Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our next co host.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I believe he's their former male model under the name
Mike Honcho Rick Lewis Rick.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
What's going on, buddy, that's Big Mike Honcho.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Sorry, I didn't mean to short your title there, Big Mike.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Yeah, just get it right. I just, uh, you know,
if you're going to be revealing secrets about me, let's
let's get it right.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Making sure that was a secret.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I thought that was uh, you know, you had a
semi famous second career there in the mid eighties.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
And that's a great name, by the way.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
That's yeah, that's it's good.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
That should be my radio name.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's what you seriously, if we were remember when people
did radio monikers, like everyone just uses their name now.
You know, I always wondered what my radio moniker would
be if I'd come in in that era.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I'm sure you wrote down a list of possible names, right,
most of them were already taken, Darkning, dalk Han, Solo.
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I just just just just generic random names that happened
to come to me. But yeah, I was it's pretty terrible. Well, uh,
I can't. I don't want to get too deep into
this because I don't want to tell on myself here,
but the text line is obviously not working for us
right now, is that we can't see it. And so
I sort of did some magic to get into this
website's back end, and I realized that sounds dirty as
(01:11):
soon as I said it. But I I right here
and this, this website is just nonsense, and so I'm
like getting out of this and like not messing with
it further and let their tech support deal with it.
Because I was I was just gonna get to go
in there and fix it. And then I'm like, oh,
this is terrible. Somebody has already messed them up.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Aren't you an IT expert?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I have been known to dabble in the dark arts
from time to time.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
That's what you've been telling people. I'm surprised the text
line is still down, Yeah, because I was listening earlier
and heard you mention that, and I went to log
on and I got nothing. You guys got nothing, And
here I am working today with an IT expert.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, I will what the funk? Yes, what the what
the funk? Correct?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
As I look at this, somebody has has severely messed
with their their website, like severely messed with.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It, like ACKed it.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, like I'm not the first person in here, So
I just without getting too deep in the weeds on this,
somebody really messed them up and I hope they get
it fixed.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, it was working this morning for my morning show.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, we were well we had so it had been working,
and we just weren't able to reply to people for
a while.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
The replies.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It would look like we were replying, but they would
never receive them, and so that was sort of the thing.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And now now you can't even get it at all.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So somebody's been messing with this thing for a while,
and I hope these people get get their stuff fixed.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Does this mean we have to take phone calls?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You know, maybe we should, Maybe we should do something
old school man, old school radio, take phone calls.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I grew up on color drifven radio.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I grew up in the South on sports talk on
color driven radio, you know, and like fine mom and
all that stuff back when it was you know that guy,
you know, Paul.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I used to love that stuff because you get.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Every with all due respect to our audience, crank out
their call and with the most ridiculous things of all time,
and watching the befuddled host like.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Try to wade through. It was the highlight of my day.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah. I've been using the text line mostly on my
morning show, but just recently, you know, trying to get
more phone calls in. You know. I think it's just
a better way to connect with your listeners and you
get different voices on instead of just mine and yours.
So I don't know, maybe we take some calls later
on today.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We gotta I went to Squeeze Idiot and we've got
Jack Corgan coming about of the hour. Get a chance
to talk about the Rockies removing the interim tag from
Warren Schaeffer that which is new is old again or
vice versa. What do you think about the Rockies pulling
the tag off Warren Schaeffer.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, you know what, I'm interested to talk to Jack Corgan.
We had him on Gosh, probably maybe six weeks ago,
and I asked him. We were talking about potential managers
for the Rockies. I mentioned Joe Girardi because I thought
that they should bring back somebody that would at least
excite the fan base a bit, you know, like a
(03:47):
big name dude. And he mentioned that he thought Warren
would be a good choice and I was kind of
puzzled by that, So I'm gonna ask Jack if maybe
he knew something, like maybe they told him that they
were leading in that direction.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I had heard a rumor, we'll get a chance to
ask Jack about this when Paul de Pedesta was hired
that he was looking to bring in Don Mattingly, who
had stepped down as the Jays bench coach. Now, I
know the Phillies have some interest there, so I don't know,
you know, maybe that was it or something.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Maybe they didn't think they could get Mattingly.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I also like, when this happened, my first thought was,
you know, they're setting this up so that this guy
can just be there while they're while they're building the
ground floor. Then they'll put the guy they won in later.
That was my first thought that maybe I'm wrong. Maybe
Jack will talk me out of that.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
You know what, I don't think Bud Black or Warren
Shaeffer really had much to do with the disastrous season
or seasons, if you will. I think it's just a
really bad baseball club. But to me, I think the
fan base needed something, some sort of something to get
them excited about next season. I don't think Warren Shaeffer
(04:55):
is going to be that guy. Nothing against him, but
I just don't think he'll be that guy. I think
they probably should have worn out, and if they could
have got done matting Lee, I think that would have
been great. Joe Girardi, who I mentioned, But when you
look at the the comments on social media on the announcement,
(05:18):
I almost almost unanimously very negative. Yeah, and so obviously
there's no excitement there for Warren Schaeffer, not to say
he won't be a good manager. Obviously something that they
like about him. And I can't wait to talk to
Jack about.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It, Yeah, because Jack usually has some great insight on
on those kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
One of the big things that I had talked about was,
you know, stepping outside the Rockies organization to bring in somebody,
bringing somebody in who could be a new architect in
terms of what this team does philosophically from the baseball standpoint,
in terms of you know, drafting and developing players. I
had suggested Adeki Kurayama, the phenomenal Japanese manager and architect
(05:58):
and guy who brought up you know, Show High and
guys like that. But Jack was like, yeah, well there's
sort of a difference there because Japanese baseball is very
disciplined in those players, and then there's a language barrier.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
They just pointed out the flaws with that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
But the Rockies did ultimately do what I'd suggested in
a way by going out and getting moneyball Paul de
Podesta and you know, the guy who's designed the Dodgers
minor league system currently, and I think everybody knows about
the movie and what he did with the Oakland Athletics.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So they did go out and do that. That may
be the air Quotes's exciting move.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I do like that higher that one's good. And what
I don't get though, I don't know if you saw
Patrick Saunders comment about what they liked about Warren Schaeffer.
One thing he mentioned is that he knows the culture, well,
what's the culture is? Right? It's been a losing culture.
(06:47):
So I don't know if maybe he meant to put
that a different way, but my read on it is
the culture is losing, okay, So he knows the culture, well,
what's he going to do about it? And apparently he's
worked with a lot of these players in the minor leagues,
which I guess is good but when you consider looking
(07:08):
at these guys, they're not really developing all that. Well,
that's one reason why the team is so bad. So
I'm not I don't want to be negative about the
higher I just I'm scratching my head a little bit
about it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, that's one of those things that And by the way, Rick,
I don't mean to brag, but my IT skills have
worked and I have hacked my way into the text
line that I have it now.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So if you guys want to text us at five
six six nine zero.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Oh, I got it. You're kidding me.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
No, it did serious.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
You fixed the text line.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I got myself in with an admin account.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Oh you know what, I'm gonna let somebody in corporate no,
which you just did here today.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I mean it's on the air, so I can't really
hide from it.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I'm going to text Bob Pittman.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well you you do that. Bob already doesn't like me,
so well.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
He's going to send you some Applebe's gift cards.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You know what, I don't do Applebee's. If he could
do Olive Garden instead, can we set the.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Card well, you know, the unlimited breadsticks. You can't go
wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I'm just saying that's Olive Guarden used to have this
thing where you could not get two far off Tangent.
