Episode 40: University of Washington Pitching Coach Connor Lambert

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Not five miles an hour, ratting two his head, he
hopped down.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
First with the mount Bonius face, and on the very
next pitch he up in stow second fase.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
With gretest.

Speaker 3 (00:21):
He wasn't born, he had dir Yes uniform.

Speaker 4 (00:28):
All right, what is up you muddy be siders. We
have a great show coming up for you episode forty.
My friend is joining Nate Handy and the rook to
talk about his brand new pitching coach job, evaluating those
dumb non athlete pitchers and maybe we'll get into some

(00:50):
good old storytelling or two. But Nate, can we welcome
in my buddy, pitching coach for the University of Washington Huskies,
Connor Lambert Connor, Hi, you doing.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
Matt, I'm doing great. Thanks for having me, Nate. Thank
you guys. Allow me to come on the show and
talk a little ball and yeah, maybe enlighten some folks
or not, you know whatever, maybe make it people a
little dumber. I don't know, but I'll do my best.
And that's what we do here.

Speaker 4 (01:16):
Con We we are just spouting nonsense left and right.
Occasionally we're right, and when we're right, we call back
to it all the time, and then we just ignore
the times where we're wrong. That's the Nate Handy specially
I learned from the best. But Nate has wanted to
have you on this podcast, like since he heard about you.
He's obviously, as our listeners know, a huge pitching guy.

(01:38):
And I'll give Nate some credit. He is pretty good
at evaluating guys based on just a couple of looks
here and there. So he I think you and here
are going to really geek out. So it's an exciting
time for Nate. He can't even get a word in
because he's so giddy. He's like, you guys can't see
him on the pod, but he's like literally in his
corner in his garage laughing because he's so excited.

Speaker 6 (01:59):
That is true. Like I said before we started recording,
Connor like, just thank you man. I've just always wanted
to talk to a stud badass pitching coach, and you're
making that happen here. So thank you. Thanks for coming on.

Speaker 5 (02:10):
Oh Nate, you're too you're too kind. Yeah. No, it's
what you just described about recruiting and seeing guys you
know a couple of times and being able to evaluate.
That's my job right there. That's that's what it is.
So if I can shed any light, hope to I
hope to be able to do that. You guys are awesome, obviously,
Matt and me go way back, and Nate, you can
stop using badass because I don't know about it.

Speaker 6 (02:31):
Well, I don't know our listeners might not agree with
that here after we get going here. But congratulations on
the new gig man. You've been at it for what
on the job for a month now?

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Is that?

Speaker 6 (02:41):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (02:41):
Yeah, a little over. Yeah, it's been it truly has
felt like work from home because I'm still down here
in Portland. I'm sitting in a kitchen full of boxes.
We're getting ready to move up here in weeks time.
I've just been kind of working out of PDX and
flying to where I need to fly and seeing the
guys and doing the recruiting trail. But that's we're in
a quiet period now. So we had camp last week
for a full week, so I was up in Seattle

(03:03):
kind of. It's almost a little bit of commuting but
being able to stay with some buddies up in Seattle,
and it's been good. It's a lot of evaluation, it's
a lot of meetings, it's a lot of catching up. Man,
It's it's a lot of zoom calls right now. It's
time period for college baseball coaches is you know, we
just got the ability to start talking to the twenty
twenty sixth class, which are juniors to be in high school,
and so it's a lot of phone time. And then

(03:25):
once we get into September, we can start having those
that class on campus. So you're rounding out your your
twenty twenty five class a little bit. You know. I
think there's some different dynamics to that with transfer portal,
you know, and your twenty twenty five class and that
being something it's come full circle at the end of
or at the at the end of May next year.
And then yeah, and then the twenty sixth class. You're
oping to add a few guys early right now and

(03:46):
continue to evaluate. But I mean, it's it's a little
bit of a mess. I mean, the NCAA is coming
down with different roster sizes right now, what they're going
to do with scholarships. You know, courts are deciding a
lot of the stuff right now. I just actually read
something on Yahoo our head coach done us something about
not not necessary lawsuits, but just things that student athlete
representatives are wanting to accept or not wanting to accept.

(04:06):
And it's no one knows what roster sizes are going
to look like. So like recruiting is truly in the
dark right now, which is just different. Sorry to ramp on,
but a new territory for all of us coaches and
so that's it means extra conversations that last probably too
long about how we're going to do this or how
we're going to do that, and just kind of the
nature of the beast right now.

Speaker 4 (04:26):
I was going to ask you about that Connor. You know,
we've talked about this before, but the transfer portal didn't
exist when we were playing, and that wasn't really something
that was available to us. How has that changed the
recruiting landscape? I mean, obviously, like coaching changes happen and
then guys are going all over the place and we

(04:46):
saw some of those dominoes led to you end up
moving through it to Seattle too. How do you guys
approach that as a staff that you did with the
transfer portals? What are those conversations look like when somebody
enters the portal to you, landing them.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
Hard to speak just yet about what our conversations look
like for getting guys in the transfer portal. I know
that we have preliminary conversations right now just about the
idea of what we want to do. And I think
that being older in college baseball is a smart thing,
you know, whereas like you know, at the professional level,
like we want old players on our roster. I mean

(05:20):
that kind of is the deal. I mean, that's not
to say we don't want freshmen to come in and
develop them and do that thing. I think that's something
that I really specialize in, to be honest, is taking
guys that are younger and you know, really helping them
mentor them through those those years. And I think that's
where I had a lot of success at Portland. Transfer portal.
Landscape is just all about money. It feels like nil
and what can you do for me? And I get it.

(05:41):
That's a part of it, you know. I think you
feel like you can add to your roster, you know,
if we have two or three spots open right now
in our twenty twenty five class for let's say, what
we are projecting as just a thirty four man roster,
which is hard to say because who knows, but let's
just use that as a baseline. We might just go, hey,
we're going to punt this down the road. You know,
we're going to call it good on the twenty twenty
five incoming freshmen, and we're going to we're gonna just

(06:02):
plan on that we're going to figure out two or
three guys in the four thousand guys that into the
transfer portal come next to May at the end of
May or whatever so, and then rifling through that is
just its own beast. I mean, I sat there the summer.
There's you know, on the nc DOUAA website Transfer Portal.
It updates daily daily, and if you are actually not
paying attention to it daily, it's so easy to get behind.

Speaker 4 (06:25):
Like waivers Nate, like you sift them through our muddy
b siders to find the guys that you like.

Speaker 5 (06:32):
And then on top of that, you have other websites
that are uploading that data and they're now putting, you know,
statistics with the It's truly like a it's a free
agent pool. Yeah, it's it's interesting. Some of the websites
that I was using this this summer to just kind
of help me navigate all their positions, their stats. You know,
kind of using the key stats that I like to
look at and evaluating, you know, just raw data on

(06:54):
these guys and figuring out who's good. The problem is
everyone probably looks at the similar things and go i
mean pictures they go first, like a good picture, answer
to portal. It's like the hottest girl opening to go
to prom, you know, so it's like everyone lines up
take her to prom, and you know, hitters, position players.
It's not as if the best ones don't go pretty quick,
because they do. But you know, the really high profile

(07:15):
names what's his name that went to A and M
from Stanford Montgomery like that drops into the portal. I
mean it's within you know, hours. To be honest, it's
probably I mean, I'm not saying this happens, but it
does seem like it. It's you know, he already knows
where he's going before he jumps in the portal and
the amount of money he's getting. So yeah, that that
navigation of that thing is it's a beast. And that's

(07:37):
why four coaches you need. I mean you literally need
four or five coaches keeping up five six coaches. I mean,
our operations will be on it. I mean, we'll all
be on it together. It's just yeah, it's a lot,
but it sounds the useful tool.

Speaker 6 (07:48):
It is kind of fun too.

Speaker 5 (07:50):
Yeah, I mean there is like it's a lot. I
mean I don't know, like, yeah, the thing is it's
hard and fast decisions. It's like too, I'm all for
you know, hey, I can see a guy a couple
of times and there's evaluation there. I can watch him
on video. And if we're not talking about the guy
that just started on you know, Saturdays for Boston College,
Let's say it's hard to you know, this mid major

(08:10):
Sunday guy that is a left hander that's eighty six
eighty eight. You know, he's you know, pretty good and
had pretty good numbers, but does that you know, transfer
over to the big ten or you know what would
have been the Pac twelve Like and then you're just
going in on him. But then you're hearing you know,
such and such as in on him for one hundred
k and il and you're going like, are you kidding me?
Like this guy eighty seven miles per our left hander
that didn't walk anybody and through seventy innings, like it's amazing.

(08:33):
Stuff like that. It blows my mind in the transfer portal.
Like you guys, like you're just this is where it Matt,
if we did have transfer portal back in our day,
like Johnny Average that throws a bunch of strikes and
like has played at a power five, if he decides
to jump in the portal, I got like, just you're
just gonna get twenty five thousand dollars at minimum. It
seems like, wow, it is weird, But I don't know,
it'll maybe it'll maybe it'll come to a tipping point.

(08:55):
I don't know, we'll see this thing is ever changing.
I feel like I would have made a lot of
stupid decisions if some through fifty thousand dollars at me
in college. There is a massive piece of this thing
that like I'm glad it wasn't around because like I've
got to learn a lot about myself in callege, you
know what I mean, Like as you know, like my
path was not like super smooth and easy and a
lot about this on just eat between you and me

(09:16):
and on all our other buddies. But it's just like
I needed that, Like some of these guys are going
to really miss out on the being told you suck
and like they don't ever figure it out. I don't
know like I needed it, and I actually think it's
the reason why I'm sitting here talking to you guys,
Like I don't think i'd be doing this if I
transferred and went somewhere that you know, said hey, you're
really good.

