February 7, 2025 • 39 mins
Guardians new hitting coach Grant Fink joins the show to discuss his promotion, and expectations for the offense this season. Plus, we continue to preview the AL Central Division as we chat this week with Minnesota Twins broadcaster Kris Atteberry. That's all on this edition of Guardians Weekly with Jim Rosenhaus on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.
Guardians Weekly is brought to you by Progressive helping Guardians
fans save hundreds on car insurance hi veryone.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Welcome to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosanaus along with you with
another one of our off season hot stove shows. As
we get closer and closer to the beginning of spring
training and our shows emanating from Goodyear and the Guardian
Spring Training Complex. There but a good show lined up
for you today. As always, we will visit with the
brand new hitting coach for the Cleveland Guardians, Grant Fink,
(01:28):
who has been in the organization for quite some time
but gets his first chance at coaching at the major
league level. We'll talk to him about that and the
challenges associated with that coming up shortly in the second
half of our show. Hope you can stay with us
as we continue our look around the American League's Central
Division and some of the rivals for the Guardians. And
(01:49):
this week we'll preview the Minnesota Twins with their fine
radio voice, Chris Addabury, so we'll get to that in
the second half of our show. On the transaction front
for the guard Guardians, they continue to bolster their depth
in terms of pitching by signing veteran free agent left
hander Colby Allard to a minor league contract and non
(02:10):
roster invite to major league camp. He's twenty seven pitched
last season with the Phillies, and in fact, he appeared
in seven games for Philadelphia, including four starts, one of
which came against Cleveland, but for the most part last
season spent the year at the Triple A level. He's
pitched in the Major leagues with Atlanta and Texas in
(02:31):
previous seasons, so the Guardian's hoping that he can provide
some starting pitching depth heading into spring training. So that's
on the transaction front. As promised, we will visit after
our break with the new hitting coach for the Cleveland Guardians,
Grant Fink. Grant had spent the last three seasons in
the Guardians minor league organization as their minor league hitting coordinators,
(02:54):
so that means he really had a chance to work
with and oversee most of the young players who have
moved through the system and then now have made their
way to the major leagues. He began his professional coaching
career with Cleveland back in twenty seventeen. He had been
in the organization as a player for three seasons following
his draft in the twenty third round in twenty thirteen
(03:17):
out of Missouri Western State University, and he'll be part
of that hitting group that still features Dan Puente. He'll
return for his second season on the staff, and Jason
Esposito is back as well. He had spent the twenty
twenty three and twenty four seasons as the Major League
club's run production coordinator. But it is Fink who takes
over as the major league hitting coach, and obviously that's
(03:41):
something that he's very much looking forward to, and we'll
talk to him about that when we return after this
time out. I'm a Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
We're going to be here a while today, folks, switching
to progressive is a game winning call, and that reminds
us of other game winning calls in the history of sports.
So it was the fourth quarter and went down by five,
sweat pouring down my face.
Speaker 4 (04:08):
Suddenly it hit me, if only I could.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Rep part of the towel around my forehead, and that's
how I became the first basketball player.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
It's a wear ahead band. Okay, not really a game
winning call, but it was a good call. You can
make one two switch to Progressive and you could save hundreds.
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Speaker 1 (04:38):
The wind up and delivery of swinging another line, drive
base hip to the gap in left center. Another three
hit game for Stephen kwond He is something else now.
The set in the one swung and ripped the first
over the head of the league, bring whistle down the
right fair line, kicks into the corner, put on a
sweat to third man. Sarto went standing with a two bagger.
(05:02):
The bitch swung on light right pace, hit coleft center.
Sand Tanna does it again. O Naylor tamped to the
mound his first time up and the Guardians catcher sends
a liner toward the gamp and right center on the runners.
Robert he drops of acent. This will score two runs.
You know all of our roster plays, we use everybody
(05:22):
and so many different steps up. That's what good teams do.
That's what that's what a good team does.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Is it doesn't have to be one or two guys
every night.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
The Pitts swung in and rip deep bright there she
goes another two iron for Jose Ramirez. Not even Jack
Nicholas could hit a two iron like that, and the
Guardians have a seven to two lead, and Ramirez has.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Four home runs in his last three games. Jose Ramire
with three more army eyes tonight twenty eight homers, ninety
army eyes and yes, Virginia, he very much is an
American League MVP candidate.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. We are joined now by
the new Guardians hitting coach Grant Fink, who takes over
for Chris Bleaka who moved on to the Cincinnati Reetz
in the off season, and granted first off, congratulations, thanks
for joining the show. This has to be a really
special time for you as you were named major league
hitting coach.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Yeah, well, I appreciate it. It definitely is an exciting
time for me and my family and we're just excited to,
you know, be a part of the organization at this
level where I kind of came up in so really
looking forward to going.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And when you look at that, for a lot of fans,
your name might be new to them, but you are
are certainly not new to the organization. And explain some
of your background and how far that goes even back
to your playing days.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
Yeah, So I was draft in twenty thirteen, played a
few years here in our minor leagues, and when I
finished playing, they asked me to be a coach, and
I wasn't ready to do it at first, so I
went and played a year of independent ball after that
and realized quickly that I wanted to get back into coaching,
and thankfully there was an opportunity here, which was amazing
(07:30):
because this is the place I really wanted to be,
the people here, and then I spent about three years
as a hitting coach, and then three years as a
hitting coordinator, and then most recently this opportunity to come
up to the major league staff.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And we were talking earlier. Obviously, relationships are huge when
you're coaching, whether it's pitching or hitting, and the majority
of this team you've worked with in the past, and
explain how much of an advantage that can be, especially
in this spot.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
Yeah. Well, I've had other friends that have gone to
be major league hitting coaches and they have to spend
their first you know, a few months getting to know
everyone at a deeper level.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And I've been.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Around this team pretty much ninety five percent of it
for majority of their careers, and that's going to be
awesome to just kind of hop in and start right
off with their relationship and not that awkward beginning of
getting to know each other's personalities and styles. There's a
few players that I'll probably need to build a little
deeper relationship with early, but overall, I mean long background
(08:33):
with a lot of players on our squad.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Grant Fink is joining us. He's a Guardian's new hitting
coach for the upcoming season. And Grant you mentioned that
that transition from playing to coaching. You weren't quite ready
when the initial thought was put out there by the organization.
But while you were still playing, were you thinking long
term that maybe when your playing career was done, that
(08:57):
coaching would be something that you'd enjoy.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (09:00):
Why, Yeah, absolutely. I knew before I even went into
pro ball that at some point, when my cleats were off,
that I would definitely move into the coaching ranks. I
just I've always enjoyed impacting other people and helping other
people achieve their goals, and I felt like coaching would
give you a chance to, you know, stay in the
(09:20):
game and do something you love, but also put you
right on that platform to help others, and that's something
that I've always been passionate about, and especially within the
game of hitting. So I remember, even my last year
playing in our organization, I didn't get much playing time,
so I just dove into the people around me and
(09:40):
tried to help in any way I can. And that's
really when I knew like my passion was going to
be in coaching and developing.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And obviously we see the work that the hitting team
puts in at the major league level last three years,
though you've been a coordinator, so you're throughout the minor
league system. How much of a similarity is there to
the things that you're trying to teach the younger hitters
so that when they get here it might not be
all that foreign to them continuity wise. How important can
(10:11):
that be for an organization?