But Olive Garden used to have this thing where you
could get the unlimited pasta. You pay like a thing,
and you got unlimited pasta for the month. You remember
this absolutely, yeah, I remember that. My wife and I
went to Olive Garden about two weeks ago. We couldn't
believe how cheap it was. And they had a deal
where you buy one meal and you can take one home,
(08:22):
so basically they're giving you a free meal.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Okay, it's a great deal. It's been a long it's.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Been a long time since I've been to the actual
Olive Guard i should say. But they used to have
like the never ending pasta bowl, and I think they
finally finally ended that, and so now it's like the
buy one, get.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
One, but we used to do they used to have
a month back.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
In gosh, I can't remember what year was now, but
when they first did the never ending pasta and you
bought this like subscription deal or whatever, and you could
come in and whatever you bought was was never ending,
and we used to feast on it, like back in
the day when you know, when you were really broke
in college and all that kind of stuff you used.
That's what you do is you and your buddies load up,
go to the olive garden and you would sit there
from late lunch, should tell early dinner and basically eat
(09:01):
through for like five hours to get loaded up.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Oh man, if they had an olive garden around when
I was in college, they probably don't open. They probably
didn't have that deal in a college town because you'd
go out of business.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well yeah, I mean, I don't know how they stayed
in business, but you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So there's your free shout out for the olive Garden.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
They're on there.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I'm six six times.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
There was a text line, We're getting congratulations rolling in
for me getting through here. So yeah, I do it
for you the people. I may not be on the
air anymore after this. I'm not sure it's a felony
in nine states, but but we're in let's see here.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Earlier news toy Davis Cu has.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Offered so Dave, who was indignant that Colorado had not
offered the opponents that he played in football this past
weekend their their stardbun receiver and Texas had see you
has apparently offered, So there we go.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Okay, SEVENE Night says nobody else wanted the Rockies job.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I beg the different manager something about jumping into the
worst and turning it into the best.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Rick.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I don't know if you were a Madden player or not,
but like like whenever I started a Madden franchise, I'd
always take the worst teams and try to make them
the best. You know, I've any tiny game I've ever
played or what, I've always enjoyed the challenge of building
something up more than just jumping in taking the best
team and winning.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I totally get that. And there's no pressure. You know,
there's no real pressure on Warren Schaeffer. After what three
one hundred plus lost seasons. You can only get better.
There's no way they're gonna get worse.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Seriously, I'm at press, man.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I'm flexing a little bit for a moment here. I
may have strutted back into the studio. There may have
been a little peacocking.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, I can't believe you would ever do any peacocky
myself is so unlike you Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I've known this to be humble, the humblest Really, I'm
bragging about my humility in an oxymoron right now?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Are you flash in your watch right now?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Don't have one to do that, but I do have
some some hair ties around my wrist, so I'm doing that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well. Great man, it's good to have the text line back.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, I love it. Is there something about being connected
to the listeners?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Like it is kind of a thing, you know what
I mean? Yeah, it's talk radio, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Like you don't just want to talking to the void
and not have any way to uh, you.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Know, to you. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Like you've lived in both eras of talk radio before
you had listener interaction like that had to be by
the phone, you know, and you never you didn't have
this sort of like real time excuse me, you didn't
have this real time thing going on here. And I
just as I look at this, I'm I'm fascinated how
much I've not noticed that we are We can just
sort of need the connection now or I sort of
(11:43):
rely on the connection now.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, same with me and the one thing this is
kind of inside baseball The one good thing about the
text line is you can pick and choose what comment
you want to read.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Oh yeah, I've had least ninety percent of them off.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
There's some some of the comments are great, but you
can't read them on the air.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
No, so you can be selective. And and somebody calls
the show, You've got them live on the radio. That's
kind of a cool thing too, because you're working without
a safety net, right, and you don't really know what
they're gonna say, right.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And that's fascinating because I real quick, and we'll have
Jack Corgan here in just a few minutes. But I that,
you know, when I was doing some of the election
coverage stuff here. We took phone calls after after that,
and you get comments from from every political persuasion. And
some of them are really nice, some of them were
really we're a little vitriolic. Some of them were whatever.
And then I got one guy that I think was
trying to fight me on the air.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
We saved that phone, called Grants laughing now because he
remembers some guy that I think was trying to fight
me on the air. And I'm like, I don't really
know what to do. With this right now, buddy, I
mean you're you called me like, what do you want
me to do? What do you want to say? So
there was a bit of a of a safety net,
elevant elevant with with all that.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, the text line is a safer play, no doubt
about it. And you're right, I felt a little bit
naked without the text line being up. So now I
feel like, hey, yeah, we're connected, We're up and running. Now.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Well we got this, Yeah, I think we do. For
the rest of the show, we had a lot of
a lot of good guests coming up. We got Jack
Corgan coming up here. And just if you get a
chance to talk about Walter Schaeffer being named the uh
no longer the interim now the manager for the Rocky
he's almost any other Rockies questions we may have. We
did have one on the text line. So were the
odds the Rockies win the Division this year?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Probably?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Neil.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Baseball is the longest.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Turnaround of any sport because the minor league system and guys,
you know, maturing and all that.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
It's just the longest turnarou.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yeah, and and the fact they don't have a salarycap.
I think, uh, well, we see pretty much the same
teams every year that are in the running. And that's
one reason why the National Football League is the number
one sport parody in the country. It's parody, yep. And
you do see teams go from worst to best in
a year, and it happens on a fairly regular basis.
(13:51):
Nocos turned things around, you know, with when they brought
in Sean Payton. Pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
So you have to be at the Broncos. You got
the you get the the I was just talking about
the look at the Patriots last year.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
They were a three win football team now now number
one in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, that's the beauty of the NFL and that's why
we love it so much.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, that's is by the way, the two one four
says Ryan Edwards, seldom reads my text because I have
the Benjamin Olbright approach towards things, which is the correct thinking,
by the way, shot at Ryan it is, and you
know it pandered to me. So I'm obviously and of
course you read it every single time. Yet to say
that's how that works on the show. We gotta a
commercial break, we come back, We're gonna talk to Jack Corgan.
(14:29):
Get a chance, so if you guys got Rockies questions five, six, six,
nine zeros in text, I get those in.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
We'll get those Jack Sean Key lit.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Top of the hour. You guys listen to Kaway Sports.
Be all right, Ricklous, we'll be back. We did get
a few questions in here about the Rocky and some
stuff to ask Jack when he comes up. The three
seven says a large, huge bet Rockies lose one hundred games.
Large bet they lose eighty five every year until they don't.
It's going well so far.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Well, we'll have spent three straight seasons of losing over
one hundred games, which is incredibly bad. Probably a safe bet.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
It was just kind of like our strategy last year,
which was bad against the Rockies every game, and then
when they when they win games, you had double the
bet up until they lose again.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yeah. You told me about that early in the season,
like the first week or two, and I did it
for a bit. That kind of They when they fired
Bud Black, they went on a little bit of a
run and I backed off. Did you stick with it?
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I did?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I stuck with it and came out making a fairly
fairly decent sum last year.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So my misery.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I was like, well, I can be miserable or I
could be a little bit wealthier and miserable while I'm
doing it.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
And I chose a letter.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I told my son in law about that, and he
did it the whole season. Killed it, just cleaned up, killed.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It, made a little bit, made a little bit of money.
So oh yeah, there you go, five six, six, nine
zeros of text. I've got a ton of questions come
in here. We've got some stuff about Vance Joseph and
I want to get to that a little bit later.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
As far as that, but I think we got Jack Corgan.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We'll go out to the Kai Comms by Health hotline
to bring on your voice of the Colorado Rockies, Jack Corgan.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Jack, How you doing, Buddy?
Speaker 4 (16:07):
I'm good, Benjamin, How are you?
Speaker 3 (16:09):
My friend?
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Doing pretty well? Got Rick lewis here as well.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Obviously, the big news today Warren Schaeffer has the interim
tag removed. In two part from me, one, how surprised
are you buying that?
