erik Kratz, Scott Braun
Foul Territory Presented by FOX One: Start your 7-day free trial today at FOXone.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Eric Schabez is here. Six time goal globber by the way,
very very illustrious big league career. Just was the hitting
coach for the Mets and they basically cleared house with
most of their coaching staff.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Eric.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
First off, great to have you on the show. Thanks
for joining us. You have some people that know you
better than I do, who are big fans of you.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
How you doing, Bronnie, how you guys doing? Thanks for
having me on. Yeah, taking you guys a long long
time to get me on your aj What the heck, dude?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
What do you want me to say? Bro?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
If you were in Moneyball and then they would have
made a movie, a terrible movie about you, then we
would have had you on sooner. But you know, Scott
Haddiberg hasn't been on either, so let's be honest.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I mean that movie.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
If they would have made the Moneyball movie about Eric
Shaviz and now he won gold Gloves and hit a
ball off Joe Mays in that series and went nine
hundred feet, but it didn't didn't even mention you, so
you know what, you had to wait your turn.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
We were so close, the players were so close to
being in that movie. There was I don't know if
it was the Players Association or Mlbuh couldn't settle on
a on a dollar value. But I would have done
that thing for free and been in that movie. No, no,
no questions asked. But uh, yeah, that would have been cool.
(01:12):
It's a great movie. Uh. You know, did you hear
David Did you hear David Justice's interviewed the other day
and they asked him how real was it? He goes,
not at all. But the problem was is they all
they got? They got the perspective of Billy Bean, but
they didn't ask any of the players what went down.
So it was kind of a one sided, uh, one
(01:32):
sided opinion on that movie.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Ay J, you know what, go ahead for the first
couple of minutes. Then we'll get into I gotta leave,
get your questions in on Moneyball and all that, and
then we can get.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
To the rest.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Yeah, then we'll go. Then we'll go to other things.
But here's my thing on Moneyball. You know what they
should have done. They should have made a movie about
the Minnesota Twins that year. You know what, I'm sorry, Shelby,
I love you to death, and you know we became buddies.
We went to Japan after that year. But you know,
we ended the winning streak wed the season and I
didn't even get credit, Like they made some bad looking
fella me as a catcher instead of me. They could
have called me and I would have jumped up and
(02:07):
down an Oakland colliseem again.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
It would have been and then it would have been
a cool movie. But no movie about y'all.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Aj, you killed us. You absolutely you talk about you
talk about getting the hits and home runs at the
right time in the ball game. Oh my god, AJ,
you killed honestly. But but here's here's the deal. I
think they should have made a movie about theo Epstein,
the fact of what he did in Boston and Chicago,
because everything we do is about winning, winning the World Series,
(02:36):
and what THEO has done with those two organizations absolutely tremendous.
I felt like, if we're going to do a movie,
we should have done it about him.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's true, I mean, Aj always he's he's a one
man wrecking machine. He's still crushing that A's team. Because
He'll bring this up to Mark Moulders were so good
a couple of times. It's a good point. We're so good, dude.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
They were so good though.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
I mean, listen, you had to go into the Collegeum
you got Hudson mulders Zito, okay, and then he had
Cotch in the back end, and then he had I
mean one time they had Johnbi tahata Chavi in the.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Middle of the lineup, Roberto Ramon Hernandez, who was very underrated.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
As a player.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
I'm going to tell you that right now was a
catcher in the player. That team was sick, dude, and
you went in there, and every time we went in there,
we'd lose. We'd get walked off at least once a series.
It was like, all right, someone's gonna do hit a homer,
walk us off and lose a ball in the sun.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Whatever it was.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
It was incredible. That team was unbelievab. The fact that
that team never won still blows my mind. I'm sorry, hurts.
It blows my mind.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It still hurts to trust me. It hurts because we
felt that way too. But you know, it's not I
said this yesterday, it's not always the best team that wins.
It's a team that's playing the best. So that's why
these playoffs like you just never know, like, yeah, they're
they're on paper there's some some really big names and
some good teams, But it's about getting right, but getting
hot at the right moment and having things go your
(04:01):
way and having a little luck along the way.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
All right, So let's get to the twenty twenty five
season here. Obviously for the Mets, it ended up in turbulence.
So tell us first, you know what happened at the
finish line with the team. We can ask about your
spot too, but what happened, I mean, it's really not
the finish line. It was over a pretty long stretch.
You could call it a slow burn where the start
(04:24):
was so electric and then the team ran out of gas.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah. I mean, when you have a situation like this,
you know there's a lot that goes wrong. You can't
You're not going to be able to just pinpoint one thing,
you know. I think, first and foremost, I think the
players and uniform personnel have to take the brunt of it.
We felt like we had enough talent. It may have
not have been, you know, like the best equipped, balanced team,
(04:54):
but as far as talent to get you to the playoffs,
we felt like we had enough. So from a uniform personnel,
we failed to give you kind of more of an
in depth look of what happened. We just couldn't come
together collectively as a group. The pitchers did really well
in the first two months, the hitters were absent, the
(05:14):
hitters got hot, the pitchers were absent, and then the
defense kind of fell short towards the post All Star breaks.
So we just never came together. Though we spent a
lot of money. We had a lot of headlines this game.
This game, which is why we all love baseball. You're
not going to be able to just buy a World series.
Like a lot of things have to go right. You
(05:36):
got to develop, you got to have young players, You
got to draft well, you got to make good acquisitions
at the All Star break, you got to make sure
you don't trade the wrong guy to the wrong team,
and a lot everything went like everything we tried to
do just kind of went wrong. But the players in
the uniform and the staff in uniform have to take
the brunt of that, and that's we definitely felt like
(05:57):
we let the city down, and we definitely let the
owner down. I mean I have to speak volumes about
the owner. You know, obviously I came up in Oakland,
and you know, money wasn't thrown around at all, but
for for for mister Cohen and his wife Alex Cohen,
tremendous owners. I had a blast there for four years.
(06:18):
They they treated the families like royalty. The food there,
the staff there, the hotels, the travel, everything was first class.
So uh to to mister Cohen and Alex Cohen, I
want to say thank you. They do a tremendous job there,
and it's you know, any free agent you know, moving forward.
It's a good place to be. There's good people that
work there, and you know, for them, hopefully they can
(06:40):
win a world series pretty soon.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
This episode of FT is presented by Fox one AJ.