Speaker 6 (10:14):
So I think it's massively important, and us as an organization,
we pride ourselves in alignment from the major leagues all
the way to our dr academy, So ultimately being in
a coordinator role last year, I spent a lot of
time in person and on the phone with our major
league staff and then every level down from there, and
(10:35):
it just it helps with messaging, It helps with the
continuity of not just messaging, but ideas and systems and processes.
So that's something that makes it going to be a
little less new for me because I was so involved
in the process last year that I understand exactly where
(10:56):
they're coming from and what if the steps are to
continue to building on that vision.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
One of the themes a year ago, especially early on,
was I don't know if trying to hit for more
powers is the right way to say it, but certainly
taking some chances early in the account, which was different
from the year before to some extent from that contact approach.
How about heading into this season, as you take a
dive into to what went well, what needs to be
(11:24):
worked on for the coming year among the hitting group,
any changes in that approach or do you try and
just refine what worked well a year ago.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
I think we're just going to continue to build on it.
We have an incredibly athletic team and a lot of
our players can get the bat to the ball, and
I would think this year we're going to put a
lot more emphasis on decision making and continue to learn
how to take chances and you know, maximize our power
when it's the right time, but also continue to play
that gritty baseball that we've been playing in the last
(11:54):
couple of years. There's no reason why we can't do
both of those things. And I think we've set a
foundation in our minor leagues the last few years and
it's moved its way up into the big leagues. And
when Val was here, we worked hard together to you know,
work on those transitions. So just continuing with moving the
needle there. We saw some progress last year and we're
going to continue to push that a little bit as
(12:15):
we go in the next few years.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Grant Fink, the Guardian's new hitting coach, joining us here
on Guardian's Weekly, and Grant wanted to touch on a
couple of players that you may have worked with quite
a bit the last several seasons, and one who made
an immediate impact and then had one of the biggest
blows in the postseason, as John Kenzie. Noel explain what
you saw from him and what allowed him to take
(12:39):
that next step and not only get to the major
leagues but contribute in some key spots.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
Yeah, you got to give John Kenzie a ton of credit.
He made a decision last year to spend the majority
of his offseason I think probably ninety percent of his
off season in Arizona in the building with us, other
than a short stint and winter ball, and he was
dedicated to changing his body, working on his decision making,
and just becoming a more complete hitter. And he accomplished that.
(13:09):
And we saw what he did in Triple A and
in the role that he had in the big leagues,
what he did in the postseason. This is just the
first year of him getting exposed to that game at
that level. So we're really excited for this offseason again,
he's going to be in a building with us a
lot here in Arizona, continuing to build on the things
that he worked on last year. Super proud of him
(13:32):
in the effort and then getting to see him get
rewarded for some of that and help the team win
some ballgames was really cool to see.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And another young player who made really nice strides from
day one to the end of the season was Brian Rokio.
And you may have sounds like you may have worked
with him more than anybody else in a variety of roles.
How has he come along from a really young player
just getting his feet wet and pro ball to where
he is now.
Speaker 6 (14:00):
He was a funny one. I've spent a ton of
time with him, from this first time coming over to
the States to his first two years in affiliate baseball.
I was his hitting coach. We've had an awesome relationship,
and his growth through his time in the minor leagues
and into the big leagues has been incredible, not just
as a hitter, but as a defender and as a person.
(14:23):
Just continuing to build himself up as a hitter, I
think will be an important piece. We watched the way
he played defense this year. It was outstanding, and he's
got a lot of talent in there at the plate.
And as he starts to become more confident and more
confident and more confident, I think you'll see that playing
on the field and.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
On the other end of the spectrum. One of the
great hitters in the game as Jose Ramirez as a
new hitting coach number one, how do you handle one
of the best hitters in baseball to get the most
out of him? And then also you go back a
little ways with him, don't you?
Speaker 6 (15:00):
Yeah? I mean I was a player at the same
time Hosey was a player. In our minor league system,
so I've spent some time around him. I've actually been
asked that question, like, Hey, what what are you going
to do with Hosey? And I just think it's a funny.
It's a funny question because the person Hosey is and
the way he approaches the game, it's a It makes
coaches jobs really easy because he's always pushing to get better,
(15:23):
and he's not afraid to try new things, and he's
not afraid to, you know, push the limits. So ultimately
my job is just going there and support him and
give him some avenues to continue to grow in the game.
He's already shown that he can do that really quickly,
and I'm excited to just be around him and learn
from him and help him develop and continue to develop
(15:44):
into a leader in our clubhouse and help us win
some ball games.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Late in the season, Grant Fink joining us the new
hitting coach for the Guardians, and Grant will end on
this see obviously a tremendous season for the team reaching
the American League Championship Series. You spend your off season
in Arizona and head into the complex on a regular basis.
It used to be players that show up a couple
(16:09):
of weeks before maybe or right at the report date
for spring training. But how active is that building throughout
the off season now with players just trying to get
better and be ready to go for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6 (16:22):
Oh, it's incredible. We have players here year round, and
you know, I've been here in this complex for the
entire year for about seven years now, and every year
it's growing. The amount of staff and resources that our
organization is putting in play here for players is amazing.
And when you do that, all of a sudden, players
want to come. So we have everyone from multiple major
(16:45):
league players to first year players straight out of the
draft that you know, spend time in this building in
the offseason, and it's just a testament to the organization
and you know the impact they want to have on
not only player development, but continuous development at the major
league level. So it's been a blast to be down
here and experience that in the growth of this building
and just what it means to this organization and our
(17:07):
future success.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Well, you will be a big part of that, to
be sure. Grant, thanks a lot for coming by. Congratulations again,
and we'll catch up with you soon.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
So much.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
At is major league hitting coach Grant Fink, starting his
first season in that role for Cleveland after spending the
last three and the organization is the minor league hitting coordinator,
taking over for Chris Fleka, who moves down the road
to Cincinnati. He'll be the hitting coach for Terry Francona's
Reds in twenty twenty five, and Fink will be joined
once again by Dan Puente his second season as an
(17:39):
assistant hitting coach, and Jason Esposito is back for a
third season as part of the hitting team as well.
So a good group there to get the offense going
in the right direction. In twenty twenty five. Stay with
us when we come back. Chris Addabury will join us.
He's the radio voice for the Minnesota Twins. We continue
our look around the American League Central Division with a
(18:01):
Twins preview for you that's coming your way shortly on
the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Durand's ready and the pitch to Will Brennan, a swing and.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
A drive, Hi date to ride this ball.
Speaker 7 (18:52):
And a walk up three run home run for Will
Brennan and a mop seen at home and through it all,
the Guardians have beaten the Twins and sweep them out
of Cleveland today five to two on a two out,
(19:13):
game winning three run home run to right by Will Brennan.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And some way, somehow, this ball club continues to find
ways to win games, and they do it today in
dramatic fashion.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Welcome back to the Guardians Weekly. We continue with our
look around the American League's Central Division, at the Guardian's
rivals and certainly a team that they have battled with
the past several seasons, the Minnesota Twins. That's our subject
this week, and they're fine. Radio voice Chris Addabury has
joined us from points up north before he heads the
(19:53):
spring training and gets out of the cold of Minneapolis.