Speaker 1 (16:20):
And two? Is this the right move for the Colorado Rockies?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Well?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
One, I mean I think there were a couple of
factors where it's not a big surprise. One it's a
little later in the game in terms of hiring a manager,
as they went through the process before they hired Paul
to run baseball ops. And then I think in a
(16:48):
lot of ways, there were the sentiments among the players
and other people in the organization that they liked where
Warren's philosophy was taking the team. So I think that
was a factor. And the other factor, you know, the
(17:08):
potential labor issue in twenty seven. You know this way
from structure and finances and everything else, it all makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Hey, Jack, it's your Ross Belt buddy. Rick lewis here.
Thanks for coming on. Hopefully you're on a beach somewhere
wearing some cut up blue jean shorts. That's what Rustbelt
guys do.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I wish, except I'm pulling out Christmas decoration boxes for
my wife's So I was glad to talk to you guys.
Get away from the honey dudes.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
All right, Well, it's good to have you on the show.
Last time we talked to you on the show, you've
thought I was bringing up names, like I thought it'd
be good to get a big name manager in here
to kind of fire up the fan base. You mentioned
Warren Schaeffer as he might be, you know, the right
guy to do this. Did you know something back then
or with somebody telling you something like, hey, we're lean
(18:09):
in that direction.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Well, I did know Rick that there was a lot
of sentiment regardless of who would end up getting that
baseball ops job before Paul de Bodesta got it, and
I think they felt like Warren was on the right
track in terms of approach, you know, and with some
(18:36):
really strong feelings and ideas on how to one not
only try and get the offense going again back at
Corse Field, but just as importantly, you know, throughout the
history of the franchise, the struggles to have an offense
that played in Denver play at sea level. And you know,
(18:58):
I liked some of of Warren's thoughts and ideas on
how to make that happen.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Talking with Jack Corgan, Voice of the Rockies, you know,
Warren Schaeffer, I think for a lot of the fans,
whatever he may be bringing, for a lot of the fans,
it still represents a little bit of the old, a
little bit of the same. How would you counter that
or how would you you argue that for fans that
feel that that is a letdown with names that were
thrown around, included Rix Beforemenage and Joe Girardi. There was
(19:27):
talk of Don matting Lee after he left the Blue Jays.
How do you how do you sell that, as it
were to the fan base.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
You know, it's it's not going to be an easy sell,
regardless of who they they brought in after you know,
three triple digit loss seasons. I think in some ways
the game has has changed a little bit, not to
say veteran guys can't do it, but the guys who
(19:57):
are coming up now, the younger players, and they're approach,
the tools they want to use to play the game
are different than Joe Girardi or a Don Mattingly if
they were even interested in the job.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I think.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
It's a different job now, and that they're at the
ballpark all the time. I mean the manager and the coaches.
I mean it seems like they put in eighteen hour days,
not just in spring training but throughout the year. And
that fits Warren's personality. I mean, we use the cliche
(20:40):
Jim rat, but that's what he is. I mean, he's
a baseball gym rat. And you know, if a guy
wants to do a little more of this or a
little more of that shapes ready to jump right in
and do it. So I think short term it's worth
the approach, and you know, you you could bring in
a lot of really good managers. This team is not
(21:03):
ready to be a contender in twenty twenty six and
probably even twenty twenty seven, So why not get a young,
enthusiastic teaching guy in that role and try and make
a turn. I mean, that's what the Nationals have done,
and I mean that's what the Giants are doing. I mean,
(21:24):
I heard a guy who's never had a moment in
professional baseball great time as the head coach at Tennessee.
But it kind of shows you the different feels that's
taken place.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Now. Hey, Jack, I'm on record saying that I don't
think Warren Schaeffer or Bud Blackhead had much to do
with the you know, the awful season that they just had,
But I do like the Paul de Podesta hire. And
he said something that I wanted to get your take on.
One of the things he said about Warren Schaeffer is
(21:59):
he understands the culture of the franchise. And I'm scratching
my head on that on a little bit because the
culture of the franchise seems to be losing. What does
he really mean by that.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I think he's the culture of the franchise. I think
he's talking about it, Rick more from a physical perspective,
you know, of understanding the going back and forth, not
only how the game is played here in Denver at
altitude and then at sea level so many other places,
(22:33):
but the impact that it has doing that more than
any other sport and certainly more than any other team,
and to understand what guys are going through to be
able to stay healthy. It's like in the NFL. I mean,
you know here we are, what week thirteen there in
(22:54):
anybody feeling one hundred percent physically right, you know, you
learn to adapt and adjust and get yourself ready by
that Sunday game or whatever night you're playing, if it's
not a Sunday afternoon game. And baseball is that way
times ten because of all the games you play and
(23:18):
all the physical toll it takes. And I think that's
why Paul feels that Warren has has a sense of
that kind of culture.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Tyko Jack Corgan, Voice of the Rockies, Jack, when Paul
is having to just talk to you since since Pauli
Pedesta was hired. When he was hired, how big a
thing do you think this is for the Rockies? And
then on the flip side of that, how much do
you think that's going to make a difference. We know
baseball is this sport where it's the most difficult to
turn a team around.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
It takes longer than it does in any other sport.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Do you think that they'll have I mean, the Rockies
have exhibited patients before, so I believe they will. But
do you think they'll have the patience to see this
all the way through?
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yeah? I do. I'm I'm excited about out that particular
aspect of getting it right and being willing to understand
it might take a little while to get it right.
You know, the focus obviously goes to Warren Shafer being
(24:17):
retained today. You know that Paul wanted Warren to be
in that role kind of subtly as it happened, but
it's it's a telling sign of what the de Podesta
regime is going to be about. The big league pitching coach,
the triple A pitching coach, the director of pitching performance,
(24:39):
and a fourth in a minor league pitching coordinator. All
were not brought back. So you know, this is where Paul,
I think is going to initially try and put his
stamp on things, is trying the people that he believes
can help. The Rockies, you know, are never going to
(25:00):
be the number one pitching staff in baseball, but to
be a lot better than they've been the last couple
of years, especially starting pitching.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Jack one more from me. You know, baseball at altitude
is really fun to watch a lot of hits, a
lot of home runs, and the Rockies have had success
with that when you go back to the nineties era,
late nineties, but it is winning sustainable at altitude because
you seem to wear your pitchers out every year. We also,
(25:33):
I think we could also guess that it's going to
be tough to get big free agent pitchers that want
to come here and pitch.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
Well, you're never going to get big free agent pitchers
coming here unless they're you know, Denver born and raised
and want to come back and finish their career here.
That's just kind of a reality. And it gets back
to the comment or the question before about culture. You
(26:02):
have to have the type of pictures and more likely
you're going to have to develop them through your drafts
and then trades. But guys who are going to understand that, hey,
giving up five runs is not the worst thing in
the world when I'm at home, because that's a reality.
(26:22):
And so that you earned run average or other things
mean less, and walks per nine innings mean more, and
ground ball right means more, and strikeouts mean more than
the home runs you're going to give up, just with
the reality of that, and then to have also Rick
(26:45):
and I think the mindset that when I go out
on the road, because I was able to be good
enough at home that now on the road, I can
dominate because I have ideal conditions.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
TiO Jack Corgan, Voice of your Colorado Rockies. As we
look forward to the next season, is there any I mean,
I see some building blocks here with this team. I
know you obviously do every day out there that they
can build around. Is there any solution though to maybe
the Chris Bryant situation.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Oh golly, I gotta go, Benjamin. I'm sorry, you know
it is the it is hanging over the franchise. I mean,
I don't think Chris is going to play, you know,
another game in the big leagues. It just sounds like
it's a condition. It's just not going to enable him
(27:41):
to play at the level that's comfortable enough for him
or good enough, you know, to play amongst the best
baseball players in the world. You know, I'm hopeful that
they'll reach some kind of decision on that because it
does hang over the club a little bit, and I
get that he wants to keep playing. They're gonna have
(28:03):
to pay him the money regardless. But if there's a
way to move on from it, you know that that
Chris does retire and maybe they work out some solution
to defer some of the money that they are going
to have to pay him. Spread it out, not Bobby
Beni alike, but spread it out a little bit, and
(28:24):
then you know, have the chance to use that money
in other areas. But you know, it was it was
something the Rocky's tried and you know, it didn't work.