If people have the Fox one app then they get
to listen to you, Adam, Wayne Right and Adam Amine
for one more game A game five five.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
On Friday, all alone, Oh.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yankees, blue Jays, Just your game A game five?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
What time is that game?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Eightiestern so prime prime time in listen eighties. I'm pomped
man Friday. There's no other games. There's really not a
lot of college football on Friday night. It is baseball.
And we complained there was no games on a Friday
night before.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, guess what you get?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Game five My question is this going to be the
only Game five?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Because I don't know. Do we think the Phillies get
it done? But I love the fact that we get
a Game five I've done. This will be my third
Game five I've got to do. They are awesome, they
are fun. My first two years I did this, I
got to do Game five and I haven't had one since.
So guys are pretty excited about it. The crew is
super excited about can to do a winn or take
all game?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Crazy things happen, right, we'll probably see.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Manager's panic, like nobody, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Decision scrutinized. So we're excited about it. We'll be watching
and listening to you guys. And if you don't have
a way to get the game, everyone has a way
to get the game.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay, it's the Fox one app. We're pumping it the
next few weeks. Here on FT you can stream Fox one.
You can get yourself a free seven day trial by
hitting that QR code or going to the description either
in this YouTube episode or if you're listening to us
on podcast form, you can do the same over there.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Beginning of the year, the pictures were hot. Yep.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
After that, the hitters were hot. The pictures were not.
Can you talk about that as a coach? That angst
in the clubhouse in the sense of like you're working
with the hitters all day flip and talking to them
check out the iPad and they're.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Like, ah, man, we just scored four.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
We're down five to four right now, Like, can you
talk about that? And was that present and how do
you stop that to be able to move on and
play together collectively.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
As a group.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
No, No, not at all. I mean I can honestly
say this, like the group of guys that we had
in that room were true professionals.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
One of the things they always talked about in that
clubhouse was having each other's back through through thick and
thin and good times and bad times. I never heard
any of those things. The pitchers weren't complaining about the
hitters early in the year, and then when the pitchers struggled,
you know, I think the hitters were like, yeah, they
picked us up for two months we got to get
it going. So it was it was a good clubhouse
(09:20):
and that standpoint. You know, I actually apologize in the
beginning of the year to to Hefner our pitching coach.
I was like, sorry, half these guys will get going
here pretty soon. And it was just it's just one
of those things. You know, Baseball is a funny game.
It's you could spend money, you can get all the
good players you want, but you know, clubhouse camaraderie. Uh,
you know, the year before we had Iglesias and Jad
(09:42):
Martinez that kind of unified that clubhouse. And and you
know you can't you have to organically make those things happen.
You can't just force them into a clubhouse. So those
things have to happen organically. And I think with those two,
with those two personalities, it was it was a great blend.
And for whatever reason this year, you know, the things
were bad, we always felt like we were gonna be
(10:04):
able to kind of turn the switch on and get going,
and it just never never really happened. You know, I
feel bad for it, Like I said, I they you know,
Stern's made a lot of acquisitions for us at the
at the break, and you know, none of them really
worked out that well. And we had a lot of
injuries like most teams do. But no matter what, we
still feel like we had enough talent. We just could
(10:25):
not get over the hump. We had moments of greatness
where we'd go on on a on a tear for
about two weeks, and then we'd lose eight nine in
a row. And we did that about three or four
times this year, and it's just you can't go through
this type of losing streak. So yeah, it's you know,
it was unfortunate situation. You know, I'm pulling for him.
(10:45):
I love a lot of guys in those clubhouse, but
you know, they they held it together. There was never
no blame game. They did a really good job of
keeping that under wraps and supporting each other through the season. Jovy,
what was Mendy like during this whole thing?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And we've had them in here all the time. He's fabulous.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
I mean he came on you guys were in the
heat of it.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Was he the same in the clubhouse every day?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Because he seems like he never changes, He's always positive,
he always got everyone's back, and he believes.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, he was great. I think you know you could
tell that he was. You know, he was paying attention
to Boonie all those years in New York. You know,
Boonie gets hit hard. I absolutely love Boonie. I was
gonna go work for the Yankees about four years back
before I went with the Mets, and it was all
I wanted to do was work with Boonie because I
knew the person the personality, the consistency, and you could
(11:32):
see all those traits that Carlos brought with him, and
you could see why they chose Carlos to be the
manager here. He's he's had a really tough go, you know,
injuries and some of the pitching stuff, some of the
highs and lows. It's been a really two difficult years
for him. I know last year we went on that run,
but we started the season I think oh and five
(11:53):
own six uh. To start out his managerial career. We
blew a lot of saves last year. You know, the
he had to he had to manage a bullpen, our starters,
you know, they weren't going very deep. I think we
use the most pitchers or relievers in the history of
the game, where we're shuffling in and out pitchers throughout
(12:15):
the whole year. So he had to manage all this
and for this to be his first two years, I
think he did a tremendous job, and I think he's
got a tremendous future being a manager in this game.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
What if you guys had gotten in the what if?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I mean we're talking about this, like, you guys, a
ton of coaches got axed and there's no playoff games.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's a big disappointment.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
We spend this much money one game, one game is
all would have taken.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
What if you.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Guys had gotten in? What kind of path would it
have taken for you guys, Because to me, looking at
the pitching staff, it would have had to be some
absolute pixie dust magic.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yep, yeah, I can. I can answer this honestly. Not enough,
you know, I think I think it would have been
kind of scary because offensive, you know, we were able
to go on some terrors and score some eight to
nine runs. But when you're facing some of these pitchers
that are in the playoffs, it's just not sustainable. You know,
(13:11):
to me, it's not an offensive league anymore. You know,
the pitchers are dominating. The stuff is too good. I
heard you guys talking about the Brewers and Cubs, and
the Brewers or the Cubs not adding on runs, like
it's just not that easy. You know, the mop up
guys that are coming in in the fifth inning are
throwing a hundred with a ninety three mile an hour slider.
It's a very difficult, difficult game to be, you know,
(13:33):
to to score runs. And I like what the Brewers
and the Cubs have done with the pitching being so elite.
This is the one thing, this is the only kind
of trump card the offense has is to be to
have some speed and to have guys that put contact
on the baseball consistently. Now, if that comes with some homers,
you can kind of see, you know, even the padres,
(13:56):
you know somehow. You know, bunning was a big no no.