And Chris, always great to have you on. How's your
winter going.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Rosie going great, I will say, and I think most
Guards fans would agree with me. The high point of
my winner was when Tommy got the call for the
Freck Award. That was probably the high point.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And yes, very much so. And it will be a
fun summer, to be sure, as Tom Hamilton will be
heading into the Hall of Fame in late July. And
as we look around the division. Obviously, everybody trying to
make some improvements. But boy, with Minnesota, it just seems
like the prevailing news content is about some uncertainty about
(20:31):
ownership and what's going on there sale of the team potentially,
and and how is that impacting what they're trying to
do to get ready for the season.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Well, the for sale sign is definitely up, and the
team came out in the poll that family, who's like
the third or fourth longest ownership group in place in
the league right now, which is amazing, has said let's
let's it's it's it's for sale, and so the you know,
they're they're working through. Obviously that's a very complicated process.
(21:00):
It's a pretty limited group of buyers. There's been very
little said publicly. I know, the ishbas from the Suns
have been mentioned publicly. You know, I've always been told
by people like it's always the people you don't read
about the paper that are probably closer than others. I know.
There's been a lot of interest, nothing permanent, nothing finite.
(21:20):
So in the wake of that, our long standing team
president is retiring. Derek Falvey, who Cleveland fans will remember,
is going to go from being just the baseball ops
guy to being the president of everything, the business side
and the baseball side, while Dave as he retires, kind
of facilitates the sale. So we got a new GM
and Jeremy zol who I really like. All that being said,
(21:42):
because that's a ton of chaos. Business is usual in
terms of kind of the putting the team together. We've
got new hitting coaches, which is I think kind of
a big deal. We've got a lot of the same players,
and I think our fan base is so burned by
what happened at the end of last year with our
massive historical collapse, that they're pretty negative right now. They're like,
(22:04):
you're not doing anything. You know, we don't even you're
not spend any money. It didn't sign any big free agents.
And that being said, I think we're going to be
pretty good. I think we've got a lot of good
players coming back. So it's a weird spot to be
in because there's chaos, but there's also stability at certain points.
And I think that you'd be nuts not to think
(22:25):
that the Twins in Cleveland, they are again going to
be battling through the top of the division this summer.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
And you look back at last year, and Minnesota certainly
at various points in the season right there up among
the division leaders and what turned out to be a
great division. But injury wise, is it fair to say
it just was the injuries at a certain point in
time became too much to overcome because of who was
unavailable down the stretch.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Yeah, I think Karrea Buxton obviously not being able to play,
and then Joe Ryan's injury in Chicago was huge because
we were running out a lot of rookie arms down
the stretch. Pablo was really good, Bailey over was really good. Also,
the Brock Stewart injury and the bullpen kind of sapped
us there and we ended up just getting really young
and just not very deep pitching wise. And that's not
(23:15):
a fair excuse, because look what the Tigers did. They
were calling guys up from Triple A and starting them
as openers and playing at a seventy five win percentage
base down to the stretch. So they were able to
pull it off, and we just didn't perform well enough
to do that. But the injuries were a big deal.
I think the other thing about our club was we
(23:36):
had a lot of young guys that maybe seemed older
than they were, Royce Lewis, Trevor Larnick, Matt Waalner, even
a rookie like brooks Lee, Eddie Julian. I mean, the
list goes on and on and includes Ryan Jeffers, probably
Jose Miranda. These are guys who have played in the
big leagues. You're familiar with them. They've had high points,
but aren't like solidified, been through the trenches. Guys that
(24:00):
maybe have the consistency that you get with the older,
more veteran player. We need those guys to make the
jump that say Nailor made for you guys last year,
right like where they go from being a guy who's
really talented, who's occasionally really really good, to being really
good every day. And that's the jump that those guys
need to make this year. We haven't added a whole
(24:20):
lot of new faces because we do have faith in
the players that we have here, but they need to
make that next step in there in their professional careers.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Chris Adabury joining us. He's the radio voice for the
Minnesota Twins and certainly expected to be again a contender
in the Al Central along with the Guardians, the Royals
and the Tigers. And you know, Chris, you look at
you mentioned Derek Balby's name, and he's now the president
of the entire operation. But I know, it seems like
(24:49):
since he got there, one of the things that made
him attractive was what he was able to do with
some of the young pitching here in Cleveland. And is
that starting to finally make its way to the major
leagues where they feel they have some more death both
starting pitching wise and relief wise.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Absolutely, it took a while, right. I think everybody wanted
a Cleveland pipeline right away, but development and the infrastructure
for development takes a while. And what Derek has created
and Jeremy Zola do GM was kind of the PD guy,
you know, first as the farm director and then as
an assistant GM. They've started to churn those guys out
(25:29):
and Bailey over is homegrown in the rotation. They had
the Acimuny to go get Pablo Lopez, to go get
Joe Ryan and turn him into a really good big leaguer.
But now we're starting to see the other pieces fall
into place. We saw David Festa, Zebi Matthews last year.
Griffin Jack's a homegrown guy who became a wipeout reliever
(25:49):
for US Lewis Varland he was Louis now wants to
be Lewis. He'll be a big part of the bullpen
this coming year. I believe we've got more guys coming.
They're able to do what Cleveland did and still does
so well. Draft guys in the round like grounds maybe
three to eight, three to nine, add velocity, add a wipeout,
pitch smooth out, you know, maybe sequencing, tunneling how you
(26:15):
want to use your mix and turn these guys into
really good starters. And I think that's where we are now.
I think right now that if you said, what's the
strength of our organization, it's it's the pitching pipeline that
is currently underway. And now it's one thing to have
the pipeline and then to turn them all into winners
at the big leagues. But if you get, you know,
(26:35):
a handful of guys and one or two of them hit,
you know, and they don't all have to be Shane
Bieber's because they'ren't very many of those guys. But if
you get some quality guys that you can throw into
your rotation, you can stay competitive for a long time.
As Cleveland has proven.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
All right, So feeding back to last year and then
looking ahead of this year, two names that have got
to stay healthy. Spring training has not begun yet, so
obviously there's a long look into this. But Carlos Korea
and Byron Buxton, what is their hell status heading into
spring training? And can they give you a decent amount
(27:12):
of games? Maybe one hundred and thirty to one hundred
and forty games this season?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Well, boy, I think that number is high, but we
need them right, we need him to play. Carlos was
having his best year as a twin. Last year he's
he had the planet positis, and again it's been in
a different foot each year. He looks great. You know,
he talks all the right things in terms of his
diet's impeccable. His workout routine is amazing. He puts in
(27:39):
all the work. What does that mean because you can't predict,
you know, the types of injuries that he's had the
last two years. They aren't tied to anything previous. They're
not tied to the previous ankle injury or anything like that.
They're kind of fluky, weird things. He's wearing different shoes,
he's doing running in different ways. Staying off cement any
(28:00):
rock you can overturn Carlos's overturn. I saw him a
Twins Fest, spoke with him at length. He looks great.
He's had a full off season. It's not like he's
had a rehab off season. And Byron's the same way.
This is the first offseason a while where Buck hasn't
had a major surgery of some sort that he then
had to rehab from, and he's as healthy as he's
ever been in an off season. He played one hundred
(28:22):
games last year and he played well, which was big.
I think if you get one hundred from him, you're happy.
If you get one hundred and twenty from him, you're
doing cartwheels. And we need those two guys in addition
to Royce. We need Royce to grow into the superstar
we think he can become because one thing you mentioned
around the league, they're stars right in our division. Bobby
(28:44):
wit Junior is a superstar, Jose Ramirez is a superstar.