And as as as Paul de Badesta said, he goes
he went through the Deshaun Watson stuff with the Browns,
so he's used to that, you know as something that
(28:47):
you're just gonna have to figure out a solution.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Jack.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
We appreciate you taking the time out to talk to
being Rick today. And you know, hopefully this War and
Shaeffer thing works out better than any of us in vision.
And let's look forward to listen to you guys obviously
on the call.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
This spring sounds good. Always great to visit with you
guys anytime, my friends.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, many thanksgiving Jack.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I appreciated Jack Corky yep, voice of your Colorado Rockies.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Always love talking to talking to Jack.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Get a chance to talk about the Rockies in a
you know, in a somewhat positive manner versus the way
that it's been for the last couple of seasons. And
I always appreciate that. You know, Jack brings the optimism
to the table. It makes you makes you think about
it with that great inside perspective.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
That he has.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Oh yeah, he knows more about baseball than just about
everybody in this town. He's been doing it his entire life.
And a ton of respect for him. Oh yeah, I'm
a big Jack Corgan guy, you know. And you guys
weren't around here in the early two thousands when the
Rockies did experiment with going out and signing big free
agent pitchers Mike Hampton in two thousand and one, he
(29:54):
was a bust. Danny Nagel came along about that same year,
I think two thousand and one, and too he was
also a bust. And then they decided, well, that's not
the way to go. But they did give it a shot,
and since then they they just they don't even think
about doing it. Like Jack said, you're never gonna get
a big free agent pitcher to come here, and I
(30:16):
want to pitch here.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
That's why.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I mean, like my suggestion to that, and maybe I'm
just you know, maybe I'm just some neophyight out there,
you know, spitball of it. My suggestion to that was,
why not look for ground ball pitchers? You know, back
a couple of years ago, there's a guy Dallas Kichel, Uh, great,
great ground ball pitcher. Look for a couple of ground
ball pitchers, look for a knuckleballer, and and put a
staff together, you know, between the guys you're developing and
maybe one or two of those guys, and see if
(30:39):
that's not a feasible way to frankenstein it together.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
But they just they just did not agree with that philosophy.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Apparently, I see where you're going with that. It kind
of makes sense to me. I just don't think they
know what to do. Yeah, you know, seriously playing it
at my high altitude, it really just takes a toll
on your bullpen, your pitching staff, and eventually you get
(31:07):
demoralized and a lot of times you're hurting guy's arms too.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, and I think there's there's got to be something
to a literal pitch count on your pitchers, you know,
when it comes to when it comes to stuff like that.
But I remember I was suggesting this. I think back
in gosh, what was it had been twenty thirteen, twenty
fourteen when I first got out here, and I was
looking at this rocky situation. I'm like, yeah, the pitchings things,
how are we going to get around that?
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Man?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
That was my sugget.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Now at the time, Kikele was just developing into what
he would later become. And then, you know, his career
flamed out almost as quickly as you know he was.
He had a four year, five year run there and then.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
That was about it.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
But you know, to me, that just seemed like what
you would look for if you're out here where the
ball carries it out, dude, go get you some ground ball,
some guys that force ground balls. And Kikel was was
by far the best at at the time, and and
and turn around and build, you know, build a roster
that has one or two of those guys on it,
maybe a knuckleballer on the back end, and and go
from there.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
That makes too much sense. Actually, why, I really don't.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I'm just some nerve who's fixing the text line here, Rick,
I'm you know, I didn't. I didn't study at the
school of school of modeling, like big my concho.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Well, thank you for putting the big in front of
the mi concho part. It's important part of hardway. Yeah,
you got it. Run the first time I came out here.
Work quick. But no, I think that makes sense. It's
just it looks like the only chance you really have
is to hope you can draft a guy and develop
(32:29):
a guy that turns out to be an ACE, and
those guys are feeling far between, and the Rockies have
had a tough time doing that.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Well yeah, and I mean, like the the other part
of that, that theory that I put out there is
you're you are drafting and developing those guys, right, You're
hoping to get one or two, you know, maybe one
Ace and one one fairly good picture that you won too.
We got a couple of ground ball pitchers and and
a knuckleballer, and that's a five man rotation, you know. Uh,
and then those knuckleballers they tend not to wear. They
tend to they tend to have extended careers, you know,
so maybe that guy sticks around a while. It's just
(32:59):
you know, you gotta find one. And so that that's
sort of the thing at the end of the day.
Like again, I made sense to me, But what do
I know. I'm just some doork with a microphone.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I'm trying to think the last time the Rockies had
an ace that they I think you've Aaldo Jimenez maybe,
and that was, like it's gotta be ten to fifteen
years ago, maybe more than that.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Well, what do you consider like, what would you consider
an ace?
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Well, back in the day, an ace is a guy
that is your stopper. You know, this guy's gonna go
out every fourth or fifth game and you're not gonna
have a long losing streak because you know this guy's
gonna But but pitching changed so much, Ben as you know,
of the years, guys don't have complete games anymore. So
now you're relying on bullpens. So ace pitchers today, they're
(33:44):
really only pitching six innings then they get pulled out.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
If that long long gone of the days and I
grew up on baseball, like you know, Nolan Ryan, right,
you know, we will never see that again. No, you know,
at least not just based on what we know.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I'm trying to think of.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
The last time we would have had we would have
had an ACE And the only thing that I mean
that I can think of maybe, I mean, did we
can kind of consider Freeland that back in twenty eighteen
or whatever it.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Was, you know, maybe you know, I typically would say
even seven with a two eight five era, then yeah,
you know we kind of considered that, and then everything
after that was a disaster. But yeah, he came close
to winning twenty games, you know once again back in
the day, a twenty game winner. Yeah he was.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
He was fourth in the Say Young Award, you know, voting,
so that that twenty eighteen would be the closest that
you could get to that.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Here we are.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
I mean, that doesn't seem that long ago, but it's
twenty twenty five. It's been eight years. That's the last
time of the ring was won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
So Eubaldo Jim Menez in twenty ten was nineteen and eight, okay,
well a two point eight eight er, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Freelan was seventeen seven two eight five.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
So that's about you know, I mean, that's that's roughly
I think what you're looking for. There's somebody who's about
twenty wins, who's a sub three era. That that kind
of picture, I think is if we're qualitifiing, it is
an ad quote unquote ace.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah. So in their history, that's as close as they got.
Good lord, two guys.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Two guys in the last but twenty years more.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
That's so bad.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
That's oh so bad. Yeah, oh my goodness. All right,
well we're gonna switch gears. We'll talk a little SeeU
H football. We got Sean Keeler uh coming up here next.
You guys listening to Ketway Sports. But all right, Rickulars
fill and they will be back.
Our next co host.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
I believe he's their former male model under the name
Mike Honcho Rick Lewis Rick.
Speaker 3 (00:05):
What's going on, buddy, that's Big Mike Honcho.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Sorry, I didn't mean to short your title there, Big Mike.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Yeah, just get it right. I just, uh, you know,
if you're going to be revealing secrets about me, let's
let's get it right.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
Making sure that was a secret.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
I thought that was uh, you know, you had a
semi famous second career there in the mid eighties.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
And that's a great name, by the way.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
That's yeah, that's it's good.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
That should be my radio name.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
That's what you seriously, if we were remember when people
did radio monikers, like everyone just uses their name now.
You know, I always wondered what my radio moniker would
be if I'd come in in that era.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
I'm sure you wrote down a list of possible names, right,
most of them were already taken, Darkning, dalk Han, Solo.
You know.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
I just just just just generic random names that happened
to come to me. But yeah, I was it's pretty terrible. Well, uh,
I can't. I don't want to get too deep into
this because I don't want to tell on myself here,
but the text line is obviously not working for us
right now, is that we can't see it. And so
I sort of did some magic to get into this
website's back end, and I realized that sounds dirty as
(01:11):
soon as I said it. But I I right here
and this, this website is just nonsense, and so I'm
like getting out of this and like not messing with
it further and let their tech support deal with it.