And now it's become sexy again because I think people
are realizing how hard it is to score runs. And
runs aren't a premium. Defenses at a premium. Running bases
is at a premium, outfield plays at a premium. Like
everything offensively, to score runs is at a premium, and
(14:16):
it's just it's not that easy to do. I meant
these pitchers, I meant a couple of years ago, when
I first got into this, you know, guys were throwing
extremely hard, but I didn't see a whole lot of control.
Now it's like one hundred dotted down and away at
the corner, and I'm watching video and it's pretty much
what I do. And you know, obviously I go over
(14:37):
the bats with these guys and I'm like, you guys
had nothing to hit that at bat, Like it's hard.
Usually pitchers leave something over the middle of the plate
and they're dotting right. And they know every detail about
the hitter. They know where he hits it, how hard
he hits it, they know the weaknesses, they know his tendencies.
Everything about this game is really focused for the pitching.
(14:59):
I meant we had defenses like we'd hit balls and
the defense would be playing in the perfect position, and
it's just something. It's just like, you know, Jeremy and
Jeremy Barnes and I the old hitting coach with the Mets,
we used to talk about this, like we looked at
our batting profile and a lot of the time you're
just kind of like hoping the ball finds grass right
(15:22):
and there's a little luck factor to that. Like, our
batting profile was extremely good. You know, Wan didn't have
the best first two months. Every out one made was
like one hundred and nine miles an hour. He had
the worst luck of any hitter in the big leagues,
and he was smashing balls, but you know, the defense
was right there. But you know a lot of the
times like you're really at the mercy of the ball
(15:44):
just finding grass, and you know, the defense's positioning has
gotten so good. The pitching's gotten so good. The one
thing I did notice this year more than any other year,
where pitchers are they have two fastballs. Now they have
the four seam ride at the top and they have
a two seam. So now you know, a guy like
Wan who covers the four team at the top, you know,
(16:05):
we we had all our numbers, like if they had
a two seam, we knew Wan was gonna get two seams,
even though the four seam was probably the better pitch
for the pitcher. Wan did so well against those, but
they had something to attack him with now, So you know,
it's to me, it's a it's a defensive game. And
the way the Brewers and the Cubs have built their team,
you talk about being consistent and competitive. You know, maybe
(16:29):
not the sexiest offenses, but what a tremendous job they've done.
I think this is how you're gonna have to combat
the pitching. Because the pitching's not going anywhere. You look
at Schlitler throwing a hundred with a ninety four like
like I'm going as a hitter, I'm going, Holy, I'm
thinking the radar guns are wrong, Like it's got to
be wrong, Like you know, it's guys are throwing one
(16:51):
hundred and four with a ninety seven mile hour slider
Like it's just like, how is the human body even
capable of doing that? But you know, to me, it's
it's a It's a pitching and defense game now, And
you know, I think, you know, I think gms are
going to have to act accordingly. And you know, if
you've got a position player who can do both, those
guys are always at a premium. But you know, defense
(17:13):
and speed are going to come back into play and
as we seen early in these playoffs, like bunts are
They're a big thing and it's coming back.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
I want to hit on one specific person. Obviously Catcher's
show AJ left. He said you're the man, but he
had to get on a flight, So yep, I talk
about catching the match, don't make the playoffs. I talk
about Francisco Alvarez. This is a guy that I think
his energy behind the dish is infectious. You saw in
the playoffs last year he got sent down to triple
(17:43):
A when he was struggling. Some of it was his defense,
But when he came back, he was awesome. And I
always think sometimes triple A triple an like, guys just
send down a triple A and it can be a
detriment and it can be eyewashed.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Very rarely is actual a thing.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Did you see a difference when he came back, just
in his overall Francisco Alvarez being the man for this team.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah, for sure. And I love Alva. He's you know,
I've told him two years ago. You know, I think
he hit twenty five homers and you looked at his
batting profile and there were some other things that weren't
so sexy about it, you know, but everybody falls in
love with homers. Oh, twenty five homers. This is great.
And I kind of challenged him to be a complete hitter,
and I told him, I said, you could be the
(18:27):
best offensive catcher in this league, right if you work
on the right things. You know, his defense at that
time was tremendous. His throwing was really good. You know,
this offseason he went he revamped his swing. You know,
players are always looking to get better. They're always looking
for that next great thing. You know. The way I
(18:49):
view things as getting better is to be more consistent.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Like you.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
You are who you are as a player. All of
us have God given abilities and you have to tap
into those. I think what's wrong, you know, kind of
offensively is is the social media hitting coach and the
gurus that are out there. You know, they're they're selling
you something. There's this, Hey, I got this one thing
that will make you a great hitter. And I don't
(19:15):
view it like that. Hitting is way too hard. Each
each player has its his own his own tool set,
his own strengths, his own weaknesses, and you kind of
have to work with with that player and and and
in his realm of what he can do and can't do.
I I don't I'm you know, from the hitting side.
I'm not a hitting guru. I don't have the magic
(19:37):
pill to make you a great hitter. But what I
what I what I do is is I try to
work with you. I try to I try to get
inside your mindset. I try to work with you know,
let's talk about an approach, and you know, make little
adjustments as we go but I don't have a magic
pill to turn somebody into a fifty home run guy.
I've never been a salesman like that. Hitting is too hard.
(19:59):
I have too much respect for this league and the pitching.
I did it for a really long time, and I
knew how how hard it was, you know. And and
Albis Albi's it. He's got all the tool set. He
can catch. You know. He he got off to you know,
with this swing this this spring training, he was starting
to feel it kind of you know, he struggled and
(20:22):
he started to feel it, and then he had a
hand injury, and he had a couple of injuries through
the season and you know, he just wasn't able to
to get it right. But then when they sent him
down this last time, uh, he got his head right.
He was he was focused on the right things at
the plate. He came back and he was the Alvarez
we all think he can be.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Now. The tool set is there.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Now, it's just about repeating it and and and bringing
your tool set to the to the game every single day.
But I really do firmly believe if he puts it
all together, he could be the best, the best catcher
in the league. But definitely the best offensive catcher in
the league.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
You're right at that, You're right at that time when
you should think hitting wasn't hard anymore. Like I always say,
ten years after somebody retires, they're like, oh, I have
all the answers. So I'm so glad to hear that
you know hitting is really hard because you were really good.