When all else fails for those two offenses, those two
guys can literally carry your entire club for long stretches
of time. Detroit has a different look, but they're superstar.
Oursteric school so you know, once every four or five
days they're going to win. We don't have that guy necessarily.
(29:07):
We've got really good players, but Carlos at this point
of his career, I don't know if he ever really was.
Isn't a Bobby whit like guy numerically in terms of
how he changes the whole game. You know, Buck isn't
a Jose Ramirez guy in terms of consistently posting super
new for star numbers. They're really really good game changing players,
but they have to both be on the field and
(29:28):
productive because we don't have that one guy that Cleveland
has or that Kansas City has. We don't have that luxury.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
When you look at the manager's office at rock Obaldell
a couple of division titles, but last year a really
tough ending to it was he on the hot seat
at the end of the year. He's back this year,
but was their discussions that that maybe it was time
for a change, or because of all the injuries that
did he hold it together as best he could and
(29:54):
get as much out of that club as he could.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
I don't think his seat ever even got luke warm.
He and Darre Falvey or it's like a three legged race.
And that's the way Derek built the baseball side of
the operation. And it's the word you always hear anytime
you interview one of our front office guys or field staff. Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration,
rolling it together. So to blame Rocco would be to
(30:18):
blame yourself, right, And so last day of the year,
Derek said, Rocco is my guy. Joe paul Ed says,
Derek's my guy, And I don't think there was ever
a threat that those guys were in trouble. I do
think that during that And again, as you know, you
spend time with the manager a lot during the course
of a season, and as you're in there daily and
the things slipping away, you could see it wearing on Rocco.
(30:41):
You could see him trying everything. He tried the tough
guy act with players, He tried the nice guy stuff
with players. But you have to be yourself and Rock
knows that. So you can't get too far out of
who you are, or you're being inconsistent and you lose
players long term, which he never did. He was always
acting within the bounds of kind of his authentic self,
(31:04):
which you have to be as a manager. It wore
on him, and I think that looking around the room,
they realized they needed to make some changes. The biggest
changes they made were were with the hitting coaches and
hitting coach man. It's a tough job, right because if
the guys hit, then it's because they're really good hitters.
But if the guys don't, it's because the hitting coach sun.
That's kind of the nature of how our league works.
(31:26):
The two guys we had were not how would I
say it, communicative. I said three words to the Derek
Schollan and David Bodkins over the course at their time here,
because they weren't around. They were in the cage, they
were deep in the tunnel. They were in the bowels
of the stadium. They had a lot of technology down there,
and they worked and they grinded and they worked on hitting.
(31:47):
But it was all very single focused. It was all
very siloed, and I think we saw that that approach
maybe didn't work for everybody. And Matt Berkshoalter, the guy
who we had a triple A. He's good with the Oriols,
his twin Fest. The stuff he's seying publicly and Oco
saying the same thing is hey, you know what, the
idea that you can just work with technology in the
battles of the stadium NonStop, never be on the field,
(32:09):
and then the game happens and it translates and we're
not into that we're going to hit on the field.
Hitting is more than just isolating each pitch. Every bat
does not exist in a silo. Situational hitting is a
real thing. We need to have different approaches for different
times and different situations, and that's true of every hitter.
(32:30):
We still want to do a ton of damage, but
you can't just try to hit a home run and
if you strike out, o home And so I think
we're going to see a change there because I think
our players feel that way, and I think borg Chalti
also has been through it with young guys, all the
young wave we saw in Baltimore. You know, it wasn't
all roses for everybody. They can Jackson Holliday struggled the
(32:52):
first time up or Jordan Westburg up and down, and
not everybody was gunner understand And so I think that
experience will come in handy going to see us th Rosie,
this is gonna blow your mind. You're gonna see us
taking VP on the field next year, you know. But
the Twins, it was kind of you and I would
joke about it. Other radio guys would tease me, Oh, hey,
one guy's out for early hitting you is your team
(33:13):
even here? You know, because so much of the work
the Twins did was in the cage, in top secret,
you know, cloak of cloak of darkness. No one ever
saw our guys on the field that that's going to
change this here, and Roco's enthused about it, Porkschoalti's enthused
about it, and I think the players are too.
Speaker 6 (33:32):
All right.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
We're joined by Chris Addambury, the radio voice for the Twins,
and we'll touch on this before we let you go. Chris,
it's been winter again here in northeast Ohio after a
couple of winters where it didn't seem like the normal thing.
But we've had some cold ones here. How about you, guys,
how far below zero when winter was really hitting at
(33:52):
it at its peak did we get in the in
the Twin Cities.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
We've had a little bit of extremes. Right, it didn't
snow much, It hasn't snowed much, and it's by and
large been warm. It was forty eight degrees here last weekend.
Come on, Yes, but it's two degrees right now. And
we had one week where it never got above zero,
(34:17):
and that was the one awful week. But I will
say this, one week where it doesn't get above zero
is better when there's no snow in big piles of
snow on the ground outside, so we had that benefit
this year. It's by and large been a pretty mild winter. Now.
I can say that because I'm leaving for Florida in
a couple of weeks. But right now there's only a
(34:39):
little snow on the ground. I've only shoveled probably four
or five times all winter long, so I don't want
to I don't want to jinx anything. And I know
the ice fishermen are upset, but I am not, and
I'm okay with with milder winters.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Listen, you enjoy the remainder of high school basketball season.
I know you have a daughter who's playing and that's
always a lot of fun. And enjoy spring training down
in Fort Myers.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Yeah, well, I'm gonna keep my eyes out. I hear
that they might be roaming around down in Florida with
this Cleveland State crew, so I might keep my eyes peeled.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Somebody's got to keep an eye on them. Thank you, Bye, Rose.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
You can't wait to see you guys.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Great to see you. We'll see the Twins in Minneapolis
for the first time in mid May, and they come
to Cleveland for the first time at the end of April.
And always good games when the Guardians and Twins meet.
That's Chris Addabury, the radio voice for the Minnesota Twins.
Stay tuned will wrap up this week's edition of Guardians
Weekly after this time.
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Speaker 1 (36:26):
From Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona. It's Cleveland Guardians Cactus
League Baseball, ready to bring you another night of thrilling
spring training baseball. We are done, folks, We're toast stick
a fork in us.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Welcome back. It's our final segment of Guardians Weekly. Jim
Rosenhaus back with you, and this one of the few
remaining hot stove shows for you this season, as we'll
have one more for you next weekend and then we
will join you from Goodyear, Arizona for our shows from
spring training, throughout the spring and leading into the regular season,
(37:04):
so it's winding down. You can hear our show each
weekend on the radio on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
WTAM and Cleveland airs the show at seven am on
Saturday mornings, as does WMAN in Mansfield and WMRN and Marion,
and the show airs at eleven o'clock on Saturday mornings
on WKBN in Youngstown. And of course if you don't
(37:27):
catch it on the radio when it airs, you can
pick it up whenever you like as a podcast wherever
you download your favorite podcast. Well, I's always want to
thank Brian Matsee for all of his help on our show,
putting it Together each and every week. We will join
you once again next week from right here in Cleveland
one more time another Hot Stove show, and then head
(37:49):
out to Arizona after that. But until then, this is
Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians
Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Guardians Weekly has been brought to you by Progressive helping
Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance
Welcome to Guardians Weekly on the Cleveland Guardians Radio Network.