Because I was I was just gonna get to go
in there and fix it. And then I'm like, oh,
this is terrible. Somebody has already messed them up.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Aren't you an IT expert?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
I have been known to dabble in the dark arts
from time to time.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
That's what you've been telling people. I'm surprised the text
line is still down, Yeah, because I was listening earlier
and heard you mention that, and I went to log
on and I got nothing. You guys got nothing, And
here I am working today with an IT expert.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yeah, I will what the funk? Yes, what the what
the funk? Correct?
Speaker 2 (01:50):
As I look at this, somebody has has severely messed
with their their website, like severely messed with.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
It, like ACKed it.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah, like I'm not the first person in here, So
I just without getting too deep in the weeds on this,
somebody really messed them up and I hope they get
it fixed.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, it was working this morning for my morning show.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Yeah, we were well we had so it had been working,
and we just weren't able to reply to people for
a while.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
The replies.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
It would look like we were replying, but they would
never receive them, and so that was sort of the thing.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
And now now you can't even get it at all.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
So somebody's been messing with this thing for a while,
and I hope these people get get their stuff fixed.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
Does this mean we have to take phone calls?
Speaker 2 (02:28):
You know, maybe we should, Maybe we should do something
old school man, old school radio, take phone calls.
Speaker 1 (02:32):
I grew up on color drifven radio.
Speaker 2 (02:34):
I grew up in the South on sports talk on
color driven radio, you know, and like fine mom and
all that stuff back when it was you know that guy,
you know, Paul.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I used to love that stuff because you get.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Every with all due respect to our audience, crank out
their call and with the most ridiculous things of all time,
and watching the befuddled host like.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Try to wade through. It was the highlight of my day.
Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah. I've been using the text line mostly on my
morning show, but just recently, you know, trying to get
more phone calls in. You know. I think it's just
a better way to connect with your listeners and you
get different voices on instead of just mine and yours.
So I don't know, maybe we take some calls later
on today.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Well, we'll see.
Speaker 2 (03:13):
We gotta I went to Squeeze Idiot and we've got
Jack Corgan coming about of the hour. Get a chance
to talk about the Rockies removing the interim tag from
Warren Schaeffer that which is new is old again or
vice versa. What do you think about the Rockies pulling
the tag off Warren Schaeffer.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
Yeah, you know what, I'm interested to talk to Jack Corgan.
We had him on Gosh, probably maybe six weeks ago,
and I asked him. We were talking about potential managers
for the Rockies. I mentioned Joe Girardi because I thought
that they should bring back somebody that would at least
excite the fan base a bit, you know, like a
(03:47):
big name dude. And he mentioned that he thought Warren
would be a good choice and I was kind of
puzzled by that, So I'm gonna ask Jack if maybe
he knew something, like maybe they told him that they
were leading in that direction.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
I had heard a rumor, we'll get a chance to
ask Jack about this when Paul de Pedesta was hired
that he was looking to bring in Don Mattingly, who
had stepped down as the Jays bench coach. Now, I
know the Phillies have some interest there, so I don't know,
you know, maybe that was it or something.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Maybe they didn't think they could get Mattingly.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
I also like, when this happened, my first thought was,
you know, they're setting this up so that this guy
can just be there while they're while they're building the
ground floor. Then they'll put the guy they won in later.
That was my first thought that maybe I'm wrong. Maybe
Jack will talk me out of that.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
You know what, I don't think Bud Black or Warren
Shaeffer really had much to do with the disastrous season
or seasons, if you will. I think it's just a
really bad baseball club. But to me, I think the
fan base needed something, some sort of something to get
them excited about next season. I don't think Warren Shaeffer
(04:55):
is going to be that guy. Nothing against him, but
I just don't think he'll be that guy. I think
they probably should have worn out, and if they could
have got done matting Lee, I think that would have
been great. Joe Girardi, who I mentioned, But when you
look at the the comments on social media on the announcement,
(05:18):
I almost almost unanimously very negative. Yeah, and so obviously
there's no excitement there for Warren Schaeffer, not to say
he won't be a good manager. Obviously something that they
like about him. And I can't wait to talk to
Jack about.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It, Yeah, because Jack usually has some great insight on
on those kinds of things.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
One of the big things that I had talked about was,
you know, stepping outside the Rockies organization to bring in somebody,
bringing somebody in who could be a new architect in
terms of what this team does philosophically from the baseball standpoint,
in terms of you know, drafting and developing players. I
had suggested Adeki Kurayama, the phenomenal Japanese manager and architect
(05:58):
and guy who brought up you know, Show High and
guys like that. But Jack was like, yeah, well there's
sort of a difference there because Japanese baseball is very
disciplined in those players, and then there's a language barrier.
Speaker 1 (06:06):
They just pointed out the flaws with that.
Speaker 2 (06:08):
But the Rockies did ultimately do what I'd suggested in
a way by going out and getting moneyball Paul de
Podesta and you know, the guy who's designed the Dodgers
minor league system currently, and I think everybody knows about
the movie and what he did with the Oakland Athletics.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
So they did go out and do that. That may
be the air Quotes's exciting move.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
I do like that higher that one's good. And what
I don't get though, I don't know if you saw
Patrick Saunders comment about what they liked about Warren Schaeffer.
One thing he mentioned is that he knows the culture, well,
what's the culture is? Right? It's been a losing culture.
(06:47):
So I don't know if maybe he meant to put
that a different way, but my read on it is
the culture is losing, okay, So he knows the culture, well,
what's he going to do about it? And apparently he's
worked with a lot of these players in the minor leagues,
which I guess is good but when you consider looking
(07:08):
at these guys, they're not really developing all that. Well,
that's one reason why the team is so bad. So
I'm not I don't want to be negative about the
higher I just I'm scratching my head a little bit
about it.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Yeah, that's one of those things that And by the way, Rick,
I don't mean to brag, but my IT skills have
worked and I have hacked my way into the text
line that I have it now.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So if you guys want to text us at five
six six nine zero.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
Oh, I got it. You're kidding me.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
No, it did serious.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
You fixed the text line.
Speaker 1 (07:35):
I got myself in with an admin account.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Oh you know what, I'm gonna let somebody in corporate no,
which you just did here today.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I mean it's on the air, so I can't really
hide from it.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
I'm going to text Bob Pittman.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well you you do that. Bob already doesn't like me,
so well.
Speaker 3 (07:49):
He's going to send you some Applebe's gift cards.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You know what, I don't do Applebee's. If he could
do Olive Garden instead, can we set the.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
Card well, you know, the unlimited breadsticks. You can't go
wrong with that.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I'm just saying that's Olive Guarden used to have this
thing where you could not get two far off Tangent.
But Olive Garden used to have this thing where you
could get the unlimited pasta. You pay like a thing,
and you got unlimited pasta for the month. You remember
this absolutely, yeah, I remember that. My wife and I
went to Olive Garden about two weeks ago. We couldn't
believe how cheap it was. And they had a deal
where you buy one meal and you can take one home,
(08:22):
so basically they're giving you a free meal.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Okay, it's a great deal. It's been a long it's.
Speaker 2 (08:28):
Been a long time since I've been to the actual
Olive Guard i should say. But they used to have
like the never ending pasta bowl, and I think they
finally finally ended that, and so now it's like the
buy one, get.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
One, but we used to do they used to have
a month back.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
In gosh, I can't remember what year was now, but
when they first did the never ending pasta and you
bought this like subscription deal or whatever, and you could
come in and whatever you bought was was never ending,
and we used to feast on it, like back in
the day when you know, when you were really broke
in college and all that kind of stuff you used.
That's what you do is you and your buddies load up,
go to the olive garden and you would sit there
from late lunch, should tell early dinner and basically eat
(09:01):
through for like five hours to get loaded up.