Speaker 6 (09:34):
But anyway, kind of one of my questions because I'm
I'm way more naive about the college scene the YouTube
are that was just curious, Like a pitching coach and
a program like yours, how just how involved they actually
are in recruiting. It sounds like pretty involved, but like
you get eyeballs on, like everybody that's coming in some
do you have other people doing I don't know. I

(09:54):
have no idea what that looks like. I just want
to paint a little picture.

Speaker 5 (09:57):
A good question. Where I was at Portland, I was
pitching coach and associate head coach recruiting coordinator, and I
had to watch I mean I had to watch everyone
coming into the program with the recruiting coordinator title on
my head. At DUB my responsibility is to be the
head coach of the pitchers, and so I need to
get eyes on every picture that we're considering that we
have an offer on that we're talking to each one needs.

(10:18):
As far as moving forward with a guy, it is
going to come through me. And so yeah, I'm not
going to necessarily see everybody live that we have to
go on. I mean, there's some just I mean, I
just got off a zoom call with a kid that
I haven't seen live, but he pitched it under Class
Area Code Games, which is a pretty high profile event. Yeah,
our head coach and our recruiting corner saw him, and
I went and watch his video on Synergy and it

(10:39):
looked really good, and I was like, yeah, this kid's
a no brainer, Like we got to let's go off him,
and so we did. But yeah, it's a good question.
It's we try to find tooth combent with the pitchers,
at least I do, and it's not a perfect science
by any means.

Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, do you have a pitching archetype that you're after,
Like there's some measure of it where you're looking for
the clay that you are good at molding. But there's
all so, Okay, I saw a guy and he was
a dude for three innings and everyone else is going
to see that too. Is there is there some kind
of archetype that you're you're looking at as you're as

(11:10):
you're looking at high schoolers, And does that change between
high schoolers versus guys you're evaluating in the transfer portal.

Speaker 5 (11:16):
It's a good question. Yes, I think there is. I
think I think you're drawn to a certain type. I
guess mine would be you know, I think it always
starts with strikes for me. You know, guys, if guys
can't throw strikes at the amateur level, let me say
that at that high school level, they're not going to
magically start throwing strikes at the college level. Like I
was actually equating this when I was playing golf with
the Buddy Souse. I'm not a very good golfer. I started.

(11:38):
I picked up golf when I was like in eighth grade,
let's say, and my ball striking is like it's just
so hit and mess like it's it's probably like a
fifty percent clip whether I hit it nice. And I
was saying, you know, those guys that not necessarily pick
up pitching late, just like the guys that just didn't
play enough catch to targets when they were three, four, five,
six years old, Like I just I think that there's
something to that, and they're always playing catch up, and

(11:59):
you can definitely, I do think that command can get better.
For sure. I don't have time for it typically unless
it's someone else that has made time for it, and
then now I'm bringing that guy into my program who's
made a leap in his command. I just don't see
it happen all that often, especially not if we're recruiting
high school kids. Transfer portal might be a little different.
I think there's a there's a slight bit more leeway
for like walks per nine for transfer portal guys. The

(12:22):
strikeouts have to definitely be up there too. I don't
think you can not have that or the whiff and
the swing miss or you know, the one pitch that's
an outlier. That's I'm going to add and he's going
to be here for a year, you know, that's that's
that was Sam Stewart what I thought we were going
to get, and we got a completely different beast. But yeah,
I think strike throwers that and I also I mean
the firmness on the break and bal at a young

(12:42):
age is a pretty big feather in the cap for
me when I'm watching watching guys, I think is something
that always the velocity is not there yet. It always
kind of indicates that there's going to be more velocity
guys that have the unique ability to kind of get
just enough behind the baseball and still spin it and
doesn't need to necessarily be this you know, high schoolers
trying to get this profiled, you know, breaking pitch that

(13:04):
moves a ton, and then they wonder why they don't
throw it in the strike zone enough, And I'm like, well, yeah,
the curveball with like massive movement or it's a slide.
It's like they're throwing what it's like resembles a sweeper
and it's got so much movement that like, no, like
obviously you can't get it in the zone consistently. So
I think I look for a little bit tighter breaking
ball and then probably like frame wise, like just you know,
I think everyone looks for a broad shouldered, you know,

(13:26):
six two sixty three guy with presence on the mound
and conducts himself the right way and you know, hustles
off and you know, you know, does does things generally
without I don't need a big looking me guy, but
I'm not going to shy away from you know, again
back to store, like he was yelling at hitters last
year and you know, like after you'd strike him out,
and you know, I don't that's just him. I think
he's just like there's there are certain guys that are

(13:47):
just kind of fiery, you know, And I don't think
I wouldn't take that as a negative, but it's it's
a good question. I'd say, your athletic pitcher that throws
that's repeatable throws strikes someone that I have a really good,
really high floor with and then that we can hopefully
tap into a higher ceiling when they get into college
with much more resources and get on the rapsodo with
me or a track man and pitch design and stuff

(14:07):
like that where you know, I feel like I have
a solid background in we can talk through things and
collaborate and you know, read articles and share them with
each other and do that type of stuff and hone
those skills. It's the stuff I like to do anyway.
Well with those guys. Again, I think no one likes
going to the yard and watching, you know, a bunch
of eighteen to twenty two year olds throw balls and struggle,
and especially if it's raining up in Seattle or whatever,

(14:28):
miserable day at the yard, you know what I mean,
Like we want to suffocate letters with strikes, and then
we want to do it with you know, obviously enhancing
the stuff, whether that be you know, shape or what
have you, strength, velocity, all those good things.

Speaker 6 (14:41):
It's transfer portal this day and age with pitching and
all the information that is there and know how and
know how to coach. There's a lot to think about there, Connor,
There's a lot to navigate. But I wanted to ask you.
I remember taking a course many years ago in college
about teaching theory about meeting your student where they're at,

(15:02):
seeing where they're at as opposed to showing a student
where they need to go. I think, is I remember
correctly how it kind of went. Maybe a bit of
a multi part question here, but what do you kind
of find yourself talking to your pictures about the most?
Do you think? Is it like pitches and analytics, mechanics, training, routines,
game plans, anything else? I don't what do you spend

(15:24):
most of your time talking to them about? Do you think?

Speaker 5 (15:26):
That's a good question and a really simple one. And
the one thing that I really like to do is,
you know, keep a simple game pretty simple as far
as when it comes to coaching, the thing that we
talk most about, I would say, is what helps us
win games. My systems that I like to use, the
feedback that I get from the from the systems are
the things that I'm going to talk to the guys
about and how well we're doing those things. So we

(15:46):
talk a lot about one one counts. We talk a
lot about first fish strike, We talk a lot about
our leadoff mat out, and then we talk a lot
about our process and what that entails, and so you know,
I've got a process chart. I also talk to them
about the things that I value when I'm a value
waiting you, and the things that I know helped us win.
So like those three things plus our process start Like
my job is to win games along with our head coach.

(16:07):
Everything else is underneath that umbrella. In my opinion, development
is obviously really high up there. Like I don't take
that lightly. I also don't take lightly being a mentor
to these guys. I also don't take lightly the culture
piece to this. And I know it's pretty coach speaky,
but you know, when I played in the last few
years of my career, I felt like I got to
be a part of something that was like crazy special

(16:28):
to me, and so I try to emulate that for guys.
But the number one thing we're going to talk about
is like what actually helps us win games. It's really
flashy to talk about mar Velo or our Again I
just said our pitch design and stuff that I like
to do. Like it's like it's like, you know, that's
like a time for me, Like if we've got the
time to do it, I definitely want to dive into
it with those guys. It's a big recruiting piece for sure,

(16:51):
Like understanding this, the development, the analytics, the pitch design,
Like kids want that they hear it, they see it,
they want to soak it up, and they want to
know everything you know about that. But again, my job
is to talk about what's going to help us win games,
and so I need to make sure that we have
a great understanding of when we're on the mound, what
is our plan and what are the things I should

(17:12):
be most concerned with when I'm on the mound, and
not you know, anything else when we're on the mound,
when we're competing, and so our compete is really important
to me. When we're evalue, like I said, when we're
evaluating or when we're having feedback or after action reports,
whatever you want to call them, that message is really consistent.
I call them our big three, the leadoff men out,

(17:33):
the one to one wins, and the first pitch strike.
And it probably gets pretty monotonous for those guys, but
I want them to hear it so much, because if
we are winning in those three categories, we are winning
games more than a true Jerry to Poto fashion of
fifty six percent. We're probably winning, you know, sixty six
percent of our games if we're.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
Doing he that gives that gives Jerry too much credit,
he said, fifty four percent. Connor, thinking about that, think
about like the coaching aspect you mentioned lead a real
focus on the leadoff man. Which do you dislike more
as a pitching coach, the leadoff guy getting a hit
or the lead off guy getting on by a walk?

Speaker 5 (18:07):
Oh? I mean a freebie is obviously for me the worst.
I mean why is that? Well? I mean because you
play your percentages right, Like if we throw the ball
over the plate, I mean, if you go, if you walk,
like you don't even give a better choice, you just
automatically you walk them. You get a guy out. You're
shooting yourself in the foot, but you least give yourself
a chance. You put a ball in play, like, yeah,
a guy hits it hard. I get it. But I

(18:28):
mean we've got defenders out there, eight nine versus one.
I mean that's the mentality a little bit there. So
it's like, I get it. It ends up being the
same result, but the mentality of it too. You give
up a hit, so what we're going to give up
one hit per inning? All right? But you know, I
think I want my staff to feel like, you know,
Freebie's are just not about not who we're about, you know,
And I think that I think you can also slip

(18:50):
into a bad place mentally you start giving up Previously,
you walk your guy on a three two count. Again,
I talked to our guys too. It's like, I mean,
you go to let's say, you know your work account, guys,
batt only is tough, whatever, some good pictures. You walk
down on three two like it's not the end of
the world. We're not going to sit here. And you know,
but like you go, you know, two zero to start
your hitter, throw a strike three to one, not close
ball four, just pypelon. I mean, like, see what you

(19:11):
can do in two to one, you know what I mean,
see see what they said. I mean, you have no
idea what the hit is thinking in the box, Like
you might think your shit's nasty, you know. So it's like,
I don't know, I've always that's always been me. But
I just like I can't get over you just caved in,
Like you have so many opportunities to let somebody else
make a play, And no matter what count you're in,
I think it's just if you're if you're just like
a betting man, right, like if we're in Vegas, like
you're gonna put your odds on every single count on

(19:34):
the picture, right, I mean except.