Guardians Weekly is brought to you by Progressive helping Guardians
fans save hundreds on car insurance hi veryone.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Welcome to Guardians Weekly. Jim Rosanaus along with you with
another one of our off season hot stove shows. As
we get closer and closer to the beginning of spring
training and our shows emanating from Goodyear and the Guardian
Spring Training Complex. There but a good show lined up
for you today. As always, we will visit with the
brand new hitting coach for the Cleveland Guardians, Grant Fink,
(01:28):
who has been in the organization for quite some time
but gets his first chance at coaching at the major
league level. We'll talk to him about that and the
challenges associated with that coming up shortly in the second
half of our show. Hope you can stay with us
as we continue our look around the American League's Central
Division and some of the rivals for the Guardians. And
(01:49):
this week we'll preview the Minnesota Twins with their fine
radio voice, Chris Addabury, so we'll get to that in
the second half of our show. On the transaction front
for the guard Guardians, they continue to bolster their depth
in terms of pitching by signing veteran free agent left
hander Colby Allard to a minor league contract and non
(02:10):
roster invite to major league camp. He's twenty seven pitched
last season with the Phillies, and in fact, he appeared
in seven games for Philadelphia, including four starts, one of
which came against Cleveland, but for the most part last
season spent the year at the Triple A level. He's
pitched in the Major leagues with Atlanta and Texas in
(02:31):
previous seasons, so the Guardian's hoping that he can provide
some starting pitching depth heading into spring training. So that's
on the transaction front. As promised, we will visit after
our break with the new hitting coach for the Cleveland Guardians,
Grant Fink. Grant had spent the last three seasons in
the Guardians minor league organization as their minor league hitting coordinators,
(02:54):
so that means he really had a chance to work
with and oversee most of the young players who have
moved through the system and then now have made their
way to the major leagues. He began his professional coaching
career with Cleveland back in twenty seventeen. He had been
in the organization as a player for three seasons following
his draft in the twenty third round in twenty thirteen
(03:17):
out of Missouri Western State University, and he'll be part
of that hitting group that still features Dan Puente. He'll
return for his second season on the staff, and Jason
Esposito is back as well. He had spent the twenty
twenty three and twenty four seasons as the Major League
club's run production coordinator. But it is Fink who takes
over as the major league hitting coach, and obviously that's
(03:41):
something that he's very much looking forward to, and we'll
talk to him about that when we return after this
time out. I'm a Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 3 (03:52):
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Speaker 1 (04:38):
The wind up and delivery of swinging another line, drive
base hip to the gap in left center. Another three
hit game for Stephen kwond He is something else now.
The set in the one swung and ripped the first
over the head of the league, bring whistle down the
right fair line, kicks into the corner, put on a
sweat to third man. Sarto went standing with a two bagger.
(05:02):
The bitch swung on light right pace, hit coleft center.
Sand Tanna does it again. O Naylor tamped to the
mound his first time up and the Guardians catcher sends
a liner toward the gamp and right center on the runners.
Robert he drops of acent. This will score two runs.
You know all of our roster plays, we use everybody
(05:22):
and so many different steps up. That's what good teams do.
That's what that's what a good team does.
Speaker 4 (05:26):
Is it doesn't have to be one or two guys
every night.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
The Pitts swung in and rip deep bright there she
goes another two iron for Jose Ramirez. Not even Jack
Nicholas could hit a two iron like that, and the
Guardians have a seven to two lead, and Ramirez has.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Four home runs in his last three games. Jose Ramire
with three more army eyes tonight twenty eight homers, ninety
army eyes and yes, Virginia, he very much is an
American League MVP candidate.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Welcome back to Guardians Weekly. We are joined now by
the new Guardians hitting coach Grant Fink, who takes over
for Chris Bleaka who moved on to the Cincinnati Reetz
in the off season, and granted first off, congratulations, thanks
for joining the show. This has to be a really
special time for you as you were named major league
hitting coach.
Speaker 6 (06:39):
Yeah, well, I appreciate it. It definitely is an exciting
time for me and my family and we're just excited to,
you know, be a part of the organization at this
level where I kind of came up in so really
looking forward to going.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
And when you look at that, for a lot of fans,
your name might be new to them, but you are
are certainly not new to the organization. And explain some
of your background and how far that goes even back
to your playing days.
Speaker 6 (07:08):
Yeah, So I was draft in twenty thirteen, played a
few years here in our minor leagues, and when I
finished playing, they asked me to be a coach, and
I wasn't ready to do it at first, so I
went and played a year of independent ball after that
and realized quickly that I wanted to get back into coaching,
and thankfully there was an opportunity here, which was amazing
(07:30):
because this is the place I really wanted to be,
the people here, and then I spent about three years
as a hitting coach, and then three years as a
hitting coordinator, and then most recently this opportunity to come
up to the major league staff.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
And we were talking earlier. Obviously, relationships are huge when
you're coaching, whether it's pitching or hitting, and the majority
of this team you've worked with in the past, and
explain how much of an advantage that can be, especially
in this spot.
Speaker 6 (08:00):
Yeah. Well, I've had other friends that have gone to
be major league hitting coaches and they have to spend
their first you know, a few months getting to know
everyone at a deeper level.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
And I've been.
Speaker 6 (08:10):
Around this team pretty much ninety five percent of it
for majority of their careers, and that's going to be
awesome to just kind of hop in and start right
off with their relationship and not that awkward beginning of
getting to know each other's personalities and styles. There's a
few players that I'll probably need to build a little
deeper relationship with early, but overall, I mean long background
(08:33):
with a lot of players on our squad.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Grant Fink is joining us. He's a Guardian's new hitting
coach for the upcoming season. And Grant you mentioned that
that transition from playing to coaching. You weren't quite ready
when the initial thought was put out there by the organization.
But while you were still playing, were you thinking long
term that maybe when your playing career was done, that
(08:57):
coaching would be something that you'd enjoy.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
Oh?
Speaker 6 (09:00):
Why, Yeah, absolutely. I knew before I even went into
pro ball that at some point, when my cleats were off,
that I would definitely move into the coaching ranks. I
just I've always enjoyed impacting other people and helping other
people achieve their goals, and I felt like coaching would
give you a chance to, you know, stay in the
(09:20):
game and do something you love, but also put you
right on that platform to help others, and that's something
that I've always been passionate about, and especially within the
game of hitting. So I remember, even my last year
playing in our organization, I didn't get much playing time,
so I just dove into the people around me and
(09:40):
tried to help in any way I can. And that's
really when I knew like my passion was going to
be in coaching and developing.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
And obviously we see the work that the hitting team
puts in at the major league level last three years,
though you've been a coordinator, so you're throughout the minor
league system. How much of a similarity is there to
the things that you're trying to teach the younger hitters
so that when they get here it might not be
all that foreign to them continuity wise. How important can
(10:11):
that be for an organization?
Speaker 6 (10:14):
So I think it's massively important, and us as an organization,
we pride ourselves in alignment from the major leagues all
the way to our dr academy, So ultimately being in
a coordinator role last year, I spent a lot of
time in person and on the phone with our major
league staff and then every level down from there, and
(10:35):
it just it helps with messaging, It helps with the
continuity of not just messaging, but ideas and systems and processes.
So that's something that makes it going to be a
little less new for me because I was so involved
in the process last year that I understand exactly where
(10:56):
they're coming from and what if the steps are to
continue to building on that vision.