Speaker 3 (09:04):
Oh man, if they had an olive garden around when
I was in college, they probably don't open. They probably
didn't have that deal in a college town because you'd
go out of business.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Well yeah, I mean, I don't know how they stayed
in business, but you know, it is what it is.
Speaker 1 (09:19):
So there's your free shout out for the olive Garden.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
They're on there.
Speaker 1 (09:21):
I'm six six times.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
There was a text line, We're getting congratulations rolling in
for me getting through here. So yeah, I do it
for you the people. I may not be on the
air anymore after this. I'm not sure it's a felony
in nine states, but but we're in let's see here.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Earlier news toy Davis Cu has.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Offered so Dave, who was indignant that Colorado had not
offered the opponents that he played in football this past
weekend their their stardbun receiver and Texas had see you
has apparently offered, So there we go.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
Okay, SEVENE Night says nobody else wanted the Rockies job.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
I beg the different manager something about jumping into the
worst and turning it into the best.
Speaker 3 (10:01):
Rick.
Speaker 2 (10:01):
I don't know if you were a Madden player or not,
but like like whenever I started a Madden franchise, I'd
always take the worst teams and try to make them
the best. You know, I've any tiny game I've ever
played or what, I've always enjoyed the challenge of building
something up more than just jumping in taking the best
team and winning.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I totally get that. And there's no pressure. You know,
there's no real pressure on Warren Schaeffer. After what three
one hundred plus lost seasons. You can only get better.
There's no way they're gonna get worse.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
That is true.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Seriously, I'm at press, man.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
I'm flexing a little bit for a moment here. I
may have strutted back into the studio. There may have
been a little peacocking.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (10:46):
Well, I can't believe you would ever do any peacocky
myself is so unlike you Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
I've known this to be humble, the humblest Really, I'm
bragging about my humility in an oxymoron right now?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Are you flash in your watch right now?
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Don't have one to do that, but I do have
some some hair ties around my wrist, so I'm doing that.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Well. Great man, it's good to have the text line back.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah, I love it. Is there something about being connected
to the listeners?
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Like it is kind of a thing, you know what
I mean? Yeah, it's talk radio, That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
Like you don't just want to talking to the void
and not have any way to uh, you.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Know, to you. I don't know.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
That's the other thing.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
Like you've lived in both eras of talk radio before
you had listener interaction like that had to be by
the phone, you know, and you never you didn't have
this sort of like real time excuse me, you didn't
have this real time thing going on here. And I
just as I look at this, I'm I'm fascinated how
much I've not noticed that we are We can just
sort of need the connection now or I sort of
(11:43):
rely on the connection now.
Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, same with me and the one thing this is
kind of inside baseball The one good thing about the
text line is you can pick and choose what comment
you want to read.
Speaker 1 (11:53):
Oh yeah, I've had least ninety percent of them off.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
There's some some of the comments are great, but you
can't read them on the air.
Speaker 3 (12:01):
No, so you can be selective. And and somebody calls
the show, You've got them live on the radio. That's
kind of a cool thing too, because you're working without
a safety net, right, and you don't really know what
they're gonna say, right.
Speaker 2 (12:14):
And that's fascinating because I real quick, and we'll have
Jack Corgan here in just a few minutes. But I that,
you know, when I was doing some of the election
coverage stuff here. We took phone calls after after that,
and you get comments from from every political persuasion. And
some of them are really nice, some of them were
really we're a little vitriolic. Some of them were whatever.
And then I got one guy that I think was
trying to fight me on the air.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I don't remember.
Speaker 2 (12:35):
We saved that phone, called Grants laughing now because he
remembers some guy that I think was trying to fight
me on the air. And I'm like, I don't really
know what to do. With this right now, buddy, I
mean you're you called me like, what do you want
me to do? What do you want to say? So
there was a bit of a of a safety net,
elevant elevant with with all that.
Speaker 3 (12:50):
Yeah, the text line is a safer play, no doubt
about it. And you're right, I felt a little bit
naked without the text line being up. So now I
feel like, hey, yeah, we're connected, We're up and running. Now.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
Well we got this, Yeah, I think we do. For
the rest of the show, we had a lot of
a lot of good guests coming up. We got Jack
Corgan coming up here. And just if you get a
chance to talk about Walter Schaeffer being named the uh
no longer the interim now the manager for the Rocky
he's almost any other Rockies questions we may have. We
did have one on the text line. So were the
odds the Rockies win the Division this year?
Speaker 1 (13:19):
Probably?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Neil.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Baseball is the longest.
Speaker 2 (13:21):
Turnaround of any sport because the minor league system and guys,
you know, maturing and all that.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
It's just the longest turnarou.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yeah, and and the fact they don't have a salarycap.
I think, uh, well, we see pretty much the same
teams every year that are in the running. And that's
one reason why the National Football League is the number
one sport parody in the country. It's parody, yep. And
you do see teams go from worst to best in
a year, and it happens on a fairly regular basis.
(13:51):
Nocos turned things around, you know, with when they brought
in Sean Payton. Pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
So you have to be at the Broncos. You got
the you get the the I was just talking about
the look at the Patriots last year.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
They were a three win football team now now number
one in the NFL.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah, that's the beauty of the NFL and that's why
we love it so much.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Yeah, that's is by the way, the two one four
says Ryan Edwards, seldom reads my text because I have
the Benjamin Olbright approach towards things, which is the correct thinking,
by the way, shot at Ryan it is, and you
know it pandered to me. So I'm obviously and of
course you read it every single time. Yet to say
that's how that works on the show. We gotta a
commercial break, we come back, We're gonna talk to Jack Corgan.
(14:29):
Get a chance, so if you guys got Rockies questions five, six, six,
nine zeros in text, I get those in.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
We'll get those Jack Sean Key lit.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Top of the hour. You guys listen to Kaway Sports.
Be all right, Ricklous, we'll be back. We did get
a few questions in here about the Rocky and some
stuff to ask Jack when he comes up. The three
seven says a large, huge bet Rockies lose one hundred games.
Large bet they lose eighty five every year until they don't.
It's going well so far.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
Well, we'll have spent three straight seasons of losing over
one hundred games, which is incredibly bad. Probably a safe bet.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
It was just kind of like our strategy last year,
which was bad against the Rockies every game, and then
when they when they win games, you had double the
bet up until they lose again.
Speaker 3 (15:14):
Yeah. You told me about that early in the season,
like the first week or two, and I did it
for a bit. That kind of They when they fired
Bud Black, they went on a little bit of a
run and I backed off. Did you stick with it?
Speaker 1 (15:28):
I did?
Speaker 2 (15:29):
I stuck with it and came out making a fairly
fairly decent sum last year.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
So my misery.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
I was like, well, I can be miserable or I
could be a little bit wealthier and miserable while I'm
doing it.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
And I chose a letter.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
I told my son in law about that, and he
did it the whole season. Killed it, just cleaned up, killed.
Speaker 2 (15:47):
It, made a little bit, made a little bit of money.
So oh yeah, there you go, five six, six, nine
zeros of text. I've got a ton of questions come
in here. We've got some stuff about Vance Joseph and
I want to get to that a little bit later.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
As far as that, but I think we got Jack Corgan.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
We'll go out to the Kai Comms by Health hotline
to bring on your voice of the Colorado Rockies, Jack Corgan.
Speaker 1 (16:05):
Jack, How you doing, Buddy?
Speaker 4 (16:07):
I'm good, Benjamin, How are you?
Speaker 3 (16:09):
My friend?
Speaker 1 (16:09):
Doing pretty well? Got Rick lewis here as well.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Obviously, the big news today Warren Schaeffer has the interim
tag removed. In two part from me, one, how surprised
are you buying that?
Speaker 1 (16:20):
And two? Is this the right move for the Colorado Rockies?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Well?