I sucked and I knew that hitting was really hard.
But my question for you, you mentioned Juan Soto onan
(21:20):
sodo almost was forty forty. People really didn't even talk
about it. One of the things against one and as
a hitting coach, did you ever have this conversation is
he doesn't chase out of the zone. When you have
a guy in a milliar lineup, can he get one
hundred and thirty stakes if he never chases out of
the zone or he just passes the baton. I get
(21:41):
it in the long term of the season, like he's
gonna have the best numbers possible. Could he be a
guy to chase out of the zone or is that
something you would never ever tell an elite superstar to
do because that's his superpower?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Really crazy, really good question. You know, I think I
think there were times when and I'll just be honest,
I think there were times you know where myself and
I even talked to Carlos, was you know, if we
could just kind of get him to swing, you know,
maybe oh or some pitches that he could do damage
on early in the counts. But but Wan is he
(22:16):
he is a precision hitter. I wouldn't I wouldn't get
him out of his comfort zone at all. The one thing,
the one thing I would say, if you want to
think outside the box and get creative, you know, sho
Hey Atani's you know, along with Judge and and cal Riley,
you know, the three best hitters in the game, Wan's
up there. You know, uh, show Hey leads off. You know,
(22:38):
Wan is so good at getting on base. He's so selective.
You know, there are times when things are going and
you're in the middle of the lineup, you're three four five,
like Pete Alonzo, Like we know Pete's gonna chase, Pete's
gonna do damage. I think that's you're kind of referencing
driving in runs at an at a. You know, Wan
could drive in one hundred and forty, but instead of
(23:01):
doing that where you're telling him to get out of
his comfort zone, slide him in the leadoff spot. He
stills bases, he gets on base at a four hundred
at a forty percent clip. You know, don't have him
get out of his comfort zone or what he likes
to do. But you can be just as dynamic in
the leadoff spot if you look at Shohan and what
he's done without changing the player too much, just changing
(23:21):
where he hits in the batting lineup. Like it's you know,
I know people they're like, ah, wherever you hit shouldn't
really matter, but it really does matter. Like when we
moved Lindor from the from the third slot into the
leadoff slot where he's really comfortable, and he's really comfortable
at the one or the two slot. You know, where
a player hits does matter sometimes, like there's there's some
(23:43):
you know, there's an emotional tie to where you're at
in the lineup, and you know, not everybody can hit three, four,
five in the lineup and you have to have the
right animals to do that. But you know, I think
with wants profile and if you want to get creative
and think out of the box, I think about leading
them off. I like it all right.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Last one I want to get to the coaching staff
in particular. Number one, and I know you've mentioned this before.
Thoughts on the way that the hitting coach setup was
and how it should look differently for a team. And two,
Jeremy Haffner getting let go. I mean I followed the
Mets very closely. He was looked at as a top
three pitching coach, pitching whisper the whole deal. So do
(24:23):
you think that it was warranted?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
No, no, no, I don't think any of the coaches
should have been fired, to be honest with you, But
understanding the nature of the beasts and how things work
weeks prior to this, I knew this was coming.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Is it fair?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
No, But when you sign up for this job, it's
kind of what comes with it. You're in a big
market like New York. The owner just spent eight hundred
million dollars. Your team better makes some noise, right, not
even making the playoffs isn't even good enough? Like you
better get deep and you better lead make it to
the World Series. And so I saw this coming. No,
(25:03):
it's not fair. The coaching staff we had was was unbelievable. Uh,
it's some of the guys that were there for with
me for the last three or four years. You know,
things just didn't go our way. You know, there's a
lot of injuries, a lot of acquisitions that we had
that didn't really pan out. But the coaching staff was steadfast, like,
(25:24):
I'll go to bat for these guys any day. Matter
of fact, I told Carlos the same thing at the
end of the year when I was flying home, I said, Carlos,
I'll go to bat for you any day. The job
you've done. There's a lot of things that go on
that people aren't privy to, but a lot of things
that need to stay in the clubhouse they don't really
need to be out there that people will never know about.
But the coaching staff we had, I'll go to the
(25:46):
bat for them. They they worked extremely hard from the
hitting standpoint. Somebody had asked me, you know, from the
hitting department and if there's anything I would have changed.
And Jeremy Barnes did a great job. Him and I
did a really good job of speaking different languages, believing
in certain and different things, coming from two different worlds,
(26:06):
and making it work together for the better of the group.
And that was the conversation him and I always had
we never disagreed on anything, right, we might have looked
at each other and go, man, this guy is full
of it, or I disagree with him. But whatever it was,
we made sure that we we brought. We brought it
to the group that him and I were on the
same page. The only thing that I had mentioned, and
(26:29):
I think Jeremy would agree with this too, you cannot
have two head hitting coaches. Like players, players get confused
when there's multiple voices. You know, from my standpoint, I
try to I try to give Jeremy kind of his
space because he did so much and the players were
very accustomed to kind of him being in the leadership role.
(26:50):
And then when I left to be the bench coach
for that one year under Buck and then I came
back into the hitters role, you know, Jeremy had established
himself in his voice, and so you know, to make
it work, I kind of gave him his space and
moving forward, And I said this to Lindor a couple
of months back, said I'll never do the co thing
ever again, Like there should never be. You know, things
are set up when there's there's a head guy and assistant,
(27:14):
when roles are defined, when there's one voice, I think
is the best situation moving forward. But you know, whatever
the Mets do or they're gonna do. But I you know,
I was asked that question. I said, the only thing
probably that you know, needed to change was you know,
I don't. I don't think two hitting coaches is the
way to go.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
It makes total sense and a lot of teams operate
that way with the one and then the assistant. Eric
ran at a time, But this was awesome, man, will
definitely have you back on. Appreciate the time here right all.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Right, Thank you guys, appreciate it. Cratzy, Bronnie, thank you,
Eric Schabez is here. Six time goal globber by the way,
very very illustrious big league career. Just was the hitting
coach for the Mets and they basically cleared house with
most of their coaching staff.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Eric.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
First off, great to have you on the show. Thanks
for joining us. You have some people that know you
better than I do, who are big fans of you.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
How you doing, Bronnie, how you guys doing? Thanks for
having me on. Yeah, taking you guys a long long
time to get me on your aj What the heck, dude?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
What do you want me to say? Bro?