Speaker 4 (19:36):
And nobody want to go to Vegas though, connored And
I'm just telling and tell our buddy that for his
Bachford party, and nobody want to go to Vegas.

Speaker 5 (19:43):
I asked the question.

Speaker 4 (19:44):
Because on my way out here, I'm on the road
for a work trip and I'm way out here. I
was listening to effectively while the podcasts that have mentioned
on the Pot a few times and Ben Linn, where
Lindberg and Meg Rally were interviewing this high school kid
who had done a research study for SABER, the Society
for American Baseball Research that founded the term Saber metrics,

(20:06):
and she found that there was one that was slightly
worse than the other, but there were like some factors
that went into it. And I just thought it was
funny because it was an age old debate that I
agreed with you for the longest time, that like giving
up that free pass the walk. Sure, maybe the hitter
earned that walk, but more often than that it was
probably the picture gave it up.

Speaker 3 (20:28):
You know.

Speaker 5 (20:28):
I think it's a little bit more in the pictures
control there.

Speaker 4 (20:31):
And that was always worse in my mind than getting
beat by the hitter on the first pitch. But it
was interesting. It was an interesting study and should listen
to that episode.

Speaker 5 (20:41):
It was really good. Well, I think there's one thing
too that's like, I think it has to be canvassed
over this thing. It's like, especially if we're talking like
pros guys that are like varying control of the game,
and like a walk to lead off an inning not
as like not nearly as momental as an extra base hit,
as far as giving up runs in that inning.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
You know, for whom in this study that was the
most that's true, It was elite closers. So the guys
that have been the best closers in the game over
the last forty years, those guys were the ones that
if they gave up a lead off walk, their outcomes
were way worse, which I thought was really interesting. You'd think,
maybe like your earldest Chapman's, your Mariano Rivera's your Josh haters,

(21:19):
they give up a lead off walk, and you're like, oh, okay,
but there's stuff so nasty, they're probably going to get
out of it anyway. But it actually when they give
up a lead off walk, maybe just their stuff is
bad that day and they can't hone it back in
because they're like one or two pitch pitchers and that
they don't have enough to go back to, unlike the
guys that Nate and I like with five pitches and
know how to pitch and can if one thing isn't working,

(21:41):
and they can dial up their sweeper if the change
up isn't working. And I don't know, that's that's maybe
my thought about it, but I thought that was an
interesting little little nuance to the discussion.

Speaker 5 (21:52):
I would say to this as like when you've put
your feet in those positions, like when I've stood on
the mound and I'm closing a game or I've got
any game, Like it feels detrimental to give up a
lead off anything really like that leadoff man just guy
just gets on. But then to like walk the guy,
you start to second guess, like do I have my
stuff today? And you could have you could absolutely have
your stuff, whereas like if you're starting. I mean, this

(22:14):
is why I think it's just important in general, because
when you're starting, you cannot you can let a lead
off man get on. You're like, hymn. I'm like, this
is my six to fifty sixth inning, like I've been rolling.
It's whatever, I'm gonna get a double play. It's like
the focus factor for starters comes into play there for
me and I just I try to emphasize that. But
to your point, man, I think that there's something to
be said, like it's it's it's a really interesting I
would have thought the same thing. I would have thought
it would went the other way, like hey, I'm Mario

(22:36):
and Rivera like I'm just gonna throw twelve straight cutters
and get out of the.

Speaker 6 (22:41):
Kinnor if you don't mind, I just wanted to back
up for a minute to something you were speaking on earlier.
You were talking about putting the emphasis on winning right
winning right now, and that makes a ton of sense
to me. In college ball, I watch a lot of
minor league baseball, a lot of pros. I always find
it very interesting when pitching coaches or pitchers we'll talk
about sort of like pitching to development versus pitching to results.

(23:04):
Right the down East Wood Ducks winning percentage isn't super
detrimental to most people's careers and jobs right right. So
I really liked watching like Kith Cavali when he you know,
he comes in, he's throwing a big fastball, and then
you could see him put the work in on the
secondaries and he's just ultimately getting much better as a
pitcher right long term, although the right now results aren't

(23:28):
maybe as great as they once were. But my question
to he is, I'm curious, on the college level, are
there any other times that there's sort of like a
natural conflict between I don't know, maybe the developmental course
that the pitcher might have in mind for himself versus
what the coach might have. Is that is that prevalent
or not so much.

Speaker 5 (23:47):
Oh, I think that's it's something that I think. I mean,
I talk about I want to back up as well too.
I talk about the things that help us win. But
I am not sitting there saying we have to win
it like like when when win win win, Like, I mean,
that's not my conversation. I would say to the group,
it's talking about the things consistently that I know will
help us win, and weave in, you know, things that

(24:10):
I know we're going to help us develop. And so
I think that there's a certain relationship there at the
couple that coaches have to understand, and there's a certain
level of patience. I'm man, I just think I'm pretty competitive,
and I it probably hinders me sometimes as as a
person because I you know, I'll take you know, losing
to our offense in the fall personal. You know, I'll

(24:33):
walk away yard and just like and I'll challenge the
pictures and just be like and I'm not saying our
offense right now because I haven't seen I haven't seen
our offense. But in general it doesn't really matter. I
you know, my message would be like, you know, like
this is bullshit, Like you guys like these guys are
going to walk all over you, like like you're the
best staff on the West Coast. Who are the guys
you know what I mean? And like it's literally September,

(24:54):
you know, seventeenth. And I try to follow that up
with on an individual level of like, hey man, I
know we have been talking about this pitch and this
this adjustment, Like I see the work there, like don't
do not you know, get me wrong, Like I know
you're competing. You have a really good compete out there
with what you're trying to do. I didn't see bad

(25:14):
body language. I didn't see you give up. I know
you were trying to, you know, work on the things
that were I think there's a certain like individual level
where you have to connect with guys and they have
to hear that from you, and then the overarching to
the staff has to be like we are not going
to succumb to anything, and we're beating everybody that's flat
out what we're doing. So and I don't care if

(25:35):
it's you know, our offense or we're facing you know,
I don't know, a junior college, or it doesn't it
doesn't matter, Like it's it's like to me like that
piece like has to be who we are, and then
I need them to know that I have the patience.
I read a book. I couldn't quote which book it was,
but the first thing it talks about and creating Oh
it's culture code, that's what It was. A really good book.

(25:57):
I've read it, you know, two or three times all
my drives. I just listened to it. The first thing
they talk about is just like creating a I know
it sounds a little weird or maybe maybe a little snowflaky,
but it's like creating a safe space for guys to fail.
I really try to make that happen. I really try
to let guys know that, like, failure is just a
part of this thing, big Bigley, And I'm gonna put
you in situations where I think, you know, there's more

(26:19):
likely chance that you fail, and I'm going to give
you tasks that are going to be really tough, and
that's just going to be a part of your growth
in general. So yeah, we don't quite have the time
that you know, uh low a whatever whoever organization, you know,
because if our winning percentage is four to twenty five
for the next three years, like I'm going to be
calling you guys to have me on the pod and

(26:39):
just to have talk to So I think there's yeah,
there's just certain urgency levels that are different. But it's
just kind of an and especially you know, going back
to the transfer portal, like there's less programs across the
country that are willing to they want the guys that
can do it right now, and they don't know they
don't like I get it, like I understand it, Like
I mean, you got to make the Cult World series

(27:01):
or you're losing your job, you know, And that's what
it's all. You know, powerful is like trending towards which is.

Speaker 6 (27:07):
I feel like that's just like an overarching cultural truth.
Like I think you see that even in the pros
right now. I mean, like organization like the Rays, like Okay, well,
how can we get the most out of the guy,
maximize the production we can get out of the guy
until he becomes too expensive for us to retain or whatever.

Speaker 3 (27:24):
You know.

Speaker 6 (27:25):
You mentioned one book Culture Code there, But one of
the questions I was going to ask is if you
had any favorite pitching books or books on baseball that
you'd recommend.

Speaker 5 (27:34):
You know what, it's not even necessarily baseball books, you know,
and I am just I get really passionate about the
team aspect of the of the deal. I think it's
one of the things that drives me about being a
college coach. Get to be a part of guys's process
for three four years. You get to watch them buy into,
you know, a program, and so you know, I give
guys and on a really micro level with my pitchers,

(27:57):
I give them more things that like are kind of
like standard, like what the standards are. So one book
that I just read that I just love personally is
Atomic Havocs. I have that book that I give pictures.
The other one is Make Your Bed by Admiral William mccraven.
And uh yeah, I started doing this. I started doing
this for my first year at Portland. And it's just

(28:18):
it's like a it's kind of I don't know, I
guess I equate it to like and this by no
means am I saying that I am on the level
of John Wooden. But like, you know how the old
adages have guys tyler shoes, like learned to tyler shoes
correctly before they would go to their first practice, because
you know that small habit and that small gill affects
the rest of what you're doing right. And so in

(28:38):
this book, Sorry I'm getting long winded about this book,
he just talks about how making the bed, making your
bed can change the world, Like it has such an
effect on all the different things you do out throughout
the day. And then you ultimately comes back to if
you just have a shitty day, if Lesha haven't made bed,
and you can start over fresh. And you know, our
guys are going to have a lot of you know,
as when you first get to college and as you're
going through this thing, man like, you have a lot

(28:58):
of shitty days, you know, and then you also have
a lot of really good ones. And I think it
stems from the type of habits that you build. And
that kind of goes back to the piece of we'll
talk about being a mentor to these guys and trying
to help them, you know, develop good habits that are
going to help them when they're not playing baseball. And
you know, being elite at what you do, it doesn't
doesn't necessarily need to be baseball. But you know, I
think that is really high achieved, high achievement, high achievers.