Speaker 2 (11:02):
One of the themes a year ago, especially early on,
was I don't know if trying to hit for more
powers is the right way to say it, but certainly
taking some chances early in the account, which was different
from the year before to some extent from that contact approach.
How about heading into this season, as you take a
dive into to what went well, what needs to be
(11:24):
worked on for the coming year among the hitting group,
any changes in that approach or do you try and
just refine what worked well a year ago.
Speaker 6 (11:33):
I think we're just going to continue to build on it.
We have an incredibly athletic team and a lot of
our players can get the bat to the ball, and
I would think this year we're going to put a
lot more emphasis on decision making and continue to learn
how to take chances and you know, maximize our power
when it's the right time, but also continue to play
that gritty baseball that we've been playing in the last
(11:54):
couple of years. There's no reason why we can't do
both of those things. And I think we've set a
foundation in our minor leagues the last few years and
it's moved its way up into the big leagues. And
when Val was here, we worked hard together to you know,
work on those transitions. So just continuing with moving the
needle there. We saw some progress last year and we're
going to continue to push that a little bit as
(12:15):
we go in the next few years.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Grant Fink, the Guardian's new hitting coach, joining us here
on Guardian's Weekly, and Grant wanted to touch on a
couple of players that you may have worked with quite
a bit the last several seasons, and one who made
an immediate impact and then had one of the biggest
blows in the postseason, as John Kenzie. Noel explain what
you saw from him and what allowed him to take
(12:39):
that next step and not only get to the major
leagues but contribute in some key spots.
Speaker 6 (12:46):
Yeah, you got to give John Kenzie a ton of credit.
He made a decision last year to spend the majority
of his offseason I think probably ninety percent of his
off season in Arizona in the building with us, other
than a short stint and winter ball, and he was
dedicated to changing his body, working on his decision making,
and just becoming a more complete hitter. And he accomplished that.
(13:09):
And we saw what he did in Triple A and
in the role that he had in the big leagues,
what he did in the postseason. This is just the
first year of him getting exposed to that game at
that level. So we're really excited for this offseason again,
he's going to be in a building with us a
lot here in Arizona, continuing to build on the things
that he worked on last year. Super proud of him
(13:32):
in the effort and then getting to see him get
rewarded for some of that and help the team win
some ballgames was really cool to see.
Speaker 2 (13:38):
And another young player who made really nice strides from
day one to the end of the season was Brian Rokio.
And you may have sounds like you may have worked
with him more than anybody else in a variety of roles.
How has he come along from a really young player
just getting his feet wet and pro ball to where
he is now.
Speaker 6 (14:00):
He was a funny one. I've spent a ton of
time with him, from this first time coming over to
the States to his first two years in affiliate baseball.
I was his hitting coach. We've had an awesome relationship,
and his growth through his time in the minor leagues
and into the big leagues has been incredible, not just
as a hitter, but as a defender and as a person.
(14:23):
Just continuing to build himself up as a hitter, I
think will be an important piece. We watched the way
he played defense this year. It was outstanding, and he's
got a lot of talent in there at the plate.
And as he starts to become more confident and more
confident and more confident, I think you'll see that playing
on the field and.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
On the other end of the spectrum. One of the
great hitters in the game as Jose Ramirez as a
new hitting coach number one, how do you handle one
of the best hitters in baseball to get the most
out of him? And then also you go back a
little ways with him, don't you?
Speaker 6 (15:00):
Yeah? I mean I was a player at the same
time Hosey was a player. In our minor league system,
so I've spent some time around him. I've actually been
asked that question, like, Hey, what what are you going
to do with Hosey? And I just think it's a funny.
It's a funny question because the person Hosey is and
the way he approaches the game, it's a It makes
coaches jobs really easy because he's always pushing to get better,
(15:23):
and he's not afraid to try new things, and he's
not afraid to, you know, push the limits. So ultimately
my job is just going there and support him and
give him some avenues to continue to grow in the game.
He's already shown that he can do that really quickly,
and I'm excited to just be around him and learn
from him and help him develop and continue to develop
(15:44):
into a leader in our clubhouse and help us win
some ball games.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Late in the season, Grant Fink joining us the new
hitting coach for the Guardians, and Grant will end on
this see obviously a tremendous season for the team reaching
the American League Championship Series. You spend your off season
in Arizona and head into the complex on a regular basis.
It used to be players that show up a couple
(16:09):
of weeks before maybe or right at the report date
for spring training. But how active is that building throughout
the off season now with players just trying to get
better and be ready to go for twenty twenty five.
Speaker 6 (16:22):
Oh, it's incredible. We have players here year round, and
you know, I've been here in this complex for the
entire year for about seven years now, and every year
it's growing. The amount of staff and resources that our
organization is putting in play here for players is amazing.
And when you do that, all of a sudden, players
want to come. So we have everyone from multiple major
(16:45):
league players to first year players straight out of the
draft that you know, spend time in this building in
the offseason, and it's just a testament to the organization
and you know the impact they want to have on
not only player development, but continuous development at the major
league level. So it's been a blast to be down
here and experience that in the growth of this building
and just what it means to this organization and our
(17:07):
future success.
Speaker 2 (17:08):
Well, you will be a big part of that, to
be sure. Grant, thanks a lot for coming by. Congratulations again,
and we'll catch up with you soon.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
So much.
Speaker 6 (17:15):
I appreciate you having me.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
At is major league hitting coach Grant Fink, starting his
first season in that role for Cleveland after spending the
last three and the organization is the minor league hitting coordinator,
taking over for Chris Fleka, who moves down the road
to Cincinnati. He'll be the hitting coach for Terry Francona's
Reds in twenty twenty five, and Fink will be joined
once again by Dan Puente his second season as an
(17:39):
assistant hitting coach, and Jason Esposito is back for a
third season as part of the hitting team as well.
So a good group there to get the offense going
in the right direction. In twenty twenty five. Stay with
us when we come back. Chris Addabury will join us.
He's the radio voice for the Minnesota Twins. We continue
our look around the American League Central Division with a
(18:01):
Twins preview for you that's coming your way shortly on
the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Durand's ready and the pitch to Will Brennan, a swing and.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
A drive, Hi date to ride this ball.
Speaker 7 (18:52):
And a walk up three run home run for Will
Brennan and a mop seen at home and through it all,
the Guardians have beaten the Twins and sweep them out
of Cleveland today five to two on a two out,
(19:13):
game winning three run home run to right by Will Brennan.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
And some way, somehow, this ball club continues to find
ways to win games, and they do it today in
dramatic fashion.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
Welcome back to the Guardians Weekly. We continue with our
look around the American League's Central Division, at the Guardian's
rivals and certainly a team that they have battled with
the past several seasons, the Minnesota Twins. That's our subject
this week, and they're fine. Radio voice Chris Addabury has
joined us from points up north before he heads the
(19:53):
spring training and gets out of the cold of Minneapolis.
And Chris, always great to have you on. How's your
winter going.
Speaker 4 (19:59):
Rosie going great, I will say, and I think most
Guards fans would agree with me. The high point of
my winner was when Tommy got the call for the
Freck Award. That was probably the high point.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
And yes, very much so. And it will be a
fun summer, to be sure, as Tom Hamilton will be
heading into the Hall of Fame in late July. And
as we look around the division. Obviously, everybody trying to
make some improvements. But boy, with Minnesota, it just seems
like the prevailing news content is about some uncertainty about
(20:31):
ownership and what's going on there sale of the team potentially,
and and how is that impacting what they're trying to
do to get ready for the season.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
Well, the for sale sign is definitely up, and the
team came out in the poll that family, who's like
the third or fourth longest ownership group in place in
the league right now, which is amazing, has said let's
let's it's it's it's for sale, and so the you know,
they're they're working through. Obviously that's a very complicated process.