Speaker 4 (00:30):
If you were in Moneyball and then they would have
made a movie, a terrible movie about you, then we
would have had you on sooner. But you know, Scott
Haddiberg hasn't been on either, so let's be honest.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I mean that movie.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
If they would have made the Moneyball movie about Eric
Shaviz and now he won gold Gloves and hit a
ball off Joe Mays in that series and went nine
hundred feet, but it didn't didn't even mention you, so
you know what, you had to wait your turn.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
We were so close, the players were so close to
being in that movie. There was I don't know if
it was the Players Association or Mlbuh couldn't settle on
a on a dollar value. But I would have done
that thing for free and been in that movie. No, no,
no questions asked. But uh, yeah, that would have been cool.
(01:12):
It's a great movie. Uh. You know, did you hear
David Did you hear David Justice's interviewed the other day
and they asked him how real was it? He goes,
not at all. But the problem was is they all
they got? They got the perspective of Billy Bean, but
they didn't ask any of the players what went down.
So it was kind of a one sided, uh, one
(01:32):
sided opinion on that movie.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
Ay J, you know what, go ahead for the first
couple of minutes. Then we'll get into I gotta leave,
get your questions in on Moneyball and all that, and
then we can get.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
To the rest.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Yeah, then we'll go. Then we'll go to other things.
But here's my thing on Moneyball. You know what they
should have done. They should have made a movie about
the Minnesota Twins that year. You know what, I'm sorry, Shelby,
I love you to death, and you know we became buddies.
We went to Japan after that year. But you know,
we ended the winning streak wed the season and I
didn't even get credit, Like they made some bad looking
fella me as a catcher instead of me. They could
have called me and I would have jumped up and
(02:07):
down an Oakland colliseem again.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
It would have been and then it would have been
a cool movie. But no movie about y'all.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
Aj, you killed us. You absolutely you talk about you
talk about getting the hits and home runs at the
right time in the ball game. Oh my god, AJ,
you killed honestly. But but here's here's the deal. I
think they should have made a movie about theo Epstein,
the fact of what he did in Boston and Chicago,
because everything we do is about winning, winning the World Series,
(02:36):
and what THEO has done with those two organizations absolutely tremendous.
I felt like, if we're going to do a movie,
we should have done it about him.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
It's true, I mean, Aj always he's he's a one
man wrecking machine. He's still crushing that A's team. Because
He'll bring this up to Mark Moulders were so good
a couple of times. It's a good point. We're so good, dude.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
They were so good though.
Speaker 4 (03:01):
I mean, listen, you had to go into the Collegeum
you got Hudson mulders Zito, okay, and then he had
Cotch in the back end, and then he had I
mean one time they had Johnbi tahata Chavi in the.
Speaker 3 (03:10):
Middle of the lineup, Roberto Ramon Hernandez, who was very underrated.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
As a player.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
I'm going to tell you that right now was a
catcher in the player. That team was sick, dude, and
you went in there, and every time we went in there,
we'd lose. We'd get walked off at least once a series.
It was like, all right, someone's gonna do hit a homer,
walk us off and lose a ball in the sun.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Whatever it was.
Speaker 4 (03:31):
It was incredible. That team was unbelievab. The fact that
that team never won still blows my mind. I'm sorry, hurts.
It blows my mind.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
It still hurts to trust me. It hurts because we
felt that way too. But you know, it's not I
said this yesterday, it's not always the best team that wins.
It's a team that's playing the best. So that's why
these playoffs like you just never know, like, yeah, they're
they're on paper there's some some really big names and
some good teams, But it's about getting right, but getting
hot at the right moment and having things go your
(04:01):
way and having a little luck along the way.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
All right, So let's get to the twenty twenty five
season here. Obviously for the Mets, it ended up in turbulence.
So tell us first, you know what happened at the
finish line with the team. We can ask about your
spot too, but what happened, I mean, it's really not
the finish line. It was over a pretty long stretch.
You could call it a slow burn where the start
(04:24):
was so electric and then the team ran out of gas.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Yeah. I mean, when you have a situation like this,
you know there's a lot that goes wrong. You can't
You're not going to be able to just pinpoint one thing,
you know. I think, first and foremost, I think the
players and uniform personnel have to take the brunt of it.
We felt like we had enough talent. It may have
not have been, you know, like the best equipped, balanced team,
(04:54):
but as far as talent to get you to the playoffs,
we felt like we had enough. So from a uniform personnel,
we failed to give you kind of more of an
in depth look of what happened. We just couldn't come
together collectively as a group. The pitchers did really well
in the first two months, the hitters were absent, the
(05:14):
hitters got hot, the pitchers were absent, and then the
defense kind of fell short towards the post All Star breaks.
So we just never came together. Though we spent a
lot of money. We had a lot of headlines this game.
This game, which is why we all love baseball. You're
not going to be able to just buy a World series.
Like a lot of things have to go right. You
(05:36):
got to develop, you got to have young players, You
got to draft well, you got to make good acquisitions
at the All Star break, you got to make sure
you don't trade the wrong guy to the wrong team,
and a lot everything went like everything we tried to
do just kind of went wrong. But the players in
the uniform and the staff in uniform have to take
the brunt of that, and that's we definitely felt like
(05:57):
we let the city down, and we definitely let the
owner down. I mean I have to speak volumes about
the owner. You know, obviously I came up in Oakland,
and you know, money wasn't thrown around at all, but
for for for mister Cohen and his wife Alex Cohen,
tremendous owners. I had a blast there for four years.
(06:18):
They they treated the families like royalty. The food there,
the staff there, the hotels, the travel, everything was first class.
So uh to to mister Cohen and Alex Cohen, I
want to say thank you. They do a tremendous job there,
and it's you know, any free agent you know, moving forward.
It's a good place to be. There's good people that
work there, and you know, for them, hopefully they can
(06:40):
win a world series pretty soon.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
This episode of FT is presented by Fox one AJ.
If people have the Fox one app then they get
to listen to you, Adam, Wayne Right and Adam Amine
for one more game A game five five.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
On Friday, all alone, Oh.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yankees, blue Jays, Just your game A game five?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
What time is that game?
Speaker 4 (07:06):
Eightiestern so prime prime time in listen eighties. I'm pomped
man Friday. There's no other games. There's really not a
lot of college football on Friday night. It is baseball.