(29:20):
I try to surround them myself with with those types
of guys, I think it's I mean, it shows and
my friend group, and I think that's what I try
to radiate to our guys, is like you can be
that guy in your friend group and you can elevate
your boys, and like it's small stuff like this that
makes that hat. So here's an actual game plan for
how to do that. And no, not every high achiever
makes their bed. I get that, but something that it's

(29:42):
just kind of a culture thing, you know, I'll shoot,
I mean, as a portent, I used to have guys
like send pictures of their made beds into our group chat,
you know, and like guys first were kind of reluctant
or just like kind of like dreading it. But then
you know, shoot, I've got guys that I coached my
first year in Portland still like will randomly send me
a picture that are made bed and like at first half,
I'm like, that's kind of sick, Like there's some real

(30:02):
buy in there. So those are the kind of the
two books. I listened to podcasts a lot, and so
like one of our buddies just recently sent me one
and he it was Greats and Barrels and I was like, oh,
this is new, this is great. I'm going to listen
to this, and so I try to soak up the
information through that.

Speaker 4 (30:17):
Yeah, nice, you know, and DVR are pretty good, and
you know at least has good good beer taste too.
He's not drinking just bush light by the barrel like
some people.

Speaker 6 (30:30):
If you're listening, you're not totally familiar. Like I was
a little naive until the rook told me about you
in your program at Portland. But you had you had
three of your pictures drafted last year.

Speaker 5 (30:41):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (30:42):
Sam str went to Oakland in the fifth round. Nick
Brink went to Miami in the seventh round, Joey Contrell
went to Boston in the fifteenth round. And I don't know,
maybe you even had did you have anybody sign free
agent signing? I don't even know.

Speaker 5 (30:54):
Those are the three guys, both three guys. You know.

Speaker 6 (30:56):
I sit on my couch and I watch pictures and
sometimes I'll get stuck and watch one religiously for years,
and I just geek out and I just love watching
guys developed. So I have to ask you with the
front row seat of these three guys and working with
them like you did, like, what was that like watching
these guys develop into pros? When did you realize that
they might be pros? Were there like any oh wow

(31:19):
moments when you were working with them? I don't know.
I'm just curious what that experience might have been like
for you.

Speaker 5 (31:26):
Yeah, three unique stories, and yeah, they're all of that happens.
Stewart came from. He transferred. He was at Lower Columbia
Community College to his first year, first freshman year, committed
to Oregon State after that, and then didn't pitch his
sophomore in junior year at all, so he redshirted for
two years. He got to Oregon State, really couldn't find

(31:47):
his own had trouble, so he was always a little
fringy throwing strikes, and then I think just the stage
kind of overwhelmed them, and I think he had a
lot to work on personally. Yeah, he kind of did
that and then he felt like he kind of got
the raw deal and that next year, so he decided
to enter the transfer portal. And I saw him in
the summer he was pitching for the Corvallis Knights. He

(32:08):
looked like a guy that could throw, you know, high importance.
Inning's out of our role playing. To be honest, he
was throwing a slider at like eighty forty six and
it was a gyro Ish slider, but man, he threw
it with such high intent that I was thinking, like,
we can get a little bit more movement out of
that thing. And man, the fastball was good, but it
was just armside miss and it wasn't ninety five ninety
seven like it ended up being. It was more ninety

(32:29):
one ninety three eighty nine ninety three. And he kind
of just made the decision when he stepped on campus
after that summer that he was going to be a friend.
Like the way he went about his business self starter.
I haven't mentioned that yet in talking to you guys,
but that is the number one common thing I see
in guys that are going to be professional baseball players.
And I haven't had a ton, but they are all

(32:50):
self starters. They show up for the yard, they do
not need you to sit. I could literally say no
words to them, and they are going to get a
lot out of their day. And Sammy did that when
he stepped on campus, let alone just a practice, and
so that guy was in working, He just was working off.
He was doing a ton of mound work. He came
back when when I thought for Sammy, when he might
really have a shot. I mean, I don't know. He
came back after winter break and he was like first

(33:12):
live outing, was just sitting ninety six, and I was
like like what, like where did this come from? And
like the slider's landing for strikes and now he's going
like this hammer curve ball for strikes as well, and
I was just like geez, So I thought, well, yeah,
he's probably got a shot. Dartrell was a walk on.
I wouldn't say I knew he was gonna be a
pro right away, but as a freshman, he's just not scared.

(33:32):
Like any situation, he'll just kind of what you would
described as a dude, big frame, like big body, Like
he has this uncanny ability to like impress me in
bullpens where it's just like oh, like he came in
and he's like, oh, I'm casually nighty one as a
freshman in my bullpen. I was like, okay, Like that's
a little different than what I thought I was getting.
And then like the next summer he comes back and
it's like casually ninety four in his bullpen and the following.

(33:55):
So I was junior summer this last year, come back
in September, and he's like touching ninety seven, and I'm
just like, geez, guy, and he's just it's a product
of his his habits and the way he works in
the weight room and just who he is. I mean,
he's high achiever, four point zero type student, engineer major,
like the whole deal. Like the guy is just he's
just a high achiever. And then Nick Brink Brink is
we called him like the mechanic, you know, like he

(34:17):
was just like he's so I guess you would say
right brained. He is just like I'm going to do this,
and then like his regiment's going to be I mean,
he just like is unbelievably regimented. He kind of came
in in high school. He threw, he had he had
good command. He kind of came in his freshman year
and I think he was just kind of overwhelmed a
little bit, which is very unlike Nick Brink and actually

(34:37):
ended up throwing, you know, less than twenty innings his
freshman year, had troubles with just like kind of hitting
guys and armside misses, and so he went off and
played summer ball, and then kind of settled in. And
this is like where I see, like, okay, guys that
show the ability to throw you know, high level strikes
in high school. They come in, they're a little overwhelmed,
you know that, you know, the stage is just like
slightly too big for him right now. They get into

(34:57):
summer ball, and as they get back to, you know,
being who they are, it's a pretty good predictor of
like what they're going to be for the rest of
their college career. And he settled in, had a really
good summer, came back that sophomore year and he was
starting to ramp up the vello himself. He was and
this was now intil like this was like the COVID
year coming off of like yeah, this was twenty twenty
two or yeah, something like that, where we still had

(35:18):
COVID rules and play. And anyway, he had a good fall.
He comes back in January, has this really weird deal
where he had you know, different guys have to get
quarantined and he couldn't throw for a little while, and
then he came back and he threw and of course
in January February, I'm holding my breath, you know, for
the two straight months. When it comes to injuries, trying
to get jash up and stuff like that, and he
blows out, he gets TJ, and you know, he it

(35:40):
might have been the best thing for him to be honest,
like that guy went, I mean, he's just like I said,
he's so regimented that he came back stronger. He came
back in twelve months. I mean, he he had set
a goal to pitch at Texas A and M the
following year, which was he said he was going to
start actually, which was just like he wasn't a weekend
rotation guy at that point yet. So the guy obviously
believed in himself and so he did that. He came

(36:01):
back and when he did that, and the way he
looked and the way the ball's coming out of his
hands so easily after TJ, and I think my AHA
moment with him was just in the summer he sent
me some REPSODO stuff or whatever. What if he had
set it up and or I went on the profile
and saw that he had you know, he was like
ninety four meal point six like pretty consistently throughout his bullpen,
and you know, his lower half looked like you know,

(36:23):
he's walking on two tree trunks. You know, it's just like,
my goodness, So he just kind of put it together.
I mean when you're in it, when you're in it
in the spring, I don't think you realized, Like I don't.
I don't think I realized until about three quarters the
way through, like what I was actually watching on like
his consistency levels. I was like, this is this guy's
a professional, Like it's it's I think it took me
about three quarters away I think where I was just like,

(36:44):
I mean, he throws a quality start every time. It
does not matter, like it doesn't matter how to start,
Like first thing, he can give it three runs, like
he's going to go quality start, like he's going to
keep it at that. So it was, Yeah, he's just
a very very professional way he does his things. And yeah,
Nick is a special kid. He did a good job
and he's also really high achiever four point zero type students.

Speaker 6 (37:01):
So that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (37:02):
Man. Yeah, Nick Brink was my guy, and the other
guys were super fun to watch and honestly all different pitchers.
I'd say, I don't know if you'd say that to Connor,
just like the way that you go about calling a
game with them, I felt they were all pretty different.
But personally I loved the way Brink approached things, which was,
you know, four pitch mix. He would go right on right,

(37:23):
change up, and then just blow fastballs by guys because
they were like, what the hell is coming next. He
could pitch off the plate with the slider inside to
lefties with the cutter. It's I mean, he was, I thought,
one of my favorite college pitchers I've ever watched. So
I'm big on Brink. But the other guys were awesome too,
And I thought one of the things that you did

(37:45):
really well with the staff was that it was never
cookie cutter. You were calling pitches for that specific pitcher
against this specific hitter. It wasn't it's two oh, we
throw fastball down the middle.

Speaker 6 (37:57):
You know.