Speaker 4 (16:25):
One, I mean I think there were a couple of
factors where it's not a big surprise. One it's a
little later in the game in terms of hiring a manager,
as they went through the process before they hired Paul
to run baseball ops. And then I think in a
(16:48):
lot of ways, there were the sentiments among the players
and other people in the organization that they liked where
Warren's philosophy was taking the team. So I think that
was a factor. And the other factor, you know, the
(17:08):
potential labor issue in twenty seven. You know this way
from structure and finances and everything else, it all makes sense.
Speaker 3 (17:23):
Hey, Jack, it's your Ross Belt buddy. Rick lewis here.
Thanks for coming on. Hopefully you're on a beach somewhere
wearing some cut up blue jean shorts. That's what Rustbelt
guys do.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
I wish, except I'm pulling out Christmas decoration boxes for
my wife's So I was glad to talk to you guys.
Get away from the honey dudes.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
All right, Well, it's good to have you on the show.
Last time we talked to you on the show, you've
thought I was bringing up names, like I thought it'd
be good to get a big name manager in here
to kind of fire up the fan base. You mentioned
Warren Schaeffer as he might be, you know, the right
guy to do this. Did you know something back then
or with somebody telling you something like, hey, we're lean
(18:09):
in that direction.
Speaker 4 (18:11):
Well, I did know Rick that there was a lot
of sentiment regardless of who would end up getting that
baseball ops job before Paul de Bodesta got it, and
I think they felt like Warren was on the right
track in terms of approach, you know, and with some
(18:36):
really strong feelings and ideas on how to one not
only try and get the offense going again back at
Corse Field, but just as importantly, you know, throughout the
history of the franchise, the struggles to have an offense
that played in Denver play at sea level. And you know,
(18:58):
I liked some of of Warren's thoughts and ideas on
how to make that happen.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
Talking with Jack Corgan, Voice of the Rockies, you know,
Warren Schaeffer, I think for a lot of the fans,
whatever he may be bringing, for a lot of the fans,
it still represents a little bit of the old, a
little bit of the same. How would you counter that
or how would you you argue that for fans that
feel that that is a letdown with names that were
thrown around, included Rix Beforemenage and Joe Girardi. There was
(19:27):
talk of Don matting Lee after he left the Blue Jays.
How do you how do you sell that, as it
were to the fan base.
Speaker 4 (19:35):
You know, it's it's not going to be an easy sell,
regardless of who they they brought in after you know,
three triple digit loss seasons. I think in some ways
the game has has changed a little bit, not to
say veteran guys can't do it, but the guys who
(19:57):
are coming up now, the younger players, and they're approach,
the tools they want to use to play the game
are different than Joe Girardi or a Don Mattingly if
they were even interested in the job.
Speaker 3 (20:15):
I think.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
It's a different job now, and that they're at the
ballpark all the time. I mean the manager and the coaches.
I mean it seems like they put in eighteen hour days,
not just in spring training but throughout the year. And
that fits Warren's personality. I mean, we use the cliche
(20:40):
Jim rat, but that's what he is. I mean, he's
a baseball gym rat. And you know, if a guy
wants to do a little more of this or a
little more of that shapes ready to jump right in
and do it. So I think short term it's worth
the approach, and you know, you you could bring in
a lot of really good managers. This team is not
(21:03):
ready to be a contender in twenty twenty six and
probably even twenty twenty seven, So why not get a young,
enthusiastic teaching guy in that role and try and make
a turn. I mean, that's what the Nationals have done,
and I mean that's what the Giants are doing. I mean,
(21:24):
I heard a guy who's never had a moment in
professional baseball great time as the head coach at Tennessee.
But it kind of shows you the different feels that's
taken place.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Now. Hey, Jack, I'm on record saying that I don't
think Warren Schaeffer or Bud Blackhead had much to do
with the you know, the awful season that they just had,
But I do like the Paul de Podesta hire. And
he said something that I wanted to get your take on.
One of the things he said about Warren Schaeffer is
(21:59):
he understands the culture of the franchise. And I'm scratching
my head on that on a little bit because the
culture of the franchise seems to be losing. What does
he really mean by that.
Speaker 4 (22:10):
I think he's the culture of the franchise. I think
he's talking about it, Rick more from a physical perspective,
you know, of understanding the going back and forth, not
only how the game is played here in Denver at
altitude and then at sea level so many other places,
(22:33):
but the impact that it has doing that more than
any other sport and certainly more than any other team,
and to understand what guys are going through to be
able to stay healthy. It's like in the NFL. I mean,
you know here we are, what week thirteen there in
(22:54):
anybody feeling one hundred percent physically right, you know, you
learn to adapt and adjust and get yourself ready by
that Sunday game or whatever night you're playing, if it's
not a Sunday afternoon game. And baseball is that way
times ten because of all the games you play and
(23:18):
all the physical toll it takes. And I think that's
why Paul feels that Warren has has a sense of
that kind of culture.
Speaker 2 (23:28):
Tyko Jack Corgan, Voice of the Rockies, Jack, when Paul
is having to just talk to you since since Pauli
Pedesta was hired. When he was hired, how big a
thing do you think this is for the Rockies? And
then on the flip side of that, how much do
you think that's going to make a difference. We know
baseball is this sport where it's the most difficult to
turn a team around.
Speaker 1 (23:45):
It takes longer than it does in any other sport.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Do you think that they'll have I mean, the Rockies
have exhibited patients before, so I believe they will. But
do you think they'll have the patience to see this
all the way through?
Speaker 4 (23:56):
Yeah? I do. I'm I'm excited about out that particular
aspect of getting it right and being willing to understand
it might take a little while to get it right.
You know, the focus obviously goes to Warren Shafer being
(24:17):
retained today. You know that Paul wanted Warren to be
in that role kind of subtly as it happened, but
it's it's a telling sign of what the de Podesta
regime is going to be about. The big league pitching coach,
the triple A pitching coach, the director of pitching performance,
(24:39):
and a fourth in a minor league pitching coordinator. All
were not brought back. So you know, this is where Paul,
I think is going to initially try and put his
stamp on things, is trying the people that he believes
can help. The Rockies, you know, are never going to
(25:00):
be the number one pitching staff in baseball, but to
be a lot better than they've been the last couple
of years, especially starting pitching.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
Jack one more from me. You know, baseball at altitude
is really fun to watch a lot of hits, a
lot of home runs, and the Rockies have had success
with that when you go back to the nineties era,
late nineties, but it is winning sustainable at altitude because
you seem to wear your pitchers out every year. We also,
(25:33):
I think we could also guess that it's going to
be tough to get big free agent pitchers that want
to come here and pitch.
Speaker 4 (25:41):
Well, you're never going to get big free agent pitchers
coming here unless they're you know, Denver born and raised
and want to come back and finish their career here.
That's just kind of a reality. And it gets back
to the comment or the question before about culture. You
(26:02):
have to have the type of pictures and more likely
you're going to have to develop them through your drafts
and then trades. But guys who are going to understand that, hey,
giving up five runs is not the worst thing in
the world when I'm at home, because that's a reality.
(26:22):
And so that you earned run average or other things
mean less, and walks per nine innings mean more, and
ground ball right means more, and strikeouts mean more than
the home runs you're going to give up, just with
the reality of that, and then to have also Rick
(26:45):
and I think the mindset that when I go out
on the road, because I was able to be good
enough at home that now on the road, I can
dominate because I have ideal conditions.