(21:00):
It's a pretty limited group of buyers. There's been very
little said publicly. I know, the ishbas from the Suns
have been mentioned publicly. You know, I've always been told
by people like it's always the people you don't read
about the paper that are probably closer than others. I know.
There's been a lot of interest, nothing permanent, nothing finite.
(21:20):
So in the wake of that, our long standing team
president is retiring. Derek Falvey, who Cleveland fans will remember,
is going to go from being just the baseball ops
guy to being the president of everything, the business side
and the baseball side, while Dave as he retires, kind
of facilitates the sale. So we got a new GM
and Jeremy zol who I really like. All that being said,
(21:42):
because that's a ton of chaos. Business is usual in
terms of kind of the putting the team together. We've
got new hitting coaches, which is I think kind of
a big deal. We've got a lot of the same players,
and I think our fan base is so burned by
what happened at the end of last year with our
massive historical collapse, that they're pretty negative right now. They're like,
(22:04):
you're not doing anything. You know, we don't even you're
not spend any money. It didn't sign any big free agents.
And that being said, I think we're going to be
pretty good. I think we've got a lot of good
players coming back. So it's a weird spot to be
in because there's chaos, but there's also stability at certain points.
And I think that you'd be nuts not to think
(22:25):
that the Twins in Cleveland, they are again going to
be battling through the top of the division this summer.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
And you look back at last year, and Minnesota certainly
at various points in the season right there up among
the division leaders and what turned out to be a
great division. But injury wise, is it fair to say
it just was the injuries at a certain point in
time became too much to overcome because of who was
unavailable down the stretch.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
Yeah, I think Karrea Buxton obviously not being able to play,
and then Joe Ryan's injury in Chicago was huge because
we were running out a lot of rookie arms down
the stretch. Pablo was really good, Bailey over was really good. Also,
the Brock Stewart injury and the bullpen kind of sapped
us there and we ended up just getting really young
and just not very deep pitching wise. And that's not
(23:15):
a fair excuse, because look what the Tigers did. They
were calling guys up from Triple A and starting them
as openers and playing at a seventy five win percentage
base down to the stretch. So they were able to
pull it off, and we just didn't perform well enough
to do that. But the injuries were a big deal.
I think the other thing about our club was we
(23:36):
had a lot of young guys that maybe seemed older
than they were, Royce Lewis, Trevor Larnick, Matt Waalner, even
a rookie like brooks Lee, Eddie Julian. I mean, the
list goes on and on and includes Ryan Jeffers, probably
Jose Miranda. These are guys who have played in the
big leagues. You're familiar with them. They've had high points,
but aren't like solidified, been through the trenches. Guys that
(24:00):
maybe have the consistency that you get with the older,
more veteran player. We need those guys to make the
jump that say Nailor made for you guys last year,
right like where they go from being a guy who's
really talented, who's occasionally really really good, to being really
good every day. And that's the jump that those guys
need to make this year. We haven't added a whole
(24:20):
lot of new faces because we do have faith in
the players that we have here, but they need to
make that next step in there in their professional careers.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Chris Adabury joining us. He's the radio voice for the
Minnesota Twins and certainly expected to be again a contender
in the Al Central along with the Guardians, the Royals
and the Tigers. And you know, Chris, you look at
you mentioned Derek Balby's name, and he's now the president
of the entire operation. But I know, it seems like
(24:49):
since he got there, one of the things that made
him attractive was what he was able to do with
some of the young pitching here in Cleveland. And is
that starting to finally make its way to the major
leagues where they feel they have some more death both
starting pitching wise and relief wise.
Speaker 4 (25:08):
Absolutely, it took a while, right. I think everybody wanted
a Cleveland pipeline right away, but development and the infrastructure
for development takes a while. And what Derek has created
and Jeremy Zola do GM was kind of the PD guy,
you know, first as the farm director and then as
an assistant GM. They've started to churn those guys out
(25:29):
and Bailey over is homegrown in the rotation. They had
the Acimuny to go get Pablo Lopez, to go get
Joe Ryan and turn him into a really good big leaguer.
But now we're starting to see the other pieces fall
into place. We saw David Festa, Zebi Matthews last year.
Griffin Jack's a homegrown guy who became a wipeout reliever
(25:49):
for US Lewis Varland he was Louis now wants to
be Lewis. He'll be a big part of the bullpen
this coming year. I believe we've got more guys coming.
They're able to do what Cleveland did and still does
so well. Draft guys in the round like grounds maybe
three to eight, three to nine, add velocity, add a wipeout,
pitch smooth out, you know, maybe sequencing, tunneling how you
(26:15):
want to use your mix and turn these guys into
really good starters. And I think that's where we are now.
I think right now that if you said, what's the
strength of our organization, it's it's the pitching pipeline that
is currently underway. And now it's one thing to have
the pipeline and then to turn them all into winners
at the big leagues. But if you get, you know,
(26:35):
a handful of guys and one or two of them hit,
you know, and they don't all have to be Shane
Bieber's because they'ren't very many of those guys. But if
you get some quality guys that you can throw into
your rotation, you can stay competitive for a long time.
As Cleveland has proven.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
All right, So feeding back to last year and then
looking ahead of this year, two names that have got
to stay healthy. Spring training has not begun yet, so
obviously there's a long look into this. But Carlos Korea
and Byron Buxton, what is their hell status heading into
spring training? And can they give you a decent amount
(27:12):
of games? Maybe one hundred and thirty to one hundred
and forty games this season?
Speaker 4 (27:17):
Well, boy, I think that number is high, but we
need them right, we need him to play. Carlos was
having his best year as a twin. Last year he's
he had the planet positis, and again it's been in
a different foot each year. He looks great. You know,
he talks all the right things in terms of his
diet's impeccable. His workout routine is amazing. He puts in
(27:39):
all the work. What does that mean because you can't predict,
you know, the types of injuries that he's had the
last two years. They aren't tied to anything previous. They're
not tied to the previous ankle injury or anything like that.
They're kind of fluky, weird things. He's wearing different shoes,
he's doing running in different ways. Staying off cement any
(28:00):
rock you can overturn Carlos's overturn. I saw him a
Twins Fest, spoke with him at length. He looks great.
He's had a full off season. It's not like he's
had a rehab off season. And Byron's the same way.
This is the first offseason a while where Buck hasn't
had a major surgery of some sort that he then
had to rehab from, and he's as healthy as he's
ever been in an off season. He played one hundred
(28:22):
games last year and he played well, which was big.
I think if you get one hundred from him, you're happy.
If you get one hundred and twenty from him, you're
doing cartwheels. And we need those two guys in addition
to Royce. We need Royce to grow into the superstar
we think he can become because one thing you mentioned
around the league, they're stars right in our division. Bobby
(28:44):
wit Junior is a superstar, Jose Ramirez is a superstar.
When all else fails for those two offenses, those two
guys can literally carry your entire club for long stretches
of time. Detroit has a different look, but they're superstar.
Oursteric school so you know, once every four or five
days they're going to win. We don't have that guy necessarily.