Speaker 5 (37:57):
I thought that was something that you did pretty well. No,
And to speak to Brink, you know, it's interesting, as
you know, like you said, it's right on right, it's
it's it's everything you want. I mean, he's he probably
like his ability, his his glove side stuff, like you know,
you know a way to write. He's into lefties. I mean,
he was. He was so good surgical, his ability to
tunnel his I've never seen this, and I know that

(38:20):
when he got drafted, you know, departments of every MLB
team were like not in love with him. With he
doesn't get a lot of ivbs on his fastball. And
like the slider is again like what you said, like
it's cutter is a slider. It's kind of somewhere in
that between. Sometimes it's like wipe out, sometimes a little
bit smaller of a mover. He's going to have to
figure that out a little bit. But his change up,
I mean I've never played catch with somebody where like

(38:41):
when he throws his change up, the spin looks exactly
like his fastball. Like I'm like not, like, there's no
way you can tell with your eyes that that is
like a change up.

Speaker 7 (38:51):
I was blown away, Like and then you can command
that pitch too, I mean that was the other thing
about him, is like he would throw that thing three
oh if you let him, and he'd throw a strike
with it, and he'd throw it o to and bury.

Speaker 5 (39:02):
It and get a chase on it.

Speaker 4 (39:04):
I mean, I just thought that that was such an
impressive command of the pitch, no matter the count, no
matter the situation.

Speaker 5 (39:10):
And you know what I mean, speaking of the civil
ends of TJ. He threw so many change ups in
his and his rehab going through TJ and his mound
work early, I think it probably attributed a lot of
his success, but it's I actually would look back and
go like, dumb dum, why don't you call more change?
Like I call like thirty percent check that. So I'm like,
why don't we just call fifty percent this next? You
know what I mean, Just like I don't know, he

(39:32):
actually forced you as a pitch caller to be like
on your shit like you cause, you know, I give
those guys the opportunity to shake to what they want
to do. I want to give them the ability to,
you know, throw the convicted pitch and rarely, I mean
brinkhad and shaken me off, you know, almost never. And
then he wanted to go to his curveball a little
bit more, and he did a really good job because

(39:52):
every time he threw his curveball, it's just a take.
It's like top of the zone curveball take. And I
was just like, not ness, I wasn't just like, I
wasn't a huge fan of that pitch. I was like,
we're going to throw it, like seven to eight percent
of the time. He probably wanted to throw it like
more eighteen percent at a time and just true mix.
And I think he probably I mean, he can probably
be twenty five, twenty five, twenty I mean, he could
do whatever he wants up there. He's actually a surgeon.

Speaker 4 (40:14):
One of the things that I had mentioned when I
talked about Brink after the draft and saying how much
I loved him, is that I wonder if a team
that drafts him does try and tweak his mechanics a
little bit and try and unlock some more extension, because
I think that's one of the things about him with
his he tries a little bit open, and he clearly

(40:35):
has great command, but I wonder if there's another half
tick of stuff in there, if he cleaned up a
little bit of the command issues. And Nate remind me
who popped Brink Marlins, that's a pretty good landing.

Speaker 5 (40:48):
Spot, I think.

Speaker 4 (40:48):
I mean, they have historically maybe been clown on a bit,
but it's a new regime there.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
And and I talked about this.

Speaker 4 (40:55):
At the trade deadline, they acquired some what we thought
were pretty interesting piece is in trade this uh this deadline,
and I think some of their some of their players
have taken some steps forward and development too, so m'd
be a good place for him.

Speaker 6 (41:08):
Nice. I'm kind of I haven't been fortunate enough to
watch any of these guys yet, but I'm I'm looking
forward to it. Man, when they when they hit pro ball,
I've I've been I've been watching seeing if they might
be hitting a ball or whatever. Yeah, I will definitely
be turning them on. But I wanted to ask you
you got anything like, uh, I don't know, maybe any
uh little towels for someone like me watching that. Uh,

(41:30):
maybe one of these guys is feeling it pretty good
today to look.

Speaker 5 (41:33):
For like when you're watching a picture.

Speaker 6 (41:36):
Watching one of these three.

Speaker 5 (41:37):
Guys, Oh one of these three guys.

Speaker 6 (41:38):
Oh yeah, Like were there ever times like pretty early on,
You're like, all right, this guy's on it.

Speaker 5 (41:43):
There's laying his curveball like it's it's like he's gonna
have it. He's gonna have an outing if he's he's
dropping curveballs early in the outing. Now, Like I know
how Samy liked to work. He really liked to keep
the game playing pretty simple early. So it's like, hey,
if we're going fastball, slider, let's do that for the
first six seven batters, Like, let's not get too crazy.
I don't know if that'll be how it's going to be,

(42:05):
you know, with the athletics. But we actually talked about
that a little bit after his third outing, because I mean,
I kind of was just going into any pitch, anytime mentality.
He was like, Hey, I feel like I'm just taking
on too much. And so I would be like whatever
I watched in the pen, if he was layding curveballs,
I was like, all right, we're going fastball curveball until
I mean we're in a spot where we actually have
to go something else. But I think truly it's a curveball.

(42:26):
I mean like, and I don't know if I have
this very small sample size on this, because Samy threw
on Saturdays for US or on Sundays for US, and
they were always afternoon games except for two outings that
he had, and I think there's something to be said
about Sammy starting in night games might be I mean,
his splits at night. He had an outing in San
Diego State and an outing against Gonzaga, and he his

(42:47):
k rate was now granted, San Diego State was young
and Gonzaga was at the end of the rope in
the tournament and so, but his stuff looked just filthy
at night. I don't know there's something to it. Brink.
Brink doesn't give you anything. He associates on the mount
like he's like he just looks like a a serial killer,
just like absolutely going to work so a robot in

(43:09):
his big old specs. I love it. But Frank's not
going to give you anything, which is great. I mean,
it's the guy you want to roll out on Friday.
Brink will give you something towards the end of his
outing if it's a big pitch and he'll give you
a big, fiery let's go. But he's not going to
give you He's not going to be it. But if you're,
if you're paying attention, like the movement on his slider
I think is pretty telling early Like if he's moving
that thing how he wants, then he's he's going to

(43:30):
have that early success. It's as it always seemed like,
if you know, if you got to Brink like like
you do with starters, like got to him early, you
know he gave up some I mean his home run
like the amount of home runs he gave up this
year was I felt like a little bit unlucky considering,
I mean the stuff and all the other stats. So
he gave us some home runs early on, some like
backed up sliders that just didn't move right. And so

(43:51):
but if he's got that thing going pretty early, I
think it's, uh, it could be a pretty good outing.
And Joey, Joey is probably of the three gotten the most.
I'm most curious about what does with him because he
is a massive pronator of the baseball. He's going to
get so much fun. He loves to pitch the throw
the fastball in like he is just going to run
it in on your hands. And I'm really curious what

(44:13):
they do with his secondary pitches because I mean, it
started to get to the point and in his last
year and the last those last year outings where were
running like seventy percent fastballs just because he could go
in and in and in and he just have a
ton of success and then like drop it like a
he was kind of throwing. He was kind of throwing
a sweepy slider, which I don't think is necessarily the
right thing for him, but it's like what he could repeat.
It felt like and then the change up was the

(44:35):
pitch and the change up just he just needed more
time with it, and he was kind of throwing a
little bit of a split change. He's not going to
be a splitter type guy, obviously. I don't know if
that's obvious, sorry, but it's he's going to be. I
think once he gets that going, he's gonna man, it
could be really really good. He's also he also dabbled
with forceeam and I'm sure Boston will do that with him,
where he's throwing for seam up and away running that

(44:56):
two seam. I think. I think that's and I do
think that if anyone throws a hundred out of this group,
it's going to be Joey Gartral, even though Sammy is
probably the closest right now, Like Joey's got a real shot.
I mean, the kid is so big, like six '
four and built like an ox, so it's like six
' five maybe. So Joey's the most interesting on that
as far as that question goes, like because I'm still
probably I don't know. He's he's a competitor, so's he's

(45:20):
interesting one.

Speaker 6 (45:21):
That's awesome, Thanks for that's that's fun inside thank you. Yeah,
I got to ask you this too, Connor. It's probably
a classic pitching question, pitching coach question at least, but
I always find the answer is super is super interesting.
But how do you define what's the starting pitcher and
what's the relief pitcher? What RAITs do you think one
needs to have that the other doesn't have, or vice versa.

(45:42):
I know that's probably big and loaded, but.

Speaker 4 (45:44):
Well, and for Connor, Connor has experienced doing both. You know,
he started for us on some weekend games in college,
was a consistent midweek performer for us as a starter,
and then ended his career in the back of our bullpen,
pitching important innings down the stretch. So having done both
and obviously closed in summer ball too, so you've you've

(46:05):
kind of worn multiple hats, and maybe from your experience
on the mound and then coaching guys who have made
some of that transition, how do you think about that.

Speaker 6 (46:14):
Kind of This is a big question for us in
Dungeons and Dragons baseball. You know, we're speculating on guys
starters are more valuable to us. So it's it's talked
about often. I've heard some answers that I think I
kind of like some things that I think. I agree
with some that so much, but it was just curious
what your thoughts were.

Speaker 5 (46:31):
For me, it's probably the stuff that you guys can't
see like that probably doesn't help you a lot. But
I think guys separate themselves. They have an area to themselves,
like the way they walk around, the way they get
their business done. I described as being a self starter.
I guess a little bit more in depth. I mean Sammy,
like I said, the good example we have, great example
is like Stir walking on campus. Sounds like he's a reliever.

(46:51):
He throws, he's high, like he's max intent, like he
you know, he throws a razor blade slider lands this
curve ball every once in a while, but it doesn't
quite throw en off strikes. So get him in there,
and if he's not feeling it, then we're going to
get him out. And I think, like the thing that
I learned from that is that like Sammy was really
like he is, the way he prepared his catch play.