And we complained there was no games on a Friday
night before.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Well, guess what you get?
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Game five My question is this going to be the
only Game five?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Because I don't know. Do we think the Phillies get
it done? But I love the fact that we get
a Game five I've done. This will be my third
Game five I've got to do. They are awesome, they
are fun. My first two years I did this, I
got to do Game five and I haven't had one since.
So guys are pretty excited about it. The crew is
super excited about can to do a winn or take
all game?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Yeah, it's fun.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
Crazy things happen, right, we'll probably see.
Speaker 4 (07:45):
Manager's panic, like nobody, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (07:50):
Decision scrutinized. So we're excited about it. We'll be watching
and listening to you guys. And if you don't have
a way to get the game, everyone has a way
to get the game.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Now.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Okay, it's the Fox one app. We're pumping it the
next few weeks. Here on FT you can stream Fox one.
You can get yourself a free seven day trial by
hitting that QR code or going to the description either
in this YouTube episode or if you're listening to us
on podcast form, you can do the same over there.
Speaker 2 (08:20):
Beginning of the year, the pictures were hot. Yep.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
After that, the hitters were hot. The pictures were not.
Can you talk about that as a coach? That angst
in the clubhouse in the sense of like you're working
with the hitters all day flip and talking to them
check out the iPad and they're.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
Like, ah, man, we just scored four.
Speaker 5 (08:41):
We're down five to four right now, Like, can you
talk about that? And was that present and how do
you stop that to be able to move on and
play together collectively.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
As a group.
Speaker 3 (08:52):
No, No, not at all. I mean I can honestly
say this, like the group of guys that we had
in that room were true professionals.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
One of the things they always talked about in that
clubhouse was having each other's back through through thick and
thin and good times and bad times. I never heard
any of those things. The pitchers weren't complaining about the
hitters early in the year, and then when the pitchers struggled,
you know, I think the hitters were like, yeah, they
picked us up for two months we got to get
it going. So it was it was a good clubhouse
(09:20):
and that standpoint. You know, I actually apologize in the
beginning of the year to to Hefner our pitching coach.
I was like, sorry, half these guys will get going
here pretty soon. And it was just it's just one
of those things. You know, Baseball is a funny game.
It's you could spend money, you can get all the
good players you want, but you know, clubhouse camaraderie. Uh,
you know, the year before we had Iglesias and Jad
(09:42):
Martinez that kind of unified that clubhouse. And and you
know you can't you have to organically make those things happen.
You can't just force them into a clubhouse. So those
things have to happen organically. And I think with those two,
with those two personalities, it was it was a great blend.
And for whatever reason this year, you know, the things
were bad, we always felt like we were gonna be
(10:04):
able to kind of turn the switch on and get going,
and it just never never really happened. You know, I
feel bad for it, Like I said, I they you know,
Stern's made a lot of acquisitions for us at the
at the break, and you know, none of them really
worked out that well. And we had a lot of
injuries like most teams do. But no matter what, we
still feel like we had enough talent. We just could
(10:25):
not get over the hump. We had moments of greatness
where we'd go on on a on a tear for
about two weeks, and then we'd lose eight nine in
a row. And we did that about three or four
times this year, and it's just you can't go through
this type of losing streak. So yeah, it's you know,
it was unfortunate situation. You know, I'm pulling for him.
(10:45):
I love a lot of guys in those clubhouse, but
you know, they they held it together. There was never
no blame game. They did a really good job of
keeping that under wraps and supporting each other through the season. Jovy,
what was Mendy like during this whole thing?
Speaker 2 (10:58):
And we've had them in here all the time. He's fabulous.
Speaker 4 (11:01):
I mean he came on you guys were in the
heat of it.
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Was he the same in the clubhouse every day?
Speaker 4 (11:05):
Because he seems like he never changes, He's always positive,
he always got everyone's back, and he believes.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Yeah, he was great. I think you know you could
tell that he was. You know, he was paying attention
to Boonie all those years in New York. You know,
Boonie gets hit hard. I absolutely love Boonie. I was
gonna go work for the Yankees about four years back
before I went with the Mets, and it was all
I wanted to do was work with Boonie because I
knew the person the personality, the consistency, and you could
(11:32):
see all those traits that Carlos brought with him, and
you could see why they chose Carlos to be the
manager here. He's he's had a really tough go, you know,
injuries and some of the pitching stuff, some of the
highs and lows. It's been a really two difficult years
for him. I know last year we went on that run,
but we started the season I think oh and five
(11:53):
own six uh. To start out his managerial career. We
blew a lot of saves last year. You know, the
he had to he had to manage a bullpen, our starters,
you know, they weren't going very deep. I think we
use the most pitchers or relievers in the history of
the game, where we're shuffling in and out pitchers throughout
(12:15):
the whole year. So he had to manage all this
and for this to be his first two years, I
think he did a tremendous job, and I think he's
got a tremendous future being a manager in this game.
Speaker 2 (12:26):
What if you guys had gotten in the what if?
Speaker 5 (12:28):
I mean we're talking about this, like, you guys, a
ton of coaches got axed and there's no playoff games.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
It's a big disappointment.
Speaker 5 (12:35):
We spend this much money one game, one game is
all would have taken.
Speaker 2 (12:40):
What if you.
Speaker 5 (12:40):
Guys had gotten in? What kind of path would it
have taken for you guys, Because to me, looking at
the pitching staff, it would have had to be some
absolute pixie dust magic.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yep, yeah, I can. I can answer this honestly. Not enough,
you know, I think I think it would have been
kind of scary because offensive, you know, we were able
to go on some terrors and score some eight to
nine runs. But when you're facing some of these pitchers
that are in the playoffs, it's just not sustainable. You know,
(13:11):
to me, it's not an offensive league anymore. You know,
the pitchers are dominating. The stuff is too good. I
heard you guys talking about the Brewers and Cubs, and
the Brewers or the Cubs not adding on runs, like
it's just not that easy. You know, the mop up
guys that are coming in in the fifth inning are
throwing a hundred with a ninety three mile an hour slider.
It's a very difficult, difficult game to be, you know,
(13:33):
to to score runs. And I like what the Brewers
and the Cubs have done with the pitching being so elite.