(29:07):
We've got really good players, but Carlos at this point
of his career, I don't know if he ever really was.
Isn't a Bobby whit like guy numerically in terms of
how he changes the whole game. You know, Buck isn't
a Jose Ramirez guy in terms of consistently posting super
new for star numbers. They're really really good game changing players,
but they have to both be on the field and
(29:28):
productive because we don't have that one guy that Cleveland
has or that Kansas City has. We don't have that luxury.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
When you look at the manager's office at rock Obaldell
a couple of division titles, but last year a really
tough ending to it was he on the hot seat
at the end of the year. He's back this year,
but was their discussions that that maybe it was time
for a change, or because of all the injuries that
did he hold it together as best he could and
(29:54):
get as much out of that club as he could.
Speaker 4 (29:56):
I don't think his seat ever even got luke warm.
He and Darre Falvey or it's like a three legged race.
And that's the way Derek built the baseball side of
the operation. And it's the word you always hear anytime
you interview one of our front office guys or field staff. Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration,
rolling it together. So to blame Rocco would be to
(30:18):
blame yourself, right, And so last day of the year,
Derek said, Rocco is my guy. Joe paul Ed says,
Derek's my guy, And I don't think there was ever
a threat that those guys were in trouble. I do
think that during that And again, as you know, you
spend time with the manager a lot during the course
of a season, and as you're in there daily and
the things slipping away, you could see it wearing on Rocco.
(30:41):
You could see him trying everything. He tried the tough
guy act with players, He tried the nice guy stuff
with players. But you have to be yourself and Rock
knows that. So you can't get too far out of
who you are, or you're being inconsistent and you lose
players long term, which he never did. He was always
acting within the bounds of kind of his authentic self,
(31:04):
which you have to be as a manager. It wore
on him, and I think that looking around the room,
they realized they needed to make some changes. The biggest
changes they made were were with the hitting coaches and
hitting coach man. It's a tough job, right because if
the guys hit, then it's because they're really good hitters.
But if the guys don't, it's because the hitting coach sun.
That's kind of the nature of how our league works.
(31:26):
The two guys we had were not how would I
say it, communicative. I said three words to the Derek
Schollan and David Bodkins over the course at their time here,
because they weren't around. They were in the cage, they
were deep in the tunnel. They were in the bowels
of the stadium. They had a lot of technology down there,
and they worked and they grinded and they worked on hitting.
(31:47):
But it was all very single focused. It was all
very siloed, and I think we saw that that approach
maybe didn't work for everybody. And Matt Berkshoalter, the guy
who we had a triple A. He's good with the Oriols,
his twin Fest. The stuff he's seying publicly and Oco
saying the same thing is hey, you know what, the
idea that you can just work with technology in the
battles of the stadium NonStop, never be on the field,
(32:09):
and then the game happens and it translates and we're
not into that we're going to hit on the field.
Hitting is more than just isolating each pitch. Every bat
does not exist in a silo. Situational hitting is a
real thing. We need to have different approaches for different
times and different situations, and that's true of every hitter.
(32:30):
We still want to do a ton of damage, but
you can't just try to hit a home run and
if you strike out, o home And so I think
we're going to see a change there because I think
our players feel that way, and I think borg Chalti
also has been through it with young guys, all the
young wave we saw in Baltimore. You know, it wasn't
all roses for everybody. They can Jackson Holliday struggled the
(32:52):
first time up or Jordan Westburg up and down, and
not everybody was gunner understand And so I think that
experience will come in handy going to see us th Rosie,
this is gonna blow your mind. You're gonna see us
taking VP on the field next year, you know. But
the Twins, it was kind of you and I would
joke about it. Other radio guys would tease me, Oh, hey,
one guy's out for early hitting you is your team
(33:13):
even here? You know, because so much of the work
the Twins did was in the cage, in top secret,
you know, cloak of cloak of darkness. No one ever
saw our guys on the field that that's going to
change this here, and Roco's enthused about it, Porkschoalti's enthused
about it, and I think the players are too.
Speaker 6 (33:32):
All right.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
We're joined by Chris Addambury, the radio voice for the Twins,
and we'll touch on this before we let you go. Chris,
it's been winter again here in northeast Ohio after a
couple of winters where it didn't seem like the normal thing.
But we've had some cold ones here. How about you, guys,
how far below zero when winter was really hitting at
(33:52):
it at its peak did we get in the in
the Twin Cities.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
We've had a little bit of extremes. Right, it didn't
snow much, It hasn't snowed much, and it's by and
large been warm. It was forty eight degrees here last weekend.
Come on, Yes, but it's two degrees right now. And
we had one week where it never got above zero,
(34:17):
and that was the one awful week. But I will
say this, one week where it doesn't get above zero
is better when there's no snow in big piles of
snow on the ground outside, so we had that benefit
this year. It's by and large been a pretty mild winter. Now.
I can say that because I'm leaving for Florida in
a couple of weeks. But right now there's only a
(34:39):
little snow on the ground. I've only shoveled probably four
or five times all winter long, so I don't want
to I don't want to jinx anything. And I know
the ice fishermen are upset, but I am not, and
I'm okay with with milder winters.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Listen, you enjoy the remainder of high school basketball season.
I know you have a daughter who's playing and that's
always a lot of fun. And enjoy spring training down
in Fort Myers.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
Yeah, well, I'm gonna keep my eyes out. I hear
that they might be roaming around down in Florida with
this Cleveland State crew, so I might keep my eyes peeled.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Somebody's got to keep an eye on them. Thank you, Bye, Rose.
Speaker 4 (35:15):
You can't wait to see you guys.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Great to see you. We'll see the Twins in Minneapolis
for the first time in mid May, and they come
to Cleveland for the first time at the end of April.
And always good games when the Guardians and Twins meet.
That's Chris Addabury, the radio voice for the Minnesota Twins.
Stay tuned will wrap up this week's edition of Guardians
Weekly after this time.
Speaker 8 (35:43):
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Speaker 1 (36:26):
From Goodyear Ballpark in Goodyear, Arizona. It's Cleveland Guardians Cactus
League Baseball, ready to bring you another night of thrilling
spring training baseball. We are done, folks, We're toast stick
a fork in us.
Speaker 2 (36:43):
Welcome back. It's our final segment of Guardians Weekly. Jim
Rosenhaus back with you, and this one of the few
remaining hot stove shows for you this season, as we'll
have one more for you next weekend and then we
will join you from Goodyear, Arizona for our shows from
spring training, throughout the spring and leading into the regular season,
(37:04):
so it's winding down. You can hear our show each
weekend on the radio on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
WTAM and Cleveland airs the show at seven am on
Saturday mornings, as does WMAN in Mansfield and WMRN and Marion,
and the show airs at eleven o'clock on Saturday mornings
on WKBN in Youngstown. And of course if you don't
(37:27):
catch it on the radio when it airs, you can
pick it up whenever you like as a podcast wherever
you download your favorite podcast. Well, I's always want to
thank Brian Matsee for all of his help on our show,
putting it Together each and every week. We will join
you once again next week from right here in Cleveland
one more time another Hot Stove show, and then head
(37:49):
out to Arizona after that. But until then, this is
Jim Rosenhouse reminding you that you've been listening to Guardians
Weekly on the Cleveland Clinic Guardians Radio Network.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
Guardians Weekly has been brought to you by Progressive helping
Guardians fans save hundreds on car insurance
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