(47:13):
His strength. He wasn't He's not like the biggest guy,
but his ability to his endurance, his arm endurance was
probably the reason why he was able to It's not
like he was dropping off and like throwing ninety six
in the first, throwing ninety one in the fourth. He
was just still throwing ninety six. And to me, it
was like he needed to be right around sixty percent
strikes with his fastball. He needed to be just above

(47:36):
that with it with one of his Well, for Sammy,
it probably need to be above that with both of
his breaking balls. But I don't think that you necessarily
at the college level have to be a three pitch guy,
four pitch guy. Whatever. Obviously, if you have just a
really above average college level stuff, and especially if one
of the pitches is like elite college level stuff, like
you can really ride that against college level hitters. But

(47:59):
like in Sammy case, like I mean, he he had
three I would probably call them the league college level pitches,
but it came down to his ability to like land
those for strikes, and so like I paid attention more
to like I mean I could, I wish I could
show you, but like it's like you could literally look
at Sammy's oud and go, like, oh, those two breaking
balls for strikes. That was a good outer, Like he
was marginal right there, that was probably an out and

(48:20):
he didn't go more than five innings, you know, And
so I mean I think we I mean, I think
we ran top three in quality starts in the nation
last year. So it's like, yeah, I mean I think
I talk a lot about that. So like, to me,
like the ability to get to that quality start to
me is like, yes, of a marker, And I tell

(48:41):
our starters like that is your job. You can give
up your three runs whatever. But I need like the
more we can shorten the game at the college level.
I mean, because at least in my time at Portland,
and you know, I mean, I think it's anywhere. It's
like you've got two, three, four guys that you really trust,
you know that you're like and like, who knows if
you just came off playing a Tuesday game and he
thirty five bitches help you win this against you know,

(49:02):
whatever school. And so that quality start piece is pretty
hard marker for me too.

Speaker 6 (49:06):
It's like, thank you, Connor, thank you for that. I
like to in my way talk about pictures horsepower or
leaf thereof, and the rook likes to make fun of
me for it. Just thank you, thank you for that validation, Connor.

Speaker 5 (49:18):
I appreciate that, Like we called Brink the I mean
we call Brink the Mechanic. We also called him the stallion.
I mean the guy was like and our horse pen there.
So yeah, well of needs horsepower.

Speaker 4 (49:30):
Guys just got tapped to get called up to the
bigs and he's feeling good about it. Cave and Dana
for the Angels, who Nate's been on since he was
drafted as a high school kid. Which is unusual for
Nate to be this into a high school pitcher, especially
one that throws pretty hard. You know, we tend to
work in the you know, guys that maybe don't look

(49:52):
traditionally as impressive. But the thing that Dana has done
really well this year is show that he can go
deep into starts and it's not necessarily on the back
of gaudy strikeout totals or anything. It's he's a pitcher
and he gets his stuff done. So I've given Nate
a hard time and said it's more of a merry
go round pony, but he's been really impressive for a twenty.

Speaker 6 (50:13):
Year old to real cut.

Speaker 4 (50:16):
And then and then hey, he's getting called up, so
you know, we'll see what he's got in the show.

Speaker 5 (50:20):
Yeah, the ability to go through a lineup three times?
Is I mean, I was just listening to those guys
on Rates and Barrels talk about it. It's just like,
I mean, they were talking about some rule that the
potential is going to be changed.

Speaker 6 (50:30):
Yeah, that's I was actually about to segue into that
question Connor. So the MLB is talking about making some
sort of minimum for starters that they got to go
six and there's stipulations and whatever, right, And this coincides
with me just kind of digging around on some like
I don't know, inducing soft contact efficiently, little nerdy dives
I've been doing. But I'm curious how much you you

(50:52):
might talk about pitching to contact sort of topics things.
You know, there's a big motivation to strike everybody out,
but you know that could possibly be more physically draining
for you. I mean you, I was just looking today.
I think the average played appearance in the major leagues
where a strikeout is like almost six pitches, whereas inducing

(51:13):
weak contact is like three and a half pitches, right,
So you're just literally working harder to strike guys out.
But yeah, I just I was just curious your thoughts
on like pitching the contact sort of things. And if
this rule change did take place, I don't know whenever
it does three or four years later, do you think
that trickles down and changes your jobs?

Speaker 5 (51:31):
To your first question.

Speaker 6 (51:33):
I know, I asked like seven questions at a time.

Speaker 5 (51:37):
Yes, we talk a lot about trying to be efficient,
and I think that goes like hand in hand, like
as like talking about you know, quality starts, but like
three pitch, like we with I talked about our systems,
and one of those systems is our process chart, which
already alluded to and speaking to those things consistently, so
like three pitches are less outs, like being like, hey,
you get rewarded for like that's a good thing, you

(51:58):
know what I mean, Like you know obviously and two
three innings aren't always controlling a lot of this, you know,
me and me and Matt have actually talked about this
fair amount, like a true process chart at my level,
and like it's not really like a true true process right,
Like I'm talking about getting outs and like you could
throw a bad pitch and get an out and that's
not a good process, but like you know, it's a
good outgun. But yeah, the efficiency thing is to me

(52:20):
is like you know, throwing one of first two pitches
for strikes, like getting ball in play. I talk about
a lot. To be honest, I rarely talk about strikeouts.
I track the stuff that helps us get there for sure,
and the things that we definitely talk about that put
us in position to get strikeouts. They kind of again
have a relationship and they kind of go hand and hand.

(52:41):
The more two strikes you put yourself in like, the
more strikeouts you're gonna you're gonna get and as a staff,
but it's not the end all be all, and truthfully,
within this process chart, I mean stir one up against this.
Really in his very first outing in San die State,
he struck out thirteen, went five innings, walked one or two,
gave up no runs, and like two hits and it

(53:01):
was a very middling processed chart game. You know, it
was like not rewarding him at all for absolutely, I
mean that's he dominated, right, He just like no one
was hitting stuff. But he was at his pitch count
before six innings, which is like, hey, Bud, like you're
throwing on Saturdays the Sundays, like our bullpen spent. We
need you to go into the seventh or we need
you to get in the sixth of the very minimum.
I just think it's good baseball at the end of

(53:23):
the day. Like chasing strikeouts too hard, you know, I
think it can leak into my pitch calling, and if
I start doing that, like I start to become really
inefficient with with what I'm doing, and I think it
sends the wrong signal. I just I want to put
our guys in positions on the mound to attack weaknesses
if we can of the hitter and hopefully they're they're
end cap in you know, putting the ball on the

(53:43):
ground or easy flyball or whatever it is. So that's
definitely like what we talk about for sure, what I
will talk about. But I would say, like it it's
hard because there's a relationship piece of this. You need strikeouts,
Like this is like you have to have strikeouts. You
have to have strikeouts there. You want to be a
good staff, you can't not strike guys out at least,
you know, at least a strikeout for inning at the minimum.
You got to be better than that too. So I

(54:05):
think we just really celebrate when we have those really
efficient innings and talk about that, like, hey, that's a
big time inning. He maybe got a strike out in it.
Maybe you didn't, but like you threw thirteen pitches or
less than that inning, that's massive. The more we can
get to those, the more we're going to be you know,
we're going to be pretty good. So and the second
part of that question, after I just rambled on right there,
was I.

Speaker 6 (54:24):
Asked if you if you thought that if such a
little change would change your job at all. But you
may have kind of answered that.

Speaker 5 (54:30):
College baseball seems really slow to adapt what MLB does. Man,
I don't know, honestly, I don't know. I'll stick at it.
I don't know. But if they did that, I mean,
it's just hard because these guys aren't professionals at what
they do. So how can you expect holding the standard
of what professionals are doing in that type of rule change.

Speaker 6 (54:47):
So my thought on that was, like I was wondering
if it was I think it's kind of maybe a
roundabout way a Major League Baseball trying to curb some
injury stuff is counterintuitive that as it may sound, making
a guy go longer, velocity and spin and all these
like max pitches are what make millions of dollars and
may very well lead to guys inability to go deep.

(55:09):
So perhaps maybe lack of a better term, pitchability, guys
guys who can go length. Maybe that will motivate the
teams to reward them monetarily and thus maybe changed the
whole process for aspiring professional pitchers.

Speaker 4 (55:23):
Yeah, so coach coach Lambert here. One of the things
that he has demonstrated in this conversation and in his
career is he's a humble guy. But you know, I
know him, and he's really competitive, and he really cares
about making his teams better.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
And so I'm going to brag on you a little
bit here.

Speaker 4 (55:42):
Connor, he took over I would say, you know, no
offense to the pilots. A pretty middling pitching staff in
the West Coast Conference hadn't had a lot of success,
especially on the mound. And then Connor, over the course
of his seven years at the helm of the pitching staff,
that pitching staff like it is wild to track and

(56:04):
these are all like public numbers you can go look up,
but Connor every single year improved the staff's fit, fielding,
independent pitching, which meant the strikeouts went up every year.
And did you have a record number of strikeouts each
of the last four seasons for the pilots.

Speaker 5 (56:21):
Yeah, we broke the school record at.

Speaker 4 (56:23):
The school record, that's what I mean, like years yeah, right,
and and six out of seven years. And I think
there was just like one dip in like twenty nineteen
or something, but it was like it was like eighteen
was better than seventeen, and on and on and on
and until this year. Top three in the nation in
quality starts. So it doesn't happen if your pitchers aren't succeeding.
Just the improvements in run prevention, in batting average allowed,

(56:48):
walks allowed went down every year. I mean, the guy
with unheralded pitching staffs casts off from the other rotations.
I had scouts in the stands this year, you University
of Portland tell me that this staff that Connor had
assembled was bar none the best in the entire Pacific
Northwest region, like the region that these scouts covered. And

(57:11):
I think that's a testament to the things that Connor's
talking about, focusing on process, trying to learn what makes
you successful, and then keeping it simple, because you can't
be thinking about a million things when you're trying to
do one of the hardest things in the world. Throw
throw a little ball into a little little spot. So,
I mean, Connor is clearly really really good at this
and you know, personally as his buddy and as a

(57:34):
seven year Portland Pilots fan, I'm stoked to see him ascend.