This is the one thing, this is the only kind
of trump card the offense has is to be to
have some speed and to have guys that put contact
on the baseball consistently. Now, if that comes with some homers,
you can kind of see, you know, even the padres,
(13:56):
you know somehow. You know, bunning was a big no no.
And now it's become sexy again because I think people
are realizing how hard it is to score runs. And
runs aren't a premium. Defenses at a premium. Running bases
is at a premium, outfield plays at a premium. Like
everything offensively, to score runs is at a premium, and
(14:16):
it's just it's not that easy to do. I meant
these pitchers, I meant a couple of years ago, when
I first got into this, you know, guys were throwing
extremely hard, but I didn't see a whole lot of control.
Now it's like one hundred dotted down and away at
the corner, and I'm watching video and it's pretty much
what I do. And you know, obviously I go over
(14:37):
the bats with these guys and I'm like, you guys
had nothing to hit that at bat, Like it's hard.
Usually pitchers leave something over the middle of the plate
and they're dotting right. And they know every detail about
the hitter. They know where he hits it, how hard
he hits it, they know the weaknesses, they know his tendencies.
Everything about this game is really focused for the pitching.
(14:59):
I meant we had defenses like we'd hit balls and
the defense would be playing in the perfect position, and
it's just something. It's just like, you know, Jeremy and
Jeremy Barnes and I the old hitting coach with the Mets,
we used to talk about this, like we looked at
our batting profile and a lot of the time you're
just kind of like hoping the ball finds grass right
(15:22):
and there's a little luck factor to that. Like, our
batting profile was extremely good. You know, Wan didn't have
the best first two months. Every out one made was
like one hundred and nine miles an hour. He had
the worst luck of any hitter in the big leagues,
and he was smashing balls, but you know, the defense
was right there. But you know a lot of the
times like you're really at the mercy of the ball
(15:44):
just finding grass, and you know, the defense's positioning has
gotten so good. The pitching's gotten so good. The one
thing I did notice this year more than any other year,
where pitchers are they have two fastballs. Now they have
the four seam ride at the top and they have
a two seam. So now you know, a guy like
Wan who covers the four team at the top, you know,
(16:05):
we we had all our numbers, like if they had
a two seam, we knew Wan was gonna get two seams,
even though the four seam was probably the better pitch
for the pitcher. Wan did so well against those, but
they had something to attack him with now, So you know,
it's to me, it's a it's a defensive game. And
the way the Brewers and the Cubs have built their team,
you talk about being consistent and competitive. You know, maybe
(16:29):
not the sexiest offenses, but what a tremendous job they've done.
I think this is how you're gonna have to combat
the pitching. Because the pitching's not going anywhere. You look
at Schlitler throwing a hundred with a ninety four like
like I'm going as a hitter, I'm going, Holy, I'm
thinking the radar guns are wrong, Like it's got to
be wrong, Like you know, it's guys are throwing one
(16:51):
hundred and four with a ninety seven mile hour slider
Like it's just like, how is the human body even
capable of doing that? But you know, to me, it's
it's a It's a pitching and defense game now, And
you know, I think, you know, I think gms are
going to have to act accordingly. And you know, if
you've got a position player who can do both, those
guys are always at a premium. But you know, defense
(17:13):
and speed are going to come back into play and
as we seen early in these playoffs, like bunts are
They're a big thing and it's coming back.
Speaker 5 (17:22):
I want to hit on one specific person. Obviously Catcher's
show AJ left. He said you're the man, but he
had to get on a flight, So yep, I talk
about catching the match, don't make the playoffs. I talk
about Francisco Alvarez. This is a guy that I think
his energy behind the dish is infectious. You saw in
the playoffs last year he got sent down to triple
(17:43):
A when he was struggling. Some of it was his defense,
But when he came back, he was awesome. And I
always think sometimes triple A triple an like, guys just
send down a triple A and it can be a
detriment and it can be eyewashed.
Speaker 2 (17:56):
Very rarely is actual a thing.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Did you see a difference when he came back, just
in his overall Francisco Alvarez being the man for this team.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Yeah, for sure. And I love Alva. He's you know,
I've told him two years ago. You know, I think
he hit twenty five homers and you looked at his
batting profile and there were some other things that weren't
so sexy about it, you know, but everybody falls in
love with homers. Oh, twenty five homers. This is great.
And I kind of challenged him to be a complete hitter,
and I told him, I said, you could be the
(18:27):
best offensive catcher in this league, right if you work
on the right things. You know, his defense at that
time was tremendous. His throwing was really good. You know,
this offseason he went he revamped his swing. You know,
players are always looking to get better. They're always looking
for that next great thing. You know. The way I
(18:49):
view things as getting better is to be more consistent.
Speaker 2 (18:53):
Like you.
Speaker 3 (18:53):
You are who you are as a player. All of
us have God given abilities and you have to tap
into those. I think what's wrong, you know, kind of
offensively is is the social media hitting coach and the
gurus that are out there. You know, they're they're selling
you something. There's this, Hey, I got this one thing
that will make you a great hitter. And I don't
(19:15):
view it like that. Hitting is way too hard. Each
each player has its his own his own tool set,
his own strengths, his own weaknesses, and you kind of
have to work with with that player and and and
in his realm of what he can do and can't do.
I I don't I'm you know, from the hitting side.
I'm not a hitting guru. I don't have the magic
(19:37):
pill to make you a great hitter. But what I
what I what I do is is I try to
work with you. I try to I try to get
inside your mindset. I try to work with you know,
let's talk about an approach, and you know, make little
adjustments as we go but I don't have a magic
pill to turn somebody into a fifty home run guy.
I've never been a salesman like that. Hitting is too hard.
(19:59):
I have too much respect for this league and the pitching.
I did it for a really long time, and I
knew how how hard it was, you know. And and
Albis Albi's it. He's got all the tool set. He
can catch. You know. He he got off to you know,
with this swing this this spring training, he was starting
to feel it kind of you know, he struggled and
(20:22):
he started to feel it, and then he had a
hand injury, and he had a couple of injuries through
the season and you know, he just wasn't able to
to get it right. But then when they sent him
down this last time, uh, he got his head right.
He was he was focused on the right things at
the plate. He came back and he was the Alvarez
we all think he can be.
Speaker 2 (20:41):
Now. The tool set is there.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
Now, it's just about repeating it and and and bringing
your tool set to the to the game every single day.