Speaker 2 (27:00):
TiO Jack Corgan, Voice of your Colorado Rockies. As we
look forward to the next season, is there any I mean,
I see some building blocks here with this team. I
know you obviously do every day out there that they
can build around. Is there any solution though to maybe
the Chris Bryant situation.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Oh golly, I gotta go, Benjamin. I'm sorry, you know
it is the it is hanging over the franchise. I mean,
I don't think Chris is going to play, you know,
another game in the big leagues. It just sounds like
it's a condition. It's just not going to enable him
(27:41):
to play at the level that's comfortable enough for him
or good enough, you know, to play amongst the best
baseball players in the world. You know, I'm hopeful that
they'll reach some kind of decision on that because it
does hang over the club a little bit, and I
get that he wants to keep playing. They're gonna have
(28:03):
to pay him the money regardless. But if there's a
way to move on from it, you know that that
Chris does retire and maybe they work out some solution
to defer some of the money that they are going
to have to pay him. Spread it out, not Bobby
Beni alike, but spread it out a little bit, and
(28:24):
then you know, have the chance to use that money
in other areas. But you know, it was it was
something the Rocky's tried and you know, it didn't work.
And as as as Paul de Badesta said, he goes
he went through the Deshaun Watson stuff with the Browns,
so he's used to that, you know as something that
(28:47):
you're just gonna have to figure out a solution.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Jack.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
We appreciate you taking the time out to talk to
being Rick today. And you know, hopefully this War and
Shaeffer thing works out better than any of us in vision.
And let's look forward to listen to you guys obviously
on the call.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
This spring sounds good. Always great to visit with you
guys anytime, my friends.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
Yeah, many thanksgiving Jack.
Speaker 2 (29:11):
I appreciated Jack Corky yep, voice of your Colorado Rockies.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Always love talking to talking to Jack.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Get a chance to talk about the Rockies in a
you know, in a somewhat positive manner versus the way
that it's been for the last couple of seasons. And
I always appreciate that. You know, Jack brings the optimism
to the table. It makes you makes you think about
it with that great inside perspective.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
That he has.
Speaker 3 (29:33):
Oh yeah, he knows more about baseball than just about
everybody in this town. He's been doing it his entire life.
And a ton of respect for him. Oh yeah, I'm
a big Jack Corgan guy, you know. And you guys
weren't around here in the early two thousands when the
Rockies did experiment with going out and signing big free
agent pitchers Mike Hampton in two thousand and one, he
(29:54):
was a bust. Danny Nagel came along about that same year,
I think two thousand and one, and too he was
also a bust. And then they decided, well, that's not
the way to go. But they did give it a shot,
and since then they they just they don't even think
about doing it. Like Jack said, you're never gonna get
a big free agent pitcher to come here, and I
(30:16):
want to pitch here.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
That's why.
Speaker 2 (30:17):
I mean, like my suggestion to that, and maybe I'm
just you know, maybe I'm just some neophyight out there,
you know, spitball of it. My suggestion to that was,
why not look for ground ball pitchers? You know, back
a couple of years ago, there's a guy Dallas Kichel, Uh, great,
great ground ball pitcher. Look for a couple of ground
ball pitchers, look for a knuckleballer, and and put a
staff together, you know, between the guys you're developing and
maybe one or two of those guys, and see if
(30:39):
that's not a feasible way to frankenstein it together.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
But they just they just did not agree with that philosophy.
Speaker 3 (30:44):
Apparently, I see where you're going with that. It kind
of makes sense to me. I just don't think they
know what to do. Yeah, you know, seriously playing it
at my high altitude, it really just takes a toll
on your bullpen, your pitching staff, and eventually you get
(31:07):
demoralized and a lot of times you're hurting guy's arms too.
Speaker 2 (31:11):
Yeah, and I think there's there's got to be something
to a literal pitch count on your pitchers, you know,
when it comes to when it comes to stuff like that.
But I remember I was suggesting this. I think back
in gosh, what was it had been twenty thirteen, twenty
fourteen when I first got out here, and I was
looking at this rocky situation. I'm like, yeah, the pitchings things,
how are we going to get around that?
Speaker 3 (31:29):
Man?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
That was my sugget.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
Now at the time, Kikele was just developing into what
he would later become. And then, you know, his career
flamed out almost as quickly as you know he was.
He had a four year, five year run there and then.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
That was about it.
Speaker 2 (31:38):
But you know, to me, that just seemed like what
you would look for if you're out here where the
ball carries it out, dude, go get you some ground ball,
some guys that force ground balls. And Kikel was was
by far the best at at the time, and and
and turn around and build, you know, build a roster
that has one or two of those guys on it,
maybe a knuckleballer on the back end, and and go
from there.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
That makes too much sense. Actually, why, I really don't.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
I'm just some nerve who's fixing the text line here, Rick,
I'm you know, I didn't. I didn't study at the
school of school of modeling, like big my concho.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
Well, thank you for putting the big in front of
the mi concho part. It's important part of hardway. Yeah,
you got it. Run the first time I came out here.
Work quick. But no, I think that makes sense. It's
just it looks like the only chance you really have
is to hope you can draft a guy and develop
(32:29):
a guy that turns out to be an ACE, and
those guys are feeling far between, and the Rockies have
had a tough time doing that.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Well yeah, and I mean, like the the other part
of that, that theory that I put out there is
you're you are drafting and developing those guys, right, You're
hoping to get one or two, you know, maybe one
Ace and one one fairly good picture that you won too.
We got a couple of ground ball pitchers and and
a knuckleballer, and that's a five man rotation, you know. Uh,
and then those knuckleballers they tend not to wear. They
tend to they tend to have extended careers, you know,
so maybe that guy sticks around a while. It's just
(32:59):
you know, you gotta find one. And so that that's
sort of the thing at the end of the day.
Like again, I made sense to me, But what do
I know. I'm just some doork with a microphone.
Speaker 3 (33:05):
I'm trying to think the last time the Rockies had
an ace that they I think you've Aaldo Jimenez maybe,
and that was, like it's gotta be ten to fifteen
years ago, maybe more than that.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Well, what do you consider like, what would you consider
an ace?
Speaker 3 (33:20):
Well, back in the day, an ace is a guy
that is your stopper. You know, this guy's gonna go
out every fourth or fifth game and you're not gonna
have a long losing streak because you know this guy's
gonna But but pitching changed so much, Ben as you know,
of the years, guys don't have complete games anymore. So
now you're relying on bullpens. So ace pitchers today, they're
(33:44):
really only pitching six innings then they get pulled out.
Speaker 2 (33:48):
If that long long gone of the days and I
grew up on baseball, like you know, Nolan Ryan, right,
you know, we will never see that again. No, you know,
at least not just based on what we know.
Speaker 3 (34:00):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
I'm trying to think of.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
The last time we would have had we would have
had an ACE And the only thing that I mean
that I can think of maybe, I mean, did we
can kind of consider Freeland that back in twenty eighteen
or whatever it.
Speaker 3 (34:12):
Was, you know, maybe you know, I typically would say
even seven with a two eight five era, then yeah,
you know we kind of considered that, and then everything
after that was a disaster. But yeah, he came close
to winning twenty games, you know once again back in
the day, a twenty game winner. Yeah he was.
Speaker 2 (34:30):
He was fourth in the Say Young Award, you know, voting,
so that that twenty eighteen would be the closest that
you could get to that.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
Here we are.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
I mean, that doesn't seem that long ago, but it's
twenty twenty five. It's been eight years. That's the last
time of the ring was won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 3 (34:41):
So Eubaldo Jim Menez in twenty ten was nineteen and eight, okay,
well a two point eight eight er, yeah, and.
Speaker 1 (34:47):
Freelan was seventeen seven two eight five.
Speaker 2 (34:49):
So that's about you know, I mean, that's that's roughly
I think what you're looking for. There's somebody who's about
twenty wins, who's a sub three era. That that kind
of picture, I think is if we're qualitifiing, it is
an ad quote unquote ace.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah. So in their history, that's as close as they got.
Good lord, two guys.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Two guys in the last but twenty years more.
Speaker 1 (35:08):
That's so bad.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
That's oh so bad. Yeah, oh my goodness. All right,
well we're gonna switch gears. We'll talk a little SeeU
H football. We got Sean Keeler uh coming up here next.
You guys listening to Ketway Sports. But all right, Rickulars
fill and they will be back.
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