Speaker 5 (57:38):
Up the level.

Speaker 4 (57:39):
And Nowtown Huskies, I'm a huge Husky fan.

Speaker 6 (57:42):
Now, yeah, I'm I'm converted. Well pause up, that's what
that would be good. Sorry, I'm I'm new. I'm trying, Guys,
I'm trying.

Speaker 5 (57:57):
Thanks Matt, that was too kind. And yes, man, you
know what the number that I just probably geek out
on a little bit too much is that, like our
process number has gotten better and better year over year, and.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
Like that, I think those things are related, right like that, Yeah,
you're you're you're focusing on different outcomes maybe than our
traditional but they helped the pitchers focus on the actual
process pieces.

Speaker 5 (58:21):
Right.

Speaker 4 (58:21):
It's one level removed from the gaudy outcome of getting
that strikeout, but it helps them get there. And I
think that you see that the guys that have bought
into the program, the guys that became leaders of the
staff and then and then other coaches, right, you hired
some of the team and they bought into it and
built that that culture at University of Portland, and frankly,

(58:41):
I'm pumped to see the Huskies build that same culture
and go take it to all those dummies and the
Big ten.

Speaker 5 (58:49):
Yeah, and you guys have I'm having a blast. So
this is I'm having a good time talking baseball. I mean,
give give an open a mic for me.

Speaker 6 (58:59):
I love it. Like Matt and I have had some
had some marathons and I'm like, dude, we got to stop.
It's going to take me a whole day to edit
all this and actually make a podcast.

Speaker 5 (59:10):
I feel like a question for me would be like,
what do you what kind of numbers do you guys
look at that are like your what do you feel
like are your best predictors of success? Like raw data
or specific analytics on a picture? I know what I like,
but I'm curious you guys are You guys are in
the weeds a little bit for sure, and so I'm curious.

Speaker 6 (59:32):
I'm probably pretty rudimentary and I don't really look at
a lot of numbers Connor. I just video. That's what
I like to watch. Now. Don't get me wrong, I'm
not naive to some totally naive to some stuff. I
am completely naive to some I have a little I
have a little tool that comes up that spits out
like lines from the day in the minor leagues, and
I'll kind of like mark certain things that I like.

(59:53):
But I just use that as kind of a menu. Okay,
who do I want to turn on and watch? Then
you know, I'll dig around on fangrass, look at a
percentages and maybe some trends and things like that. But
I'm really just I'm really just an eyeball guy, and
I get that that misses a lot of things, but
I also think it can catch things that spreadsheets take
a while to catch up to. And I really like

(01:00:14):
watching the Like I said, prior to the development of
a guy, what's this guy working on? What's his what's
his plan? What is he trying to achieve this outing?
What what's he trying to achieve with this pitch? And
what is he doing it well or not? And you know,
for me with pros, I like to lean towards the
I want to find the good picture, man, and as
blurry as that might be, Like certain kind of athleticism,

(01:00:36):
I like to joke around about like the Mussina Index
like their ability to come up with pitches because a
lot of the times stuff can jump, especially when you
become a pro and stuff. So I like to look
for the other things the pitch plus models do their
things and that information come up. But yeah, I just
like watching guys kind of.

Speaker 5 (01:00:52):
Really hands in the dirt. Well, Muddy probably more of
a spreadsheet socialists, you know.

Speaker 6 (01:00:59):
Yeah, yeah, that's nice to have ma because he's way
nerdier like that.

Speaker 5 (01:01:03):
Yeah. Yeah, I'm definitely the dork of the podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:01:07):
And you know, I like, as you know, to learn
and read and see what I can do.

Speaker 5 (01:01:11):
And I've definitely spent a lot.

Speaker 4 (01:01:13):
Of time trying to learn from my own process and
trying to evaluate guys. And there's there's two things. As
I'm a pretty competitive person too, and in our game
that we're trying to play in Dynasty Baseball, we're trying to,
you know, constantly trade our prospects for the currently productive
big leader so that we win money in our leagues

(01:01:34):
and bragging rights and all of that good stuff. But
that's increasingly harder and harder to do because everybody has
the same tools to evaluate guys, and there's lots of
really smart public analysts out there. And one of the
things that has been fun with Nate and me is
giving yourself added constraints, so saying not just I'm going
to look at all the top guys and argue about

(01:01:56):
who's better Emmanuel Rodriguez or Walker Jenkins, for example. I
have opinions about those things, but that's not really where
we play. What we're trying to do is find the
guys that maybe are unheralded, and for me, a lot
of times that does mean looking at the basic rudimentary stats.
At this point in the sabermetric era, of like K

(01:02:18):
minus bb rate because it's the thing that stabilizes well,
it predicts performance well. I also love ground balls. I
think that those generally tend to portend good things for
hitters or for pictures. I also like weird pitchers, like
finding those profiles that don't look like the rest of

(01:02:38):
the bell curve right. Like you know, we used to
talk in college about we're facing Johnny right hander today
and he's eighty eight to ninety two with the straightfor
seam fastball, and it's eighty to eighty four slider, and
then he has a show me change up Johnny right hander. Like,
how many of those guys did we see? I don't
even remember their names because they all blended together. And

(01:02:58):
then you see a guy that has some funk, that
has like a different arm slot, that is coming at
you with a cutter and a slider and a sweeper
and those are three separate pitches, but to your eye,
they all look the same out of the hand, and
those guys can be a lot more challenging. And you know,
so some of my favorite guys that I've kind of

(01:03:19):
unearthed in the combination of looking at the stats and
then watching him pitch, is guys where it's like that
guy is doing something different and he's getting results, but
it's showing up in a way that is totally different
to a lot of the other guys out there. Like
one of the guys that Nate and I have talked
about is this starting pitcher for Toronto for the Blue Jays,

(01:03:41):
and we saw him just very briefly in Hillsborough last year,
like one video inning, but he had shown some interesting
stuff in his stats. And lazarro Estrada just has had
an awesome year this year, and he was like nobody
wanted him even in our super super deep dynasty leagues. No,
he wanted him, but because he was old for the level.

(01:04:03):
He'd been bad before. But I thought he was doing
like something weird. And then you watch him and you're like,
he has this enormous curveball, like one of the biggest
that I've ever seen, and it looks just like his
super high ride fastball. He just couldn't really throw it
for strikes. But he was like a pitch or two
away from finding stitching all of those things together, and

(01:04:26):
he probably hasn't fully done that yet. But the thing
that I get the most joy of isn't just finding like, oh,
my stats say this guy is interesting. It's pairing that
with how weird.

Speaker 5 (01:04:38):
Is this guy? Right? How different is this guy?

Speaker 4 (01:04:41):
And I just think that that's like a fruitful way
to find those hidden gems.

Speaker 6 (01:04:47):
And like you were saying, kind of I like efficiency.
I like looking at guys getting outs quickly, whether it's
strikeouts or contact. And it's a little tricky, like we
were talking about before, there's kind of like, well I
refer to like kind of plastic arms versus like, you know,
stuff made out of metal with this guy, and I
try to think, like next eight years, who do I
want to put money on, like can adapt and a

(01:05:09):
Justice game once he gets to the real point of
development in the majors, you know, and that might be
that might be a fool's errand I don't know, but
that's what I try to geek out on.

Speaker 5 (01:05:20):
No, it's it's it's interesting because it's just kind of
relates a little bit to the recruiting piece on transfer portal.
And I mean, we we have a program called Synergy
that you know, we have a data database of every
single college pitcher in the entire country from the D
three level to junior college and D one And you
can sit there and watch guys populate on the transfer
portal and then go into the Synergy and look at

(01:05:41):
them and look at them different angles and see what
the stuff says. You can obviously go look at the numbers.
That's that's kind of the easy part, like to what
you guys are saying, and sometimes that tells the story, right,
and but like sometimes it's the different weird release angle.
It's the you know, the low release with the high
high ride fastball. It's the deception. It's you know, you
do kind of have to put your hands in the
dirt you wanna unearth, you know, somebody that maybe didn't

(01:06:04):
you know, and even even more true at the college level,
where it's like he was a freshman last year in
Collegehere he is even a sophomore who threw minimal innings
as freshman year, Like can this kid explode? And am
I like because you're one to two of those guys
on your staff away from having massive year, because you
probably already have a few guys like that on your staff,
and so you're now bringing a couple of those guys in.

(01:06:26):
Now you've got seven, eight, nine guys that you're like,
this guy is a little bit different from the next
to speak to what Matt was saying and how we
did it with different types of looks. I am a
big fan of not giving a hit or the same
look from like what our starter was doing. Like I
almost strictly bring in somebody that is way different from
the guy that they just saw three of bathroom and like,
whether that's just how his fastball moves to you know,

(01:06:47):
it's not always just like left handed right handed, but
like if this guy's running, you know, a ride fastball
with a sharp slider, like I'm going to probably bring
in my guy that's got a little bit more of
a change up and he's running more of a two
seem just to to give a different movement profile. Collecting
those types of guys here you guys talk about that's actually,
i mean, really interesting. You guys obviously collect them on
death charts and stuff like that, and so there's actually

(01:07:10):
a piece of what I feel like I'm doing and
trying to capture like that a little bit on rosters kind.

Speaker 6 (01:07:16):
Of there's I don't know, perhaps millions of reasons pictures
are better than hitters, but of one of my favorite
reasons is, I don't know, maybe this is a bit romantic,
but the hope like a picture can ascend sort of
out of nowhere, can can make a tweak here there,
finding you whatever it might be, and just become so
much better, so much quicker than a stupid dumb hitter.