But I really do firmly believe if he puts it
all together, he could be the best, the best catcher
in the league. But definitely the best offensive catcher in
the league.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
You're right at that, You're right at that time when
you should think hitting wasn't hard anymore. Like I always say,
ten years after somebody retires, they're like, oh, I have
all the answers. So I'm so glad to hear that
you know hitting is really hard because you were really good.
I sucked and I knew that hitting was really hard.
But my question for you, you mentioned Juan Soto onan
(21:20):
sodo almost was forty forty. People really didn't even talk
about it. One of the things against one and as
a hitting coach, did you ever have this conversation is
he doesn't chase out of the zone. When you have
a guy in a milliar lineup, can he get one
hundred and thirty stakes if he never chases out of
the zone or he just passes the baton. I get
(21:41):
it in the long term of the season, like he's
gonna have the best numbers possible. Could he be a
guy to chase out of the zone or is that
something you would never ever tell an elite superstar to
do because that's his superpower?
Speaker 3 (21:55):
Really crazy, really good question. You know, I think I
think there were times when and I'll just be honest,
I think there were times you know where myself and
I even talked to Carlos, was you know, if we
could just kind of get him to swing, you know,
maybe oh or some pitches that he could do damage
on early in the counts. But but Wan is he
(22:16):
he is a precision hitter. I wouldn't I wouldn't get
him out of his comfort zone at all. The one thing,
the one thing I would say, if you want to
think outside the box and get creative, you know, sho
Hey Atani's you know, along with Judge and and cal Riley,
you know, the three best hitters in the game, Wan's
up there. You know, uh, show Hey leads off. You know,
(22:38):
Wan is so good at getting on base. He's so selective.
You know, there are times when things are going and
you're in the middle of the lineup, you're three four five,
like Pete Alonzo, Like we know Pete's gonna chase, Pete's
gonna do damage. I think that's you're kind of referencing
driving in runs at an at a. You know, Wan
could drive in one hundred and forty, but instead of
(23:01):
doing that where you're telling him to get out of
his comfort zone, slide him in the leadoff spot. He
stills bases, he gets on base at a four hundred
at a forty percent clip. You know, don't have him
get out of his comfort zone or what he likes
to do. But you can be just as dynamic in
the leadoff spot if you look at Shohan and what
he's done without changing the player too much, just changing
(23:21):
where he hits in the batting lineup. Like it's you know,
I know people they're like, ah, wherever you hit shouldn't
really matter, but it really does matter. Like when we
moved Lindor from the from the third slot into the
leadoff slot where he's really comfortable, and he's really comfortable
at the one or the two slot. You know, where
a player hits does matter sometimes, like there's there's some
(23:43):
you know, there's an emotional tie to where you're at
in the lineup, and you know, not everybody can hit three, four,
five in the lineup and you have to have the
right animals to do that. But you know, I think
with wants profile and if you want to get creative
and think out of the box, I think about leading
them off. I like it all right.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Last one I want to get to the coaching staff
in particular. Number one, and I know you've mentioned this before.
Thoughts on the way that the hitting coach setup was
and how it should look differently for a team. And two,
Jeremy Haffner getting let go. I mean I followed the
Mets very closely. He was looked at as a top
three pitching coach, pitching whisper the whole deal. So do
(24:23):
you think that it was warranted?
Speaker 3 (24:27):
No, no, no, I don't think any of the coaches
should have been fired, to be honest with you, But
understanding the nature of the beasts and how things work
weeks prior to this, I knew this was coming.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Is it fair?
Speaker 3 (24:42):
No, But when you sign up for this job, it's
kind of what comes with it. You're in a big
market like New York. The owner just spent eight hundred
million dollars. Your team better makes some noise, right, not
even making the playoffs isn't even good enough? Like you
better get deep and you better lead make it to
the World Series. And so I saw this coming. No,
(25:03):
it's not fair. The coaching staff we had was was unbelievable. Uh,
it's some of the guys that were there for with
me for the last three or four years. You know,
things just didn't go our way. You know, there's a
lot of injuries, a lot of acquisitions that we had
that didn't really pan out. But the coaching staff was steadfast, like,
(25:24):
I'll go to bat for these guys any day. Matter
of fact, I told Carlos the same thing at the
end of the year when I was flying home, I said, Carlos,
I'll go to bat for you any day. The job
you've done. There's a lot of things that go on
that people aren't privy to, but a lot of things
that need to stay in the clubhouse they don't really
need to be out there that people will never know about.
But the coaching staff we had, I'll go to the
(25:46):
bat for them. They they worked extremely hard from the
hitting standpoint. Somebody had asked me, you know, from the
hitting department and if there's anything I would have changed.
And Jeremy Barnes did a great job. Him and I
did a really good job of speaking different languages, believing
in certain and different things, coming from two different worlds,
(26:06):
and making it work together for the better of the group.
And that was the conversation him and I always had
we never disagreed on anything, right, we might have looked
at each other and go, man, this guy is full
of it, or I disagree with him. But whatever it was,
we made sure that we we brought. We brought it
to the group that him and I were on the
same page. The only thing that I had mentioned, and
(26:29):
I think Jeremy would agree with this too, you cannot
have two head hitting coaches. Like players, players get confused
when there's multiple voices. You know, from my standpoint, I
try to I try to give Jeremy kind of his
space because he did so much and the players were
very accustomed to kind of him being in the leadership role.
(26:50):
And then when I left to be the bench coach
for that one year under Buck and then I came
back into the hitters role, you know, Jeremy had established
himself in his voice, and so you know, to make
it work, I kind of gave him his space and
moving forward, And I said this to Lindor a couple
of months back, said I'll never do the co thing
ever again, Like there should never be. You know, things
are set up when there's there's a head guy and assistant,
(27:14):
when roles are defined, when there's one voice, I think
is the best situation moving forward. But you know, whatever
the Mets do or they're gonna do. But I you know,
I was asked that question. I said, the only thing
probably that you know, needed to change was you know,
I don't. I don't think two hitting coaches is the
way to go.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
It makes total sense and a lot of teams operate
that way with the one and then the assistant. Eric
ran at a time, But this was awesome, man, will
definitely have you back on. Appreciate the time here right all.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Right, Thank you guys, appreciate it. Cratzy, Bronnie, thank you,
Popular Podcasts
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com