(01:07:40):
So I'm curious, I'm curious what maybe one of or
a couple of your favorite reasons pictures are better than
hitters might be.

Speaker 5 (01:07:49):
I mean, I think my number one thing is that
you know, you win so much more as a picture,
and like I'm just I'm just all about that life,
Like I want to win. Yeah, Like you just fail
so much as a hitter, and so it's just.

Speaker 6 (01:08:02):
Like it's like your hater doesn't do anything for you.

Speaker 5 (01:08:06):
I mean, like the game is hard. The game's hard
for everybody. Now imagine like being a hitter and like
then you gotta go field, and let's say you suck
at that too, So it's.

Speaker 6 (01:08:13):
Just like.

Speaker 5 (01:08:15):
Go quit, you know, man, it's a it's a good question.
I don't know, Like I think the bullpen banter is elite.
There's nothing better than that. Absolutely, just like bullshitting with
your guys for seven innings and then going in the
game and having a massive effect on you know, and
like you've just been chill the whole game, and the
hitters had to like focus for you know, one hundred pitches.

(01:08:38):
And you know, me and Matt played in the north
Woods League together and I got to do We did
for two summers and I got to do pretty much
every role in my two summers out there, and I
get to be a starting pitcher. I got to be
a closer, And being a closer was like the coolest
job there ever. Was Like you just like come in
with the games and then like your your success is

(01:08:59):
predicate it on like three outs when it's hardest for
the hitters to hit anyway because you you've got all
the stuff and pressure is all on them. And then
like you just win, and like everyone's like slapping you
on the button. Like the meanwhile, the hitter that had
you know, like you know, a couple of knocks and
had a decent game but didn't really have like a
true effect, like they're feeling good about themselves, but like,
good job, buddy, do it again tomorrow. And then you
know it's like, oh, we got to save.

Speaker 6 (01:09:22):
Man. I went to school Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

Speaker 5 (01:09:26):
Oh nice. Yeah, we were in Saint cloub Yeah, yeah,
Lcross is sweet.

Speaker 6 (01:09:32):
Yeah, it was fun.

Speaker 5 (01:09:33):
Across Sweet the other day Mackerel.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
Yeah, Connor, you said you did a little bit of
everything in our time in the Northwoods League, and we
tried really hard.

Speaker 5 (01:09:46):
To make that actually happen. We tried really hard.

Speaker 4 (01:09:50):
Oh Man, our very last game in the Northwoods League,
we were playing for this coach who did not like
us very much, mostly me, I think he didn't like
but he did not think we were all that fun,
and we were very fun mate as you know, we
were very fun. He was This was the worst season

(01:10:12):
that the franchise had had, and we blamed this coach
like he wasn't very good, and you know, some of
it was the roster was a little bit thinner than
we'd had in previous years, but he I don't think
did a very good job getting the most out of
the team either. And we were on a bit of
a run at the end of the season.

Speaker 5 (01:10:29):
We've been playing.

Speaker 4 (01:10:29):
Pretty well, but we were well out of playoffs. We
weren't gonna make the playoffs, and so the boys were
just having a great time, like the first time I
ever really played golf. We would play golf every day
and go to Buffalo Wild Wings after every game, and
it was it was quite the life, I tell you what.

Speaker 5 (01:10:43):
Like it was pretty fun.

Speaker 4 (01:10:44):
But we come to the last game and our pitchers
had been asking if they can hit and no, fun
head coach guy was like, no way, you guys.

Speaker 5 (01:10:54):
Definitely cannot do that.

Speaker 4 (01:10:56):
We were like, no, I think we're gonna We're gonna
find a way to do this, and we're it's the
last game in the season. We are one game behind
the worst record that our franchise had ever had, and
our owner was like a really proud guy, and he
had been pissed all year, thinking that weird, this is
gonna be the worst season in history, and we're like,

(01:11:16):
don't care, Like we're not going to playoffs. This is
in college, this is summer Bowl. Connor and I hats
this plan that we're gonna get one of our teammates
to distract our head coach. And Connor, who's you know,
been with the team for two full years, fan favorite,
like everybody loves him, been our closer. We're gonna get
him in that bat and I'm going to walk out

(01:11:38):
on deck circle and pretend, but Connor's actually getting ready.
He's got the gloves on, wearing somebody else's helmet, borrowed
one of my bats, and he's hiding up the ramp
up to our our locker room so that the coach
can't see. And so we enlist our giant ass first
basement to like go stand in front of our head
coach and block him off so he can't see. I

(01:11:59):
get announced to go out to bat, and then I
like turn wave up to the press box and then
point to Connor and I walk off and they announced Connor,
and so Connor comes out and he's like they've announced him.
He's he's up there ready to go, and our first
basement at this point had put our head coach like
in a bear hug and was like carrying him around
like trying to joke with him. And he hears this

(01:12:22):
and he lipped. He lost it on us. He goes
running out to the umpire demands that Connor get back
in the duck out waves at the press box to
re announce me, which is illegal. You can't put me
back in the game. I'm already I'm already out of
the game. But it was because we were it was
tied or we were down on maybe I think we

(01:12:42):
were down one at the time.

Speaker 5 (01:12:43):
We do yeah, yeah. I was like, Corror is going to.

Speaker 4 (01:12:46):
Get a hit and win this game for us.

Speaker 5 (01:12:48):
I cannot believe Matt talked into all this.

Speaker 6 (01:12:52):
So you didn't get to take me at that game.

Speaker 5 (01:12:56):
I mean, I was like, dude, I should get it
about but you know, it does have of course, he
gets all the way back to our head coach back
back and it's like what are you doing? And I
was like, I don't.

Speaker 6 (01:13:10):
Know, played the game, man? How long had it been
since you had like a real competitive at that At that.

Speaker 5 (01:13:16):
Point, oh, three and a half years.

Speaker 6 (01:13:19):
Nice.

Speaker 5 (01:13:20):
Yeah, yeah, I was not prepared.

Speaker 6 (01:13:24):
I think you were going yard. I'm pretty sure.

Speaker 5 (01:13:27):
I mean I was pretty in high school hitter, Like
I think, I don't think I would have struck out,
but like there's decent chance would have broken bat.

Speaker 4 (01:13:35):
The last game of the season. I wasn't gonna use
that bad again.

Speaker 6 (01:13:37):
Yeah. Nice. What about macado, Dude, I love McAdoo.

Speaker 5 (01:13:47):
I think he's going to be a He was so
interesting when we faced him. I was just like, he
doesn't really swing and miss and he gets to barrel
but he's like raw and then he's fast and it's like, man,
if someone can just like mold that clay a little bit, Like,
I think he's gonna be like a real guy. Yeah,
he's a he's that's a that's a good pull. Like
that's a good one. Like I think he's Yeah. I

(01:14:07):
love McAdoo. Be this Like, I'm right on these guys
all the time, but there is something different, like when
you're like you just you can just like almost feel it,
like some of these guys that step in the box.
I'm just like, man, that's that's different. That's hard to
call pitchers too. He doesn't just like you drop lighters
on the outer half and chase. You know, it really
comes down and as you guys know, is like he
doesn't chased a lot. He hitches. He hits pitches in

(01:14:28):
the zone hard, and he's really athletic. Not super shocking.
You know.

Speaker 4 (01:14:33):
Yeah, did you scout or know anything about Will Simpson?

Speaker 5 (01:14:37):
Yeah? He man, he absolutely torched the pilots, Like backside,
he was definitely that guy. Like, if you got him
in his first bat, he did seem to have not
a great day. But if he just puts some sort
of quality ab in his first bat, like, he tended
to have a pretty good day. I was actually talking
with one of our coaches that was there, well, he

(01:14:58):
was there, and he was like and confirm if he
got a if you put together a couple a quality
about early, he might have himself at four for four day.
But he you know, he paid a little bit too
much in college. That's why I think, because the power
is pretty ridiculous. Like, I don't know how he's doing
pretty well? Is any I think he just made a job.

Speaker 4 (01:15:14):
Yeah, he's a double A and he's striking out at
about twenty five percent clip, which is okay with the
power he's got, but you know, he's a right, right
first baseman. So the line he has to walk is
pretty tough. But right now I'd say he's walking it
well and he is.

Speaker 5 (01:15:28):
The only interesting thing was this is like he looks
the part. You know, it's always like, well, like why
why didn't he should have gone a year earlier? Because
and then he went and had another really good year,
And I was like, why did no one pull the
trigger on that? But I again, I don't want to
put myself in their shoes. They got a hard they
got a hard job. So but yeah, I think he's solid.
I wouldn't have a take on whether he's a professional
hitter or not, but like, it does seem like he

(01:15:50):
probably thinks a little too much of the Like I
just I feel like I could outguess him, you know,
thinking back to his abats, Yeah, some of his reactions
I could see that kind of yeah, some of his
reactions to like.

Speaker 6 (01:16:01):
Yeah, well hey Connor Man again, huge treat Thank you
for sharing your time with us and chatting it was awesome.

Speaker 5 (01:16:10):
Appreciate you, buddy.

Speaker 6 (01:16:11):
Probably my favorite, my favorite podcast that I've ever done.
No offense Brook, but Uh yeah man, good luck. Thanks down.
Let's go Huskies this year. We'll let Chicago Farmer take
this out and be well.

Speaker 5 (01:16:25):
Lady. Guys appreciate you. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (01:16:27):
Ninety five miles an hour riding to his head. You
hoped down the.

Speaker 2 (01:16:34):
First with the lump bone ass face, and on the
very next pitch he up and stove second face.

Speaker 3 (01:16:45):
With gretest speed. He wasn't born. He had the dird
yes uniforn

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